scottb
01-05-2004, 05:52 PM
Greetings WC'ers! :)
Can you believe that it has been five years since I sat on my porch with a laptop and decided to create a web site called “wetcanvas.com” in order to show my paintings to my mother who lived a few hundred miles away? :)
Since the inception of the wetcanvas.com site in 1998, we've grown to become the largest community on the Internet for visual artists. 2003 was a heck of a year, with the addition of over 16,000 new members, and a substantial increase in traffic (176%). We are currently adding nearly 2,000 new members a month to our online family, with each new member infusing their own unique artistic talents into our community.
We also added a lot of cool new content channels, forums, and tools in 2003, but we still have much to do! We enjoyed the wonderful arrival of an army of glass artists, and marveled at their brilliant creations. We also opened other new discussion areas, including areas for for art students, airbrush artists, and classical artists.
We also saw some amazing stories unfold before our very eyes. We all witnessed the power of the WetCanvas! community, as 20 artists teamed up to participate in the “Global Village” project. Their painting traveled 39,696 miles and touched five continents in its journey around the world. Another WC! member and sponsor, Ron Kinzey, who owns a commercial print shop, partnered with the artists to create a limited edition series of prints, whose proceeds will be donated to Global Volunteers, a non-governmental organization to help build a much needed elementary school and library in the rural Chinese village of An Shang.
More: http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=112352
We also were blessed to enjoy the story of a WC! member who, driven by inspiration from a photograph of a soldier in Iraq smelling the perfume on a letter from home, turned it into a beautiful pastel painting. Through the power of Internet search engines, the wife of the soldier managed to stumble across the painting on WC!, and was able to communicate with the artist (and others here) until her husband returned home safely. After competing (and placing) in several shows, the original painting was gifted to the couple by the artist, where it now hangs in their home.
More: http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=111876
It is through stories like this that give me almost a daily, sometimes tearful reminder of how important the WC! community has become to so many people around the world. When we first started this community, we really only focused on providing content for painters (hence the name of the site). We quickly realized that we could use our tools and vision to provide a place for other types of artists as well. Now, in addition to painters, WC! also services sculptors, digital artists, glass artists, and others. We provide special focus on important subjects like art business, legal issues, Internet-based marketing, and even art history.
As is evident by our tremendous growth and expansion, change is inevitable. We have decided to undergo a few significant changes in 2004. First and foremost, we will be officially changing our name to “artistnation.com”, which more aptly reflects the nature of both our mission, and the community which we serve.
Some of you may recall that we once operated a site at that domain, but it was merged into the main WC! site some time back. This will be a slow re-branding effort that will span many months, but rest assured, you will still be able to access the site via the old “wetcanvas.com” URL.
Also as part of our goals for 2004, we will be implementing a number of new services and tools to better enhance the site for our members. The following is a brief rundown of some of the changes you can expect to see in 2004. Some of these have already been rolled out, others will be rolled out over time. There will also invariably be bugs and problems, so if you see something strange, be sure to post a short note about it in the Site Discussions forum.
Additional Server Resources
Yes, Virginia, thats right. :) We have already begun implementing new resources within the WC! server farm, and even more will be deployed throughout 2004. Some of you may recall that in 2003, we added several new servers and performed some major upgrades. Fortunately (and unfortunately), we are quickly outgrowing even our newer servers. Hopefully, the end result of the upcoming additions will be a faster, smoother experience for WC’ers.
Changes to the Site/Forums, etc.
We are making some substantial functional enhancements to the site. There will be a nifty new look, but more importantly, a number of long-awaited changes and fixes will be going in. Here are but a few of the things that will be rolled out in 2004:
Revamped interactive calendars for your art exhibitions, and workshops/classes. If you offer workshops, or are planning an exhibition of your art soon, I invite you to check out these new calendars.
Our virtual Gallery Manager tool, previously only available to subscribing web hosting customers, will now be made available free-of-charge, for all members to use! These tools offer a fun, easy way to catalog your artwork, post for sale on our sister site at art-agent.com, and even manage your invoicing and shipping estimates! Our gift to you for helping us make WC! the biggest and best artist community on the net. This will be available to everyone at some point in either late January or early February.
New forum search engine: wildcard searching and support for 3 letter words (like “oil” or “art”). :)
Ability to search just through your favorite (subscribed) forums :)
Ability to do a quick search in the current thread (handy if the thread spans multiple pages!)
