IMPORTANT - some changes

[koishi]

so i know that practically nobody uses this forum. i was afraid this would happen, so i came up with a few ideas

they may be kinda lame, but my goal here is to try to cut down on the drama in the MMD comunity and have a more tight-knit space where people can be positive and support each other.

so heres what i have in mind:

• i never wanted to do this in the first place, mainly because its a drama-filled place: im considering making a dA group for this forum. i was iffy on doing it because dA is where most of the drama happens, and there's no real way to regulate the behavior of members (no, im not trying to be some kind of dictator here; im more referring to arguments that can pop up in the comments of something. lord do we know how often that happens) i don't want any sort of negativity to get pulled to the group. but i do feel like there would be a bigger audience on dA; it's already a place most people go to anyway, the forum is likely not working out mainly because, like me, its hard to get used to checking a new location every single day. the main hub will still be the forum, a dA group would just be an extension. announcements will be made here and forwarded to the group. for forum-exclusive downloads to work with a group, i thought maybe we could come up with a catch-all password; the password would be posted in the forum exclusive downloads page and all you would have to do to make something exclusively downloadable form the forums would be to use that password. only members of the forum would be able to see it, and you can still post the download on dA where more people will see it and have the download available.
• instead of weekly themes only, i thought about having biweekly (once every two weeks) challenges. the themes will still be a thing (i'll have to start that up again) but the challenges may also provide a different kind of inspiration than themes will. challenges may consist of something like "make an image without using MME" or making a basic walking motion. unlike the themes, the challenges will be specific.
• the poll for the mascot had barely any votes! im pretty sad about that. to make matters a little worse, the poll has been acting strangely; i'm not sure if this behavior affects everyone, but not only can i not get to my own links that i provided for reference, but it seems that if i refresh the page and hover over one of the answers it'll count as me voting. this also seems to give me multiple votes, for whatever reason, which is strange because i specifically set the poll to one vote per user, and that limitation should also be extended to me, regardless of whether i'm an admin or not... i don't think it's really fair, so i may have to remake the poll on an external site to avoid something like this. the low amount of voters also bugs me a little, which brings me back to my first point: if we can get more people interested/involved by expanding to dA, that gives more chances for more voters and a better result for the poll. i loved all the entries, i really did! that's why i feel like more people should see them and cast a vote.

these are only ideas so far, i'd rather get some more input before acting on it. because of the poll issue, the final decision for the mascot is temporarily postponed until i can get some opinions on the matter.

please give me some input, or throw your own ideas at me! i'd love to hear them!

[TotallyPurplePrince]

(Finally got around to joining this group, yay)

Tbh, I really like the thought of pretty much everything here. Concerning dA though, I think that making a group there would bring drama one way or the other? Considering how easily the MMDC starts stuff, if we want a 100% drama free community, I think we should keep this to this forum. However, what we could do is maybe message people that would be interested in joining that also don't want any drama? That way, we can kind of keep it without drama, since we would probably he inviting people we know or that we know don't get involved in drama, and still be expanding the community.

[Carstine]

Sorry, I've been thinking of a reply but I'm having a hard time doing that recently but I'm gonna try my best!

I agree with above poster but I've got a little more say, so let me put my own 2 cents in ;v;! DeviantArt seems to be the only way to gain traction in the community aside from getting popular MMDers to give shoutouts to the group, so it might be a good idea to make a group as an extension. DeviantArt MMDc isn't inherently toxic(imo), it just seems like when there are bad apples, they get thrown into the spotlight and become the new big thing in the MMDc topics to talk/rant/argue about. Shrugging my shoulders here though.

I like the challenges idea! I kept meaning to try and do something for the themes but couldn't seem to get around it (my apologies). I'm always down for trying a challenge or two though!


The only thing I could think of else that we could do is a group chat? One that has logs, messages aren't easily deleted or forged, word filters, and other good group chats things. We could probably have it so people can talk to each other, get feedback (for critiques or questions) faster, and other group chatty things like memes??! (I've only been part of 2 long term group chats so far and I don't know what really goes on in them ;v;)

[koishi]

thanks 4 the responses guys !

TotallyPurplePrince yea the dA community/drama is the main reason i didnt want to make a group, esp since i really dont want some kind of drama happening that cant be kept in control and i dont want to have to add really harsh rules, i really do want a drama-free and more laid back group of people. as carstine said tho, dA would be a good way to get traction, i've posted about the forum in my own journals which might have gotten more attention like 6+ years ago when i was somehow a more "relevant"/actually referred to as popular for some reason MMDer, but since that's no longer the case my own advertisement can only go so far (i still doubt i was ever popular at any point in time, but thats what other ppl told me so..... Weird Happenings My Dude)
the group wouldn't exactly be a move or anything, it'd probably be mainly for announcements and contest entries and the like. all the events will still take place here, the announcements would just be forwarded to the group; on the forum, most people just have to get used to adding a new website in their address bar. for dA, if someone watches th group, they'll get a notification every time something is posted; essentially they'd be like "hey we posted something here some info go to the forum for full details" kinda thing

so yeah im still kinda iffy on the group, but overall i kinda feel like it'd do more good than harm at any rate. if drama gets dragged into the group we can shut that down pretty quickly; like i dont care what users do on their own time with things that aren't related to the group but if they submit something and an argument starts on that particular thing they could be sent a warning or blocked/kicked out altogether. its a lot less control than i have here (which sounds like something out of a dystopian novel but i promise im here 2 help) but i dont think it should be too likely to happen. as far as im concerned most arguments will happen on "illegal " (for the lack of a better word) edits, rants, etc which will be banned from the group anyway. idk im rambling and also i didnt sleep till 6am because im a smart adult

Carstine i agree w u there.... and i dont really wanna pester anyone to be like HEY PROMO MY FORUM bc thats just kinda weird/rude,,,, i feel like a group would have better accessability bc right now the only time the forum gets advertised is when any member posts about it and even then it's mostly narrowed down to whoever watches/follows us or whatev, with a group one person can join, their followers might join, and the people following them mght join, etc etc. but yea i mentioned most stuff above so

thank u! i actually have a few challenge ideas rn but i wanna start gathering them up before i start them up lol,,,

also thats a good idea ! ill have to look for chat sites, i remember using one a long time ago but idk if it had logs.... my friends invited me to a discord room and idk how good discord is but i guess ill test that out firsthand today lol