Rules about Introductions, Pitches, Fanart and Hiatus

Post by **Kisai** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 9:59 pm

It's been proposed that additional filtering be added to General Discussion
due to constant violations of rule:

2.c. spamming the forums with unsolicitied sales pitches.

Primarily from people posting "I'm coming back from hiatus", "I'm going on Hiatus", "I want fanart", "I'm looking for someone to draw..." type of posts

It's been proposed that Hiatus/back-from-hiatus annoucements be moved to Comic Pitching, Fan-art/Guest-art requests moved to Dropdowns and crossovers.

Also would be moved, Comic Anniversaries and milestones, these also classify as sales pitches.

This is in order to keep General Discussion "on topic" about comic/webcomic materials without constantly being interrupted with thinly veiled sales pitches to visit someones comic. That's what your avatar and sig space is for (tiny sample of artwork to invite people to visit.)

Discuss. Basically the rule would be "comic sales pitches of any kind are to goto comic pitching, fanart/guestart requests/sales-pitches of any kind goto dropdowns and crossovers" . I want to hear what people think before doing anything.

Turnsky · Post by **Turnsky** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:07 pm

well that sounds fair to me, i mean that's what the comic pitching thread is for, right?.. all things pertaining to one's own comic, whether it be saying that you're on/off hiatus, asking for guest art, etc.

Biev · Post by **Biev** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:12 pm

I've been thinking that, too. Definitely an improvement.

Black Sparrow · Post by **Black Sparrow** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:13 pm

I know this is weird coming from me, but I think it's a good idea. GD is littered with these kinds of threads.

However, I can see one major con to implementing this rule, and that's the current state of forum traffic.

GD gets used. If you post something in GD, people see it and pop into the thread, and then they might get curious and check out your stuff. But, unless people make an effort to look for new comics/fanart, Comic Pitching and Dropdowns and Crossovers get skipped over. This might make the anniversary announcements hollow and the fanart requests poorly recieved.

Then again, this might help GENERATE traffic for the forums in question... a definite plus.

Again, I'm leaning on the "for" side of this suggestion. But that may be because I don't make announcements or requests in the first place.

Dr Neo Lao · Post by **Dr Neo Lao** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 11:36 pm

Whilst I agree that blatent "look at me" threads that have nothing worthwhile to contribute to other members ought to be moved to the appropriate place, I'm not so sure about the artwork requests.

Unless it became fashionable to put artwork requests in sigs, in which case I can forsee some mighty long threads where the sigs are longer than the actual content of the thread. Unless a universal shorthand was implemented that everybody used...

"Need 4 bw std 3p cmx g/fa by May10" means "I need four black and white standard 3 panel comics that are gag a day or simple fanart by the 10th of May (this year!)"

The policy, as stated in the first post is good. I'd support it.

Edit: Now that I think about it, there are designated places for discussing designated topics. This should be blatently obvious, but not everyone realises it.

Anything to do with your own comic (Pitching, milestones, hiatus on/off) would go into Comic Pitching, except requests for software assistance which would go into Help Centre and requests for art assistance which would go into TTT.

Drop downs and crossovers is fairly self explanatory, anything to do with comiking but not directly involving your own would go into General Discussion with the remaining "anything not involved with comiking" ending up in Off Topic.

With that in mind, the obvious solution would be to create a new Forum between Comic Pitching and Dropdowns + Crossovers specifically for art requests (filler, guest art, avatars, sig images etc).

Otherwise, art requests (by those definitions) goes in 'General Discussion'.

Laemkral · Post by **Laemkral** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 11:50 pm

I approve this idea. Like Sparrow said, it may increase traffic to other sections of the forums. If I knew that announcements would only be in Comic Pitching, I'd probably visit more often. I may be more inclined to check Dropdowns/Crossovers if I were the kind of person who did fanart on a regular basis if thats where requests were. I think eliminating these constant requests will help the other sections get more traffic and GD will continue to survive just fine.

Dr Neo Lao · Post by **Dr Neo Lao** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 11:52 pm

Addendum to above: Maybe it would be worthwhile changing "Comic Pitching" to "Comic Promotion"?

Kris X · Post by **Kris X** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 12:39 am

Negative on the above statement in my opinion. Even more so state where this proposal was stated? Because duff and I weren't present during the proposal I would assume.

I have no problem with the policy, but a heads up would be nice since this new policy effects rules in other forums as well.

Dotty · Post by **Dotty** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:12 am

People thought what I was saying was a good idea? Oh! Good! God, that was getting annoying. I was honestly wondering what the comic pitching forums were for.

Good idea.

Joel Fagin · Post by **Joel Fagin** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:34 am

If the fanart requests go into Crossovers then the won't be seen by nearly as many people. For actual requests that's fair enough since it's one sided - almost like a plug - but when there's a trade going on (fanart for links or links for fanart) there are benefits all round and it should have a wider audience.

