Themed inspiration?

#1

I remembered reading a magazine (I think it was dragon) and it had a section where they took one card from magic or something like it and had someone write a story on it. Perhaps we could plan something like that on here?

It would be greatly helpful to have the picture of the card to work from, all copyrights respected of course, so untill that is availible, the idea could be kinda hard to work out.

What I was thinking was to post the card or other image, and have the beginnings of a plot or item or whatnot with it. Then others could add their ideas and comments with it. I see there is code to include an image from a url, so I'll give that a shot, I don't know how that will work. Some really interesting ideas could come from this, or people could just gripe about how that card made them loose a game once upon a time.

Themed inspiration?

#2

I think that would be a fun challenge :!: :!: :!: :!: :!:

Better then copy protected cards and such, somebody can just visit elfwood or even the Citadel's very own Kate (kate.strolen.com), explain what we are thinking of and ask if they would be interested in allowing us to do that. They could get some exposure and we can have some fun. Could even tie in some stories to the homebrewed worlds we got going.

Once we are satisfied with the stories, or series, I would be more then happy to set up another section of the website better showcase them on. Would even love to have a volunteer to take over that part (hint hint nudge nudge) and would hook them up with everything they need to do it. Will email Kate and tell her to check out this thread and see what she, and her fellow artists, has to say about it.

Themed inspiration?

#3

Definitely a better idea to go through individual artists than to do this with MTG (or other) cards. Everything is copy protected :D unless it's in the public domain. It would be alot harder to get permission from WOC than it would be from an artist and the artists providing imagery to gaming houses are usually required to sign over the copyrights on those so they wouldn't be able to give you permission for those images themselves. Elfwood would be a good resource and is probably 80% amatuers and the rest are pro's showing non-commercial work. Permission there is as easy as an email and usually all they require is credit and a link.

Anyways yeah I'd be happy to say yes, link and credit and I'm happy.

Themed inspiration?

#4

Very neat idea. I likes me that. Exactly what would be involved in taking over the showcase?

P.S. Kate, you do some damn cool work.

Themed inspiration?

#5

Three is enough interest to start this puppy I think....what is involved.

Well, basically I would provide webspace. Whoever wants to take over will have to pretty much do everything. Will set up a subdomain like kate.strolen.com or alchemy.strolen.com and there will be a dedicated ftp to that part of the site. Access to php, cgi-bin etc.

They would be welcome to any graphics on the main pages if they wished to continue that design, use the old blue design (if you remember it, I liked it a lot), or they could design whatever the heck they wanted. Can be one person, two, whatever. Just has to be agreed on by everybody since they will be using the same account. I may be able to automate in the far future so all it is is filling out forms by the 'admin,' but, as you know, my plate is full. So all html will have to be done by hand. I have templates if you want to use my setup, but for the most part everything else is hand cranked in there. Pretty much autonomous from the rest of the site. A free for all, every person for themselves, no safety in numbers, anything is fair game...etc...etc...

The hard part is the idea, the rest is just work.

Themed inspiration?

#6

Posted a test type pic here
http://www.strolen.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=401#401

Had to nab it from Elfwood. Kate splits her pictures up for easy download (which is a wonderful practice but keeps us from nabbing them straight from here site) but Elfwood has the full picture.

I enabled anonymous ftp to ftp://ftp.strolen.com/

So we don't leech off other sites bandwidth, anybody can upload a pic there then link the picture by

http://ftp.strolen.com/name_of_pic.jpg

(of course surrounding it by the pic brackets) and it works fine. Already tested the link. Didn't test the upload though, but I don't see that there should be a problem.

Themed inspiration?

#7

Shweeet! should we get started on the morning dove or is that goning to be taken down? I have an interesting pic if you want a volenteer to test the upload. A guy my mom was dating had this jade globe that had holes carved in it, then a slightly smaller globe carved inside it with holes in it too, and so on for about 7 captive globes! Very cool looking, could make a great artifact.

By the way, I'm not familiar with ftp :shock: so if you could include some kinda faq or something to help us understand how to help, that'd be great.

Themed inspiration?

#8

Finally something for the FAQ page. hehehehe

I can draft something up.
For now, first you need a ftp client of some sort. There are loads and loads of free ones pretty much anywhere. My favorite has always been WSftp, but that is just me. There are other ones that are even easier to use.

