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Would you like to have a BL Art Forum?

Who would be intrested in an Arts Forum here on BL?

  • I support an Arts forum and would post in it

    Votes: 85 57.4%

  • I support it but wouldn't post myself

    Votes: 29 19.6%

  • I support it but don't think there's enough demand

    Votes: 17 11.5%

  • I don't support it

    Votes: 17 11.5%
  • Total voters
    148
K

Khadijah

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
Messages
16,368
Who would be intrested in a Art Forum here on BL? (Could a mod make this a poll?)

Choices:

A-I support a Art forum and would post in it
B-I dont support it
C-I support it but I dont think there is enough of a demand for it/would not post in it myself


I know we got the Gallery and shit, but, theres a couple problems with that.

#1 - "discussion" in the gallery goes as far as givin compliments/critiques of someones art, but not much farther.

#2 - it takes a long time to load, and un like threads you cant just easily go in and check when the last post was, etc.

#3 - cuz the post is delayed for approval, im sure alot of ppl forget to keep checking back on the same pictures for responses to comments, etc, i know i do.

#4 - you can talk about a specific piece of art but it dont get much deeper than that and it aint so much a place to get into specific styles and etc.

#5 - Iunno bout yall, but man, i get paranoid as a muthafucka about postin my art up here. Yall know how much internet stealin goes on?

I know im handy with Photoshop. Anyone with a mouse and 40 minutes of practice can go into a JPEG that has been tagged with a copyright and paint right over it without the average person noticing, without much work at all. Everyday i get scared ima go look somewhere and see some of my ish wit someone else name on it. so i get scared to post my good shit in here cuz of that.

I think if it was more specialized to artists n shit, then it would seem 'safer' or whatever....more respect...maybe not but thas just my feelings on it.

I love to recieve love from ANYONE about my shit. but have you ever drew somethin pretty shitty actually, with no real effort put into it, and someones like WOW THATS A GREAT PICTURE!

And you like...well, thanks yo....but sometimes you like...damn....i bet every picture i show you , youll be like "wow thats a great picture."

Somtimes its nice to get a review from someone who got a lil skill themsef so they could point out shit to you. I know if i watch somebody doin some shit I aint no good at, if they even kinda good, Imma think they mad talented and aint no way i would be able to give them advice to improve cuz i think they already good. But someone who is skilled at that, might be able to see some lil things that could use improvement and give advice from the point of view of someone who knows a lil more you dig?

So, I think it would be sick, to have a spot just for people who love/do art.

I know we got a good amount of graffiti writers on here too and i think that there would be a jump off spot for cats to share their work an shit too which shouldn be over looked cuz its a nice chunk of posters on the site.

We got Film and TV...We got Music....We got Poetry/Writing....So why not Art? only fair....We already got some art threads scattered around the site, think how much more intersting it could be if we had a spot just for us artists and shit to talk in. a home for the Share your art thread, the Photo threads, even , how bout (original made by posters here) JPEGS and GIF's and shit? Theres some MAD funny shit ppl come up with on this site and maybe there could be contests and shit liek for the photo bizness, for the more humorous less serious kinds of art. Even for when BL needs images for whatever , like the NSFW tag in the past, or whatever, it could be fun. there could be contests like every week they have the site banner look different just for fun and cats in the forum could all take turns designing shit. just to make it more interesting u know?

Plus i know there is also cats on here like myself who are into Comic Books and the like....so theres another thing that prolly dont get discussed as much as it could on here. Plus people in school could use it as reference to talk about famous artists and shit and learn for projects....People could request custom avatars or collabarate on ideas together , the list goes on , as far as the possibilites for the forum...

Well, thas all for now, but what do all yall think about the idea?
 
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There used to be a forum called "Visual and Performing Arts" - it was consolidated into other stuff awhile back.

I'm not much of a visual artist but I know I'd enjoy the eye candy. :)

I am sure there are others who feel the same way as you.
 
Is art just for like.........art?

