OMG! It's been 2 years...

Guerrilla · February 2021

TLDR: It's been two years since the big server move. Tell us how we're doing.

Another year has passed (and what a fun one this one turned out to be

) since the big migration, so I figured now's a pretty good time to ask for some feedback, as well as maybe spend a moment contemplating where to go from here...

But first, some numbers:

1472 members logged in on the new forums since the move. (984 this time last year)
589 new members have registered. (306)
However, out of those 138 have turned out to be spammers and have been banned. (103)
609 threads have seen activity since the move and there have been 499 new threads. (335/269)
23 models have been released in total. (13)
There have been 16354 posts since the move. Posts have been liked 22501 times in total, and we've dished out 4327 badges.

Since this time last year, we've added a few features:

Commissions open option in the profiles. This one isn't very widely used, but you do see the little icon pop up every now and then. I'd actually be curious to hear, if this feature has helped anyone? Have you gotten work or ordered work because of it? Would you like to see it developed somehow?
Finally sorted out autosaving options, so you get to choose whether the forums autosave your drafts. A lot of people have disabled these, and this is probably the most widely used new feature.
Sorted out automatic image resizing on the thread thumbnails. This has made a big impact on our bandwidth usage, and hopefully you've seen page loads improve as a result.
Pointless zoom effect on thread thumbnails. Hope you like it as much as I do
A bunch of little tweaks to Profile fields to make them more usable and improve the selection. Is linking to your other accounts out there useful to you, or is this place just starting to look too much like MySpace?
Added CG applications to profiles. Again, is this a feature you enjoy or do you dislike more visual clutter?
Thread scores to make likes have a visible impact on people's threads.
Unsubscribe option to threads you've participated in, but don't want notifications for.
Hooked up an easy to remember Discord invite at https://discord.scifi-meshes.com
Turned off the kind of pointless front page, since the forums are really where it's at.
A number of improvements to handling your data on SFM like the ability to download your data for review and delete your profile without needing an admin.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to. How do you think we've been doing?
Is there anything you particularly like or dislike about the site?
Are there some new features you would like to see here? Are we missing something really essential?
Is the site easy and fun to use?
Is there some content you would like to see from us (you know, official Scifi-Meshes stuff)? Or are you just here to look at other members' work?
Are you streaming your work, selling models or taking commissions? Is there something we can do to help you promote those things?
Are you interested in people streaming work or taking commissions, or just here for the forums?
Any interest in challenges?
Have you checked out the Discord yet? Do we mention Discord too often?

Have you checked us out on other socials? Are FB, Instagram and Twitter actually useful social media to you? Or to us? Or anyone really?

Basically, tell us how we're doing.

McC · February 2021

How do you think we've been doing?

Personally, I think the site's better than it's ever been!

Is there some content you would like to see from us (you know, official Scifi-Meshes stuff)? Or are you just here to look at other members' work?

Mostly just here to see what other folks are working on, share what I'm working on, and give/receive feedback on both, with the occasional knowledge-sharing in the form of a mini tutorial.

Any interest in challenges?

I remain interested, but strapped for any appreciable time with which to devote to them, unfortunately

Have you checked us out on other socials? Are FB, Instagram and Twitter actually useful social media to you? Or to us? Or anyone really?

Big ol' ick to Facebook, personally. I do use both Instagram and Twitter, but the latter mostly for keeping up with current events from particular perspectives and the former largely for keeping up with a handful of people I know. I'm not sure what sort of posts to either of those would really make sense for a community like SFM, without potentially stepping on the toes of the artists already posting here, y'know?

Are there some new features you would like to see here? Are we missing something really essential?
Is the site easy and fun to use?
Have you checked out the Discord yet? Do we mention Discord too often?

