Quote by kuroimisaLol firstly Evo I
think you have improved a lot. I don't know if you still use freehanded
vectoring, but the TREC book cover entry vector, and the colouring in for the UA
collab were excellent. I'd DEFINITELY
say you improved a lot.
*blushes* thanks alot actually those
are the only two works I have vectored in Photoshop *scratches head* maybe I
should get back cracking into those PS tutorials and keep on working on my PS
vectors.
Whatever we decide on for the the banners, website etc Im up for and always
around if you need a hand. And wooohooo comps results finally updated im so
happy *sheds a tear* and even better mwahahaha I got an honourable mention and
dual most improved *cries* im so proud of me...wait now I sound conceded I
better move away from that. Hey look lampy is running around doing crazy things
weeeeeeeeeeee *chases after lampy*
Lol firstly Evo I think you have improved a lot. I don't know if you still use
freehanded vectoring, but the TREC book cover entry vector, and the colouring in
for the UA collab were excellent. I'd
DEFINITELY say you improved a lot.
On the note about a backup admin I am totally in for it. I'm all up for it. I
will admin whoever's available and willing.
Banners banners banners--- oh it seems it's the banners
I'll go put up a huge link on my page and see about going to all my gallery
items and fixing up the UA link. I'll probably make a little banner or
something.
People, you might have noticed I removed some people off the active members
board. Whilst I acknowledge some put a lot of good work into UA, I have removed
you (if you're even reading this) because I haven't even seen your shadow for a
veryyyy long time. And I mean like 6 months.
Soon I will upload my tutorials onto another server (because geocities is
PA-THE-TIC) and either Rah or I will build UA a mini site. That may possibly be
embedded into this page as a frame thingo to relieve the picture traffic etc
we're using because this page is ridiculously long. (It'd be shorter if these
posts for the past few days were so long :P)
As for your concern Evo about the small group etc you're completely right and I
do like the way we are. Only I feel as though we could help others and do it for
a good cause. We benefit, the members benefit, and so will the overall standard
of the Minitokyo galleries. Rah and I were talking about a full "clean
up" (ie removing ALL inactive members- like those who applied and did
absolutely NOTHING). I can sense myself doing that very soon because well, it's
1. clogging up the memberlist 2. They are starting to annoy me for their
inactivity. (I've been hanging around in IRC too long.) Some applied without
really knowing what the group is for (you'd be surprised at how many
applications we get from people who haven't got any gallery items- like
zero).
The Sandbox is an excellent idea. I used to hang around in there until I got
sick of non wallers looking for credits started to pick at my critique because
of their personal preferences, rather than the overall technicality and
aesthetics of what I was critiquing upon. It may or may not work, but I can tell
you it'll take a heckload of time- and to be half bitchy about it (because I
must be PMSing lately or something) I'm not prepared to put in the work
:X
Okay I'm outa here and I will contemplate stuff~~ gotta do all the UA stuff and
then tomorrow it's heads down and reading and making lots of cubes, buying balsa
wood and out comes the stanley knife !
PS: Nominate yourself or another memebr to be an admin you'd like to see on the
UA mod board
I suppose this isn't the place for it but thank you Rah for your help. I never
would have figured out why I didn't have thumbnails if not for your help. After
reading the thread you found it took me about 30 seconds to figure out why I
didn't have them and about 3 minutes to fix the problem (I had to boot the
laptop with PS 7 on it), and immediately I had pictures! So right now I am
extremely happy and will most definitely be visiting the forums to share my good
mood around. A smile brightens the day of those who see it. Bye-bye XP
The only way I can think of is the banners. It was good back in MT2 cause you
could spam the forums and people could see that you were part of UA if you had a
sig banner or even just some random words about UA followed by a link. If the
people were as inquisitive as me that was an excellent way of advertising per
say (How did you think I joined? I saw it on Terra-chan's signature) The hard
part is for now is 1. We have no signature images that show up all the time, 2.
I think people just dont care. The only other way I can think of is the Sandbox,
the amount of people's walls who get quarentined for crapness is tremendous.
Always just spam thier guestbook give them a little helping hand about what they
are missing with thier walls and then say "hey look if you are willing to
improve UA is a great place if you are interested"
Is our criteria too strict to
join?
Absolutley not. If it wasnt the way it was we would have all the zomg sparkly
scenic ecchi fan based girl walls here overulling us all. The one thing I love
about UA is that we are different, we dare to stand out for the rest. BAN THE
TRENDWHORES WALLS VIVA LA EXPRESSION mwahahahahahah
The current criteria I am thinking of to leave
the group is "three top submissions without the aid of a highlighted
gallery item"
That is really up to you guys, with the current members being selected for
current highlights is more depends on what you all feel. You seem to be the most
sucessful one misa try thinking about your own experience. I still dont really
get how the top submissions work I still just think its all a friends and
popular series game but whatever is decided should be sufficiant.
Are we doing enough? As members and
admins?
Yes and no. Of course the member levels are low, sorry to say Im missing the
fortnightly comp (sorry Teryon I know others have a life too) And for the love
of god can someone just tally the results from the previous ones and update the
page XP
For the admin: I think we need more of an active admin group. As I said I know
everyone has thier own lives out outside of MT and the net but latley there is
nothing to drive for. Misa pretty much is still the only active person I have
seen in a couple of month (seriously girl you do too much for us I feel spoilt)
and specially since I know that uni will take its toll on you after a while. My
suggestion is a backup admin. That way things would get rolling again, we will
hopefully become more active and the improvment will start coming once
again.
For the members: It goes back to the advertising, also becoming more active. Yet
while our group is small I say there is about 8 - 10 of us who are really
active. Thats one thing that makes me relucant about getting more members, I
dont want to see the group turn out to be one of those 100+ member groups while
yet still the same 8 - 10 people participate. UA is a close knit family if we
branch out too far we will be lost forever in the lurkers.
Is our current constructive criticism helping
you at all?
I miss Tevi *cries* that girl would tell it to you straight no running around
it, it was nothing but straight honesty. Mind you Im guilty of it too I cant
stand to hurt a persons feelings specially everyone knows the time and the
stress and the overall sence of accomplishment after making a wall. I dont want
to have my dream crushed by someone telling you that you flat out suck. Mind you
I havent really received much critism latley (Mind you I havent been submitting)
but still the previous stuff has helped a little but thats just for me.
Did you learn anything in the past
year?
Personally no I havent unfortunatley. I still cant use the Pen Tool in
Photoshop, I still have problems blending everything together so it looks
natural and generally overall I still suck. Latley I have been trying to work on
my vector work but still nothing. Everything still is on that low level. This is
one of the main reasons I never submitted my TREC entries onto MT. I feel they
arent up to standard, I was not happy with them at all. In fact there was one
that I didnt like. Maybe give me another 2 - 3 years and then I might pick up
the skills or maybe Evo is just a slow learner.
Are our competitions helping you
improve?
My last UA comp entry has no favs *cries* this makes Evo not feel loved. Somehow
I think nothing will help me improve
What do you think about the 'fortnightly'
competitions?
As I said before we need to get back into that routine of doing it. With me I
felt the pressure and actually the need to wall. I wanted to join in and try and
improve and showboat what skills I did have. It also gave us a chance to move
outside the norm, try and interperate the theme and then work out what wall
would most suit it. That was the best experience I got, we most of the times
had to move out of our comfort zone and
explore.
What do you think in UA in general- is it
successfully helping you gain recognition, improve your knowledge in
Photoshop-related programs or a fun group to be in?
