"Artica" is the (temporary?) name I've picked for the art-site project I mentioned over here. (http://xepher.net/forum/index.php?topic=15.0) I'd suggest anyone that hasn't should at least skim that thread for the parts where I describe my idea(s) before continuing here. For the lazy though, here's a VERY brief recap.
I want to make a community art site, similar to things like Deviant Art, Yerf, Elfwood, Artvark, etc. I want it to be a community site, run by the members, rather than a profit-oriented corporation. To this end, I've several ideas for how things would work that would set this site apart from the others. Membership (for artists) would be by invitation only. There would be a system of "karmic currency" in place (Whuffie?) that basically indicates how respected someone is in the community. People with more respect would have great administrative ability... that is, they'd have more power to do things such as moderate posts, invite more people, punish and ban troublemakers, petition for new ideas, etc. The system is actually quite complicated, but on the front (user) side of things is very simple. People would see "scores" and have the ability to give people a thumbs up/down.
In addition to the karmic system, there are a few technical features that I've yet to see in other art archives that would be new as well. For example, an option to have multiple revisions of a work. I often see a rough sketch, an ink drawing, and a full color version of the same image, yet they're always posted as new "works" and end up seperate in the archives. Similar things would be done for "set" images... things like a series of ABC pictures and such. Also, themeable home pages so each artist can customize their own areas, yet still keep a consistent feel throughout.
Anyway, the ideas and the full feature set are still in a quite malleable state. Lots of things are subject to change. I do know that this is something I want to do, and I think needs to be done. I, of course, already have the server resources to host and run such a thing, but it is a massive undertaking to actually code and design such a place. I'm going for something quite the opposite from xepher.net. There I started with nothing and slowly built it up to what it is today. I've also (intentionally) kept a less-than-professional air about the place. I never wanted this to be a "major" project. Artica will be different though. I don't want to slap something together and try and get people interested a few at a time. My intention is to, quite frankly, surprise everyone from out of left field. I want to have a fully functional, professional looking, easy-to-use site up and running before accepting the first artist. I want someplace where people will be clammoring to get into, and where they'll work hard to keep it a great place. I want a community everyone can be proud to be part of.
Now, to that end, I realize I can't do it alone. Yes, I could probably code the site and get things going, but as soon as it starts getting "interesting" I don't think I'd be able to keep up by myself. I need help. Primarily I need a few other people that can code well in PHP. (Honestly, I'm not that great at actual coding. I turn everything into an if/then/else statement and I've never even used an "object.") Also, some artists would be needed, both for their connections in various other art communities for promotion, and for design and graphics for the site and engine. It's gonna be an art site, and a nearly graphic-less page like on xepher.net would be rather stupid. Additionally, we'll probably need a good deal of beta testers to go through and try and break things. These can (and probably should) be ordinary joe and jane user. No special skills required. Just a willingness to click on everything until it breaks. :-)
While I would defintely like people to have skill in their areas, I think it's more important to find people who are motivated and actually interested in such a project. This is gonna be a long-term thing. I'm not in a rush, but I would like to see steady work being done. Until I/we get more into it, it's hard to estimate a timeframe, but 6 months to a year of work is quite possible. This wouldn't be nearly full time on anyone's part, and I don't intend to have weekly deadlines or anything, but I'm just mentioning this possibility up front because I don't want people that get bored in a few weeks and wander off. Ideally I'd like to see a functional site up for testing well this side of 6 months, but the time frame is heavily under flux until we finalize features and see how many people we can get on the team.
I think that about sums up my piece for now. If you're seriously interested in working on this, don't be scared off by my admonitions about long/hard work. Most of you know me, and I'm not a slave driver or anything. Things come up and people can't always stick to commitments. I know this, and it's expected. I just want to make sure of peoples intentions more than anything.
So, who's interested? I'm not looking for commitments yet, just an idea of who might consider it.
I can beta test, since I can crash just about any software that I want to (scared a friend of mine when I got his Mac to give him the chimes of Death.) (And no, this has absolutely nothing to do with that PC of mine that just died).
I'm not the most commited person (hehe...) but if you give be an assignment and a due date, I'll probably get it done on time. As long as you don't just tell me to do what I want.
right now though, I could probably be of some use debugging, spreading word, and beta testing...
I can beta test, I'd do the art thing, but I'm positive that there are more skilled people than I that would be better suited to do it I could try some graphics and stuff tho.
I don't know any php though, sorry :s
Lei: What part would you be able to help with? Coding? Layout? Art? Sorry, you didn't really specify.
