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Post by Stephanie (swordlilly) on Oct 30, 2023 23:48:40 GMT -5
Competitive, but there's no malice... from TNT or from the submitters. Every single regular that I've seen interreacting with people who are trying to get in do everything they can to help and encourage. No one is deliberately trying to sabotage anyone else by entering stories about their blorbos/etc. For sure, I'm not saying that NT writers and artists should feel bad about wanting to participate in the NT. It's just that there is a shortage of paid staff hours available and I believe TNT is aware of this as well. I believe they do want to accept more people, but they just physically can't because they don't have enough paid hours to sift through all the entries. NT entries felt more "cared for" (responded to in a timely manner, edited for spelling etc.) under the editorship of a full-time staff member in the past, but we just don't have that right now. I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade.  The NT just feels very cramped to me these days, for lack of a better word. It's no one's fault but it is what it is. |
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Post by Twillie on Oct 30, 2023 23:49:05 GMT -5
Yeah tbh if there are people who have tried several times over to get into the NT only to keep failing, I'd always love to know who to help out where possible. I've honestly looked at the NT as the more forgiving of the creative contests these days, in part because it's one of the most resubmission-friendly, and its lack of regular prizes makes it a less reliable means of income aka less competition for regular issues.
Plus, if it's a matter of just getting into the Times in general, I don't think a milestone issue is the best choice of breaking into it. It's just naturally going to be the most competitive, which is a part of it being a contest like Lex said. After a certain point you need to accept the risk of rejection when entering and the discretion of the judges. Agreed that this is in large part on TNT to make sure they lay out deadlines and parameters as clearly as they can to make it fair for everyone.
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Post by Stephanie (swordlilly) on Oct 31, 2023 0:00:53 GMT -5
Yeah tbh if there are people who have tried several times over to get into the NT only to keep failing, I'd always love to know who to help out where possible. I feel like I shouldn't talk about people behind their back, so I'm not going to give specific examples, but if you hang out with people in customisation or in creative chat more generally you will come across individuals who (1) have tried submitting things to the NT before but had their stuff held in limbo and just never heard back, or who (2) are so intimidated and put off by the lack of timely responses that they just don't even think about submitting. I used to be one of those people who would review people's work and offer advice on how to get in, but lately I've been experiencing this state of being held in limbo indefinitely myself. xD The comic collab I did with doctortomoe for the Halloween issue was never responded to. So I resubmitted it last week for the upcoming issue, hoping to hear back this week? Maybe?? So far nothing in my inbox, and tbh I might forget to check / follow up on it as I am quite busy irl now too. :< |
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Post by Kengplant on Oct 31, 2023 0:01:48 GMT -5
I always hope regular issues would break into 20-25 comics more regularly outside special issues, and for articles and shorts to start hitting maybe 7 or 8 (I feel like asking for 10 each is pushing our luck) if we're going to stay on the 2 week schedule.
the user base is up and that's also going to increase competition.
I'm thrilled more people are submitting! But I want that to turn into a more regular ability to participate for everyone.
But yea. it seems like they struggle to keep up with reviewing entries, and I can see that becoming more difficult especially as the userbase is becoming more active.
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Post by Gelquie on Oct 31, 2023 0:13:39 GMT -5
I'm probably not going to enter for this one, in part because I just don't like competition and the inevitable drama around special issues, in part because I have a bit of writer's block anyway. xP (And plus, I might go for one of the satellite issues like 998, 999, or 1001 or something.)
But my stance aside, sure, there could be stuff said for the structure of the system and what TNT can or can't and should or shouldn't do. For the general userbase and who gets in, I personally wouldn't overthink it. People are naturally gonna want to get into this issue, and that's a normal feeling. I don't think anyone should feel guilty or feel guilted into not participating if they otherwise want to try for it. If you want to try and get in, go for it. If you get in, great. If you don't, probably there was just a large volume of submissions; maybe you'll have better luck in one of the satellite issues. Either way, at least here, there's an encouraging community ready to help if you need it, regardless of their own interest or disinterest in getting into the Times.
I'll cheer people on from the sidelines while I try for one of the satellite issues. (If I can ever break my writer's block.)
