Fix your art - request
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Yep, I agree with this. I had been watching critique arena for a bit (just for entertainment) and finally decided to enter the next one when it was cancelled
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I think that the reason they stopped running critique arena is that it cannibalises their new venture with the pro crits. Even if the value prop for ca is quite different, I reckon the worry is that those most likely to buy a critique might have the purchasing power dampened by participating in ca.
The pricing structure for the crits is such that selling only one will bring additional revenue equal to 14 additional ca contestants (the price for ca being 24 usd per month, while the crits are 24 usd plus 350-something).
From a business perspective the choice to kill CA makes sense to me, and the move into what is lucrative over what is community building lines up with how businesses operate. The community has been fairly stable in size over the past few years (number of ca entries every month being about 100, the post rate at the forum being around 20-ish posts a day, from what I can observe without having the numbers), and so the question of profitability becomes not one of scaling a cheaper product, but instead marketing more upscale products to the existing community.
I agree that it’s sad, though.
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I was wondering what happened to critique arena. Has it been officially cancelled? I haven’t seen any news or updates about it.
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@Mia-Clarke oh wow, I didn't know you had to pay to be in the contest! I guess I wouldn't have entered after all
But anyway having prompts would still be nice and I enjoyed watching them way more than how to fix your art which doesn't have much entertainment value. -
@Mimi-Simon you didn’t have to pay to enter, you had to be a subscribing member to the online classes.
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@AngelinaKizz Oh I see, I'm just a youtube subscriber lol
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@Mia-Clarke The pro crits might be the end aim for many SVS online subscribers but at any one time a small percentage would be paying for this service surely. It's the nature of a school - only some are going to be ready for that service (pro crits could be offered to more than SVS Learn subscribers at an extra fee of course - that could really take off.) So I'm a bit puzzled if that truly is the reason for CA's demise.
Having CA as part of the SVS Learn subscription was possibly not a direct revenue raiser but its community building function was pretty important for an online subscription based business with an active forum I would have thought. It's also a fantastic way to gauge one's progress. Keeps people interested, keeps people renewing their subscriptions. I can't see why holding a monthly CA would diminish the likelihood of subscribers paying for the pro crits. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you or I don't have all the details?
They might have felt that HTFYA combined with the pro crits was better from an educational and business point of view and CA had run its course and was just taking up the lecturers valuable time/same people were winning/winners were so good no need to critique etc. But I don't think the vast majority cared that they weren't winning CA. Yet!
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@Jean-Watson I think the reasons can be many. I don’t have any more insight or knowledge than anyone else, so it’s all speculation. For me, the value proposition of CA was a pro crit for one piece of art, and my argument is that if you can get some pro critique for 24 usd, you might be less likely to feel drawn to paying 350 for a full crit, even if the product description of the latter is very different to that of ca.
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@Mia-Clarke Ah, okay, I get what you're saying. You might have a point. As you say though, it's all speculation and probably quite a number of reasons.
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@Mia-Clarke hmm I don't think that quite adds up to me. Right now they have a forum post where you can put art for the "fix my work" video, right? So wouldn't you be just as likely to get a free critique that way?
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@carlianne Yes, I agree that from a revenue perspective it would make more sense to only accept images from patrons or subscribers… On the other hand, the crit disappears behind a paywall after 24 hours in this setup, whereas the ca ones stayed up. Like I said, this might not be the actual reasoning, it’s just an explanation that makes sense to me.
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@Mia-Clarke Yeah, I agree it’s frustrating that CA is gone. I was starting to really love getting those prompts and the deadlines, too. But I personally am not convinced that this was a business move just for the monetary boost—I think they genuinely wanted to give some attention to other pieces that wouldn’t get a critique in CA since a lot of the same people often made top 16, and a full-on critique could potentially be much, much more valuable to students who want it (but they’re also probably more labor-intensive for the teachers). But yes, I’d like something like this again, too.
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I don't know if i'm remembering that right, but didn't they actually tell why they made the change? Even if they are not quite there yet because maybe there is some things they didn't think about, i think its kind of nice they try to mix it up time after time.
I actually watched all the old 3rd Thursdays Episodes on Youtube and they Kind of startet out like this, giving deeper critiques to people and at some point it endet up being critique arena.
It's actually really nice to look out for the people who are not there yet instead of watching (mostly) the same 16 win every month. Even though there has been really lovely and great pieces!!! That being said!
BUT i agree, it was kind of nice having deadlines and stuff, i bet maybe it's possible to combine the two things.
I think i will actually try to take the time and come back to the past challenges... of 43 i made 3
In the end nothing is stopping us from giving us deadlines ourselfes. People can change their behavior and it is possible to do stuff on our own to work on our portfolio. If Thats what we want. The World Wide Web is full of prompt lists, and challenges.
I alsways want to participate in Folktale week...maybe thats my chance though
