Animation Source Forums

The moderators (and probably many members) are complaining about the fan characters section.

I agree with the fact there are issues - but I could also say the very same with the fanarts and fan images...it's only a mirror of the same problems, I think.
Most visitors are either lazy, don't have any imagination or don't understand how to do things in a good way, and the result is this.

The cause of this is probably the popularity of these sections.

But, actually, what is EXACTLY the problem? Is it :
- The fact that most creations sent are badly done, uncreative? (who exactly stated that BS characters needed to be WOLVES or DOGS? humans, cats, etc could be accepted too)
- The fact the number of bad creations do not allow to see the good ones, because the section is too crowdy?
- Any other thing?

I'm thinking about a few things.
On one side, the visitors complain about too many rules and not being treated "fairly".
On the other side, the mods say that more rules are needed and should be even more precise.

Let's admit it, we've tried writing reasonable rules that would allow people to make good fan characters, and the result is : I honestly haven't seen any improvements in the characters sent since we've added them...It only seems to make the mods angry because most members are just resubmitting their creations over and over till they get accepted.

Removing the fan characters section?
No, and that's for sure : because this is one of the most loved sections on the site (hence so many submissions), and because the original characters are there too, and should stay.

My idea : instead of making rules to force people NOT to send their creations, maybe we should make CATEGORIES.
For example => linearts is a category; original characters is a category; official characters is a category; wallpapers is a category; unrealistic characters/sparkly dogs is a category;...etc...
This way, anyone can send anything. And if someone doesn't want to see original characters, then just : filter them!
In fact, I already use this sort of categories, the main problem is that the current interface does not allow to do the filter / search you want.

So basically, I suggest removing most rules except the very important ones, but asking for more of this sort of information instead, in order to classify them.
Maybe also add a rating system, so that the "good" content is better ranked / displayed too. (we do have this with the "must see" and favorites, but maybe that's not enough)

What do you think?

No, Steet, I don't think there are too many rules. You just do it for the better.

Personally, I never had a problem with the existing rules on the OCs. I thought the so-called "sparkledogs," a.k.a. oddly-colored dogs, were odd, but not a problem. All in all, though, this seems like a very reasonable idea to me. I say go for it.

Yes, yes, yes! I can imagine now HOW much of a help this would be. Making categories is probaby my favorite thing out of this post, too. I'm definately voting for what you suggest over every other suggestion that has been thrown out there. This could definately stop so much stress from members to moderators, atleast I hope. I vote yes all the way.

I guess there is a problem with the art. I think we should be allowed to create a look of anything we want. But that's for the Fan Art moderators to decide, not Steet or us.

Yes.

The categories is a VERY good idea. If everyone can submit to the appropriate categories rather than us having to tell people their character is too unnatural or not related to the movie enough it'll solve a problems.
One suggestion I have however, is that the OCs go on Animation Source itself and keep the specific sites for Fan Characters only.
That way it'll keep BaltoSource from getting filled up everyone's characters that are non-related & may even help AS itself to be more active.

The rules themselves need to be much more simplified. I can't even remember them all off-hand which is never a good thing.
One thing we may want to review is the "No religion or politics" rule. People still try and talk about it and having a rule about not talking about them is causing more problems than talking about them anyway.

The most important rules are (or should be):
No sms. (with a list of sms terms)
No trolling.
No harrassing & flaming.
No swearing. (with a list of acceptable ones)

After that it's only really the odd smaller rules (like signature sizes) and we really shouldn't have so many.
If members can't be bothered to read them because there's too many it defeats the purpose of them in the first place.

Well, I would very much like people suggesting the kind of categories we can have, for each section. (fanart, images, characters, videos, articles, etc...)
It would save me a lot of work, and we could see if you have different ideas.

Of course there will still be rules.

Well let's take that one as example :

- if we remove the rule, we'll get horrible blinking signatures that take up a whole page (like on some forums I have seen and exited immediately...)

- if we stay in the blur by saying "don't put a too big signature", it will be up to the mods to decide whether or not a signature is acceptable (so there may have different opinions, leading to "that's unfair" comments by visitors)

- if we stick to the current rule, some people complain about having too many / precise rules for "little things" like that.

So, what to do?


I'm still unsure about this. For one part, I am NOT a full hosting service, and I'm doing this for free - so I just can't compete with sites like Deviantart.
For the second part, some characters are intended to be part of the Balto universe (for example), so they should still stay on BS even though they are original characters. And the boundaries between the two are not very clear...

