Jaywalker's attempt at creating a service thread

Well this thread was originally called "Jaywalker's Free Colouring and Texturing Service " but hopefully the mods can change the title into something more suitable- maybe "Jaywalker's attempt at creating a service thread" ? and move it to another sub-forum since it's turned into a discussion of forum rules.

I have deleted the original content, cos it really wasn't much use without the problematic link.

If I decide try again, I shall clearly have to start a new thread. But I'd like to keep this one up for the sake of the discussion, so cleaning it of the other stuff.

I think the wider issue of what is possible within the constraints of forum rules and what isn't is rather more interesting (to me at least) than this particular attempt to make a thread is.

The question on my mind is: Is it really possible to circumvent this proliferation of external sites (which I see as a bad thing) by using established fora instead?

It seems not, at least not uless your willing to restrict your advertising to one forum only, or else duplicate your info endlessly, on each new planet forum that springs up. BUt I'm not content with this answer. i think there must be a way!

(those who've seen my service thread on PCF will realise that this is already one heckova task in my case, and will only get more and more unweildy, as i envisage it eventually becoming, not just one thread, but a series of interlinked threads, all with loads of images, as i add further info, little by little. There is also the problem that some of the images - eg. the illustrated texture list- need updating qute frequently. I don't want to do that n times over every time! )

An attempting to also delete the link on my sig now, but its resistant to change. NP, I had the exact same problem when inserting it. I will get there eventually!

But right now I am very busy with other things. Tyvm for the PM, Snape. I'll get back to you later

jay

 

Reserved for Pics

 

Ha! Saw the PM first. Didn't know it was posted too. Will paste my reply here as well:

Damn

Well thanks. I do understand that rules is rules. Guess i should have read the buggers thoroughly, shouldn't I?

Well. It's nearly 2.30 am here in Sunny Britain , so i better not try too hard to wrap my head around this just yet.

It occurs to me that here are an awful lot of images in my PCF thread (and also the info is spread across multiple posts) so i don't see the copy-and -pasting thing working at all. particularly wanted to share some of the info that came out in replies (eg the post about Khorum, on page 3, which was what reminded me that I really must put a link, at very least, on Ark forum).

Was gonna put a bit of Ark-specific stuff (eg pics of the the Ark clothing) on this thread, rather than let it get lost in all the more general blurb over there. Figured pointing to the service details over there would be a whole lot neater than repeating it wholesale

I think I will probably just delete the thread *sigh*. I put so much work into these things, it can leave me no time to play the game if I'm not careful . (That's why I've delayed so long with starting a thread here too) And right now, I really do want to do a bit of actual playing.


But right at this minute, I'm just gonna sleep on it.

Sorry to give you a headache! And thanks for being so nice about it.

jay

PS feel free to delete it for me if you like, before anybody replies. I wouldn't feel happy about deleting other people's stuff (that is , replies to my thread). it just feels high-handed and disrespectful.

 

Ps. I did try recreating a Caly thread over herr once before , and found it didn't really work because this forum allows fewer images per post, amongst other complications.

Well,anyways, we;ve now gone and written all over the posts I shouldv'e reserved if I was going to try that again lol. But np. I'm not going to try that again.

jay

 

PPS. Dammit. I can't just go sleep. Can't stop thinkig about this, can I?

Irrespective of the fate of this particular thread, I think this issue is well-worth considering:

Given the current concerns aout people spamming links to phishing sites in EU I was thinking about how EU service providers often have their own website, and you can't be sure that it isn't one such phishing site. At best, that's gonna discourage people from going there.

I thought I'd found a neat solution to this. Rather than put my service info on my own website (actually I don't even have one at present but was thinking of getting one) I thought I'd put it all on a thread (or rather a series of interlinked threads was what I envisage it becoming eventually) on a trusted EU forum. Not so neat as a dedicated website, but a lot safer.

Great idea, huh? Was getting ready to propose that others do the same. But now there's a drawback that I didn't think of: these forum posting rules. If I had my own website I could post links all over the place, right? But doing it this way, I can't.

Damn.

