Due to numerous complaints about the Sketcher rooms being filled with garbage, we have implemented this new reset schedule. There will be resets every 4 hours now instead of 8 hours (except for during the peak period which will be an 8 hour window). Resets will occur at (EST): 4:00a, 8:00a, 12:00p, 4:00p, 12:00a. Resets will occur at (Norway): 10:00a, 2:00p, 6:00p, 10:00p, 6:00a. There is also a new 1 hour warning. Please plan your art accordingly! Regards, Braden

Braden I love you.

So there's no chance of a room that simply resets once a day? Maybe one of the Oases? Since folks generally know to erase there. Just a suggestion. :>

i agree with Zy's idea ;3 it would be cool if one of Oasis rooms could have 1 or 2 resets for a day:3

Same here, I have to give Zyrael big props for that wonderful idea. Maybe one of the standards of Oasis could be that not only must you erase but you must not whine about other people not erasing, and clear your own space. You know, like an adult.

Also, by EST, is that EST Australia/Pacific (roughly +10 GMT) - or America's take on 'EST' (more like ET)?

I have to give Arzach big props for inspiring the idea so that I could make up my own version of it. :^

Following up to what Adromaw said, could we have GMT time up there too? Either that or is GMT = Norway - 1 hour? And as for what Zyrael said, i do sorta agree, but i think there should be 2 rooms that have no reset times set. If theres gonna be just 1 room with a reset once a day, my bet is that that room will be full most of the time. Either this, or, have 2 rooms that reset once a day. These 2 rooms should probably be Oasis rooms, as people should be old enough (not by age) to know the rules and what not to do and to erase before leaving. OR Just do this for all the Oasis rooms, each Oasis room having just 1 reset a day. By doing this, you can also see which rooms are cleaner, Oasis or General, so then you can see if these 4 hour intervals are working at all.

I like the idea of the once a day Oasis reset. Also, I personally have no issue with erasing other peoples' work. I don't understand why they don't do it themselves, but still. :v

We currently have no mechanism to reset just select rooms. If one room gets reset, they all get reset. This is by design to reduce daemon overhead. Also, the problem isn't just the General rooms. I went into the Oasis rooms today and found garbage all over them, so I do not believe people are capable of policing themselves in the Oasis rooms either. -Braden

Then that brings me back to my second statement: why can't people just erase if they see something that's in their way? I always ask - and if I don't see something with a "BRB" or the like next to it and nobody responds - I will erase. Ten seconds of my life. Should the original artist do it? Sure. But things happen. Big deal. Annoying, but hardly worth cutting down drawing time to -half- of what it was previously (long stretch excluded.) If I only have four hours do a picture (with my busy on-and-off days and the fact that I'm a US - West Coaster), I probably won't bother to do anything remotely serious. Sure, that's me personally, but I know that there are others in the same boat. Please don't think I'm bashing you, though. I completely understand why the decision was made - I simply don't agree with something of this magnitude and it -is- likely to affect my desire to stay on Artgrounds.

"Annoying, but hardly worth cutting down drawing time to -half- of what it was previously (long stretch excluded.) If I only have four hours do a picture (with my busy on-and-off days and the fact that I'm a US - West Coaster), I probably won't bother to do anything remotely serious. Sure, that's me personally, but I know that there are others in the same boat." Agreed. "Also, the problem isn't just the General rooms. I went into the Oasis rooms today and found garbage all over them, so I do not believe people are capable of policing themselves in the Oasis rooms either." Think 3 people have told me this now >_> "We currently have no mechanism to reset just select rooms. If one room gets reset, they all get reset. This is by design to reduce daemon overhead." Too bad >_<

I love you, Braden. [quote]Then that brings me back to my second statement: why can't people just erase if they see something that's in their way? I always ask - and if I don't see something with a ?BRB? or the like next to it and nobody responds - I will erase. Ten seconds of my life. Should the original artist do it? Sure. But things happen. Big deal.[/quote] Not everyone is considerate enough to clean up after themselves. It's a hassle as it is to clean up after someone as it is, and with a lot more than one or two people doing it, it becomes more than just an annoyance. Perhaps if people will learn how to clean up after themselves in the sketchers, the reset times will be lengthened and longer sketch times will be provided.

Regular Reset times are fine, I think TLKFAA has the right idea in being able to request a reset to be stopped. If I'm alone I usually remake the layers anyways--which any room can do or erase, but imo, resets are far more disruptive than art left behind. An erase can simply fix the latter. However, to get around a reset, you need to stop using sketcher and use another app. There are simply numerous problems here, no serious art, stops people on a roll, interruptions that are simply inconvenient, dissolution of each tiny room community, etc etc etc.

Yes, i strongly agree, nothlit. What is worse? A reset that wipes the whole board, not just mess, but people almost finished art? OR a mess left behind by some careless user whom did not erase correctly, or rushed it, or simply could'nt be bothered to erase? If someone leves behind a mess, find out who did it and tell them not to, or suffer the consequences. And erase the mess manually, it doesn't take that long, although it is annoying, so there should be a clear way to show user to remember to erase there art, not just putting it in the rules, nobody ever reads the rules anyway >_<

Guys, I don't think this is up for debate. Braden's made his decision.

