Feedback Needed: Change to Oekaki Organisation

[Tess]

Thanks everyone for your feedback so far! Sounds like people would like if we combined some of our suggested categories so there aren't too many new boards replacing the old. We can scrap the combo board and the fandoms board so people can just sort into one of the others

I think with animals it would still be useful to divide them up a bit because a large proportion of oekaki art features animals and it would end up being a very full and busy board. Maybe OCs/fursonas/fantasy etc for one board and then more like natural/realism in the other? So people drawing their real pets etc would fit into the second category

[nickjr]

I'll preface this by saying I don't browse the oekaki boards often (not due to the current organization system, though) and I've only read the first page of replies to this thread.

I think that replacing the skill level boards would be good but agree that we should maybe keep the number of categories down. I also think we should keep the sketches board and add a misc/catch-all/unsorted (for finished works) board. Something like this:

> Sketches and experiments, for unfinished works
> Human-centric/humanoid-centric
> Animal-centric/creature-centric
> No animate subjects
> References/'utility' drawings like concept art? (while I wouldn't be surprised if we have a lot of these, I also wouldn't be surprised if we don't have enough of these to warrant their own board)
> Misc (maybe the user doesn't want to categorize their drawing or something, idk)

[abxy]

i can say that i WOULD like to see changes to the organization. really i post everything in sketches & experiments because trying to organize them otherwise is frustrating. what counts as what? what goes in beginners, intermediate, advanced? what IS my skill level? that and it is the only board where i can get attention from people other than my followers lol. but i have the same concern that some other users do. over years a community has been built and i would hate to see it disrupted too much, yknow? i’ve watched it grow and change since i got more active on oekaki in... 2017 i believe? anyways i’m going on a tangent here.

i’ll be honest, i can’t see having too many specific categories like what was proposed in the original post working. of course some boards will always be used more than others, that’s just how these things go, but getting too specific i think we would end up with some boards being used vastly more than others. i like the separation of human/humanoid and animals, i’m certainly not a fan of separating fandom and original content (really, there’s no point, and sometimes the line gets blurry) or separating real animals & fantasy animals/ocs. a landscapes/inanimate board would be nice considering those are... not very common around here. i guess the point i’m trying to get at here is i would like broader categories. i’d still like a sketches board! i would like a general board too but i wonder if that would defeat the purpose, so maybe not. bet a general board would end up being the most used... i briefly considered separating by style— realism, etc. but actually that would be a nightmare. like a complete nightmare

really i’m thinking out loud here, ha. i hope this isn’t totally incoherent.

sorry for this wall of text - i wanted to separate out these paragraphs more but i gotta get up around 1-3 am and i’m about to go to sleep, so.

(also, i would LOVE a ref sheet board. i’m on board with that completely... no pun about boards intended)

[clouds-move-on]

will there be an easier way to change what board you're posting to without requiring moderator intervention every single time? the old "trick" to switch boards no longer works and I don't want to overwhelm mods by making them move my posts constantly under this new system <":

^ would like to know about this! I have accidentally posted in the wring boards many times, so

also, my input:

- sketches/experiments stays
- have one called 'general art' for completed work of any kind, doesn't matter species - I feel like the human/animal/scenery distinction is kinda... eh??? just keep them in the same place it's less of a hassle, the only reason sketches should be separate is they have a tendency to be more 'spammy' as they're quick sketches and unfinished things, and I imagine people who do complete works don't want to be drowned out by doodles
- then reference sheets

I'm all for this new way of organizing the oekaki! Having things listed by subject matter- and not an arbitrary scale of how "well drawn" something is- definitely sounds like a good thing to me. However, I'd like to suggest a small edit to the "Adoptables" board of the oekaki:

-snip, rest here-

^ I also think that adoptable oekaki should be separated like this user says. To me, making this into specific categories makes more sense than making general art into different ones by species.

Additionally I think a tutorial/seeking help board would be good - for people to teach and ask for redlines and critiques.
I also like @ Placebo's ideas for an artist search section and a tagging system!

Also, possibly a requests board? Separating the oekaki shops from the freebie/giveaways.