Back to the drawing borad. Unless somebody has another bright idea to make this one workable after all?

jay

 

Hi Jay, I think there is a problem with these rules but I have posted my thoughts to Snape in PM. But I suspect setting up a website and advertising it is the way to go. I have seen a number of service providers. There's also at least one player who can do website design and hosting for you. Check Normadie Radiio for an example. REgards, KickkiJikki

 

Thanks, KJ, but like I said I think we should all be moving away from the personal website idea, given the attendant security issues, so I'll go on looking for a better idea. (and I have serious RL cashflow priblems , what's more lol. so not the best of times to be doing that)

It's not just an issue of why should you trust me? It also occurs to me that hackers who are out to steal EU passwords would surely look around for EU related sites to target. They woudn't need to ask your EU password, after all. just long as they can get a keylogger onto your machine. So there's the secndary issue of do you trust my site's security?

I dunno that we can entirely trust PCF';s security, TBH, but since most of us are willing to take that risk (if risk it is) that seems a good place to advertise stuff.

jay

 

I dont think security is going to be an issue with static pages. See Bass's mining supplies site, Jen's texture shop site. But I guess you got to find what works for you

 

OP updated. Please read modified OP

jay

 

Ah, Kk. Well, I did read carefully but it wasn't clear (to my mind, anyway) if the same rule applied applied to my sig. I thought , on balance , it probably did, and best delete right away rather than risk going past that 48-hour deadline.

Thanks Well, I was planning on adding more content to this thread, like i said, but it's gonna take time to put together (I'm really slow with these things *blush* and i haven't created all the pics yet) and i didn't want to repeat all the work i'd already done. Not just to save myself the trouble, but also, it would be nice if the ark-specific material was easy to find (it would get lost amongst all that other stuff); and if visitors from PCF could come here and find something different . I've mentioned the Arkadian clothing in the other thread, so i figured , if I illustrate it here, rather than there, then i can just link to this thread from over there, for those who are interested.

But it might take me a couple of weeks or so before I have anything worth linking to, and I'm none too sure that I wouldn't be breaking PCF rules come to think . lol

yeah, I get that, which is why I suppse all that general info on customising should be here not here, really. It's not just frills. It makes it much easier for the client if they read that stuff before they meet the texturer, and so I do very much encourge people to read it. But that said, I really don't want to clutter up a second (and third and fourth... ? since I do visit all planets) service thread with the same again, especially not when some of the illustraions need frequent updating. So much neater to have it all in one place and just link.

Wow, That's one highly serious job! Kudos to you for that. I know i couldn't cope with that level of responibility (well ...given that I'm constititionally clumsy, it's actually a lot more reponsible to stay away from those kind of situations, in my case! Though I did once cope with an accident victim by myself, because everybody else was just standing in a circle looking at each other like they do. And it came to me that somebody had to do something ffs , and a clumsy clux was better than than a zombie, under the circumstances, lol. Thus I managed to delay going to pieces until after the paramedics arrived and drove her away. Couldn't do that every day, though!)

I saw that, and was delaying answering because I wasn't really sure how to so "no , thankyou" gracefully, at least not so gracefully as such a generous offer deserves. I couldn't possibly take up your valuable time like that. I was already thinking so, before i knew what you do for a lving.

I don't have anything like the same demands on my time. i'm just inefficient . I take 3-4 times as long as anybody else to get things done, Partly due to a raft if "hidden disabilities" and partly (gotta say) on account of my daft personality (i'm like a cross between a tortoise and butterfly in my approach to life, and apt to overwhelm myself at times). Example: I've practically given up on having evening meals cos even if I do something simple , it seems to take the whole evening up, preparing it, eating it and...cleaning up after myself (that's the really tough part) and I don't find food nearly so interesting that it's really worth that sacrifice of time.