Atm its more of a fun group to be in, since nothing much happens I cant improve
my skills and still I cant use that god damn pen tool so there aint any
improvment in PS skills.
What do you think about the top submissions at
this present time? If you were around this time last year, how do these top
submissions compare to last year's one?
I might be the only one who thinks this but they have stepped up a notch.
Everytime you looked at the top sub pages they were all trendwhore. Every single
frickin one. Now its more of the artsy trend, if you are high and think the wall
is cool then it should be a top submission.
What do you think about the new generation of
top submission wallers?
Simplism would be proud. They are basic and but they do look good.
What do you think about the selected highlighted
pieces?
Arent these always based on the admins and elite members likings? If you don't
know an admin or can catch the eye of them your pretty much screwed. While they
are branching out to some decent work they are still favouring the trend
whores.
Do you think you'll be highlighted? (if you
haven't been highlighted)
Never. Thats easy enough, it will never happen.
What do you think is the general "popular
genre" of wallpaper now? Why?
Vectors are in. With all the simple stuff people are turning to the ease of
vectors not only with character clean up but with the walls. The traditional
vector style is back and people are eating it up.
Lol great posts I'll go and copy them down soon (just little bits and
pieces)
@ Ephie+Erdbeermilch
I've seen a Chen Shu Fen scan highlighted once. Like Ephie says, they're not on
the front page, but I agree with Erdbeermilch that they really shouldn't be
highlighted because they didn't actually do the work. Some didn't even scan it
in themself and just found it on the web. My guess is that the highlighting of
scans promotes two things: the "unpopular" nature of the scan, or the
different style of the scan (which is definitely Chen Shu Fen because it's
realistic), and secondly the quality of the scan.
@ Ephie RE: Fortnightly competition
I would start it in perhaps 2 weeks from now (after Arete) because it's time
consuming. If you want I can think of a random theme right now and extend the
deadline until whenever. I have a feeling though that many Arete wallers will be
Arete-ing until the deadline :P
If you've been around NWP artgeeky is starting up some other bizarre Olympics
competition thing. Not sure how open the competition will be (anyone can join or
only NWP) so that might delay the fortnightly comp if that chooses to continue
straight after Arete (our poor competitions )
@ Ephie RE: top submissions
That's a REALLY good point that I never thought about.
By top submissions I mean it makes it to the "this week's popular art"
section. I've hit that section about 4 times (for 4 highlights), but 3/4
wallpapers I've made are I think around the 70 favourites mark and one
surprisingly close to 100- but that's still nowhere NEAR 300 for the top subs we
see now on the front page.
I remember when I first joined most got to about 200 faves (and that was the
"wow big number!" number) but now it seems like the number has
inflated to about 300
So now 300 is overappreciated, 200 is sufficient appreciation.
(I'd say last year it'd be 200, 100 respectively)
I also remember setting that rule about "wallpapers with less than 15
favourites" or 10 or something. Now anything with 20-30 favourites is like
standard O___O
OMG I will have to really think this one over.
Discussion so far:
- Banners needed / advertisement
- Fortnightly comps continue
- Criteria should be changed
Suggestion
For at least 1/5 gallery submissions you make, plug a link to UA.
And any banner will do.
Suggestion2
We should probably make a logo for UA.
Any suggestions?
I think we should start plugging our works with our banners. We have lots of
banners so I
think we can at least use them for advertising now. I don't think the banners we
have were used
for something else... though I had it plugged in my userpage all the time.
Is our criteria too strict to
join?
Absolutely not. Actually there's a lot of potential for a normal waller to join
us. But the
problem is that they can't find us, or they seem to ignore the fact that they're
really
underappreciated, so they just tend to go for trendwhore technique and passed by
this group.
(Sorry if you find this offensive)
The current criteria I am thinking of to leave
the group is "three top submissions without the aid of a highlighted
gallery item
By the way, when you mean three top submissions... are they the top in our own
gallery, in
this group or in MT frontpage? Coz if you asked me that question, don't think
I'll be able
to leave UA forever. ^^
Are we doing enough? As members and
admins?
Partially agree and disagree. We should try advertising. Admins have done a lot,
so its time
for us members to mass-advertise in MT!
Is our current constructive criticism helping
you at all?
If it's not for joining UA, I should be doing trendwhore wall right now. Thanks
for the all
the help! ^^ I love you all! *hugs*
Did you learn anything in the past
year?
Of course! I learned lots of new stuffs, and learned lots of walling techniques
and improved
my walling skills pretty much a lot ever since I joined UA.
Are our competitions helping you
improve?
Compare my first UA wall with the latest UA wall I have. If you can't tell the
difference,
then I must be really slacking off. Definitely making me improve. What do you think about the 'fortnightly'
competitions?
They're fun, interesting, time-challenging and they're of different criteria. It
kinda forces
us to try out another new technique of walling, and to expand and elaborate the
meaning of
each theme. That reminds me, when will our next theme be out?
What do you think in UA in general- is it
successfully helping you gain recognition, improve your knowledge in
Photoshop-related programs or a fun group to be in?
UA, a place where we normal underappreciated evolve to a superior wallers. I
don't think UA
helped me in gaining recognition, but it does make us a fun group to be in and
it definitely
has improved me in my walling, and not to mention forces me to explore another
new parts of Photoshop.
OTHER DISCUSSION
MATERIAL
What do you think about the top submissions at
this present time? If you were around this time last year, how do these top
submissions compare to last year's one?
Hm, the ecchiness in the top submissions has definitely been reduced, but the
'style' is
still there. The top submissions somehow only stick to maximum brushings,
colourful walls,
girl scans, and the next wave of style, retro and if you notice the top
submissions now, they
just HAVE TO BE scenic. Scenic here and there...
What do you think about the new generation of
top submission wallers?
There are some who sticks to their own style, but there are some who used the
same old
tactics -- friendwhore? choosing only popular anime series and making their
walls as bright
as possible... and SCENIC! They're the same...
What do you think about the selected highlighted
pieces?
They're selected professionally. I mean, they're good selections. I have no
comment about that.
Do you think you'll be highlighted? (if you
haven't been highlighted)
Not sure... If someone can tell me what's my style, I'll be glad to listen. Coz
I have yet to
discover my own style, so I don't have originality to be highlighted... *sigh*
But I hope 1 day
I'll be highlighted though.
What do you think is the general "popular
genre" of wallpaper now? Why?
They're catchy. Friendwhoric, complexism and girl scan. They don't have the
originality in
their works, just flowing with the latest wave of style... nothing special about
them. They're
pretty much the same.
By the way, Erdbeermilch, there are some scans which were highlighted. Just that
they're not shown on the mainpage. If I'm not mistaken there are only 2 scans
which were highlighted.
Well I'm not only a new member to this group but I'm also quite new to MT, so I
don't think I can answer most of those questions. I'll just try to give my
opinion on two questions.
* What do you think about the selected
highlighted pieces?
In general I think highlights are okay, I actually never came across a highlight
I absolutley disagreed with. Only one thing bothers me...Why can scan's get a
highlight? I don't understand it, after all it's just scanning
* Do you think you'll be highlighted? (if you
haven't been highlighted)
Nope, somehow I think my walls still lack something
Guess that's all I can answer, maybe I'll be more competent next year.
Btw: Thanks a lot for letting me join
Lols. I'll do the same as Evo. I need to copy this and write it down in a
notepad file before I can post it here. Hehhhee. That's pretty darn long.. don't
think my eyes can stand any longer...