Or is art for stuff like all arts?

personally I find art pretty boring and have a complete lack of understanding as to why anyone would pay the stupid ammounts they do for paintings.........I mean lets face it, they pay millions for something thats old and cracked and half the paints falling off.........hell I got a house here just like that and you get a whole house worth of shitty paint.

anyways dont get me stated on art...........but arts..........well different story cos I proberly like some form of art...........like therm guys that stand on the pavement all still like and covered in silver stuff and they never blink and shit.........or is that stuff not art?
 
Poll added with a minor change to accommodate character count limitations.
 
I loved visual and performing arts, and I lament its demise, but I've grown happy with putting art in Second Opinion. I'm not an artist, and I wouldn't become one for the sake of bluelight, but I'd be very active in any art forum. I just don't think we have the volume of discussion to justify it at this time.

I'd love to see more threads in So though. :D
 
i'm very interested to see how this discussion evolves.

not so long ago, bluelight had an art-oriented forum called 'visual and performing arts' with a sub-forum called 'visual and performing arts portfolio'.

the portfolio was a place for people to upload their own artwork. the portfolio is, essentially, made obsolete by the gallery.

as i recall, v&pa was suffering from a drop in traffic and a decision was made by the then-administration to narrow the focus of the forum in an attempt to breathe some life into it. at the time there was a fair bit of discussion on both sides of the debate. v&pa became f&t in november 2003.

tell me if you think otherwise, but i believe that f&t has flourished since then so i think the decision to narrow the forum focus at that time was arguably vindicated.

here are the guidelines from the forums when they were running:

Welcome to Visual and Performing Arts

FORUM DESCRIPTION

This forum is the Bluelight place to discuss all aspects of the visual and performing arts including, but not limited to: drawing and painting; sculpture; photography; all aspects of cinema and movie-making; design; and dance. Further, it's the ideal place for discussion of tools and technology of interest to artists, techniques, color theory, medium, style, art history, etc.

FORUM GUIDELINES

These are guidelines for forum participation - not rules. The forum moderators will determine ultimately what is and is not appropriate. If you disagree with a moderator's actions send them an e-mail (you can send email to from the individual's Profile Page. The moderators' profiles are linked at the bottom of the forum page). If you can't resolve a problem together, consider taking your complaint to the Announcements and Feedback forum.

1. RESPECT OTHERS' CONTRIBUTION. If you trivialise or belittle a conversation your posts will be edited or deleted. Flaming will not be tolerated. Use your common sense to judge what is appropriate and what is not. If your sense of judgment is poor we will happily apply ours :)

2. STAY ON TOPIC. Feel free to discuss anything which fits with the forum title and the forum description. Use common sense. Topics deemed inappropriate will be moved where possible or deleted if necessary.

3. SEARCH IS OUR FRIEND. It is possible your topic has been covered before so please search and, if possible, add your comments to an existing thread. In the case of specific works of art (e.g. a movie) this is especially important to avoid fragmentation and duplication. There is a quick search box at the top right of the forum page and you can also use the main Bluelight Search page. Also, consider first a more general search of the web (many users use Google) if you are looking for more generic information or resources.

4. WHAT'S IN A NAME. Choose your thread subject carefully. "Need help with Adobe Premiere 6.0 keyframe issue" is much better than "help!!!". Selecting an appropriately worded subject will likely generate more useful traffic and, if you need help, will make it more likely that you get help.

5. IF IT'S PERSONAL, KEEP IT PERSONAL. If you wish to contact someone don't make a new post about it. Personal posts do not belong in public forums. Use e-mail or private online communication, to get their attention.

6. MOVIE REVIEWS ARE GOOD. SPOILERS ARE BAD. Please try not to ruin any big secrets for everyone else. If your post contains spoilers, please tell us by putting something like ***SPOILERS*** in the subject or at the top of your reply. Make it visible with emphasis of some kind.

Before you submit your review, please search to see if a thread on the movie in question already exists. If you find a match, please add your comments to the existing thread. Duplicate threads will be closed or deleted.