Ability to do "quick replies" straight from the thread display page, without having to load the separate reply page.
Ability to view threads in reverse/chronological mode (the way it works now), or new “threaded” and “hybrid” modes, which will offer new, unique ways of viewing discussions.
More robust thread and forum subscription options, such as the ability to instantly subscribe to a thread with or without email notifications (yay!), or if you prefer, weekly or daily digest notifications. We will also be introducing subscription “folders”, making it easy to flag and track your favorite threads.
More tools for doing polls (ability to allow poll takers to choose more than 1 option, ability to add a poll to an existing thread, the ability to conduct "public" polls, where you can see who voted for what, etc).
Completely revamped private message (PM) system.
Ability to attach up to five (5) images/files to a single post at once :)
Images attached to posts in the forums will be auto-thumbnailed and shown in the post (clickable to see the larger) - making pages load faster.
The new attachment system effectively deprecates the need for the older "image uploader tool", which a lot of people had problems running.
Better pagination/navigation controls for threads and posts
Enhancements to the Reference Image Library
The reference image library has turned into a vital part of the site, providing over 20,000 free reference images for use by our community members. WC! member and resident librarian, Ivyleaf, does a wonderful job of maintaining this rapidly expanding library, so be sure and thank her the next time you see her on the bit stream. :) In addition to the many little bug fixes, the following new features will go live during the January upgrades:
More advanced searching features
A Thumbnail Preview of images under the photo image which show upcomming images and previous images (linked).
Several overall optimizations making the system faster ;)
File Uploads/Multiple file uploads gets a facelift! We're moving to a two-staged process for image uploads. The first “Upload Photos” page allows you to select one (or more) files to upload. When you click submit, you will be taken to the bulk-upload interface which provides a thumbnail and input for each image you uploaded. This should help ensure that people put in quality keywords and descriptions for their imags (making them of more value when searched!).
Finally, we’ve added a special forum called “Reference Image Requests/Support”, where members can post requests for special, new, or unique photos from other members, as well as receive technical and administrative support for the reference library as a whole. You can find this in the "Town Center" section of the forums.
Enhancements to Product Review Library
We have made a *substantial* number of enhancements to this tool, which will hopefully make it easier to navigate, and of more value to the researching artist. A short list of some of the changes:
A much cleaner look!
Several new categories have gone live, including watercolor paints (more to come!)
You can hold your mouse over the magnifying glass icon in the product details area to see a breakdown of current votes for that item
More sorting and searching options
Enhanced Sponsorship Opportunities
We have taken a long, hard look at the marketing services and opportunities that we offer to our sponsors, and suffice it to say, we'll be making it easier, and more affordable than ever, to advertise your products/services on the WC! network.
We will be simplifying (considerably) our sponsorship rate card for 2004. A new media kit will be published within a few weeks.
Introduced the long-awaited "skyscraper" and "button" sized sponsorship banners.
In 2004, we will be offering “targeted” advertising ability to all levels of sponsors, which will provide more “context-sensitive” ads, and will result in a higher ROI for our sponsors.
Also a much-requested feature is the ability for our sponsors to match their banners with keywords from the WC! search engine, as well as from major search engines, such as Google and Yahoo.
We will be working diligently to bring more key industry players onboard as sponsors and participants.
How Can You Help?
Some of you may be asking yourselves “sounds great, how can I help WC! continue to grow?” Here are some quick ways:
Write articles! If you have proficiency in your area of expertise, we invite you to use our article publisher tool to present articles to other members. Remember, we want to offer content to artists of all levels, from the beginner to the pro, so the sky is the limit!
Refer sponsors! If you know someone who could benefit from promoting their products or services to our community, refer them! Running this community is costly, and new motivated sponsors are always welcome.
Our community has grown from small grass-roots origins, and quite frankly, we prefer to remain true to those ideals. Far and away, the biggest, and easiest way to help WC! grow is to continue to spread the word to your fellow artists!
Finally, if you have a moment, post a thread in your favorite WC! forum to thank your Moderators and Guides for all they do to help keep this big ol’ ship afloat! Without their passion and devotion to our vision, we would just be another pothole on the information superhighway.
There will be other announcements soon, as many things are "in the hopper" and are not yet finalized, so stay tuned!
Here’s to 2004, the year of WC!, er…. ArtistNation! :D
Cheers.
