The layout's fine, but I think visually things could be given a bit of a polish. The logo for example is awesome, but I reckon the version on the front page at least could be given a bit of attention so that it's visually more exciting.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

thanks for the feedback man.

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I would love to see a "More" link for recent posts.

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Rick

[Link to www.3dartconcepts.com]

Cool Cool, thanks for the feedback.

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No Problem

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Rick

[Link to www.3dartconcepts.com]

yeah the link thing and also making the home page a bit less busy.. i liked it the last time with less pics from the 'featured artist' - seems a bit cluttered with all the info at once.. but i like the neutral colour scheme and top right user bar

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[Link to jasminekurda.carbonmade.com]

Ok cool, yea I hate the homepage personaly. We plan on making things very very clean in future.

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Lol, you guys left that out of V3 with indignation. As familiar as Ive become with the new site I still find myself missing posts when I never see them on recent. I know I could go through my message lists but its still confusing to my feeble brain.

could there be some way of listing all the posts by date?

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Yeah we should have a better way to so this in the new version.

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--Matt

in the msg center?

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Please support us and post a [Link to www.digitalartsfront.com] on your website.

One other thing is that I feel like recent posts should really be where the popularity ladder is. in fact all the recent stuff could do well to go above everything. when you first log in and want to see whats going on scrolling to the bottom feels a bit awkward at work our internet machine is so slow I actually have to wait 30 seconds or so for all the pictures to load.

Not trying to be a nit picker but thats just the only thing that bugs me really .

and...

Now I'm just speaking freely here and its really not an issue for me but i guess its better to speak my mind, just feel free to totally ignore my comments because I'm not really worried, anyway I'm not quite sure about the whole popularity ladder idea. and the "love recieved" stuff.
I mean its all cool but it lends a certain "deviant artness" to the place. Now thats all fine but I get the impression you guys are trying to avoid that type of comparison.

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After nagging you about the nested posts I forgot .. hahah. read below

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Ok well what we want to do is make this site more than a forum we want the forum to be the last place you visit not the first. This site began as a forum but we want it to be a hub for artists. That means adding some of that "deviant artness", however this can be done without being a "da clone" and by providing features that are useful. The issue with having that stuff at the top is that it takes users to the forum first.

We have some good ideas for the next version and that will involve pushing the forums further into the background as part of a community section.

Thanks for the crits.

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Fair enough. Its a direction that could well bring more people here to show off their art. Thats a worthy choice. I guess for me this place is purely about answering questions and trying to solve peoples problems. Things like the DAFNOT alerts and the youtube embedding are efficiency enhancements for that goal so anything like that will be usefull to me.

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Yea man, we want to keep that whole helpful friendly place where you get to talk to the mods and myself and matt, but make it large enough that it is interesting and you can find awesome art and resources here. Also we need to boost the numbers purely for financial reasons because as you all know this beast eats a lot of time and money.

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understandable. I think you will find alot more people joining up when you add the resources, textures, models etc... but I guess thats all more money and time for you guys. provided you get the new server will that be possible or does it cost loads to host files such as texture libraries etc..
I have no idea about this as you might have guessed.

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We need a new server because we have run out of ram, and therefore we can't right any more features, which means the site is dead in the water. This sucks. So while resources would be cool we can not afford to query the database any more than we already are.

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erm... i haven't really visited the home page in ages! when i even type digi... in my browser, it suggests the link to the forum, so i almost never look at the home page. this might just be me, but i haven't noticed anything on this site that is more important than the forum (in fact, this site used to be called 3dsmaxforum.com, right?) so for you guys to remove focus away from it, will require a huge revamp.
and i just saw the popularity ladder... what is that based on? that might just alienate some users, imo.... there's no real plus point to that. sure the top 5 users might feel good about themselves, but that's pretty much it.
in case you DO want to stick with the ladder, you should have several reasons for popularity. for example, someone who helps out tons of newbies on the help section of the forum should be rewarded on level terms with someone who submits kickass art (much-loved art) and also someone who wins a challenge.
anyway, aside from the ladder, i would like to see a proper WIP system. maybe when someone begins some project/work, they register it as a WIP, and keep updating it with newer pics, and descriptions of how they did what they did. it would be like your Tutorial system, except there wouldn't be an assurance of it turning out awesome, or that it was made by someone who was an expert. even an utter disaster would be a great example of what not to do!
looking forward to your new, revamped site, Jamie and Matt.

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

Well it is a shame that you do not use any of the other features of the site, the forum is good, however we would like art to be the focus. The popularity ladder is designed for exposure and it is based on views, love and subscriptions. We do have a wip section on the forums called advanced critique and it allows you to add multiple images to the first post. We made it this way for the exact reason you stated. We plan on introducing some kind of sketchbook system for things that don't make it to your portfolio.

