Let's step it up!
 

I think more people should know about this site because it's the most helpful and least argumentative online community I've ever been a part of. The people here rock, and the people outside of here need to know it!

A lot of us have links in our signatures for joedios on other boards. That's great, because that and word of mouth are the best things we can do to get more people on board.

There's another effective way of "advertising" though: Steppin' it up! Most of you have been putting out FANTASTIC pictures lately, and to that I say, "Keep it up!" For me though, I've caught myself phoning it in on a few. That kind of thing won't get people here.

Let's really strive to make each picture better than the last; don't just put up any old thing. We should keep teaching ourselves new techniques, and if we can't figure it out, ask someone on here who looks like THEY know. I don't believe I've ever been turned down when it comes to asking someone for help here.

Let's make the Joe Community; the Star Wars Community; the Transformers Community; hell, even the people from Hasbro stand up and say, "Holy crap!"

That's what I'm aiming for, anyway.

Have fun, gang!!!

Thanks for the great post, Dave! I think a great way to do this is when you post a new Dio on JoeDios, link to the JoeDios thread when you announce it in other forums. that will show off our high quality and encourage them to join and participate!

Dave, you really gotta get ahold of me ala MSN or Yahoo.

I've felt this way many times. When I feel things get stale. Then I'll bitch to the boys and people step up! It's weird. I feel as if I could step my stuff up... But I've got my own style. You've seen the dios. Can you see me doing anything different? Would you think it was someone else? If I shot something like YOURS, would that not seem bizarre??? lol

Whew, I was afraid this post had fallen on deaf ears :)

Thanks for the suggestion, Hammerfel. I like it!

G, PM me with your Yahoo info.

I think we can all improve on something :o To be honest, I need to improve on set-building, my imagination (you and I have spoke a bit about that before, G), effects and my posing - as far as getting figures to really look like they're in action. I'm currently trying to get lighting down.

I'm not just talking the technical and stylistic aspects of taking pictures. I'm talking about improving on the total package, to REALLY make these little plastic figures come alive!

Have fun!!!

Heck Dave, why do you think I hang out here so much? I'm constantly learning new techniques from people who do it so much better than me, and in return I'm always happy to help as many others as my meagre skills allow. I sometimes go back and look at my early shots posted here, and frankly they're embarrassing now, but they are indicitave of how much I've learned from this site.
You are abslutely correct when you say how friendly the folks on this site are. I have so much fun and have so many great friends here that I hardly bother with other Joe sites.
Thanks for starting such a great thread, the site can only grow stronger as the quality of work improves! Hopefully I can play my part.....

This is my joe sight i visit joe customs every once in a while, but the majority of my time is here. I am always trying to get better, and I know there is room for improvment. As Craig said looking back at old pics hurts, I was just posting every pic I took and it was really hit or miss, I try to only poat pics I think are good now. I would also like to learn/get photoshop as at some point when I have the time I would enjoy doing a proper dio.

I kinda have mixed feelings about this. I Love the crew here, it's a nice tight little family. The issue I have is when a forum/site gets up to the size some of the others get to (Like JoeBattlelines or Yojoe.com) it tends to get stricter (more rules because more personalities cause fritcion) and polarized (you tend to get cliques going...like we haven't heard that around here!).

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see this site take off and get crazy popular, but I also wonder if the Popularity here would be a good thing, or a bad one? I Love the site and everyone I know that I think will contribute and better the sight, I direct them here.

The Positive side is, the more people, the more contributions and feedback. The more creativity and artistic expression. The bad side is, with artistic expression comes people with fragile ego's and people who take criticism as a personal attack.

Honestly, I'd love to see 1,000+ members like the ones we have on here currently, but the truth is for every 15-20 members we get that can give and take criticism, play fair and honest and even "Agree to Disagree", we get one who thinks they aren't getting enough attention, or is scamming or is just causing hate and discontent. (I even went there for a while!)It's a mixed bag. Yeah, I'd love to see us mentioned more often on websites throughout the Joe Community and get a little more "respect" but when you get popular, you also get haters. This is a quiet, quaint little site with a LOT of Good people...if it could be a BIG site with a LOT of good people, I'd be down with that, but I just see us getting 20 more "haters" causing headaches!

I could be wrong!

I think about a year ago, I went on an active campaign to lure people over here. I think Lord Raven did a better job than me. There were a few who tried. I don't chill on the JBL anymore, but the JD banner is in my signature so people can click on it and check the place out. Believe me, I've tried to get people over here. But it's so hard. People would rather read fanfic than look at pretty pictures or something.

I was wondering when I first read it. I wouldn't be the first to say what Frank did. Not because you wouldn't like, but since I've some limitations on my English I could not made me understandable.

If you ask me, I would say I'm with Frank. But adding a type of permission to register would help to have a filter.