Scott
Can you believe that it has been five years since I sat on my porch with a laptop and decided to create a web site called “wetcanvas.com” in order to show my paintings to my mother who lived a few hundred miles away? :)
Since the inception of the wetcanvas.com site in 1998, we've grown to become the largest community on the Internet for visual artists. 2003 was a heck of a year, with the addition of over 16,000 new members, and a substantial increase in traffic (176%). We are currently adding nearly 2,000 new members a month to our online family, with each new member infusing their own unique artistic talents into our community.
We also added a lot of cool new content channels, forums, and tools in 2003, but we still have much to do! We enjoyed the wonderful arrival of an army of glass artists, and marveled at their brilliant creations. We also opened other new discussion areas, including areas for for art students, airbrush artists, and classical artists.
We also saw some amazing stories unfold before our very eyes. We all witnessed the power of the WetCanvas! community, as 20 artists teamed up to participate in the “Global Village” project. Their painting traveled 39,696 miles and touched five continents in its journey around the world. Another WC! member and sponsor, Ron Kinzey, who owns a commercial print shop, partnered with the artists to create a limited edition series of prints, whose proceeds will be donated to Global Volunteers, a non-governmental organization to help build a much needed elementary school and library in the rural Chinese village of An Shang.
More: http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=112352
We also were blessed to enjoy the story of a WC! member who, driven by inspiration from a photograph of a soldier in Iraq smelling the perfume on a letter from home, turned it into a beautiful pastel painting. Through the power of Internet search engines, the wife of the soldier managed to stumble across the painting on WC!, and was able to communicate with the artist (and others here) until her husband returned home safely. After competing (and placing) in several shows, the original painting was gifted to the couple by the artist, where it now hangs in their home.
More: http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=111876
It is through stories like this that give me almost a daily, sometimes tearful reminder of how important the WC! community has become to so many people around the world. When we first started this community, we really only focused on providing content for painters (hence the name of the site). We quickly realized that we could use our tools and vision to provide a place for other types of artists as well. Now, in addition to painters, WC! also services sculptors, digital artists, glass artists, and others. We provide special focus on important subjects like art business, legal issues, Internet-based marketing, and even art history.
As is evident by our tremendous growth and expansion, change is inevitable. We have decided to undergo a few significant changes in 2004. First and foremost, we will be officially changing our name to “artistnation.com”, which more aptly reflects the nature of both our mission, and the community which we serve.
Some of you may recall that we once operated a site at that domain, but it was merged into the main WC! site some time back. This will be a slow re-branding effort that will span many months, but rest assured, you will still be able to access the site via the old “wetcanvas.com” URL.
Also as part of our goals for 2004, we will be implementing a number of new services and tools to better enhance the site for our members. The following is a brief rundown of some of the changes you can expect to see in 2004. Some of these have already been rolled out, others will be rolled out over time. There will also invariably be bugs and problems, so if you see something strange, be sure to post a short note about it in the Site Discussions forum.
Additional Server Resources
Yes, Virginia, thats right. :) We have already begun implementing new resources within the WC! server farm, and even more will be deployed throughout 2004. Some of you may recall that in 2003, we added several new servers and performed some major upgrades. Fortunately (and unfortunately), we are quickly outgrowing even our newer servers. Hopefully, the end result of the upcoming additions will be a faster, smoother experience for WC’ers.
Changes to the Site/Forums, etc.
We are making some substantial functional enhancements to the site. There will be a nifty new look, but more importantly, a number of long-awaited changes and fixes will be going in. Here are but a few of the things that will be rolled out in 2004:
Revamped interactive calendars for your art exhibitions, and workshops/classes. If you offer workshops, or are planning an exhibition of your art soon, I invite you to check out these new calendars.
Our virtual Gallery Manager tool, previously only available to subscribing web hosting customers, will now be made available free-of-charge, for all members to use! These tools offer a fun, easy way to catalog your artwork, post for sale on our sister site at art-agent.com, and even manage your invoicing and shipping estimates! Our gift to you for helping us make WC! the biggest and best artist community on the net. This will be available to everyone at some point in either late January or early February.
New forum search engine: wildcard searching and support for 3 letter words (like “oil” or “art”). :)
Ability to search just through your favorite (subscribed) forums :)
Ability to do a quick search in the current thread (handy if the thread spans multiple pages!)
