Creative Corner

I don't have an gaoler, so will not participate there, but I'm 100% down for this years art trade :3

As for the other stuff: I don't have a Discord, so can't comment on much there. But I think others will find it nice to have c:

For the question-stuff: i think a Q&A would be good to have set up from the start (can't remember if you had it last year). If more questions arise, i would personally prefer just pinging in the forums ^^ You should probably have a section with "got any further questions? and then the people that need to be pinged, so that at least 2 people always get pinged.
As far as i know, there's always some kind of trouble with using google sheets (most of the time it's just because someone isn't logged in). But i think it's a good idea nonetheless, as an alternative.


I think the tiered trades are a good idea, although i feel it somewhat takes the fun of the surprise out of it. I can understand why someone could be upset if they used 4-5+ hours on a work, to "only" get a flat bust in return. Personally i think it's more fun actually making the art (and making someone else happy) than receiving it, so I wouldn't be that upset. But I wont oppose if the tiers are introduced ^^
If they are introduced, i think it would be better to go with your 4 tiers rather than time. One hour of work can vary DRASTICALLY between artists. (and i never know how many hours i use on a piece anyways)
If there isn't enough participants in each tier, i think it would be good to combine them yeah ^^. though some clarifications on what "small sized" for example means would be nice ^^

And i think having "anthro" as a separate category would be a good idea :)

I think signing up in the forums is the best option, both to make it easier for users, but also because forum activity makes it more likely for others to see the forum in the first place :)
Personally, i would rather scroll/ have the forum open in more tabs than have to go through some website. I get that it would be simple, but i just think you would lose some people along the way by doing that. But again: it isn't a deal breaker if i have to end up using the website ^^

I think the preference ranking is a good idea,,but i just get a little confused when i look at it xD I don't quite know what the ranking actually does.... I liked how it was last year with a simple "i want:xxx" "i do not want: xxx" ^^ and the "i can/will draw: xxx"

I think IF you guys end up making the website, it would be a good idea to also have the submissions there. But again, i would rather it was the same system as last year. Was it widespread that people didn't like submitting through google form?


Sorry it's all a bit rambely,,,but hopefully you can still understand (somewhat) what I'm saying xD

I'm interested in the gaoler raffle! So pumped for this year's secret santa trade! ^^

I won't be entering the raffle as I don't have a Gaoler I'd be interested in getting this done for, but I'm very interested in the idea of setting up a Discord server for this event!

I would love to join the raffle! Also putted a Clan Banner in my profile!

Preplanning Stuff
• Discord Server: I'm not very interested. Given that all Art Trade must remain secret until the day of delivery, there would be little to talk about except purely random communications. I would leave it just as an option for the most extroverted people who like to chat, but personally I wouldn't use it.
• Question Queue: I didn't need this service in the past years, but if I will, I would prefer the option with the Google Form/Sheet so that I can also personally check whether someone has seen my question or not. Maybe dividing the sections in "waiting / seen / answered", marking them with different colors could help
• Tiered Trades & Anthro Separate Category & Preference Ranking: Absolutely approving these!
• Sign-Up Options & Art Submissions: I think it's a good idea, especially for the Art Submissions section. I never had problems filling out the sign-up nor have I ever had to fix something that I already sent, but if this should happen I would prefer not to have to bother you a thousand times to fix my mistake

I would love to join the raffle! I also added the banner to my clan profile and the button to my forum signature.

And I am super happy the secret art trade will be held again this year :) It is always so much fun!

Discord Server
I have discord and I see the appeal of a discord server, but I would not need it, so I am neutral on this idea :D

Question Queue
I think that it would be easiest to have the general questions on the forum or google sheet.
I see a bigger problem with the specific questions as they probably will have a bigger delay. I think the best anwer for them would be PM - within 48 hours or you can ask someone else.

Tiered Trades
I like this idea, but as you somehow managed to get for almost everyone two drawings last year and I think most of the people where pretty happy with the results, I don't see the need for this.
But I can see why it is appeling to a lot of people.

Anthro Separate Category
Yes please.

Sign-Up Options
I love the iidea with the helping website!

Preference Ranking
Please make the ranking system!

Art Submissions
I am neutral on this, I had no problme with the google form of last year.

Hi! Can I join the raffle? (Also of note: I put the banner in my signature :D)
I am also interested in participating in the secret santa :) Could I be put on the pinglist, if there is one?

@eggdestroyer666 oh yah, of course! I hadn't thought of newcomers that might want to be notified directly of the event starting. I'll add you to this year's pinglist [emoji=coatl tongue size=1]

Happy to see this event return and pleased to see how much thought you're putting into it!

Re: discord server - very interested in this, I think it's a great idea.

Re: tiered trades - I actually really disagree with this. It feels like it goes against the spirit of the event to demand effort from whoever does art for you, and adds a certain level of pressure to the event. If I deliberately put in a lot of effort and try to really wow my recipient, I want to surprise them, not just deliver something along the lines of what they were expecting from their tier category.

Re: sign-up options - I would be willing to going through a site to sign up, if it comes to that. Doesn't seem very different from using google forms.

Re: preference ranking - this sounds very interesting. It does make things significantly more complicated on both ends, but I really like the idea of having a difference between preferred style and a style you can do. One thing: I don't see the difference between "i am okay with" and "i could do".

Personally my main issue is that I want to draw people's flight rising characters and dragons, and don't want to draw their other OCs. This is difficult to express, so I usually stick to the dragon ferals category even though i am perfectly comfortable drawing dragon gijinkas/humans.

Art submissions - Did not have an issue with how this was done last year but am open to doing it differently.

Very excited for this event to come back, but please don't to overwork yourselves taking care of it!! Cheers.

@Zif

In regards to the tiered trades, I honestly agree. The purpose of it is to ultimately act as a safety net. For whatever circumstances there may be that limit people's time or ability to commit more effort, there is security in knowing that you won't disappoint someone, or end up being disappointed. Again I emphasize it should be a measure of effort and not skill: the tiers are to make sure people who put in their all get someone who does the same, and those that can't are alleviated of the stress of committing to more than they can do.

Speaking about the preference ranking, I wanted to clarify that it's supposed to be a scale from 1-4, with 1 being your greatest preference and 4 being least. I hadn't actually intended for it to mean preference vs ability, so maybe this writing would be less ambiguous?

1- I most prefer this
2 - I prefer this
3 - I least prefer this
4 - I do not want this