Whats with all the Sketchbook Threads in P&P?
interpolator
So I've been noticing for awhile that there are a bunch of sketchbook threads that seem to keep popping up in the Pimping and Previews forum. Some of these threads turn into sketchbooks and some literally say Sketchbook in their title.
I wouldn't care otherwise but with more people using Polycount there is a problem of threads in P&P getting knocked to the next pages pretty quickly and people that might benefit from critique being unseen.
So do many people just not know there is a sketchbook forum or do they post in P&P because it gets more views? Should Mods move these threads, and what actually makes a sketchbook thread?
I can understand someone who posts a portfolio thread, and then shows work that has been added to it every couple weeks or days, or a an environment that someone is working on that shows new props or whatever every few days. However alot of the threads that should be in the Sketchbook forum are a bunch of random small excercises with nothing to do with eachother (which I think are great BTW).
I love sketchbook threads but I think they have their place, and it isn't in the P&P forum.
/rant
I wouldn't care otherwise but with more people using Polycount there is a problem of threads in P&P getting knocked to the next pages pretty quickly and people that might benefit from critique being unseen.
So do many people just not know there is a sketchbook forum or do they post in P&P because it gets more views? Should Mods move these threads, and what actually makes a sketchbook thread?
I can understand someone who posts a portfolio thread, and then shows work that has been added to it every couple weeks or days, or a an environment that someone is working on that shows new props or whatever every few days. However alot of the threads that should be in the Sketchbook forum are a bunch of random small excercises with nothing to do with eachother (which I think are great BTW).
I love sketchbook threads but I think they have their place, and it isn't in the P&P forum.
/rant
Replies
And really when I first came to polycount I was used to creating sketchbooks cause I don't want 100 of unique threads laying around and to be fair I really did not know there was a sketchbook forum on polycount until maybe a year ago and even then I thought it was only for 2D art.
And really, this might be only me, I might look at the sketchbook forum once a month I mostly just check G.D, P%P and tech talk.
A. Not enough people check the sketchbook thread, a lot work goes unseen (currently 85 viewing P&P and 7 viewing sketchbook).
B. Maybe this is partially caused by A, but a lot of people end up posting sketchbook type threads in P&P, I don't really see this as such a bad thing, its sort of a natural cause and effect thing if you're not going to get the same attention as you would in P&P.
C. What exactly should be posted there isn't clearly defined, it was never meant as only a 2d/paper sketch type forum, more of a casual exercise, post what your quick studies regardless of medium type of thing.
So, what is the solution?
Get rid of the sketchbook forum?
Roll it into a sub-forum of P&P like the UDK sub-forum in tech talk? - I think this might be a good idea.
Something else?
and something definetly has to be done about it.
i think the subthread thing like in technical talk would be a some kind of solution, but splitting it up completely might be better.
I was talking about the digital sketchbook thread which is in the 3D & 2D Videogame Art 5th thread down. So there is obviously confusion with the digital sketchbook forum, and the sketch thread.
It's one of those problems with no clear solution. Stromberg makes a point about not having too many threads that would splinter off from someone's sketch thread but I think having a sketch thread and crossposting like JacqueChoi suggested is a good option.
Sketchbook thread definitely doesn't get enough views. It might be because people don't use it as much as it should be, or sometimes people do things as small excercises and have moved onto the next thing so giving feedback might be awkward.
It makes sense, but I think Adam had a poll about the future of polycount awhile back, and the sense is that there would be a big downside to sectioning work out. For example, I am more interested in Environments than anything else, I'm sure there are Character people that feel the way, but anytime you split anything up, it will get less views. Also where do you stop sectioning, characters, environments, weapons, vehicles... then sci fi, hand painted, it is a slippery slope.
With everything together as it is now, I end up checking out cool stuff that if I focused on an Environment type forum I wouldn't see otherwise. What I think would also happen, is things that there is less of at polycount, like animation and effects would become a barren wasteland if split up.
For me, I'm a character guy, and while I do love looking at environment work, I wouldn't dare comment on it, let alone critique it. But if to find interesting character work to look at I have to sift through hundreds of environment threads, I just end up saying "fuck it" and just stick to the WAYWO thread. Or go to threads of people whose name I recognize or are my friends.
I think people post sketchbooks in P&P either because they just didn't look through the forum sections appropriately, or they did but they want more "spotlight". I used to report them to try and get them moved, but I stopped some time ago because it seemed most people weren't too bothered by it.
