[A] Customable Items/Scars slots/openings -see pg 4-

[LunaRei_SilverBlood]

Okay so it doesn't sound like having it added the current colorist's work load would be a good idea, unless a colorists chooses to take them on. Which isn't unexpected, so maybe then someone above mentioned hiring people to do the item/ scar edits. I think that might even be a better idea.

We have some Fam colorists that do work on horses however I'm not to sure if they're doing edits. But they could always do scars and items if they qualified.  

[JetAlmeara]

SOA does such things - hiring people specifically to do items on already existing pets and it seems to work out pretty well for them. They have to go through a quality control test I believe once every couple of months and are subject to loosing their shop if they don't live up to the quality..but it might be something to think about. There are some great artists in the shop who might not be able to do an entire edited Soq but who could certainly do items. I've seen some amazing ones pop up in peoples references for customs and such.  

[Phoenix_soarys]

I have to Agree with Juice...
more than once I've noticed a BUNCH of Epic colorist get passed up :s I don't know what the deal was... and I've never ventured to ask...
as for having to get Recustomed...
I also point to minds rules... If it's larger than the horse (i'm talking full armor here) it might be an idea just to re custom them *shrugs*

scars are (in my mind) like flowers... or blankets (which i personally think are pretty big items) with the exception of they miiiight be more able to be "slid" around on a template...
like... someone (not going to volunteer here..or suggest anyone by name) when they have a few moments could design a scar of a hoof cut... or slash from a lion...
this scar can be placed on the neck... or rump... or stomach.. etc...  

[ATh e a r t]

Familiar colorists doing them: Not possible, more so because some familiar colorists don't feel comfortable editing as is. It -is- open to them, but if they're not comfortable, can't force them to (:

Specifics: Only problem with that is that... People don't always do what they're hired to do. Bottom line, people just want to color ponies xD; So even if they were hired -just- to do custom items, doesn't mean that they'd want to stick to that.

Past hiring: I don't know the specifics of the hiring since when I was hired it was already past the first judging, but I wanted to say even if people are good artists, it doesn't mean that their style works with the Soquili lines. That's the only part I really do know.  

[JetAlmeara]

Yeah I know what your saying Heart, but I am sure there are some out there who could work with the lines and if they were hired specifically with the knowledge that they were not really staff at the shop - IE not given templates for the actual ponies (I'm pretty sure the SOA Item shop people don't get the actual shop lines?)

Dunno, just pointing out something that seemed to work elsewhere to fill the demand for items and such without killing the colorists lol Then again the SOA items are just fluff..they don't pass down in breeding and what not so..I really don't know if or how it would work here lol  

[Malis Vitterfolk]

On the comment of familiar colourists doing custom items:

I am not ready to take on something of that magnitude. Yes, I can colour unedited soquili after the designs get approved but I think I have only done a handful of Soq with edits, most were very minor edits and the only two that had extensive edits took me over four months to do! (they were my Nekali and Imani). I do not feel I have the skills to do edits 'on demand', nor do I have the confidence. It may be something I will aspire to but not now and not in the near future either.

As for scars, it's a lot harder to do a convincing scar than you think. You can't just 'paste one on' as it needs to fit the contour of the body. Also, with the variety of skin/marking colours ect, that will change the look of the scar also. Not everyone gets scars like Ruroni Kenshin! :p  

[Agneza]

Passing down of the custom items in breedings is not the problem since there is an option in which owners can choose if they want unedited or edited offspring regardless of edit lvl of the parents. Actually if ppl do decide to edify their unedited soq and decide to breed it as edited those with unedited ponies get better chances of getting breeding slot.

Now having ppl that apply just to make edits on soq is something to think about as a really good idea. They don't have to be hired by the shop. They could be allowed to open their mini shop like in SoA. Shop would only have to make some rules for them.  