* How we can recruit more members
I think our competitions draw a lot of attention and potential members. I alway
put links on competition enteries regardless of the community - and leave them
there. So hopefully my pitiful enteries have enticed some enthusiasm in MT
members.
* Is our criteria too strict to join?
Definitely not if anything it maybe to lax but this may help applying members to
join our happy group.
* The current criteria I am thinking of to leave the group is "three top
submissions without the aid of a highlighted gallery item" #
I may be a little disinterested in this item because fankly nothing I ever
produce will get to the top submissions or highlighted galleries so I'm happy
with what everyone decides - like I'm ever going to leave this group.
* Are we doing enough? As members and admins?
Don't you guys referee the discussions in the group GB, isn't that enought to
keep you busy. Stopping cookie fights that is XP
* Is our current constructive criticism helping you at all?
I put links to my latest artistic creations in GB comments but I don't think
I've seen other people's links lately. When the links do appear I think the UA
do a great job of posting improving construct criticism.
* Did you learn anything in the past year?
Most definitely, even I can tell that i've sharpen my small puddle of artistic
skills. When I do create a new wall or vector I can be proud of it thanks to
past improving comments by UA'ers
* Are our competitions helping you improve?
*What do you think about the 'fortnightly' competitions?
Well I may not participate in every one but it does force my imagination to keep
moving thinking of a possible entry, even if I don't have the time or current
skills to sucessfully complete it.
In that sense I think the competitions are a great idea, and a great group
advertisement.
* What do you think in UA in general- is it successfully helping you gain
recognition, improve your knowledge in Photoshop-related programs or a fun group
to be in?
Not only is it a fun group to participate in with group discussions. But it has
improved my photoshop knowedge - especially about vectoring. Considering when I
joined UA I was just getting to know PS, without previous experience. I think I
polished up well in the time between then and now, but I have a long way to
go.
OTHER DISCUSSION MATERIAL:
I can't be bothered answering the individual points so I'll just write general
paragraph.
Most of last years top highlights generally involved white clouds and added
wings on unknown (mostly) characters. I personally found it dissappointing and
avoided them. Althought there were some georgous and highly original submitted
walls submitted which deserved and got recognition. Now the walls have increased
the ecchi rating and usually are considered 'original' if they have some how
missed out the mandatory moon or planet.
I will definitely be checking out your link and leaving a GB comment for your PS
thumbnail help Rah, which is very much appreciated.
^_^
merged: 03-03-2006 ~ 02:09pm
OMG, Rah you're a genius. On my last system I went from 7 to 8 and 9. When I
reloaded PS this time I just loaded 8 and 9. I distinctly remember the
uninstalled PS 7 folder only had one DLL in it (can't remember what is was tho).
My laptop has PS 7 installed must find and copy that DLL, but will also try your
fix, one of them has to work.
that's awesome! nicely done tevi. and if
you still want thoes 20 gigs of music, i'm willing to help. ^^ i need something
to do with my upgraded bandwidth, since i can't really abuse it like i've done
so in the past. >] so yes, you know where to find me.
@misa
you know, i'm a fairly "old" member, and i had no clue about this
march madness. @_@ anywho, i can't wait to update the UA site, so come on
people, join in on the discussions. that
way, you can make misa get mad at me for lagging on the development of the site.
(i heart you misa. (A))
but yes, this whole secret prize pool sounds like oddles of fun. makes me wish i
would of played a part in this, but then again, i doubt i would of made it past
the preliminaries.
as for the response to your previous comment, i can't say anything else besides
":D." i can't believe you remembered the little pleasures in life that
i have once every week. i
should say that you forgot to mention the kopiko, but then again, i kind of gave
up on caffeine from coffee. straight green tea is the drink of choice now.
@tishdon
well tish, i hope you don't mind me calling you that ._., i finally found the
way to get psd's created with CS2 to work as thumbnails. just message me, and
i'll get you the rar file. for some reason my upload page isn't quite working
out. >[ and if anyone else out there wants this file, just message me, and
i'll gladly send it on it's way. ^_^
gee thats very long misa O_o Im gonna have to copy it to a text document to go
over it hehehe. I'll add my bit tommorow but now I have to run to get ready for
my friends wedding
Hi everyone! It's been a while because I couldn't log onto Mt- the secret prize
pool I shall put up tonight, and tevi already picked the prize: Which was
actually first tecnophreak's 20 gigs of music, but considering tevi doesn't
really have the bandwidth to receive it, and he doesn't have the connection to
send it, I let her pick again and guess what- she picks her own prize It was
a doujinshi!
Okay, it's MARCH already!
For existing UAers, you know what time it is: It's ANNUAL DISCUSSION TIME! If not, feel free to join in. You don't
have to, but here were a few things I wanted to discuss and to also bring up
again (probably from last year)
Let the discussion begin!
UAers, lend us your opinions on:
* How we can recruit more members
* Is our criteria too strict to join?
* The current criteria I am thinking of to leave the group is "three top
submissions without the aid of a highlighted gallery item" #
* Are we doing enough? As members and admins?
* Is our current constructive criticism helping you at all?
* Did you learn anything in the past year?
* Are our competitions helping you improve?
* What do you think about the 'fortnightly' competitions?
* What do you think in UA in general- is it successfully helping you gain
recognition, improve your knowledge in Photoshop-related programs or a fun group
to be in?
OTHER DISCUSSION MATERIAL:
* What do you think about the top submissions at this present time? If you were
around this time last year, how do these top submissions compare to last year's
one?
* What do you think about the new generation of top submission wallers?
* What do you think about the selected highlighted pieces?
* Do you think you'll be highlighted? (if you haven't been highlighted)
* What do you think is the general "popular genre" of wallpaper now?
Why?
Here are my answers/replies so far: Remember, I do copy and select parts (if I'm
free) and put it up on a page. I might make a UA site in the near future... if
Uni doesn't squash me. Atm it really is and I shouldn't actually be
online.
* How we can recruit more members?
We need awareness. If you think about the Mafia Plug, the AWR banner- and
sometimes personal invitations to people, these are ways you can spread
awareness of the group. Unfortunately, I don't want to copy anyone's system- and
inviting someone to UA has been proven quite difficult in the past (I know it's
hard for someone to admit that they are underappreciated ... some people find it
uhm... embarrassing?) So something is needed. Our competitions has been pretty
good for getting our messages and group across: the most successful gallery item
was the UA WAR collab. So one solution is to just keep going with the
competitions and provide a big fat link in our gallery descript to the UA
page.
* Is our criteria too strict to join?
Frankly, I think no. We killed the watchlist limit (which in a way is fair
because I know you sometimes can't help it if people just watch you) and we
compare the quality with the favourites ratio. There was one particular
application I denied, because 1. Her skills aren't very good 2. She makes it to
the top subs 3. She has a lot of friends.
Her top submission (one of the recent ones I've seen anyway) was a shockingly
bright and appalling piece of filter work- and had about 300 favourites. That's
more than ... anything I've seen in applications, really. The most I think I've
seen was about 120 (which is okay) but 300... I can imagine her other works have
around the same amount of faves. That's just ridiculous.
* The current criteria I am thinking of to leave
the group is "three top submissions without the aid of a highlighted
gallery item" #
I put the # there to show that it's a hot topic.
We haven't touched the criteria since the transition to Mt3, and I think it's
important it's reviewed because of the introduction of the highlights system.
