As you all know, we have been talking a lot about the future of SIFF and what we need to do to enure it's sucess as it grows. We've gotten a deal of feedback and we will probably continue to throw ideas out over the next several weeks in the form of SurveyMonkey surveys since they are quick and painless for everyone to answer while preserving anonymity. Bare with us, we want to make sure we make the best decisions. I do want to take a few minutes to address a few things that have come up wthrough the survey process thus far.

Lets start with site features -

Chat/Instant Messaging: There is no easy way to do this. This is NOT something Webs supports. We have tried to institute this before and we have tried again recently. It's not going to happen. Not on Webs. The site would have to be moved and that means hosting, and hosting isn't free.

Profile Pages: Again, this is NOT something that can accomplished with Webs. It's not that we don't want to add features that would encourage use of the site it's that we are limited with what we can do with what we have have Remember, we all do this in our spare time and we make no money off the site. 

If you take a look around, the site is ad free. Minraed pays for hosting out of her own pocket and has invited everyone to to use the site. This has always been a labour of love but when things don't pay for themselves costs need to be kept under control. We hope that you all understand this.

Moving on to SIFF -

More Catagories: We would love to do this, in fact, we have had different catagories over the seasons. The problem is, they don't get used. Someone suggested an anime catagory. We don't have people actually submitting those kinds of films to justify giving it it's own catagory. This goes for a lot of other things. There is a complaint that things are all English based. This goes along with the catagories. Peopel weren't use the Foriegn Film catagory. At most we got two or three entries a season. Some seasons none at all. We have pushed this catagory in the past and people just choose not to use it. If we get the entires to support it we will, by all means, bring it back.

Support for other languages: We have tried really hard to do this in the past. It's something people want, but it's not something we have had a lot of help with when asked. We need people who will help us keep rules updated in other languages. It's an ongoing theme. SIFF has a staff currently of three people. Three people make everything happen. We make sure emails and questions are anwered, that the playbill gets updated, that our YouTube channel is maintained and playlists are updated, that voting happens, that there are articles for the magazines, and so much more. We can't do everything. People want SIFF to happen and for things to run smoothly but they don't want to help. Not to sound mean, uncaring, or rude, but we are three people and we can only provide those things that we can do ourselves.

A Third SIFF Cycle During the Year: Wow. I don't even know where to start with that one. Let me repeate something I have said already. We have a staff of three people. Three people with families, work and school. To add a third season would be very stressful to us. As it is, we get a two month break between the fall and spring seasons before we have to start doing all the things that happen behind the scenes to make SIFF happen. We are talking about moving Battle of the Bands bewteen SIFF Seasons at the moment for a number of reasons, and that will fill those few months of down time. We really don't want the quality of anything to suffer and we don't want to run ourselves ragged and suffer from burnout where we end up canceling seasons because we can't keep up.

Do More with Vocie Acting: We are working on this. The last two seasons we started working more with voice actors and we are still working out the best way to do this. We will be adding a voice actor to our staff to help us with this. We are oppen to suggestions.

Sectons for Stories, etc: You can always add these things to the forum. I know it's not ideal, but we have always tried to encourage people to share what they do there. You are allowed to start your own threads to showcase your work.

Limiting: I know this suggestion was made with the best of intentions as a way to keep things under control, but we will never limit the number of peopel that can join in one season. We want to give everyone a chance and no matter how many entries we get each season, not everyone gets their films done. Last season we had close to 80 entries and only 53 of those films were released at SIFF. Many of those people we found out when films opened that their products were not done. We also won't limit the amount of time for projects. It counter produtive to creativty on a number of levels. 

Please, keep sending us your feedback. We are listening and discussing everything you tell us. You can always tell us what you think anonymously through tumblr

It hasn't always been apparent, but Simatography has always supported the storytelling community. After all, you can't have machinima without stories. Not only that, Sims storytelling is rich in sims photography, which is something we have always been about. However, we want to take that support further and give writers a place a Simatography.

To do this, we have opened a new section of the forum called The Writers Room. You can share your stories here, post and find resources (we already have an extensive resource list posted), as well as talk to other writers for help and to get ideas.

