How did we get so far ???

Compiling all the info, suggestions and critiques. Not sure how long it will take for action, but I'll work as fast as I can, and then with unwavering allegiance work to get them implemented

 

I hate it that i missed this great discussion. I stayed away too long. You guys are so civil-I love PHUNNERS. One concern (and forgive me if I am missing the point-or this was already addressed) but if we compress the forum, would we alienate newbies?

 

We are not compressing the forum, just make things a little clearer, adding some order, and changing the name of the forum. Backyard sounds so illegitimate.

IMO, you cannot alienate someone you have never met.

 

I agree with you P4T. You cannot alienate someone in this manner. I think I missed the point of discussion-but I think I understand now.

I have always sided with TCF and River and we should better define creativity with this forum.

 

I was asked to give my opinion on this subject matter so here is what I think:

The Creative Backyard if you all remember was created with the majority opinion of all those phunners who cared to vote and wanted a forum for their personal works of art/creations. The rules in it was never properly vested and to a large degree never fully vested to be clear and concise. That is in part due to our failure to give you all proper guidance and for that I apologize. Since there are differing opinions among many of the mods on this subject matter and I can see equal arguments on ALL sides I can only come up with some guidelines that I hope all parties can agree to.

The goal for this forum for "phunners" should be 2 fold:
1) A place for phun members to showcase their own work vs. what can be found on the web.

2) Be as inclusive and welcoming to ALL members as possible with the least amount of restrictions possible.

If these two goals are the guideline the only compromise I can think of that hopes to satisfy as many members as possible is to do the following:

1) We can create a few perpetuity threads like sports/cars sigs, babes and chicks sigs, others sigs (comics, landscapes, etc.), Wallpapers and collages, ect.(All stickies and anybody can contribute)
2) Anybody regardless of what content they create can make their own thread for ANY of their personal works as long as they give a detailed description of what it contains. (ie. my sigs, my wallpapers, my whatever)
3) Because large perpetuity threads like sigs and 2001pm's collages thread can be contributed by anybody it is nearly impossible to delete and edit everything that we might perceive as not belonging in that sub-forum but if the bulk of the content shared is made by phunners it will be allowed.

My goal with this would be to encourage and allow anybody to contribute their works, give special status to key threads that deserves to be showcased as permanent stickies(to encourage continued contributions), and be as inclusive as possible.

At the heart of it is we should welcome other people's work. We should not pick apart minor differences or allow our prejudices for status-quo to dictate how others enjoy and contribute to our forum. This forum and sub-forum is big enough for everybody.

 

well written.

 

A good statement, though I might differ in opinion on the Stickies. Instead of creating a Stickie for popular threads, which will usualy stay at the top of the page anyway, how about making Stickies for the most useful threads? For new contributors or those thinking about it, instructional threads with tips/tricks/techniques/"how to display your sig", would be more helpful than seeing who's more popular.

It may be a good time to Stickie one thread with that specific intent. The existing Creative Resources thread would be a good example or a new "How the hell do I do this" thread. When someone introduces something specificaly new such as Selective Color or Out Of Bounds, an example could be placed there along with a link to threads showcasing that specific work.

The Sig Safe Haven would be another I'd recomend versus every categorized sig thread.

 

Yeah, stickying the tips/resources/haven threads would be a better way of going as the others would be at the top anyway. And possibly sticky each SOTW voting thread?
The only other thing for me to mention is the renaming and tidying up of the sig threads. I think there should be seperate threads for different themed sigs (as is now) but with better titles.