Sooo

[Hillboy]

Well, let me make this simple. Why was it active in the first place? What has changed in DM that has made it lose it's activity?
Once you answer that question, then we have a place to start with for ideas to get activity back.
I can't really help much since I was never here in DM's "Glory Days", but it's up to you guys to not blame others or systems for your inactivity and come up with ideas to bring DM back to it's former self

 

[Nutari]

Well, let me make this simple. Why was it active in the first place? What has changed in DM that has made it lose it's activity?
Once you answer that question, then we have a place to start with for ideas to get activity back.
I can't really help much since I was never here in DM's "Glory Days", but it's up to you guys to not blame others or systems for your inactivity and come up with ideas to bring DM back to it's former self

Though as much as we have blamed just about everybody possible, those were the circumstances for its downslide. I wasn't a part of it at the time but I did browse it from time to time. It thrived when I first joined, and then I noticed activity slowly curb.

As for its activity, I'd say it was because signatures were this new, awesome thing, and people actually knew what they were. I think the problem is, a lot of forums have not adopted tags for signatures and therefore nobody knows what they are, so all the new people here are probably clueless to just about anything that pertains to digital media.

 

[Hillboy]

As for its activity, I'd say it was because signatures were this new, awesome thing, and people actually knew what they were. I think the problem is, a lot of forums have not adopted tags for signatures and therefore nobody knows what they are, so all the new people here are probably clueless to just about anything that pertains to digital media.

I hardly know much about DM, but I certainly know that "people don't know what tags are" isn't the case. I think you are largely underestimating the intelligence of our users

 

[Mirby]

Though as much as we have blamed just about everybody possible, those were the circumstances for its downslide. I wasn't a part of it at the time but I did browse it from time to time. It thrived when I first joined, and then I noticed activity slowly curb.

As for its activity, I'd say it was because signatures were this new, awesome thing, and people actually knew what they were. I think the problem is, a lot of forums have not adopted tags for signatures and therefore nobody knows what they are, so all the new people here are probably clueless to just about anything that pertains to digital media.

First off, as Hillboy said, you're underestimating the intelligence present here. Secondly, I'm on quite a few sites that use tags for signatures; hell, one of them has a thing called "June Is Boss Month" where tags are made revolving around VG bosses (though there have been exceptions made to humorous results).

Honestly, this post just seems like you're pulling at straws. If you want more activity, you need to do stuff worthy of that activity, to attract it. Blaming the other users and implying they're all ignorant (which is what this post does) is not the way to do this. If anything, it's counterproductive to your goals.

I'm trying to think of some ideas that might work to drum up activity, but the only thing that currently comes to mind is to be more welcoming and friendly. Make people WANT to come here and share their work, without ANY fears of it being crucified and forever ridiculed. Just a suggestion.

EDIT: Another idea I've come up with is to try to institute some sort of "no criticism unless it's constructive" rule or something. Encourage replies on artwork to give advice on how to improve it instead of just saying LOL THIS SUCKS. That would help the section be more friendly; after all, there's nothing wrong with always trying to improve yourself, reaching ever closer to your goal.

 

[D.D.D]

I think one of the basic needs for this section is new blood. If there was some way we could get more people into the business of tagging and making other graphics things, there'd be more people interested in participating in the section more often. I'd say one of things we should do is swamp the resources section with new tutorials. Maybe a requirement of one per regular DM'er (like, the people who come here all the time)?

Then they could have something on the front page about it? Maybe we could have training school/competition of some sort? Like this, I'd imagine:

1. Regular members of DM post tons of beginner tuts.
2. People new to tagging post a result to each.
3. In the end, pit all of the newbies against each other. (each entering HAS to have posted a result to at least 5, 6, etc.... tuts)
4. Whoever wins the contest will get a front page entry or will gain a benefit (a KH item? a forum award? recognition?)
5. Repeat this for a while. Use it as an experiment and watch the activity for the few months (or whatever) we run it.

Hopefully this method would create at least a few new members interested in tagging? I'm not sure. We could at least give it one run and see what happens.

We could also have a featured new tagger every month in DM? IDK if that would be a good idea, or not. It depends on how many new taggers we have.

But with the criticism, I totally agree with Mirby; we need to make sure that all criticism is kind, constructive, and gentle. (Though, I haven't really seen much mean criticism in the section, so I don't think this is a problem). We need to support new taggers and encourage their growth.

BTW, who makes the graphics for KHI's main page new updates? Like, the ones that are next to each new post?

