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Velvet
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#1
Old 04-24-2017, 02:29 AM

Would it be possible to create some new positions among the staff? No offense to any of the current staff, but I feel that with more staff members then the site could potentially be more welcoming to new users and even the veteran users.

And not to mention that I feel that more users should have access to the NPC accounts. NPCs are popular on this site and everyone loves to talk to them, but they very rarely show up. Even for events.. A few might post here and there.. When I see a thread ran by an active NPC I think it is really neat. They are the representations of this site.

Heck, the staff rarely even posts in this forum. Not a single staff member commented on my suggestion for search bars in our inventories. It would be extremely useful and we already have the coding for it.

I understand the lack of funds, I do, but I know simple things can be done if staff members were willing to give their time to do them.

As I have seen mentioned before, the staff here are not paid and any time they put into Menewsha is simply their free time.. So they do not always have much time to commit to this site.

So if more trusted users were to become staff then the burden can be dispersed more.

Also, I feel like more announcements would still be great. Yes, we do get the occasional Weekly Roundup, but that hasn't even been posted in awhile.

We need to see announcements on anything really.. I do not mean spam, but more activity by staff on what is going on would be great.

More spotlight announcements would be great. Maybe they can highlight more threads. Heck, highlighting threads from this forum could be a great way to encourage more members to give their feedback... But then again, our feedback feels greatly ignored.

Obviously, new activity is needed to encourage new users to actually stay. We need more contests other than the ones from the events. And if the contests were provided by the staff members with great prizes then I know it would catch the interest of many members.

We did not even have an Easter event.. Not even new items. Or a simple contest. Nothing. It is pretty discouraging. Not to sound rude, but how hard would it be to provide new items? And by that I mean new recolors of common items would have been welcomed even. I know our pixel artists are limited, but a few recolors would be much simpler/quicker than a completely new item, wouldn't it? If not, then can someone explain why it is so time consuming to recolor simple common items? There should have at the very least been an announcement stating that there would be no Easter event and why.

We deserve that. I log on everyday. I may not post every single day, but I do log in HOPING to see something. Some announcement, something new.

We just need more involvement from our staff/NPCs. It is the BEST motivation to be active, in my opinion.

Can we not have random contests? Maybe contests where users decide what commons they want to see recolored? Or where the users can vote for the next possible CI?
OR have contests were users can submit theme AND event item ideas and then users can vote for their favorites.

I know I would love to see user recommendations actually become a thing. More Involvement. Seriously. We need to feel important. And the few users that do donate to the site should be rewarded.

Many gaming companies (not just avatar sites) offer rewards for people who spend their money on their products. For example - One I am currently playing offers prizes if you spend so much. (10 dollars or more, I think.) Would that be so hard to do? Say someone spends $20 on Mennies - They get a recolor of a popular rare item (limited time only of course). This suggestion has been mentioned before, so I dont see the problem.

Some users are against recolors, but many of us arent. I have many rare and old CIs and I would still be interested in having recolors made of them. It wouldn't other me one bit. The recolors of the Vday event items were great! (They were not exact replicas, but they were still awesome.)

I dont know.. But I hate feeling forgotten and unimportant to our staff members.


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#2
Old 04-24-2017, 02:57 AM

Recolors definitely aren't too hard. I can do them myself for the most part, except the whole lack of time and stuff.

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#3
Old 04-24-2017, 07:40 PM

Recolors aren't hard, no. But speaking as a former pixelist, they eat up most of your pixel time. So it's either a) let the pixelist work on new items for upcoming events or b) have them spend their time recoloring. Like you said before, the staff doesn't always have the time to devote to the site and when they do, they are generally working on eis and new commons for upcoming events.

The recolors of old items aren't generally even done by the pixelists...usually a couple mods or AAS did those while the pixelists worked on new items.

Heck, even the new items I created weren't usually recolors by me...usually someone else took that job so I could move onto the next item.

