It's incredible how things pile out when you relax for just a little bit huh? I thought this would be a very quiet start of a new year but it turns out it's one of those moments when I'm specially busy with so much to get done and so little time to do it and it also seems that things don't get done if you ignore them... who would've known? One of those life lessons of life brought to you by... life. Thank you life.

But anyway, this journal was to tell you about some stuffs you should check out... and no, it's not lesbian porn, not this time.

It's currently Vexel Week over #projecteducate and ^TheLastHuzzah has been doing a terrific job with it! Check the articles already up in the Vexel Week Overview journal there might actually be some lesbian porn somewhere...

`Kendra-Paige it's not only a very talented photographer who is also nice to everybody, she's also gorgeous But what I'm trying to say is that she runs an amazing group called #Good-Intention which btw you should all check out because it's awesome and has a pink icon. The group could use some more lesbian porn, but no group is perfect. Right now there is a project in the group called Feedback For Favourites which is a contest and there are no less and no more than 27 prizes! The contest was made for `thorns' Complaint Challenge Contest so Wow! We really are all connected in this great Circle of Life huh? One day, when we die, our bodies might really feed an antelope or sumthing. I'm hungry btw.

Oh! And I also forgot to tell you the other day, that `WildCharmander totally interviewed me! I would totally go lesbian for Tommy, he's so great.

Anyway, that's all for today. Happy thursday!

As most all of you probably already know, recently a Commissions widget was released to Beta Testers. I've heard a lot of negativity towards this feature, specially because of the 20% that DA takes from the artist's earnings. But I've always thought that before saying anything about any feature on DA I would prefer to test it first, so I recently installed this widget in my profile offering some simple comissions and now that I've had the oppotunity to test it, here is my opinion.

First, the 20% deduction from your income. Yes I'm not a big fan of it either, in my opinion, the biggest negative of this feature.


I'm not an $admin or a developer and I'm not an economics expert either, so I don't understand the reasons for this deduction, however I know there must be a reason for it besides the obvious that DA needs money to keep itself running. Yes, knowing this doesn't help much, but at least if you see it from an unbiased point of view, you'll  understand it's a necessary evil if you will, and it won't go away.

Maybe I had unrealistic expectations of how the widget would work when I first heard about it, because it really disappointed me for its simplicity.


I thought the process would be something similar to DreamUp, a far more advanced commission system, where a client makes a request, the artist accepts and then an exchange of ideas and works-in-progress is made behind the scenes. Wouldn't be great if you as the artist could upload a WIP of the commission to your sta.sh and then your client gets notified automatically? "^Thiefoworld sent you a progress of your comission. [Approve] [Request Changes]" ... I dunno, something like that. What about the ability to set the payment beforehand, after the commission is done or half and half? That would be nice too. But it turns out the widget pretty much only serves to give you a message in your Correspondence which you can either accept or deny; if you accept the request the client gets charged with the amount of points you first stablished and that's it. If you deny the request.. well, I guess it doesn't happen anything After that you still have to contact the client directly to deliver the final product. I don't really see much difference with this and sending a note requesting a commission (the traditional way) It saves you some time and as the artist offering the work, it guarantees you'll get paid, but that's it.

Edit:
Well what do you know? It seems there IS a way to communicate with your client in a more direct way, through the new Correspondence  page, very similar to group's requests.  (dunno if this was just added or I was too stupid to notice it the first time )

Still not precisely what I was expecting, but definitely a good step closer!

/Edit

However not everything is negative. There is a very good reason that made me think twice before discarding the widget.


Your earnings made through this widget can be later withdrawn via paypal (or as a check). Why is this useful for me? Because the great majority of people who request a commission from me usually wants to pay with points, sometimes it's the only payment method they have... and while they're nice and all, I usually don't accept points as payment, as I can't use points outside DA and I can't convert them to money either, so many of my potential requests must be declined because of this. With the widget my potential clients can pay with points and then I can convert those points to money and everyone happy!