But you know what I think will at least boost activity a teensy bit? The release of KH3. Like Voice said, KH2 brought people requesting tons of KH2 related stuff. More new members will come skidding into KHI and be like, "ERMAGERD! KH3! ME WANT TAG W/SORA AND HIS CLONES!". I think we should prepare for the inevitable waterfall of new members, and then when KH3 comes out, we swamp the DM section with new stuff related to KH3 (tuts with KH3 concept art as renders, offer free pre-made tags and avatars related to KH3, etc...).

Then all the newbies will see that KH3 stuff, jump on it like seagulls on McDonald's, and hopefully we'll ensnare them into the idea of tagging. This is when we should be at our friendliest, most inviting to noobs, and as kind as possible. Through catering to their love of KH and to their liking of nice people (since everyone does), we will refresh the section with new blood (even if it's a tiny bit).

Another thing I semi-previously mentioned is free pre-made avatars and tags. Maybe each month we could have a theme related to something that's important that month (like the release of a really popular/anticipated game, the release of a really popular movie, presidential elections, giant event in history, etc....).

Then we take that theme, have the whole team of regulars make avatars/tags/wallpapers/tutorials related to that theme, and then release a GIANT pack of them.

Somehow advertise this giant graphics pack on the front page or somewhere else, and then see tons of people come running for them and love our work (hopefully).

I have tons of other ideas, but I don't want to take up a whole page. But yeah, this is my whole opinion and my ideas on the subject.

 

[Taylor]

First off, as Hillboy said, you're underestimating the intelligence present here. Secondly, I'm on quite a few sites that use tags for signatures; hell, one of them has a thing called "June Is Boss Month" where tags are made revolving around VG bosses (though there have been exceptions made to humorous results).

Honestly, this post just seems like you're pulling at straws. If you want more activity, you need to do stuff worthy of that activity, to attract it. Blaming the other users and implying they're all ignorant (which is what this post does) is not the way to do this. If anything, it's counterproductive to your goals.

I'm trying to think of some ideas that might work to drum up activity, but the only thing that currently comes to mind is to be more welcoming and friendly. Make people WANT to come here and share their work, without ANY fears of it being crucified and forever ridiculed. Just a suggestion.

EDIT: Another idea I've come up with is to try to institute some sort of "no criticism unless it's constructive" rule or something. Encourage replies on artwork to give advice on how to improve it instead of just saying LOL THIS SUCKS. That would help the section be more friendly; after all, there's nothing wrong with always trying to improve yourself, reaching ever closer to your goal.

Um, excuse me, but where the diddly did you come from? Like, let's not give Aldrain, a DM regular, a hard time for actually knowing their shit.

Furthermore, the "no criticism unless it's constructive" rule is already widely in place and so I find it rather pointless.



To address some of the things that were said in this thread:

No, we will not unmerge the sections.

Yes, Kami should have been banned.

 

[Wehrmacht]

yeah, about the tm+dm merger and you all being mad over it: if this section doesn't get more activity what reason would we have to unmerge the two

we merged the media sections together because they were all pretty dead

there is no point in having ghost sections, and i don't really think unmerging the two sections is really going to help you much.

also

we shouldn't have banned kami

i'm not sure how serious this is or isn't, but if it is somewhat serious:

yeah, no. it's nice that she was active in dm and did community stuff, but that doesn't excuse the stupid shit she spearheaded like that raid on that graphics forum, trying to "sabotage" hoth, and generally being a toxic force in our community. she deserved to be banned.

 

[MegaWallflower]

I think we should have lessons/tutorial things so people like me who stink at making sigs look pretty and don't know exactly what to do but really do want to contribute can learn how to do better. Would that be a possibility? uvu

 

[Ðari]

Speculation exist for the purpose for us to really lick our wounds. And dry this time.

To answer your question Pablo, I basically stated every issue because I've been timelining this section for years. Now that the presenthood of the issue thats developed over years has been COMPLETELY put out there. Here is my proposal.

Corey told me we shouldn't make excuses for things as they are.
I understand even the administration cares about this, and there is no forcing anyone to do ANYTHING. This will quite possibly be the last time this issue will ever be addressed after this thread. Ladies, Gentlemen, hobbyist, and artist.

The Graphics Section is dead.

But we have a Digital Media section in its stead. That could use full member support to be as lively as maybe forum insanity and the kh sections.

You know that old term, "The inmates are running the asylum."? Well you're looking at digital media's rag-tag team of "wardens". I'm willing to work with you Pablo, same goes for admin, mod, and member alike in making something out of the DM section. I don't know if anyone spirtes or animates anymore, but it'd be cool to see something like that. Hell even an AMV made in iMovie, Sony Vegas, or Windows Media Player would be a change of pace. I know we're all different kinds of hobbyist and artist, but ultimately we all see a great deal of the same thing due to our lack of variety (personally I stopped spriting and animating in early 09').

