With every convention I go to, I try to get a gauge for how artists in particular feel about the site as a whole. Perhaps fans may feel this to be unfair, as I don't have a tendency to go out of my way to ask them how they feel about consuming said productions. Nonetheless, I feel the producers of the artwork of any community play an extremely pivotal role in fostering the base of the community as a whole.

Though as we've known here at Weasyl for a while, it takes a whole lot more than just having a featureful and functional site to keep things going. While I certainly understand and sympathize with the why's behind so many of you jumped to Weasyl-- and am very much humbled at your choice of alternative-- I don't feel it's sufficient to keep you based simply on being the alternative to a place where one feels uncomfortable or unwelcome. To simply exist as the "alternative" to something which has more or less soured and discomforted folks will create a lingering spectre. The dark cloud of the prior community will hover, and as a result, slowly creep back in, only to repeat history once more.

Community is very important at Weasyl. We have a formal PR department, but sometimes I eschew this department specifically to put some semblance of a personal face on the site. It's sort of upsetting when a giant, faceless entity comes in to ask you questions about your usage and data. It feels insincere. Having someone actively ask questions and indulge in curiosities, however, is a very personable experience that helps folks feel like someone cares. It allows them to open up and truly divulge their honesty regarding what they feel should or should not be done.

So on top of doing some interesting investigating after the DDoS attack on Weasyl during the convention-- which was hilarious, because I don't recall doing as much hacker-related things as I've done this weekend even during a convention such as DEFCON-- I went around and did my usual thing, wandering about and asking questions when I can. This is the takeaway I got from this weekend:

• The thumbnails are irritating. Ultimately, I'm still of the personal opinion that the true problems with the system stem from a lack of common knowledge regarding cropping. Nonetheless, in discussions with the director of another artistic project, she mentioned the primary issue with why the cropping system is so irritating: it adds an extra step. From what it sounds like, it makes it very difficult to upload things in batches, as one must spend the time to properly crop the image as desired. Suggestions were made as to how to both personalize the generated thumbnails as well as optimize the process, so great progress was made there on what to do to thumbnails. As we try to do with most of our features, details will be offered when the feature is complete.
• Artists want to do business. Even with the outburst of emotions that came with this new rush of users-- and so many artists sharing similar sentiments-- they feel tied down due to the fact that all their business is conducted on other sites. The obvious answer here is to try and create a means by which an economy can be built into the community.

The common stuff also came up, too-- irritation with the tagging system, for example. Various tweaks and whatnot are on the way, however. Worry not. We're listening. :)

Thanks to everyone for all the support, too, regarding how they felt about the site. While we pay attention to our critics and what they have to say, it's still quite wonderful to hear the outpouring of praise and support we receive for our capabilities on how we manage the site on the technical side of things as well as the social side of things. There are always problems and always kinks to work out. We appreciate your patience and understanding.