While there will always be die hard forums users we wish to cater to everyone, and that means less focus on the forums and more of a focus on a larger scale community.

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i'm not dissing the site, merely giving you suggestions. i like the site as it is, but since you feel that it needs to be revamped, i'm just giving you my experience of the site. i visit this site daily, and the hub of activity (atleast 80-90%) is in the forum, it's a public meeting place. so it's not that i haven't used any other part of the site (i hadn't seen the home page), but the forum is still the biggest part of this site. anyways.

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

Yes it is, still the biggest part of the site, and there are things we can do to change that, for example a customisable profile page, with rss feeds and blog like functionality. Once more tutorials are submitted that will become a big draw for users. The video content we will be producing will also be of interest to some. Browse art could also use some love. There are hundreds of things we can do to make this a website instead of a forum.

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popularity is based on the views and love you receive and how many people subscribe to your work.

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--Matt

i like the lovehearts theyr cute. plz keep them

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[Link to jasminekurda.carbonmade.com]

Don't worry they are staying right where they are

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haha i totally agree. My inner girly girl loves the heartage.

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Gee Greenslade [Link to www.missgee.net]

The heartage is full of win and will be staying forever!

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--Matt

YAYYY! We totally need a "heartage appreciation society"

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Gee Greenslade [Link to www.missgee.net]

We should make DAFHEART fanart!!!! And spam dA with it!!!

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--Matt

Hhahah gold

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Im in.

DAFHEART FANART FTW!

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Gee Greenslade [Link to www.missgee.net]

Oh man challenge idea!

Whoever can get the dafheart on as many sites wins!

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--Matt

that would be rad. I already have some awesome ideas for it LOL

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Gee Greenslade [Link to www.missgee.net]

How about just a daf heart challenge.

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WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE THINKING!!
The heart is the symbol of love, and love is the most destructive force in the UNIVERSE!

THE HEART MUST DIE! IT WILL KILL US ALL!

Proof:

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Following your maxim of leaving no INVENTORY uncluttered, you receive +1 NIKON D90

Download DAFNOT now! [Link to www.digitalartsfront.com]

I guess the problem is that like desade said this site is primarily used as a forum, people posting unfinished work that gets critiqued or asking questions etc... My feeling is that the Majority of users here are fairly into the whole utilitarian nature of the internet as a means to enhance their 3d or 2d art "making". The showing of the art is somewhat redundant when the final output really needs to be a stand alone personal website in order to get freelance work or a showreel/portfolio. I think that any innovations that function as utilities, such as the tutorials section or downloadable resources or better communication tools etc. are what will set this site apart from the competition. I hope that doesnt come across as arrogant or something. its just from my perspective and obviously other people have different needs. It really is a great site as it stands and its come a long way since it started with jamie wanting to keep everyone in touch all those years ago.

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You say that "a stand alone personal website in order to get freelance work or a showreel/portfolio" is better. I will have to disagree with you here for the following reasons. If we offer customisable portfolios, where you can host your work, but a large audience will actually see what you create is that not better than a small website that you have to pay for and is unlikely to get any traffic? Sure you would get a few hits from the people you sent it out too, but I have personally been offered work, more frequently from people who found me on art community sites than I ever did from sending out showreels. Employers can now find you vs you finding them.

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I just mean that the more professional you appear on the internet the better it is for freelance artists. I wont argue with you about whats better because really people should have all these bases covered to get the maximum exposure, but what I meant by my previous post is that primarily people here are using this site as a place to learn the art form. they are exposing all their weaknesses asking questions and posting wips, it doesnt seem like very many people here are really focused on getting exposure. its all about how to do skin weighting or unwrap uvs or thier favourite photoshop shortcuts. I'm not meaning to belittle the legitimacy of the gallery aspect of the site. I'm just trying to express my views on the site from the perspective of a regular user.

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You are right that is what the 20 or so active users here do, but have you ever thought why are there only 20 active users when we generate almost 10,000 unique visitors a month, and over 500,000 hits? This is what we see and it leads us to question if we are appealing to the majority, or just a select few. We will always promote the aspect of the site you are talking about, If fact we plan on getting more users involved.

This is where market research comes in and it says people like DA, they like Concept art etc. We have to ask ourself's what do they offer that we don't?

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in order to help you think of how to improve the site, this might help :
1) establish what the main focal point/attraction/purpose of your site is. (i.e) why your site is online.
2) remove that. (not literally, only in your mind)
3) now see what can be done with the site, (which no longer has that main focal point/attraction/purpose,) in order to attract people. --> these can be totally unrelated to the primary focus/purpose and can be complete add-ons, or they can be ideas that have something in common with the main attraction.
4) once you have all the ideas from point 3, add the removed focal point/attraction/purpose.

this may sound like complete MBA b.s., but it really works.