I have had about 4 items highlighted, kakitsubata I think about 2 or 3, omni
one, Terra-chan one... so so far the highlights system has been pretty good to
UAers.
I don't know if you think it's fair that I set in "three top subs unless
the item is highlighted" - but here are my reasons:
- If the item is highlighted, people will fave it.
Generally this is true- the more mainstream looking gallery items, the more
popular they would be. This leads to a popular submission- but they are usually
knocked out pretty quickly, since the top subs on the front page
returned.
This struck me when my first few were highlighted (no top subs on the front
page). So I went to the page with the anime wallpapers (it's somewhere... click
on random links and you'll find it) and I watched the top submissions. My
gallery items stayed up there longer (maybe for the duration of 6 days...)
because the favourites were going very slowly.
Since the return of the top subs, my last 2 highlighted works lasted about a few
hours (no more than 10 I think) and they disappeared because of some watchlist
queen submission.
I don't know if you think it's a fair deal - you may call me biased because I
might as well be out of the group by now (even though I would have never made it
to the top subs without the highlights) So shell out some thoughts on
that.
* Are we doing enough? As members and
admins?
Yes and no. I feel like I'm not doing enough. I certainly can't do much now that
University has started... I think that UA needs another admin. Rah is out (busy
guy ) and I will be out too. So we'll need someone to probably just get things
running and stuff. I could probably still organise the competitions (fortnightly
ones thanks) and keep up with discussions, but with moderation and applications,
I will pass
* Is our current constructive criticism helping
you at all?
I still think we need to be more honest. I know I haven't been... so yeah. But
it has helped to an extent, I think.
* Did you learn anything in the past
year?
HELL I learnt so much in the past year! I experimented so much and I'm very
happy to have joined Mt and UA! I would have still been making very dodgy
looking bits of work if it weren't for you guys!
* Are our competitions helping you
improve?
From the competitions, every round just seems to get better. There seems to be a
wider range, a more vast interpretation of the themes, and just all sorts of
wonderful things.
* What do you think about the 'fortnightly'
competitions?
I think they're pretty good. But we need more entries
* What do you think in UA in general- is it
successfully helping you gain recognition, improve your knowledge in
Photoshop-related programs or a fun group to be in?
The recognition part is being helped by the highlights system somewhat, and I
think that UA is a nice place to just hang out and talk about Minitokyo in
general and about the galleries etc. I still don't feel as though I'm doign
enough though
OTHER DISCUSSION MATERIAL:
* What do you think about the top submissions at this present time? If you were
around this time last year, how do these top submissions compare to last year's
one?
I think that these top submissions have been SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE than last
year's top submissions. Apart from some highlighted stuff getting up there,
frankly most of the stuff I see up there is CRAP. Sorry if it offends anyone,
but really- a super blinding wallpaper, a cute girl, some sparkles and bad
composition really does not deserve more than 10 favourites (it should probably
in fact be deleted from Mt's database). This is due to the new influx of wallers
though. More on that in the next point.
* What do you think about the new generation of
top submission wallers?
I don't like it lol. That's as honest as I can get it. I really don't like it.
There are some who are good wallers (respectable because they know what they are
doing) but the ones in particular I'm talking about are the trendwhore wallers.
I really don't like it lol. There is no sense of colour balance, sometimes bad
design and composition, and nor are their works highly original. I wouldn't put
their work on my desktop...
It also seems that the strategy of the new age waller has changed. I remember
that most of the time it was a lot of guestbook posting, thanking others and
adding randos to their list hoping to be added back.
The strategy still includes all those things, but there has been one significant
thing that has changed : linking to own work, others' works and descriptions
marking up their work.
These days I really see a lot of that going on [and I find it funny because most
people only link to works on their page if it's really underappreciated] and I
think it's sneaky. It's not in a way, but there's this underlying psychology
that is making me squint my eyes and go "hmmmm".
* What do you think about the selected
highlighted pieces?
To be honest I haven't kept up with the highlighted section for a while. I can't
really say much about it because art is subjective and something wonderful may
not be so in someone else's eyes. Overall they are well picked. Some I wonder
why were picked (uhm, example, my stupid gothic entry?! I really hated it and I
am really thinking about deleting it from my gallery) but I'm in no real
position to say anything because well..what I think, doesn't really matter
* Do you think you'll be highlighted? (if you
haven't been highlighted)
I believe everyone will be highlighted sooner or later. UAers that is.
* What do you think is the general "popular
genre" of wallpaper now? Why?
Vectors.
Which is kind of a strange genre because you could be very simple, very complex,
or you can do absolutely nothing, or change everything. It's a very dynamic
genre with lots of different ways of doing things.
I think it's popular because of the overall clean and modern look to it- it's
something people think is 'cool'. (Okay vectors aren't not a genre, it's a
medium, but I'm using it as a style atm)
Can't really say much about vectored stuff because I admit doing it quite a
lot... I guess that's the target if you want your audience *shrugs*
Okay it's been a long entry, and I'm really gonna run and do some work (though I
don't know what) so tata~~~
omni: Yeah, French accent, hahha. I once tested several levels of illiterism on
my friend, and the one which wasn't Frenchlike modified version sounded too
weird and he barely could understand, so... yea.. I had to do that...
The secret prize ppool, I wonder what's in there. I'm really anxious and
curious...
@tishdon
i can't really talk a lot right now, seeing as how i have to leave for work, but
you should check this page
out. people claim that it worked for them, but it didn't work for me. but it
maybe that they patched this for CS2, who knows, it is adobe.
@misa
i shall return later on to attend to you and tevi's comments.
lol well scans were offered as prizes to the winners of UA but I think DREAM is
a little busy. Eh I'll bug him later XP
OH and the secret prize pool!
Uhm, I'll do that tonight. tevi was a judge anyway and I won't cheat by letting
her choose twice. I'll post up what she chose on the thread, and make a post in
the "chosee's" gbook (whee that's not even English)
As for showing thumbnails of PSDs, don't you just change the view into thumbnail
instead of list or detail? Sometimes the thumb doesn't work (just refresh the
thing) ~~ I always right click Windows, Explore and it works. Not sure about
your compy though, tishdon XP
You need cookies, Rah Loads
of them. And pocky. And Colon
@misa
:o
tevi won. sweet deal.
congratulations tevi. [if
you're ever around anymore. ._. ]
i might add that, well, from the last of my adventures on here, i heard DC's
scan collection was up for grabs, so, what does he get for coming in third?
O_o?
@tishon
you had psds display previews in thumbnails - while in explorer? hmm, last i
knew, you couldn't do that. i need to find this out now, i'll see what i can do
to help you.
@UAers
how i do miss you guys, but life hasd been a pain in the arse lately and limits
my visitation rights to Mt. i hope you're all doig well, and i'll see you next
week. take care all. ^^
Ehh... uh... don't think it's hard to be illiterate.. hehhe.. all I did was type
a normal sentence, and changed some words 1 by 1... like changing s to z and
stuffs like that.. whee~ TREC is over! ^^
Darn it! how come the threads I create only get one or two posts, the more I
want to know the answers the less people post.
Does anyone here know how I can get my computer to show Photoshop image
thumbnails. Used to happen on my old system, doesn't now, a small but
infuriating detail that is utterly depressing.
