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New Features (and Updates)

Bonjour, everyone! First off, let me say that I know I have been somewhat distant as of late, and for that I apologize. I am now going to catch up on everything as best I can and get the staff rallied back up to help. But! There was a reason, a few actually, that I was off in seclusion.

Two big new things are afoot, plus a multitude of smaller ones. I am sure Babbage could elaborate on all the "under-the-hood" work that has been done on the site, helping speed it up and get the groundwork laid for future features such as a messaging system and other good stuff. However, most of his time has been occupied creating a shopping cart from scratch. Considering the amount of cursing that has gone on in the past month and a half, I imagine it to be quite a bit of work! But, more on that in a second.

What are these new features I spoke of?

Paint Chat

We now have paint chat! I have been wanting to have a paint chat on this site for awhile now, and by far the best one out there is Sketcher. So, we have negotiated a deal to have Sketcher on our site! Not only can it be used for fun and collaboration, but for tutorials as well. This is really nice software, think of it as OpenCanvas for the web. Drag a couple friends in and have some fun!

http://chat.artspots.com/ or http://chat.jaxpad.com/

We will be soon getting some help pages up about it, since it has a lot of features. Until then, I can offer these tips: You need to select a layer before drawing, "/save" will save the current canvas, the filename must end in .png, and for those who want to try, this is a pressure-sensitivity plug-in that works with it. (PC-only for now, which makes me sad too!)

New Shop

We have a brand new way to get art from artists on this site! Best of all, we no longer require PayPal to check out. (Although it is still an option for those who want to use it.)

http://www.artspots.com/shop or http://www.jaxpad.com/shop

It took a lot of work, but since no "off-the-shelf" shopping cart software existed to meet our needs, we made our own. Part of the reason it took so long is because we wanted to do a lot of testing and make sure it is a smooth experience.

Now we have Featured art in the shop, based on keywords that are placed into pictures when you upload them! We will be letting people know what the keywords are in our newsletter, so you can make art to sell seasonally or for specific holidays. I will say that our current keywords are "holiday", "winter", and "thanksgiving". We will be dropping the last one next week and adding more specific December holidays to the list.

(Of course, any keywords that do not fit the image will be removed. No "winter wonderland" pictures if "summer" is the keyword!)

New membership options are also available. In addition to 1-year, we now have 6-month and 2-year options available. Also, they can be given to other users as gifts! Either give a gift to someone else or get someone to buy one for you. :)

Improved Security

With a shop comes the need for better security. Not only is the entire checkout process in 256-bit encrypted SSL, but we decided to apply that to other sensitive information as well, such as when you use your password to log in or when you edit your personal information. Now you can even log in over a wireless network and not have to worry about anyone seeing your info.

Those are the major things, not to mention a slew of small bug-fixes and tweaks. I cannot express what a relief it is to have this done, and after the Thanksgiving break, we hope to have more regular updates and be more attentive.

Any questions or if anything unusual pops up, please let us know! We passed the one-year mark in October, and thanks to all of you we are looking forward to many more years to come. Here is wishing all of you a happy start to the holidays!

I'm blown away.. these are fantastic features, better than I could have hoped for. Here's a huge thanks from me to everyone running artspots!

I'm just wondering.. to get more people in, does artspots have any promotional activities in mind? I still feel the site is a bit secluded..

This is brillant, Actually being able to use my debit card insted of relying on Paypal constantly from the lack of US cards :) Will you be allowing the same pay functions for subs?

Fantasic to see the paintchat up and running also. Thanks a bunch guys for taking the time to complete all this.

A round of applause for the Artspots/Jaxpad Team! These are awesome new features- I'm especially excited about sketcher. I can't use the one on TLKFAA (I don't have any art uploaded) and I've never tried Artgrounds, so I'm very excited to try it out here :D

Awesome deal. I absolutely LOVE the paint chat! We should organize community events in there. We could "loan" out the rooms/spaces or organize events. Perhaps have scheduled classes and workshops offered at various times for interested people to sit in on like a virtual classroom!

Example. This week in Paint Chat Room #1 Drawing Fur: A No-nonsense Tutorial (8am EST, 1pm EST, 8pm SET). See what I mean?

Or even one-on-one tutoring or similar ideas. There are so many awesome opportunities with such a program in a community like this. I am a HUGE advocate of bringing the community together and encouraging growth, socialization and ENJOYMENT! Let's get these random site goers together to interact, grow, mingle and have fun!