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

Yea good advice man.

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in your case, just remove the Forum, and start thinking of the site without the forum.
DAF has no forum.

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Cogito, Ergo Sum

Makes sense

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Chris

Some fine advice, thanks man.

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Yeah man. I get what your saying. This is an area I have almost no clue about. I dont use sites like DA and I pretty much avoid social networking sites of all kinds bar this one (does that make me a geek among geeks or what) but I do use several forum sites and sites that focus on the techy side of 3d, downloading scripts and stuff. I hope you guys can tap into that magic mixture that gets the users to stick around. I'm really not sure what it is. Like I've said before, I think it will be the resources that will have a noticeable effect. do you agree with that?

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I do, people like a lot of things. and that is why I will be spending the next 6 months working on this one problem.

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I think it really does come down to what the users use it for. If someone comes here to help or be helped, then that's what the site does for them. If the user is trying to gain some exposure or view others work then they can do that. Fortunately the site works well for both.

I think if you want the site to be more about the art, then it's just as simple as making it about the art. Make the art a prominent feature on the home page and show random thumbnailed links to images at the top or sides of every other page not already devoted to art.

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Chris

The voice of reason, I like you sir

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Please support us and post a [Link to www.digitalartsfront.com] on your website.

When my tea is not sweet enough I add more sugar. hehehe

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Chris

More wonderful advice! can I hire you! lol

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well what drew me to this site was the push towards online portfolios as well as the forum. i hate hate hate forums, and i am very bad at being a regular 'poster'. the things i like:

1. lots of aussies, and local 3ders, art school people
2. talent pool (demonstrated with 'featured users')
3. the talent pool's willingness to share

all in all it makes for a COMMUNITY instead of a geek-off - where people can come and go, using the features they prefer in whichever way they please, but by still contributing somehow. this is what's kept me here- the key users who are generally helpful and give good advice and actually reply to stuff, and this is what will keep people coming! in essence its almost like customer service!

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[Link to jasminekurda.carbonmade.com]

Haha yea we plan to keep the community helpful and friendly. It is in a way a service. That is what we want to make the site like, you come you do what you want and you head off again.

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I think you point about being lots of locals is an important one Jasmin as it is pretty cool to chat to people from your area. But it's unfortunate that it's only really South Australia that's got a strong representation on this board. It'd be good to attract more people from other parts of the country and the world so we can build up little sub communities. It'd be good for getting local job news and advice and stuff like that. Any thoughts anyone?

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

We could incorporate google maps?

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To map out the location of each individual member? That'd work. We'd also have to encourage people to try and get other artists in their area to get involved.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

Yea we will be adding an invite a friend feature.

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what about content like software reviews, news about upcoming tools, interviews, dedicated genre based galleries etc..
I know that all that type of thing requires work to create it, and if users were providing things like that it also requires some sort of quality control but if there was more to see and do here beyond the forum it could be beneficial. ??

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Yep we have a large pool of interviews lined up with some of the best artists online. We plan to set up product reviews, but this requires companies to provide us with products to review so it isn't all easy. We plan on converting categories to tags which will make browsing more fluid. News is something we really want to provide for people, we are currently in contact with various companies regarding press releases etc. The only issue we have with news is finding someone to write the articles.

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I'll leave the direction of the site up to you guys, since it's not really my place to be suggesting what way to take it.

A small feature that I think should be implemented is splitting content up into pages. For example I think topics should limit the amount of posts per page.

Or if that would conflict too much with the whole nested reply system, I think the forum's posts should be collapsable so it would save page size. A good example of this is the IMDb forum system.

Ofcourse you don't need to add this in just something I thought would be a good addition

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[Link to mediadesign.deviantart.com]
[Link to www.youtube.com]

That's a good point, there are some long posts on this board.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

Yea we are actually working on collapsing posts, it is already in place for the iphone. We also plan on ajaxing the forums. The pages is something we obviously need to put in place. But as you said it messes with the nested reply's a little.

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Hey man, can I talk to you about some stuff?

Add me on msn or skype or gtalk:

matt@gunerook.com
varnishedotter
maxnode@gmail.com

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Please support us and post a [Link to www.digitalartsfront.com] on your website.

--Matt

how about...

like featured photo's are moving and changing differently? some kinda of a 3d effect in the home page.. just a suggestion...

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Started Max last September 2008

Jovanie_
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"To forgive a woman's lie is a man's duty!!"