TINY ARMY

Hey there, Art Soldier!

You  can now sign-up for the new TINY ARMY site.

It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s a newer technology to make our community work better.

You don’t need your old password or username; we’re starting up fresh.

How to sign up

1. Go to the top left side of the site, and Sign Up.
2. Choose a login name that you can remember. (This is only seen by you.)
3. Fill out your profile. (Make your username based on your real name, like “Daniel Davis”.)
4. Choose a cool avatar image, from your own artwork. You  can crop it in the program. Square works best.
5. Join the “Arizona Army” group. Join other groups too. Make your own.
6. Befriend other members. We’re all friends here, right?

Sign up now!

- Daniel

Greetings ARMY!

Our next meetup is scheduled for Wednesday, September 1st, from 6-8pm, in room 250.

Phoenix Art Institute
2233 West Dunlap Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85021-2859

Agenda:

• Day of the Dead Show (Art is actually due Sept 3rd) – Bring your finished art to share (11×17)
• Presentation: Denny Riccelli on his process

I hope to see you there!

- Daniel

Hey ARMY!

Our next meetup is scheduled for Wednesday, August 4th, from 6-8pm, in room 250.

Phoenix Art Institute
2233 West Dunlap Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85021-2859

I hope to see you there!

- Daniel

Hey everyone!

It’s been over a year since our last socializer meetup. That’s a long time.

So, since it’s July and as hot as sin, let’s meetup at Bombero‘s near Central and Dunlap, on Wednesday, July 7th at 6 pm.

Please RSVP here, or even let us know that you’re NOT going to make it.

http://www.tinyarmy.com/groups/main-tiny-army-group-all-members/forum/topic/july-meeting-dinner/

See you there!

- Daniel

Socializer = Hanging out, talking, eating food, sketchbook a go-go.

TINY ARMY meets next on Wednesday, June 2nd.

We’ll again be at the Phoenix Art Institute, in room #233.

Topic: TBD. Please comment with your topic ideas.

We’ll most certainly be debriefing about the Phoenix Comicon. Be sure to take some photos and post them here.

July: Should we have a social meetup for July? We’re a bit overdue.

Get stuff done!

- Daniel

Hi there -

I’m sorry to report that I killed the TINY ARMY forum today. I’m just as disappointed as many of you must be, after posting so many updates.

I apologize.

I’ve had a rough week online, as one of my sites got hacked. This lead to my webhost suspending most of my sites. It’s been a struggle to get them all back. In the cleanup, I inadvertently killed the TA database running the forum.

In any case, I wasn’t all that happy with the forum to begin with. We were having some good conversation there, and that is a good thing. I like that.

But it failed in a couple of other key areas:

1. It didn’t allow much in the way of newcomers discovering you or your work. It really didn’t feature any of the new social media ways to build a community, that I like.

2. Your profile was a thread. This is pretty cruddly, especially when folks are used ot a more Facebook way of seeing you.

3. PHPBB is not a fun system to maintain. It has no automatic update functions, and is yet another system that I have to maintain and learn about.

4. I couldn’t make the thing look very good. It was quite cumbersome to modify.

Basically, the age of the PHPBB forum is probably pretty dead. So, I’m going to be doing some work here once again, trying to balance our needs and give us a better web arena to call home.

I’ve decided to use BuddyPress.

BuddyPress is a community building platform. It has a nice forum, individual profiles, subgroups, and a more robust system for interaction. It’s made for communities like us.

It’s based on WordPress, which is rock solid and much easier for me to maintain. It’s also the platform that I’m using for my other sites as well, so the learning curve is more balanced.

Anyway, please bear with me through this transition.

I know it’s a pain for you to login and to register all over again, but I have hopes that it will be worthwhile.

- Daniel