And also...some of the older items are pretty impossible to recolor and actually make them look good. Just throwing that out there. Sometimes the shading style makes recolors look really contrasted and ugly. Take my Mina scarf in the newbie shop for example. Jelly and I tried to recolor that half a dozen times and neither of us could make any other palette look good...it would have taken a co.plete repixel of the item. (Keep in mind that it was the first item I ever made that was put in a store...my technique and style grew as I worked for staff...so a lot of the old items were rough and raw.)

I know this doesn't address all of your concerns...but I wanted to talk about the aspect I have first hand information on. :)

Last edited by Maria-Minamino; 04-24-2017 at 07:43 PM..

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#4
Old 04-24-2017, 08:54 PM

Thank you for explaining that to me, Maria. It does actually help to know. I really do not know much about pixeling and never considered the older items being more difficult to recolor than the newer items.

Perhaps having a few backup pixel artists would be a good idea? Everyone has to start somewhere. I know Menewsha has standards and wants nothing but high quality items, but I am sure there are others who would consider taking up the challenge.

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#5
Old 04-24-2017, 08:58 PM

Have you possibly considered (since it's so easy) you could maybe hire us users to do some recolors too?
Recolors are what got me into doing pixel art.

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#6
Old 04-24-2017, 09:00 PM

You're welcome :) I am glad to help!

They actually have 4 pixelists on staff at the moment. I don't know what their activity status is anymore since I am no longer staff. But at one point, we had only wish it and myself. They've worked hard getting a few other pixelists so that you have more and better items. :) unfortunately, real life killed me and I stepped down...or else there would be 5. But even then, 4 is better than 2...so they are definitely trying :)

I do know that sapherna hires pixel recolorists who has the only job is to recolor pixels. Training how to recolor is definitely easier than training how to pixel.

So that may be something to work on as an option for the future...to have a bit more helping hands. And that frees up any mods and AAS who have been recoloring to instead work on other projects.

---------- Post added 04-24-2017 at 10:02 PM ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Wandering Poet View Post
Have you possibly considered (since it's so easy) you could maybe hire us users to do some recolors too?
Recolors are what got me into doing pixel art.
We posted at the same time lol..read my other reply.

And there isn't a me hiring people...I am no longer staff. Lol that would be a question for zig, knerd, yan, etc. :P. But I think hiring recolorists wouldn't be a bad idea :)

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#7
Old 04-25-2017, 12:30 AM

I know Mene cannot afford to actually pay staff members, but what about gold? Do the pixelists/staff members get paid with gold/items or could that be a future thing? I know their gold has to come from somewhere for the events. :P

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#8
Old 04-25-2017, 01:31 AM


Poet recolored the chicken teal for me <3
I know everyone would be willing to help I know I sure would

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#9
Old 04-25-2017, 03:45 AM

Being offered gold to recolor would definitely be a unique way to make gold for users. I can't see many other sites doing that.

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#10
Old 04-25-2017, 07:03 AM

Out of four pixelists only two are currently working. One is on EIs (me) the other on CIs (Wishie). It's not fun and frankly I'm getting burnt out.

The problem with not being paid in rl cash for an artist is there isn't anything that actually holds people to it when times get rough. So Mene (or wherever) suffers for it.

~

As for "new staff = good for mene"

I agree completely. However, not for one of the reasons you have listed.

There's currently a ton of day to day maintenance mods are suppose to be doing that simply isn't getting done because of lack of time. Before any NPCs can be taught to anyone that needs to be caught up on and maintained.

One does not merely hop onto an NPC account once they're staff and "have fun"/use it to chat with your own account. You are playing an official character and must act accordingly.

I think it was about a year of grind work before I was offered one.

We're also currently in the process of training up a new Admin.

So before any other new staff can get hired on Ziggy has to be 100% comfortable in her new role as Admin.

It takes longer than you might think to fully vet people. We've been going back and forth on a couple of long time members for several months now.

One month they'll look promising and like they've mended all issues that came up in the past when we wanted to make them staff. Then the next week they'll go on a rant or go on hiatus. Which either takes them out of the running completely or puts them at the bottom of the pile.

I'll be very blunt here. It's not a pretty process.

