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It’s starting to smell a lot like Nabyn up in here. by Swanda
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Forever Beta V.2
And the silence, the silence so loud it hurts.
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Comments
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It's not so much what FA have to do wrong, but what Weasyl have failed to do right. The site was taking off really well... but then a whole lot of nothing.
As I've said on the forums before; There is literally No reason to stay on weasyl aside from "At least it's not FA/DA", and that is a hella weak selling point.Also I hardly think the general art thing + a lot of furries is a problem. If the selling point was strong enough such smaller details wouldn't matter on either side of the board.
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Please not again
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I hardly have the heart to hope the staff will prove me wrong.
Haha, no hope left in me. Looking how the staff page have been shrinking for a while now..
And how no news have been made… yeah It's Beginning to look a lot like Nabyn.
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I've considered trying to do less on FA, but when it comes to "not FA" most people seem to like Weasyl while I prefer InkBunny, but most folks find FA just fine. It's not hard for me to keep up on all three, but some artists just hate doing multiple sites. So do some non-artists. As a watcher, I go where the artists go, but some just refuse to follow artists that they like.
So what can you do? Most folks have no reason to leave FA. Weasyl could add a dozen different features, but people won't leave because they're on FA and it works (enough of the time) for them.
Weasyl's been doing some small updates here and there. Their developer account on Twitter just announced some in-testing changes, but it does seem like things are slow going. And even if new updates came out regularly, again, I don't see that pulling people away from FA. What kind of killer feature would do so?
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I'm pretty sure the reason why many prefer Weasyl over Inkbunny, despite the nice site, is that Inkbunny allows cup and is frankly overrun with it, while Weasyl don't.
It is one of those things that makes some super uncomfortable, and/or that they simply refuse to have their art associated with such a site.Point is that Weasyl already have a lot of nice features; problem is that none of them feel like they are even halfway finished.
And then there are the things that are just plain wrong in the sites design. Yes I'm looking at you, tiny ass square thumbnails who fail to do their only function... Displaying art. No really, I've seen sites with ICONs of that size, and that is how fully finished art pieces are displayed around the site? It's bad, really really bad.
I mean sure, the site looked nice with the rows of square thumbnails you had to mouseover to read name and artists of. But it is just failing miserably at displaying art, which is sort of the thing the site exists to do. Fixing that will bring the site a hella long way forward, imo.
Also, why is there -still- no Previous/Next buttons in the galleries?
And there is no "Display Full picture" on the site either. You'll have to hit download for that.. and eeh it doesn't really feel right.
Weasyl kinda really fail in basics of displaying visual art.The collections idea is rad, and it could work really well in showing watchers and art buyers that Weasyl appreciate their presence on the site. Which is something I know matters a lot. However... In it's current state the collection funktion feels more like an insult really. A glorified Favourite, because you're not worthy of displaying the art you bought on even semi-equal terms as those you bought it from.
And quite frankly I could go on for ages about the things that are there, but doesn't really work as intended and/or feel half finished.
But I won't, it's a waste of my time, when in the end it all boils down to "Forever beta"
And it will simply never feel attractive to leave a site with a big and active community for one that feels half finished in every way and manner.Also the fact that you have to go hunting for any kind of information about what's going on behind the scenes is annoying the ever living shit out of me.
I like that they were at least trying to give some sort of monthly update. But that hasn't happened in some time now. Thing is; such small things makes the beta state more bearable, as it feels like the staff are still engaged in and excited about their project.-
Mm. Maybe post suggestions on the forum?
"Also, why is there -still- no Previous/Next buttons in the galleries?"
They did just add the ability to use the arrow keys to go to the next/previous submissions in a folder. So there's that.
"I'm pretty sure the reason why many prefer Weasyl over Inkbunny, despite the nice site, is that Inkbunny allows cup and is frankly overrun with it, while Weasyl don't."
Yet people never left FA when it allowed cub art. They readily joined up when it was there. If people keep refusing to join InkBunny because of the cub art, of course it's going to appear to be a lot, since those that do non-cub art don't post there. Bit of a catch-22. Ah well.
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Why? Its not really like there is all that much response to get in there either.
Honestly the best bet would be to go on that draned IRC and talk with the tech directly.
Sadly I don't like chats, not even in the slightest, so that is not going to happen.
Yet another disconnect between staff and users, yey.Well you have been able to kinda shift through the folders via the small thumbnails in the right corner in a long while. Upgrading that to an arrow fucktion is really not what I'm looking for. A Prev/Next arrow-set in the Root folder is mainly what I ask for. It is like THE most basic art browsing feature since forever, and.. yeah, we get a half-finished feeling version, that doesn't really work as intended. Back to my point I guess.
The thing with the adult cub art is that a great portion of the FA userbase were very unhappy with it being there... There simply wasn't anywhere for those users to go within the fandom, where the Adult cub wouldn't follow. So they might as well stay. I actually think this was very visible by how many of those unhappy people RAN BACK to FA from IB, when the adult cub ban were put in place. In this particular case it's really not so much about the quantity of it ( but it really doesn't help though), as that it’s there at all. It might be a fantasy to those who draw it, but it is a frighteningly real thing to others.
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The silence is not made better by the fact that the site updates that're most sorely needed would be super easy to implement because it's just modifications of features that already exist. Talking about the thumbnails and the missing next and previous links here, among other things.
