Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Art Inspiration Sites

I decided to start a list of art sites I read through and get inspiration from. (Sites active throughout 2024 will be dropped here. I'll make a new list next year.)

Many people do not know that Pinterest is a search engine of photos, not a 'website.' It's great for making mood boards or saving collections of ideas, but it isn't a 'source' in itself. The source of a photo or craft on Pinterest is not Pinterest, it's another site or artist.

As such, I'd like to post sites and Youtube accounts of artists and crafters who can help inspire us with a variety of type of art! You can work in different styles or add elements of different crafts to your swaps.


Art by Ro - A crafting blog, mostly about drawing, ATCs, and some art history.

Tin Teddy - Actually, this is a diecuts website, but they talk about ATCs, papercrafting, craft sales, journaling, and more. This site also has some free downloads for your crafting!

Art for Charity

Crochet with Tiffany Han - This particular video is a list of 10 crochet/knitting charity organisations

Monday, February 12, 2024

Comments on Swap Posts

This is such a pervasive issue that it needs it's own post. If you've seen this before, that is probably because you have seen it before.

Image: Comment Section on Swap Description Page
lol check that out. that comment on the bottom of the swap, in the Swap Discussion section?

yeah.

NO ONE is ever gonna get an alert for that. Not the winners of this bonus envelope giveaway, not me (the host,) not anyone. 

The framework for Swap-bot was out of date 10 years ago. The coding was already very basic for 20 years ago. I coded pages like this ~2002. There are no longer Admins for the site. It basically runs on ads and untouched servers. The comments and profiles are overrun with spam bots. We will not be getting notifications on comments ANY time soon. Unless you personally plan to buy the website and implement funding and a dev or three to update it all, this is not a thing that will happen.

I post comments on RAKs and Bonus swaps so that people can publicly see them, but I ALSO message individual users.

If you leave a comment on a swap, there's not much chance someone will see it- or see it *in time* before the swap is assigned!

please just directly message the host.

one thing:

If you see spam or bots posting a lot of weird messages, especially with links, or a normal-sounding username but with a comment that has nothing to do with the swap topic, MESSAGE THE HOST. We are the only ones who can delete these comments. And it's very important: the more spam is allowed, the more spam is 'ranked' as important and the more people are exposed to malicious spam and bots.

Help us keep swap-bot safe for everyone!

------------------------------

I apparently have to add this on: y'all. All y'all. Swap-bot is NOT a job. I do not clock in and clock out precisely when their servers say it's time to assign swaps, and I don't spend hours of my week checking for comments that have no notifications on all swaps I run from the past month and onwards. I frequently run 30 swaps a month, putting up new ones when others close out. That is HOURS spent checking and re-checking swaps that have NO notifications. 

lol no. 

A screenshot of (Disney's) Kronk talking to Yzma.
The text explains that chronic illness does not get
better. It is chronic, ongoing. Yes, I am STILL sick.
Again with the chronic illness. The very serious one that typically kills people. The one that I experience chronically, which is why it's called a chronic illness.

NO, I cannot spend literally hours of my week checking on these swaps Just In Case. That is why I say to send me a message. I get e-mails for new messages. People who don't get e-mails do get a bright red notification next to their messages when they log in, which says NEW! 

This is not an issue I am budging on. You cannot guilt me into sacrificing more of my daily abilities to ::checks notes:: read a comment on a swap when you could not be tossed to click THREE buttons (my username -> Message -> Send) to talk to me.

When a host tells you in the swap description to send a message, and you agree to sign up for the swap, it means you agree to adhere to swap rules. That means if the host saying not to comment, you will not expect your comment to be read. No one is forcing you to sign up for anything. I will enforce not reading comments unless I am checking on something else, and by then, it is likely too late to answer your question. 

YOU will also NOT get a notification for the response to a comment you left! So if you are a frequent swapper AND you, say, have a "real life" with responsibilities and stuff, you might not even remember exactly what swap you commented on to begin with- which means you won't read my response anyways! 

That is why you just message us.

I swear, the next person who tries to passive-aggressively tell me that my ratings would be better if I checked comments (because SB *allows* comments) is getting banned from my swaps.

Pointing out that Swap-bot *allows* you to leave comments, therefore it is an expectation that hosts should be checking them all the time, does not actually work out. It just shows me that you haven't paid attention to the listing or what hosts have actively taken time to tell you. It tells me that you fully intend to be disrespectful. If I wanted to deal with that crap, FOR FREE, I'll go visit my family.

I am moving in March. Here's April's Swaps!

SO. I had a bunch of swaps proposed for March. And then a few weeks ago, we got this bogus letter (not properly filed, litany of complaints for the first time in 3 years, just so happens to be a week after they had inspections on buildings majorly out of Code... when I and some other people live in a well-kept building on the desirable ground floor apartments. K. Not suspicious at all.) But I'm not worried about it. It's a LOT of work. But I think this will be a good move. I wanted to stay in one place for awhile so that elderly Squeak E. Mouse could have her retirement in peace, especially since she can't see very well, but it can't happen here. 

As such, there has been a LOT going on. I am exhausted. Even when I "actually stop" doing things, I feel burnt out. As one friend commented, if *I'm* feeling burnt out, I probably have been for quite some time. Well... yeah, I feel like I have not stopped since October. 

It's mid-February. Over six weeks of the year and I feel like I've barely gotten in two. And there's only two left. And two after that, and it's moving time. For the whole week because I need to secure utilities, move the cats, take all the move-in photos, and and and...

Swapping will resume for me as a host in April. There are a few swaps up right now but they'll finish out soon, or they're listed for April.

APRIL:

Some of these may change, or I'll add more. I can host up to 20 swaps at a time across all groups. All swaps except e-mail are USA only.


4/1 - 4/6 - RAINBOW SWAP #3 - YELLOW

4/5 - 4/11 - RAINBOW SWAP #3 - ORANGE

4/5 - 4/12 - 6 Washi Samples + A Note

4/11 - 4/15 - Quick Turnaround! Newbie Friendly 2 Items + NC

4/15 - 4/20 - 6oz Craft Supply Swap #5

4/15 - 4/20 - 1 STAMP Ephemera + Book Pages #5

4/21- 4/27 - THEMED 1oz Swap - Profile Based! (This will be a choice of a few themes. Users will leave a comment to share their preferences of 1st and 2nd choice; senders will build a 1oz envelope to match that theme, taking hints from the user profile. For example, the user may say 'no fabric or ribbon,' or 'no religious items.')

4/25 - 4/30 - How is everyone doing? 

 

GROUPS:


Lovely Swappers R Us

4/5 - Favourite Vintage Movies (1940s - 1960s) PC

4/18 - 10 Song Non-English Youtube Playlist

4/20 - Fave Locally-Owned Business PC + Email

Oneironauts Only

4/7 - USA Surrealist Handmade Postcard

4/18 - Inception Inspection: Fave Movies with a Dream Trope EMAIL 

4/25 - EMAIL 5 Fave Dreamy or Surreal Artworks + Artist

Cryptid Spotting Society

4/5 - Favourite Cryptid 

4/11 - Gravity Falls: Favourite Episode or Monsters

Proposed Swaps - End of April + Monthlong May

Proposed swaps I will be posting for the end of April and all of May are listed here. These are not exact dates, which might change based o...