So. Weds brought this up over at the ‘Snark. It seems like an idea filled with fun and excitement. Yes, I am going to be doing this. And I encourage everyone who is of the drinkish persuation to participate as well.
Anybody have any topic ideas for me? I’m open for suggestions.
The comics we critiqued this week were Brainwrap Comics, Melonpool, and Panda Xpress! I mentioned during the show how I was going off of the Ultimate Melonpool book, and I think that deserves a closer look on its own. There’s plenty of shortcomings it has as a book (not neccessarily as a series) that should be discussed.
I really didn’t intend to launch into a discussion about criticism during the show. I think all the things I wanted to say during the debate finally erupted without keeping them in check.
But I indeed had a blast doing the show, and silently (read: impatiently) await the next one.
EDIT: Now, after finally sitting down and listening to the show, I can remark on how much I apprently love being a jackass.
My UberCon VI con report is now up.
I have to give a good bit of credit to Xerexes with this one. He’s a good editor. Definitely helped me refine a better report.
Just to make sure you know that I’m still doing stuff even though I haven’t posted in two days, here’s what’s coming up:
I’ll be recording another show with the Digital Strips dudes tonight, so you can look forward to that tomorrow. We’ll be doing another three-way crit-slam or whatever you want to call it. I anticipate having just as much fun, if not more than the last show.
My UberCon report will be found in the next “week” of Comixpedia. That took a couple days to write and revise by itself. I’ll make sure to link when it’s up.
I just wanna say that I’m glad that the Drama-that-wasn’t eventually ended on a really positive note. The majority of the participants left it with the satisfaction of having a decent argument for once.
Also, a couple comic discoveries. These two were pointed in my direction by my fellow Biscuiteer, Noodles. They’re both comics that are on indefinite hiatus, unfortunately. One is Return to Sender, which was pointed out to me by being similar in theme to one of my projects I’m working on (and I agree, it is definitely thematically similar). The other is Average Jane, a gag comic based on the premise of gender-reversal, with frequently hilarious results. So yeah, two good comics submitted without too much comment.
I’d really like to expound on the current debate of the week, if only it were in a place where it’d have more significance. But the argument is basically over, even though there was no place for it to specifically end. As is the nature of opinion-based arguments. Or even opinion-based arguments on opinion-based arguments, for fuck’s sake.
But I thought of a nice colorful visual to make analogy of the argument in question would be fun. So here I go:
When I was but a child growing up in the daycare my mom ran back in the day, we had this card game we would play known as “Spit.” The way you played Spit where we grew up, as best as I can recall, was relatively simple mechanically but very fast paced. Each player started with an equal share of the deck. They had four imaginary slots in front of them that they could place Trash Cards, and there was one stack for each player. At the start of each round of spit, each player would shout “SPIT!” and put the top card of their deck onto the empty space. Then, each player would work through their deck by placing the next card onto their pile or their opponent’s pile if the card was either one rank higher or lower or the same suit. They could place a card that didn’t work into one of their trash slots if needed, and were free to call on that card if it worked later. The objective of each round was to empty your deck out into the piles, and when your deck was empty, you got to slap the pile of your choosing (naturally, the smallest pile). You’d then shuffle and then have a new round, and keep going until a player manages to slap an empty pile, and therefore win. If it was more than two people playing, you would go until one person wound up with all the cards. It was a fun game.
This argument has been one gigantic game of Spit. Everyone came into this thing with a portion of cards, and people were going through their decks as they do day to day. Suddenly, someone had an empty hand, and found the best opportunity for them to make their slap. The game was afoot, and it was time for everyone else to slap. There were many, many piles to slap, and some slapped the same pile. As is natural, everyone wants the best pile they can slap. But the game escalated to such a level where there were many, many participants. So many, many people slapped the same piles.
Now, when a pile is slapped in Spit, let me tell you… It’s damn well slapped. The person who got the first slap on a given pile got to take that pile and add it to their deck, rather than that other pile they didn’t want to slap. But, because of the fast-paced nature of Spit, many people made for the same pile. So everyone’s hands got stacked on top of the first slapper’s hand. At this point, all they’re contributing is superfluous and repetitive slaps. And wishing they were the ones to make that initial slap.
So slappers needed to find a new pile to slap. They rushed for the next pile and the next, until all piles were claimed. Everyone’s made their slap (and on that note, here I make my slap). We’ve reached the part of the round where everyone’s slapped, and what normally comes next are shouts and hollers of who cheated, who’s the best, who sucks, and so on. Then, everyone gets ready for the next round.
And that’s what the big, dramatic arguments in webcomics really strike me as. A big game. Everyone throws their skills, thoughts, opinions, and influence into the mash and try to come out a winner. Which, right there, is the very thing. Spit can take hours to finish, if the players are very good. And when the drama rolls around, there are a lot of good players. More bad players, but still enough good players to perpetuate the game. This is why I don’t get involved much in the argument game. It takes too long, nothing truly gets accomplished, and everyone’s really in it for themselves. And the game usually doesn’t end until enough people flat-out quit in frustration or lack of interest.
If I remember right, I fucking hated playing Spit back in the day.