Luis, there is a filter in place from my understanding. Anyone wanting an account has to email Graham or Hammerfel.

Whoa... this bad boy's taken on a life of its own!

Frank, I TOTALLY understand where you're comin' from. I started my online nerd life (as opposed to my real nerd life ;) ) at tfw2005, and now post very rarely on hisstank. Those sites are fantastic for news, customs, sightings, etc. But I got sick of everyone's "opinion sharing"... as in: Oh noes, teh end of teh lyn is heuh; oh yeah, you suck! No, your mom suxxorz; You made a sweeping generalization; I am mighty, so I will now talk down to you! A lot of the time, those forums become less about the topic at hand, and more about who wants their intrawebz egos stroked. I honestly don't think that would happen here.

At the risk of making a sweeping generalization, I think people are here to share their vision of the Joe-verse through pictures. On other sites, having a love for G.I. Joe is simply too broad of a group; you're GOING to have fights. Here, it's only people who love to share their photos, dio-stories, How-tos... it's much more of a niche site, bringing mostly like-minded individuals to one place.

As far as people who sign on to cause trouble: all we have to do, and have done, is ignore them.

Of course, all this is just a theory so far.

For people who have fragile egos: well, this really isn't a tough crowd. If they can't handle people who critique instead of criticize, let 'em get mad, then eventually they'll leave.

It's great to see not only all the responses to this thread, but the people who have replied to it. You're all staples of the site, and while we have differing opinions, we're all stating them respectfully. I believe leadership like that from the veterans will keep the trolls away.

Now all we've gotta' do, is keep makin' pretty pictures ;)

Have fun!!!

Let's Step it up.
 

Well,
I could see this coming, we all feel the same way I think? We all want JD to be the best dio resource and site, but as already stated we wage a war against an older nemesis.
Letting in so many 50 or 100 members would undoubtedly have bigger exposure and feedback on our pictures.. but you'd have to take the bad apples as well.

I aint perfect, I've made quite a few errors in this community myself so I can't set myself as a shining beacon or great community role model.. but i've always had the best intentions of Joe Dios and trying to make this a good place by contributing and helping on decisions that are important.

What can we do as members if we want to make joe dios more ''out there'' advertise and word of mouth is a good thing, as already stated by Hammerfel when you do a diorama or story, mention that it's primary hosting is done at Joe Dios (it might not be) but you'd get people here and looking intrigued right? :)

The other thing is signatures, you can have the link to Joe Dios in your signature. I only run a small ship of around 60 members at cool n cosmic, but in the GIJOE section there is links to Joe Dios and my recommendations for the place.

I can quite honestly say that when it comes to dio creation and ideas there is no other place I go for resources or help. This place has it all. :D

I'm off to create a new signature now.. I'm feeling all Pro-Joedio :cool:

oh god no, put the thought of you being a shining beacon or role model far, far out of thought... naw, just kidding. i know ive done stuff here that wasnt helpful and had disagreements too, but in the whole we that have been here and are still here move past little things.

Perfect.
 

What are you saying!! :D I'm perfect in every way!! :rolleyes:

I think my new signature is better, maybe not as pleasing to the eyes as Alizee. :o

Thanks for a great post. I have been posting like I was in some kind of hurry. From now on I am going to work more on each picture and take the time it takes for some quality control.

Hey guys,

I'm not able to get to a camera this weekend, so I just wanted to say: HOLY CRAP!!!

You're all posting some AWESOME stuff!

Anyway, have fun.

I agree with both sides to an extent. I believe quality over quantity is what everyone should thrive for. That is the only reason I would be scared of this site getting so big. I've only been a member for a little while but everyone is helpful and friendly which pushes this site to be the ultimate. i would be scared that having so many people on here or any site leads to what has been stated more rules more filtering. I don't mind if it were to blow up as long as the quality stayed as good as it is now. But on the other hand it nice to have a little community of some of the best dio artist and photographers around that know each other by name i think thats cool.Thats just my two cents! Peace and dread grease.

I am in agreement 100% with you on this. I have all but given up posting at Hisstank, It's nothing but people who hate something vs. those who like it. IN EVERY POST! Great for info but Joe Dios is my online home now. I would like to see more folks here also. I have been working on a few major projects that are coming along slowly but when I reveal them it's going to be to Here, and I believe they will be buzzworthy enough to draw us some attention. (At least I hope so!)

I've given up on HISS Tank too. I don't understand what's going on with that site. Every time I click on some thing it says "You don't have permission to access that." I'm not even trying to post anything, I just want to look at things. Do they not want people visiting the site?

Believe me Troops other than the pics your not really missing anything!

I've been going to The Terror Drome for news lately. They seem pretty good. And they've been doing a JoeDios pick of the day so that's cool.