What happens far to often on forum based sites is that when people become modded they get complacent. Most of the people that were brought on with me for example have disappeared completely.

Or even worse. They'll be a lot of talk about awesome event ideas then when it comes to doing the thing no one has the tubes to put them into action. They just get talked about and die. - We've been getting better at more story driven events, but as you know we can only do so much with out coding.

~

To top it off the week before the Glitch hit RL stabbed 3 of us in the face so there are even less of us than normal.

The few of us that are here have been so busy working on the next event for you guys to enjoy/trying to get our site admins attention to fix the glitch that we literally don't have time to post with our friends here. Heck I barely even have time to post in my "Mene Jar"

Rest assure I may not post every day. But I do stalk threads every day.

The most I really got to post this week was about how shit I felt. . . and then this post.

I'm very sorry that you guys feel like your not being talked to, but things have to be worked on before I can go play.

No worries people. Help is on the way and we ARE working on it. Ziggy's new position should serve as proof that things are happening. :)

Anyway, back to pixels for me. I'm on 3/5 if ya'll are curious. ;)

hummy
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#11
Old 04-25-2017, 11:14 AM


Good luck with number 3 and I think not many people do know all the effort that goes into keeping the site going it is a lot of boring non appreciative things but do rest ashored, I for one, appreciate everything that you do and know it is a lot of work I feel bummed that you're getting kind of burned out and would suggest Maybe one of the events get pushed aside so you don't wind up not feeling like doing any at all because losing you and your art skills would be a tragedy


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#12
Old 04-25-2017, 02:24 PM

I second what hummy said, that or maybe even reducing the number of EIs. It doesn't have to be 5 right? Even just 3 would be nice, or less poses. I know Menewsha has gradually been adding more and more poses to items.

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#13
Old 04-25-2017, 03:14 PM

Not doing an event isn't a solution or even an option at this point. It would only make things around here worse.

I also feel like going down in quality/number of EI's isn't the best idea.

The activity that's spawned during events has less to do with the contests and hangout stuff we work on and more to do with the fact you HAVE to post if you want shiny new EIs.

I have to much love for Mene to cave on what we give during those events. Even if it kills my social life here for a few months you guys are worth it.

It is hard right now, but we will pull through this and it'll be better. I'm hoping in 3-6 months time when Ziggy is all trained up and feeling comfy we'll be able to start gathering new mods.

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#14
Old 04-25-2017, 04:27 PM

Reducing the number of poses doesn't impact the quality does it?
I know personally I sometimes feel that an item has too many poses for an EI, but maybe that's due to having EIs with only a single pose. (makes me feel overly spoiled I guess)

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#15
Old 04-25-2017, 04:48 PM

Neph, I understand where you are coming from. That is also why I suggested asking us for help. Hosting simple contests where users can help decide on themes/storylines for events. Would that not help take some of the weight off your shoulders? Yes, I love being surprised when it comes to the theme/storyline, but leaving such large responsibilities on just a few staff members seems like a bad idea atm.

You guys cant forget, we are here to help in anyway.

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#16
Old 04-25-2017, 05:03 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Velvet View Post
Neph, I understand where you are coming from. That is also why I suggested asking us for help. Hosting simple contests where users can help decide on themes/storylines for events. Would that not help take some of the weight off your shoulders? Yes, I love being surprised when it comes to the theme/storyline, but leaving such large responsibilities on just a few staff members seems like a bad idea atm.

You guys cant forget, we are here to help in anyway.
^^^THIS. A THOUSAND TIMES, THIS.^^^

That's why we have the UREs. Heck, I wouldn't mind another URE or two -- I'd love to see MeneCon make a comeback(with little badges!), and I have one or two ideas for a new URE(lolita/aristocrat tea party, perhaps?)