Wraps my almost visible dark mood aura (like in Bleach and DBZ) around me
tighter and leaves the building
my
keyboard is big and sturdy and comes off my old 386 yes its
oooooold but yet the typos are all me I cant blame the board for that it hasnt
done something wrong my fingers work too fast for my head
Maybe Ephe has a keyboard like mine that naturally encourages typo's. I have to
spell check everything before I post it, I miss somethings which make reading
the comment interesting I
can safetly spill soft drink on it (waterproof industrial grade) but not
correctly type words.
*blushes* thanks alot actually those are the only two works I have vectored in Photoshop *scratches head* maybe I should get back cracking into those PS tutorials and keep on working on my PS vectors.
Whatever we decide on for the the banners, website etc Im up for and always around if you need a hand. And wooohooo comps results finally updated im so happy *sheds a tear* and even better mwahahaha I got an honourable mention and dual most improved *cries* im so proud of me...wait now I sound conceded I better move away from that. Hey look lampy is running around doing crazy things weeeeeeeeeeee *chases after lampy*
Lol firstly Evo I think you have improved a lot. I don't know if you still use freehanded vectoring, but the TREC book cover entry vector, and the colouring in for the UA collab were excellent. I'd DEFINITELY say you improved a lot.
On the note about a backup admin I am totally in for it. I'm all up for it. I will admin whoever's available and willing.
Banners banners banners--- oh it seems it's the banners
I'll go put up a huge link on my page and see about going to all my gallery
items and fixing up the UA link. I'll probably make a little banner or
something.
People, you might have noticed I removed some people off the active members board. Whilst I acknowledge some put a lot of good work into UA, I have removed you (if you're even reading this) because I haven't even seen your shadow for a veryyyy long time. And I mean like 6 months.
Soon I will upload my tutorials onto another server (because geocities is PA-THE-TIC) and either Rah or I will build UA a mini site. That may possibly be embedded into this page as a frame thingo to relieve the picture traffic etc we're using because this page is ridiculously long. (It'd be shorter if these posts for the past few days were so long :P)
As for your concern Evo about the small group etc you're completely right and I do like the way we are. Only I feel as though we could help others and do it for a good cause. We benefit, the members benefit, and so will the overall standard of the Minitokyo galleries. Rah and I were talking about a full "clean up" (ie removing ALL inactive members- like those who applied and did absolutely NOTHING). I can sense myself doing that very soon because well, it's 1. clogging up the memberlist 2. They are starting to annoy me for their inactivity. (I've been hanging around in IRC too long.) Some applied without really knowing what the group is for (you'd be surprised at how many applications we get from people who haven't got any gallery items- like zero).
The Sandbox is an excellent idea. I used to hang around in there until I got sick of non wallers looking for credits started to pick at my critique because of their personal preferences, rather than the overall technicality and aesthetics of what I was critiquing upon. It may or may not work, but I can tell you it'll take a heckload of time- and to be half bitchy about it (because I must be PMSing lately or something) I'm not prepared to put in the work :X
Okay I'm outa here and I will contemplate stuff~~ gotta do all the UA stuff and then tomorrow it's heads down and reading and making lots of cubes, buying balsa wood and out comes the stanley knife
!
PS: Nominate yourself or another memebr to be an admin you'd like to see on the UA mod board
I suppose this isn't the place for it but thank you Rah for your help. I never would have figured out why I didn't have thumbnails if not for your help. After reading the thread you found it took me about 30 seconds to figure out why I didn't have them and about 3 minutes to fix the problem (I had to boot the laptop with PS 7 on it), and immediately I had pictures! So right now I am extremely happy and will most definitely be visiting the forums to share my good mood around. A smile brightens the day of those who see it. Bye-bye XP
Ok time for my input
How we can recruit more members
The only way I can think of is the banners. It was good back in MT2 cause you could spam the forums and people could see that you were part of UA if you had a sig banner or even just some random words about UA followed by a link. If the people were as inquisitive as me that was an excellent way of advertising per say (How did you think I joined? I saw it on Terra-chan's signature) The hard part is for now is 1. We have no signature images that show up all the time, 2. I think people just dont care. The only other way I can think of is the Sandbox, the amount of people's walls who get quarentined for crapness is tremendous. Always just spam thier guestbook give them a little helping hand about what they are missing with thier walls and then say "hey look if you are willing to improve UA is a great place if you are interested"
Is our criteria too strict to join?
Absolutley not. If it wasnt the way it was we would have all the zomg sparkly scenic ecchi fan based girl walls here overulling us all. The one thing I love about UA is that we are different, we dare to stand out for the rest. BAN THE TRENDWHORES WALLS VIVA LA EXPRESSION mwahahahahahah
The current criteria I am thinking of to leave the group is "three top submissions without the aid of a highlighted gallery item"
That is really up to you guys, with the current members being selected for current highlights is more depends on what you all feel. You seem to be the most sucessful one misa try thinking about your own experience. I still dont really get how the top submissions work I still just think its all a friends and popular series game but whatever is decided should be sufficiant.
Are we doing enough? As members and admins?
Yes and no. Of course the member levels are low, sorry to say Im missing the fortnightly comp (sorry Teryon I know others have a life too) And for the love of god can someone just tally the results from the previous ones and update the page XP
For the admin: I think we need more of an active admin group. As I said I know everyone has thier own lives out outside of MT and the net but latley there is nothing to drive for. Misa pretty much is still the only active person I have seen in a couple of month (seriously girl you do too much for us I feel spoilt) and specially since I know that uni will take its toll on you after a while. My suggestion is a backup admin. That way things would get rolling again, we will hopefully become more active and the improvment will start coming once again.
For the members: It goes back to the advertising, also becoming more active. Yet while our group is small I say there is about 8 - 10 of us who are really active. Thats one thing that makes me relucant about getting more members, I dont want to see the group turn out to be one of those 100+ member groups while yet still the same 8 - 10 people participate. UA is a close knit family if we branch out too far we will be lost forever in the lurkers.
Is our current constructive criticism helping you at all?
I miss Tevi *cries* that girl would tell it to you straight no running around it, it was nothing but straight honesty. Mind you Im guilty of it too I cant stand to hurt a persons feelings specially everyone knows the time and the stress and the overall sence of accomplishment after making a wall. I dont want to have my dream crushed by someone telling you that you flat out suck. Mind you I havent really received much critism latley (Mind you I havent been submitting) but still the previous stuff has helped a little but thats just for me.
Did you learn anything in the past year?
Personally no I havent unfortunatley. I still cant use the Pen Tool in Photoshop, I still have problems blending everything together so it looks natural and generally overall I still suck. Latley I have been trying to work on my vector work but still nothing. Everything still is on that low level. This is one of the main reasons I never submitted my TREC entries onto MT. I feel they arent up to standard, I was not happy with them at all. In fact there was one that I didnt like. Maybe give me another 2 - 3 years and then I might pick up the skills or maybe Evo is just a slow learner.
Are our competitions helping you improve?
My last UA comp entry has no favs *cries* this makes Evo not feel loved. Somehow I think nothing will help me improve
What do you think about the 'fortnightly' competitions?
As I said before we need to get back into that routine of doing it. With me I felt the pressure and actually the need to wall. I wanted to join in and try and improve and showboat what skills I did have. It also gave us a chance to move outside the norm, try and interperate the theme and then work out what wall would most suit it. That was the best experience I got, we most of the times had to move out of our comfort zone and explore.
What do you think in UA in general- is it successfully helping you gain recognition, improve your knowledge in Photoshop-related programs or a fun group to be in?
