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Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 11:31 pm
by Gelenor
Well as a somewhat new writer here on eka, (New as in submitting things only earlier this year, not new as having been her for a short period of time.) I find that the more comments I get, the more I am willing to write. I have enough trouble sitting my ass down to do the writing in the first place, but when people let me know they want more and how much they did or did not like it, I feel more motivated to continue. I am not going to write if I am not motivated to do so. I admit that I don't always leave comments of my own, but it is something I have already started to work on improving.

Also I would like to give a personal shout out to Indighost for supporting me and being there to let me know that people are actually wanting me to keep writing. Thank you my friend, it means a lot.

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 10:12 am
by Draconasaurus
I would comment more, but I'm really bad at expressing my opinions in words. (A writer who's bad with words...lolwut?)

Most of my work has one comment or less (with 300-600 views).

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 10:33 pm
by architectap12
i just want to add that i personally love each and every artist on here whether they are writers or into drawing and whether they are good or bad, i enjoy seeing new posts and thats pretty much all i come here for, and id like to thank any artist who reads this comment because you provide entertainment to random strangers (including me!) and that is just one of the best things in the whole world, i have been able to experience things through your art that can not be in the real world as much as id like them too

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 12:47 am
by Servothehusky
I do love this site a lot, I just wish it had the same level of popularity that FurAffinity has. only because...

1). the community is so much nice on this site, only because on FA(FurAffinity)people bashes on your work sometime because of the fetish(as in Vore). yea I do get that handful of people that love it, but there will ber always that one guy that questions it, or targets it.

2). the profle editer. OH GOD! I just love the profile editer. If you gusy remember Myspace, then you know what I mean.

3).FIle organizer, FINALLY! I can organize my pictures from "commissions" and "Commissions I bought or recived", my work or commission I bought are not scattered everywhere.

4). THE VORE, I just love it, no one to judge you because your artwork is the same as everyone elses but in a different body opening. I always see people question and get grossed out by "belly button vore". but here, everyone loves it!.

yea, sorry for the big list, but as soon as I made an account, all I heard was possible. and I only been on here for a month now.

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 4:22 pm
by lordofchaos
No. I won't. Because of your draconian "enforced niceness" rule. More than half the artwork on here is shit. I don't mean in the fact that it deals with scat - that's not my cup of tea, and I just ignore it - but the fact that it's objectively really really bad. Notions like perspective, color theory, proportions, and so on, stuff you can learn if you take one or two drawing classes - your average artist has no idea what those are. I can maybe narrow a list of good artists down to 10-20 people.

Now, the reason why I don't speak up, and why I created an account to say this, is because Eka's is unfortunately a hugbox. Thankfully we don't have a glut of sprite comics, but some of the art is on that level. But since I'm not allowed to say that, I am going to keep my mouth shut. You'll be better off implementing a filter system, where we can tag stuff/artists we don't like, and just not see it.

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 5:05 pm
by Humbug
lordofchaos wrote:No. I won't. Because of your draconian "enforced niceness" rule. More than half the artwork on here is shit. I don't mean in the fact that it deals with scat - that's not my cup of tea, and I just ignore it - but the fact that it's objectively really really bad. Notions like perspective, color theory, proportions, and so on, stuff you can learn if you take one or two drawing classes - your average artist has no idea what those are. I can maybe narrow a list of good artists down to 10-20 people.

Now, the reason why I don't speak up, and why I created an account to say this, is because Eka's is unfortunately a hugbox. Thankfully we don't have a glut of sprite comics, but some of the art is on that level. But since I'm not allowed to say that, I am going to keep my mouth shut. You'll be better off implementing a filter system, where we can tag stuff/artists we don't like, and just not see it.
The order of the day is "Don't be a dick." You can give criticism in hopes of helping someone become better at their craft, but the way you present it is as important, if not more important, than the criticism itself. Even if you were correct, calling almost everything here "Shit" and saying there are only 10-20 good artists in a site of thousands probably isn't going to get you heard.