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#17
Old 04-25-2017, 05:29 PM


Maybe the number of event Commons can be reduced
I think you guys usually do like 12 pages how about half of that if that would help I would totally be okay with that and really events are the only place I get any of my comments from I don't like to spend gold on myself
I frankly love the event rares and look forward to it like a Christmas present and not just because we get to get a really cool item for just participating either by playing chance or posting but because it's just a symbol of menewsha and how much y'all care about us



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#18
Old 04-25-2017, 05:35 PM

I would be fine with reduced commons. i can't fathom affording them all anyways. Especially what you could do is introduce the recolors later on as recolors. It gives you a potential shop option for events for "between event news" like say you take a pair of pants, and release the theme's colors. Then a month later you release several recolors based on feedback from what people want to see.

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#19
Old 04-25-2017, 07:20 PM

Aw Neph, I didn't realize there were only 2 of you active. I know how crazy that is. That's actually the point I got to...I got so burnt out and then kind of never came back from it.

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#20
Old 04-25-2017, 07:22 PM

Fewer event commons would be okay with me as well. I love the commons, but perhaps less color options would help save time? Lately there have been a billion color choices for all the common items. Recolors of those items could be introduced some other time, perhaps? So instead of having 15 different colored dresses, maybe just do 5 or 6 to save time? Some users may complain, but more color choices can always be added over time. (Those would be awesome announcements..)

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#21
Old 04-28-2017, 01:21 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Velvet View Post
Would it be possible to create some new positions among the staff?
yes, probably

Quote:
Originally Posted by Velvet View Post
But then again, our feedback feels greatly ignored.
sorry if that's the impression people are getting, but I'm sure its not intentional

there's also the part where we'd have to reach an understanding that a new item or recolor/s is worthy of being released, and only devs and staff involved can tell the horror stories of this part of the process i literally go through hell just to get ideas across back in the day, and most of the time i can't even pass jelly's quality checks xD

*inserts unexpected and possibly inappropriate hug for Maria-Minamino:*

Quote:
Originally Posted by Velvet View Post
Perhaps having a few backup pixel artists would be a good idea? Everyone has to start somewhere. I know Menewsha has standards and wants nothing but high quality items, but I am sure there are others who would consider taking up the challenge.
i wish it was that easy to pick up new people for the dev team, but just like creating new items, selecting people to join the dev team is also not easy. but yeah this is also something that we very much need. we're discussing ways to get new people on board but its still in its early stages

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Wandering Poet View Post
Have you possibly considered (since it's so easy) you could maybe hire us users to do some recolors too?
Recolors are what got me into doing pixel art.
like i said above, there's something in the works :D look forward to it, maybe?

nephila's pretty much explained all about why its not easy to hire staff


Quote:
Originally Posted by Velvet View Post
Neph, I understand where you are coming from. That is also why I suggested asking us for help. Hosting simple contests where users can help decide on themes/storylines for events. Would that not help take some of the weight off your shoulders? Yes, I love being surprised when it comes to the theme/storyline, but leaving such large responsibilities on just a few staff members seems like a bad idea atm.
something like this will be discussed, i'm told it could get really messy but we'll see

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Originally Posted by Velvet View Post
You guys cant forget, we are here to help in anyway.

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#22
Old 04-28-2017, 02:07 PM

Yeah... jelly is really hard to pass on those checks. I still have an item that hasn't been able to pass her checks and I spent weeks on it during that event. I'll probably get around to it eventually...

But, I guess the general concern for me is just that we feel as users that we can't help in any way. Makes us feel hopeless as the population diminishes. The penpal system was my favorite feature ever because despite being sort of a side project with no actual responsibility, it made us feel like we were helping... but I guess jelly is sort of good at amping people up somehow. Maybe it's that whip of hers. I dunno, she was like a celebrity of mene.

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#23
Old 04-28-2017, 02:34 PM

to this day, i live in fear of suddenly getting whipped by the hell lady whenever i try to distract myself from doing work... jk... i think..

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#24
Old 04-28-2017, 09:53 PM

I still hear her in my head sometimes
She lectures me even when not present.

hummy
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#25
Old 05-08-2017, 02:30 AM


lol. during events I do hear her in my head.
'SPEND 'EM IF YOU GOT 'EM, EVENT CLOSES IN HALF AN HOUR'

 


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