The Sketchbook section doesn't get nearly as many views as P&P, but then again let's face it, it usually doesn't have anywhere near the same amount of cool stuff to look at and it's not updated nearly as frequently. I don't really see anything wrong with that. After all, the description for the sketchbook section says outright "...for general art dumping without regret, worry, or intent."
I update my sketchbook every so often, but it's not something I worry about too much.
I think that the sketchbook section is a lot like threads that don't get responses in P&P. It's not that people don't look at it, just that there's not always a whole lot to say. I can think of several artists whose sketchbooks I jump in to first chance when I see it's been updated, it's just not a majority of it.
That being said, it does seem like the sketchbook section as a whole is more active than it was a year or two ago, and that's nice.
That is certainly part of it, but IMO not the whole picture. I think at least part of the reason sketchbook threads get less views is because... well, people simply do not know the sketchbook sub-forum exists, or forget about it and check P&P instead.
I don't really see how this applies. The more views the better, the more people looking the higher the chance the "right" people will view and reply. I don't really know of any reliable system that will only get the "right" people to view and reply, it isn't really possible because its absurdly subjective. I think a big problem is the lack of awareness to the sketchbook sub-forum, and I can't think of any reason why more people looking at posted art on polycount could ever be considered a bad thing.
IMO i think nesting it in P&P is probably the best solution, but again I would love to hear other ideas on how to increase exposure.
Not to mention that most of Polycount is just text, and again the WAYWO is image-based, and you get a situation where lots of stuff doesn't even get looked at. Compare that to CGhub where everything is image-based, and you can click whatever seems interesting to you. That, plus they have a constantly-updating 'Popular Now' image-cloud which makes it easy to actually look at things, whereas on Polycount if it isn't in the WAYWO thread, lots of people wouldn't even see it.
Which makes sense to me. We're artists. Things should be visual.
Auto thumb nailing for threads ?
It's a hell of an addition though so might be worth saving untill the ?new site version? rolls out
P&P was a place to gather your media for a specific project - ultimately leading up to a finished product.
What if WAWYO was moved to the Sketchbook forum?
Laz: That's essentially the underbelly of a system we're going after for the new site, once development on it begins.
I can certainly see the sketchbooks becoming a sub-forum of PnP. In which case, I would visit them more often. As it is, I feel like there isn't enough turnover there, to warrant looking at it. It might get more in PnP.
So...Much...Win...
I have to say, I'm not jealous of the task. That will be one hell of a FK tree to sort out aha! But it will make PC so much more work friendly! We can judge threads alot easier by the tumb's + tags. Prepare for penis tank thumbs though.
-Bounce the tag's on the forums aswell, just incase you overlook one or two. I plugged together a entire database and missed a whole section once. Not the brightest part of my career so far.* was a pain to add in too
i made a sketch book and have had 1 repy in 6 posts. if i put my thread in
p&p i would have had many more and i wish i had put my thread in p&p.
but bleh, really if it has to change we should look at conceptart.org and how they manage it because there sketch book subforum is really quite successful.
mine thred;
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=97365
But I like the idea of 3 thumbnails at the bottom of the thread title and the size (obviously small) giving you just enough to make a decision on whether or not you want to click It. Instead of just by the popularity of the person.
I like that idea Adam, how about user-name specific threads?
Like a "lock out", from making new threads in P&P. (Less clutter, more work)
You have one thread for life and it could be "suchandsuchname"[works] < that's It. The way it would work is every new post becomes the top post UNDER the OP's new updated post and hence bump up your thread to the top, I.E. a work update either a new piece or an update to that piece.
For control purposes, they can choose to delete any posts in their threads, ONLY or after say 6 months the system auto prunes 6 month old posts? Auto cleaning and keeping the system tidy, with maybe a keep option beside posts you want to keep if they have important information in them, tips, tricks, ect.
Is that even possible?
Also please put a longer thread count as the default maybe 100 or more before page two, so on and so forth.
TY if you consider it.
Sketchbook is where I post multiple WIP or progress shots and so it shows how my pieces have progressed over time. I wouldn't think most people update WAYWO nearly as much as their own Sketchbooks (if they have one) and would just throw in the occasional picture to show what they've been doing. Now that I re-read the P&P description it sounds like the same thing I use my Sketchbook for. The key difference sounds like the "...or for general art dumping without regret, worry, or intent." clause.
I'd say move Sketchbooks to a sub-forum of P&P. It would also bump that section up higher in the thread list and may increase the exposure by linking it near other WIP-type threads.
Thread icons would be great, much like CGSociety does it.