I do not think fandom is necessary. But i don't really draw much fandom art so, I guess that's not really my place. XD

Also, not sure if possible, or related to this, but:
- more canvas size options/ability to make your art into an avatar anywhere AND getting rid of the editable avatar/avatars board - just let that size be available wherever - if not getting rid of the avatar board, then just having the size options everywhere would be cool!

[Sullivan Maurus]

That's honestly way too many categories and I feel like it would be confusing for users both new and old.

If you're really hard-set on your suggested organization, though, here are my suggested improvements.
Humanoids & Animals: This would include everything, real and fictional. I don't see the need to separate things by what's real and what's not, as one person's fantasy is another's reality, and it would likely lead to unnecessary fights over what's real and what's not.
Landscapes & Scenery: Would include everything from full backgrounds to minor scenery exploration, such as individual plants, trees, ect.
Fan Art: Self explanatory.
Meet The Artists: This trend is one I see a lot lately and I feel like there should be a sub-board in the Oekaki specifically dedicated to it. It would make it easier for fans of artists to get to know them better, and it would prevent artist's introductions from getting drowned out by all the noise.

The categorization of art based on skill is definitely something I've hated since I joined, and something that the mods gave me so much trouble about that I just stopped posting art completely. Examples of this include my drawing of squids that was specifically drawn to look like it was pencil sketches on paper to give it a more realistic feel, and multiple works in progress I posted to get community help and feedback while I worked on them. All those were either put in sketches and experiments or beginner's despite me clearly stating my intentions for posting them in intermediate. My requests to have them moved back were denied. The removal of those categories is something I'm happy to hear about, but I'm sad it took my over 8 year long residence here for this change to even be considered, let alone put in place.

Overall, I'm happy the Oekaki categories are finally being changed, but I'm personally not a fan of replacing 4 categories with 8. That's just a lot of unnecessary clutter imo.

[Tailish]

-Sounds good in general! I agree the current categories are too arbitrary
-I'm in favour of keeping a sketches & experiments board, perhaps merged or broadened into an "experiments, tutorials, and WIPs" board
-Being able to move your own drawings from category to category is not specifically included in this proposal but like many above I agree it would be very helpful to avoid confusion and spamming mods
-Having a better way to organise adoptables, editables, and closed species like @.lucifer suggests would also be very useful; this is the only thing I'm really missing from the current proposal

[WishUponACzar]

I accidentally wrote a lot so to condense this post I just pasted the whole thing elsewhere:

snippy

Otherwise, Tl;dr If any new boards are to replace Beg/Int/Adv/S+E, I think that these should suffice:
-Human/Humanoid
-Animals, maybe with the extra division of Natural/Realism and OC/Anthro/Fantasy
-Inanimate and/or Other for landscapes, scenery, still life, and other inanimate
-Sketches/Experiments, but this time with a "Silly" subdivision. I think the current state of Sketches/Experiments could be fixed by adding that Silly subdivision, at least to an extent.

[Kitten-Girl-500]

I love the idea of new boards divided by subject instead of skill level. It removes the judgmental side and yet still provides a way to organize oekaki drawings.

[Winchester's Wolf]

Hi! Hello there! I personally like the boards just the way that they are, but the thing I don't like is how some drawings being put in one category that the artist had worked so hard on, only for it to be moved into Beginner's Oekaki. That has happened many times before with me, but I haven't really said anything about it. But it does hurt me a little bit as it is putting a label on where my art belongs.

But as for the new organizations, I believe it will still put labels on the drawings as the drawings might be moved into the wrong category. And for some of it, even though it's simple to understand, I believe someone will have a problem with where to put their content if it seems to belong in one or more of the categories. edit: I just saw the combo category. But it was just a thought that crossed my mind.

I might be wrong, but I thought I might at least say something I guess.

[jasps]

Yes!! Totally agree and wish for this change. I think the criteria could be, what the main subject of the piece is; ie an anthro character w a background would still obsiously be anthro.

I'd suggest knocking out beginner and intermediate in favour of those categories and keeping sketches and experiments for solely that sort of work and advanced for people who'd like to submit HQ art, removing beginner and intermediate. If it doesn't fit the bar of advanced it can just go back into one of the new categories suggested.
That's just my thoughts of course, but I've definitely seen lots of people's feelings being hurt by the current system, even though I think it does provide a valuable perspective on how volunteer/professionals would class your art skill. (despite being subjective of course!)