Ask if someone's open to criticism first; that'll help you feel out how impactful your criticisms will be. If they're not interested, that means they care more about creating fetish fuel than actual art (or they prefer not to hear criticism from random strangers). All that means is that their priorities are different than yours. This is a community site first (The bulk of the users don't even produce content; they just interact and share things with each other), a fetish site second, and an art/writing site third. If that doesn't appeal to you, head to DA where the focus is far more on art.

There is no rule that you must be nice, but there is a rule against harassment. If you critique someone's work, fine. You won't get in trouble unless you're actually calling artwork "shit" as you did here. But if they tell you they're not interested and you continue anyway, you're being an asshole, no matter how noble your intentions, and you're violating the "community" aspect that's kept this site running longer than any other vore-centric website on the Internet.

You're allowed to say most of what you want on this site as long as it doesn't harass users or promote RL unsafe vore (What you wrote here won't be deleted, for instance), but you'd damn well better be prepared to be called an asshole if you're acting like an asshole.

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 6:51 pm
by supernova
I'm a writer here and I do appreciate feedback. It's kind of disappointing to post your work and get no responses (positive or negative) even though you know there are people out there who read it.

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 8:08 pm
by Reaverbot
supernova wrote:I'm a writer here and I do appreciate feedback. It's kind of disappointing to post your work and get no responses (positive or negative) even though you know there are people out there who read it.


Basically this. It's sort of frustrating to get hundreds of views on your writing and end up with like 2 or 3 comments. Yes, I know that's selfish and I know it's unrealistic for most people to leave comments because they're just there for the quick fap, but it's still a tangible feeling unfortunately and the lack of feedback is yet another thing that makes me have a hard time staying motivated to write. I even welcome harsher criticism because it's a way for me to have a conversation about my work at the least.

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 11:00 pm
by Aleph-Null
@the last two posts,

I think an issue that we have here on Eka's, is a lack of clarity on what type of feedback an artist wants. It would probably be helpful if we had a tab in the artist's gallery dedicated to preferred feedback.

A large part of the problem as I see it, is that we are communicating asynchronously through text only. So if I post a comment in someone's gallery, provided we don't have a dialog somewhere else, it doesn't come across as the start of a dialog, it comes across as a statement. I think a lot of people could empathize with not wanting to make a critical statement regarding another person your introduction to that person. That statement only becomes a dialog once there is a reply, and it can be difficult to write up an initial message to a stranger that is both honest and non-offensive outside of the general "thumbs up" type encouragement that is often seen.

An other problem that I come across is difficulty distinguishing whether or not my criticism of a story is rooted in the nature of the fetish/erotic goals of the story itself.

To give a common example of this, a lot of people will write in oral sex acts in an unwilling vore situation that doesn't make any sense to me (odds of anyone being aroused in a life and death situation is low), but obviously it is included do to the authors personal taste.

An example of a less obvious issue I have encountered, is when a character in a story seems to be acting unnaturally due to a less obvious preference of the author. This seems to be common where dominance/submissiveness is important to the author, a character will often be introduced and described in one way, then take implicitly contrary actions without explanation.

In my personal experience, I think I have only commented on authors work when I either had previous discussions with them, or they had contributed to the Eka's portal writing group. The only reason I felt comfortable commenting on some authors that had contributed to the writing group was that I could see A: their preferences in criticism, and B: their reaction to criticism.

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 11:37 pm
by Bobbits
Delete

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 11:48 pm
by Humbug
Aleph-Null wrote:@the last two posts,

I think an issue that we have here on Eka's, is a lack of clarity on what type of feedback an artist wants. It would probably be helpful if we had a tab in the artist's gallery dedicated to preferred feedback.

A large part of the problem as I see it, is that we are communicating asynchronously through text only. So if I post a comment in someone's gallery, provided we don't have a dialog somewhere else, it doesn't come across as the start of a dialog, it comes across as a statement. I think a lot of people could empathize with not wanting to make a critical statement regarding another person your introduction to that person. That statement only becomes a dialog once there is a reply, and it can be difficult to write up an initial message to a stranger that is both honest and non-offensive outside of the general "thumbs up" type encouragement that is often seen.