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Post by Huntress on Oct 31, 2023 6:27:26 GMT -5
Having hit yet another uptick in my Neopets activity these days, it's honestly rather striking just how much of the scarcity on the site is straight-up artificial, for lack of a better term. All of those various limitations that were born out of the much weaker servers of 2002abouts and just never got reviewed. Neomail and neoboard character limits? Neomail inbox limits? Shops only displaying 80 items at a time? Inventory has 50 slots (or 60 if you bought the perk, which I did)? Quickstock only moves 70 at a time? Closets and neohome sheds fit only this many items, the neofriend list is broken up into like 12 alphabetical segments and so on and so forth. Pet slots were a similar artificial scarcity until it got fixed with cold hard cash because supply and demand, babeh.
Similarly, the number of submissions in an NT issue is not limited to how many pixels it fits. Only by how much the staff is able to put into a given issue with the workhours that they're given. Which I am sympathetic to, although my sympathies are curbed by this nice new system of wiping the plate clean after each issue and starting the process anew because it's the equivalent of sweating to get your project done the night before the deadline every single time. If I (and everyone else) could already send in their Issue 1000 piece right now and the editor set the time aside every week to stack some of those entries into that issue bit by bit, we could have an absolutely gigantic Issue 1000 with room for both newbies and vets alike and also avoid this whole last-minute nailbiting with hoping to hear back two hours before the issue is due.
(Okay, I do have like, zero idea about how their workload is distributed and it's easy to squawk from the sidelines. My squawking is just based on the fact that my own work is entirely made up of large long-term projects for separate clients and nobody can see the distribution of my workload either, only whether I get it done. Which I do. I have this pretty complex system of dividing all my projects over the days and weeks with rounding errors worked into the formulas to make space for unexpected things coming up and sickness days and other such fun stuff. So it's its own special brand of frustrating to be on the client end of a system that does what I specifically work to avoid because if I did, I'd be in this same trouble.)
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Post by Lex on Oct 31, 2023 8:53:39 GMT -5
Yeah tbh if there are people who have tried several times over to get into the NT only to keep failing, I'd always love to know who to help out where possible. I feel like I shouldn't talk about people behind their back, so I'm not going to give specific examples, but if you hang out with people in customisation or in creative chat more generally you will come across individuals who (1) have tried submitting things to the NT before but had their stuff held in limbo and just never heard back, or who (2) are so intimidated and put off by the lack of timely responses that they just don't even think about submitting. I used to be one of those people who would review people's work and offer advice on how to get in, but lately I've been experiencing this state of being held in limbo indefinitely myself. xD The comic collab I did with doctortomoe for the Halloween issue was never responded to. So I resubmitted it last week for the upcoming issue, hoping to hear back this week? Maybe?? So far nothing in my inbox, and tbh I might forget to check / follow up on it as I am quite busy irl now too. :< I hear you and I've been frustrated with the radio silence too. But I think, having been at this for several months now, there are some things that are NOT well communicated by TNT but do seem to be consistent. #1: if they are doing entries as part of a collab, they now HAVE to give details on that. We saw quite a few people getting frustrated at not getting in after that rule started getting enforced, but it's an easy one to fix. TNT's rejection letters should be more consistent and actually include this as a reason to prevent frustration. But they don't, so sharing that info as much as possible will help people. #2: If their entry doesn't get published for the week they submitted for, don't wait to hear back. Just resubmit. TNT themselves asked for this. Is is obtuse and clunky? Yes. Just like everything else on the site. It needs to be better, but being that it isn't, people need to just play within the system's rules. #3: Backlog clearing is inconsistent which is bad, but they have actually been pretty regular on when they accept entries. Big themed issues seem to have a small trickle of acceptances starting week 1, usually Friday. Normal, non-themed issues don't seem to get any acceptances until week 2, usually Tuesday or Wednesday. Using Halloween issue as an example, if you submitted for Halloween but didn't get in, you probably wont hear back until today (Tuesday) or tomorrow. How would ANYONE know this? They wouldn't! It's just from experience entering over the last 6 months! Which is why I think continuing to provide feedback, especially now that we have the ambassadors, is super super important. If we can get all of this under TNT's nose before NT1000, maybe we can make things better for everyone. |
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Post by Huntress on Oct 31, 2023 10:56:54 GMT -5
#3: Backlog clearing is inconsistent which is bad, but they have actually been pretty regular on when they accept entries. Big themed issues seem to have a small trickle of acceptances starting week 1, usually Friday. Normal, non-themed issues don't seem to get any acceptances until week 2, usually Tuesday or Wednesday. Using Halloween issue as an example, if you submitted for Halloween but didn't get in, you probably wont hear back until today (Tuesday) or tomorrow. How would ANYONE know this? They wouldn't! It's just from experience entering over the last 6 months! This also feels like a good time to re-point-out the NT Knowledge and Pointers thread that I made a fair few years ago but that's being kept pretty well updated by people a lot more diligent than me (shoutout to Twillie). Ever since its inception, the NTWF has served as the NT-specific intel source for the sort of obscure stuff that the Neopets site itself doesn't do a very good job disclosing. We used to have a whole lot more Neopets- and NT-specific chatter but it's also definitely seen a resurgence as of late. |
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Post by Kengplant on Oct 31, 2023 11:54:03 GMT -5
I don;t know how much ability they have to pre-publish/compile things for later issues. I'm pretty sure it's something the old TNT used to do, but for all I know all they really did was make a list of entries then put it together the week of.