There is more to it than that. (1) We run more rooms then TLKFAA (2) The resources required on the server to maintain a room that has garbage in it far exceeds that of a room which is empty. (3) Java does not handle garbage collection very effectively. Much of these problems will be fixed in the next release of Sketcher, but until then you will have to live with the limitations.

Oh, but debate is fun! It makes life interesting.. And it's good for ideas too. But you're correct though Nothings gonna happen. Braden has said "We currently have no mechanism to reset just select rooms. If one room gets reset, they all get reset. This is by design to reduce daemon overhead." Debate on something else!!

i have to go with the "all oasis rooms once or twice a day reset" that'd be awesome :V plus i cant wait till the new version of sketcher to come out <333

Interesting, were the servers heavily swapping during the no reset period? Or is it that Artgrounds is on shared resources? Storing 9 PIDs is prolly not an issue, but java always does scare me about memory. I'm not arguing, just curious.

Thanks Braden! I think this'll help a lot.

I like the 4 hour reset plan... it' much more like how it used to be... though I think it was 6 hours back then. Things worked out well enough... if you want to spend an eternity and a half on art, there's things like openCanvas and PaintTool SAI for finishing it :) Thanks for the new reset schedule <3

To Zy's idea, just for you info, there was originally a longer reset time for Oasises than Generals. Generals would reset every 4 hours and Oasises every 8. It soon started to shift until all rooms had the same time for resets..and then there were no resets. But yeah, kudos on the idea. :]

i don't think the oasis idea is very good. people actually think in oasis you can get away with not erasing because their 'established' members.

hm.. Well. I only read the like.. first ten. But I got the basic idea and what popped into my head is why is it that there's so much crap in the oasis rooms when so many admins slack off and hide in there? The least they can do is if they aren't going to stay in the generals and help is to keep the oasis rooms clean. I found it rediculous how many admins strayed in the oasis rooms while the handful of me ouch phi skrog and very little others daily kept up with one or two and sometimes three general rooms at a time because all the other admins were in the oasis rooms. If there are so many admins there why is there crap? If they'd do their jobs then we wouldn't have to worry about having crud on the boards that can't stand to be there for a whole day.... *shrug* In any case... With the amount of admins staying in the oasis rooms, there's no escuse. :c. *shot and mauled* D:

It is not the admins' jobs to clean the boards. By reducing the time between resets I hope that point is taken. It is the responsibility of the artist to clean his/her own mess. If the artist is unable to do it, then the automated process can.

Yes, the only job of an admin is to keep order within a community. Not to clean up the mess of some careless idiot who forgets to erase, or just can't be bothered to. Unless that is, they are forced to erase it because it's inappropriate? I dunno, I'm not a doctor..

No I mean one of the things that keeps order is keeping the boards clean, I'm not saying they need to clean it themselves. I'm saying they should do what I used to have to do and constantly say "WAIT! Don't leave yet! Erase your drawing!". If they don't, then they don't -have- to do anything, but it'd be nice to see some effort like what I saw out of the girls and or guys that were amongst the handfull that did not hide in oasis...

[quote]'m saying they should do what I used to have to do and constantly say ?WAIT! Don't leave yet! Erase your drawing!?. If they don't, then they don't -have- to do anything[/quote] People still leave anyway, and then there are the sucky times when we walk into any room (oasis or not) where it's filled to the brink with spam. The point isn't for the admins to do less by not erasing the sketchers. The point is to have users be responsible enough to do it themselves without needing to have administration constantly babysitting them.

Fixed a minor issue with the reset warnings for 10 and 15 minutes happening at the wrong times.

I like the fact the rooms will be reset more often. There's been a big jump in how much art has been left unattended, with no point in coming back to erase it. And for the people that don't like it, it's the fault of those who don't care to keep AG clean. Maybe this'll help people learn to clean up after themselves.

If (room empty then erase itself in short time like 30min so people can come back if get disconnected. Else maybe shouldnt erase or reset at all. But then it will be a full canvas. Its frustrating when enter a room and its going to reset soon and not knowing it becouse the random clock of doom apears while working. Fun with a new clean board, frustrating to lose the art while working on it. Some leave the art on the board maybe had to leave fast, disconnected,forgot or dont care to erase, then we see these users as a problem. all users should be welcomed. so maybe? invidual layer for the users that enters, so it can be hidden easly by users if someone is desturbing the peace. and also can be erased by a timer if user run away suddenly, if the users goes away and the art is in the way users can hide it. and after a while if the user dont come back it will get erased by defualt timer. or program a self going vacuum cleaner takes away old art ;) and also if lazy i want to see the clock/timer. just make one inside sketcher. as 21:25 untill reset? cant be that hard. insteed of the sudden 5min left text. some things i had in mind anyway. =P