Oh no! I meant keeping those smaller rules. I certainly don't want a forum filled with massive, flashing signature either. D:





Hm. I see your point. That'll be a tough one to figure out.
"Sparkly" characters don't usually have a lot to do with the movie universes but then having a seperate place for any character would flood AS.
Confusing.
Maybe just having a "Sparkly/Unnatural" category.



Fan Art:
Movie fanart
Fan character art
OC art
Landscape
Character reference

Fan Images:
Desktop/wallpaper
Avatar
Signature
Render

Characters:
Official characters
Fan characters
Original Characters

Videos:
Movie mash-up
Sad
Happy
Emotional
Anger
Humour (Humor?)

Fictions:
Conay made a topic with good category suggestions in it - my-two-fanfic-suggestions-t30384.html

~ I'll add more soon. ~

I honestly thought the rules were fine. But different catagories, is a great idea.
Maybe there could be one for more "advanced" characters and "Smaller" characters too..

We would need clear definitions then, because I have no idea what these categories could be for. What's an "advanced" character? What's a "small" character? (height??)



In fact, I think there will be several "types" of categories, in order to not mix up things.
So far, that's what I can see :

Character types :
- Fanarts with original characters
- Fanarts with official characters
- Crossover
- No character (landscape)

"Style" :
- Traced
- Lineart
- Digitally colored
- Colored by hand

Nature :
- Own creations
- Gifts
- Commissions

And that's only for fanarts.
Tell me what you think.





As I said, the boundaries between fan characters and original characters are not very clear. Making replace original characters by "fursonas/avatars"?

Yes and yes. I rarely see anything other than that of the canine variety. I think someone on Spirit Source even went around to every non-horse character she could find and told them to take it down because Spirit characters HAVE to be horses.

I can tell nowadays by style of art who is going to have a good character and who is going to have a horrible character that spent 5 seconds filling out a form to barely conform to the rules of characters. And that 5 seconds is being generous. I just think quality control is getting really lax.

Example: Members are getting away with the most stupid connections to Balto when it's really clear that it's contrived bull added to make the mods accept it. Things like "is a wolf" or "lives in Nome" or "Chewed on a sock belonging to this one guy who knew this other guy that bought a newspaper from the person that pet a dog that was friends with Kodi who is Balto's son."


Is there a way to show a mod how many times the character has been submitted? That way if it shows up the character has been submitted and rejected five times the mods can say "dude. Chalk it up to a loss, make a better character, and stop wasting our time."


The categories idea is wonderful, I'm for that.

But it's the bolded part worries me. I LIKE having BS sparkledog free. I don't want the character section flooded with people's horrible neon green and purple fursonas with ugly dead animal scene hair. Sparkledogs have NO place in the Balto universe and I'm pretty sure the original intent of the fan character section was to show just that; FAN characters. Characters that would fit in the Balto universe.

As far as I'm concerned, the people complaining about the fact that they apparently can't be creative without nauseatingly bright colors on a wolf can go back to Deviantart and stop whining. They know unnatural colors aren't welcome and, unlike their parents, the mods don't give in if you throw a big enough tantrum.


I thought traced art wasn't allowed?

I think catergories is a fantastic idea.

I think it will really help reduce the numbers of arguments occuring between mods and memebers on this site.




I'm not completely sure, but I think steet is trying to say that there will be a seperate section for 'sparkledogs.' People can choose to look at it or not, therefore preventing anyone against sparkledogs (like yourself and me for that matter) from having to put up with seeing them around.

(If I'm wrong about what I just said, please inform me xD)

That's what I gathered.

Yes, that's what I intend to do : add a "filters" part, where you'll be able to prevent the "sparkle" ones from being displayed on the whole site.
So, people can still send them, some will enjoy them, some will block them.

Maybe this could be applied to "sexual/violent" content in fanfics too : by default, they wouldn't be displayed, except if you choose not to filter them. (to some extent of course - I still wouldn't want to see XXX rated fics here)


Well that's the point, some of the things not allowed would become allowed but in separate categories.

On the matter of fanfics, I have my doubts. I know some people who were forced to leave teh site by their parents just over fanfics and art of deviant stuff being allowed. Whether they were filtered or not, I doubt added allowances would help any. And the shoutbox and forums rules should stay right where they are.