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How Can We Grow Weasyl? Director Journal by Ziblie
Signal-boosting this discussion journal made by one of the site directors here on Weasyl:
https://www.weasyl.com/journal/44078
Discussion topics:
- What do you feel is the strongest draw to Weasyl currently? Additionally, what do you feel is the weakest that could be improved upon?
- What sorts of artistic-related events do you enjoy participating in? Additionally, what sorts of events would you like to see us host?
- What improvements do you feel could be made in order to help bring a more diverse and populated, permanent community here on Weasyl?
Let's all go comment :)
Journal Information
- Views:
- 629
- Comments:
- 37
- Favorites:
- 1
- Rating:
- General
Comments
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Hahaha. I understand your frustration, believe me.
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The plan is simple: we kill FA. ''
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We kill the Batman.
I think FA will self-destruct eventually, but to bring people to Weasyl of their own volition rather than just as an "FA sucks" would be ideal.
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Unfortunately, that's really all that it is going to take. If the latest debacle didn't make the userbase leave, the only way they will is if they simply don't have access to FA indeterminately. The fandom is so hardened to drama anymore that they just ignore any kind of conflict for any reason.
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Honestly, I think that if WZL had been quicker on the ball with implementing some of the key features they were missing at the time (hiding comments especially), and if they'd had features that FA didn't that people really wanted, then there would have been a lot more people staying with the site.
So I think it's a good thing that they are looking at these features now... It's too late for the last exodus, but with the way FA is, there'll be another one eventually, and if the new, wanted features get put in, then WZL might have staying power when the time comes.
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I don't really want FA to die. Having alternatives is always a good thing, because no site, not even Weasyl, is going to stay around forever. Right now, the reason people are on FA pretty much begins and ends with, "because everyone else is", and this is a very good reason if you're trying to do business. However, none of this is immutable. VCL used to be the go to site for the fandom, until FA achieved a certain critical mass.
I think stability is the biggest thing for me. The nicest interface in the world is of absolutely no use if the site isn't up. Weasyl seems to have been pretty good so far, though how it would fare with FA levels of traffic remains to be seen. Banner ads would be a good feature, both for providing revenue to keep the site running, and it tells artists that this is a place you can do business.
The ability to create special interest groups like on FA would be a big plus. I'm not sure a single Weasyl "community" is all that necessary, but the ability to have lots of smaller communities would be a draw.-
Let's put it this way... I really dislike FA right now. I think its admins are beyond scummy, and its coding doesn't have holes so much as it* is* a hole.
But I don't want FA to die.
There are tons of brilliant and awesome people on FA. I don't want that to go away and I don't want to take down a site just because it's a "competitor" or whatever. No-- I just want FA to change. If there were different and better admins, if the site was run competently, and if the coding wasn't backwater terrible, I'd have zero problems and would be happy to use the site in addition to Weasyl.
Currently I still use FA for the community of people I enjoy and for the business it brings in, but if I could have those things without the ball-and-chain that is FA's administration (both people and actions), I would do so in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, I don't see FA's admins, or their treatment of their users, or the quality of the coding changing anytime soon.* So with that in mind, I'd like to help build up the community on a site whose administration do care, who do run their site competently, and who take pains to not be vile.
*(Yeah, they have Project Phoenix "on the go", but frankly, I've had a useless screencap dangled in front of me, only to wait months and months with no further word or progress, one too many times to believe a word of any of it.)
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...I was thinking making a comment like this, but I didn't wanna be mean. LOL Thx for saying it for me. xDD;;
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I honestly think time will heal all wounds.... A lot of furs stuck in their ways will stick with FA. As of right now, I get all my commissions and such on there, so until I have a following here that is acceptable, I kind of live on both. But unless the mods of FA pull their heads out their asses and step up, especially now that they have such great competition, FA will fall..... in all honesty, my prediction is the mods of FA just eventually ditch it and the site just isn't available anymore and people will have no choice but to come to Weasyl lol.
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Nah, I think the FA mods enjoy their thrones too much to ditch it entirely. Where else could they get all the attention they're getting right now? But I really do think they're going to run it into the ground. They've already done a lot of questionable and outright vile things in a very short timespan. It's only a matter of time until they do more.
My hope is that eventually, once WZL gets its feet under it, people will start coming here because it's a better site and not just because it's not FA.