Ability to do "quick replies" straight from the thread display page, without having to load the separate reply page.
Ability to view threads in reverse/chronological mode (the way it works now), or new “threaded” and “hybrid” modes, which will offer new, unique ways of viewing discussions.
More robust thread and forum subscription options, such as the ability to instantly subscribe to a thread with or without email notifications (yay!), or if you prefer, weekly or daily digest notifications. We will also be introducing subscription “folders”, making it easy to flag and track your favorite threads.
More tools for doing polls (ability to allow poll takers to choose more than 1 option, ability to add a poll to an existing thread, the ability to conduct "public" polls, where you can see who voted for what, etc).
Completely revamped private message (PM) system.
Ability to attach up to five (5) images/files to a single post at once :)
Images attached to posts in the forums will be auto-thumbnailed and shown in the post (clickable to see the larger) - making pages load faster.
The new attachment system effectively deprecates the need for the older "image uploader tool", which a lot of people had problems running.
Better pagination/navigation controls for threads and posts
Enhancements to the Reference Image Library
The reference image library has turned into a vital part of the site, providing over 20,000 free reference images for use by our community members. WC! member and resident librarian, Ivyleaf, does a wonderful job of maintaining this rapidly expanding library, so be sure and thank her the next time you see her on the bit stream. :) In addition to the many little bug fixes, the following new features will go live during the January upgrades:
More advanced searching features
A Thumbnail Preview of images under the photo image which show upcomming images and previous images (linked).
Several overall optimizations making the system faster ;)
File Uploads/Multiple file uploads gets a facelift! We're moving to a two-staged process for image uploads. The first “Upload Photos” page allows you to select one (or more) files to upload. When you click submit, you will be taken to the bulk-upload interface which provides a thumbnail and input for each image you uploaded. This should help ensure that people put in quality keywords and descriptions for their imags (making them of more value when searched!).
Finally, we’ve added a special forum called “Reference Image Requests/Support”, where members can post requests for special, new, or unique photos from other members, as well as receive technical and administrative support for the reference library as a whole. You can find this in the "Town Center" section of the forums.
Enhancements to Product Review Library
We have made a *substantial* number of enhancements to this tool, which will hopefully make it easier to navigate, and of more value to the researching artist. A short list of some of the changes:
A much cleaner look!
Several new categories have gone live, including watercolor paints (more to come!)
You can hold your mouse over the magnifying glass icon in the product details area to see a breakdown of current votes for that item
More sorting and searching options
Enhanced Sponsorship Opportunities
We have taken a long, hard look at the marketing services and opportunities that we offer to our sponsors, and suffice it to say, we'll be making it easier, and more affordable than ever, to advertise your products/services on the WC! network.
We will be simplifying (considerably) our sponsorship rate card for 2004. A new media kit will be published within a few weeks.
Introduced the long-awaited "skyscraper" and "button" sized sponsorship banners.
In 2004, we will be offering “targeted” advertising ability to all levels of sponsors, which will provide more “context-sensitive” ads, and will result in a higher ROI for our sponsors.
Also a much-requested feature is the ability for our sponsors to match their banners with keywords from the WC! search engine, as well as from major search engines, such as Google and Yahoo.
We will be working diligently to bring more key industry players onboard as sponsors and participants.
How Can You Help?
Some of you may be asking yourselves “sounds great, how can I help WC! continue to grow?” Here are some quick ways:
Write articles! If you have proficiency in your area of expertise, we invite you to use our article publisher tool to present articles to other members. Remember, we want to offer content to artists of all levels, from the beginner to the pro, so the sky is the limit!
Refer sponsors! If you know someone who could benefit from promoting their products or services to our community, refer them! Running this community is costly, and new motivated sponsors are always welcome.
Our community has grown from small grass-roots origins, and quite frankly, we prefer to remain true to those ideals. Far and away, the biggest, and easiest way to help WC! grow is to continue to spread the word to your fellow artists!
Finally, if you have a moment, post a thread in your favorite WC! forum to thank your Moderators and Guides for all they do to help keep this big ol’ ship afloat! Without their passion and devotion to our vision, we would just be another pothole on the information superhighway.
There will be other announcements soon, as many things are "in the hopper" and are not yet finalized, so stay tuned!
Here’s to 2004, the year of WC!, er…. ArtistNation! :D
Cheers.
Scott