Atm its more of a fun group to be in, since nothing much happens I cant improve my skills and still I cant use that god damn pen tool so there aint any improvment in PS skills.
What do you think about the top submissions at this present time? If you were around this time last year, how do these top submissions compare to last year's one?
I might be the only one who thinks this but they have stepped up a notch. Everytime you looked at the top sub pages they were all trendwhore. Every single frickin one. Now its more of the artsy trend, if you are high and think the wall is cool then it should be a top submission.
What do you think about the new generation of top submission wallers?
Simplism would be proud. They are basic and but they do look good.
What do you think about the selected highlighted pieces?
Arent these always based on the admins and elite members likings? If you don't know an admin or can catch the eye of them your pretty much screwed. While they are branching out to some decent work they are still favouring the trend whores.
Do you think you'll be highlighted? (if you haven't been highlighted)
Never. Thats easy enough, it will never happen.
What do you think is the general "popular genre" of wallpaper now? Why?
Vectors are in. With all the simple stuff people are turning to the ease of vectors not only with character clean up but with the walls. The traditional vector style is back and people are eating it up.
Lol great posts I'll go and copy them down soon (just little bits and pieces)
@ Ephie+Erdbeermilch
I've seen a Chen Shu Fen scan highlighted once. Like Ephie says, they're not on the front page, but I agree with Erdbeermilch that they really shouldn't be highlighted because they didn't actually do the work. Some didn't even scan it in themself and just found it on the web. My guess is that the highlighting of scans promotes two things: the "unpopular" nature of the scan, or the different style of the scan (which is definitely Chen Shu Fen because it's realistic), and secondly the quality of the scan.
@ Ephie RE: Fortnightly competition
I would start it in perhaps 2 weeks from now (after Arete) because it's time consuming. If you want I can think of a random theme right now and extend the deadline until whenever. I have a feeling though that many Arete wallers will be Arete-ing until the deadline :P
If you've been around NWP artgeeky is starting up some other bizarre Olympics competition thing. Not sure how open the competition will be (anyone can join or only NWP) so that might delay the fortnightly comp if that chooses to continue straight after Arete (our poor competitions
)
@ Ephie RE: top submissions
That's a REALLY good point that I never thought about.
By top submissions I mean it makes it to the "this week's popular art" section. I've hit that section about 4 times (for 4 highlights), but 3/4 wallpapers I've made are I think around the 70 favourites mark and one surprisingly close to 100- but that's still nowhere NEAR 300 for the top subs we see now on the front page.
I remember when I first joined most got to about 200 faves (and that was the "wow big number!" number) but now it seems like the number has inflated to about 300
So now 300 is overappreciated, 200 is sufficient appreciation.
(I'd say last year it'd be 200, 100 respectively)
I also remember setting that rule about "wallpapers with less than 15 favourites" or 10 or something. Now anything with 20-30 favourites is like standard O___O
OMG I will have to really think this one over.
Discussion so far:
- Banners needed / advertisement
- Fortnightly comps continue
- Criteria should be changed
Suggestion
For at least 1/5 gallery submissions you make, plug a link to UA.
And any banner will do.
Suggestion2
We should probably make a logo for UA.
Any suggestions?
How we can recruit more members
I think we should start plugging our works with our banners. We have lots of banners so I
think we can at least use them for advertising now. I don't think the banners we have were used
for something else... though I had it plugged in my userpage all the time.
Is our criteria too strict to join?
Absolutely not. Actually there's a lot of potential for a normal waller to join us. But the
problem is that they can't find us, or they seem to ignore the fact that they're really
underappreciated, so they just tend to go for trendwhore technique and passed by this group.
(Sorry if you find this offensive)
The current criteria I am thinking of to leave the group is "three top submissions without the aid of a highlighted gallery item
By the way, when you mean three top submissions... are they the top in our own gallery, in
this group or in MT frontpage? Coz if you asked me that question, don't think I'll be able
to leave UA forever. ^^
Are we doing enough? As members and admins?
Partially agree and disagree. We should try advertising. Admins have done a lot, so its time
for us members to mass-advertise in MT!
Is our current constructive criticism helping you at all?
If it's not for joining UA, I should be doing trendwhore wall right now. Thanks for the all
the help! ^^ I love you all! *hugs*
Did you learn anything in the past year?
Of course! I learned lots of new stuffs, and learned lots of walling techniques and improved
my walling skills pretty much a lot ever since I joined UA.
Are our competitions helping you improve?
Compare my first UA wall with the latest UA wall I have. If you can't tell the difference,
then I must be really slacking off. Definitely making me improve.
What do you think about the 'fortnightly' competitions?
They're fun, interesting, time-challenging and they're of different criteria. It kinda forces
us to try out another new technique of walling, and to expand and elaborate the meaning of
each theme. That reminds me, when will our next theme be out?
What do you think in UA in general- is it successfully helping you gain recognition, improve your knowledge in Photoshop-related programs or a fun group to be in?
UA, a place where we normal underappreciated evolve to a superior wallers. I don't think UA
helped me in gaining recognition, but it does make us a fun group to be in and it definitely
has improved me in my walling, and not to mention forces me to explore another new parts of Photoshop.
OTHER DISCUSSION MATERIAL
What do you think about the top submissions at this present time? If you were around this time last year, how do these top submissions compare to last year's one?
Hm, the ecchiness in the top submissions has definitely been reduced, but the 'style' is
still there. The top submissions somehow only stick to maximum brushings, colourful walls,
girl scans, and the next wave of style, retro and if you notice the top submissions now, they
just HAVE TO BE scenic. Scenic here and there...
What do you think about the new generation of top submission wallers?
There are some who sticks to their own style, but there are some who used the same old
tactics -- friendwhore? choosing only popular anime series and making their walls as bright
as possible... and SCENIC! They're the same...
What do you think about the selected highlighted pieces?
They're selected professionally. I mean, they're good selections. I have no comment about that.
Do you think you'll be highlighted? (if you haven't been highlighted)
Not sure... If someone can tell me what's my style, I'll be glad to listen. Coz I have yet to
discover my own style, so I don't have originality to be highlighted... *sigh* But I hope 1 day
I'll be highlighted though.
What do you think is the general "popular genre" of wallpaper now? Why?
They're catchy. Friendwhoric, complexism and girl scan. They don't have the originality in
their works, just flowing with the latest wave of style... nothing special about them. They're
pretty much the same.
By the way, Erdbeermilch, there are some scans which were highlighted. Just that they're not shown on the mainpage. If I'm not mistaken there are only 2 scans which were highlighted.
Well I'm not only a new member to this group but I'm also quite new to MT, so I don't think I can answer most of those questions. I'll just try to give my opinion on two questions.
* What do you think about the selected highlighted pieces?
In general I think highlights are okay, I actually never came across a highlight I absolutley disagreed with. Only one thing bothers me...Why can scan's get a highlight? I don't understand it, after all it's just scanning
* Do you think you'll be highlighted? (if you haven't been highlighted)
Nope, somehow I think my walls still lack something
Guess that's all I can answer, maybe I'll be more competent next year.
Btw: Thanks a lot for letting me join
Lols. I'll do the same as Evo. I need to copy this and write it down in a notepad file before I can post it here. Hehhhee. That's pretty darn long.. don't think my eyes can stand any longer...
* How we can recruit more members
I think our competitions draw a lot of attention and potential members. I alway put links on competition enteries regardless of the community - and leave them there. So hopefully my pitiful enteries have enticed some enthusiasm in MT members.
* Is our criteria too strict to join?
