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Response to Feedback
8 years ago
General
So yesterday when Vixie made it home from TFF she told me she had sat down and talked with some of my watchers. They expressed some concerns and I feel it's of the upmost importance to address them right away.
I appreciate feedback from people since it helps me improve and keeps my butt in line ^.^
The first big complaint I heard was that I lacked structure. I haven't had a schedule up in ages. The second being a lack of visibility, I've fallen behind on uploads and am way too quiet. These are both quite legitimate concerns and I'm happy to motivate myself to correct them!
For the issue with the schedule I'd really stopped posting it since so many people outright ignored them. So I felt discouraged and thought I was simply wasting time making them. Easily fixed.
As for uploads I wound up falling behind on them because I'd get some...severe complaints from clients that they weren't seeing progress on their pictures but saw others being posted. So I would hold off on posting until I'd finished more pictures to avoid the backlash. There's nothing quite as crushing and terrifying as angry customers in a business where reputation matters so much. I'm going to upload more tonight after I finish with my work for today and as much of a dickish thing as it is to say I'm going to start outright ignoring complaints that I'm not fast enough for some people.
For me being so quiet I really think that's just a result of being so damn busy all of the time. If I'm having to take out time to post notifications for everything I'm doing I'll never get work done. Sometimes I have to let tunnel-vision take over so I can grind out projects or handle offline problems, such as this month with having to do so much work for the move. Maybe I can try actually using my Twitter account but I'm increasingly hesitant with that due to the amount of negativity I keep hearing about from it. If you guys have a better solution I'd be happy to hear it, just don't recommend Facebook since it's the same problem.
I might not be able to fully address these topics right away or even this month but as soon as the move is done I can stabilize and set these things right!
Apologies if any of this came off as abrasive. I simply want to be as honest and direct as possible. If you have any questions or comments feel free to post below or note me any time!
Thank you all!
Nate
I appreciate feedback from people since it helps me improve and keeps my butt in line ^.^
The first big complaint I heard was that I lacked structure. I haven't had a schedule up in ages. The second being a lack of visibility, I've fallen behind on uploads and am way too quiet. These are both quite legitimate concerns and I'm happy to motivate myself to correct them!
For the issue with the schedule I'd really stopped posting it since so many people outright ignored them. So I felt discouraged and thought I was simply wasting time making them. Easily fixed.
As for uploads I wound up falling behind on them because I'd get some...severe complaints from clients that they weren't seeing progress on their pictures but saw others being posted. So I would hold off on posting until I'd finished more pictures to avoid the backlash. There's nothing quite as crushing and terrifying as angry customers in a business where reputation matters so much. I'm going to upload more tonight after I finish with my work for today and as much of a dickish thing as it is to say I'm going to start outright ignoring complaints that I'm not fast enough for some people.
For me being so quiet I really think that's just a result of being so damn busy all of the time. If I'm having to take out time to post notifications for everything I'm doing I'll never get work done. Sometimes I have to let tunnel-vision take over so I can grind out projects or handle offline problems, such as this month with having to do so much work for the move. Maybe I can try actually using my Twitter account but I'm increasingly hesitant with that due to the amount of negativity I keep hearing about from it. If you guys have a better solution I'd be happy to hear it, just don't recommend Facebook since it's the same problem.
I might not be able to fully address these topics right away or even this month but as soon as the move is done I can stabilize and set these things right!
Apologies if any of this came off as abrasive. I simply want to be as honest and direct as possible. If you have any questions or comments feel free to post below or note me any time!
Thank you all!
Nate
Have been involved with some artists handle backlog amazingly well, keep channels open, have a list that gets updated as things were finished. Kv1nn4's is a great example http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8167375/ - just put everything in, cross one off when it gets done, don't take on more work than you can reliably do, rinse and repeat until its cleaned out. If something goes south, like a tablet dying, make sure folks know up front that it is going to be a while.
Experienced the other end too, the ding-dong-ditch FA sort. Nothing drives resentment like being told off, especially for simple requests such as "what number am I in the backlog queue." It's one thing to see ten or so pieces uploaded ahead of you, it's problematic when it ends up going into the triple digits.
Another way to go about this is to break down things by their complexity. Sketches/inked lines take less time than fully colored pieces. Work out how long you can comfortably work on more complicated pieces before needing to do something else and figure that in to any further commission work.
Anyway, best luck!
Ive had a lot of very negative commission experiences in the past (three of them stopped responding to me altogether in a row and I didn't commission another artist for 4 years as a result, I couldn't trust anyone anymore). Now I watch an artist's habits for a while, and in some cases, talk to past commissioners about their experience before I even think about dropping a dime.
For someone like me, who's been literally bait-and-switched out of collectively a few hundred dollars in the span of a month by several artists at once, communication is crucial. I put faith in your Trello but I do watch it like a hawk. I consider it sufficient communication for my needs, and if I were to need any clarification I'd likely message you.