It's been two days and still no reply from Greg so I'm posting this here:
Hey, finally read the article. Looks pretty good. Just a couple of suggestions::
1) The overt linking to my profile looks pretty spammy. I don't think most users who frequent the forums would be bothered but I think it can make it difficult for a Mixxer who only reads the blogs to connect with the contest if all they see are the same links over and over again of someone who supposedly is active in the community.
a) For the first link, I think using this link would be better since it at least relates to why a person might need an avatar (I tried looking for the most respected avatar creator but couldn't find any)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_identity#Online_identity_and_the_concept_of_the_maskb) For the second link, I think this link does a better job of introducing me to people who don't know me.
http://www.mixx.com/stories/2031489/8_poorly_disguised_secret_identitiesNot only is this my most notable comment based on it being my only comment that got me the Kudos award, it gives readers who don't know me, a better idea on my personality and it has many notable users commenting on my posts. At the very least, they could at least find some semi-notability in me getting 6 kudos rather than be totally in the dark with who I am.
c) The third link I think should be this because of it's much lighter tone and because of the fact that it's actually a topic in the Mixxingbowl thus striking a balance between my activity in the forums and my activity in the main site.
http://mixxingbowl.com/forums/index.php/topic,816.0.htmlAs you can see, I'd prefer if any link to my profile be omitted as much as possible because I feel it sends the message to the reader to pay attention and vote for my submissions which isn't too bad of an advertisement in a Social Blend episode because the analysis in the podcast actually turns the link into more of a recommendation but in a single article, I think it is equivalent to a blogger saying, hey check out Guy X. He's a great blogger and regularly comments in this blog so he's A-ok. It just sounds too spammy for someone who's stumbled into the article as opposed to motivating them to register for an account in Mixx or participate in the Mixxingbowl.
As for the date, I haven't ever issued a CTA before so I don't really have a clear grasp on the amount of time that's ideal for the community without being too long or too short that it kills their interest in the subject but if it's not too much of a hassle, I would like to suggest an additional week extension for the contest.
The logic behind this request is the fact that I think people who know me better have an unfair advantage over people who might not have even heard of me until this article and now they read this and even if they could have been mildly interested, the suddenness of the whole thing might suddenly put a cork in their plans. At least if the article could say, ok, within one week there will be this contest starting and you can start now but it doesn't officially begin until next week, the readers could get a chance to contact me and get a week to inquire about my taste or my reaction to their concepts before they start with their babies.
This is also related to the subject of the reward. I have a history of being very poor at communicating my thoughts but if you could think of a way to phrase a statement along the lines of "I'm sorry, there's no reward other than my thanks for you but if you want, I could do both a public or private review, discussion, analysis, suggestion of your work within the time frame of this contest so that at least, even if you don't win, you would get an idea why you weren't picked. I'm not an avatar designer hence why I don't have an avatar in the first place, but I do want to make sure that even if this is all for fun, I'm not making light of your hard work especially if you really put your heart into designing your art. I can be overtly critical though so if you're the type who lean more towards only what's great with your work or only what's bad with your work. Feel free to mention this and I'll try to edit my analysis to these criterias."
This leads to my suggestion for the 4th link. Instead of a link to my profile, maybe you can add this link instead, while also pointing out that they can always MixxMail me or create a topic in the Mixxingbowl to contact me.
http://www.yourdraft.com/show_page.php?key=SXDbM97fKfB5ltntZQEHlM58lUJsFsIt's Greg's article and I don't want to come off hijacking his article. It's cool if what he wrote is good enough. These are just suggestions anyway. I'm just alerting people of this. The anonymous draft link probably isn't needed since most who read the forums probably have a Mixxingbowl account or plan to get one anyway. I just felt it will be more honest if I just copy paste the exact text for context.
JUST KIDDING! I'm just lazy.
P.S. loup why did you use a poor quality camera to take
vernacular_ninja's picture?
