Feed Me Your Ideas!
 

As we all know, the Creativity section of the board has been pretty inactive save a few threads. I'd like to thank everyone for the posts they've made and hope you'll continue to make more.

I'd like to get ideas from everyone on ways we can improve this section of the board. Whether it's look and feel or function. We have alot of creative people on the board and it would be a shame not to highlight this.

This doesn't mean you're idea will be approved, but with all the smart people out here I'm sure we can find ways to make this section of the board a fun and enjoyable one.

So feed me your ideas.. any and all are welcome!!

We used to have a "Portfolio" series of topics in the Photography section. I liked the concept; but hated the way it turned out. Albums could easily take it's place in a friendlier format. To be useful to me, picture size and file size need to be increased. If possible, add the ability to link pictures from elsewhere. I'd prefer to be able to display them, without hosting them here.

Perhaps a neat thing for us photographers or artists would be a thing in our user CP kind of like an art gallery. A place where we can put our best works, and if people so choose can visit our personal galleries.

August is tomorrow. Why don't we reinstate the themed monthly challenges?

I'm on it Gucci.

I'll have to check but there used to be a way to host pictures on another site and post the full gallery view here.. click a pic and it opens full size.. all in gallery view. Let me check on that.

You can upload whatever you'd like in your personal albums on your profile. Click a name go to their personal page and click on albums. Is what you're talking about different?

good idea. would you be interested in heading this up?

i'm taking my first digital photo class this fall, so i'd be very interested in themed challenges or something of that sort.

I used to be intimidated by Photography because we have so many great photographers here. But I can appreciate a beautiful photo and still like to take pictures. Hopefully, I'll learn a trick or two frequenting those threads.

Although there is an option now (the critique or share) I think somehow the word's got to get out that amateurs are welcome, too.

What about a teaser, similar to what's available in blogs. Maybe a random post in each section when someone clicks to see what's inside might pique someone's interest.

I'd make it simple: Images, Writings, Videos/Music, and Exhibition. I never thought it made sense to have artwork AND photography AND portraits. If you want something to be hidden from the public, can't we just have classifications within the forums?

Is it possible to create a "community" of members for the forums in the Creativity section.
I would like to belong to a community of storytellers and poets within TFP.

We have the Tilted Literature forum but like you say it's been pretty inactive maybe because it doesn't feel like a home or a village.
If we could create a community of people who want to post their original writes in a forum I think we could get more participation. This idea might be a way to build new friendships among like minded people.

I know we have the new Social Groups but I am not sure if they are the answer to my idea.
Maybe I could start a new social group for storytellers and poets and we could link to our posts in Tilted Literature.
I am willing to try something new here but I could use some guidance and any additional ideas anybody may have before I put the effort to it.

The Arts section seems to consist mostly of drawings, paintings, and photography. I think crafts/projects/hobbies might be a good category.
Members could post a picture of their finished project, maybe tell how they did it, even include a weblink to a specific project or general hobby. Basically, anything you do/make after a trip to a craft store, home improvement store, or hobby store.

Example of some things I do:
make soaps from lye, water, and oils
make lotions/creams from scratch (oils, water, e~wax, other ingredients)
home improvement projects (floor tiling, countertop tiling, painting, drywalling, cabinet installing, built a wall, linoleum flooring, plumbing)
wood furniture stripping and restaining

Other people might:
make jewelry
crochet/knit
woodworking (making from scratch: cabinets/furniture/toys/etc)
scrapbooking
home improvement projects (tile, paint, stain, repair?, masonry, install new window)
landscape
toy/model train scenes
candlemaking
papercrafts
floral arrangements
holiday crafts
model train/car/airplane/ship/dinosuar

You get the picture. Members could post before/after pics if appropriate, or just an after pic if it is a creation from scratch.
I think most of these show up, if at all, in journals right now.

Just a thought.

I miss amonkie's writing challenges. I think they help.

This is a good idea. I'll have to refer it to someone who's alot better at coding and understand just how groups and all work within this place so we can give you bit of feedback on how/what is possible. :)

I think as of right now, all of this type of thing goes into 'Tilted Knowledge-HowTo' That's not saying there isn't room for this here, but it may end up staying where it's at. I have no problem with the format you posted.


Also, I'd like to point out that if you miss the challenges, feel free to revive them! There is nothing stopping you from stepping up to the plate and laying out the challenge for other members. Challenge them to a writing duel, poetry duel, drawing duel, photography duel. Challenge them in form, function and layout. Pull out your creative side and let's see it! You don't have to wait for us to make all the changes.. use the tools you have now :)

i had wanted to put up another request for ideas about writing and visual stuff beyond photography, but am not sure i'll have time to do it this weekend, so if you have more ideas about ways to open these forums up, please post them here for now.

i'm considering opening these spaces up for links to the outside world, other folk's work out there in the aether, for discussion about books or about visual media-----and about sound/music. so more ideas along all these lines=more better.

I like this idea.
Or maybe a series of contests to get the creative juices flowing.

Yeah the challenges idea could defintely liven things up in Tilted Literature.
I haven't participated in them in TFP yet but I have posted some writing challenges in other forums that were pretty well recieved.

I will noodle on a new challenge and try to post something if I can come up with something I think is worthy.

Tilted DIY. Not all of our 'arts' or projects fit into a neat pigeon hole, but all are definitely Creative (see: most of my threads)

It looks like Bees has possibly taken this on, but I am willing to start these up again, I am probably just as rusty and anyone else.

Sometime ago people were discouraged from sharing their snapshots and vacation photo's. While I understand that Tilted Photography really is for the creative side of photography, this seemed to change the dynamic and participation level. Of course my perception may not be reality, but I am fairly certain that I'm not the only one that sees this.