I could go on an on about where I stand in the numerous arguments of the day… The necessities of criticism, where it crosses the line into pretension, creative intent vs. critical interpretation, and all the flat-out mudslinging. But I’m not. Because I feel that it’s wholly unnecessary, and irrelevant. If I were to say my piece, would that change how you, the reader, or the rest of the community felt about drama argument du juor?
Although, I will speak on one topic, the issue brought up of “If we want Webcomics to grow…” etc. That’s a damned tricky question, left up to subjectivity in its own right. Some people want webcomics to achieve financial growth, others artistic growth, still others mainstream growth, and yet others personal growth. So it’s really up to the individual, isn’t it? Where they want to take their Webcomics. Where they want to see the growth. This, I hypothesize, is a predominant reason on the recent insurgence of Webcomic Collectives. Folks uniting under a common goal, working towards that goal. Like in the book world, some want to be pro writers, some want to go down in the annals of history, some want to just plain get more people to read, and some are content to write fan fiction.
So what’s my point? The inherent pointlessness of most webcomics-drama debate. People are gonna do and think what they’re gonna do and think no matter what some “influential” guy on the internet says. So why get all up ons? Why sully yourself? Just do what you want to do.
Professionals, keep making that buck. Artists, keep developing this form. Advocates, keep spreading the word. Hobbyists, keep enjoying yourself.
And critics? Keep on criticizing. However the hell you see fit.
I knew Will G couldn’t stop posting criticism forever.
Ladies and gentlemen, the triumphant and ominous return of Will G to the criticism community.
The movie has resurfaced, thanks to Google(!). It can now be seen here.
So go see it.
Ok. The funny thing about all this Spram (intentionally mispelled, thanks to Lucas) is they’re 99.99% the same thing over and over again. Talking all this nonsense about online poker, as if anyone would engage in that from some seedy unknown source.
So henceforth, I have put the word “Poker” on the blacklist. This is to keep the mad Spram from assaulting me with all its gambling evil.
What it means, essentially, is that if you have the word “Poker” anywhere in your comment, the system will nuke it on the spot. This is related to things like “White Hot Pokers in my Eyes,” when refering to non-Clevinger sprite comics, furry porn and the like. Also if you use the word “Poker” when you actually want to talk about the game of poker. Any occourance of the word “Poker” will be nuked.
Except when I use it. Because I’m special.
So be forewarned, using the word “Poker” will cause your comment to never come to be.
…
Poker is a really fun word to say, though. Poker.
Ok, here’s some funny for you based entirely on my own idiocy.
As I’ve mentioned on an almost continuous basis, the spam on this thing has gotten securely out of hand. I’m working on some other methods, but in my mind upgrading the software seemed like step one. I tried to get some of my partners to help me out with the software upgrade, but alas: They were busy. I don’t blame them. They certainly accomplish more than I do. But for the most part, they had to tell me that they would do it for me when they got a chance.
So time passed, and the upgrade never got done. Again, not blaming them because I really can’t expect them to put their own lives off for me. I’d be embarrassed (and of course, grateful) if they did. But the passage of time occurred.
Now most of you might be asking, “But Phil, why didn’t you just do it yourself?” To which I reply, “Because I’m incompetent, and I refuse to put the site at risk by the hands of my own lack of web skill.” I know little more than below-basic HTML to get by. And I’m not going to move files around or anything, risking the destruction of Biscuit Press not only as a site, but as an entity. Surely, if Biscuit Press and I’m Just Saying had souls and could feel pain, they would tremble at my advances. Likely shouting something along the lines of “What did we ever do to you?!” or “All we wanted to do was love! Love!”
Nevertheless, the spam has gotten out of control. So I needed to get this software upgraded, or changed if the case needed. So I poked around the cPanel on our server (A GUI, I can deal with. Code… not so much) and looked at the Wordpress feature of Fantastico! Which I think is some sort of software package. And what did I see?
A nice, friendly little button that said, “Upgrade.”
I prepared myself for this daunting click, afraid it might actually be a “Fuck your shit up nine ways to Sunday,” button in disguise. It could happen.
But I gathered whatever courage I had in me and clicked. Waiting nervously, as the little dotted wheel on my FireFox window danced in cryptic circles. Much like a demented Wheel of Fortune. Would the day be saved? Would my shit get fucked up nine or more days to Sunday?
It worked.
With much rejoicing, here I am. Sitting happily and admiring the shiny new admin interface, waiting to explore new features and the like. In celebration, I’ve switched to one of their pre-packaged design templates until I find one that better suits my tastes. The older one was both ugly and difficult to read. And making the site simply look nicer has always been on my to-do list. So yes, here I am.
But the spam… it still comes.
Ah well. Step one’s out of the way. I think I’m going to look into that Typekey business that Eric has going on. Seems like a secure and simple way to go about it. Not simple, of course, to Internet Explorer users for commenting. Then again, you people should be using FireFox anyway.
116 spam comments betwwen the hours of 4:21AM and 2:27PM today. That’s roughly an average of one every six minutes.
This is fucking ridiculous.
EDIT: And six more in the time it took me to write those three sentences.
EDIT EDIT: There’s no way to tell for sure, because I’m not positive I can count that high, but in less than one hour I believe the spam count for the day has doubled.