"...That was it? Seemed lacking today. And yeah, I honestly have to admit, your community is probably better than theO's here. Heck, I can name a bunch of other communities that are better than ours."
Maybe I'm reading too much into that, but it's hardly good PR to see one of the TheO News Team make a comment like that. If you want to see the whole comment string, including the identity of the new team member who posted that, give this article's comments a read (It's the latest podcast episode, go figure - I just read the comments, I don't listen to the show much anymore). What kind of feeling do you get reading that? When I first read it, it hurt, it really did. I've been a member of the community here for several years now (since 2003), and seeing that kind of message from one of the site staff is really quite shocking. The community here is one of the best anime communities online anywhere. That comment seems to beg a question of conflicting interests, to see someone on staff of a site and not have a respect for the community is really something else. I'm still deciding how to respond to that message officially, there's a certain level of tact which must be used when handling delicate things like that. Normally I'd sent a really hot e-mail, but I don't think that would be productive this time. What do you think? How would you respond to that comment? Should I even make something out of it at all? I don't want to start anything major over a little comment, but I don't feel it should go unchallenged either. Spamming the comment thread is not a good idea, that doesn't accomplish anything so I strongly advise against anyone doing that.
Although, maybe that staffer has a point. While browsing the fan manga hub I happened upon member harrassment again, and I report such comments every time I see them, I don't care who makes them. The report links are provided for the reason of raising questions about artwork. That kind of flaming doesn't belong in the comment thread. Is it too hard for people to have the common sense of a brass monkey and use the provided tools to report suspect artwork? How hard is it to click "report" instead of "comment"? Right it's easier to harrass someone and make a spectacle out of ourselves and others to do things the right and honorable way. I know one thing, that kind of flaming should have the stop put to it pronto. I know I think a lot less of someone who posts "You stole this take it down" in a comment thread, I don't think they're great for outing a potential plagiarizer, because they aren't always right.
That said, the few ignorant glory-hound self appointed user mods (something I frown upon strongly - and think should be a violation of the TOS) do not take away the overall warmth of the community here. Even with people flaming others to inflate their own egos, this is a great place to be. Overall there's a lot of good people here, and the good people outweigh those self-interested few easily.
Comments:
Angel Slayer:
I wasn't really trying to be funny, but it if brought you a smile, I'm glad for it. The bad hair day reference was to cover the non-green hair part. If it's any consolation, my ribs have been hurting from the coughing I've been doing.
redmoonchick:
I try to aswer every comment I get to my posts here.
Sessy514:
They don't call it the Windy City for no reason. My Violin teacher was from Chicago. Ooh, do you know anything about Resurrection Mary?
necury:
There might be some more up soon too.
Green's been my favorite color for as long as I can remember.
That's not a bad idea, I think I'll mention it.
Kiki-tink:
It's coming, a little more work and it should be ready.
Thank, you take care too.
timechaser:
You have a sane doctor? Well then, you might try asking about echinacea then. When I was in shcool, that whas the career choice the teachers tried to force on everyone "Oh, the medical field is in such high demand for jobs blah blah blah" it made me sick. A person shouldn't take a job because its going to be in demand or the paycheck is good, if you don't really want to do it, it shows. Once in a while I have a ginseng tea which is good and keeps me going when I need an extra boost (caffeine does nothing for me).
Grapevines would be good to have for the grapes as well as the leaves. If you don't put the Pectin in with grape jelly when you home make it, you get grape syrup which is divine on pancakes. Hm, I am planning an herb garden, maybe I can get a grape plant or two.
Controlled chaos is a wonderful thing.
You won't be finding that scene in RK, but happy reading. My sister was glad to hear that the art was well received too.
Yensid:
Maybe. . . then again, maybe not.
That's a challenge I'd be glad to accept. You know, my first message board username anywhere ever was cosmictraveller on the TechTV message boards, and I had this little blurb about how I chose that username. If I can dig it up I'll post it here, and I'll enjoy the challenge of trying to draw out the image to fit my MyO username.
After you do get that one working, let me know how it is. It may turn out to be too much for me too, but I'm liking the fact that it's a program specific to manga creation and publication. A lot of them digital image manipulator programs have steep learning curves and price tags to match. That's why I'm where I am now, using free software because that's all I can afford.
The layer opacity can be altered in Pixia, but brush hardness/softness can't be altered. Pixia does support the tablet, but it's support is still very basic, so it's not ideal to use the tablet in Pixia just yet, the next build might correct some of those techincal limitations. I have been meaning to learn how to do that layered shading though, and I do still have the .pxa file I colored that in, so I'll play around with it a little and see what I can come up with. After I find a good tutorial on shading with layers. That's some great advice on how I can improve my artwork, thanks.
Shonigoneyes93:
I noticed your site's change, it looks good. I'm half-way between two thems right now, I'm still working on the imagery for the nextg one, but I got the color scheme picked out (That's the greens you see now)
I'm going to retire the Mothman from my theme for a while, I went with him to be different for a while, now I'm getting back on track with who and what I am. The Mothman stories are fascinating, that whole thing back in the 60's was something. For further reading, try John Keel's book, The Mothman Prophecies written in 1975 (the move took the name from the book), you get quite a take on the Mothman, the lights in the sky, the MIB and some other phenomenon that were occuring around the time of the Silver Bridge collapse.
I've missed posts too, and I'm trying to get better at being back to my 100% that I was here back in January. I think AnimeFF followed by the family thing just sapped a lot of energy out of me. I'll be back to myself in no time though, I have been on and visiting sites more and more lately.
Yeah, I am doing good, I hope you are too.
Mamma Vash:
That's a picture I'd love to get. I love a good rain, and I love a good after-rain when everythign has that fresh smell and the leave and flowers practically radiate with their own glows.
All those ideas came from my sister. She really gave me a lot of details on how she wanted the art to look. I couldnt stop laughing when she mentioned the lolipop because I pictured that face right there. I scanned the inked lineart into the computer and colored it digitally because I don't have the right colored pencils to do Yahiko any other way. I wanted to do a colored version for TheO, so I used what I had. Digital coloring isn't scary, but Yensid's advice (posted in last blog entry's comments) would be worth noting.
I heard there's a spring cold going around this year really bad. If the ill party is human (or dragon) try this stuff, it really kept the reins on my cold. The combo of echinacea, Vitamin C, and Zinc seems to work. Granted the flavor, piña colada might not be everyone's cup of tea, I founnd it a refreshing difference to all the mainstays of being sick.
Caprice:
Thanks, and I'll try to have the new theme up soon.
Sure thing, I hope you get some more attention out of that one little blurb I posted. It's a great project.
Thanks for that link, I was tickled pink to see the actual wording I used in the article. It does solidify my opinion of PSP being too high end for me. If they have to complicate simple things by using high-end terms, I know I'm not going to enjoy using the program one bit. For the record, so everyone knows, a Raster layer is a norma image layer (like a jpeg, gif, png etc).
What that does is make the "free" software cost infinitly more than the comercial software. A name is valuable these days, so are e-mail addresses. I'm not going to give that stuff away just to try a program and find out I might not like it anyway.
Shireishou:
I'm with you on that Go Green! Hopefully, I'll have the pictures ready soon.
KanuckGrrl:
That was a collaboration that I hope to be the first of many. We'll have to shoot some ideas around again sometime (when we're both sleep deprived like last time, the ideas are funnier then).
I've got Irish in me too.
Incidentally, Im working on that tea soda, so far green tea and Oolong teas are not workoing out too great, concentrating them makes them bitter, but peach tea is looking to be a hit, and I'm going to try mint soon too. When I have the formula down, I'll post it here for you all to try.
