http://mechapixel.com/forums Mechapixel is a photoshopping and entertainment hole in the net. We feature photoshop contests and pudding. Photoshop is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Inc. en Sun, 05 Sep 2010 08:50:40 GMT vBulletin 60 http://mechapixel.com/forums/images/fcb_images/misc/rss.jpg http://mechapixel.com/forums http://mechapixel.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7119&goto=newpost Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:16:27 GMT I need to get some things off of my chest. Things that have been nagging at me and things that were a large part of why I took so long to take the... I need to get some things off of my chest. Things that have been nagging at me and things that were a large part of why I took so long to take the leap into working on Mechapixel again.

To be completely honest, losing the largest portion of the site contributors back in 2007 fucking crushed me and I'm still not happy about how some of those things were handled -- in part due to the staff treating certain people horribly in the public forums (rather than acting professionally and biting tongues over any differences). Even if members like Grabthar had odd concerns with the tournament and the voting, they could have been resolved more civilly, but instead we (and by we I do mean the staff as a whole, even if some were worse than others) just took a huge steaming shit on him and others. As a result of that fiasco, we lost our most prolific contributor in terms of contest suggestions, and second most in terms of graffiti entries next to Aarkie, and a whole bunch of others who rightfully thought we handled the concerns poorly. When I looked at contests from 2005-2007, which was when Mecha was at its peak, I saw mostly Grabthar/footshot/toadslick/HBF/etc leading the way in entries, not PWA Veterans, who aside from Aarkie and Chuck, had all but stopped photoshopping by 2007.

It was a huge mistake, and at this point all we can do is learn from it and not repeat it in the future. That said, if we don't find new aspiring photoshoppers to help breathe life into contests, the site is going to be in trouble, in my eyes.

The man hours I've spent coding and am spending coding once again is just goddamn staggering. When I get into it, I can and often do spend literally 40-50 hours in a week (mostly over the weekend) working on the site, in addition to holding a full time job with an hour+ commute. No it's not really healthy, and no I don't care. I also don't care about monetary compensation for the time spent coding; I do it because it's fun, and I like creating things for others enjoyment (photoshops, web apps, whatever). My reward for doing it is seeing a lot of people use the things that I build, and enjoy the features. I do appreciate all of the applause in the forums, and this may be a shitty thing to say, but seeing people actually USE the features I build means 10x more to me than a pat on the back.

And now to the meat of this post:

The contests are starting to come back, and soon the moment of truth will arrive. I've had a lot of fun working on the site over the past 3 weeks but I've had a nagging feeling that it will all be for nothing, that maybe you guys just really only want a forum to hang out in and be able to talk, and it doesn't matter how much time is dedicated to anything else on the site other than the forums.

I know you all care about Mechapixel because you kept coming back, even when the site went down last year in May. Even when there was nothing at all in June. Even when there was only a shitty default vBulletin board set up from last July until this month. I got bummed out and started started flaking out in 2007, yet you guys kept coming, checking the site to see what was going on. In 2008 several of you even tried to keep the contests going with entries, even though your site owner was MIA. Then after many attempts, this summer Kokopelli got me to finally make a decision regarding the site, and I decided to get involved again because I had actually been missing photoshopping, the contests, and all the many good times we had here in the past.

I just want to feel like this isn't all for nothing, because you know what, if the past is any indicator, I'll see people SAY they want something (such as the old site and contests back), and then when they get them they won't do shit with them. It has happened before, and my fear is it will happen again. I hate to be so pessimistic, but I just need to be proven wrong. This is why Mechapixel constantly needs new blood; old members can't be expected to carry all the burdens related to filling the site with content.

Again, I know you guys all care about the site, and I need you to show it by helping to spread the word once Mecha is open. I'm not talking about paid advertisements, just things like posting links to Mecha photoshops here and there, submitting old contests to link sites (Digg, delicious) or better yet, social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter. Things like that. If you really do care about Mechapixel, please try to think of ways to help make it grow. It's something that will be CRITICAL to its success, and something very important to me personally.

We need new visitors, and by that I mean people who come to Mecha for some reason other than posting spam. 99% of the "Guests" you see browsing the forums right now are from China, and I guarantee you they don't give a shit about photoshop contests.

Thanks for reading. ]]> Announcements Ved http://mechapixel.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7119 http://mechapixel.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6944&goto=newpost Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:33:14 GMT I saved some ideas that you guys had for the site back in 2008, and I hope we can implement some of them soon: * Photography contests (probably... I saved some ideas that you guys had for the site back in 2008, and I hope we can implement some of them soon:

• Photography contests (probably using the graffiti "checkbox voting")
• Promoting Mechapixel via Flickr -- which Lucian did set up here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/mechapixel/
• Forced Participation: pair up random active site users for Faceoffs, give them a theme, give them a month to do it. I don't know about this, maybe?
• Make Aarkie's Corner (SFW) more prominent, and at the risk of turning into a Fark clone, encourage others to post weird news and display the last 10 or so on the main homepage? There has to be a way to do this without requiring constant moderation to weed out the bad ones, like Fark requires.

I used to be a big fan of pursuing strengths as a web community, so it's probably time to evaluate what Mecha's strengths were over the years. Photoshop contests were a no-brainer, but what else?

