Welcome! Please grab a cup of coffee, and one of those delicious donuts most kindly donated by R2.
As you can guess from the title, this is yet another attempt at solving the AG activity problem. This problem has been ever present since late 2010. Many reasons as to the cause have been presented, ranging from a much delayed release of AG3, to lacking of a community manager, or the end of the flash gaming era.
I do have a couple of ideas concerning activity and how to increase it. Whether these are the keys to solving the issues at hand or not is unbeknownst to me, but I most certainly feel it is definitely worth the effort.
I'm not going into details - yet. Firstly, I'm going to need a few volunteers. More the better, but not more then 20 (20, yeah right...) Don't volunteer then become inactive that would not be beneficial to anything.
There is no spark in the AMW because there is no incentive for any aspiring artist to post their work. No one gives any feedback. Hell, nobody even says "nice drawing" anymore. The only time a thread booms is when one user has to give back. You'd think posting art for people would be enough, but no. You have to complete requests from people, and then all you get is a thanks.
Until the community gives back to the artist, there will be no AMW.
Pang, I really do understand what you guys are saying. I do. I know I tried really hard when everyone was leaving, I tried hard to keep people here and keep activity up. And I know it's also really frustrating to have someone (for me it was people from '09-'10) to come in and talk about how crappy the community I loved a lot was crappy. But I don't believe I've inccesantly insulted you. And if I you have percieved any of my comments as an insult, well I do apologize. Also, feel free to quote me and show me where I have insulted you so I know not to do it again. You do have a point, thought. I didn't really care about "AG". I only cared about the people that I befriended over the years. Many of them happened to be the backbone of the community, though. Like I said before, if we could reverse the gears and have everyone back it would be great. But that isn't going to happen because everyone got jobs, went to college, etc. When I first posted on this thread, I gave an open invitation for people to greet me, but that didn't happen. I got some crap about how "You left because of this and this or that??" I really just wanted my account back so I could try and make more friends and help out in the AMW, but instead it seems my nostalgia has come across as rude..? I assure you it wasn't meant to be. But please try to understand, when you compare your current efforts to the 'old' times, and then you call the current community better, it's a bit of an insult to me. Mainly because most/all of you didn't experience it, but just reverse what you think I'm doing to you, and that's how it is for me. Now as soon as a certain green-typing fellow comes back from the desert then will hopefully help me fix my account I will gladly try to come back anddo my part, mainly for the AMW and Tavern. As Bronze said, in order to revive the AMW, you need to give back to the artist. Having good intentions to fix things isn't going to get it done, just as this thread was a bit stale by the time I got here.
If my account doesn't get fixed, then I make no promises to stick around much in the forums, but I'll still gladly chat via comments.
I do understand you don't mean to be disrespectful, but what you said was pretty rude. I'm not prancing around telling everyone they suck. I'm just saying don't diss the past AG if you weren't there. Forgive me for being nostalgic when I returned to this site from a year and a half of absence.
Long answer: The AMW can't be "fixed" like the other sections. This is bold to say, but regardless of what you think, it can't be fixed with a simple introduction of more activity. It can't be fixed with more skilled artists. It can't be fixed with the return of vets. It can't be fixed with awesome threads, new contests, cool content, or practically anything else. It isn't quite that simple.
The AMW is like a baby. It must be taken care of by using different techniques at different times. If a baby smells, change its diaper. If a baby is hungry, give it milk. It a baby has gas, burp it. Before you figure out what you need to do, however, you need to analyze it. The AMW, like a baby, is constantly changing. You can leave it to sit in a room by itself and it will change. Therefore, it's a complicated area.
I want you all to read that, think on it for a while, come back and share your new opinions. If not, we'll end up failing again. Trust me - I'm a cute ninja.
I do understand you don't mean to be disrespectful, but what you said was pretty rude. I'm not prancing around telling everyone they suck. I'm just saying don't diss the past AG if you weren't there. Forgive me for being nostalgic when I returned to this site from a year and a half of absence.
I'll respond more later...but I do want to start with an apology of my own. I was pretty harsh...but only because I do care about this community so much...but this is no excuse for such blinders over my own eyes. I just haven't been in the best of moods for quite some times now..so my reaction is a lot heavier than I would like.
One example would be the statement of you being the perfect embodiment of fellow past members...that isn't true, and if edit was a thing here I would love to delete that. You are more of a vehicle to the realization on my part that the past members seem to be quite insulting of this generation...which is quite irksome.
Also, I'm not advocating any generation bashing the other. Everyone, respect each generation. It's ****ing annoying when generations talk down or poorly of the other.
Wow... Two days at work and two pages of long posts to read through... =P
don't compare this current community to the one of the past because you don't know what it was like.
As a past lurker during that time frame, I can agree that the community isn't the same anymore. Times change, people change, topics of discussions change... It's the cycle of the internet. Sadly, if you weren't here to change with the rest of the community, it can be rather hard to fit in.
Moon, seems like you're just wanting the old community back. That isn't going to happen. Nobody here is dissing the old AG... Believe me, we all would have liked to have been a part of that era (I was a lurker at that time, but I regret not having participated.) Just don't beat on the new era that we are approaching. It's taken around two years of nagging to the admins, and hundreds of pages of discussion to prepare for this, and we are all hoping it wont fail.
a majority of the new kids were either dumb as rocks or just plain annoying.
Well now I know what you think about me Em. *Runs of crying*
Cen died, probably. Stroppy works on WoM. Zoph has only been active for like a week since I have had my account. Walker has family, he was around as long as Zoph since I have been around.
Also Em, you left because of the same reasons as me. Except now I have more time and am better at balancing things.
Oh daleks you aren't included in that majority! You have a special category because of doctor who~
I saw Walker post semi recently, and I really do miss him. He was beyond helpful to me. If Cen died, Zoph died too.
I'm waiting for Ferret to return from his vacation, then hopefully it will all be sorted out.
and pang, it's okay. I figured I wasn't who you were directing all of that at, because I've known you a bit longer than I have most others who are currently active. You aren't like that, I know. :b
Sal, since you seem to know how to take care of baby AMW, why don't you?
