The Index of the Giant's Comments

[Carry2]

It seems truly definitive, whereas the earlier ones are likely to just cause confusion.

I think that including multiple quotes might convey a more accurate picture of the author's evolution of opinion on the topic. And this, in itself, is valuable information. It's only confusing to the reader if you assume the author is some kind of infallible oracle.

[ThePhantasm]

I see no reason to add any quote but the last one, as they do not seem to contain any information which the final quote does not.

Rules D and E pretty much explicitly state this.

I agree... I think the rules of inclusion indicate only the last quote should be added. Bulldog Psion is right as well.

Also, theangeljean, I can't view you work. See Grey Wolf's response to you.

[theangelJean]

Heh, darn, I forgot about that.

Should be fixed now.

[JessmanCA]

In my (totally un-needed) opinion, Rich shouldn't even read the forums. It just seems to upset him more often than not, which I can see how it would. However I imagine the impulse of curiosity about criticism of ones art is quite strong.

Still I can't help but feel as though we'd have a different (better or not, I don't know?) comic if he kept to himself and didn't read our opinions. At least it would be less influenced by outside sources and more from his own creativity.

[ChristianSt]

In my (totally un-needed) opinion, Rich shouldn't even read the forums. It just seems to upset him more often than not, which I can see how it would. However I imagine the impulse of curiosity about criticism of ones art is quite strong.

Still I can't help but feel as though we'd have a different (better or not, I don't know?) comic if he kept to himself and didn't read our opinions. At least it would be less influenced by outside sources and more from his own creativity.

I wouldn't want it that way, I totally like author-comments and such stuff, and getting (from time to time) some comments about random stuff is great (it's the main reason I bought the compilations, after reading Start of Darkness, seeing there is so much additional content in there).

On another note, I wouldn't be sure if it would be better for the comic as a whole. Because I could totally imagine that a part of the "success" of OotS comes from the involvement of Rich in this mess that the forum represents ;).

And a thing I kinda wanted to say: It would be awesome if there would be some kind of "like"-feature, than I could easily like >90% of Rich's comments to show a bit support on the forum. (That's not really a feature request, but more or less a way to say: "Rich your posts are awesome and I can't really appreciate that enough.")

[Ron Miel]

Still I can't help but feel as though we'd have a different (better or not, I don't know?) comic if he kept to himself and didn't read our opinions. At least it would be less influenced by outside sources and more from his own creativity.

He isn't influenced by our comments. He's got the whole plot arc mapped out and doesn't change it because we like or dislike certain parts.

[Sunken Valley]

He isn't influenced by our comments. He's got the whole plot arc mapped out and doesn't change it because we like or dislike certain parts.

With the exception of the New Year's Eve arc, in which segments were cut out because of complaints of boredom. These sections were in War and XP's

[B. Dandelion]

With the exception of the New Year's Eve arc, in which segments were cut out because of complaints of boredom. These sections were in War and XP's

I have the book on me, so...

When this scene first appeared, it suffered from following right on the heels of the lengthy trial, leading to a feeling that the party was stuck in one place for too long. I was forced to cut it short in order to get the Order moving again.

That does not say "I was forced to cut it short because people were complaining."

[Lycunadari]

Something about the financial quirks of the Kickstarter.

There's also a post in the same thread that the Giant would like to get the Kickstarter rewards finished sooner but can't.

[ChristianSt]

Something about the financial quirks of the Kickstarter.

There's also a post in the same thread that the Giant would like to get the Kickstarter rewards finished sooner but can't.

While I find the first quote highly interesting (I really like "behind the scene"-information), I'm not quite sure that this is a quote we should archive (being almost exclusive about financial quirks).

The second one I think is good, but I'm not sure where to put it, maybe even upfront like the "For Those Who Missed Out on Kickstarter".

[Reddish Mage]

In my (totally un-needed) opinion, Rich shouldn't even read the forums. It just seems to upset him more often than not, which I can see how it would. However I imagine the impulse of curiosity about criticism of ones art is quite strong.

Still I can't help but feel as though we'd have a different (better or not, I don't know?) comic if he kept to himself and didn't read our opinions. At least it would be less influenced by outside sources and more from his own creativity.

He said himself he's not letting it influence his work and hyberbolic statements aimed at chronic critics aside I'd be glad as a backbencher to get the author to respond to my criticisms. With cogent explanations that aid the understanding of the comic no less.

[NerdyKris]

Can we not derail this thread again with an off topic discussion?

Also, I don't think the kickstarter ones are really relevent to anything in the long run. They're specific to the Kickstarter, and nothing else.

[ThePhantasm]

Guys, it would be more helpful to me if we kept the discussion focused on quote suggestions and votes on inclusion, that way I don't have to dig through several pages when I make updates. This thread isn't really for discussing the content of these quotes.

I should be able to make an update sometime in the next few days.

[EmperorSarda]

Not sure if it fits the page, but The Giant and some details on his injury. And responses to suggestions.

[Flame of Anor]

Something about the financial quirks of the Kickstarter.

There's also a post in the same thread that the Giant would like to get the Kickstarter rewards finished sooner but can't.

Not sure if it fits the page, but The Giant and some details on his injury. And responses to suggestions.

I support the inclusion of all three of these comments.

[theangelJean]

I was actually sure that the Giant had posted previously about finances - in particular, the fact that he doesn't accept donations because then he would feel obliged to listen to people's input on the comic. Or am I making this up? I couldn't find anything in the Index, and I don't remember seeing anything when I was checking the links. I actually started wondering if "Rich's business model, which isn't really up for discussion anyway" was specifically excluded from the quotes, since this is really for quotes about the comic anyway.