Definitely not if anything it maybe to lax but this may help applying members to join our happy group.
* The current criteria I am thinking of to leave the group is "three top submissions without the aid of a highlighted gallery item" #
I may be a little disinterested in this item because fankly nothing I ever produce will get to the top submissions or highlighted galleries so I'm happy with what everyone decides - like I'm ever going to leave this group.
* Are we doing enough? As members and admins?
Don't you guys referee the discussions in the group GB, isn't that enought to keep you busy. Stopping cookie fights that is XP
* Is our current constructive criticism helping you at all?
I put links to my latest artistic creations in GB comments but I don't think I've seen other people's links lately. When the links do appear I think the UA do a great job of posting improving construct criticism.
* Did you learn anything in the past year?
Most definitely, even I can tell that i've sharpen my small puddle of artistic skills. When I do create a new wall or vector I can be proud of it thanks to past improving comments by UA'ers
* Are our competitions helping you improve?
*What do you think about the 'fortnightly' competitions?
Well I may not participate in every one but it does force my imagination to keep moving thinking of a possible entry, even if I don't have the time or current skills to sucessfully complete it.
In that sense I think the competitions are a great idea, and a great group advertisement.
* What do you think in UA in general- is it successfully helping you gain recognition, improve your knowledge in Photoshop-related programs or a fun group to be in?
Not only is it a fun group to participate in with group discussions. But it has improved my photoshop knowedge - especially about vectoring. Considering when I joined UA I was just getting to know PS, without previous experience. I think I polished up well in the time between then and now, but I have a long way to go.
OTHER DISCUSSION MATERIAL:
I can't be bothered answering the individual points so I'll just write general paragraph.
Most of last years top highlights generally involved white clouds and added wings on unknown (mostly) characters. I personally found it dissappointing and avoided them. Althought there were some georgous and highly original submitted walls submitted which deserved and got recognition. Now the walls have increased the ecchi rating and usually are considered 'original' if they have some how missed out the mandatory moon or planet.
I will definitely be checking out your link and leaving a GB comment for your PS thumbnail help Rah, which is very much appreciated.
^_^
merged: 03-03-2006 ~ 02:09pm
OMG, Rah you're a genius. On my last system I went from 7 to 8 and 9. When I reloaded PS this time I just loaded 8 and 9. I distinctly remember the uninstalled PS 7 folder only had one DLL in it (can't remember what is was tho). My laptop has PS 7 installed must find and copy that DLL, but will also try your fix, one of them has to work.
...you're focusing too much energy on MT again, Chestnut.
...and on an entirely unrelated note, I'm so glad I won that bet with you.
Damned Minitokyo and its instability.
that's awesome! nicely done tevi.
@misa
that
way, you can make misa get mad at me for lagging on the development of the site.
(i heart you misa. (A)) 
you know, i'm a fairly "old" member, and i had no clue about this march madness. @_@ anywho, i can't wait to update the UA site, so come on people, join in on the discussions.
but yes, this whole secret prize pool sounds like oddles of fun. makes me wish i would of played a part in this, but then again, i doubt i would of made it past the preliminaries.
as for the response to your previous comment, i can't say anything else besides ":D." i can't believe you remembered the little pleasures in life that i have once every week.
i
should say that you forgot to mention the kopiko, but then again, i kind of gave
up on caffeine from coffee. straight green tea is the drink of choice now. 
@tishdon
well tish, i hope you don't mind me calling you that ._., i finally found the way to get psd's created with CS2 to work as thumbnails. just message me, and i'll get you the rar file. for some reason my upload page isn't quite working out. >[ and if anyone else out there wants this file, just message me, and i'll gladly send it on it's way. ^_^
@UAers
take care guys. ^^
gee thats very long misa O_o Im gonna have to copy it to a text document to go over it hehehe. I'll add my bit tommorow but now I have to run to get ready for my friends wedding
Hi everyone! It's been a while because I couldn't log onto Mt- the secret prize pool I shall put up tonight, and tevi already picked the prize: Which was actually first tecnophreak's 20 gigs of music, but considering tevi doesn't really have the bandwidth to receive it, and he doesn't have the connection to send it, I let her pick again and guess what- she picks her own prize
It was
a doujinshi!
Okay, it's MARCH already!
For existing UAers, you know what time it is: It's ANNUAL DISCUSSION TIME! If not, feel free to join in. You don't have to, but here were a few things I wanted to discuss and to also bring up again (probably from last year)
Let the discussion begin!
UAers, lend us your opinions on:
* How we can recruit more members
* Is our criteria too strict to join?
* The current criteria I am thinking of to leave the group is "three top submissions without the aid of a highlighted gallery item" #
* Are we doing enough? As members and admins?
* Is our current constructive criticism helping you at all?
* Did you learn anything in the past year?
* Are our competitions helping you improve?
* What do you think about the 'fortnightly' competitions?
* What do you think in UA in general- is it successfully helping you gain recognition, improve your knowledge in Photoshop-related programs or a fun group to be in?
OTHER DISCUSSION MATERIAL:
* What do you think about the top submissions at this present time? If you were around this time last year, how do these top submissions compare to last year's one?
* What do you think about the new generation of top submission wallers?
* What do you think about the selected highlighted pieces?
* Do you think you'll be highlighted? (if you haven't been highlighted)
* What do you think is the general "popular genre" of wallpaper now? Why?
Here are my answers/replies so far: Remember, I do copy and select parts (if I'm free) and put it up on a page. I might make a UA site in the near future... if Uni doesn't squash me. Atm it really is and I shouldn't actually be online.
* How we can recruit more members?
We need awareness. If you think about the Mafia Plug, the AWR banner- and sometimes personal invitations to people, these are ways you can spread awareness of the group. Unfortunately, I don't want to copy anyone's system- and inviting someone to UA has been proven quite difficult in the past (I know it's hard for someone to admit that they are underappreciated ... some people find it uhm... embarrassing?) So something is needed. Our competitions has been pretty good for getting our messages and group across: the most successful gallery item was the UA WAR collab. So one solution is to just keep going with the competitions and provide a big fat link in our gallery descript to the UA page.
* Is our criteria too strict to join?
Frankly, I think no. We killed the watchlist limit (which in a way is fair because I know you sometimes can't help it if people just watch you) and we compare the quality with the favourites ratio. There was one particular application I denied, because 1. Her skills aren't very good 2. She makes it to the top subs 3. She has a lot of friends.
Her top submission (one of the recent ones I've seen anyway) was a shockingly bright and appalling piece of filter work- and had about 300 favourites. That's more than ... anything I've seen in applications, really. The most I think I've seen was about 120 (which is okay) but 300... I can imagine her other works have around the same amount of faves. That's just ridiculous.
* The current criteria I am thinking of to leave the group is "three top submissions without the aid of a highlighted gallery item" #
I put the # there to show that it's a hot topic.
We haven't touched the criteria since the transition to Mt3, and I think it's important it's reviewed because of the introduction of the highlights system.
I have had about 4 items highlighted, kakitsubata I think about 2 or 3, omni one, Terra-chan one... so so far the highlights system has been pretty good to UAers.
I don't know if you think it's fair that I set in "three top subs unless the item is highlighted" - but here are my reasons:
- If the item is highlighted, people will fave it.
Generally this is true- the more mainstream looking gallery items, the more popular they would be. This leads to a popular submission- but they are usually knocked out pretty quickly, since the top subs on the front page returned.
