Post #302317 by Humuhumu on Fri, Apr 27, 2007 1:54 PM

Some musings, take them as you will...

Creating Tiki has never been about showcasing great stuff... it's always been a place to talk about the process primarily, in my eyes at least. And since the best carvers and artists have less room for improvement in their skills, is it really surprising that they start to post less of their own work in those sections? After all, for them more than others who are looking to hone their skills, posting what they're working on is a bit of a mutual masterbation exercise. Unless -- and this is a biggie -- they have something to post as a demonstration. Taking good demonstration pics is a bit of a pain in the keister to do, so I don't expect to see them all that often. And hanging out just to tell other people how they can be better can feel uppity (and no good deed goes unpunished -- as you saw with Tiki Diablo in this very thread). They certainly don't have less love for creating tiki stuff, they just get less out of that forum, and that's totally okay.

On the other hand! I think it's very fair to assert that those who have less skill could maybe stand to think a bit about why they are posting before they post. Have they come up with a new carving or creating technique that they want to discuss? Have they come up against a particular issue they want some feedback on? Have they created something that they think can be better, but they're not quite sure how? In short -- ***are they posting something that can generate some discussion about the process?***Those are all fantastic reasons to post in the Creating Tiki section, as far as I'm concerned, regardless of skill level.

But... is the poster just posting their stuff because it seems the thing to do? If we're going to be really honest here -- just because they want to hear some words of encouragement? It's hard to see the harm in that, except for Pablus' very good point: signal to noise. Talking just to hear your own voice doesn't go over well in the real world, and it kinda gums up the works here, too -- although here, at least people can just skip your thread. But you wind up with a hundred threads of people talking just to hear their own voice and... you see the problem? Perhaps a bit of self-editing would be useful -- asking oneself (with a lot of honesty) how the post they are thinking of making of use and interest to others. If the connection is tenuous, perhaps consider scaling back the post, or waiting until you have a real need to post.

One very big caveat, so that you can take my post with a big grain of salt, if you'd like: because I'm not a creator of tiki objects, I just don't spend a lot of time in there. I figure, the good completed stuff will eventually make its way into pictures on other parts of the site. I know I'm missing some good stuff, but that's okay -- I just can't take the time to wade through all the stuff that's less polished -- it's not interesting to me, and I don't have any useful feedback to give. It's just not the section for me.