here's the long post:
on my goodbye thread i said this:
i believe the responsibility falls on all shoulders.
1. the map maker. if he feels the map has no supporters then he should abandon it. working on a map by yourself with no support is pointless. also graphical issues should be easy to spot by simply comparing your map with the latest quenches.
2. the foundry leaders. they have the responsibility of supporting a map when it needs support or unplugging it's life support machines when it falls into a deep coma. final forging a map with 15 pages is silly and the fact that the map has no posts is a clear indicator that the map is not ready for ff.
3. the foundry community as a whole. i see too many people that stick to their thread and that's all they do. again i will not give any names but we are here to produce quality maps, we aren't here to compete we aren't here to brag with our graphic skills or map ideas, we are here to collaborate. some map makers don't post in other threads for fear of aiding the competition or out of jealousy or who knows for what reason. that's not normal. same goes for the non-map maker posters we have. some people come to the foundry called by a friend to post in a thread. well why not look at other maps also why hold tight to just one? the foundry needs your opinion.
perhaps the foundry needs some new rules, or a few more attendants, or more open minded cartographers. i don't know exactly what it needs but it definitely needs something extra.
i dream of a foundry where each map maker posts in other map threads, where each visitor knows how to post and where to post and gives good feedback, where any new idea is greeted with an open mind no matter how absurd it may seem, where map makers aren't afraid to share tutorials and brushes and give tips to less talented people., a place where high quality maps are produced and where everybody can come and visit and contribute to this great site.
the problems i explained then are still areound and the current lack of feedback only enhances them.
MAP MAKER EDUCATION:
1. LESSON 1. ADMIT DEFEAT. there are still very few map makers that are willing to admit defeat and abandon a map that has no feedback. there are very few that also have the guts to admit they lack the skill for map making and that no matter how brilliant their idea is it won't ever progress without quality graphics.
2. LESSON 2. WORK FAST, WORK WELL, KEEP FEEDBACK COMING.
again few map makers know when to make an update. if you think that waiting a week to update your map is a decent time then you're wrong. very wrong. keep the updates coming and the feedback will too. if i post in a map thread about something that needs to be changed and a week later i see the map maker still asking for feedback despite not putting any updates then i won't come back. and so will most people. it's about workflow and about respecting the others. on all of my maps i have lots and lots of updates despite starting from an almost finished image. if somebody wants a name moved 2px to the left i quickly provide that and the map progresses and the one that gave me the feedback is happy because he's taken into consideration. and don't go saying updates are hard to do so fast because they aren't. i'm not the best map maker or the fastest and yet no update has taken more than 1-2 hours and that's for major updates. ususally they take 1-20 minutes.
FEEDBACK GIVERS:
1. LESSON 1. LEARN THE ABC..
reading the thread before posting is a must. you'll find out what people are talking about you'll find out what issues have been discussed and you'll gain all the info needed for lesson 2.
2. LESSON 2. MAP MAKERS DON't READ MINDS.
it's true none of us have special mind reading abilities. so telling us this or that is wrong won't help much if you don't say in what way it disturbs you and perhaps even provide some info on how you'd like it to be.
2 easy lessons for all people involved in the foundry. lessons that will enhance the quality of feedback the speed of production and the overall result.
also as i said before a team of assistants are needed. not necesarily with mod powers and all. coleman can't handle all that by himself. he can't go posting in each thread everyday.
there's a lot more to be said, a lot of things can be improved but i think that if everybody learns the lessons above the foundry will be a better place and we'll be able to move to the advanced lessons.
“In the beginning God said, the four-dimensional divergence of an antisymmetric, second rank tensor equals zero, and there was light, and it was good. And on the seventh day he rested.”- Michio Kaku