This struck me when my first few were highlighted (no top subs on the front page). So I went to the page with the anime wallpapers (it's somewhere... click on random links and you'll find it) and I watched the top submissions. My gallery items stayed up there longer (maybe for the duration of 6 days...) because the favourites were going very slowly.
Since the return of the top subs, my last 2 highlighted works lasted about a few hours (no more than 10 I think) and they disappeared because of some watchlist queen submission.
I don't know if you think it's a fair deal - you may call me biased because I might as well be out of the group by now (even though I would have never made it to the top subs without the highlights) So shell out some thoughts on that.
* Are we doing enough? As members and admins?
) and I will be out too. So we'll need someone to probably just get things
running and stuff. I could probably still organise the competitions (fortnightly
ones thanks) and keep up with discussions, but with moderation and applications,
I will pass 
Yes and no. I feel like I'm not doing enough. I certainly can't do much now that University has started... I think that UA needs another admin. Rah is out (busy guy
* Is our current constructive criticism helping you at all?
I still think we need to be more honest. I know I haven't been... so yeah. But it has helped to an extent, I think.
* Did you learn anything in the past year?
HELL I learnt so much in the past year! I experimented so much and I'm very happy to have joined Mt and UA! I would have still been making very dodgy looking bits of work if it weren't for you guys!
* Are our competitions helping you improve?
From the competitions, every round just seems to get better. There seems to be a wider range, a more vast interpretation of the themes, and just all sorts of wonderful things.
* What do you think about the 'fortnightly' competitions?
I think they're pretty good. But we need more entries
* What do you think in UA in general- is it successfully helping you gain recognition, improve your knowledge in Photoshop-related programs or a fun group to be in?
The recognition part is being helped by the highlights system somewhat, and I think that UA is a nice place to just hang out and talk about Minitokyo in general and about the galleries etc. I still don't feel as though I'm doign enough though
OTHER DISCUSSION MATERIAL:
* What do you think about the top submissions at this present time? If you were around this time last year, how do these top submissions compare to last year's one?
I think that these top submissions have been SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE than last year's top submissions. Apart from some highlighted stuff getting up there, frankly most of the stuff I see up there is CRAP. Sorry if it offends anyone, but really- a super blinding wallpaper, a cute girl, some sparkles and bad composition really does not deserve more than 10 favourites (it should probably in fact be deleted from Mt's database). This is due to the new influx of wallers though. More on that in the next point.
* What do you think about the new generation of top submission wallers?
I don't like it lol. That's as honest as I can get it. I really don't like it. There are some who are good wallers (respectable because they know what they are doing) but the ones in particular I'm talking about are the trendwhore wallers. I really don't like it lol. There is no sense of colour balance, sometimes bad design and composition, and nor are their works highly original. I wouldn't put their work on my desktop...
It also seems that the strategy of the new age waller has changed. I remember that most of the time it was a lot of guestbook posting, thanking others and adding randos to their list hoping to be added back.
The strategy still includes all those things, but there has been one significant thing that has changed : linking to own work, others' works and descriptions marking up their work.
These days I really see a lot of that going on [and I find it funny because most people only link to works on their page if it's really underappreciated] and I think it's sneaky. It's not in a way, but there's this underlying psychology that is making me squint my eyes and go "hmmmm".
* What do you think about the selected highlighted pieces?
To be honest I haven't kept up with the highlighted section for a while. I can't really say much about it because art is subjective and something wonderful may not be so in someone else's eyes. Overall they are well picked. Some I wonder why were picked (uhm, example, my stupid gothic entry?! I really hated it and I am really thinking about deleting it from my gallery) but I'm in no real position to say anything because well..what I think, doesn't really matter
* Do you think you'll be highlighted? (if you haven't been highlighted)
I believe everyone will be highlighted sooner or later. UAers that is.
* What do you think is the general "popular genre" of wallpaper now? Why?
Vectors.
Which is kind of a strange genre because you could be very simple, very complex, or you can do absolutely nothing, or change everything. It's a very dynamic genre with lots of different ways of doing things.
I think it's popular because of the overall clean and modern look to it- it's something people think is 'cool'. (Okay vectors aren't not a genre, it's a medium, but I'm using it as a style atm)
Can't really say much about vectored stuff because I admit doing it quite a lot... I guess that's the target if you want your audience *shrugs*
Okay it's been a long entry, and I'm really gonna run and do some work (though I don't know what) so tata~~~
omni: Yeah, French accent, hahha. I once tested several levels of illiterism on my friend, and the one which wasn't Frenchlike modified version sounded too weird and he barely could understand, so... yea.. I had to do that...
The secret prize ppool, I wonder what's in there. I'm really anxious and curious...
@tishdon
i can't really talk a lot right now, seeing as how i have to leave for work, but you should check this page out. people claim that it worked for them, but it didn't work for me. but it maybe that they patched this for CS2, who knows, it is adobe.
@misa
i shall return later on to attend to you and tevi's comments.
@UAers
have a great day guys. ^^
*Hugs* everyone and wipes tear away, you people are great. Thanks Misa and Rah for the help (present and future).
I don't want anything else to go wrong with my computer ($), I want to save up for a new greenhouse
lol well scans were offered as prizes to the winners of UA but I think DREAM is a little busy. Eh I'll bug him later XP
OH and the secret prize pool!
Uhm, I'll do that tonight. tevi was a judge anyway and I won't cheat by letting her choose twice. I'll post up what she chose on the thread, and make a post in the "chosee's" gbook (whee that's not even English)
As for showing thumbnails of PSDs, don't you just change the view into thumbnail instead of list or detail? Sometimes the thumb doesn't work (just refresh the thing) ~~ I always right click Windows, Explore and it works. Not sure about your compy though, tishdon XP
You need cookies, Rah
Loads
of them. And pocky. And Colon 
@misa
congratulations tevi. 
[if
you're ever around anymore. ._. ]
:o
tevi won. sweet deal.
i might add that, well, from the last of my adventures on here, i heard DC's scan collection was up for grabs, so, what does he get for coming in third? O_o?
@tishon
you had psds display previews in thumbnails - while in explorer? hmm, last i knew, you couldn't do that. i need to find this out now, i'll see what i can do to help you.
@UAers
take care all. ^^
how i do miss you guys, but life hasd been a pain in the arse lately and limits my visitation rights to Mt. i hope you're all doig well, and i'll see you next week.
Actually it ended up coming out more like a typed French accent than the usual illiterism found on the net... but 'ey. It works.
Ehh... uh... don't think it's hard to be illiterate.. hehhe.. all I did was type a normal sentence, and changed some words 1 by 1... like changing s to z and stuffs like that.. whee~ TREC is over! ^^
Darn it! how come the threads I create only get one or two posts, the more I want to know the answers the less people post.
Does anyone here know how I can get my computer to show Photoshop image thumbnails. Used to happen on my old system, doesn't now, a small but infuriating detail that is utterly depressing.
Wraps my almost visible dark mood aura (like in Bleach and DBZ) around me tighter and leaves the building
Lol random typos <3! Ephie did an excellent job for the illiterate comments *hugs Ephie and throws cookies around*
As for the winners:
1. xxxJUDGExxx who was actually TEVI
2. smilebit
3. DernierCri
*runs around*
Maybe Ephe has a keyboard like mine that naturally encourages typo's. I have to spell check everything before I post it, I miss somethings which make reading the comment interesting
I
can safetly spill soft drink on it (waterproof industrial grade) but not
correctly type words.