We are also very excited to annouce to go along with the The Writers Room section of the forum, we are adding a biannual writing festival very simlar to the Sims International Film Festival called Sim Tales. This will be held in the Spring and Winter opposite SIFF and will be open to all Sim players no matter if they use The Sims 2, The Sims 3 or if they are moving on to The Sims 4. It is also open to all formats from poetry to legacies to "picture stories". All that matters is that the Sims is involved. More details on this project will be forthcomming as we get all the details worked out.

Comming Soon!

Forums Update

It has been a long time coming, but finally we have had time to revamp the forums for a fresh start to a new era in Simatography. Behind the scenes the staff has been debating and rewriting, discussing and revamping the layout for the forums with the goal of making them easier to navigate and to find the things that you really want to find. Read below for a bit of a guided tour.

The biggest change to make note of is that we have opened up some sections for Sims 2 players and in preparation we have opened threads for the soon to come Sims 4 players too.

THE GREEN ROOM

The green room is a term used in show business as the place where performers hang around before they are needed on stage. Our Green Room is a place for our members to start out before diving out into the forums. We recommend that everyone reads the MEMBER GUIDELINES HERE first, just to be familiar with how we roll.  You can also drop in and introduce yourself HERE.

The rest of what you find in the Green Room are threads for general discussions about gameplay and real life stuff.

SIFF

Well, this section is self-explanatory really and there are no major changes. Within the next month, as we roll out promotions for our upcoming 10th anniversary, we wil clean up this section a bit more. We will also be reorganizing the downloads section to make it easier to find SIFF specific downloadable objects for your SIFF projects.

OFFICIAL SIMATOGRAPHY CHALLENGES

We have rearranged things a little bit so that you can find the challenges that you are looking for - now separated into Photography, Machinima and Mixed Challenges for Everyone. What is new and coming? 

Shutterbugs Photography Club will start up again soon with a new concept much like that of a real-life photography club. Watch for details soon.

100 Themes challenge is ongoing and going strong.

HAPPY - a machinima challenge has just been launched and there will be another new machinima challenge lauching within the next week or so.

Rockabilly Party is our current all talents challenge for everyone to enjoy.

SHOWCASE YOURSELF

We made a few minor changes here to allow members to share their projects in a more organized setup. It should be clear now where to post your project announcements. Don't be shy! We want to know what you are up to.

CONTENT CREATORS CORNER

Once again a more organized approach to share and request custom content starting with a sectioin for our members to share their own handmade content.

WCIF - where can I find...   just ask for what you are looking for and surely someone has seen it out there, or perhaps a friendly creator would be willing to help you out

LWIF - look what I found... a place to share that fabulous find that you just don't want to keep to yourself

HELP

Well this is pretty obvious too. We all can use a little help at sometime or another. To be sure to avoid confusion we now have separate sections for Sims 2, 3 and 4 specific topics as more Sims 2 and future Sims 4 players join us.

Customer Service is where you can get help with anything relating to our website, and Classified Ads is a section for you to post your ads when you need help on a project, are looking for people to join you on an MEP, or if you are looking for voice actors for example.

CLASSROOMS

We have a wealth of information and tutorials for everything from Machinima School, Photography Tips and tutorials on a number of creative and technical topics that will surely help you improve your art. Have a peek at what is there, you might be surprised.

So we do hope that you will find your way around before too long as we get a fresh start to a new era at Simatography together!

UNDER de-CONSTRUCTION

and reconstruction and other such messy things

You are not going crazy. Yes that think you saw a moment ago has moved. Oops. We are currently in the process of a complete site overhaul. Accidentally we moved and published a few changes that were meant for after SIFF so please forgive us for any confusion. We have big plans.

With SIFF's big 10th anniversary coming up, we really have been considering how to make this site as best as it can be. I have never been able to keep up with the changes alone, but now with the team of staffers Gus Rockman, Jorgha Haq and Peacemaker working hard behind the scenes we have decided to rip the site down to its foundations and rebuild it again.

Keep your eye here on the news and we will try to inform you on the steps along the way. We want a bit of a new look, we want things to be easier to find, and we want important things to be accessible without having to dig through the forums for them. We want the site to be more user friendly and easier to navigate for newcomers. So bear with us. We know that change is sometimes difficult, but necessary too. We are excited and we think you will like the new look once it is all done.