Commentary: Arena is dead.

[lefteyewilly]

it's been said before and i'll say it again. this place (and all of flashkit) is COMMUNITY driven. It is just as much your responsibility as it is a moderators to create new events and such. EVERYONE is busy, so don't put it on the mods.

Threads can be started by anyone. No special permission is needed.

[WannaBe_80z]

I wish the photo forum had a response like this. That place is really dead. I'm trying to bring it back but I feel no one is even looking. I wish we had more people posting. Come on everyone has a camera!

[silverx2]

iv only got my cell phone camera. i sometimes take pictures of bunnys.

[WannaBe_80z]

Well post them!

[silverx2]

the bunnies are wild, and the camera is 3mp. its mostly alot of green with a blob of brown.

[flashpipe1]

Maybe that's because I'm a programmer and not a designer. But hell, if someone wants to go for a volley, I'll take them on!

Oh, really?? Well, I'm a programmer too, but I learned lots in my first attempt in the arena and in this years MM, so, what do ya say??? Want me to volley first??

...and WannaBe_80z, I love spending time in the Photography forum, but my artistic eye (or lack thereof) doesn't lend itself to the sort of shots I'm used to seeing in there from you guys (and gals)...

Maybe I need to spend some more time "composing" pics instead of just grabbing the camera when the kids are beating on each other...I'll try to make a point of it over the next week or so...

[nepzap2]

Don't get me wrong bud... I did not mean to sound like the Mods are the one's who should be responsible for the arena's emptiness as of late.

IN DECEMBER IT'LL BE 9 YEARS SINCE I JOINED THIS THING...

The fact that this thread has gotten so many responses just tells us there are people out there... still looking... still lurking...

Now we have to figure out how to get them involved again...

Things are also dynamic... life is dynamic... maybe a makeover for Flashkit is in order? Who knows...

But

So do we bury this part of the site, or do we reinvigorate it?

I say we reinvigorate it.

I mean this with such sincerity... That I'm Willing to invest time in undertaking the re-design of this forum's shell... I'm well versed enough with php/MySQL to do so... let's XHTML/CSS validate this mother... let's Flash-E-fy sections of our community.

Maybe ajaxify Flashkit all together...

That's a great way to re-invigorate it. Let's all work together like the developers of "Firefox" and all the open source communities. Let's all contribute.

I work full time 40 hrs...

168 hrs in a 7 day week minus 40 hrs for work minus 56 hrs for sleep leaves 72 hrs minus maybe 2 to 4 hrs invested for this project leaves 70 to 68 hrs free take care of what our busy lives may require of us.

I will invest some of my time to accomplish this...

Who else is with me???

[gerbick]

I can remember when mods doing a lot of the battles was frowned upon; we were seen as trying to dominate the Arena. This was back when Aversion had stepped in and EVP stepped in... knee deep.

With him here, he and I were always cooking up something. Dri stepped in when Jambles departed (there's some time in-between, but bear with me) and he brought a new style of commentary and ability to the forum. Lefteye stepped in basically because I'd have to personally say that he was one of the most improved players in the Arena and he believed in it.

Dri got busy with school and life; understandable. Lefteye got disenfranchised; I can't blame him. EVP and I stayed hella busy; we were basically asked to step aside and let the inmates run the jail.

To reinvigorate this area; it has to be understood that three things have been long established.

• The moderators don't look down to anybody - we're just volunteers. We don't think we're better than anybody at all... never have, never will.
• We enforce the rules. Anything we do above that, it's always on our own accord. We love this area; but if us not posting seems to be what people want, then we'll remain quiet.
• We appreciate the Arena people. We truly do. But some people are just... for lack of a better term, "glory hounds". None of the mods, past or present, have been known to stroke an ego.

With that said, I've always been active. Heck, if a title gets renamed, more than likely it was me. If something is going on that's notable, best believe I'm trying to get it, and that person, into the newsletter so some 150k readers can see that person's talent. And this area... seriously. I think some people need to see how they've reacted to simple critiques.

I've had long periods of time in-between critiques because people would just plain seem to get mad. Which... is just odd. Then they'd go critique somebody with such a tone that would make other people just as defensive as they were and it just spread, spread, spread.

