PoserGirlsInTrouble

I wanted to generate some fashion posters for background use in a forthcoming scene, and decided (oh, folly of follies!) to use DreamUp for the purpose.

It turns out that while 'floral dress', 'mini dress' and even 'pink leather dress' are all perfectly acceptable prompts, 'paisley dress' is such a heinous concept that it risks full account suspension; not even partial suspension, which presumably involves one leg or something.

If paisley is a euphemism for some disgusting perversion that I was previously unaware of, please let me know, as long as you can do so without risking suspension.

Update 2023: this no longer works. DeviantEffingArt has put a pitchfork through the text editor - newly uploaded images can no longer have text associated with them, pre-existing images' text cannot be edited until you submit it. Bizarrely, if you have any long-deprecated stash writer documents, they can still be edited because they forgot to break that facility. But you can't create a new one since the advent of Eclipse.

- original text follows, for documentary / nostalgia purposes -

I'm still wavering on the question of the Eclipse rant I promised. At first I was angry about the sheer incompetence of Eclipse, and made copious notes about everything that annoyed me. Then I decided that I'd probably get used to most of them, given time, and it was more important to concentrate on persuading my watchers not to jump ship; besides, things seemed to be changing day by day as they were fixed and/or improved beyond repair.

Eclipse Day 21 has just begun here in the UK, and I'm still finding things wrong with Eclipse - stupidly wrong, not just mildly annoying, although there are plenty of those as well. Ultimately, it's the sheer volume of annoyances which is the most annoying, if that makes any sense. I have got used to one or two of the initial annoyances, but many of them are still as frustrating as they were on Day One. Some things have been fixed, many more have not; you may have seen my recent posting of two test images intended to help Tech Support with my most recent ticket, which has been open since the 22nd of May. It's a good thing that my Core membership buys me priority support. </sarcasm>

Anyway... Let's concentrate on being helpful and community minded, huh? You may recall that I posted a journal about the death of Stash Writer - although it still works, it can't be used to create a new text document.

So, here's a tip that may help you if, like me, you're in the habit of jotting odd notes to yourself in Stash. The text below was created using that method:

Here's how to write notes in sta.sh. Just upload an image - you're welcome to use mine, or make your own - and then write your text in the comments box underneath. You've got most of the formatting tools you'll be used to, except for headings (from memory). You can share the sta.sh link with others, and they can add comments if you want to collaborate or get a second opinion on something. When you click on the 'Close' button it saves a draft so you can go back and edit as many times as you want, just like a real text editor. The only things you can't do any more are: Upload a text file from your computer, orSubmit the text as a journal or literature deviation. However you can copy-and-paste the text into the new Eclipse text submission travesty.The stuff below is my test of how well copy-and-paste works to preserve the formatting of the old sta.sh text editor. Bold textItalic textUnderlined textBullet point 1Bullet point 2Numbered list 1Numbered list 2

Quote

Centred paragraphRight justified paragraphHyperlink

Here's the original: (update: click on this link to be taken to my Stash - images included from Stash apparently have no link associated with them any more.)

You can see that some of the formatting has been broken by copying and pasting, chiefly paragraph endings. As a result, this might not be a very good way of preparing a journal or literature deviation; but the option is there, at least, and it's still fine for writing stuff that will stay in your Stash forever.

Let me know how you get on with this method if you decide to adopt it.

Most of the things that are wrong with Eclipse fall loosely under the heading of 'things that are a little bit shit and/or pathetic'. One can hope they might get fixed if enough support tickets get raised, or at least that we might learn to live with them over time.

This issue is more serious than that, I think.

As noted elsewhere, deviations no longer have categories under Eclipse - you can't specify one when you submit, whereas it used to be compulsory on the old system. However this also means that previously-categorised deviations no longer have their categories accessible, and you can't use them to narrow down a search. I used to do that a lot to find stock photos, textures and models among other things. This is a MAJOR flaw as far as I'm concerned, and it seems to be baked into the new site concept.

There are people on dA who have whole accounts dedicated to providing stock, and some of them even make money at it. I wonder how they feel about this?

From my point of view, dA was the best place to find truly free stock. Search for free stock on the web, using Google Image Search for example, and most of what you get will be royalty-free - meaning you still have to pay for it, but as a one-time fee, not for each and every use. I make free art, so I can't afford that. dA's search made it simple: enter the subject you were looking for, then narrow it down to 'resources and stock images' with further sub-categories beneath that.

Now you have no chance. Every result that comes up would need to be visited individually to see if it can be used as stock, possibly to the extent of looking at the artist's profile. Who has the time to do that?! Uncategorised deviations are being uploaded hourly, meaning they would never be found even if this decision is reversed, unlikely as that may be. There is no way back from this one.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. Eclipse - the only guarantee is that everybody can find something to hate.

Edited to add: @Emamaria has gone to some considerable trouble to screenshot ALL the categories from the old DA site, in case you want to refer to them for whatever reason. I mean, it would be cool if every deviant suddenly decided to hashtag their submissions with the category they would have had... But I haven't done that, either, so there ya go. Emamaria's journal is linked below, with her kind permission:

No, it isn't toilet roll or canned goods. Stash Writer will be unable to create a new document after the 20th May, so I thought I'd stash away a few empty documents while I still have the ability to make them.

Protip: if you want to do this yourself, and you don't see the 'Compose in Stash Writer' button (it's missing from my screenshot), go to your dA, drop down the menu that lives under your avatar, and select 'Switch to Old Site'. It's right at the end of that menu, underneath 'Log Out', where they hope you won't see it. Just to drive the point home with maximum subtlety, there's an icon of a dinosaur next to it. Up yours, dA. And up yours if you're reading this after 20th May, because you won't be able to do this any more.

I can't work out why they're so keen to kill Stash Writer. If I trust their reply to my support ticket, it's going to stick around to edit existing documents beyond the 20th March (hence my stockpiling effort), so they'll still have to maintain it.

I thought I might be able to get around the new document limitation by uploading a text file, but no. That only works if I'm in Old Site / dinosaur mode. If I switch to Bright New Future mode, I get an error message telling me that HTML documents aren't allowed. I do so love idiotic error messages. It seems to me that Stash Writer has been deliberately broken when you're using Eclipse.

Now, I use Stash Writer all the time - not just for composing literature deviations and journals, but for drafting the text I'm going to put at the bottom of an image deviation, and for all kinds of general notes to myself. If I have an idea or want to remind myself of something, I might not be at my big graphics PC at the time; no problem, I can quickly jot something down in Stash, and it will be accessible from any computer I happen to be using. In effect, I'm using Stash as a cloud storage facility, with the added bonus of easy access to dA. If my random jotting is refined into a journal entry, I can submit it right then and there without any tedious copy-and-pasting - and let's face it, pasting into Stash Writer usually involves you in some tidy-up work afterwards. It's not perfect.

My Core membership buys me a useful increase in Stash capacity. Well, when renewal time comes around, my Core membership budget is going to be spent on beer. I told dA that in one of my support requests, but they chose not to respond. Careful, guys, the sand will get in your eyes if you bury your heads in it for too long.