Journals15
Newest
I have a new name!
5 min read
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Devious Journal Entry
3 min read
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Squiggle... I mean Skribble contest!
1 min read
Ok, I'm not going to trawl through all the comments on the newly announced competition to find out how many Aussies have said the same thing. I know I'm not the only person who jumped straight to this thought when I saw it.
news.deviantart.com/article/15…
So will our entries be judged by a grumpy blackboard then?
Completely unintentional on the contest's part since I'm sure they've never seen the show, but made me smile none the less. Clip for nostalgia reasons and so all the non-Aussies reading know what I'm going on about: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ks797…
news.deviantart.com/article/15…
So will our entries be judged by a grumpy blackboard then?
Completely unintentional on the contest's part since I'm sure they've never seen the show, but made me smile none the less. Clip for nostalgia reasons and so all the non-Aussies reading know what I'm going on about: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ks797…
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Spring clean
2 min read
After a bit of thought I've decided to re-focus my devinatart presence more on my art art and less on my icons etc. So I have deleted all the individual icons I had uploaded to my gallery and tucked the rest of my fan-y art into a folder so that my gallery can focus more on my photography and my attempts at drawing. I've also joined a few groups in an attempt to get my drawings out there and get some feedback on them.
I don't know what happens when I delete a deviation which has been faved or commented on but if anyone is looking for the icons I had uploaded they can be found at my livejournal. cloned-fiction.livejournal.com… Just click the "icons" tag in the cloud down the bottom of the right-hand bar and you will find them plus many others that were never up here. Except for the Hitchiker and Empire Records quote ones. They were crappy and are gone from the internets for good.
Well, I guess that's all I have to say. I'm surprised I managed to say it in so few words (compared to my usual rambling).
I don't know what happens when I delete a deviation which has been faved or commented on but if anyone is looking for the icons I had uploaded they can be found at my livejournal. cloned-fiction.livejournal.com… Just click the "icons" tag in the cloud down the bottom of the right-hand bar and you will find them plus many others that were never up here. Except for the Hitchiker and Empire Records quote ones. They were crappy and are gone from the internets for good.
Well, I guess that's all I have to say. I'm surprised I managed to say it in so few words (compared to my usual rambling).
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Confused
11 min read
I just... Don't understand.
For years I've been getting the occasional fave of my work from someone I don't know with no contact from the person explaining what motivated them to fave it. I used to leave a thank you on their profile because I thought that was the polite thing to do but I rarely heard back from them. Then I decided a new practice of not thanking a person for a fave unless they commented as well, leaving me somewhere to thank them without their profile getting clogged with "thanks for the fave" comments. Up until now, 99% of the time I have been able to contribute these unexplained favings as a love of the fandom because most of my work is fandom related. But yesterday I uploaded a drawing I did - a 100% original drawing of one of my own characters and a piece quite personal to me for a variety of reasons. Within a minute I'd gotten two faves on it from random people as usual without comment. I realize that these people would have seen my deviation on the front page, perhaps they liked the look of it, and then faved it (technically in one case, added it to their "cool misc" collection. But because of how important and personal this particular picture was to me I really wanted to know why. I wanted to know whether they did like it or had some other purpose for faving/collecting it (is there a difference between the two within DA culture?) and if they did like it - why. I honestly did not think this knowledge was something I apparently had no right to ask about, and I didn't think I'd be bugging them by asking them why they faved my work and maybe (because I can't resist going on for longer than I have to) also asking them some questions about how they use DA to get a better idea of the place. They could, of course, always ignore me as so many people have done in the past, and as one of them did indeed seem to do (so far). The other replied and I was momentarily overjoyed that I might receive some feedback or maybe just a better understanding of how other people on this site see "faving" and what importance they place on it.
Nope. Or, not exactly.
Here is a copy of what I sent them:
Can I ask you a question? Why did you fave my work? I don't mean to sound upset, I'm just confused. Because I just uploaded it and I got two random faves in a matter of seconds. This always happens when I upload something and I just really really prefer feedback but no-one ever leaves a comment on my work...
For the record, I can 100% guarantee nothing I ever wrote this person was meant as an insult or in a negative way, and I'm fairly certain my first note wasn't taken that way, because this was the reply:
keep practice and wok
if i just faved it doesnt means anything... your work is your work and internet is internet
Which confused the heck out of me. There is absolutely no indication there of this person's reasons for faving my work. They don't even seem to remember doing it, or anything about it. But that's cool, I'm just more curious now. So I sent this:
See I think that's where I get confused, because I see a fave as "this is one of my favorite pieces of art on this site", so I have very picky/high faving standards. I'll comment without faving if I like the work but it's not quite fave material to me, but I don't fave unless I find something pretty extraordinary. But thanks I guess for letting me know that is definitely not how other people on this site operate. Although, you did technically just "collect" my work. Is there a definable difference between collecting and faving? Sorry for all the questions, I've been here a few years but I'm a bit of a lurker and I'm only just figuring out how the culture here works. Can I ask though, were you faving randomly to get page views from people thanking you? How common is this?
