Q: This board is SOOOOOO SLOOOOOW! Why? Fix it!!!A: Not so fast...actually, the forums are pretty fast, but the ads that get served on every page slow things down. You can do a few different things to make it better:
Use Firefox and install the adblock plus add-in (preferred fix...forum pages load in less than a second for me in most cases...no exaggeration)
Install the IE7Pro add-in (http://www.ie7pro.com)...better than "plain" IE, but not near as fast as firefox and adblock plus
Try Google Chrome (again, faster than IE, but not as fast as fifrefox with adblock plus)
Q: "Where is everyone? This forum is dead!"A: Well, the simple answer is that unlike the main forums, we don't have the benefit of links embedded within Paint.NET itself. Additionally, it's hard to find this forum by searching since it's only about (as of 8/20/2007) 2 months old. We have a decent number of anonymous visitors,
What this means is that: a) to get new members, we need to suggest that likely members pay us a visit, b) we need to have some exclusive content (or at least have stuff that shows up here first), c) let people know about the challenges and team-based editing stuff that happens here.
Doing those things helps to ensure that people come back to be the first to see whatever it is that is new for that day.
I'm still holding out for about 50 active users (people who's "last visit" stat is less than a week ago) before I consider us an official success, but there's already a lot of neat stuff on here that people can point out.
Q: What's the point of having this forum when Paint.NET already has its own forums?A: That's an important question...important enough that it gets asked a lot. If you are a regular visitor to the official forums, you'll notice a few things:
There is a very rigid structure to the forums
The forums are centered around Paint.NET first and what people do with it second
There's not a lot in the way of organizing activities where there is collaboration or friendly competition
We think that the three things listed above would benefit from a change, but not at the price of derailing the way the official forums work. There are a lot of good things going on in the official forums that are critical to ensuring Paint.NET's success.
This forum's purpose is not about making sure Paint.NET can stay successful, it's about showing the world the amazing things that can be created by its users.
Rick Brewster himself has said that Paint.NET was intended to be 10x MS Paint and 1/10th of Photoshop (not in precisely those words), but with the advent of plugins and active development, and open code, and an active user community, it's probably more like 50x MS Paint and 1/2 Photoshop, functionality-wise. If you've ever seen the creations of some of the more talented Paint.NET artists, you know what we mean when we say that.
This forum is a showcase, and a place to learn as much as possible about how to do whatever it is that you hope to do with Paint.NET, regardless of your level of skill.
We have places for people just using it for the first time, amateurs, and experienced artists that want to show off or see if their technique can hold up against someone else's. We have places for collaboration, competition, asking questions (even stupid ones...and without being given a hard time about it), begging for someone to do something for you, deconstructing techniques and images, posting simple or complex tutorials, and even learning basic artistic concepts.
In short, here, you can learn (to the best of your ability) everything you need to know to be a good Paint.NET artist in a way that might be more difficult (or take more time) on the official forums.
Q: Why is the MegaPictorium set up as a forum, rather than a thread?A: In the past on the official forums, an image would only get 1 or 2 replies before another image is posted. We hope that by setting the Pictorium up the way it is, the problem of insufficient discussion can be avoided.
Q: How do I put images in my posts, sigs, and avatars?A: There is a tutorial on the Official Forums about this very thing:
~Link~
drakaan