If not, please feel free to go ahead and start a new thread using the movie title in the subject of the thread. Use as much information as you need to uniquely identify a specific film (i.e. use "Die Hard With a Vengeance" rather than simply "Die Hard").

7. IMAGES. You may post images in the forum using the UBB [image] tag. There's a helpful 'Instant UBB code' button just below the text editor when you are writing your post on the 'Add New Topic' page. Again, please use common sense when including images. Try to stick to .JPG (as bitmaps are huge).

If you are unsure about any aspect of image posting, mail a moderator and we'll be delighted to help.

8. SHOUTING. Refrain from all caps posts and alternating caps as they are generally agreed to be obnoxious and unnecessary. They will be closed.

9. ALL OTHER GENERAL BLUELIGHT RULES APPLY. Please read the friendly Bluelight User Agreement.




Welcome to Visual and Performing Arts Portfolio

FORUM DESCRIPTION

This forum is the place where Bluelight participants can exhibit and discuss their art work. Artists may also, if they wish, solicit criticism.

FORUM GUIDELINES

These are guidelines for forum participation - not rules. The forum moderators will determine ultimately what is and is not appropriate. If you disagree with a moderator's actions send them an e-mail (you can send email to from the individual's Profile Page. The moderators' profiles are linked at the bottom of the forum page). If you can't resolve a problem together, consider taking your complaint to the Announcements and Feedback forum.

1. RESPECT THE ARTISTS' CONTRIBUTION. If you trivialise or belittle a piece your posts will be edited or deleted. Flaming will not be tolerated. Use your common sense to judge what is appropriate and what is not. If your sense of judgment is poor we will happily apply ours :)

2. CRITICISM. If you are an artist and want some feedback on your work, please say so. If you want to display your art without the need for feedback, please tell us and we will simply lock the thread.

Let’s work together to keep the atmosphere in this forum as positive as possible If you are offering criticism of a piece, please do it in a constructive manner - this does not mean telling everyone that their work is gorgeous, but saying things in a kind way that is conducive to their productivity. Criticism in this forum, is evaluation or analysis of art - as such, we appreciate that it can be both positive and negative. That's the beauty of art. It's hard to define solid guidelines for what does and does not fly here so, again, we ask you to use your common sense. Perhaps an example speaks louder.

"This is the biggest piece of shit painting i have ever seen"

may be true but it's not constructive. A more appropriate response might be:

"The composition of this piece distracts me from what i assumed would be the focus of my attention - the enigmatic female figure on the left. Instead, my eye is drawn to the grassy region in the bottom right corner for two reasons: the choice of color (a little bright for what is supposed to be a winter lawn?; and the fact that, even in this electronic reproduction it's clear that perhaps the paint went on a little more thickly than you intended? in short, i think it seems a little hurried and it does not appeal to me. however that's my opinion and i thank you for sharing this with us."

Again: constructive; respect.

3. NEVER TAKE CREDIT FOR SOMEONE ELSE’S WORK. Should speak for itself. Give credit where credit is due.

4. ARTISTS – AGGREGATE YOUR POSTS. If you have a series of work, that is similar in style, please put them in one post. Most users will not reply to s series of individual posts. It would be more beneficial to you, the artist, to post them all in one thread.

5. IMAGES. If you are uploading art, please stick to the following image guidelines. If you can’t for some reason, send email to a moderator in advance and we’ll work on the best solution to the problem at hand:

- 72 dpi or lower
- RGB
- .JPG or .GIF (GIF compression is best for line art, and JPG compression is best for the everything else).
- The images should be no larger than 800*600 pixels, so that people will not have to scroll through the browser in order to see the full image.
- Optimize your images to keep the file-size down. In Photoshop you can do this by first making the image 72 dpi with Image|Image size menu. Then proceed to File|Save for Web. You can tweak the settings so you can get the smallest file size with almost the same quality.

Artists are encouraged to host their own images. If for some reason you are unable to host, send images (which conform to the image size guidelines) to [email protected] and we will have them hosted for you.