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I agree Weasyl is a much better site. Just wish I had the following here that I have on FA, then ditching it wouldn't be a problem. But the majority of my income comes from art and I'm a homeowner so... unfortunately, gotta go where I'm makin the most cash. >_<
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Yep, I sympathize :c I have bills to pay off and while I'm going to do everything I can to bias myself towards WZL, I don't know if I'll be able to make it without FA's userbase. Which is why I'm particularly glad they're asking for feedback for new features! This site growing will be excellent, because then I can ditch FA forever. u_u
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I guess I should clarify in case people come over here and get offended... Most of the people on FA are all right. Which is why I want them over here on Weasyl! But man, FA's staff and downtime and coding holes. Man. That's what I'd like to ditch.
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Oh yes I agree. The users are not the problem, it's the shitty website layout and the admins.... just.... terribad.
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I think we need to get people to get commissions from artist who are here on Weasyl. Then artists will have an incentive to come to Weasyl, which will give non-artists a reason to come to Weasyl.
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I strongly agree with this one. If we coupled commissions with a community that was well known for providing constructive feedback, be it through critique or quality commentary about submissions, I think allot of artists would be encouraged to make a main gallery here.
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Indeed! gives the good little rattie a chocolate biscuit
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As a writer, I like that they have a separate section on the frontpage to feature new stories and the "submissions requesting critique" is a good idea too and a way to actually help artists and writers IMPROVE their craft. I also like that one can display their commission status on their userpage very easily. However, just like FA, Weasyl seems to be heavily artist-focused, so a writer like myself often feels left out of the total Weasyl experience.
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Yeah, it seems writers are definitely left wanting. A lot of writers have left feedback on the journal though, so hopefully they'll work to make writing a more included artform! I really like to browse the literature and poetry on DA so to have something like that on WZL would be great.
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I'd say I love the character thing, but perhaps the ability to connect art and stories to a character page, or even a 'character journal' for stories written about a character would be neat!
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Oh, second idea. A way to search for artists accepting commissions! So even if you're not following an artist, you can still stumble across them easy when you want to get a commission. I'm sure the lesser known artists may enjoy a feature like that.
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I really like it over here, I just find the site is a little nicer and more pleasant to actually browse through and use.
I'm just very quiet when it comes to commenting/discussions u_u;
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Aheh yeah. I understand, I prefer to be quiet too. But the site (and its non-douchebaggery) is important enough to me that I'm trying pretty hard. u_u;
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The only thing that is really frustrating on this site is that submissions have tiny, cropped thumbnail previews -.-
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Honestly, at this point I think it's a matter of giving it time to grow really. We've done about most of everything we can think of ( raffles, exclusive discounts/commissions). It's still just a year old, and I imagine within the next two years it will only get bigger, and all things considered, for a beta it's doing very well! I really adore this site and I really dig the folders and over all organization. Staff is wonderful.
As for things in improvement, I can't think of anything at the top of my head, but I admit I don't like how other users can edit your tags. I THINK they adjusted it where they at least can't remove your tags? Still, I admit I'm not a fan of the idea of adding tags to your submission, as this can turn abusive ( for example, people tagging my small-breasted women as cub). If they did change/adjust this, then disregard my comment completely lol.
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I don't think other users can remove tags you add yourself, but I honestly don't know. I do know that it notifies you when someone updates your tags so if you don't like something you can remove it easily enough.
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Thanks for the tip! I have posted my feedback there!
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Awesome! :D
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You know. I see much comparison between "website wars" and "console wars". Is interesting sort of tribalism among people of our age. You must like one but not another. Must belong to one group, not another. You can like more than one thing at a time! That said. Mai thinks that Weasyl has a far better layout than other webpages. Much better comment section. Much better notification system. However that is the goal of making new thing yes? Is better than the old one! Improvement! Weasyl just functions better. Mai gives +1 Panda Points.
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Heh, that's an interesting point. Mind you I suppose that kind of thing has been everywhere for a very long time, it's just that now it's been added to consumerism.
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Im just going to take a chance of alot of people jumping in my face on this, but I find WZL hard to navigate. I had to log in 2 times just to comment here. Some people wont come because they dont know WZL real well.
Anyway Im not an artist, I draw but I havent put up anything.-
Nothing wrong with stating that -- thank you for saying so! Since WZL is difficult for you, I'll post a comment on the other journal on your behalf. :) If you could let me know what makes it difficult to navigate that would be great though. Other people have mentioned that it takes too many clicks to get anywhere -- is it the same problem?
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Link
clubsofmeloncholy
Get people to stop having an ignorant point of view on moving to a new site that will better peoples lives?