In retrospect I can definitely see that there are parts of that message which could very easily been taken negatively or as an attack or insult. I've always had problems with communication and by now I've just given up taking two or three times more words to explain in detail exactly how I mean something. I usually put some smileys in there to try to convey a positive tone but I was distracted when I wrote that. The person I sent it to obviously saw all or parts of it as an attack which I can understand. Their reply follows:
i provide pageviess, so i dont need pageviews...
and im doing this coz im doing this...
i collect, fave, share stuff... allso i provide p4p
i do lots of things... and if i collected your stuff it doesnt means that i wanted you with them... i dont know u, i dont want you... im just collecting your stuff... if you think that you have right to judge me coz i faved your items on DA thats your problem im just an user and i dont have to tell everyone why and what for im doing this or that... do i make my self clear?
Which... I mean... Most of that I simply do not understand on any level, mainly because of my lack of knowledge and understanding of the DA community. So please can anyone help me out? How do they provide pageviews? Do they fave random works to give those artists exposure? Or do they just mean by their pageview when they collected it? They do appear quite popular, and rightfully so because their art is very nice. However, I'm not sure if I agree that the practice of collecting random work to provide exposure in such an impersonal and casual way would be a positive thing given this level of consideration for the individual works. If this person can't even tell me why they thought my work worthy or necessary for collection, and seems outright resentful in this message that I contacted them then how much do they really care about me or my work? Also, what is p4p? I can guess but I've never heard the term before.
Since I don't care at all about pageviews or faves which are not proven to be meaningful (as I have talked about numerous times before) then I am telling this person now: If giving me more pageviews was their intent. Thanks, but no thanks.
Now onto a sentence which, beleive it or not and I'm not trying to get sympathy or attention or anything, actually made me cry at its callous disregard for me and my work and at simple lack of understanding of what exactly I've done to provoke this level of ire.
"If I collect your stuff it doesn't mean that I wanted you with them"
To me putting my work in their collection is a form of contact, however insignificant it is to them. It connected us when I had previously never seen or heard of this person. I've the right to contact them and ask them why. They do not need to tell me, they've the right to refuse and they could ignore me at any point and I would just continue to be confused and/or curious. I would not have bugged them further if I had not received a reply at any stage, but all I've done so far is sustain a conversation with them by replying to their replies, and at the first suggestion they were unhappy with this I apologized and will now leave them alone. Simply contacting them and asking some questions does not give them a reason to get pissy with me, especially when those questions relate to my work. They did not need to be mean about refusing to answer, either. I mean they act as if I beat down their door and demanded answers or stalked them or something...
I wanted desperately to ask more questions and understand what the hell is going on but I didn't want to bug them further so I replied:
I never meant any offense and I wasn't judging you or the practice of faving for page-views which I know exists. I was just totally confused as to why you collected my work and kind of curious about the inner workings of DA, I'm sorry if I bugged you too much or insulted you.
I don't know what to do. This work means a lot to me and I feel a very personal connection to it and therefore how other people interact with it means a lot to me. I know I posted it on the internet for anyone to see, and they can see to their heart's content. I just still have no idea about this person's motivations and it scares me. I don't mean that they are going to steal it or misuse it (however it could be misused...). I just mean that knowing this person obviously has little regard for my work or me makes me upset and I am considering taking it down. I don't really think I could have got any meaningful feedback putting it up here anyway, so few people on this site seem concerned with that and someone like me barely ever attracts the attention of those who do. This may sound like an over-reaction. Did you know this message made me seriously consider never uploading anything personal on this site again? But this is not over-reacting, because on almost any other work I would not care one whit if this happened. But as I said this work is personal to me, so it is special circumstances.
Can anyone help me figure this out?
If the person involved in this sees this journal, I still do not mean you any offense, this entry is not an attack on you just a venting of my frustration at my lack of understanding and knowledge in this situation. While I disagree with you on some points during this post I firmly beleive in my right to do so without personally attacking you, which I haven't
A special side-note as why feedback means so much to me:
I draw only for my own purposes (the work in question is a reference for me of one of my original characters from my writing). I also don't draw often, as I lack a lot of the basic skills to do so fairly well. Specifically:
-I lack spacial awareness which means I have always been horrible at estimating time, distances, etc and this means that it takes me a long time to get the proportions of a face or anything I draw any where near close to what they're meant to be. So if people can tell me the eyes are too big or the face too long it helps me for next time.