6. SHOUTING. Refrain from all caps posts and alternating caps as they are generally agreed to be obnoxious and unnecessary. They will be closed.

7. ALL OTHER GENERAL BLUELIGHT RULES APPLY. Please read the friendly Bluelight User Agreement.
Click to expand...

alasdair
 
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I would argue that changing the name had much more to do with the increased traffic than the narrowed focus. When people read "visual and performing arts" they assume that TV doesn't count, because it isn't "art". "Life" got the same treatment with the same result. The V&PA mods didn't know how to grow the forum. The didn't ask that pertinent threads be moved from the lounge. They didn't spearhead any ideas that I can think of. The absence of art/theater/puppetry/whatever had nothing to do with F&Ts current success, IMO.

The gallery is fucked. The software is a nightmare to navigate. The approval is a pain. The legal liabilities of posting and hosting are pressing. There isn't much ability to actually have a discourse, or a community. Besides, In the intervening years (since the gallery was formed) free image hosting has become something everybody has, and is comfortable with. Eliminating the gallery is a great idea in my opinion, and divesting its uses across the forums (lounge, SO, EADD, OZsoc, the drug discussion forums) makes good sense to me. Maybe if SO got all the traffic that the gallery art sections got, a sub forum would be in order. Not a full forum though. Not yet, anyway.


But vindicated? No.
 
So...uh.....any artists wanna contribute their ideas about it?

;)

not belittling yall, just sayin i think that the people who would want it the most would be the ones who are into art.

now its kinda lame that there seems to be a forum for each branch of the arts movies, tv, music, poetry, writing, but yet regular-ass old art-art, brushes paints and whatever, gets left out.
 
:p

why should it matter if you're an artist or not. There isn't any expectation that posts in the music forum have to do with being a musician, and I'd bet there are more musicians on bl than there are artists.
 
i'm an artist, and while i would love to see visual and performing arts come back, i also don't think it would get as much traffic as the forums do now... because so many people who wouldn't consider themselves knowledgable or even interested in visual and performing arts would likely pass up on the forum, whereas now they can visit a broader forum and be exposed to the art discussions here, or in the accessable format of film and television. if there proves to be enough demand, though, i'd say go for it. :)
 
atlas said:
:p

why should it matter if you're an artist or not. There isn't any expectation that posts in the music forum have to do with being a musician, and I'd bet there are more musicians on bl than there are artists.
Click to expand...


lol, your right but I think lacey was looking for some support from like minded people.

Can I suggest that maybe "The Arts" be included as part of TV and Movies to become........drum roll............TV, The Movies and The Arts.

Seems like a simple solution
 
I'd contribute... I don't paint or draw, but do carve lots. I'm sure there are other artists who work in alternative mediums on BL; be it glass, or metal, or maybe even stone.
 
atlas said:
:p

why should it matter if you're an artist or not. There isn't any expectation that posts in the music forum have to do with being a musician, and I'd bet there are more musicians on bl than there are artists.
Click to expand...


Yo, all i was sayin is that someone who aint a big fan of fine wine might not be as interested in a winery coming to town as someone who is a wine connoseir. same shit. not that it aint for everyone i was just curious artists opinions cuz maybe THEY would have more of a desire for the forum:)
 
I didn't have a computer or internet access for a few years; once I got my shit back together and running again it was to BL that I headed. I was so disappointed the Arts forum was gone. Everyone's answer seemed to be the gallery which is very insufficient IMO for the reasons already named here (approval, limit, no real ability for any type of ongoing discussion).

I think an arts forum is a desire by a lot of people and would get plenty of traffic once up and running. Look at the photography thread in SO and the traffic and interest they've started alone. Not to mention the wide variety of different types of artists here on BL. It would also be nice for those of us who like receiving critiques on projects we're working on - I've asked for it in SO and gotten feedback, but it never fails to be an underlying theme to 'go to the gallery and get the same thing' - well, the gallery does not provide the same thing, no matter what the intentions were.

I'd support it, and post for sure.

Just my .02
 
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