[mindsend]

As the person who started this trend/originally got permission for this, I'd like to say something. :3

This is supposed to be a rare, occasional thing for 'when you get time for it': we get no credits for it all, and it's just something some do for practice or to do a little something special as an extra bonus to those paying attention. Right now the focus is on getting rookie's trained to be juniors and getting breedings and customs back on track, so custom accessories are something on the wayside for the moment, ESPECIALLY since its something only a few want to do and some colorists even disagree with the concept of all together.. Those that do them have to be approved and staff to prevent things being done and claimed as ours and resulting in issues and us getting in trouble for something someone that isnt staff did. Staffers who do them need them confirmed and that puts more work on me as the colorist manager to make sure they got it looking all right and helping fix it up.


Perhaps when I hit "freebies" On my quota day I'll do three easy freebies then open up custom credit slots if I dont have other things to work on. But sadly its not something we can guarantee or just make open source.  

[pinkdog]

Agneza

Now having ppl that apply just to make edits on soq is something to think about as a really good idea. They don't have to be hired by the shop. They could be allowed to open their mini shop like in SoA. Shop would only have to make some rules for them.

Sorry to drag up an old thread, just getting back to reading through things, and this topic has been on my mind.

But yes, this is what I was thinking and wondered if it was being considered..? It's generally agreed upon that the current colorist shouldn't be diverted from regular Soq work to do items, but there doesn't seem to be any reason not to hire/allow people to open shops only for items.  

[Sabin Duvert]

I would also be for seeing the hiring of more colorists on at the shop - especially beause it seems like we're down again to a small handfull of active colorists due to RL issues and other attrition. Not that the current colorists aren't certainly talented, and not that the demand is EVER going to be filled,but even non-event months have seen a drastic drop in standard availability.

I don't see why this should interfere at all with existing jr/rookie colorists' progression? They continue to submit work through... whatever means they're supposed to (I honestly don't know) and get promoted when the colorist manager deems that they're ready?
I've seen some jr/rookie colorists doing various wishing star, plush conversions, and flaffles, etc - and that's great - they've been turning out some lovely ponies. And seeing them advance would also be lovely - but if they're not there yet, or if they themselves aren't ready, or if they just simply don't have the time to become a full time colorists and start meeting quotas, then I don't see the harm in bringing in more new people to work at the shop. Jr/Rookie colorists can continue to work on their artistic growth and move up the ranks when they're ready. And new colorists can work at whatever level they've been hired to do and do the same? I don't think there could be such a thing as too many active, talented colorists at soquili.  

[CheshireKttty]

Sabin Duvert

I would also be for seeing the hiring of more colorists on at the shop - especially beause it seems like we're down again to a small handfull of active colorists due to RL issues and other attrition. Not that the current colorists aren't certainly talented, and not that the demand is EVER going to be filled,but even non-event months have seen a drastic drop in standard availability.

I don't see why this should interfere at all with existing jr/rookie colorists' progression? They continue to submit work through... whatever means they're supposed to (I honestly don't know) and get promoted when the colorist manager deems that they're ready?
I've seen some jr colorists doing various wishing star, plush conversions, and flaffles, etc - and that's great - they've been turning out some lovely ponies. And seeing them advance would also be lovely - but if they're not there yet, or if they themselves aren't ready, or if they just simply don't have the time to become a full time colorists and start meeting quotas, then I don't see the harm in bringing in more new people to work at the shop. Jr/Rookie colorists can continue to work on their artistic growth and move up the ranks when there ready. And new colorists can work at whatever level they've been hired to do and do the same? I don't think there could be such a thing as too many active, talented colorists at soquili.

This.

Even colorists who do strictly unedited ponies would be nice.  

[Sabin Duvert]

Yeah, I agree. I think colorists who just do unedited ponies would be great, too. They could do unedited breedings, customs, FS, and familiars. I think last hiring round people who didn't submit edited samples didn't move on past the first round.  

[Lemon Juice - 3 Percent]

Hiring more artists has always been possible. It's just that some people on staff need to get over their 'O.M.G. I don't like so-and-so for some random stupid reason, so let's hire either no one or someone worse than them and other people who will just cause different kinds of drama or have a crap work ethic!11!!!!' issues.