I wish I had a solution to offer, I really do. I had thought about suggesting a "Tilted Snapshots" section, but that seems a bit redundant. Perhaps the new "share" tag may be the solution.

I too like the idea of monthly challenges, and may even participate...

a small idea...could certian lesser used areas such as portraits and photography keep the threads on a bit longer,I put something up and it's gone before anyone looks at it?...

I know you can go back and see the older ones but lazy people don't...

xoxoxoo

that's an easy fix bobby.... I'll do that one right now.
-----Added 4/8/2008 at 11 : 05 : 04-----
they are now set to show the last 100 days. Lets see if that's a long enough time...

Thanks bobby ~ I feel the same way about Tilted Literature.

It seems like the posts get bumped off the first page quickly and there is no 2nd page for them to hang around on for a while.

Can this be fixed too?

No, I already serviced bobby's request.... tomorrow I can do another :lol:
-----Added 4/8/2008 at 11 : 23 : 22-----
all creativity threads have been set to 100 days...

I liked the photography challenges, but changing them weekly was always difficult for me. Monthly sounds ideal.

You deserve a kiss for all your effort Cynthetiq ...

http://slammajammaband.com/images/ro...tones-lips.jpg
-----Added 4/8/2008 at 02 : 08 : 34-----

So a bit off topic, as it isn't really creativity, but does anyone else the Finance forum? It was my favorite part of the TFP for such a long time....

As I mentioned in my previous reply I would love to form a community around the Tilted Literature forum so that it can become more like a home or a village for amateur writers and for those who appreciate the sincere attempts of our members to create meaningful stories and prose.

So in fact that is what I will set out to do! We now have a new feature in TFP; Social Groups. I will endevour to understand how to create a new Social Group as a means to support this forum and also to promote lively discussion and new friendships.

Before I start my endeavour I ask a little advice please.

First I would like opinions on wheather the new Social Group should be "Public", "Moderated" or "Invite Only". I am thinking "Public" but since I don't understand exactly how a "Moderated" forum would operate I ask for advice on this choice of type.

Second I would like to get some advice and ideas on how to publicsize the new Social Group and encourage our literary inclined members to join.

Finally I do have several TFP members in mind to whom I will send personal invitations to join once I have created the new group. I would also like to ask the people contributing to this thread if I can count on your support as well?

And of course I welcome all your input and ideas.

some feedback:

Soup, not enough traffic really. It's a shame because I enjoyed it too. We're trying to work with post icons and thread prefixes so that people can help us organize mixed sections. We're working on this with creativity because the mix will give a traffic boost and keep it looking from like a ghost town.

Bees, the challenge is that just because it is built doesn't mean they will post. We may have to attract new members who has direct interest is writing. Enticing people to post their work of current members, but if they aren't consistent writers, that option dries up quickly

Social groups are an interesting thing. Unfortunately I (and other admins that use vbulletin) don't see the added value because it seems relegated off to the side. There isn't away to link social groups to a specific forum or thread. Only thing that is currently available is the public messages in the social groups frontpage. It doesn't make it conducive to having any group discussion that is coherent. I understand that the next iteration of vb will have better social groups interaction but still not as good as it needs to be.

[QUOTE=Cynthetiq;2503886]some feedback:

Soup, not enough traffic really. It's a shame because I enjoyed it too. [QUOTE]

No Soup for me then, eh :(

Something I have seen be successful in other forums is contests with prizes. I dont know how it would play out here. The ones I saw had like $50 prizes or whatever actually. It would not be cost effective for TFP itself to flip the prize bill so the different areas: writing, photochopping, etc could each be different contests. Whoever wanted to be an actual "contender" for winning would put in to a TFP prize kitty. Only those that paid an entry could actually have the work voted on. Any member of TFP however could vote by a certain date once, or however.

I dont know if this would be going in a different direction than what is desired here, however it seems like whenever someone asks for help on logos or themes with payment to the one they choose people come out of the woodwork. When Halx used to put up picutes for people to photochop he never posed it as a contest, but people started voting on their favorite anyway. A percentage from each Kitty could go back to upkeep costs of the forum.

Sun Tzu, if you need $50 just say so.

:lol::lol:

Yeah I was thinking after I wrote that it kind of sounds like streaming bingo doesnt it. TFP lottery. Lets forget I suggested it.

I have to agree i thinkthere should be a crafts section for itself instead of just how to stuff. A lot of people are really into these sort of crafts and already know how to do them and just might be looking for a section to show off what they have done. Personally I dont do any sort of crafty thing of my own but i know my mom and aunt both spend a ton of time doing that sort of thing. quilting cross stitch sewing of any sort who knows seems to be something knew every 5 years or so.

Just think theres room for a more specific crafts type section where people could interact more then a simple how to.

My concern is about the possible origin of creativity. May it be that the cyclic repetition of random variation and selection in a genetic and mental space generates creativity and imagination? It may also be that this is self evident and of no interest to a forum about creativity?

Some years ago I made a watercolor painting in the 21X29,7 cm format. I scanned it and sent it to some friends. Afterwards I thought that they could make any number of reproductions of this painting. Would this be a good way to spread art worldwide?

Another challenge idea would be to post unusual photographs for others to try to identify such as textures, odd angles, etc. I'm not suggesting a Photoshop type challenge at all. I want to see a photographers natural ability to create interesting photos.

disclaimer: I have nothing against Photoshop...........

I'd vote for a video section; there's a lot of amateur filmmakers out there and I'd imagine a few on TFP.

I'm working on it, right now it's only youtube, but I'm working on a system so that it's not just creatives, but for exhibition too.

Yaaaa I like it :)