Happy Tuesday, everyone!

We had quite a few responses about the previous post where we asked what would help when searching for commissions. Many suggested various filters that could be used – price ranges, key words, content rating, and media types were some of the major ideas brought up. In some form or another, we are planning to include all of those.

A few suggestions that came through are definitely needed, but the way they are implemented can be a little trickier. I wanted to discuss some ideas that we have to fit these suggestions – if you have any other suggestions for how to implement them, feel free to tell us on Twitter!

Highlight what artists love

In many cases, artists’ best work comes out when they’re working on something they love. It could be different species, action poses, paws – there’s a wide variety of interests out there!

In order to get capture that, we’re looking at having three fields: what a creator won’t do, what a creator will do, and the creator’s specialties.

• Won’t do. Some creators have a limit for the type of content they’d wish to create. If they put a search item in the “won’t do” category, that creator would not appear in the search for that item.
• Will do. There are two ways to go about this. Either we can have creators list what they will do, or we could simply exclude the “won’t do” creators from this list. Both have some benefits and setbacks, and we’ll listen to feedback as we start working on this.
• Specialty. A creator who lists items as specialties will appear higher in the search list; in addition, a badge will appear over that creator, showing that it is their specialty. In order to create a fairer market, we’re planning to limit the number of specialties for each seller, potentially unlocking more slots as they receive good reviews or have more successful commissions.

We’re hoping this system allows creators to focus on what they love while also being rewarded for being awesome – the better you do, the more options you have to make yourself visible.

Showcase art

The great majority of commissions in the fandom work with a visual element – we have a flood of art, fursuits, and crafts. Just like window shopping, it’s helpful to be able to see examples quickly.

Right now, the commission section merely shows creators’ icons. This isn’t extremely helpful – many of them aren’t representative of their work.

We’re planning to change the commission section so that art is the primary feature. If an artist is selling different types of commissions (sketches, digital art, etc.), they can select multiple images to show on that page; a simple click will switch from one type to another. We want users to be able to see these examples without navigating to a new page.

However, creators usually have a wealth of past projects uploaded in a gallery. We will be creating a portfolio system for each art type – if you want to sell sketches, it will be a matter of a couple clicks to add an image to your sketch portfolio. These will automatically appear on your commission page, as well.

We are still in the process of adding and refining features for the commission tool. If you do have any other ideas that you feel would help you find a creator you’d like, please let us know!

As always, thank you for all your support.

Digby