Some Things :)

[Narf]

Hi, I know my voice does not have much sway as I'm new and all, but there is a few things I'd like to suggest/ask

• The First thing is the skin, while I do not have anything against it, I think if we made a contest or something we may get some nice, hmm entries? The reason being that it in my mind is a little dark, If not a contest then I'd like to offer my hands in making something that could be looked at, if only as a optional skin.
• The second thing is the "Chat-Box" while I could turn "Enhanced chat-box" on in my "General Options" was not set as default, so when I was to create my first thread I was met with codes and stuff I had not seen before, luckily its a rather simple code system which one can understand by simply reading the tags but still, it may be worth considering to change it to "Enhanced Message Edit Interface" if for nothing else then ease of use.
• A good and bad thing here, While I love the "Tables options"(Haven't seen it before) I've Noticed the lack of "Float Options" and "Fieldset Options" I don't know why it is not there but if its just a thing about getting it done and there is no technical reason, I'd see it as a great plus to the ease of use to this site.
• The Last thing I'd like to put forth is my chances of getting a School like proposal put forth on this side, If well written, would it be something that would even be considered? I want to propose that we try to get up and running a Guild University.
  
  With the ever-expanding community of people here and the impending interest from many sources that this have for many people for different reasons, people from all different communities will be looking to expand skills and learn. Further, many members are wealths of information and skills who can share such skills with others. It only makes sense to provide an organised place for members to share/learn skills and knowledge. People who mod strategy games, play role-play, or just have a general interest in these maps would benefit from such a place, I can't say all the different people and all their different motivations here, but all the more, I'll stand by this proposal and be the first to say while I'm not good at making maps yet, I can offer a course on how to make GIF animations in photo-shop for cool presentation of maps, or simply cool looking avatarts/Signatures.

[arsheesh]

I do like the idea of a Guild University. Or at least, some more formalized criteria for (a) training up new cartographers, and (b) assessing when a cartographer has made certain bench marks. The rep system is a bit too general I think to accomplish this second objective. Of course, it may be difficult to establish either of these objectives since I would imagine either of these would require quite a bit of coordinated effort. Moreover, different schools of thought are bound to crop up as to the appropriate pedagogical philosophy to go by. Still, I think the idea is worthy of consideration.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Narf]

Thank you, I am very happy about your response. I was afraid this would be ignored entirely.

You Ideas are good.

If you wish I can help setting up the recruitment of professors and such coordinate the effort, even make a formal request to the site owners about opening a sub-forum for it. I just don't know how to make maps.

[arsheesh]

Another idea, given that this is the Cartographers "Guild", is to actually move towards a more guild-like structure. Those new to the craft would enter the Guild as novices. After they had made certain benchmarks (the criteria of which would need to be established by the Guild, rather than a reputation system), they would move on to becoming Journeymen, and, given enough time, talent and investment within the Guild, even Master Craftsmen.

Moreover, if a more distinctly guild-like structure were put into place there could be financial and professional advantages associated with attaining a higher rank. For instance, the Guild could put into place certain standards for placing and accepting commissions. Commission rates could be indexed to Guild rank as follows:

Novice Level Commissions: $0-$75

Journeymen Level Commissions: $76-$150

Master Craftsman Level Commissions: $151 +

Now of course, Guild members would be free to pursue and accept commissions at variable rates outside the Guild (at RPG sites for instance), but were this explicit structure put into place within the Guild, I believe it would have an overall a positive network affect. Such a system would (a) offer clients a more concrete and realistic set of expectations of what kind of quality cartography they can expect for their money; (b) this in turn would give aspiring artists a goal to strive for; (c) over time, bearing a Master Craftsman title might come to carry weight outside the Guild, opening up professional cartography opportunities with RPG publishing companies, or publishing houses dealing with fantasy literature etc.

These are just a few brief sketches of ideas really, but I think there is potential here to be explored.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Narf]

That is a good idea aswell, now we just need someone with power to look at it!

[Lukc]

Not to put it too bluntly*, I think imposing fixed commission rates and a rigid hierarchical educational system in an online forum composed of voluntary participants is blatantly and manifestly a bad idea. Most of us come here to do something we love, to share thoughts, ideas and works with other people who share our interest. The community works well, the discussion is head and shoulders above most other internet fora I've frequented, people are polite and helpful. I see utterly no need to introduce a bureaucratic nightmare of judging and adjudicating something that is a hobby for us all. I've got enough of all that in my daily life and my job, and if the CG turned that way, I would want no part of it at all.

Basically: I think the CG works great as it is and I don't see much need to tinker with it and make things more complicated.

As to adding another visual option to the CG, chat options or more table options, well, that's a topic for more programming minded individuals than me.

*that means I'm going to put it very bluntly indeed.

[octopod]

Well, I think that having such an institution somewhere on the Internetz is not necessarily a bad idea. Hell, you'd probably have a lot of the same people turn up.

But I don't think it's a great idea to try to make that here.

[Sapiento]

Not to put it too bluntly*, I think imposing fixed commission rates and a rigid hierarchical educational system in an online forum composed of voluntary participants is blatantly and manifestly a bad idea. Most of us come here to do something we love, to share thoughts, ideas and works with other people who share our interest. The community works well, the discussion is head and shoulders above most other internet fora I've frequented, people are polite and helpful. I see utterly no need to introduce a bureaucratic nightmare of judging and adjudicating something that is a hobby for us all. I've got enough of all that in my daily life and my job, and if the CG turned that way, I would want no part of it at all.

Basically: I think the CG works great as it is and I don't see much need to tinker with it and make things more complicated.

As to adding another visual option to the CG, chat options or more table options, well, that's a topic for more programming minded individuals than me.

*that means I'm going to put it very bluntly indeed.

Seconded. Every bit of it.

The different WIP sections ensure that everyone with a certain level of skill can improve if he spends enough time in trying tutorials. I don't think anyone could criticize a lack of constructive criticism in this forum.

[Jacktannery]

To echo Lukc and Sapiento, fixed rates of this type are problematic when a commission is more complicated than a single world map. If someone were to be commissioned to do a series of related series of small RPG encounter maps, for example, the fixed rates might be difficult to apply (let alone enforce). I'm also not sure that a medieval hierarchical structure is something that a modern web-based community should be aspiring to.

[arsheesh]

Interesting. I hadn't expected such intense opposition in principle to the idea of a more organizational university or guild structure, though in practice, I figured it might turn out to be just too much book-keeping for the administrators (unless of course the site were somehow able to generate enough revenue to support a few full time staff).

As to the rates, I understand that the particularities of each job make it difficult to set fixed rates (though that is why I also included a payment range within the payment scale). The basic idea though would be that there would be a way to identify and distinguish between different skill levels, and thus attempt to establish a system that, at the end of the day, is of benefit to amateur and professional artists (for reasons previously given).

As to hierarchy, well there already exists a hierarchy here and at virtually every institution that exists. The only difference is that it would be a bit more defined within a Guild structure. And once again, the reasons for this are to promote the craft, and support those among us whose livelihood derives from it (and related art commissions). The forums need not change at all in the day to day affairs. It would still be a place where people could come, create a "novice" account, check out tutorials, post their WIP, comment etc. Nothing would change except the reputation & commission systems.

But as I said earlier, I recognize that unless some clear financial incentives can be generated, the time and energy that designing and up-keeping such a system would require would probably exceed many of the benefits of such a system.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh