Pixelation Blog [Opinions needed!]

[Indigo]

Hello, this has been an idea discussed for quite a while in the mod forum with varying opinions.  I thought I'd get the member's opinions as well.  The idea is to have a blog, or "frontpage" type place for pixelation - where noteworthy posts are mentioned, major news, tutorials, articles, or other pixel related things are posted.  Possibly the employment services of this forum could be moved to the "frontpage" area to keep the forum completely for constructive artist feedback.

so I ask you - would this be an idea you would be interested in?  Discuss why you think so and any other ideas/comments/concerns you may have about it.

An early sample of the site can be viewed here:
http://www.danfessler.com/pixelation

EDIT:
it seems the jist of people who disagree with the idea think there's simply not enough content to post.  I can see that being a concern and we talked about this a bit several months back in the mod forum.  The solution would be to focus mainly on highlighting noteworthy threads in the forum (news box only covers activities and the very occasional featured thread), and articles/tutorials written by people in the industry etc.  Pixel art "news" per say, wouldn't be much, but still would be there when they exist.

[Rydin]

Sounds like a wonderful idea.  I vote yes.  


EDIT:

Also, if the example in your post is what it will look like, there's lots of room for more stuff in the sidebars.  It would be an excellent opportunity to maybe set aside some space for advertisements.  If the income from such advertising was enough, it could, in turn, be used to pay for Pixelation side image hosting.  I was going to make a thread to talk about it, but this seems like the right time to say something--link rot.  When you look through some of the older threads, you see real bad cases of image hosts no longer hosting pictures.  This sucks because it's a decay that is destroying resources for pixel artists to learn from.  If Pixelation offered to host its poster's images, this could be prevented.

[Dex]

Oh hey, I was talking to ptoing about this a while back.

It's a great idea, I think it'd be useful to display the truly important threads and keep things that have priority on top.

It'd also be a good place to post news about pixel artists who are actively involved in the industry, interesting tid-bits about pixel art (and maybe regular art, who knows.)

Though a member system should be required, because guest posting doesn't always work well. Either way, looking nice, hope to see this turn into something!

[Tuna Unleashed]

i would frequent this blog so hard

[ptoing]

I for one are not 100% convinced we need this at all. For one it is extra work. Also I would be against general members posting stuff, but there could be a special new group with permissions I guess.
Also not sure about comments on the frontpage would be a good thing, but if so, no guests.

And lastly, if this is to go ahead I would want it to use some established blogging software such Wordpress (preferably). This is mainly for reasons of updatability, security and maintenance.

[Jakten]

Yeah this sounds really sweet providing it's regularly tended too. It would be really nice to hear about the pixel art world or anything mildly related since there isn't really anywhere that gathers this kind of stuff, from what I've seen anyways.

I think it would be really neat to hear about what some of the people in the working world are doing, maybe an interview or something?
Some coverage on games with pixel art in them.
Commercial critiques and deconstructions.
Tutorials.
Art shows related to pixel art.
Pixel art found outside of the confines of the computer, like graffiti or... crochet or something.
Pixel piece spotlight.
Rants.
I guess anything really that can harken back to pixel art in some form.

I agree that just anyone shouldn't be able to post, maybe have a screening process of what people want to submit to the front page? Or only administrators or people chosen specifically.

I dunno, I know I would browse it often, I mean I come to the forums everyday so a little extra something would be peachy. I really look forward to this!

[Indigo]

Ptoing.  I agree with you that our community certainly doesn't "need" this.  This is a solid community without it..  But the question is if this would be wanted by the people i think - if people would find this service useful.   I agree both with not allowing general users to post stuff as well as no guest comments.

as for using wordpress or something of the sorts - I'd rather not for two reasons.  Firstly, SMF has great documentation for implementing the user database from this forum into your own websites - thus all security would still be handled by SMF software.  If i were to use wordpress or something similar, I would not be able to link the user databases most likely.  And secondly - hand writing the site would allow for complete customization and room to grow.  Things such as job postings I'd like to be custom made.

You are right that it is extra work, and that is something that's easily solved.  If we need more helping hands (if only just for this frontend) then so be it, not a big deal.  As discussed in the mod thread I'd probably be doing the bulk of the maintenance, but we can cross that bridge when we get there.

[junkboy]

This would be very cool if it was nicely integrated to the forum as a whole, if it was regularly updated (as opposed to the news box) and if the images were much bigger and splashier, since it makes browsing much more fun.

[Elk]

Lol Dan

Yes very good idea, saves me work right?

A question, would there be some sort of Gallery?
Or possibly create a similar system like conceptart.org (which I don't really support, very confusing with that big messy threads)

Are you also trying to involve your idea about the portfolio stuff we talked about?

[Indigo]

no, there wouldn't be a gallery - we'll leave that to pixeljoint.  Pixelation is more about constructive feedback on art, and i'm sure all the moderators agree that we'd like to maintain that.

as for the idea of portfolio hosting, That is not something planned for in the immediate sense, but could possibly come to be.. it just means more cost for web hosting, and we can't afford that right now.  The main thing in question here is the blog.