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Question, is this one too un-safe? Firework and Black Onyx

@Dex Stewart
Thank you for your submission. I think it’s your best one yet.

I have this one made and I really like it.

Yes, I think reservations for flying spots might be a good idea. If we’re going to hand them out on a first-come, first-served basis, we should allow reservations so people don’t feel they have to rush to get an OC out to claim them.

I’m going to make a list of every flying character request. Since the 20 character limit isn’t set in stone, I will also maintain a waitlist, in case the limit gets raised or someone reserving a spot doesn’t present a valid submission before we start compiling the image. When it’s time to start putting it together, I will share the list.

I don’t see why ya couldn’t reserve one. We currently only have 1 submission so far and that is posted just above here. The only flying restrictions that I could know of would be when I see how the background looks…. but you should be fine making one as is. Currently the rough idea is around 20 fliers though.

Is there a way to save one of he flying spots? I really would like my OC be flying but I work really slow as many would notice.

How ironic that someone named ‘lasty’ happens to be first this time.

@runner2
Ah.
Thank you.

The waiting thing was if you wanted something specific to interacting with the background theme… normal submissions are certainly fine.

I’m sure I can find somewhere for ya in a flying spot as well. :)

First blood submission: lasty!
I’ll need one of the flying slots for her, puh-leez.
I did see the advice to wait to start drawing. Unfortunately, I only saw it after uploading this entry.

If you’d like, sure…all I know is that someone in the server is going to need to clear this with the mods because I can’t do it myself

@FeatherTrap
The only account I noticed was one with your current (birthday cake) avatar but having a conversation with Acres two years ago, from typing ‘Feather’ in the search bar. So I assumed you’re somewhere on Discord but not presently in the PB server.

Should I try to send it a message?

@runner2
That would be the “infiltrator” I mentioned, the sussy baka account detected a few days ago, when Exhumed Legume mentioned it in passing.

I don’t know if it’s related though, I tried a short while ago to rejoin and it asked me for a phone number to verify, so I cancelled and didn’t bother again. I don’t know if this account on the server is a “ghost” from that failed attempt, a bot account, or an imposter using my name to try and sneak into the server. Could have been any of them really.

If anyone wishes to link these posts in the thread and show them to Zizzy so we can sort this out, that might help.

Perhaps this has something to do with your problems accessing the server? I doubt this was you as it seems to be named like a bot account. I also noticed a message from you on there a while back and it shares that name but it also has your current profile pic that you do here. Since it shares a name with you, you might have gotten removed in the process. That could be something to look into I suppose.

Also, saying it’s a dormant project implies that there is no work at all being done on it right now. But that also implies that us 3 alone are the only ones working on it…. we aren’t as it’s a community project. Leaving it up means more people will notice it over time and be able to submit their art at their own pace. Removing that might give the indication that it’s no longer happening when it certainly still is. The only minor problem right now is themed submissions… which shouldn’t bar others from submitting or giving people the option to submit something not in theme as their schedules might be constrained and prevent later submissions.

Anyway, I should probably be off now as well. Already after 3 in the morning here. XD

@Twiface
I haven’t been on the server in a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time, that account you saw a few days ago was an infiltrator (we think).

@FeatherTrap
I noticed you had left the server and was wondering about that. I don’t want you to be left out of anything important (the only collab-related things on Discord so far were me asking Evan for site banners (at Dusken’s urging) and me advertising the poll in teh general chat).

If you ever need a hotline to the mods just let one of us know. They’re more responsive over there than they are over here.

@runner2
I was thinking it would be pointless to have a banner advertising a dormant project, but I suppose we could just let it remain. It will expire on September 7th since that’s what I told Evan the deadline was, though we could always ask for another one in the future.

I’m going to bed now. I might be back in 5 or 6 hours, but failing that, in 12.

That would be fine for me. Although if either of ya have rule updates, and need to poke me about something your best bet would be to @ me as I am usually very unsocial so I don’t check that stuff much at all. I will try though. :3

That being said, if everyone’s on Discord I can open a Group chat there…I don’t see how that would be much different from a private channel in the server, apart from the fact I can join it of course <X3

No need to remove the site banner. Just leave it up and we can extend it until later once we have more stuff figured out.

Feather’s input is welcome which is part of why I’m rather passive about this whole thing. I might throw a question out here or there and never go ahead with anything on my own.

@Twiface
We’re talking about this more in the ersatz discussion thread for now, but as for the Discord Server, I can’t get onto that. XP

Literally I cannot do it, I’m having an on going problem with that I hope the mods can help me sort out.

I think it’s a good idea, and it wouldn’t hurt to ask. I was just about to ask Evan to remove the site banner and I could easily add in a request for the new channels as well, but I’d like FeatherTrap’s opinion first.

While some more communication would be greatly needed here… openly stating certain things might further cause confusion, even if we are just brainstorming before settling on something. People are bound to see one of our comments talking about various rulings and take that as the actual rule rather then something we might be discussing.

I do also feel like we have been trying to rush this far too much on here. While keeping people updated is nice and all, committing to any sort of set schedules or dates just isn’t right at this point. I’m pretty sure how Derpi goes about it is that they already have a generic background pre-made for the collab and just announce it on top like usual. From there they have quite a few months to get everyone to participate and also have artists take their commissions, free or paid, for the collab and get them made. There are also simply more active artists on there to create those entries and flying spots are limited on their final images too. Their actual final background sizes are also colossal to make it much easier to accommodate the 1000+ entries they get. This means that spacing is a complete non-issue there…. while for us it will be entirely dependent on whatever that background design ends up being. While resizing characters and assets shouldn’t be any issue on my end, sizing up or down the background itself might be a problem as it could cause visual problems with it. I certainly don’t expect a massive turnout here, but if there’s the potential that I could be constrained by the background it won’t look too great if I have to start mashing characters against each other for them to fit properly.