-Another skill I lack is keen observation of the world around me, visually. Even if I stare long and hard at things my mind simply won't pick up all the details necessary to render a good representation of it on paper, or if it picks them up I can't remember them, this is probably because I lack a highly detailed visual imagination. I can think outside the box, but I suck really bad at picturing anything in my mind.
-Also, I lack hand-eye coordination, which means that even if I observe something it hardly ever comes out right when I try to draw it because my hand does not go precisely where my mind wants it to.
Yes, all of these skills could be improved with practice but drawing has never been a high enough priority for me. I draw only occasionally, and as I said solely for my own reasons. Same with writing. That is why whenever I put my work on the internet, or in the public eye in any way, all I want is constructive criticism and feedback, I am addicted to the stuff. But rarely anyone is willing to take the time to give it, and that is sad.
Even though I'm not too great with words and often can't find the right ones, and am also very shy, I try my best to give someone feedback if I see something on here or anywhere else that moves me in some way.
For years I've been getting the occasional fave of my work from someone I don't know with no contact from the person explaining what motivated them to fave it. I used to leave a thank you on their profile because I thought that was the polite thing to do but I rarely heard back from them. Then I decided a new practice of not thanking a person for a fave unless they commented as well, leaving me somewhere to thank them without their profile getting clogged with "thanks for the fave" comments. Up until now, 99% of the time I have been able to contribute these unexplained favings as a love of the fandom because most of my work is fandom related. But yesterday I uploaded a drawing I did - a 100% original drawing of one of my own characters and a piece quite personal to me for a variety of reasons. Within a minute I'd gotten two faves on it from random people as usual without comment. I realize that these people would have seen my deviation on the front page, perhaps they liked the look of it, and then faved it (technically in one case, added it to their "cool misc" collection. But because of how important and personal this particular picture was to me I really wanted to know why. I wanted to know whether they did like it or had some other purpose for faving/collecting it (is there a difference between the two within DA culture?) and if they did like it - why. I honestly did not think this knowledge was something I apparently had no right to ask about, and I didn't think I'd be bugging them by asking them why they faved my work and maybe (because I can't resist going on for longer than I have to) also asking them some questions about how they use DA to get a better idea of the place. They could, of course, always ignore me as so many people have done in the past, and as one of them did indeed seem to do (so far). The other replied and I was momentarily overjoyed that I might receive some feedback or maybe just a better understanding of how other people on this site see "faving" and what importance they place on it.
Nope. Or, not exactly.
Here is a copy of what I sent them:
Can I ask you a question? Why did you fave my work? I don't mean to sound upset, I'm just confused. Because I just uploaded it and I got two random faves in a matter of seconds. This always happens when I upload something and I just really really prefer feedback but no-one ever leaves a comment on my work...
For the record, I can 100% guarantee nothing I ever wrote this person was meant as an insult or in a negative way, and I'm fairly certain my first note wasn't taken that way, because this was the reply:
keep practice and wok
if i just faved it doesnt means anything... your work is your work and internet is internet
Which confused the heck out of me. There is absolutely no indication there of this person's reasons for faving my work. They don't even seem to remember doing it, or anything about it. But that's cool, I'm just more curious now. So I sent this:
See I think that's where I get confused, because I see a fave as "this is one of my favorite pieces of art on this site", so I have very picky/high faving standards. I'll comment without faving if I like the work but it's not quite fave material to me, but I don't fave unless I find something pretty extraordinary. But thanks I guess for letting me know that is definitely not how other people on this site operate. Although, you did technically just "collect" my work. Is there a definable difference between collecting and faving? Sorry for all the questions, I've been here a few years but I'm a bit of a lurker and I'm only just figuring out how the culture here works. Can I ask though, were you faving randomly to get page views from people thanking you? How common is this?
In retrospect I can definitely see that there are parts of that message which could very easily been taken negatively or as an attack or insult. I've always had problems with communication and by now I've just given up taking two or three times more words to explain in detail exactly how I mean something. I usually put some smileys in there to try to convey a positive tone but I was distracted when I wrote that. The person I sent it to obviously saw all or parts of it as an attack which I can understand. Their reply follows:
i provide pageviess, so i dont need pageviews...
and im doing this coz im doing this...