Here are my own ideas:

Design
More modern overall design, and less pastel colors (I was really fond of those, as seen on the old contests page). It was clean, but the problem is it was kind of boring. Voice your opinions on the old site design, because if most people liked it then I might not change it up much. One feature I'm considering is a lightbox effect for entries - see example here

Homepage
Latest threads box on the homepage, similar to how we had the latest threads window on the forums home. Keep up to date on what's happening in the forums with just a glance at the homepage.

I'm not sure about having thumbnails for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place of each contest on the homepage, as we used to have. It's probably a good thing to retain, because who doesn't like to see their entry on the homepage, but it looked bad when we had contests with 2 entries. So exactly which features will be displayed on the homepage is still up in the air, and I'm open to ideas.

Voting Jury
No more voting jury. No more select group of people who have more powerful votes than others. This causes drama. However, weighed votes are important because someone might have a grudge or be high as a kite, and come along and vote entries a "1" or a "10" completely at random over multiple contests, thus greatly skewing results. This can and has happened.

My idea for a solution is to introduce VotingBalls(tm)*: weighed voting for everybody. Your voting power is automatically adjusted in very slight amounts after every contest you vote on, based on how far away from average you were on each entry (not counting your own influence). Higher Balls results in your votes in future contests being worth more, lower Balls means your votes make less of an impact. Your balls would only affect slags, and would be private and remain hidden to anyone but yourself.

* actual name TBA

Contests
As mentioned, Photography contests are a wildly popular idea and will be added. Volleybattles will either be overhauled or thrown out completely. They require so much time invested, they just never picked up, so I need opinions on how they can be improved or perhaps simplified, if at all.

We need to reduce the frequency of contests a bit once things get rolling again, just while the site is getting back on its feet. This means instead of a Daily Graffiti, they will be every other day or every third day or something. Slags initially will be at least 1 week apart. Back in the day we always adjusted the frequency of Slags based on how active things were on the site; for example, they varied from every other day to once a week. We'll need to do that again.

I'll probably send out a single email to all site members once contests are open again, just to let them know the site is back and a bit different now.


Please use this thread to post what you would like to see added, removed, or changed on Mechapixel. Now is the best time to give your input, since I've got an open template and we need a new gameplan! ]]> Announcements Ved http://mechapixel.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6944 http://mechapixel.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6924&goto=newpost Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:41:34 GMT A couple people have asked about this and since I have no shame, I added a Paypal link on the left side if anyone was actually wanting to help out a... A couple people have asked about this and since I have no shame, I added a Paypal link on the left side if anyone was actually wanting to help out a little bit with hosting.

But wait! Read on before doing anything like that. I want to be very clear about some things because I'd love it if the site started paying for itself again, but I feel awkward in asking for anything so soon. I am just now starting to be a responsible site owner again, and I don't blame you guys if you are weary that the site might just go neglected again. I don't have any plans on letting that happen, but I do feel guilty for neglecting this community over the past year.

Anyway here is a disclaimer:

• The hosting we currently have at JaguarPC costs 1/4 of what it used to (and as such we have much more limited resources). Hosting is only $30 base per month now, so it won't take much in terms of donations to cover the cost. I've footed the bill for the most part for the past year (with the exception of a couple of $10-20 donations from kind people who helped despite Mecha being nothing more than a generic forum).
  
  
• The site is NOT in danger of being shut off. This is not a "save Mechapixel" plea. I'm putting up a donation link to cover hosting costs, but I will find a way to pay it if need be. That way being, it is paid at the beginning of the month out of my paycheck, since I actually have the money to do so.
  
  
• Again, it only costs $30 per month currently. If you do want to donate, it doesn't need to be much. If you don't, that's perfectly fine.
  
  
• Donations do not gain you extra services (at this time); all you receive is my thanks and love for helping with the site.
  
  
• Several people had active Mecha+ subscriptions when the site went down last year. I kept track of those people and how long they had remaining on their M+, and once contests are running again and there is something tangible to offer, I will reinstate their subscriptions. It won't be for a while, but it won't be forgotten.

So that's it! Thanks to all of you for sticking around, and I look forward to getting all the goodies we used to enjoy back online. ]]> Announcements Ved http://mechapixel.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6924 http://mechapixel.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7096&goto=newpost Sun, 08 Aug 2010 00:48:11 GMT Mechapixel...]]> This post and several that follow were split off from the Mechapixel Overhaul Updates thread on 8/23/2010. This was done in order to separate progress reports on the main site and the forums, since both areas will be undergoing quite different and quite extensive changes.

--------------------------------

First off tonight, I'm adding banners to the forums. The forums skin (colors, design) will change quite a bit down the road, but this should help add a quick personal touch back to them.

You can see all of the old banners here:

• Normal Banners
• Friday Banners

And bonus PWA Anniversary banners: http://mechapixel.com/img/murals/anniversary/ ]]> Announcements Ved http://mechapixel.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7096 http://mechapixel.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6718&goto=newpost Sun, 08 Aug 2010 00:44:39 GMT Hi, I will post stuff here as it becomes ready for testing, and I'll just keep a general log of things. Feel free to comment (post in this thread) if you wish; feedback is wonderful.

The overhaul will be a long process but hopefully this thread will keep everyone informed. Subscribe to this thread if you are interested in what is happening to the site under the hood.


August 23 2010:

This thread now relates primarily to the non-forum areas of the site. For forum additions and updates, see this thread.

If you find ANY broken links or images elsewhere on Mechapixel, please report them in this thread below. ]]> Announcements Ved http://mechapixel.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6718