So, in closing
The widget is nice, but in my opinion still very incomplete. I know I shouldn't had expected it to be a whole new system and comparing it to a whole site like DreamUp isn't fair either, but I just wish it was a little more useful. The way it works now isn't that different compared to do it via note from the start, because at the end, you still need to send notes to comunicate with your clients and deliver the commission. However the ability to withdraw my earnings is a very important advantage, so while I know I would only get 80% of it, is nice to know I'll be able to use it outside DA.

My personal veredict
if you take points as payment and don't mind keeping them or the idea of converting those points to money doesn't interest you,  the widget is NOT for you. Stick to the old system because honestly there isn't that much difference with the widget and you'll always get the 100% of your income.

If you're like me who've always wanted to offer comissions here at DA with the ability to later use that money for something else besides DA stuff, and/or offer more expensive commissions, the widget could be useful for you, just consider you'll get only the 80% of your earnings.

What I personally plan to do in the future is mix both systems: offer commissions the traditional way for those who can pay via paypal from the start and give the option of the widget for those who don't have paypal. Sounds fair? Tell me it sounds fair

I love the smell of a new year! Yum! You gotta stop for a moment and smell the new year! It's starting to snow here, which is rare considering I'm in a very warm part of the planet, people in Canada must be already tired of the snow but not me! :D because I'm not a wizard.

There are some things you should all check out, here they are:

The Monthly Digital Art Critique Thread is now open! Isn't ^laserbeast awesome? I wish I could marry their constantly changing icon.

There is a #photohunt event next January 12th! Photohunt is so much fun, I miss taking pictures of the objects in my house, I should do that more often now that I think about it...

Thanks to `Atramina I'm checking out Templum Digital and I'm finding it quite interesting. Basically is a free online publication featuring art of great artists most of them from DA  that also has a Facebook page and a DA group #TemplumDigital. I might do a more in depth review of it in the future...

I'll be working on the next chapter of my webcomic Children of the World in the upcoming weeks, I hope to give you a specific date of when I'll start updating regularly again soon, but what's sure is that it won't be today... probably around middle/late this month, so keep an eye on the #PotatoWorkshop group! Please don't forget about my comic ;_;

Another year dies. Time to look back at what happened this year! Let's see...


2012 was a very good year for me I must say. Like any other year it was filled with both good and bad experiences, you can't escape having some bumps on the road, that's a given, but in general I think 2012 was definitely a year of more good than bad.

Moving to my own place was definitely a life changer.  I love my house and I couldn't be more happy about it.  It was a year of some economic sacrifices due this, but it's worth it, I regret nothing! That and also the arrival of my first niece  just a few weeks ago are probably my two biggest and more important personal events this year.

DA-wise, well, I got another DD in January, the Deviousness Award in August and was given the opportunity to volunteer again in September, needless to say this year I really got spoiled! And up to this day I still feel overwhelmed by the amazing amount of support I receive from the community everyday, thank you guys!

There were also the London 2012 olympics which made me remember how much I loved still love the Spice Girls  haha.


And of course there was also some Tom Daley...



Ehem... moving on. Eurovision this year was also one of my favourites so far, some really great songs, including Swedens which very much deserved to win.

In the movies department, I'm still deciding my top favourite between The Hunger Games and The Hobbit. Prometheus and Life of Pi were also good. From the animated ones The Lorax, Brave and Wreck it Ralph were amazing, but my favourite was definitely Rise of the Guardians (Sandman! <3)



And beyond that, hanging out with  my friends (both on and off line) is what really made my day everyday. Going to watch a movie, cooking our own pizzas, playing cards, kicking each other butts with Playstation's Battle Royale,   making fun of *SiliceB's strange and silly accidents, spending an afternoon with Jimmy playing videogames or watching a new episode of Doctor Who... those were 365 reasons that made my year awesome.




For today's feature, here are some of my top favourite deviations from 2012.  See you in 2013!