[FujinAkari]

I support the inclusion of all three of these comments.

I actually do not.

Discussion of Rich's personal life has always been a subject we avoid, and I think we should continue to do that out of respect.

Including these comments would encourage people to discuss these topics.

[oppyu]

I actually do not.

Discussion of Rich's personal life has always been a subject we avoid, and I think we should continue to do that out of respect.

Including these comments would encourage people to discuss these topics.

There was a lot of debate regarding what the Giant should do to catch up on KS, it would be nice to have a post that says "Yes, the Giant has thought of that plan. No, it would not fix everything. Yes, he is trying his best to catch up on Kickstarter rewards." I vote include at least one of them.

[Jasdoif]

I actually do not.

Discussion of Rich's personal life has always been a subject we avoid, and I think we should continue to do that out of respect.

Including these comments would encourage people to discuss these topics.

I agree, for somewhat different reasons.

While those posts are all interesting in their own right, none of them have any bearing on the comic itself. The rate of updates may have been slowed, but since there's nothing saying the quality or amount of the comics has been impacted, there won't be any signs of the injury from the comics themselves. As such, the posts don't satisfy "rule b" for inclusion in the Index.

[martianmister]

I agree with FujinAkari. Mr. Burlew's private life shouldn't be included in here.

[Shale]

The injury news is relevant to update frequency (It sucks, though! Sympathy to the Giant.), but we don't do update frequency here. So yeah, not within the scope of the thread.

[Morty]

I agree with the above posters. Those quotes don't really belong here, I think.

[nogall]

Why the Giant doesn't want a "donate button" in his website and what would happen if people thought they were "paying for a free content"
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showp...9&postcount=20

[WindStruck]

I've been digging around the back end of this comic since like may... hasn't this been quoted at all??

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showp...5&postcount=48

[Flame of Anor]

I actually do not.

Discussion of Rich's personal life has always been a subject we avoid, and I think we should continue to do that out of respect.

Including these comments would encourage people to discuss these topics.

The Giant posted these himself, on a public forum. If he hadn't been okay with people discussing them, all he had to do was not post them.

[ChristianSt]

The Giant posted these himself, on a public forum. If he hadn't been okay with people discussing them, all he had to do was not post them.

Someone could say that this is a public forum.
Others could say that this is the Giant's forum on his website.

He shared information. That is one part.
Discussing that information is another part.
And including such quotes could lead some people that discussing them would be a good idea, which could easily touch topics that are against the Forum Rules, so it is better to err on the side of caution.

I don't think that all the recent quotes are bad, but some of them like the details on his injury leads to a topic I wouldn't discuss, so I think it is better to keep them of the index for that reason. Other quotes (like the Kickstarter reward delay) I think are fine.

[theangelJean]

I agree with FujinAkari. Mr. Burlew's private life shouldn't be included in here.

The injury news is relevant to update frequency (It sucks, though! Sympathy to the Giant.), but we don't do update frequency here. So yeah, not within the scope of the thread.

The Giant posted these himself, on a public forum. If he hadn't been okay with people discussing them, all he had to do was not post them.

I dunno, I can understand all of these points, but at the same time I think it would be useful to have quotes like these kept on the record somewhere so that people can refer to them, and given the title of the thread, I think this is still the best place for them. (Yes, I'm aware that the third quote is arguing for inclusion.)

I don't think we should be discussing Rich's private life. I know we don't talk about the update schedule, and that's fair enough. But the fact is that other people start talking about them in relation to things like the financial side of writing the comic and the business of fulfilling the Kickstarter. And I get the sense that the reason Rich writes replies like these is not to condone or encourage the discussion, but in an attempt to stop the discussion, because he's the ultimate authority on his own life, right? And that is why I want to have quotes like these available whenever someone starts talking about these things, so I can point out that Rich has actually thought about all of this already and he's said [quote], he knows what he's doing and he doesn't want us to talk about it. I believe this is the same reason why we have this Index in the first place.

Unfortunately it doesn't stop the discussion, as evidenced by the fact that he's had to say these things so many times, and also the fact that people start arguing with him when he does say something. But then this is (at least partially) true for many of the other things he's said which are listed in this Index, and my general impression is that having the Word of Giant available in the Index has definitely helped things like alignment debates.

As for the topic itself, I don't see them adding "Rich's business model" to the Inappropriate Topics section of the forum rules any time soon. And I don't think there is anything in the rules to stop people trying to make 'helpful' suggestions (at least, I'm pretty sure most of them don't count as Professional Advice). I still think linking to a quote from The Giant is the most useful response to discussions like this.

So I would argue that if the scope of the thread is currently defined as "not including comments about the business model of the comic", then we might need to widen the scope.

[Shale]

They are on the record. They're in the forum and probably aren't getting deleted anytime soon, plus we just linked to them in this topic so anybody who cares to read through the entire discussion, looking for every single comment Rich has ever made will find them easily enough. The first posts are specifically for Rich's comments about the comic, though. Otherwise we'd have the entire saga of the thumb in there.

[Kish]

Otherwise we'd have the entire saga of the thumb in there.

However, there might also be a down side.

[Shale]

Well, I'm not trying to paint that as some horrifying dystopian Terminator-world where we're all hunted by squads of cybernetic thumb assassins. Just saying that we clearly don't have all the thumb updates in the main post, so it's hard to say that the standard is to include them.