Suggestions

[DioShiba]

I definitely understand why people feel the Discord is replacing the forum but there's not much that can be done about that. The forum has been here the entire time the Discord has existed and if the bulk of users choose to exclusively use the Discord, then activity is going to be focused mostly on the Discord. That said, the Discord isn't crazy active either (not to the extent that the forum was in the past, anyway).... The idea of integrating the forum into a dedicated Discord channel is interesting but I think won't have the intended effect. If we had a bot of a webhook or something that triggered every time a new thread was posted and also posted it to the Discord, people would just discuss those topics on the Discord (assuming the text was present) or we'd have a channel full of nothing but "there's a new post!" messages (if it wasn't). Either way, I'm not sure it would actually drive traffic to the forum. I'm not completely shooting the idea down though - I feel like I'm not thinking of everything here and there might be a way to make this work.

I feel like this is a maybe, maybe not scenario. Part of the reasoning here assumes that we leave those discord channels where the threads are posted in a non-real time set up getting sent over to in a state where people are allowed to comment.

Unless those channels are left in a read-only state then yes, it wouldn't do much. But I also think for those who don't have access to discord or would opt not to have it would probably appreciate that there is a bridge between the two set ups.

If there was an ideal world scenario then there'd probably be a way to allow for people to comment on forum threads from discord and visa versa. BUT I would be assuming that aspect of it may end up being an unlikely scenario since I don't really know the full extent of how discord would play well with a BBS based system. Hence why I'm only saying that this idea is an ideal world as opposed to it being realistic since I'm not exactly a programmer, either.

I can see there being some willing to try something new but I think getting people who have only ever joined groups via sites like Facebook to make the switch to a non-realtime setup like a forum might be a challenge. It seems like you're on the same page there too though.

To some degree, yes. We would be. I do agree that there is a challenge to get people to switch from a real time based communication system over to a non-real time set up.

My only argument is that, unless those who are more willing to teach how a non-real time based set up works and help those understand some of the basic tags for images, hyperlinking and embedding may help. Especially when that touches on some basic level of coding to a degree... Even when we're quoting something using the brackets for [insertcommandhere][/insertcommandhere]

That's just some basic HTML stuff if I am not mistaken. A guide can easily be made and referenced on if anyone has any questions, but that's assuming the idea does in fact work.

That's fair though I'd add that a lot of the more prolific custom artists that used to hang around went on to bigger and better things. There are at least a few who made careers out of it and would have left (rightfully so - not blaming them at all) when those careers called.

Depends on who we're talking about, while there are those who did make a career out of it that isn't to say that some stayed hobbyists, either.

Then again, who knows. Assuming that there is still a bridge between those who are mere hobbyists and those who wish to make a career from a hobby then I don't doubt that there is a possibility for people to seek the feedback, which is really how I feel most communities for those who are looking to get serious are built on anyways.

Obviously there are going to be those who don't want the feedback but at that point we'd have to be talking about finding a way to divy up the forums between those who want the feedback and those who just want to show off their sprites.

EDIT: On a footnote upon joining the discord channel to see what's changed I did notice quite a bit has happened since I was last on there so I am aware that there has been some significant changes to the discord channel.

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While this last bit has less to do with the discord integration with the forums I do think that... there is one other idea I can come up with that's more to do with what pixel art can be used for based in the same post going off the quote regarding flash that at this point would be more of a separate thing.

[/quote] I was only using Flash as an example. I think sprite comics were the more relevant example anyway and we seem to be on the same page there. [/quote]

I feel like given that sprite videos are still a thing, perhaps not to the extent that it has been in the past, I wouldn't be opposed to dropping some AE knowledge in regards to compositing if people did want to learn how to do that and there probably are people with knowledge that I don't have.

That's especially given when you have people like say... LumpyTouch and Izzi8bit to name two I can think of, there are several others that can be found on Newgrounds since Pixel Day is a thing over there but I do think that expanding beyond just making games and gifs. But that's just me.