The truth is, this shop is no longer quality driven. It's about hiring friends and excluding even decent artists because of some irrational BS reason. Notice in the past hirings there haven't even been a lot of 'good' artists applying because no one wants to deal with the drama, on top of the fact that all of the ones that did apply are flat out ignored and passed over for some retarded fear of interwebs drama that happens with the existing and new staff anyway.

So people can clamor for 'more artists' all they want, but until staff wants to get their head out of their butts and actually hire people instead of making stupid crap up, it isn't going to happen.

Then there is the issue of why people that are listed as staff but never do anything are also allowed to stay on... but that's a story for another day. Heck as it is, look at the front page of this guild. How many people have staff access that aren't even here anymore?  

[LOLTERNATIVE]

To add on to the hiring note.

I do think hiring needs to re-open again and I think it needs to be for more than just omg edits.

As Sabin said, not a single person who only did unedited examples made it in to the next round; even though I believe the hiring thread said they were looking for unedited and edited colourists.

We now have 3 active junior / senior colourists - that is colourists who have opened breeding / customs slots this year - excluding event mixers and guest colourists.

Which to me doesn't seem that much different from where we were when hiring was opened last year (or the year before that, I forget honestly lmao). Add to the fact that a lot of new staffers were just hired which adds to the already overflowing amount of staff breedings etc (mind's working on 5 breedings right now. FIVE). That's not to say staffers shouldn't be allowed to cash in. I'm just saying it is a lot of work to go around such a small group of people who are able to take on this work.

The original people hired have turned out fantastic. They really did help with the shop but it is still not up to the old standard it was when I first joined. Where there were multiple breeding openings a month and multiple custom openings. You don't have to meet the demand - lord knows that is damn near impossible - but you should be aiming to make things a little more realistic. You should be aiming to make it a little easier. When people are waiting 2+ years for a custom/breeding.. something is wrong.

I do agree with what Lemon Juice said in regards to staffers needing to let things go. Obviously, there is a limit with this for example you wouldn't hire someone who had been black listed from the shop. But unless they have been blacklisted and any issues they had were not resolved, I see no reason why they shouldn't be hired.

The hiring thread even said that past issues would not matter. However, I know for a fact that they did and were brought up. A lot of promising talent was lost this way and it's a real damned shame that people couldn't look past petty differences. You don't have to be someone's best friend to work with them. Especially when you consider you don't even have to see them face to face. Heck, considering staff meetings aren't even a common occurrence right now you barely even have to speak to this person. You just have to be civil; if they act out or screw up, they get fired and that's that. But if they have changed and they do want to be a member of staff and help the shop I don't think they should be excluded because of grudges and bad blood that happened.. quite some time ago.

I also think that item colourists wouldn't be that big a deal, either. I think it needs to be handled in a certain way, though. like those people are specifically there for items and that's it. You start letting them do other things and then bam, they get addicted to colouring full blown ponies and we don't have any more item colourists. Allowing them to help in events should be fine but full ponies should never be prioritised over items which is what they are hired for.

tl:dr;
- open hiring again
- unedited colourists would be an AMAZING addition to the staff
- item colourists are also a cool idea
- stop the drama llama from letting you hire awesome people.  

[pinkdog]

LOLTERNATIVE

I also think that item colourists wouldn't be that big a deal, either. I think it needs to be handled in a certain way, though. like those people are specifically there for items and that's it. You start letting them do other things and then bam, they get addicted to colouring full blown ponies and we don't have any more item colourists. Allowing them to help in events should be fine but full ponies should never be prioritised over items which is what they are hired for.

I agree with everything that you said, but this is the point that I personally want to drive home that most.

I would hope it could be done in such a way that hiring/allowing people to own shops shouldn't be super stressful to the staff. It would be interesting to put up an interest thread to find out how many people would actually be interested and AVAILABLE (no saying you want to open and shop and then never opening your shop except 2x a year) to open an items shop. It may not be that many people. It may be even fewer people when you take into account quality and the limitation that they can never color ponies. I think it would be worth finding out.