So lets try a community project to get us off the ground.

DM Tagworm retry?
LP Typography posters minimum size of 1000x1000 (We'll decide a theme)
Handicap Battles
We could try clans again, I'll take nominations for leaders. For right now, just 2 clans for the time being would be sufficient.
Competitions will be regulated in once clans are established, the 1v1 set up will have members representing their clans.

Just give me a head count of anyone willing to participate following the lead of this post.
You in? [Yes] [No]

 

[King Sora X]

Speculation exist for the purpose for us to really lick our wounds. And dry this time.

To answer your question Pablo, I basically stated every issue because I've been timelining this section for years. Now that the presenthood of the issue thats developed over years has been COMPLETELY put out there. Here is my proposal.

Corey told me we shouldn't make excuses for things as they are.
I understand even the administration cares about this, and there is no forcing anyone to do ANYTHING. This will quite possibly be the last time this issue will ever be addressed after this thread. Ladies, Gentlemen, hobbyist, and artist.

The Graphics Section is dead.

But we have a Digital Media section in its stead. That could use full member support to be as lively as maybe forum insanity and the kh sections.

You know that old term, "The inmates are running the asylum."? Well you're looking at digital media's rag-tag team of "wardens". I'm willing to work with you Pablo, same goes for admin, mod, and member alike in making something out of the DM section. I don't know if anyone spirtes or animates anymore, but it'd be cool to see something like that. Hell even an AMV made in iMovie, Sony Vegas, or Windows Media Player would be a change of pace. I know we're all different kinds of hobbyist and artist, but ultimately we all see a great deal of the same thing due to our lack of variety (personally I stopped spriting and animating in early 09').

So lets try a community project to get us off the ground.

DM Tagworm retry?
LP Typography posters minimum size of 1000x1000 (We'll decide a theme)
Handicap Battles
We could try clans again, I'll take nominations for leaders. For right now, just 2 clans for the time being would be sufficient.
Competitions will be regulated in once clans are established, the 1v1 set up will have members representing their clans.

Just give me a head count of anyone willing to participate following the lead of this post.
You in? [Yes] [No]

If clans do get started again, we could add clan challenges as well. On another forum where graphic clans are very active, the clan challenges gave a better form of competition, and actually brought in newcomers as well as oldies. But yeah, I'm totally in for that. Might have to have a separate section for the clans if it goes through. Just for your information. :3

 

[Pablo]

Yeah but how many times are we going to try clans only to watch it fail again? In a very rare case, it is quantity, not quality that matters. We need numbers, and we simply don't have enough at the moment.

 

[Nutari]

Yeah but how many times are we going to try clans only to watch it fail again? In a very rare case, it is quantity, not quality that matters. We need numbers, and we simply don't have enough at the moment.

So we go bat-shit crazy. If I need to, I'll spend an hour advertising the DM section every day on some of the newcomer's profiles. I feel like Voice has the right idea (iffy on the clans but) now we just need to stick with it. Since we are ALL active in this conversation, it's do or die time, we all feel like we are hanging off the cliff, so we need to do something, like now. Sign suggested we take a look at DA and other websites and see what they are doing to incorporate everybody.

 

[Eric]

I think we should have lessons/tutorial things so people like me who stink at making sigs look pretty and don't know exactly what to do but really do want to contribute can learn how to do better. Would that be a possibility? uvu

This is what I've been trying to say

Maybe if we start teaching people stuff then they'll have a reason to come here. We can't just expect new people if we don't have anything to offer.

Again, I'm up for teaching classes over the weekend I'm willing to teach more than just tags (that's another reason why this place is dead, all we focus on is signatures).

 

[D.D.D]

This is what I've been trying to say

Maybe if we start teaching people stuff then they'll have a reason to come here. We can't just expect new people if we don't have anything to offer.

Again, I'm up for teaching classes over the weekend I'm willing to teach more than just tags (that's another reason we this place is dead, all we focus on is signatures).

Yeah, I said that on the previous page, too. I totally agree that we need to teach new people. We could have LP tuts, sig tuts, avatar tuts, wallpaper tuts, text tuts, etc..... I thought that we could have a minimum requirement of one per regular DM member to add to the Resources section?

I also mentioned something about a newbie contest. I don't want to repeat the entire thing (since it's on the previous page), but I feel that that would be a good idea for bringing in new blood, too.