What are they even doing anyway? I don't know if the whole development team just left, or if they started doing the Nabyn thing where grandious ideas take priority over fixing what's already goddamn there.Whatever. As I always say, I'll stick with DeviantART. I can't keep up with all these art sites anyway.
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I don't know enough about coding or their code to say whether it'll be an easy fix or not.
That said it smells a lot like Nabyn up in here... And I think Making something grand and big is taking priority, sadly.
And yes the silence reaaaally is the biggest mood killer.. Like are they even there at all?!Urhg, DA... I'm having a hard time engaging myself in that site for some reason.
Perhaps I just feel more comfortable in smaller communities, dunno.-
I don't know what their code looks like either, but generally speaking it shouldn't be very hard to take a block of code from one place and implement it somewhere else. Take the next/previous links - They already have that feature with the "More in folder" links under every submission. Change the scope to all the user's submissions and make simple text links or whatever instead of thumbnails, move it and add some styling - tadah, there you have it.
As for the thumbnails, they mainly need a script to automatically resize and make thumbnails out of the images users upload. This is another feature they already have - The square thumbnails you're forced to make are resized just as any other thumbnails would be. However, the problem here lies more in the site's design. I can see how it'll require more planning, since they need to completely rewamp the way thumbnails are displayed to make it look nice.
But hey, there are plenty of image gallery sites to draw inspiration from and at this point I'm just like... who cares if the design is final and perfect on the first try? Getting the functionality out there is more important imo. None of this is rocket science so come on.So yeah, I don't know where the hell they are or what they're spending their time on, if they're spending time on the site at all.
I annoys me endlessly when people are all ideas and no results. I'm generally not much of an idea person myself, I'm a get shit done person, and you need people like that too! You can't have a team where everyone's coming up with new stuff and not doing anything about the old stuff, so for the sake of future Weasyl i sincerely hope that isn't the case. That would indeed be "pulling a Nabyn".Well, DA's user base is huge and that will always be kind of alienating, but for me it's first and formost an image gallery and that's what I want so fine. The site itself is a lot more solid than these increasingly fumbling furry sites full of furry art that I don't care about anyway. Plus there are a lot of really cool artists and people making stock photos and resources and whatnot that you sure as hell aren't going to find here.
And I mean it, I really can't keep up with art sites at the moment, so if I have to keep up with something, DA it is. Who knows, maybe we'll all slowly dissapear from Weasyl in the future and then no way I'm going back to FurAffinity.-
Oh, not arguing that DA works for what it is! They know they are a art gallery so art is in focus, always, and that is really freaking awesome.
As said in a comment above, one of Weasyls biggest problems is that it fails horribly at displaying visual art. Blurhg.
And they are really not alone in it either. I spend some time yesterday looking at other small art sites, and most of them are SO busy with looking hip and snazzy that they fail at doing what they are meant to. Others are just completely dead. What, what is Anipan?Da on the other hand, for me at least, really fails at building a community feel. Which is probably a big part due to its size.
I love to sit and get to know people, and that just feels more natural on most of these fumbling furry sites.-
Does Anipan exist anymore?
The only real community building activities on DA are the ones people have got up and running themselves. Like the rare group that's not just collecting artwork or various art tournaments. But as a platform, is it really that much different from here? It's always a matter of following some people and making conversation. You're right, though, size does take the cozyness out of it.
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Nah Anipan is pretty freaking dead, which was le point.
Myeah, probably just the size killing the DA social I guess?
I mean, on smaller sites like this or even FA I could talk with the same person all across the site, without either of us actually following each other. And isn't that what a real Community is like? Familiar faces popping up here and there, and there is always someone who knows that person via someone else : P -
Oh look! Da wanna play half way FB - http://skulldog.deviantart.com/journal/Wow-Deviantart-482628204
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the maleable community here still holds the options i preffer over dA and FA. something not gross.
so far even if its quieter, it sure is cleaner.-
Assholes will always be around no matter where you go.
But YES it is nice that the staff doesn't turn the blind eye to it or worse; hire them as part of the team!
And quite frankly I don't mind a smaller site with less traffic. That isn't what I'm whining about.
Hell Nabyn still have semi to fully active users after Years of neglect from the owner. No kidding, people are still asking for invites!What I am whining at, is the lack of Much needed improvements/the never ending Beta stage.
And even more so I'm sad to never really see the staff engage in their own site... Unless its to sort out drama-ish problems.-
yeah. i think it just has to do with age. the beta breach can be hard when there's huge competition, and a kosher staff. kosher takes time, so its just a waiting game i suppose.
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Well the waiting doesn't need to be going on in silence. Honestly the almost disinterest in the site from staffs side is disheartening.
It also gives me the feel that they'll up and leave without saying a word... Again that Nabyn feel.-
tru tru. rallying in such a community [artists with online galleries] that has had an odd history with space, voice and networking is super difficult. solidarity in the face of people who seem like they aren't as invested as one would like is proving difficult.
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truth... :c
Link
Sludgetown
I was hoping this place would take off after the mass exodus from FA, but I've seen people start to go back there because there's no other place for them to get commissions. ): I don't know what FA would have to do at this stage for the majority of users to properly leave.
I think part of the problem is that Weasyl is meant to be a general art site like dA, but it's become pretty much a furry site. Which is no bad thing in itself, but may have put off potential users.