I'd be more than happy to do beta testing, (I love breaking things~ I'm known to destroy whatever I get my hands on when I'm bored) and art if needed (you know, if you ever want crappy anime-style! XD >>; mebbe I'll stick to colors or something....). I may not look it, but I have some decent work ethic. Plus how cool is it to say you worked on THE coolest art site ever?
anyway, it sounds like this'll be fun X3
My PHP sucks big time, but I could probably beta test and break a few things here and there.
xepher, i can do the beta-testing if you still people to do that. As for art, I can probebly do that too, but it depends on what and when, though
If you are shortened for a coder, I can my brother. He is in his las year of his study, computer technology, so he should have the required skills. If you really need one i ll ask him.
No, thanks anyway, but I'd prefer to recruit people who are already part of the community here.
ah okay then ^^ good luck with coding
Well I could probably do a bit of basic debugging and coding, just cause I've been getting a heck of a lot of experience with my computer class (sucks to actually understand the lesson). I also pick up on things easily. Art... I don't think I'm confident enough in the art department to actually let anyone use my works... but I have connections and friends and I could probably drop a few hints here and there to some people that I think would make fun additions to the community.
Who knows, maybe over time I could be one of the coders too, but I'll need the six months to a year =)
I wouldn't mind helping in the coding aspect, but I need to catch up on homework and other duties to things like the Kanar site first.
I think I am pretty good with graphics and such, so I will help with design. If you take a look at my site though, you will all see how bad I am at coding. I will also beta test, thought I doubt I will be able to.
I can get you out any size image you want (I think) in about two days, unless I am swamped with work and life and stuff. It would be better if you kept pressure on me, since I never work that well when no one seeems to care (which is obvious in my history of my site). I also will have to leave in March to go to Japan. I will be there 11 months, so I probably won't be able to help much. It would be nice to be kept up to speed about how it is going though :D.
I'm interested. I don't know how much help I can be of as I'm an amature coder - well I think so anyway as I cheat and use my new Dreamweaver. However I don't mind at all donating my artistic skills and anything else you guys think I could help with - just check out my sites and let me know. I enjoy playing with my new Adobe Photoshop program too! =~.^= Just let me know Xepher! I owe you much as you keep saving me from my php mistakes... =~.^=
I'm not much of an artist, or too knowledgeable in PHP, but I could give the layout a go...
... If not, maybe beta testing? :P
I owe you for hosting me, and since I don't have a credit card at the moment, I need another means of showing my gratitude. :D
Me like break things.
I'd say I can help with the art, but I'm not so good at actual output. Arranging someone elses output, I could easily help with.
And what I know about coding = well, nothing. I was going to say something funny, and then I couldn't.
But if you're interested in people that do textile type arts (fabric arts like knit, crochet, sew, attacking things with scissors and seeing what happens....) I can promote in a few of my communities.
Speaking of things on my todo list... I still need to get this thing done someday. Everything online has been on hold for me as of late. Real world kicks me a lot. My truck got hit in the parking lot overnight... smashed the driver's door. Not even a note. Mean people suck!
mean people need prozac.
Hope your insurance covers it.
Insurance? Bah, I can't afford anything more than the minimal liability. They wanted nearly $1600/6months for full coverage on my car. That's over three grand a year. The car only cost me $12,000, so I figured not destroying it in 4 years would be a better deal than having insurance. Man, it sucks being a male driver under 25. I've never even been pulled over, much less gotten a ticket, and I've been driving since the day I turned 15. Yet they still treat me as a high risk. Oh well. It's been 2 years since I got the car, so I've saved nearly $5,000 by NOT paying insurance, so it's still technically a "win." It just ticks me off that it's not MY fault. I mean, if I did something stupid and slid off the road or something, fine, I deserve to pay the price, but this... GRRRRRRR!
Hey, new around here, but I'm an artist and I'd be more than willing to help with this project.
Hello ^^
I'm new here *waves*
This sounds really interesting =D
If you manage to get it done, I'm pretty sure that it'd be a great success =3
I'm a deviantART user myself and, even if I'm quite happy there and I've met lots of people, it would be nice to have more of an artist's community, where people can be known and respected not just for teir art but for their behavior and their manners towards the resto of the comunnity. And I'd be glad to see people actually having nice galleries to look at more than the thousands of random users that just upload screenshots, badly done wallpapers or bad scribbles...