I started to read this thread at work, and it was just 1 page. Now I'm jumping from 2.5 to posting a comment.. so forgive me in advance if I comment on something someone else already covered. I'll go back to read what I missed asap.

JoeDios is awesome!!

I found this site after noticing a link at the end of one of ViolentFix's dios. I thought this guy, ViolentFix, is really crazy about Joes. Looky! He has pics of them. And lots of 'em. Then I started thinking that I wish I never stopped collecting.

Then there was a link to JD and whoa! Lots of ppl crazy about Joes! And the more pics I looked at the more I realized I am also crazy about Joes.

When I signed up I had to email someone to complete the process. Was worried the email would vanish into a spam filter.

I was really happy and felt privilege that I was accepted in. I wanted to contribute with pics and intelligent feedback. Was slow to make photos as doing pics of Joes was something I hadn't done before (except for 2 pics in the late 80's). Felt encouraged when I tested the water with a two pics and the feedback was good.

There are a lot of good ppl here.

Concerning JD as a large site:

Previously I have been/still am to an extent/active on a very large 3D art site. Approximately 1500 to 2000 + ppl logged on at any one time. Lots of different ppl, some good, others like to steal pics.

Previously I was one of several administrators for an online game. Dealt with lots of ppl, both with good and bad intentions -- hackers, cheats, thieves.

I say to keep filtering ppl manually. That should help keep out troublemakers.

Troublemakers will still find a way in, there will always be a bad apple.

The more folks who join increases the chance of theft of pics. I would start adding copyright (C) and name to the pics I post.

Administrators will just have to be vigilant. As the site grows, the levels of administration will have to grow: coordinators, moderators, etc.

If the forum grows into multi-forums.. like.. Custom Forum, Cobra Forum, Joe Forum, Coil Forum, ARAH Forum, Sigma 6 Forum, Crossover Forum, you get the idea.. each would have to have a moderator or two, and maybe someone like a coordinator who answers directly to Hammerfel.

If multi-forums develop then birds-of-a-feather-flock-together concept develops.

In any case, it's not a dark/bleak future if JD goes big. Just have to keep it from being heartless. The Internet is a cold place indeed.. JD is home and we'll have to keep it as such.

The first step in keeping JD a warm and homely place is to be vigilant. Secondly I think the filter system of emailing and getting permission to join is fantastic!

More ideas will come later.. just wanted to say my two cents.

JoeDios is top notch!

I agree with Death at Midnight, the screening process is working! I had a hard time getting in here, but the quality of the people make it worth the wait an effort!

For what it's worth...

JDs has long been my favorite Joe spot, and I've posted on most of the bigger ones over the years. YoJoe was great for a while but has since died down. I think along with the 25th series we saw a fairly big rise on Joe related forums and YJ took somewhat of a hit , although it could've happened prior I really can't say. TNI...there's a few good guys over there but it's usually the same thing over and over. And many debates/arguments it would seem as well. Which is what I've come to understand has happend to the Tank. I've also had a problem with trying to view parts of Hisstank I found through google searches and whatnot. You constantly have to log in, same goes for TNI, to see anything. It's like they're afraid someone else will "steal" their news.

The Terrordrome I hadn't heard of until just now and I'll definitely be checking that out later, but for the majority of Joe needs I still come here. The pics drew me in, but I ultimately stayed for the crowd! : :cool:

I know I try to promote the site when I can. To me this sight the best thing since sliced bread.

Joe Dios is my homepage, I may not always comment, but I always check out the new pics, and the dios, free time has not been one of my assets of late. I do promote us at other sites, I have pimped us at Joe Canuck frequently, but I would hate to see this place become another HISS tank, full of large egos, and over sensitive 'artists'. We have an excellent core of frequent contributors, and except for a few instances, everyone seems to get along well, it would always be nice to have new members, but I'm with Frank, do we want it to get too big?

Too big?
 

I think the vast majority of us here are informed and educated enough to control the membership, the site has grown brilliantly from strength to strength and continues to do so at a pace that suits the community.

I dont think there is a danger of over stepping the membership mark, if people read the rules and etiquette there isnt a problem, it's pretty straight forward to understand really, i just hope that the individual membership screening continues so that we can weed out any potential trouble makers or spammers. It was a problem two or so years ago, so the fact its not a problem now means the screening process is working.

I've got the same system i think on my forum, i have to individually approve each member, but i think it's worth it.

All hail mighty JD!! or something to that effect :D

With the movie on it's way, there will no doubt be a surge of new members. I think it's a great credit to the site and its members that a somewhat derogatory word referring to new members hasn't once even popped up in the thread.

I feel like a new member, because I was inactive here for a few years. But I'm really glad I chose to rejoin the fold. Photography these days is to me the primary way to enjoy mine and others' figures, and happily this site seems open to basically wherever our creativity seems to lead, whether it be fighting for freedom wherever there's trouble or a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

You guys rock!