Drop the ego. Nobody is better than anybody else here. If a person offers clarification, it's just to make something not noticed, clear. Not to say "you're a dumbass" or something as such. And critiques... they're given from only one perspective. People have to take time out of their schedule to do such. It takes time to get into the mind of a person, or to pay attention to the details as a whole and then try to give a critique that could be taken away from that moment as something that sticks with a person later in life.

[MyFriendIsATaco]

Oh, really?? Well, I'm a programmer too, but I learned lots in my first attempt in the arena and in this years MM, so, what do ya say??? Want me to volley first??

...and WannaBe_80z, I love spending time in the Photography forum, but my artistic eye (or lack thereof) doesn't lend itself to the sort of shots I'm used to seeing in there from you guys (and gals)...

Maybe I need to spend some more time "composing" pics instead of just grabbing the camera when the kids are beating on each other...I'll try to make a point of it over the next week or so...

Bring it on! Just as long as it's nothing time time pushing, I'll be fine. I've been real busy as of lately, but who isn't?

[zakp0]

On a side note: Aversion is THE MAN.

I wish the photo forum had a response like this. That place is really dead. I'm trying to bring it back but I feel no one is even looking. I wish we had more people posting. Come on everyone has a camera!

I've never picked up a camera in my life besides cellphone cameras. I've got an 8MP cellphone camera, but regardless, I don't think I'm anywhere near as good as some of you guys. 'specially you, 80z. I'd be too afraid to post photos I've taken.

[lefteyewilly]

I wish the photo forum had a response like this. That place is really dead. I'm trying to bring it back but I feel no one is even looking. I wish we had more people posting. Come on everyone has a camera!

you need more of what the arena was built on...people helping people get better. just posting photos is not the optimal way to make people want to posts photos if they aren't going to get better.

Quick and cheap lighting setup tutorials with standard point and shoots, f stop settings, etc...yeah, exif data can be posted, but more in depth tutorial type posts could be provided...even composition help could work...

And I stress cheap...very few people have SLR's...but i believe most people aren't getting what they can out of their PAS cameras.

[Jujumon]

the only thing that turn me off from individual battle is ppl just abandon it half way. I understand it's a busy life and such, but leave without saying goodbye?? it hurts, man.

[WannaBe_80z]

I hear ya. I wish more people(not just me) would post up some useful tutorials on how they got to their final comp. I think with my photos I will start to include the EXIF for people and a small description of what went on to get the final product. I just wish I was more motivated to do it as I feel only less then 10 people even look in there.

[MyFriendIsATaco]

I hear ya. I wish more people(not just me) would post up some useful tutorials on how they got to their final comp. I think with my photos I will start to include the EXIF for people and a small description of what went on to get the final product. I just wish I was more motivated to do it as I feel only less then 10 people even look in there.

Hey, I poke in every once in a while. I appreciate photography, and I have a D40 that I shoot with, I just don't consider myself a photographer. It's just a random hobby, and occasionally I'll come across a nice photo that I take. I just never thought to post because I'm not actually trying to improve myself, but maybe I'll post some of my touched up photos from my trip to South Dakota. I got a new nice ones.

[silverx2]

i see a whole lot of talking and only a single battle going on.

[Natsia]

I'm also hearing a lot of clucking... Chickens or just noise?

[flashpipe1]

Easy Nats...I'm working on it...

MyFriendIsATaco, I'm putting together the first volley today and should have the battle started by Monday morning. I'll post the rules with the volley, but am thinking of doing a week (more or less) for turn-around...does that work for you?

I've got a good idea for the volley, just need to put some time into pulling it off effectively.

Since there's been so much uproar in here about the arena, I'm hoping to get some good input on PS techniques and learn lots!

[Natsia]

That's mah boy!

[MyFriendIsATaco]

A week sounds great, man! I'm down with whatever rules.

[1stbite]

As much as i want to say the arena will return like the old days.. I can't see it.

We may get a few battles up and running here and there but for me the odd open battle image is as much time as I can spare at the best of times.

So reluctantly and wishing to be proved wrong I vote 'Yes'

I miss the inter-forum battles which was as much about pulling the community together to support the participants than actually taking part in the actual battle.

good old [tt][/tt] fun... gone but not forgotten

:-(