Messages

You know what you doing.

Every time I heard that song I could have sworn that it was the song from Robin Hood...I didn't figure out that I was right for a while. :B

First of all, your username is your URL. That means no capital letters. This is stated elsewhere on the site, but it seems that someone has to say that in every application anyway. It's like people don't read or something.

Second of all, the application. I'm not a furry myself so I won't judge...at the very least, you have a style that is consistent, which is more than a lot of folks can say. However, Xeph is going to have to see an example website from you at some point, one that you've made for yourself and *not* a DA page. You would also need to know your way around SCP, as that's the only way to upload content to the web space. If you don't know what that is, then you're in trouble.

Overall your application isn't lacking per se, but I'm not sure what having a website that you can't yet even code properly would do for you. If you dislike getting asinine comments on your work most art sites like DA have an option to turn off comments entirely now, and Sheezy Art lets you customize your page from the ground up.

Mostly, I'm just not seeing the point.

Please to not be blatantly advertising for no reason?

Xeph will look at your application when he has time. The rest of us are just the peanut gallery. Either way, posting about it more won't help your chances, and might even make you look a little too pushy.

Santa Cruz is pretty laid back, I like it here. There's UCSC, lots of theatre and art, and some good music comes by once in a while. You've got mountains and redwoods (I'm a mountain girl myself, actually ) twenty minutes away from the beach, it's never too hot or cold...

The only downside? It's freaking expensive to live here. D: Sorry to get your hopes up.

Having just logged on in IE to prove a point, xepher main does not, in fact, block IE8. At least not from my end. Maybe this someone is just misinformed?

What if the forum gets swine flu?

Obviously we'd all die.

Enjoy your vacation, Xeph. I want to kill you and take your place on the cruise so badly right now.

I'm happy because I was recently told a friend of mine was dying...and I woke up this morning to find that he had made a miraculous recovery.

Also because I feel really good about an assignment I finished over the weekend, but mostly that first one.

Okay, so I'm not a nice person. Not in your opinion anyway. I don't sugar coat things to make people feel better, if they are bad at something then I say so. But blaming me for undoing something that took "years of building up" in a matter of minutes is just plain weak. So you had a bad childhood, lots of people have. Mine was actually pretty okay, I won't try to equate it to yours, but all of my problems were strictly internal. I was stupid enough to set the bar ridiculously high for myself as a child, and now I'm just as afraid of failure as you because I'm paranoid that people will think less of me when I do, inevitably, fall. But it was my fault for that, for thinking I had to impress everyone, all the time, just to feel loved. I had to hide who I was and what I felt because I was afraid that people wouldn't like me if they knew (and in some cases I was right, which only made it worse). I kept to the back of the room, I never did anything that grabbed attention, I was always just watching other people live my life for me because I thought that was how you did it. But you know what happened?

I grew up. I got over it. It took years, and lots of friends, and encouragement, and risk, and even that terrible thing called "failure," but I got over it. It's not my fault that you can't get over your past, and it's certainly not my fault that you can't take a beating. I didn't know you, I still don't, but even if I had, I would have said exactly the same things as before. I'm not sorry, and I never will be. Those were things you needed to hear, and you were going to hate those words no matter how politely phrased they were.

There are mean people in the world, and now I'm one of them. I hurt people deeply and thoroughly, because every time I see someone like you who can't even be arsed to really put their heart into something I'm reminded of how stupid I was as a kid. Hell I'm still stupid, and I'm not good at a lot of things, but I use that lack of talent to push myself even harder and take the time and energy to get better. You need to do the same; you need to grow up and get used to being a big girl.

On top of that, you don't even like your own work, apparently. As xepher said, all you were doing was wasting our time, and it does indeed piss me off. I am by no means confident in my work, but at the very least I try to make an effort. It's stated quite plainly in the rules that it's preferred if you have a good sized amount of content ready and waiting BEFORE you apply; you had none. The stuff you did have was not good. Even if I hadn't swooped in and done bad, you would still have been rejected.

You haven't proved to me that I was wrong about you, instead you've proven that I was incredibly right. You don't have the guts to be on the internet, and you don't have the skills for your own website.

I don't expect you to come back and read this, but know that if you keep holding yourself back as you have been, I will not be the last person to do this to you.

[four examples here]

Wow. I don't mean to be harsh, but your "comics" are all kinds of bad. I can understand if you're fairly new to this, but still. It's just really, really bad. I don't...I don't even know where to begin, for once.

Okay, regrouped my thoughts. I'll just start with the first thing that made my eyes hurt: the layouts. the first one is boring, and the second one is just all out confusing. A comic page needs to flow incredibly well, or it will make smart people feel stupid, and stupid people feel incredibly angry for no reason. They do that a lot. Speaking of flow, the dialogue...is also bad. The punchlines are forced, and the characters have absolutely no personality at all. But then again, that may be because I'm only looking at two pages. Then again, after seeing this I almost want these two to be the only ones you have. Again, sorry if I come off as harsh, but I am of the opinion that sugar coating these things will only lead you in the wrong direction. I do want you to succeed, honest. Your plot lines sound fairly intriguing, if you approach them right. But you have no idea what you're doing, and it shows blatantly. I don't even want to talk about the god-awful speech bubbles...okay, maybe a little. They're god-awful. They're not even speech bubbles, they're text encased in half-assed, can't-be-bothered-to-do-a-good-job failure. It is really not that difficult to look up a tutorial for making speech bubbles, in fact it can be incredibly easy. Google is your pal.

