Hello Makestation!

I figured it'd be a good idea to pull in a mini-competition here, so this will serve as a simple, graphics design competition. Basically, we'll get two people to put in their submissions, and users will vote in this thread. After a few votes have been placed or a new submission is made, we'll determine the winner based on the votes, and a new round will begin. This should be pretty simple.

I'll kick us off with my submission. (click for full size). Feel free to place your own submissions, and we'll get our first round started!

Undoubtedly, photoshop has pretty much become the leader in graphics design. However, many people have either been unable to afford the price tag, or found it to be too expensive for what it is.

I'd personally love to purchase photoshop, but I haven't really had a lot of spare cash to spend right now, so I've stuck with GIMP and Inkscape for the time being. What's your opinion? Is Photoshop worth its price tag?

Just thought I would point out we are nearing 100 members - currently sitting at 99. Woo! Go Makestation Go!

What are your pet peeves when it comes to forums online?

One of my biggest pet peeves would have to be an overcrowded page full of ads. Nobody wants to look at a page full of ads, and even worse, when users try to click the register link, they get another popup ad, right in their face.

I also don't like it when forums have a war and peace index of boards on their site. Most forums don't need 80+ boards on the forum index, and it only makes everything very confusing and difficult to find.

What are your forum pet peeves?

So who in here designs with a browser? With all the border radiuses, jQuery for animations and overall a more enhanced CSS there seems to be a less of a need for complicated designs when a simple color-schemed website can look just as sleek.

As you may have noticed, the boards have received a massive cleanup and have been organized. Some theme-related updates have also been made. The reorganization has consolidated a lot of boards and layed things out so that things will be easier to find.

1) We no longer have an entire two categories and eight boards dedicated to showcasing works. Instead, we have divided boards based on their topic, and have subforums for "showcase" boards. We hope the new layout will make more sense and will feel more much more balanced. It will probably be easier on the eyes as well.

2) We're also hoping to further promote our niche as a community with these updates. The simpler layout will allow more discussions and a better community atmosphere, and we hope you'll like the changes!

- The "Interrogation room" (or whatever it was called) has been merged with "our community." From now on, the "Our Community" board will serve as the place for all discussions related to the community or to its members.

- A lot of technology boards have been merged. This was a huge cleanup, and we hope you'll like the changes.

- The webmaster related boards have their own board on the index instead of existing within a subforum.

- The graphics and writing boards have been expanded. (Whoo! )

- Creative Arts General Discussion has been expanded.

- A lot of boards have been consolidated to make a much simpler layout.

If you have any comments, feedback, or suggestions, feel free to let us know! We hope you'll like the changes!

-The Administration

I am ashamed to say I only get around 20-25MPG. I know, it's not that great. I've honestly considered just going to a hybrid once I can find the money to afford one.

What is your gas mileage?

http://gfxshack.jfbs.net/uploads/gfxshack//out4c.png

c&c time

I'm nolvorite, IRL name Hans, man graphics design are my passion just like most of you guys seem to be like here

I hope to get to know you guys better around here
yeah

I've noticed that as makestation has grown, the board layout and general community organization has begun to feel a little unbalanced, and has generally been more ambiguous than it has needed to be. Right now, the "showcase" boards near the top of the forum index are especially ambiguous, and most of the discussion lately has been occurring in the boards that are dedicated more for off-topic purposes.

To help make things less confusing and more community-oriented, I've been working on a new board layout that would help to solve some of our problems. It would help to highlight makestation's purpose to become more than just a place to "showcase" creative projects, and would help our community to become a place for community-wide collaboration as well. Here is what I'm thinking at this point.



Forgive the messy bullet points. I'm apparently not good with libreoffice. Rest assured, the subforums (listed in italics) would look much nicer once implemented.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on the ideas listed above? Feel free to drop any of your suggestions, comments, or ideas as well. All of this is very tentative at this point.