Since I'm not part of the community (yet?) I won't say "count me in!" , but "go Artica!" =3 I really hope you can get through your IRL issues and start this great project =3
And who knows... if I end up being part of this community i could help qith beta-testing, art if needed and advertising at DeviantART ^^
Quote from: XepherInsurance? Bah, I can't afford anything more than the minimal liability. They wanted nearly $1600/6months for full coverage on my car. That's over three grand a year. The car only cost me $12,000, so I figured not destroying it in 4 years would be a better deal than having insurance. Man, it sucks being a male driver under 25. I've never even been pulled over, much less gotten a ticket, and I've been driving since the day I turned 15. Yet they still treat me as a high risk. Oh well. It's been 2 years since I got the car, so I've saved nearly $5,000 by NOT paying insurance, so it's still technically a "win." It just ticks me off that it's not MY fault. I mean, if I did something stupid and slid off the road or something, fine, I deserve to pay the price, but this... GRRRRRRR!
Eeeeee.....O.o
That
really sucks. I haven't had that happen, but my car's an '89 clunker, and I've paid more than the asking price by now by fixing
every single part capable of breaking. XP
Hope the hunt for a new one isn't going
too bad.
As for the thread topic (*snort* What's that?) I could probably do some beta testing for you. I have very little experience with anything computer related (point and click, dude - point and click...), but it doesn't sound like testing it requires more than some time, and a working trigger finger. :D
I could go on to mention my lack of committed time, yadda, yadda, yadda - but I'll have you know that I'm fairly reliable once there's a job in the works that needs to be done. As long as it doesn't take up
hours and hours and hours, I should be able to give you something to work with. ;)
As a side note, be happy you even have cars.
True, it could always be worse... I mean, your pants could be on fire. :-)
Hey I've beta tested several programs before (for Microsoft, Corell, Blizzard...) and I squeal with joy when I catch bad coding on MSN.com and DA. =)
I also love doing graphics, so if you need me, I'm here!
Or you could have NO PANTS (because they all inexplicably caught on fire) or underwear (caught fire from the pants) or shirts (more flammable material that people wear, when will they ever learn?) and be forced to walk around either butt naked (with third degree burns) or in a towel! (which eventually also catches fire)
...man there were a lot of parentheses in there.
I tend to fluctuate between major procrastinator and fanatically focused (the former more than the latter...), but I will have the summer mostly free and I'd be happy to help design the site during those months. (I'm pretty much done with the graphic design portion of my art major, and I'm good at keeping deadlines.) Programming-wise, I'm too rusty for words, so I'll stay out of that. :/
AHHHH! How did I miss reading this before?
In any case, I'd be happy to test the site (I'm good at breaking things, just ask my Playstation, PS2, laptop, desktop computer,scanner, printer, car radio, car [I can smpathize with Xepher there], and etc.). As for the artist thing, is this in terms of designing site background or creating the initial sites? Actually, I would be willing to help in either case or otherwise, but I tend to be a slow worker.
As for coding... I could not code to save my life, so I'm no help there.
Of course, I'm not even a member of Xepher.net yet, and I think Xepher wanted help from current members (am I right on that point?).
That fact nonwithstanding, I would be happy to help and abandon my dA account.
I would love to assist you in my off time Xepher. I needlessly find myself browsing random pages before hopping off to bed everynight, so I could help beta-test any pages you put up. If I find something broken, you bet you'll hear about it.
Also, I can spread the word on dA and hopefully give you some graphics to have a bit of fun with.
I've been so busy lately with real life I dont want to sit here and say I'm all in, but when I have the free time I'll be there for you.
Though I'm not part of this community yet, I wouldn't mind giving a helping hand whenever needed. I have three months of free time coming up, so I'd be more than happy to help when I can. Being a vis com major you can rightly guess I'd help with graphic design, hehe. Just give me a holler when you need me. ^_^ Oh yeah, I can help promote too. I'm with dA and stuff like that, so I can spread the word.
With the new server coming, I've been thinking about this idea again, and I've been working out lots of functional details. I still plan to write up a short whitepaper on it sometime, but I just thought of a good title a few moments ago.
"Whuffie Economies: The use of vector-additive algorithms for self-regulating, meritocratic social systems."
Now I just wish I was in grad school so I could have my thesis all ready to go! :-)
If I can get the time I wouldn't mind helping.
I want to say I could help with graphic type things and stuff. But I have a habit of not finishing anything. But I'm going to say I'll help anyway. What's a few hours here and there.
Oh, no worries, this wasn't another request for help (yet) I just tried to think of how to explain it in one sentence, and came up with that. It sounded obnoxiously technical enough that I needed to share it. :-)
Oh yeah I saw it bumped and I figured I'd say that I would help.
Whatever xepher, WHATEVER.
Gwyn, you amaze me!