i collect, fave, share stuff... allso i provide p4p
i do lots of things... and if i collected your stuff it doesnt means that i wanted you with them... i dont know u, i dont want you... im just collecting your stuff... if you think that you have right to judge me coz i faved your items on DA thats your problem
im just an user and i dont have to tell everyone why and what for im doing this or that... do i make my self clear?Which... I mean... Most of that I simply do not understand on any level, mainly because of my lack of knowledge and understanding of the DA community. So please can anyone help me out? How do they provide pageviews? Do they fave random works to give those artists exposure? Or do they just mean by their pageview when they collected it? They do appear quite popular, and rightfully so because their art is very nice. However, I'm not sure if I agree that the practice of collecting random work to provide exposure in such an impersonal and casual way would be a positive thing given this level of consideration for the individual works. If this person can't even tell me why they thought my work worthy or necessary for collection, and seems outright resentful in this message that I contacted them then how much do they really care about me or my work? Also, what is p4p? I can guess but I've never heard the term before.
Since I don't care at all about pageviews or faves which are not proven to be meaningful (as I have talked about numerous times before) then I am telling this person now: If giving me more pageviews was their intent. Thanks, but no thanks.
Now onto a sentence which, beleive it or not and I'm not trying to get sympathy or attention or anything, actually made me cry at its callous disregard for me and my work and at simple lack of understanding of what exactly I've done to provoke this level of ire.
"If I collect your stuff it doesn't mean that I wanted you with them"
To me putting my work in their collection is a form of contact, however insignificant it is to them. It connected us when I had previously never seen or heard of this person. I've the right to contact them and ask them why. They do not need to tell me, they've the right to refuse and they could ignore me at any point and I would just continue to be confused and/or curious. I would not have bugged them further if I had not received a reply at any stage, but all I've done so far is sustain a conversation with them by replying to their replies, and at the first suggestion they were unhappy with this I apologized and will now leave them alone. Simply contacting them and asking some questions does not give them a reason to get pissy with me, especially when those questions relate to my work. They did not need to be mean about refusing to answer, either. I mean they act as if I beat down their door and demanded answers or stalked them or something...
I wanted desperately to ask more questions and understand what the hell is going on but I didn't want to bug them further so I replied:
I never meant any offense and I wasn't judging you or the practice of faving for page-views which I know exists. I was just totally confused as to why you collected my work and kind of curious about the inner workings of DA, I'm sorry if I bugged you too much or insulted you.
I don't know what to do. This work means a lot to me and I feel a very personal connection to it and therefore how other people interact with it means a lot to me. I know I posted it on the internet for anyone to see, and they can see to their heart's content. I just still have no idea about this person's motivations and it scares me. I don't mean that they are going to steal it or misuse it (however it could be misused...). I just mean that knowing this person obviously has little regard for my work or me makes me upset and I am considering taking it down. I don't really think I could have got any meaningful feedback putting it up here anyway, so few people on this site seem concerned with that and someone like me barely ever attracts the attention of those who do. This may sound like an over-reaction. Did you know this message made me seriously consider never uploading anything personal on this site again? But this is not over-reacting, because on almost any other work I would not care one whit if this happened. But as I said this work is personal to me, so it is special circumstances.
Can anyone help me figure this out?
If the person involved in this sees this journal, I still do not mean you any offense, this entry is not an attack on you just a venting of my frustration at my lack of understanding and knowledge in this situation. While I disagree with you on some points during this post I firmly beleive in my right to do so without personally attacking you, which I haven't
A special side-note as why feedback means so much to me:
I draw only for my own purposes (the work in question is a reference for me of one of my original characters from my writing). I also don't draw often, as I lack a lot of the basic skills to do so fairly well. Specifically:
-I lack spacial awareness which means I have always been horrible at estimating time, distances, etc and this means that it takes me a long time to get the proportions of a face or anything I draw any where near close to what they're meant to be. So if people can tell me the eyes are too big or the face too long it helps me for next time.
-Another skill I lack is keen observation of the world around me, visually. Even if I stare long and hard at things my mind simply won't pick up all the details necessary to render a good representation of it on paper, or if it picks them up I can't remember them, this is probably because I lack a highly detailed visual imagination. I can think outside the box, but I suck really bad at picturing anything in my mind.
-Also, I lack hand-eye coordination, which means that even if I observe something it hardly ever comes out right when I try to draw it because my hand does not go precisely where my mind wants it to.
Yes, all of these skills could be improved with practice but drawing has never been a high enough priority for me. I draw only occasionally, and as I said solely for my own reasons. Same with writing. That is why whenever I put my work on the internet, or in the public eye in any way, all I want is constructive criticism and feedback, I am addicted to the stuff. But rarely anyone is willing to take the time to give it, and that is sad.
Even though I'm not too great with words and often can't find the right ones, and am also very shy, I try my best to give someone feedback if I see something on here or anywhere else that moves me in some way.
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