Maybe you used to be able to work on 2 NT templates at once but that feature broke or got lost over time.
It seems like the file organization on submissions is not great for whatever tools they're working with.
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Post by Kat on Oct 31, 2023 19:11:29 GMT -5
Checked the NT submission form.
My series slated to run through issue 1000 is still in there.
EDIT:
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Post by darkelfa on Nov 5, 2023 11:28:02 GMT -5
O.O..
Here I am.. minding my own business and drawing for 1000 issue not realizing there is so much thought process being compiled by other artists... I guess I live under a rock :]
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Post by Christos on Nov 5, 2023 12:17:24 GMT -5
Oh I would love to prepare something for the 1000th issue!
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Post by Birdy on Nov 6, 2023 22:47:41 GMT -5
It'd be awesome to get into the 1000th issue for sure. I have an article currently in progress that may technically work for it, I dunno. It's basically just me reminiscing on my past 20 years on the site, from some favourite memories to how I got started writing for the NT. (Coincidentally, assuming it's the next thing I get published, the article about my 20 years would also be my 20th publication.)
I was hoping to get it finished and published this year, but it may almost work better for 1000 - which would be published in January 2024, I think? - since by that time this year (my 20th) would be over, and I could include memories from this year if I wanted. Like maybe this will be the year they finally have a Parlax animation at the Advent Calendar.
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Post by Huntress on Nov 8, 2023 4:50:26 GMT -5
O.O.. Here I am.. minding my own business and drawing for 1000 issue not realizing there is so much thought process being compiled by other artists... I guess I live under a rock :] Honestly there's a lot to be said in favor of staying under a rock to keep one's joy and enthusiasm for a thing intact. I've lost too much interest in movies and TV shows by reading nitpicky reviews :< In the end I'm just here to enjoy myself, goshdangit. Birdy - as far as I can count, this issue should be due on January 26 if nothing gets skipped or postponed until then, which it very well might. I've never managed to have especially good meta-ideas about milestone issues, but I do have a super ancient milestone comic idea that never made it past the sketch stage that I can polish up and nice-ify for this. (do I still have it? yes I dooo - apparently drawn on the same page as two comics from late 2008. This is why you never throw anything away, folks.) |
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Post by darkelfa on Nov 8, 2023 8:49:46 GMT -5
O.O.. Here I am.. minding my own business and drawing for 1000 issue not realizing there is so much thought process being compiled by other artists... I guess I live under a rock :] Honestly there's a lot to be said in favor of staying under a rock to keep one's joy and enthusiasm for a thing intact. I've lost too much interest in movies and TV shows by reading nitpicky reviews :< In the end I'm just here to enjoy myself, goshdangit. Birdy - as far as I can count, this issue should be due on January 26 if nothing gets skipped or postponed until then, which it very well might. I've never managed to have especially good meta-ideas about milestone issues, but I do have a super ancient milestone comic idea that never made it past the sketch stage that I can polish up and nice-ify for this. (do I still have it? yes I dooo - apparently drawn on the same page as two comics from late 2008. This is why you never throw anything away, folks.) Agreed.. Oh I am also tapping into my arsenal of old comics! NO shame! I actually have one which was supposed to be submitted for one of the 00 series but I never got around to finishing it. Will be re-drawing it as my style had changed a bit ;] Good luck with your submission! |
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The NT just feels very cramped to me these days, for lack of a better word. It's no one's fault but it is what it is.