Cities usually restrict and discourage the beggars* but never the shops.

If I had to choose between all or nothing, I'd rather they stayed in GD. stimulating an economy is never a bad thing.

I'm fine with te pitching side, though.

- Joel Fagin

* Sorry. Best analogy I could come up with even if it's not awfully complimentary.

Ataraxia · Post by **Ataraxia** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:45 am

Joel Fagin wrote:If I had to choose between all or nothing, I'd rather they stayed in GD. stimulating an economy is never a bad thing.

I agree with Joel. The rest of it can get shunted off to other forums, but I'd like to see the fanart/link trades stay in GD.

Robin Pierce · Post by **Robin Pierce** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:37 am

I definitely agree on the anniversary things and such. - less work for me to keep track of dozens of these and make sure nothing untoward is going on in them (which is usually the case if they get over three pages).... not that this is an excuse for me to be lazy!!

That said, fanart should maybe stay here. I don't think dropdowns and crossovers will get used more.. I think people'll make the posts and they'll be ignored completely. Maybe. I'll have to think on that one a bit more.

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 5:05 am

Eventually, there won't be anything left in GD.

Fanart requests, general: I wholly agree with Kisai.

Fanart requests, specific: The Katrina Webcomic telethon, the Christmas fanart exchange, etcetera... if there's a group fanart thing going on, that should probably stay in GD. They're comic related, and of interest to many comic artists.

Anniversaries: Why not Off Topic? While these threads may be a bit like comic pitching, I suspect most people who put up a thread like that are doing so to celebrate, not to draw a couple extra readers. I don't see a problem with these threads getting a lot of views (I suspect OT is at least as well read as GD), and they usually die within 1-4 pages.

::edit:: whoops, almost forgot:

Hiatus: I think it's important for any regular webcomicer to be able to say that they're off hiatus. However I don't think a thread is the right place (imho you should post regularly anyway, and just put it in your signature), and that it is entirely comic pitching - wholly behind Kisai on this one too.

Joel Fagin · Post by **Joel Fagin** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 5:12 am

rkolter wrote:Anniversaries: Why not Off Topic? While these threads may be a bit like comic pitching, I suspect most people who put up a thread like that are doing so to celebrate, not to draw a couple extra readers.

I'll go with that.

- Joel Fagin

Nanda · Post by **Nanda** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 8:30 am

Joel Fagin wrote:
rkolter wrote:Anniversaries: Why not Off Topic? While these threads may be a bit like comic pitching, I suspect most people who put up a thread like that are doing so to celebrate, not to draw a couple extra readers.
I'll go with that.

- Joel Fagin

I agree. When I posted my anniversary thread, it was to celebrate with the friends I already have, not gain new readers.

Rcmonroe · Post by **Rcmonroe** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 10:22 am

rkolter wrote:I think it's important for any regular webcomicer to be able to say that they're off hiatus.

Regular webcomicers are never on hiatus.

Just thought it might be good to throw out something contrary, since I'm about to declare the moving-all-types-of-pitches-to-Comic-Pitching idea a good one.

Rusty Knight · Post by **Rusty Knight** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 10:49 am

I agree with the moving thingies from GD.

*not that I'm an important member of the community or anything but I agree anyways

...the old hide things in plain view* chestnut...

*actually the purloined letter gambit

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 12:04 pm

rcmonroe wrote:
rkolter wrote:I think it's important for any regular webcomicer to be able to say that they're off hiatus.
Regular webcomicers are never on hiatus.

Just thought it might be good to throw out something contrary, since I'm about to declare the moving-all-types-of-pitches-to-Comic-Pitching idea a good one.

You aren't being contrary. My very next line says that hiatus type messages should go to comic pitching.

That's like you saying "Granny apples are green. Most other apples are red." And then me saying, "You said granny apples are green, I'm feeling contrary and want to say that most other apples are red."

Perk_daddy · Post by **Perk_daddy** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 12:20 pm

I'm with the idea of any kind of pitching (hiati, anniversaries, promotion) going into the pitching thread.

I'm not sure how I feel about guest comics/art requests going into the dropdown/crossover thread, though. One the one hand it would de-clutter the GD board some; on the other hand, they're not as likely to get as many responses, I think. Guest comics are such a good way to cross-promote and help each other out. That's a tough one. A good solution might be to keep them in the crossover thread and encourage people to have a small request in their sig that links to their particular thread.

Post by **Mercury Hat** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 12:46 pm

Kris X wrote:Negative on the above statement in my opinion. Even more so state where this proposal was stated? Because duff and I weren't present during the proposal I would assume.

I have no problem with the policy, but a heads up would be nice since this new policy effects rules in other forums as well.

This is the head's up right now. Nothing's been decided yet.

For the record, I go with what Kisai says.