Hey there my friends and pallies on Antares! I'm here representing staff as ol' Smokey with an offer for artists. An offer to help the community! How you ask? Well, we are thinking of advertising Antares to the world and what better way than by showcasing our great artists on our lovely community through the banners that they can create! We all have come together and this is how we as staff can work with the community to make Antares something great yet again! Help us do this! Help us be great! But don't think that we won't pay. Here are the rates for the artists that are interested! RATES: The rate is 10 cents per pixel of the longest side. So a 728x90 would be $72.80. Animated gifs are great too! We'll pay double the rate of a static image. So that 728x90 would be $145.60 now. The rate for gifs does not stack with the rate for static images. WHAT WE'RE OFFERING: Alright, pally. We need certain dimension rules up in here. DIMENSIONS: Button 117x30 Square 125x125 Half-Banner 234x60 Banner 468x60 Rectangle 300x250 Leaderboard 728x90 Skyscraper 160x600 ON THE AD AND WHAT"LL HELP: Includes web address (if there's room, it can exclude on the smaller sizes) Represents Starbound Represents Antares as a Sci-fi themed community We don't have a logo, so that isn't necessary. Feel free to do one if you like. Ad should be something you'd want to click on. Our target audience is mature roleplayers 16+ interested in sandbox environments as well as sci-fi. REQUIREMENTS: Give us a portfolio or a sample of your art! Maybe describe your experience and background if you want. Be creative! Draw Smokestack (jk... but I wouldn't mind) If you wish to help us by creating an advertisement for us, please fulfill our requirements and message @Kazyyk with all your information and any questions you may have!
Ya know... as pretty the box is, inside's still the same. Ads may draw in new players, but will they stay for long? Time shall tell.
OE is hostile as fuck, and they're flourishing. Antares doesn't get new players because it doesn't have old ones to back up the server list. Where'd you even get the hostility against new players thing? That hasn't been a problem on Ant for awhile.
Not many people know this, but when Antares first started I began running ad campaigns shortly after. They are effective, and I don't mind trying them again if it means helping bring back Antares to where it used to be.
the main reason people don't get on the server anymore is because there is nothing to do that's why people were flocking to the server when aiko started doing weird af terrorist things and they stopped coming when aiko left that's why people were flocking to the server when USAF and outcasts were still a big thing that's why people were flocking to the server when dionaea was still destroying shit etc. etc. etc.
Very much so, yes. But currently our only real exposure to players is through the Starbound server listings, and google. We're ranked 4th on the listing which makes us a less desirable option. We need exposure to get players and we're already lower in one field. Silly, yes. But people have done it before. Art for posts on chucklefish forums advertising us again would still be beneficial. But again, the point is to be out there more. I was drawn in to the server by the Starbound server listing. Antares was ranked 2nd. I chose it because it had a low player count, so it seemed loyal. I've been here for... well over a year now. But look, new players come and go, but sometimes the community will be what makes them stay. I've constantly said that we need to look at ourselves now and realize that we are not as friendly as we think we are. Look at the forums and note how no new players post. Look at how it's all a discussion between old players. Look at how we argue over how roleplay should be. And see how things might scare new players. We need ads to bring a new line of players in that can help us old players learn as well. This idea may seem a bit reaching to some, but we have to be hopeful.
Alright. I'll say it. In a small fandom subset such as this one (Starbound Roleplaying in general - Galaxy Citizen, Antares, Serenity, Orion's Edge etc...) the communities tend to be even more tight-knit than usual. We message each other. We talk to each other. We tell each other stories of what is going on. News travels everywhere. We share stories of unusual things that happened in other servers and the bad things as well. Talking with people in Serenity I told them what the hell was going on in Antares. Point is, this place has its own fame. Of a server owner who does things on a whim. An admin who has no idea what goes on within the scene because he doesn't actively engage in it. An admin who tells his mod team to be professional and distant from their own userbase. An admin who infamously made a snap decision to hand head adminship to two individuals in the space of a single day of deliberation and massive amount of controversy. An admin who proceeded to return anyway and take over the reigns of a server that, again, he has no knowledge of what goes on whatsoever to the point where he had no idea Matter Manipulators aren't IC technology. An admin infamous for unbanning individuals who were initially permabanned who are then re-banned a few weeks later. An admin who is more interested in doing things such altering the website without notice and with no functioning redirect links as well as doing pointless whitelist purges that only make things more complicated. An admin who is trying to market the server by creating mugs and t-shirts and expanding from Starbound to other games but who doesn't try to understand his own community to begin with. An admin who is so far more interested in turning this into a business than in understanding why players are leaving in droves to the competition. This isn't a solution. This is applying a soggy bandage over a massive wound that has been festering for so long you might as well amputate the limb already. You are drawing new people in without understanding why the community has been leaving in the first place.
