Visitors' poll

This is an example of why this forum does not appear to be inviting or welcoming, and a strong reason why large numbers of juried members have not posted even one time.

With due respect for the possibility that appearances may trump reality, there simply is no evidence that it is even a reason, much less a strong one. As for new members who have "never" posted, an equally unsupported explanation may be that lots of artists who very understandably wish to become proficient and even excel are also people who not wish to even risk the possibility of critique, which they read as rejection. (I'm not being judgmental -- I'm describing an earlier version of myself.)

Many members routinely go out of their way to make sure to welcome new members who announce themselves in the "New Members" threads. That welcome is sincere. The vagaries and permutations of what happens in threads thereafter is not a withdrawal of that welcome.

[Steven Sweeney]

Cynthia can correct me on this but I suspect that the number of views for a given thread includes views by nonmembers, who would not have had posting privileges to lodge a reply. So perhaps the fact that 36 people looked at the image and only 1 responded means only that of 5 of the actual members who viewed the image, only 1 felt that he or she had something useful to contribute. (Though it happens, this has rarely been a forum in which a long string of one-line "Way to go!" replies is posted. Usually there's an effort to either say something constructive -- whether positive or "negative" -- or nothing at all.)

I very often bring the Forum up just to see what's going on, even though I don't have time to contribute anything. The next time I come back, the little "light" isn't lit anymore, because the thread is no longer "new," and so I may never get back to a thread that I might otherwise have posted in, had I had the time. Truly -- I have not thereby adjudged the posting artist to be "unacceptable."

As to other matters, I can only reiterate that giving away so much of your own power and potential by investing so much of it in whether or not somebody else pays attention to you is a Mapquest search for Heartache, USA.

There's another phenomenon in play as well, though we're getting afield. There are members who have, over months and years, received literally dozens of elaborate critiques on their work (some of whom never changed a thing in response to them!), and yet never once themselves offered a critique, because they "didn't feel comfortable giving critiques." That's the nonparticipation that I find least defensible.

[Terri Ficenec]

Maybe another reason why there may be fewer critiques is the need to go out to the index... select critiques, then enter the password to see what's there... especially when time is limited, I often visit without even logging in and just check 'today's posts' to see what's up.... When I logged in to post this reply here, I was shocked to see how long it's been since my previous login and what an lot of posts there are in those sections that I've missed. . .

Don't get me wrong... I like that the critiques section is protected with a login requirement... (I've got some, umm earlier work in there that I'd rather not have popping up on search engines!) But wonder if there isn't a way to make it so that if you are simply logged in as a member, the critiques area comes up with the 'new posts' too rather than having to go back out to the index to find the critiques area... I always found the critiques area one of the most interesting and valuable parts of the forum, and part of what kept things interesting and dynamic.