[Sumaleth]

This thread is in responce to this poll;
http://www.sijun.com/dhabih/ubb/Forum2/HTML/006520.html

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I do not believe that this proposed change will do what you want it to do. 3D posts currently account for probably less than 1% of all postings on the DA forum so splitting the forum in this way will; a) not reduce postings in the digital art forum by any noticable amount, and b) will not have enough people in the 3D forum to make it work (at least initially, it could feasibly get going just as the DA one did). I think it would have a lot of difficuly sustaining itself.

I would leave the 3D stuff in the DA forum for now, at least until it represented a much larger % of all postings.

As I see it, there are a couple of ways to split the forum that would make far more sense. One would be a 'traditional art' forum, or maybe a 'pencil art' forum. Pencil art represents 1/3 to 1/2 of all posts on the 'digital art' forum. Everyone obviously has a real love for it so I think this is one option where a split would both make sense and also be sustainable. If you moved other non-digital mediums in there as well - gouache, watercolor, etc - then that would just make it even more sustainable.

The other option might be to move 'Art Discussion' into another forum. So any posts that don't have an image in them - to look at or talk about - would go in discussion. At a guess I'd say that this type of thing probably represents about 1/4 of all current posts to the digital art forum. Discussion of books, artists, art, the right and wrong way to do things, technical stuff, hardware and software, rippoffs etc.

This second option would have greater difficulty sustaining itself compared to the first, although I think it would still have no difficulties.

Which is the better split option? To decide that you need to balance out two things;

. Sustainability. It's ability to have a big following away from the Digital Art forum.
. And also, how many people would likely -not- follow the new forum.

Those are both contradictory so I'll just explain it. To make a new forum offshoot work you need a LOT of the DA forum regulars to be regulars in the new ones as well. But on the other hand, you don't want -everyone-. Why not? Because in that case you may as well just leave it all as one forum, you're not really making it any better, and would probably be making it harder.

With that in mind, I think a 'tranditional art' forum would probably have a good 80% (at a guess) of the current forum regulars also hang out there, plus it would likely bring in other artists who aren't perhaps interested in digital. I expect it could easily end up being just as big as the current DA forum.

The 'discussion' forum I guess would probably bring over maybe 30-50% of the DA regulars, and likely would not bring in any additional outside interest.

So; a 'traditional art' forum would make more sense, but a 'art discussion' forum would annoy less people and would still reduce the DA forum content by enough to bring everything back to a comfortable pace. The Traditional Art forum would drop the DA content by a LOT.

Either option would need to be strictly administrated in order to work. Pencil posts in the DA forum would need to be promptly closed and the thread moved into the correct forum. Likewise threads in the DA forum that were not image-centric would be closed and moved appropriately. Also, in the case of the Discussion forum, any threads in the DA forum which -became- discussions could be locked in DA and copied across to discussion. Perhaps.

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Well there you have it. Sorry about the long responce in the middle of your poll but I do think that a 3D forum is not the right way to go, and that 'discussion' or 'traditional' represent the only choices at this time that would; a) be sustainable, and b) make sense.

Row.

[Freddio]

Sorry I reaLLy can't be bothered to read that..

[napalm]

Why not form a 3D forum in the hope of attracting more of the professional 3D art community. I know a lot of the guys on here would provide a lot of help. I know many 3D people who would also take part in the 2D traditional DA forum with great enthusiasm. Its a chance to expand the focus and diversity of the boards. Just because the majority of the DA board traffic is traidtional 2D digital art doesnt mean that we cant build an equally impressive user base of highly skilled 3D artists. I realize it is a bit easier to talk 2D because all of us use either painter or photoshop, but there is a lot to be learned concept-wise in the 3D arena. There may be better technical resources on a software-by-software basis, but I cant think of any better people to critique 3D work than you guys. My 2 lira.


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[Transcendent]

Hmmmm, I'd say 3d is a form of digital art, and therefore should be treated the same way. The pictures posted in the 3d forum might lose out on a good compositional critique by a 2d artist.

[Rinaldo]

I don't think that seperate 3D is going to make much difference.

A seperate Hardware and discussion forum would be good, as long as no one starts deleting threads which go out of the topic. like if you want to post a pic in the discussion forums to Illustrate a point.

Also a testing forum for newbies to try and get the UBB code right or whatever. a fair amount of space is wasted with multiple "Maybe it will work this time" threads. questions like "how do I post images" could go here as well.

Chopping up art is a bad idea tho. it's good to have the range in here.

Good to see someone thinking Suma.

[Icannon]

suma and rinaldo have the right idea. they're making perfect sense, so make sure you read what they've wrote. i was thinking of bringing this up myself.

anyway, if there should be any kind of forum split i think it should be simply digital art(images, critiques) and art discussion. there should also be a forum disguised as a Q and A help forum.. which will link directly to the FAQ ! i dont think many people notice the faq where it is right now. just thinking out loud (uh, yeah).

[Liquid!]

I'm with SUMALETH on this one.

I'm not going to go back over the same ground I covered before, however the way the forum stands I miss alot of posts. This is rather dissappointing to me, however there is little I can do about it. I can't check every 3 hours to make sure I keep on top of it. So if you're trying to get my attention and I haven't responded, then its most likely I haven't seen it.

This is Dhabih's choice.

-c

[surferboi]

i think the poll can speak adaquately for itself, if not i have full confidence in dhabih. Btw thanks again for the forum it, and its inhabitants have inspired me more then anything else ever could.
thanks Dhabih

-Surferboi a.k.a. Rival

[chalker]

Some people don't want a 3d forum I noticed, but still I would like to have one. I read Dhabi's post on the 3d forum, and there was a possibility to enter other 3dforums as a replacement for the 3d forum on sijun. The only one noticeable was polycount , and I found more threads about Q3arena party's then modelling.

Though I seem to think that many traditional artist , even Dhabih want to try 3D to expand their creativity : http://www.sijun.com/dhabih/ubb/Forum2/HTML/005149.html

Since 3d and traditional art are more apart from eachother then pencil and oil paintings( by example ). I would like to have a 3dforum, Sijun's first forum also started out small, so the 3dforum can also grow.

I would say , LET'S TRY IT AND SEE... give it a month or three, and when I am the only one still in it.. okay then you can kill it..

Then you know for sure and won't have to try anymore.

grz

[Sumaleth]

In my original post here I assumed that the reason Dhabih was thinking about a separate forum for 3D was to lighten the load in the DA forum a bit, but I realize now that probably wasn't the case. It was probably more of a way to try and build up another forum for a subject that gets a bit lost in this forum.

Personally I don't really have any strong opinion for or against that, I can see benefits from keeping 3D in this forum as well as having a separate forum. I'm sure there'll be a clear responce either way from the poll.

What I was really talking about here was the -large-, and growing, volume of posts on the DA forum, and possible ways to avoid problems as a result of that volume.

For me at this time the volume is still pretty comfortable, but for people who have less time available I'm sure it's impossible to keep up. And of course the volume isn't going to be reduced over time, it's only going to get larger.

The thing about splitting the forum, however it's done, is that it will always be a bad thing. It's great having everything in together and I'm sure the majority of people prefer it that way. But at some point the negatives of a forum split will be equally weighed by the negatives of ___ new postings per day and that'll be time to think about it.

(Dhabih got any thoughts on this?)

Row.

[Gecko]

Suma's suggestion is excellent.


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Gecko
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