What do you think of CF RAW so far?

[The N-Bot]

Please post here what you think we should add or change...

[bonzo]

RAW CF is great, that it's what internet is for!

I have a few questions:
why I can upload videos from youtube and google, and I can't upload revver videos in a right way? (revver videos looks very small) it's a business problem?
I had to upload a video again because of this problem, I tried to upload another video (.mov) but the final quality was too bad so I delete it. I don't know why all these big sites do a lot of trouble when somebody wants to paste videos in their pages. Internet suppose to be for sharing information, and all this obstacles have no sense. I guess it's matter of legal contracts or business contracts, I don't know.

BUT, THIS IS A GREAT ANIMATION SITE, I LIKE IT VERY MUCH, I'M VERY HAPPY.

There is a lot of people doing a lot of great things, in different places of the world.
Your work is great, thanks!

[bonzo]

I was wrong, revver videos can be pasted. You have to use Flash embed script and 426x348px for the player. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

[Elliot Cowan]

Like others, I find the commenting difficult to navigate.
Most folks here probably know Drawing Board?
They have a very, very simple method of replying to comments (it's just a list that goes in chronological order).
I also find the layout a little busy - there's too much going on.
As mentioned previously, I'd love a way to feed my own blog directly into the blog on here.

More importantly that that though - I think that this is a great idea, particularly for young people.
But for working folks who have the experience (and therefore a drawcard for visiting punters) I'm not sure if there's a lot of incentive to return.
I think if we can come up with a way to involve this demographic more (special interviews or something like it) then I think it'll give others more of a reason to come back.
There are a lot of very talented folks here and we're missing the opportunity to make use of them.
Obviously you set this up as a social situation, so perhaps you don't want to do anything too formal, but I think you may get what I'm on about.

[Fred Seibert]

Elliot,

I'd agree with you there's a lot for young people getting started here, but I must say, i'm hoping it will be a place for more experienced working folks too. The only way, however, is if they (you! that is) start discussions worthy of professionals with experience, on whatever subjects you think worthy.

It's true that animation professionals in a place like Hollywood (and maybe London or Vancouver) already have non-virtual "social networks", though I haven't seen that stopping the growing popularity of AWN.com or Cartoon Brew or Cold Hard Flash. And we've got a few Hollywood-ers here too. I'm hoping they'll encourage some of their friends to join.

On the other hand, from my experience, being a commercial show/movie animation professional in New York is a pretty lonely experience. The whole town has probably less than 300 people actively in the business, and we're spread out among at least a dozen different entities, most with different agendas. There aren't too many social activities, though we're trying to start a few. Maybe RAW will be a place to help fill that gap.

Anyway, please think about way that active, long time veterans could use RAW in a better way. Maybe when we get together in person we could kick around a few ideas.

[Elliot Cowan]

Heya mate.
I was a little concerned that my feedback may have sounded a little negative when it wasn't supposed to.
I'll certainly have a think.
Personally I'd like to see a series of exclusive RAW interviews with some moderated Q&A directly between the artist and the punters.
It provides a forum for more experienced folks to impart some knowledge as well as providing (hopefully) interesting interviews for people to want to return to the site.

As for living a lonely existence as a creator - I lived in TASMANIA for 10 years!!!!
I know ALL about it!

[Elliot Cowan]

Instead of that whacking great robot drawing in the middle of the home page (which is a wonderful drawing, don't get me wrong), perhaps that space could showcase individual RAW members.
Revolving daily or every time you open the page or something.
It would include links to their homepages or the images and videos they've posted here.
It seems like a much better use of page real estate.

Again - the Robot drawing is great.

[Monty Lawton]

I agree about using the layout better. How about a daily most viewed video link that alternates with the logo.

[Jualo!]

Wath do you think about this? A montly or weekly challenge for videos, and the most viewed will have the honor of showing in Channel Frederator Podcast.

[Nick Dubois]

I like the logo, i like it being on the top, but it is so damn big.

Otherwise, there's not alot i'd change. I like reading what people on the right have done lately and the new videos and new photos. It's a good system overall. Alot of fun.

[Joanna Davidovich]

My big wish is for the forum discussions to list the replies newest to oldest. With the longer discussions, its a bit tedious to click through to last pages to see where the conversation has gone.

[Adam Levine]

I think RAW is shaping up to be a great place to go for a sense of community amongst other like minded people. As a result, it's the first online community I really care about. I love that new tallent and experienced tallent are converging here. I like seeing what other people are up to and it makes me feel good knowing that I'm not alone in this dizzy world. When I was at school I was always surrounded by amazingly gifted people who inspired me to push myself harder. Here, I feel like I can recapture some of that excitement. Since right now I'm not working at a studio, this helps ease the freelance blues.

As for something I would change about the place...I really liked this past Meth Min. with Ultra and the Lazer Hearts and I even had fun playing the game...but I didn't care for the fact that it auto-loaded the game and it's music everytime I went to the homepage. I know some people who flat out said they wouldn't return if stuff like that was going to happen. While I wouldn't ditch the place because of it, I do understand the frustration. Any video that's forced on people will tend to turn them off. I don't know if that was a coding problem or what but giving people the choice to start anything with sound/video is always prefered. I just wanted to address that.

Other than that, I'm head over heels goofy for this place! I'm glad it exists and also, I love the transparency that this brings to our industy. When we have industry vets and newcomers talking openly and freely it's an amazing gift that was much harder to achieve many years ago. (Wow that was more than I planned on writing.)

[Elliot Cowan]

Also - it would be great to see the more forum topics displayed on the home page.
Because the homepage only displays the most recent one or two, topics can disappear unless you go looking for them, and not everyone does.