Ratings communities; is it plague?
As more and more people become aware of how to take a default layout and bend it to their will, the communities dedicated to making them feel bad about themselves are dropping like flies. But if you understand the concept of supply and demand, this makes perfect sense.
Upon preforming an interest search for "layout rating" I am given 20 communities that share the interest. This dis-includes at least 5 communities that I can think of off the top of my head, most notably __eyecandy, the only RC that seems yet unaffected by this mysterious plague. Why, I ask you, do we need 20+ communities for the same thing? Especially when people are tired of having their wittle feelings hurt? Well, there used to be a sort of upper, middle, and lower class going on. And that worked because, well, that's how society has worked forever. To paraphrase George Carlin, the upper class does none of the work, keeps all of the money. The middle class does all of the work, keeps none of the money. The lower class is there to scare the shit out of the middle class.
And so it is with layouts, in a way.
__eyecandy, and a select few other communities, have always served the "upper class" if you will. The cream of the crop, best of the best, though lately, with the sudden death of at least 10 not un-popular communities, they've had to relax their standards a bit, or so it would seem.
The now dead and gone ratelayouts was a very good middle of the road, you know what you're doing and have some style place to be. Most applicants weren't what I would call extraordinary, but they certainly wouldn't end up as the WOTM here or anything.
The lower class has or had it's place in the LJ world, too, though where exactly I can't say. I never felt the urge to look for communities that excepted shitty layouts and I don't feel the need now. We all know they're there.
So, what happened? It's pretty simple. A lot of the people that __eyecandy told to fuck off decided to start their own RC's and essentially flooded the market with stuck up communities who's moderators' journals didn't even meet the standards they held everyone else to. With all these communities with 6 or 7 memebers to chose from, more "quality" communities stopped getting applicants. Without applicants and members you can't run a successful community.
It's not a mystery, it's just a question of interest, and lately people aren't as interested in having their hard work torn apart by douchey bitches. That's why we don't accept applications here, we depend on nominations and the chance encounter of horrible sites. Can't suffer lack of interest when you don't depend on interest or member activity AT ALL.
I'm not saying anything is broken here, though I do find it a bit odd that most of the "top" RC's have the same few mods. This makes me wonder, if you're already controlling the community, why do you need to go start or moderate 5 or 6 others just like it? Why not totally conglomerate? Why not close all of them except for the (only) one that people have any respect for? And at that, why not do more as a community than just rip on people who suck? Like contests or something? Bah. No one wants to have any fun anymore and I don't understand that.
More incoherent, disassociated babbling later.
The New AQ, over and out.
Upon preforming an interest search for "layout rating" I am given 20 communities that share the interest. This dis-includes at least 5 communities that I can think of off the top of my head, most notably __eyecandy, the only RC that seems yet unaffected by this mysterious plague. Why, I ask you, do we need 20+ communities for the same thing? Especially when people are tired of having their wittle feelings hurt? Well, there used to be a sort of upper, middle, and lower class going on. And that worked because, well, that's how society has worked forever. To paraphrase George Carlin, the upper class does none of the work, keeps all of the money. The middle class does all of the work, keeps none of the money. The lower class is there to scare the shit out of the middle class.
And so it is with layouts, in a way.
__eyecandy, and a select few other communities, have always served the "upper class" if you will. The cream of the crop, best of the best, though lately, with the sudden death of at least 10 not un-popular communities, they've had to relax their standards a bit, or so it would seem.
The now dead and gone ratelayouts was a very good middle of the road, you know what you're doing and have some style place to be. Most applicants weren't what I would call extraordinary, but they certainly wouldn't end up as the WOTM here or anything.
The lower class has or had it's place in the LJ world, too, though where exactly I can't say. I never felt the urge to look for communities that excepted shitty layouts and I don't feel the need now. We all know they're there.
So, what happened? It's pretty simple. A lot of the people that __eyecandy told to fuck off decided to start their own RC's and essentially flooded the market with stuck up communities who's moderators' journals didn't even meet the standards they held everyone else to. With all these communities with 6 or 7 memebers to chose from, more "quality" communities stopped getting applicants. Without applicants and members you can't run a successful community.
It's not a mystery, it's just a question of interest, and lately people aren't as interested in having their hard work torn apart by douchey bitches. That's why we don't accept applications here, we depend on nominations and the chance encounter of horrible sites. Can't suffer lack of interest when you don't depend on interest or member activity AT ALL.
I'm not saying anything is broken here, though I do find it a bit odd that most of the "top" RC's have the same few mods. This makes me wonder, if you're already controlling the community, why do you need to go start or moderate 5 or 6 others just like it? Why not totally conglomerate? Why not close all of them except for the (only) one that people have any respect for? And at that, why not do more as a community than just rip on people who suck? Like contests or something? Bah. No one wants to have any fun anymore and I don't understand that.
More incoherent, disassociated babbling later.
The New AQ, over and out.