And I don't even want to talk about the "art," because that will just make me sound worse. Like a demonic troll who has come from the depths of "teh intarwebs" to eat your soul and crush your dreams with my mighty clawed fist. I'm a nice person, honest! I just think that you need a lot of work. For instance, the only "art" you have is a splotchy wall of color that makes my eyes bleed and a character that looks like you copied Sailor Moon's face and tacked on a body that you got bored with half way through. Okay, so I am going to talk about it. First, the splotchy thing. I have no doubt that it took you a lot of time, but pouring time into something does not make it good. It makes it a waste of time. Second, Sailor Squareboob. I don't mean to assume (after all, it only makes an "ass out of u and me," so they say) but it's obviously copied from someone else's drawing, and not very well.

Then again, who am I to assume to know everything about your artistic talents? after all, there's only four examples here. I don't know if if you looked at some older apps that didn't get in, but at least 90% failed for lack of content. You're creating a website, an entire virtual mansion for people to walk in and wreck up the place, on the off chance that they'll like you. It's hard to wreck someone's place if there's nothing in it to wreck, and hard to like someone for the same reason. Humans are funny like that.

What I'm trying to say is that you need a lot of work. Xepher doesn't give out webspace to every proverbial little kid with a big dream, you've got to prove that you deserve to get the kind of cushy deal he's offering. Hell, I barely got in by the skin of my teeth way back when, but I'll be damned if I didn't try as hard as I could first.

One thing we like to do around here is suggest that people wait another year or so before applying. Hone your skills, get a deviantART and Comic Gen account to get your feet wet, and if this still looks like a good deal to you after you've gotten better and know what you're doing, then come back and see how you do.

If I've pissed you off, sorry, it's what I do. Griever or someone else will come by and make it all better. My self proclaimed job here is to be the nasty Simon Cowell or whatever-the-hell-his-name-is. The devil's advocate, if you will. The bad cop. The...you get the idea.

In other words, I dare you to prove that I'm wrong about you.

On a side note, I didn't even ask you about your HTML skills. Be glad.

I don't get why people keep thinking we're nice here. We're terrible people.

...Well, I'm terrible people anyway.

That aside, I suppose welcomes are in order, so...welcome! I'm going to be the one ripping apart your application, if and when you post it.

I'm going to make this as short and concise as possible, because I don't have a lot of time nor energy at the moment.

1. How many comic pages have you made already?

2. How likely are you to keep working on this? (for example, how much have you planned out and/or scripted, how long have you had this idea, what other long-term projects have you done, etc.)

3. Will the website be ONLY about the comic, or do you intend to put up other art or content of some kind?

4. When is the soonest you can have a mock site made up? (We can't just take your word for it that you can code; we need to see it.)

5. You understand HTML and CSS, but do you know how to use FTP/SSH?

6. We're going to need a lot more than two pages if you want to make it in--at the very least we'd need an entire chapter (or half of one, if they're long) to get a good feel for your application.

That's all I can think of. Have at it.

Gee, thanks for ruining all the happy, Fes. Now we're going to be depressed, which is about as opposite from the thread's original purpose as you can get. :\

HTML is easier, but PHP is better. If you just want a simple website without too much that could go wrong, then HTML is the simpler option. If you want a dynamic website that allows for near limitless customization, including but not limited to visitor participation, then you want PHP, but it's harder to get the hang of, and things can go pretty damn wrong if you don't code it right.

At least, that's how I've always figured it.

Also, "awkward."

1. Google. Seriously. Just put quotations around the webcomic's name ("Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures" for example) and you're good.

2. Under American copyright law, everything you make is automatically copyrighted to you, and only you, the minute you make it. Getting an actual copyright is mostly a formality for legal rights, though I forgot the specifics...something like a person without an official copyright can only sue for damages, while someone who has a copyright can sue someone for everything they're worth. Don't quote me on that, I'm probably wrong. It also varies from country to country, granted, but...I'm American, so you get the American rules.

In short, no.

3. The comic. Everything else is optional. I read great comics that have nothing but the comic archives up and occasional news blurbs when they update; no wallpapers, cool extras, cast bios, or even an about page.

That being said, it's still nice to have extras and more info, especially if the comic is a bit confusing.

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To be honest, I have no idea if this is the right section either. Maybe Know-How Trading Post, Art, or Misc. Content? Meh.

I'm happy because I just made cookies and dressed cupcakes with a new friend that I really like, for a writing club that she's starting.

I'm the vice president now because I make the best damn cookies ever.