Suggestions.

[scoutmasterthias]

Okay, I have a two suggestions.

Make it a rule along with the no copyrighted images part. Make it a rule that they have to provide at least one image.

Here’s my reason. It gives us an idea. Do you want your person when they had blond hair? When they had brown? Do you want them serious, laughing, standing, sitting? What kind of outfit do you want? Do you want the horse running, do you want it standing still, do you want the front or the back of the horse?

One image is enough to give the personalizer ideas. We might not use them, we might not like the image you provided. That’s fine, we’ll go look for others ourselves. But they at least give us ideas as to what you’re looking for.

If you don’t provide any images, and you don’t like the picture we make you, don’t complain! Giving us images gives us ideas of what you’re looking for.

Second, the critique forum. It’s not a show-off area, it’s not a gallery. It’s a place to get another pair of eyes to look at your image and point out what was good, what was bad, what needs work, what is confusing. It’s not a spam section. Perhaps a kind of form for those requesting a critique, and another for people that are going to give one would help?

[katielovesyouツ]

About the critique form part, I don't think that'd quite work out. Whether it just be a little tip here or there or a huge full-out critique, it's still helpful. If we force people to follow a form and make a reasonably sized critique, they wouldn't critique as much.

Or, maybe the critiquer is a photographer and knows something about lighting, but they know nothing about colours or photomanipulating techniques in general and just want to give a little tip about lighting. Maybe they're a painter and just want to give some tips on matching up colours and positioning of images, but don't know anything about photoshop. They're not going to want to follow a form to give their critiques when they know nothing about the rest, and will probably just not critique at all since they can't give all of the information.

I know that we could just say they don't have to fill out all the sections of the form, but really, who wants to read through the whole form and write down 'n/a' or some other sort to every section that doesn't concern them?


Also, for the part about giving at least one picture... that kind of makes sense. But then again, some people do get very descriptive in their descriptions and a picture isn't really needed. Or they could just be horrible at image finding and can't find anything. Or perhaps they're ordering an image because they know NOTHING about stock or rules and don't want to have to learn about them. I'll have to see what all the other mods say. Lol.

[Sango<3]

<sub>Thanks for the suggestions, first of all.

About the one image thing, I could see how that would help but I know there have been several times when I just cannot find ANY type of image that goes along with my request. And with what Twiil said, some people are very descriptive in their.. descriptions. Lol. Also, if the personalizer has a question about if a certain image would work or not they could just post the picture they found and ask the requester and the requester could always say no it doesn't work and try and describe what s/he wants and such..

I, personally, am not a big fan of having forms for critiques. On other sites where I have been before where you had to fill out a form to request a critique or even when critiquing somebody's image or whatever, it just got really annoying and I ended up just not posting at all in that section anymore.

But, again, thanks so much for the suggestions, thats all my opinions on it so lets see what everybody else has to say..</sub>

[scoutmasterthias]

A simple form would be something like;

Rating: ?/5
What you liked: At least one.
What you didn’t like: At least one.
What you think needs work: (Can be part of above.)

It’s not something huge and drawn out, just a base for ideas.

As for not being able to find images. So, you can’t find images that represent anything of what you would like; no pose you like, no color you like… yet you want the personalizer to find them? Off a descriptive paragraph? Even one image, stock, would help. You could even put that you don’t like the image you provided, and don’t want it used, but you like how it has _______.

[katielovesyouツ]

I'm not sure I like the rating part of that. It'd be like comparing someone's image to someone else's. Like, 'haha mine got a 4/5 and yours got a 3/5!' And, I don't think people need a good thing and a bad thing, I know I usually don't give good things, and if I do it's usually only one or two. It's their own image, they should know what's good about it. If they don't then they need to work on their self-confidence. I know I have really bad self-confidence, but I can usually find a couple things I like about even a really bad, old image of mine.

I just think critiques should be really free-form.


Well, yeah, that's part of a personalizer's job. And they don't even necessarily HAVE to find them on their own if they don't. The personalizer can ask image finder's to find the images then show them to the requester to see if they like 'em.

Imagine That has tons of restrictions already, anyway. I don't think we need anymore to dissuade customers.


Mods? What are your opinions?
(Thanks for the suggestions, too!)

[faden]

Instead of restrictions or rules, how about pure commenting?

For example, if someone wants a good critique on their work, they could write detailed, constructive critiques on other's works. DA has proved commenting breeds commenting, perhaps critiquing will breed critiquing?

But, don't make it a rule, just keep it as an unspoken thing. This way you are 'controlling' the situation a bit, just behind the scenes. Trust me, I don't like the one line critiques either, it bothers me. But, I do agree that forms can be messy and annoying to deal with. I also know that if one person writes up a paragraph or two, the next person commenting usually picks up on something and goes with the flow.

For example:
Person A: The eye is a bit off. I can't tell why but it looks awkward.

Person B: I agree with person A, the eye is off. Maybe you should add more lighting to the eye, or perhaps the iris is too small.....

Then again, there are just people who want to say they like something and comment. I know, annoying, debate-ably rude ect ect >.>

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For the picture thing, I have a three step process I use:
1. I read over the request a couple of times. I start from the basics and see if there is extra information. I also check to see if people have commented on the request, and I read through the comments.

2. I ask if I can find pictures and show them (if are none) / Ask for clarification. If there is a decent description of the character, I ask for clarification ie: where is the spot exactly? Do you have a reference you can show me? If not, I try to go on what they say as best as I can.

3. Proofread. What I mean by this is I will start the request and ask questions if I need to.

It can be a pain for the personalizer, but sometimes we have to outsmart the requesters. lol. Just kidding. At the same time, in a way, we do need to keep one step ahead.