Point your ftp client to ftp://ftp.strolen.com . There should be an anonymous box you can check. If not, normally the username can be anything and the password would be your email address (or anything with a @ in it) You should already see on picture file there already, and upload the picture you saved.

To get to that picture use http://ftp.strolen.com/picture.jpg as the link and that should be it. Should I start a new Main Thread for it? What should we call it?

Just uploaded it to prove it could be done. We can start with anything you like. A few of us are pretty busy at the moment, but give us time, we will play. :lol:

Themed inspiration?

#9

Yes I was dicing up until recently which as a side effect prevents hotlinking. All the recent stuff is not done this way though, mainly because it's easier.

The pics in the Elfwood Gallery do have the advantage of being no larger than 700 x 700 pixels and below 150k (Elfwood rules) so it'd be alot easier on the bandwidth.

If there's any diced ones people want to use just yell at me and I'll upload regular (and optimised) jpgs. :D Print Screen would work as well.

Thanks Ria :)

Themed inspiration?

#10

Just a couple points of concern I'd like to address. Firstly, elfwoods has restrictions on how big a thing can be, should there be any restrictions here on file or picture size? Second, should guests be able to upload (something I haven't figured out yet myself, but there may just be a glitch since strolen is haveing some trouble as well) or would having guests upload be asking to be flooded with inappropriate pictures (porn, gross stuff, etc)?

Just letting my little shoulder devil shout out. :twisted: Hmm, that gives me an idea for a new item.

Themed inspiration?

#11

I fixed the ftp site (I think). You can upload into the "incoming" folder.

Problem is, we can't link to it as I thought, at least I haven't figured it out yet.

I have a couple options at the moment that I am debating about.
1. Ftp it, tell me that it is there and I can move it to a useable place on the webpage where we can link it.
2. Email the picture to me and I will again put it there
3. Figure out a script to upload and then be immediately able to use it.

I like 3 best, but 1 or 2 are the only feasible ones at the moment. I am most definately against linking to anything on another site...unless it is kate's site because I host it.

As far as size, I personally don't care how big they are. I do try and be as nice to 56kb people as possible so the smaller the better. Elfwood's limits seem pretty reasonable to me. Once I get the file upload thing working I will be able to limit that. Also, once that is up, we can restrict it to members only or leave it up for grabs. Since it will be in the forums to start with until we move it, it will be very easy to keep track of what is uploaded. I would just make all of us moderators and we would all have the power to delete an unappropriate post. No problem.

For now this thing will have to take place in the forums. The web page portion is up for grabs, just let me know and anybody can have free reign with that and they can move them to the new site as they wish or whatever is decided. If somebody wants to play with the site, great. If not, the forums will work just fine too. It is whatever you all want, you know me by now, I try to be as accomodating as possible.

I will not have time before Dec 10 to do much of anything on the site. Even writing in the forum makes me feel guilty for not studying...well, not really. :twisted: I do have a couple plot ideas that need nurturing though...may find those up before long. :wink:

Themed inspiration?

#12

Um, I seem to have forgot exactly what we're supposed to do with the themed inspiration. I think it was write a story, but I'm not sure. And assuming that's right, do we post them to the thread with the pic?

Themed inspiration?

#13

We will ask Agar on that one. Pretty much what you said though. Find a picture that we like and create a story around it. Build off somebody elses or make something completely original. Long or short, whatever you get out of it. Gets the creative juices flowing and it is always good to practice writing! The more you do the better you get.

If you have a picture that you like or think would be good, go ahead and email it to me if you like. strolen at me dot com 8)

You can make a thread for it and say whatever you want to say and I will insert the picture in it as soon as I get it. In your post just put or something, unless you get permission to link from the other site, then just stick it in there. I don't want to steal anybodies bandwidth though. We can have as many as we like for as long as we like.

That is my take on the whole thing. I think I will make Agar Moderator for that forum in case anything needs to be done.

Themed inspiration?

#14

Stories are all well and good, but that may be streching what one person can do. The people the magazine had were professional writers in the same way that the people wizkids use are professional game designers. The atmosphere of this site seems more relaxed in that our interests are hobbies and not a full time job.

I think using these pictures for ideas, items, plots and the occasional Npc would be the best application for this forum, but if someone is taken by the moment and sees fit to write a whole story I think we should definatly encourage them.

This would be my first moderating gig if you really want me to don that mantle, so feel free to let me know how to do my job because I currently have no idea. :P