I have a suggestion(Please move if in wrong category)

Support Blender Artists Website Support
1

Hello there,

I recently finished a character project for the Blender Guru Competition. Although, I really cant complain about feedback and suggestions, I think that a lot of other projects might appreciate a bigger audience, my next project could.

My suggestion is that the ‘Focused Critique’ is merged with the ‘Work in Progress’ section.

I found it interesting and I had the chance to observe the ‘WIP’, Focused Critique’ and ‘Finished Projects’ sections - most importantly the number of visitors they had at:

7am. - before I go to work
1pm - at my lunch break
6-11pm - after work

The ‘Focused Critique’ section lacks interest, in general. But apart form that few interesting things happened. During the ‘peak’ of the competition, there were more people visiting the ‘WIP’ section than the number of people browsing through the ‘Finished Projects’ section. When the deadline came close and people slowly started to post their work, the number slowly shifted in favor of the ‘Finished Projects’.

“Seem logical to me.” - you might say.

And you would be right. But the fact that the number of people visiting the ‘Focused Critique’, didn’t change at all, tells me that there might be something weird about this section of the forums. I personally want to think that this section lacks efficiency, productivity, resourcefulness. The number of visitors for the last month didn’t change drastically at all, mainly hovering between 7 - 16 visitiors.

I understand that there are a lot of great threads in the ‘Focused Critique’, but those same threads could use more attention and a bigger audience.

This is my personal attempt to contribute to the community, until I am able to contribute in other ways.
This is not an attempt for drama. It is my personal feedback and it is open for discussion or consideration.
I have other suggestions but don’t want to make the post too long.

A apologize if it is posted in the wrong thread and for any grammatical errors.

Edit:

Current number of visitors:

WIP -54

Focused Critique- 10

Finished Projects- 79

2

Moved from “Misc: > Off-topic Chat” to “Support > Blender Artists Website Support”

3

Interest in the Focused Critique Forum comes and goes. We seem to be at a low point right now.

WIP and Focused Critique are separate because many people posting in Work in Progress are only interested in showing off their latest work, and some get very offended if that work is criticized.

The Focused Critique section is for people who realize that nit-picking and outside criticism is a good thing.

If we combined them, we would only have to separate them again in a year or two.

4

Allow me to disagree with you. Actually what you said, leads to my next suggestion.

I don’t think it is that hard for people to learn to change the title name of their posted thread. I did exactly this.

After I was pretty much done applying my skills to create the character, I reached a point where some feedback and suggestions would really help me go forward. I simply edited the title name of my thread to " Cycles tips welcomed". Since it was the first time I was going to make a Cycles render any kind of help would be useful to me.

When I felt I was almost done, again, I changed the title to " Finishing touched. Suggestions welcomed."

About people getting offended, I think if a small update is made in the “Read this before posting” thread, mainly updating few rules and general code of conduct, and people understand how a new eventual ‘blended’ WIP might work, this wont be a problem.

Another simple way is to just place some kind of icon(annotation, emoticon of sorts), that will distinguish the current stage of a hypothetical project.

I think one of the constant things on these forums is the lack of interest towards the ‘Focused Critique’ section.

Current number of visitors:

53 Finished Projects

1 Focused Critique

44 WIP

At the time of editing the message, current number of visitors:

70 FP

3 Focused Critique

40 WIP

5

Your suggestion regarding updating thread titles is a good one. I will keep that in mind for my own future projects.

But I think expecting everyone to read and follow sticky guidelines is somewhat naive. If they did, we would have no need of moderators.

What would you say to a good artist who still wants to improve, whose Work-In-Progress thread would quickly fill with repetitive pages of fan-boy posts? Fan-boy posts are discouraged in Focused Critique, but are pretty common in some W-I-P threads. Would you ban them in W-I-P so the advice wanted threads do not become cluttered? Set up a “Showcase Only” forum for people who only wanted applause rather than advice for improvement?

Focused Critique serves a purpose, or can serve a purpose, if people choose to use it.

You have noticed that the community seems to be more interested and active in the Work-In-Progress forum these days. I don’t think you’ve made a case for abolishing Focused Critique.

6

But I think expecting everyone to read and follow sticky guidelines is somewhat naive. If they did, we would have no need of moderators.

Agreed.

Focused Critique serves a purpose, or can serve a purpose, if people choose to use it.

I think people right now chose not to use it.

You have noticed that the community seems to be more interested and active in the Work-In-Progress forum these days. I don’t think you’ve made a case for abolishing Focused Critique.

Although it was just a realization I made, and although it really helped me with my project, I have to agree with you that my case is not enough to prove my point, neither are my observations for the past month. Could be coincidence, could be a fluke.

One thing is for sure, I will definitely continue to follow my own example. If it helps me improve, that is all the reason I need.

Current number of visitors:

59 FP

6 Focused Critique

41 WIP