An other problem that I come across is difficulty distinguishing whether or not my criticism of a story is rooted in the nature of the fetish/erotic goals of the story itself.

To give a common example of this, a lot of people will write in oral sex acts in an unwilling vore situation that doesn't make any sense to me (odds of anyone being aroused in a life and death situation is low), but obviously it is included do to the authors personal taste.

An example of a less obvious issue I have encountered, is when a character in a story seems to be acting unnaturally due to a less obvious preference of the author. This seems to be common where dominance/submissiveness is important to the author, a character will often be introduced and described in one way, then take implicitly contrary actions without explanation.

In my personal experience, I think I have only commented on authors work when I either had previous discussions with them, or they had contributed to the Eka's portal writing group. The only reason I felt comfortable commenting on some authors that had contributed to the writing group was that I could see A: their preferences in criticism, and B: their reaction to criticism.
Under the "My Settings" tab in your gallery, you can write a "comment profile." I use mine to describe my criticism preferences. Others might want to do something similar to give people an idea for what's acceptable and what's not on their galleries.

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 12:19 am
by Reaverbot
Aleph-Null wrote:@the last two posts,

I think an issue that we have here on Eka's, is a lack of clarity on what type of feedback an artist wants. It would probably be helpful if we had a tab in the artist's gallery dedicated to preferred feedback.

A large part of the problem as I see it, is that we are communicating asynchronously through text only. So if I post a comment in someone's gallery, provided we don't have a dialog somewhere else, it doesn't come across as the start of a dialog, it comes across as a statement. I think a lot of people could empathize with not wanting to make a critical statement regarding another person your introduction to that person. That statement only becomes a dialog once there is a reply, and it can be difficult to write up an initial message to a stranger that is both honest and non-offensive outside of the general "thumbs up" type encouragement that is often seen.

An other problem that I come across is difficulty distinguishing whether or not my criticism of a story is rooted in the nature of the fetish/erotic goals of the story itself.

To give a common example of this, a lot of people will write in oral sex acts in an unwilling vore situation that doesn't make any sense to me (odds of anyone being aroused in a life and death situation is low), but obviously it is included do to the authors personal taste.

An example of a less obvious issue I have encountered, is when a character in a story seems to be acting unnaturally due to a less obvious preference of the author. This seems to be common where dominance/submissiveness is important to the author, a character will often be introduced and described in one way, then take implicitly contrary actions without explanation.

In my personal experience, I think I have only commented on authors work when I either had previous discussions with them, or they had contributed to the Eka's portal writing group. The only reason I felt comfortable commenting on some authors that had contributed to the writing group was that I could see A: their preferences in criticism, and B: their reaction to criticism.


I just don't really think that would make any difference unless you're setting groundrules for people who were going to comment anyway. I used to put "any and all criticism is welcome" in the description of my writing, and later stopped. I got roughly about the same amount of comments either way.

The amount of readers is always going to be vastly larger than the amount of people who will comment, I learned that writing on other sites. I was mainly just venting a little, because it really -is- a kind of shitty feeling and makes me feel like I don't know why I'm bothering to write stuff in my more miserable moments.

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 2:51 am
by Assimilation
Another argument started by our good friend, Necropost.

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 3:41 am
by Humbug
Assimilation wrote:Another argument started by our good friend, Necropost.
This one's posted to the forum topics with a sticky. Otherwise I'd have pointed that out too. :3

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 10:18 am
by jaykayeight
Servothehusky wrote:I do love this site a lot, I just wish it had the same level of popularity that FurAffinity has.

i think the size/popularity of this community is just fine. to discover that there are others who share the fetish is just brilliant, you have your niche where you find other nice people and very very good artists. btw. i have to disagree with lordofchaos most of the art is very skillfull, those artist actually know whats all about vore.

but when the focus on that community would grow and the industry would try to get hold on this "trend", i would have the feeling that
the fetish would get impersonal. people would take advantage of creating stuff without even having this fetish, just to extend their business maybe.
id say, im glad i know this community and thats its all i could wish for.