We currently have it as somewhat of a free for all while also stating a theme, potential assets/props, and optional poses for everyone to have. This can put more pressure onto artists feeling like they have to submit something specific for a given theme while also juggling options for poses and actions the character could be doing. This is all without knowing of any sort of limits on pose options, what games will be there to make poses for, if they need to draw in their props (dice, cards, etc.) or if the final image might have some they could use, or any number of other factors.

First off, no one NEEDS to be in any sort of themed pose or outfit. Basic sitting or standing poses will be accepted along with not needing any sort of clothing at all. For all artists interested but unsure on the theme, just make something normal outside of any theme involvement and you should be fine.

Secondly, in regards to our discussing of this overall here. Would it be possible to have mods on the discord server for Ponybooru just create 2 new channels for us about this? One in which only those of us involved in setup and rules to post about decided upon rules and additional notes and one for community discussions. This way we wouldn’t have to make our on personal chatrooms or whatever about this and keep it open, while also having a quick reference place for people interested to see what rules are currently set as well as bring up any concerns they might have in regards to them directly. This should help to clear any confusion and allow members to more readily bring up questions regarding rulings or just general questions we might not have thought of yet. It will also give everyone a central and easily accessed location for all of this information instead of being split between two different forum posts like we have now. While we can still monitor stuff here, being in channels on discord will allow an easier method for people to contact us with simple @’s and such.

Overall here….
Artists can submit whatever basic pose they would like with no issue. Clothed or not. In the theme or not.
Rules are entirely subject to change. Ideally with some notice but seeing as we are still getting the hang of this, you will most likely just have to pay attention to the main rules post here. (or on Discord if we get something up there)
Rules are not entirely set in stone. If you have questions or concerns about them, then just ask one of us and we should be able to at least try to work with you if your concern is reasonable.
Deadlines shouldn’t be brought up until at least 1-2 months from now I would personally say. But there’s a good chance we might never come up with a set timeframe until later this year. Don’t worry about it and we should let you know with plenty of time to spare if we do come up with something for a deadline. We should not be rushing this by any means anyway. :3

Speaking for me only here…
If you want to contact me more directly, just poke at me on the PB discord. I go by the same name on there. I think I’m also the only one with a green name there too. :)

@FeatherTrap
I’m sorry about jumping the gun, I didn’t realize how long any of this would take. We’re all first-timers and we’re trying to do something more ambitious than just ‘throw characters up against a background.’

I have changed all the listed deadlines (that I can find) to say to be determined until the entire organizing team can agree on an official deadline, which will probably be whenever the necessary background and props have been completed.

We were kind of using last year’s collab thread as an ersatz Discord server (before it turned into ‘Useless Facts 2.0’). We can continue discussions like that there.

As the self-appointed Minister of Tempering Expectations and Steadying-On, I hereby announce that our local self-appointed County Clerk of Derpibooru County, Secretary of State, and Moon Princess impressionist has jumped the gun by quite a margin here. So to avoid a mad scramble, allow me to assuage concerns with the following official announcement:

Please forgive the weird brainfart-salad that this thread has turned into, this is the first time we’re organising this event, there was a little bit of feature/scope creep and it’s become a small portion of pure madness as a result.
But; the good news is that we’re gradually solidifying into something coherent and consistent and we’re determined to finish this project.

In order to do that however, we need to stop being overly optimistic and excitable with setting “official deadlines! ^TM” for the sake of having reasonable expectations of the time we’re all asking of our community members and artists who will be drawing people’s submissions. Unless I’ve greatly misread the situation and the mafia will murder my fellow volunteers if they don’t see casino ponies before Spoopy-Month, then I see absolutely no reason for the mad insistence of “It neds turr be dun bi SEPTEMBHUUUUURRRRRR!!”

We haven’t even started this project until Late June, the scope of the collab is much larger then normal (requiring an entirely new background and assets commissioned specifically for this event) and it’s being run by random users from the community who have to do this while managing their day jobs. Consequently, this is going to take us longer then normal and that’s okay. A Collab delayed for the sake of making the best quality picture is eventually good, a Collab rushed for the sake of saying we can do this on a DB timescale will be bad forever.

I’m already not happy with how soon we even had this poll anyway. if Mr. Moon Prince of the Exchequer, or indeed anypony at all had actually consulted me about it first, I would have preferred to have had a display of all five of the originally suggested themes available for viewing before we even began to vote-and that includes at least two suggestions for “on theme” clothing/outfits for people who couldn’t think of what they wanted their ponies to wear to the event.

But setting official dates and getting that link at the top of the page is just so exciting, isn’t it so here we are now, after asking everyone to vote on it completely blind. XP
Rest assured, that next year I will be imposing a strict “no poll until all themes are ready for appraisal” rule so this mess doesn’t happen again.

Regardless, being a passive-aggressive little shit about things isn’t helpful so I shan’t indulge myself in snark any further, typing this post has served as suitable catharsis anyway. What I ask my fellow volunteers now is that we need to be closer with communication and have a cohesive vision for the project. I hate to suggest some kind of private Discord chat or something of that nature as I’d prefer that all the discussions and updates about rules be 100% transparent and available to the public. But this thread over the last week has been an absolute fucking mess and an insult to the very concept of organisation and co-ordination so we need some way of making sure we’re all working on the same page and with the same itinerary lest we start having fights in the threads over what the rules and standards of our own project should be. If a private Discord chat is the lesser evil in this regard then we need to grit our teeth and bare it.

So again, just to re-iterate:

Thank y’all for your time. ^^