I deleted stuff because this whole idea needs a radical re-think, seems to me. Or maybe it just needs doing all at once rather than starting with the bare bones and planning to build on them later, which maybe my only really big mistake. I dunno , but either way that's gonna take a lot of time, and some kind of immediate action was called-for wasn't it

Yep, partly it's the thought of encountering the exact same difficulty on other fora that's stopped me in my tracks. I was thinking of doing a similar thing on the forum for every planet I vissit. Whether I'd have ever really gotten round to it, is another question. I do try to ration my forum time a bit due to the slowness factor (I think I average something like 1 hour per post. Really! Writing them that is. I can read them a lot faster, but I'm bound to find something I'm tempted to reply to, when I read. looks like this reply took me about 90 minutes *sheesh* - and it's still fulla typos, I'll warrant)

Well , thank ypou very much again for the offer of help. And for sharing something about your life I do hope my "No, thankyou " was gracious enough,

jay

 

I don't know who did the NR website, but I also do web design. I did the AHR website, as an example.

As for promoting external sites... As Snape mentioned not everyone will frequent any other forum, that's me! I think I created an account on the old EF (before it was PCF), but I've never even logged into it, I think.

And, for my Entropia Tools, my sig liks to the thread here on PAF, but I provide a link there to my own website: www.adamh.us. It's pretty straightforward and I didn't actually design it, but if you're interested, let me know and we can work something out. Cash flow problem notwithstanding.

 

Tyvm! for the kind offer. I think i might take you up on that! (have had a quick look, but brain rather frazzled after doing a bit much IRL and biting off almost more than i could chew in-game )

to go back to what you said about PCF tho:

I'm pretty sure you don't need to have an account to actually read the forum (tho the buggers won't let you do a search if you don't log in), So folliwing links to PCF should be pretty straightforward. And the only reason why not, might be fear of carching a virus, Though i should think that anybody who's THAT cautious wouldn't be on any of the fora at all.

As you said, PCF was formerly EF, and it still retains the biggest wealth of info about EU to be found anywhere, and the biggest active memberhip. I'm sure I'm not alone in recommending it to newbies who want to learn about the game, or to people seekig advice about game mechanics - whatever planet they hail from. It would be very nice if we had an official game forum, but we don't, and PCF is still the closest thing we have, so it does get treated as such by most players. Ideas that PCF content should be planet-specific, and exclude Arkadian material etc, just get met with a shrug.

So it's kinda daft to see PCF and Ark forum as in compettion in some way. In fact, I don't see how Ark Forum can ever take the place of PCF, if the idea is to keep it Ark-sprcific. That stilll leaves people in need of a more general forum , doesn';t it? Maybe EP , or the new EF could step in and fill the void but whenever I check, it seems they're just not successful enough, and have largely resulted in players forming cliques

It's a great pity that PCF was ever designated as the Caly forum, because calling it that just doesn't make it so.

personally I'd love to see EP thrive, but if I've got something to post that I want to be seen by as many Entropians as possible, I post it on PCF. There's no other realistic solution.

I see the Planetary fora as a complementary network with PCF as the hub- not because I want it that way, that's just the way it evolved. We could certainly do with a hub, since we are all Entropians, after all

jay

 

Totally agree with you. And when someone posts a link, say in our soc Skype room, I will often go read it, but I haven't logged into that account since I first created it back in October 2009 I think they've given me like 250 CFDs every year since then.. But I've never logged in.

Anyway, yeah, it's naive to simply ignore it. But for Ark-specific stuff, I'd prefer it to be here (mostly), since this should be the go-to place for Arkadia. I don't mind people using PCF. It's great as a place to interact with the most players. But I prefer the maturity of the members here on PAF.

As for EP... I won't even go into that.. I refuse to support them in pretty much anything.. But I don't discourage others from going there, I included a link to their site in Entropia Tools, but I will never have an account there. I dislike them almost as much as Facebook.. But that's personal choice. And I won't say more than that. Other than I just don't care for the general feeling and attitude I feel from them when I do browse.

 

Ummm yeah. That's sorta what I meant by "players forming cliques" (a careful understatement lol)

I applaud what EP are trying to do, and have nothing against the people who are running it. But, well, there are all these uncomfortable undercurrents between EP supporters and other groups, and it looks like they don't stand a chance of outgrowing all that stuff.

Me, I seem to have good friends on all sides, so i'm not inclined to pass judgement on anyone.

jay