@Tallen's post is pretty off-topic, but I'll respond to it nontheless. We've been around a long time, fame is still fame. Guilty as charged. Guilty as charged, my idea of having others who would keep me informed didn't really pan out. I don't tell them to be distant, but I do tell them to be impartial and professional. I understand how sometimes it can seem indistinguishable from distant. Huge mistake, guilty. I was stressed out and pressured because of an upcoming full-time job and needed a solution fast. I wasn't sure whether or not I was going to get the job or I'd done something sooner. I haven't really taken over, just tech support. Although as the server owner, I can see how it's easy to assume I'm in control. I do think that there needs to be a leadership element again. I was hoping that adding more admins would help with that, but... I wish I had the time and energy to be personally involved, but I don't, and I can't, as far as being in-game goes. I'm all available through the forums, though. (Well, as time permits.) It was also at one point a rule of thumb to not get involved so I could be impartial when deciding on player related things. I suggested that it should be IC technology, because I think it's a cool device that would explain IC buildings being made fairly quickly. The only person I can think of is Aiko, in regards to this. I gave him multiple chances, and he squandered every single one with initially good behavior and then bad behavior. Granted, nobody should've been exempted from the permaban, but I genuinely thought he'd turn around. I vaguely remember adding a short notice... but I'm sure it could've been handled better. The redirect links thing was a technical obstacle that was due partly because of host complications at the time. (We've since switched hosts because of these and other issues) The whitelist purge removes any extra whitelists banned players might have, as well as synchronizes the whitelist with forum usernames to prevent any further extra whitelists as well as make identifying individuals in the logs much, much easier for us. I'm surprised you mentioned this, that was over a year ago. A long, long time ago. I was trying something new, but why bring it up now? I wanted to grow us as a community. What's wrong with that? It didn't work out, so I tried to consolidate. I've asked people in private who speak with me regularly about the state of the server. I'm available through the forums, or even Skype. I could be more proactive I guess, but I don't really know where to start. Antares is a work of passion. Like the mugs and shirts thing, a long time ago I tried to make it business-y, but I quickly figured out that doesn't work, and that this is a community. We're brought together by our interests and our hobby, and I have no intention to make a profit off that. At least, not anymore, and not since a long time ago.
I got excited, tried to draw something, and then remembered I can't draw anything larger than like 30x30. I mean...I can draw you a gun if ya want... Also, I'm assuming that payment would only be handed out if the artwork is used? Cus otherwise you'd be paying people a buttload for crap that they drew just for money. Maybe I'll try again...
Hmm... 30x30...? Well, that's roughly the size for forum badges...! Or even a small logo. Well, I'd want to look at someone's existing artwork before paying them to make a banner for us.
I was told otherwise by all of the mods who are quitting, both new and old. They attempt something and you proceed to shut them down, including matters that are in-game. This does not sound like "tech support" at all. And frankly? With the massive mod turnover of this server who are all saying the same things it is in fact quite a thing here. As for how your decisions can affect the community... All things that happened that had a very negative impact on the community. Especially the website going down and changing hosts without redirect links or warnings as well as the mods being impartial and professional. RP servers, forums and groups are tight-knit. You want to be in touch and friendly with your peers when you don't have to be The Mod to ensure a nice, friendly environment for everyone. Take it from prior experience. Then leave it to the mods alone. They all said you got involved in decisions that you had little knowledge of. Except it has been long established that it would be a massive powergaming tool and the community itself shut it down ages ago. And this is why you should not be in a position to make player decisions if you have no idea what is going on within the server itself. This person was permabanned. You gave them a chance and they squandered it multiple times. Just giving someone else a 'chance' after a permaban is tossing away the entire point of a permaban. The system worked before. This is an incredible hassle that scared off at least two players that I know of, one of them wasn't even granted his whitelist account back. Acknowledged. Let bygones be bygones. We were not big enough to spread to many games. We could barely fill the SB server most of the time, and people who came here for Starbound did not like the fact that it was being fractioned further. Another point in the "decisions that happen thanks to not knowing the playerbase". Back when forums for colonies were a thing I asked for a forum for Dexter's Gardens, which was the biggest hub of the time and very popular. You had no idea about it and didn't bother to ask more other than "explain to me why you want a forum for your colony". Acknowledged. I will not call it such anymore. My mistake. It is all off-topic if you ignore the final post I made. People are leaving. Trying to attract new people without acknowledging what is wrong within the server is the issue.It is not whitelist purges and domain changes and ads with pretty drawings that will fix this. It is a community thing. That we have been saying about again and again. To the point where people found it better to leave and move to another server now and it has reached a moment where this one is almost unsalvageable, given the low server population, the massive mod turnover, the confusing whitelist purge and the fame outside of the server. In fact, you spent the entire post explaining yourself instead of getting the point that I was making. This is a waste of money and will not solve anything. I'm done speaking and not being heard. Good luck.
Always nice to see some initiative! I'd be around a bit more on the forums (and server) but roleplaying overall has lost its shine to me. I might help you guys out with this project. No promises and no commitment but I might poke around a bit and send something. I have decent skills if I may say so myself. Best of all, if I do manage to get off my lazy ass and get something done I'll do it for free. Cheers m80s. PS: I could compile what little amount of sprites I've done and still have (after I wiped my laptop) and put them up here to be distributed freely if it helps.