I'm lumping these three together! There are two things that occur to me related to one-or-more of them:

It'd be super handy to have a "What's new since I was last here?" link, sort of like the "Recent Posts" link, but tailored per-person the way the forums make bold any threads that have been active since someone last visited. My use pattern for the forums essentially is to do this manually: pop open the various subforums with activity since I was last here, pop open each of the threads with activity since I was last here, check outs what's new in each of them, then "Mark All Viewed". A way to do most of that in a single link would be very welcome.
With how much conversation and activity happens on Discord, I wonder if there are ways that the site and Discord could see more opt-in integration. I'm not sure what form that would take, to be honest. The first thing that popped into my head was something like a Discord bot that would allow you to associate your Discord user with your forum user, designate a thread on the forums that you started, and automatically post something you posted to Discord into that thread. That would probably necessitate a lot of SFM-side hosting space, though, so maybe that's not a good idea at all. But certainly, given how active -- and weirdly separate, in some respects -- the Discord crowd and forum crowds are, features to promote more cross-pollination might be worthwhile?

Happy re-birthday, SFM!

rojren · February 2021

I didn't know there was going to be a test.

You're doing pretty good for a site that would allow me as a member.

Seriously. Things seem to be going well. I continue to be impressed with the the variety of talents that hang around here.

While the challenges sounds like a fun idea, I'd like to point out that with the last one I was the only entrant.

froggi3 · February 2021

Not as good as it was back in 2004........

ChiefBrex · February 2021

I've definitely liked the improvements, and glad to see that Sci Fi Meshes has been around for as long as it has. Hard to believe it's been active for (so far as I know) 16 years or longer.

The only thing....it needs more prishek (sp?)

tumblr_oxz5a2ElcH1we7b6fo1_500.gifv

Guerrilla · February 2021

It'd be super handy to have a "What's new since I was last here?" link, sort of like the "Recent Posts" link, but tailored per-person the way the forums make bold any threads that have been active since someone last visited. My use pattern for the forums essentially is to do this manually: pop open the various subforums with activity since I was last here, pop open each of the threads with activity since I was last here, check outs what's new in each of them, then "Mark All Viewed". A way to do most of that in a single link would be very welcome.

This one has proven a little tricky, although I personally kind of feel Recent Discussions already covers the functionality pretty well. I have a few filters set up for getting posts from the last 24 hours, Week, Month and Year. There's also unread, but the issue with that is that pretty much everything from the vBulletin days counts as unread as far as Vanilla cares.

Haven't managed to spit out a simple list of what's happened since you last visited though yet.

With how much conversation and activity happens on Discord, I wonder if there are ways that the site and Discord could see more opt-in integration. I'm not sure what form that would take, to be honest. The first thing that popped into my head was something like a Discord bot that would allow you to associate your Discord user with your forum user, designate a thread on the forums that you started, and automatically post something you posted to Discord into that thread. That would probably necessitate a lot of SFM-side hosting space, though, so maybe that's not a good idea at all. But certainly, given how active -- and weirdly separate, in some respects -- the Discord crowd and forum crowds are, features to promote more cross-pollination might be worthwhile?

Getting stuff into Discord is a lot easier than getting things out of Discord it turns out, but I am working on some integrations. Hooking up Discord users to forum users and actually posting from Discord to forums seems pretty unlikely though.

srspicer · February 2021

I think its awesome sauce!!
Its a great place to show your work, ask questions & get feed back. Although I'm an amateur 3D artist, there is still a place for physical models. I get loads of info and inspiration here.
Deff. two thumbs up. Well done and thank you for all the hard work.

Dannage · February 2021

I don't frequent it as often as in days of yore, but then my skills stayed with my software... out of date.

Can't think of anything to improve it. In this day and age, a forum based website is lucky to be going at all, so I like it.

Didn't know there was a commissions link. Will look at that, since it's time I gave in to letting others do the work.

maran · February 2021

I like the pointless zoom, zo 10/10 from me

rojren · February 2021

Emojis! That's what this place needs more of. Discord has spoiled me.

buzzman · March 2021

Very stable, easy to use, though this is the first time I've actually logged in for years. In a long needed clear out, I came across the scrap of paper with my password on it, as the email I used to create my account was long gone. Been periodically browsing in the meantime as a guest, but hope to finally get back into turning some of my half completed projects into something I can be happy enough to post some pictures of!

Greetings!

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OMG! It's been 2 years...

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