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FawkesFyre
Saving the World, one Kitty at a Time


Age: 45
Gender: Gender:Female
Joined: 28 Sep 2006
PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 12:16 am    Post subject:

Shandriz wrote:
Er. I think some of you are not realizing just how much TIME and MONEY goes into things like PROMOTING THE SITE at CONS. And how much TIME and MONEY they'd have to continue to spend to keep up with all the new people that come from PROMOTING the site.

And how they make no money off of this site, and how unappreciated comments like theirs might make the people who have put their hearts and souls into this community-- and are taking a much-needed break from doing so-- feel.

I understand your frustration, but you can't expect one person, or even two people, to carry the entire community on their shoulders forever. If you want something done, do it yourself, and let them have their break.


I actually do get it, but the site has been losing more and more for over 2 years now since Full memberships stopped. So, I guess I should say this a little more bluntly...I WANT TO HELP. PLEASE LET ME HELP.

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RivaOni
Full English!


Age: 40
Gender: Gender:Male
Joined: 24 Sep 2002
PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 6:08 am    Post subject:

Shandriz wrote:
Er. I think some of you are not realizing just how much TIME and MONEY goes into things like PROMOTING THE SITE at CONS. And how much TIME and MONEY they'd have to continue to spend to keep up with all the new people that come from PROMOTING the site.

And how they make no money off of this site, and how unappreciated comments like theirs might make the people who have put their hearts and souls into this community-- and are taking a much-needed break from doing so-- feel.

I understand your frustration, but you can't expect one person, or even two people, to carry the entire community on their shoulders forever. If you want something done, do it yourself, and let them have their break.


I think you've taken the comments some have made to heart Shan, which isn't a bad thing, but you did come across as rather aggressive there.

As has been said though, PO is alot quieter than it used to be, there still things going up but not the kind of discussion that used to go on and it is sad to see, I've been here from pretty much the start of things and have seen the lows and spikes that come with having such a diverse forum.

There's still alot of regulars, and everytime I login there's three or four people online, so its not like people aren't visiting, its just difficult to generate the right kind of thread to generate discussion to bring people in.

Then you have to factor in real life and promotion of any kind (regardless of if its at Cons are not) and it really is difficult to keep a website of this size, with no real set goal, just a community really, going.

Maybe the site side of things does need a little more focus, there are things that have been in development for some time. But thats how things happen, when its all done in peoples freetime. Maybe both sides of the community (those that run the site and those of us that just visit and post) need to open their arms to each other again, sparking off some kind of collaborative effort to drive the site forward through development of some of the ideas that are laying in wait to be finished. We do have some highly talented people here from all walks of life and if we all worked together, there is a chance we could get PO back to its heady heights again.

Hell, a mass email to everyone on the members list that hasn't visited for a set period of time, saying stuff along the lines of "We miss you" etc, everytime something big happens on the site could be a start.

As it is I do think that the forum has become a bit split, you have big groups that live nearby to each other that meet regularly, or at least used to, and you're always going to get a bit of a closer knit between those members. So maybe, again, the community needs to knuckle together, and arrange meets of some kind in their area, find a way to promote these meets (if, say it was at a hall rather than someones home or whatever) to try and get people who aren't members to take a look.

Theres alot of communities out there for those that like the things that I personally come to PO for (art, reading the role plays because I'm not really imaginative enough to get too involved, videogames, anime), and unfortunately, because of how demanding it was on the artists time, PO lost that unique element that made it different to any similar sites out there (and I know I'd rather have a PO than a Gaia avatar any day, purely because of how personal it is).

So yeah, all I'm saying is, we ALL need to pull together, tell people about the place, try and get things moving, even if its just posting a new topic once a week or something I dunno, as for many of us, this is/was our home on the internet.

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Shandriz
Your Death Shall be Swift



Gender: Gender:Female
Joined: 28 Sep 2003
PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 11:19 pm    Post subject:

I meant to come off as aggressive. I'm tired of people attacking the administration repeatedly for having lives and doing things outside of PO. They have other projects going on, and while PO is still near and dear to their hearts, they're focusing on other things.

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RivaOni
Full English!


Age: 40
Gender: Gender:Male
Joined: 24 Sep 2002
PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 6:08 am    Post subject:

Repeatedly? Only this thread comes to mind, and I don't think it was actually attacking the administration, more a case of frustration that a site so many people love appears to be faltering somewhat.

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FawkesFyre
Saving the World, one Kitty at a Time


Age: 45
Gender: Gender:Female
Joined: 28 Sep 2006
PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 12:02 pm    Post subject:

I take offense at that Shandriz, I've never attacked or criticized anyone for having a life outside of this site and wanting/needing a break. The point is that when you go on these breaks, there's the natural expectation that you'll be returning.