Madman's Revenge has been offering custom tutorials for anyone who wants one, but no one has requested one. So I think we should, instead, just throw a bunch of beginner tutorials out there on various subjects.

 

[Ðari]

Lets put together the numbers bro.

Post a thread, title it something like "A show of hands" or something like that posing a question to the regulars and frequenters.

If their down for the clans idea, putting together the teams after that will be simple.
Honestly, Clans and the tutoring system can go hand in hand.

What do you say to that Eric?

God I feel like a college professor lol

 

[Nutari]

Lets put together the numbers bro.

Post a thread, title it something like "A show of hands" or something like that posing a question to the regulars and frequenters.

If their down for the clans idea, putting together the teams after that will be simple.
Honestly, Clans and the tutoring system can go hand in hand.

What do you say to that Eric?

God I feel like a college professor lol

Though I am not Eric, this sounds rather good to me.

I'm down for this.

 

[Mirby]

Um, excuse me, but where the diddly did you come from? Like, let's not give Aldrain, a DM regular, a hard time for actually knowing their shit.

Furthermore, the "no criticism unless it's constructive" rule is already widely in place and so I find it rather pointless.

Funny, this attitude is exactly what I had in mind when mentioning that this place needs to be more welcoming. I mean, who wants to come here if they'll just be verbally attacked like this. Also, is my opinion any less valid because I'm not a DM regular? Sometimes it helps to get an outside view on things, which is my only intent by posting here.

So thanks for responding; you've done nothing but prove my point. Also I didn't know that rule was already in place; good to know.

That said, Aldrain, no "hard time" was intended; 'twas merely giving my thoughts on the matter.

And I think that more tutorials might help; it would probably save everyone time in the long run to not have to request them.

 

[D.D.D]

Welp, then I'll start cranking out tons of beginner tutorials. Should I focus on just tags? Or some other stuff like how to make a matching avatar from a tag and blending renders and LP's (etc....) to go with tag tutorials?

Probably the latter. Anyways, I have two tutorials in the making at the moment, so those'll be up within a short while.

 

[Mirby]

Welp, then I'll start cranking out tons of beginner tutorials. Should I focus on just tags? Or some other stuff like how to make a matching avatar from a tag and blending renders and LP's (etc....) to go with tag tutorials?

Probably the latter. Anyways, I have two tutorials in the making at the moment, so those'll be up within a short while.

I think start with the basic tag tutorials and build up to everything else; I've developed some skill myself but some more help would be greatly appreciated. And hopefully I won't be the only one checking these tutorials out.

 

[D.D.D]

I think start with the basic tag tutorials and build up to everything else; I've developed some skill myself but some more help would be greatly appreciated. And hopefully I won't be the only one checking these tutorials out.

I'm sure tons of new people will come into DM when they see the title of 'beginner tutorial' pop up. Probably a lot of them have wanted to try tagging, but haven't really looked much into it and/or think they're no good at it. By doing this, we'll maybe get them to a confidence level to where they'll want to post their stuff.

Over time, they'll get more and more confident and maybe even become regulars. Others will see this and start entering DM themselves and learning how to tag. More and more people will come in and we'll probably have at least a semi-thriving section again.

So yeah, I'll crank out as many beginner tuts as I can. Is there anyone in DM here who's good at GIMP? I know Geocillin and Aldrain use it, correct? We'll need GIMP tutorials as well, since not everyone is willing to buy/pirate Photoshop.

I think we should also create/remake (IDK if we already have one, I can't remember) a sticky thread that introduces people new to tagging and tells them the basics. Maybe it could also give them links to where they could download GIMP for free or where to get Photoshop, and then give them a ton of beginner packs (which would consist of C4D's, renders, tutorials, brushes, etc...). There could be DM'ers who are in charge of that thread who could answer any questions they have about any graphics stuff and also give critiques on their results to the tuts.

Is anyone else going to make tutorials? I'm sure it'd help a lot if the newbies learned from more than one member. I'm not the most advanced tagger on this forum, either, so we need someone more skilled than me to make tutorials as well.

Also, I like Aldrain's idea; posting on brand new member's profiles and advertising DM. Maybe we could point them towards the shops if they want a set or point them towards the resources section if they want to learn tagging, too?

I also would be willing to give newcomers to KHI a little welcoming gift; like, make them a nice little avatar (KH related, since they probably came here for KH) and welcome them to KHI. Then we could tell them about DM and tell them to come over if they want to request another avatar or signature from us. The kindness and friendly nature will at least make them remember us fondly or consider taking a look at DM.

I think we just need to participate more in the community. The newbie avatar gift idea I stated above might be a good idea to at least let the newer members know/remember we're here.