Also, I purchased a two year membership before it was actually an offered option (made two separate membership payments) and I'm more then certain it went through just fine, but I can't find anywhere that confirms it is actually good for -two- years and not just one. How about some kind of verification on the profile/site/wherever of the type of membership a patron has purchased and when it was purchased? Perhaps have it displayed under the user's "Settings" tab somewhere? I know I'm forgetful and two years is a long time! I'm thinking it would be nice to keep tabs on when my membership will expire so I can purchase a new one as soon as I need to, without the hassle of going, "Hmm, now when exactly did I buy this? How many months/weeks/days/etc do I have left?"

I have to say this is by far the most encouraging anthropomorphics community I have EVER been a part of and I'm proud to be here and am proud of what this group does.

Tigress said: Awesome deal. I absolutely LOVE the paint chat! We should organize community events in there. We could "loan" out the rooms/spaces or organize events. Perhaps have scheduled classes and workshops offered at various times for interested people to sit in on like a virtual classroom!
...
Or even one-on-one tutoring or similar ideas. There are so many awesome opportunities with such a program in a community like this. I am a HUGE advocate of bringing the community together and encouraging growth, socialization and ENJOYMENT! Let's get these random site goers together to interact, grow, mingle and have fun!

Oui! Indeed, that is one of the major reasons we worked to get a paint chat on the site! Once everything gets settled with this new code, we plan on emphasizing that part of it.

Also, I purchased a two year membership before it was actually an offered option (made two separate membership payments) and I'm more then certain it went through just fine, but I can't find anywhere that confirms it is actually good for -two- years and not just one. How about some kind of verification on the profile/site/wherever of the type of membership a patron has purchased and when it was purchased? Perhaps have it displayed under the user's "Settings" tab somewhere? I know I'm forgetful and two years is a long time! I'm thinking it would be nice to keep tabs on when my membership will expire so I can purchase a new one as soon as I need to, without the hassle of going, "Hmm, now when exactly did I buy this? How many months/weeks/days/etc do I have left?"

Ah! A very good point. It used to be if you went to the membership page, it would show you how much time you had left... except now the membership page is gone in favor of the new shop! We shall have something like this up shortly, probably by the end of today.

I have to say this is by far the most encouraging anthropomorphics community I have EVER been a part of and I'm proud to be here and am proud of what this group does.

Merci beaucoup! We hope to have even more features and attentiveness soon. The next big thing is a private messaging system, which should help increase the community aspect. According to Babbage, we have the underlying framework already in place, but alas, we need to work on it some more. I do not like to go forward with things until they are tested to a reasonable degree and are easy to use.

T-Tiger said: I'm blown away.. these are fantastic features, better than I could have hoped for. Here's a huge thanks from me to everyone running artspots!

I'm just wondering.. to get more people in, does artspots have any promotional activities in mind? I still feel the site is a bit secluded..

Merci!

About promotion, yes, we do have some in mind. I have been holding off on promoting the site too much until we got some things ironed out, but they seem to be wrapped up pretty much.

One reason we have not pushed aggressively with promotion is because this site is many handfuls of work! As "small" as it is, it still takes a lot of time to maintain and run, and I do not want to overextend the staff, which is already a bit overextended. We need to take care of a few issues at home, so to speak, before traveling abroad.

In short though, expect some pushes soon. :)

About promotion, yes, we do have some in mind. I have been holding off on promoting the site too much until we got some things ironed out, but they seem to be wrapped up pretty much.

One reason we have not pushed aggressively with promotion is because this site is many handfuls of work! As "small" as it is, it still takes a lot of time to maintain and run, and I do not want to overextend the staff, which is already a bit overextended. We need to take care of a few issues at home, so to speak, before traveling abroad.

In short though, expect some pushes soon. :)

Honestly I like the "smaller" feel of this place though. More homey. I can kinda keep track of everyone, I recognize at least most of the art styles and can pin them to the artist, doesn't take an hour a day to keep up with all the forums, etc. Just more personable all around. Though of course there are pros and cons to it either way so eh. Hehe.

Seurat the Cheetah Artiste said:... and for those who want to try, this is a pressure-sensitivity plug-in that works with it. (PC-only for now, which makes me sad too!)

i'm getting a "The file you requested does not exist:/sketchstudio/" problem when i click the link ):

Lupercaleb said:

Seurat the Cheetah Artiste said:... and for those who want to try, this is a pressure-sensitivity plug-in that works with it. (PC-only for now, which makes me sad too!)

i'm getting a "The file you requested does not exist:/sketchstudio/" problem when i click the link ):

Thank you for pointing that out! I fixed the link, the correct one being:

http://www.cellosoft.com/software/view.php?id=29

I just want to say: Yay for paint chat!

As soon as I'm not bogged down with schoolwork and job-related things, I need to try this out.