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Mon Oct 01, 2018 5:51 pm
by C107galaxytachyon
You know, It’s rather sad that over the 5+ years I’ve been here on Ekas’, I’ve rarely ever commented on works I’ve really enjoyed, let alone others. I’d go through my back catalog again just to rectify this, but am currently afraid I may’ve passed the point of no return in regards to this. What do you think, though? Can constructive commentary on works several years old still be valued here, or is it pretty much a lost cause by that point?

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Mon Oct 01, 2018 6:00 pm
by IvesBentonEaton
It depends on whether the artist or writer is still around. Almost any content creator appreciates a comment, even if it isn't complimentary: at least he or she knows that someone is paying attention to his or her work. Most people don't post stuff hoping to be ignored.

I speak as a content creator myself; others may have different opinions, of course. Ahem. [Points casually to blatant plug in signature line below]


Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 11:09 am
by C107galaxytachyon
IvesBentonEaton wrote:It depends on whether the artist or writer is still around. Almost any content creator appreciates a comment, even if it isn't complimentary: at least he or she knows that someone is paying attention to his or her work. Most people don't post stuff hoping to be ignored.

I speak as a content creator myself; others may have different opinions, of course. Ahem. [Points casually to blatant plug in signature line below]



Perhaps, but you’re operating under the assumption people are to lazy to bother commenting on the work, when it’s far more likely they just don’t know what to say that’d be helpful. A writer’s self esteem often isn’t proportionate to the amount of positive comments they get, so oftentimes, a simple ‘I enjoyed your work’ won’t help them improve at all: it might even negatively impact their self-worth. Everyone’s biggest critic is themselves, you know. So well founded criticism will probably be the best thing to pride them with: unless they have a George Lucas sized-ego, of course. But that’s just me.

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 12:04 pm
by IvesBentonEaton
Oh, heavens, no. I don't think that at all. Commenting, at least in any detail beyond something like "I like this" is itself writing, and constructive criticism is the hardest form of it. I certainly don't expect comments as a regular thing: it would be hypocritical of me to expect that when I don't often comment on material here myself.

So when I do get them, I'm just tickled pink, even if they are critical because that means someone thought a story of mine was worth their limited time to actually write something about it.

So, to that exclusive club of my commenters: Ave, lectores, scriberus te salutant! (A probably mangled Latin version of "Hail, readers! We who are about to write salute you!" after the legendary phrase apocryphally attributed to gladiators, Ave, Imperator, morituri te salutant!, or "Hail, Emperor, we who are about to die salute you!" and why did I bother making such an obscure joke that would have to be explained and kill it…oh, that's right: because I can.) :P

Re: [PLEASE READ] Community and Commenting

PostPosted: Sat Sep 05, 2020 3:28 pm
by ChibiToy
Best story/drawing eva!! :P

Sadly, that's the gist of your average comment, if your lucky enough to receive them at all. I personally would like to know what people didn't like about my stuff because I want to improve, but sadly again, peeps don't seem to have an opinion they want to share... or they're just "too shy", as mentioned above. Yeeee, maybe some day, artists will get proper feedback. I mean, peeps want more stuff but aren't willing to spend a mere 5 minutes to share their thoughts...

To all the readers/watchers: Shy or not, I can totally understand if other artists stop creating more content because there's a grave lack of feedback.

While I'm lucky to have my small circle of highly responsive "fans", I can totally relate how frustrating it must be. The artist spends so much time and effort to make some sort of art, longing to know how others feel about their work, and the peeps who love, fav it, and want to see more of it(!) don't see the necessarity to tell the artist their opinion... Also, the "I'm no writer/critic" excuse is so lame! Critic or not, being able to express yourself or not, tell me what you want, you do have an opinion you could state, that is if you truly wanted to...