Mentee Forum Guidelines [8/20/07]

[Errol McGillivray]

[How We Roll]
There are a few simple rules for threads posted in this forum.

• This forum is for designated Mentee Threads only.
  
  Please do not make a thread asking for a mentor. You will be BANNED.
  Joking. You won't be banned, but the thread will be locked and whisked away to the dark reaches of your mother's nethers. Isn't that a scary thought?
  
  Please post threads offering general art advice, discussion, or otherwise in the main forum. This includes activities and challenges.
  
  
• Forum Etiquette
  
  Do not spam the threads. This includes off topic chit chat. We ask that discussion stay focused on the art.
  
  Adhere to gaia tos.
  

[Expectations]

These are optional for mentees - you don't have to make one if they don't want to, although it's encouraged.

In a mentee thread, the mentee can post sketches/works in progress/finished pieces/whatever for the general public to critique. This is a nice way to get the opinion of people other than your mentor.

We prefer that you format your threads. Please try to include a little bit about you. Skill set, education, and experience are all things you'll want to include.

Your username should appear in your thread title. (Optional, but helpful.)

Please keep all your work in one thread. All others will be locked. Should you want to clean house and start fresh, feel free to make a new thread with the same information in your opening post and PM a crew member to lock the previous thread for you.  

[Errol McGillivray]

Iyou

Read this in its entirety.

I'm so happy that the guild has grown as large as it is now, and we're getting a livelier and livelier community. However, it's come to my attention that some people are not acting in the spirit that the guild was founded in when making critiques here.

As it is, I thought a reiteration of the rules would be the best action to take, as some people may just not know what behavior is acceptable here.

From the Guild Rules and Guidelines sticky:

Giving a Good Critique

- Do not simply list negative comments about someone's work. Try to mention at least one thing the artist did well - by looking for both good and bad things, you develop a more critical eye, and the artist being critiqued will be more likely to listen to you.

Yes, I know this is listed as a guideline, but I feel very strongly about this. I've seen too many holier-than-thou people descending into threads in the Picture Post only to leave a nasty listing of all the mistakes in someone's picture and nothing else. Additionally, most of them then leave the thread permanently without giving the artist the opportunity to discuss the critique with them. That is not how things operate in this forum.

I know you may be thinking, "Well, I'm just a blunt person and that's how I am. If a person can't handle my critique, tough." Think again. I know you may be thinking I'm acting like a kindergarten teacher by making all of these "be nice" rules, and that you don't have to abide by them because you're not in kindergarten anymore. Think again.

If you want to be a jerk with your critiques, do it in the mentor forum where people have to actually sign up with you. They know what they're getting into there. In this forum, they don't. An artist's ego is a fragile thing, and some people honestly can't handle harsh critiques. By making this a "nicer" place than the Mentor Forum, these more sensitive artists can choose the manner in which they are critiqued by whom they sign up with in the Mentor Forum.

In short: play nice. If you don't have anything nice to say in your critique here, don't say it at all.

Giving a Good Critique

- Be specific. Saying "her leg looks off," is not a very good critique. A better one would be, "Her leg looks like it's too wide, especially around the ankle."

Since the converse of this statement may not be so obvious to some people: do not post one-liner comments in this forum. That is exactly what this guild was made to protect against.

It's simple: if you don't have the time to post a detailed, thoughtful critique, don't post anything at all.

Giving a Good Critique

- Try to offer solutions. This goes hand in hand with being specific, really. ("Thinning out her ankle would help her look more youthful and girlish," for example.) If you like, you can make marks on the picture to illustrate your points, which would really be a big help since many artists are visual learners.

As I thought that the following point was common sense, I didn't bother to spell it out: Read through previous critiques on a picture before making your own. Do not simply repeat what these people have said.

Offering solutions is great, but if you're going to offer the same solutions someone else already has suggested, it's pointless. This also helps to prevent pictures being "zombied" within a thread. Since pictures aren't put into individual topics here, it may be more difficult to tell whether or not enough time has passed to make it inappropriate to comment on that picture. Look at the timestamps. If a person has already received critiques of that picture and a week or more has passed since they originally posted it, you can assume that they've moved on and are no longer in need of critiques of that specific picture.


I hope this helps clarify some things for everyone as to what is appropriate behavior in this subforum and what is not. Since I've now made such a detailed clarification of the rules, ignoring them will not be tolerated. If I receive complaints about people's behavior in this forum I will not hesitate to warn and/or ban them.

I'm taking this very seriously. I hope you all will too.

Eejbeej

I'd like to just throw out a few reminders for everyone.

It's alright to encourage, in fact its great to do so. And the occaisional silly one-liner won't make anyone antsy, thing is I've been seeing -a lot- of it lately. If you have encouragement or no crits, thats fine, don't force crits since they won't be honest. But -Please- give a reason for why you like something. And don't just keep sending someone asspats. If you -really- feel the need to do so, send them a pm or something.

The second is the lack in giving I see lately. I'm not saying everyone has to be super active in giving crits. And some people aren't terribly comfortable with it. But I think it's fair to say that if you expect to receive you should do some giving as well. Because there's only a handful of folk that seem to be giving advice (and things come up and people get busy) it looks like a lot of folk's threads get neglected. That's a sad thing.
Now to reitterate, I'm not saying you need to comment on every single thread, but take the time to read through and to give some advice now and then. The whole point of this place is a give-take balance, so let's get some more give out there.

This isn't aimed at any one person, just a general reminder and all that. Much loves to you all, and keep having fun ^_^

Eejbeej

I have been noticing that few if any people here are giving crits. It's causing a downfall in the system. The point of this forum is to get multiple opinions on your work, broader views and all that. We can't give that if only a few people ever crit. If folk only wanted the view of these one or two people they'd have signed up under them.
Its a burden on the less than a handfull of people that reply here on a regular basis to try and keep up with all the threads. We don't want anyone forgotten.

If you can take the time to post your work you can take the time to look at others and comment. Who cares if you think they're better than you, if you notice something they'll be glad you pointed it out.
I feel this forum is failing because people only want to take and won't give back.

Give and take. If you post your work up try to post up some comments on other people's work. I, for one, am going to stop commenting on people who never comment on other's. You don't have to comment all the time, but at least put some effort into it. A community is about working together and right now we're just getting sucked dry.

In short for those who don't want to read: If you can take the time to post your work you can take the time to comment. We have lots of taking going on, let's get some giving happening.