Here's good example of what I mean, that's out there right now on the membership page:

"We will be re-evaluating the full membership sign up process Quarter 2 of 2007."

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Robb
My freedom begins here


Age: 40
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Joined: 01 Nov 2004
PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 1:04 pm    Post subject:

Shandriz wrote:
I meant to come off as aggressive. I'm tired of people attacking the administration repeatedly for having lives and doing things outside of PO. They have other projects going on, and while PO is still near and dear to their hearts, they're focusing on other things.


Excessive much?

I don't think anyone is 'attacking' as you put it, in fact, it looks more like people want to help.

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Blackmage
Intragalactic Acquisitions Agent Mew



Gender: Gender:Male
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 1:23 pm    Post subject:

Robb wrote:
Shandriz wrote:
I meant to come off as aggressive. I'm tired of people attacking the administration repeatedly for having lives and doing things outside of PO. They have other projects going on, and while PO is still near and dear to their hearts, they're focusing on other things.


Excessive much?

I don't think anyone is 'attacking' as you put it, in fact, it looks more like people want to help.


Bingo

I find it funny you felt threatened while Doot joked about cupcakes. Mmmm cupcakes...

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Robb
My freedom begins here


Age: 40
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Joined: 01 Nov 2004
PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 1:40 pm    Post subject:

Blackmage wrote:
Robb wrote:
Shandriz wrote:
I meant to come off as aggressive. I'm tired of people attacking the administration repeatedly for having lives and doing things outside of PO. They have other projects going on, and while PO is still near and dear to their hearts, they're focusing on other things.


Excessive much?

I don't think anyone is 'attacking' as you put it, in fact, it looks more like people want to help.


Bingo

I find it funny you felt threatened while Doot joked about cupcakes. Mmmm cupcakes...


I suppose cupcakes could be threatening, depends on the flavour 0_o

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Blackmage
Intragalactic Acquisitions Agent Mew



Gender: Gender:Male
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 1:45 pm    Post subject:

If they were the cupcakes like in Major Payne.

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K-chan
Murr!



Gender: Gender:Female
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 4:52 pm    Post subject:

>>Disable Lurker Mode

Al the DLOE wrote:

Also on the issue of cost, would not opening commissions, memberships to longer term members w/o full PO's, and asking directly for server maintainance donations help with this.


Al, that is not as simple as it sounds. Opening up commissions again means an artist is going to have to generate the art in exchange. That takes time, -a lot of it.- Take a look at the inking tutorials Doot put together in 2006. It’ll give you somewhat of an idea about the process involved in making a PO. And if you have Photoshop, I encourage you to open it up and play around. Re-ink your own PO’s. It’s not an easy thing to pick up. I don’t believe you and Fawkes were around back in the day when PO had something like 40+ members in the art que one year. If that commission fee is to go towards promoting the site, what compensation is there for the artist’s labor? There have been weddings, babies, graduations etc. etc. Life has it’s own cost. The PO artists decided they needed a hiatus. That is their prerogative.

Websites ebb and flow, communities change as do people. What keeps most PO’ers dropping by is not the website itself, because that obviously hasn’t changed much, it’s the people and cliques whom they feel connected to. It’s the friendships.

Pocketotaku.com may have slowly puttered off, but you’ll find pockets (forgive the pun) of PO’s else where around teh internets. They aren’t hard to find. Shino, Unastrike, Shandriz, PRG and a few others all over at the Interactive Distractions Podcast and Forum. There are a ton of PO’s with Deviant Art pages, lj’s, Facebook, etc. I and a bunch of other PO’s who no longer stop by are all on another board called Anime Cosmo (50% are using different handles, but there are about 9 of us).



If these are the people that are important to you, you’ll keep in contact. Plan your own meet ups and what not as Riva said. You don't need a convention or holiday to hang out with friends. Websites though come and go. Sometimes they come back again, and sometimes not.

Krys, amiga, the aggression may be a little uncalled for right now. Admins have the right to run their site as they see fit, but they aren’t the only ones who have emotional stakes in a community especially in a community such as Pocket Otaku that has been around for so long and been a second family to many. Members of any community should have the right to express what they are feeling. No one here has blamed anyone for having a life, and as a whole there seem to be a lot of desire to help and revive the site from the others. There is frustration, yes. On both sides of the table I imagine. So open up some lines of communication.

The non-staff members look like they just want to know what’s going on. Can they help in any way so that running this site wouldn’t have to be such a burden? What are the plans for the future for PO? Are there any? Or is PO to just stay in stasis as simply a place for old friends to stop by and exchange updates and well wishes in between the pages of their busy lives.

--End of Line

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