Art Haven 2.0: New Features Preview

[Aiko]

ART HAVEN 2.0: NEW FEATURE PREVIEW

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HELLO HAVENERS!

 

Okay y'all, I know there's been a huge delay in some of our other announcements... BUT, I'm too excited to not give the community a quick preview of all the things we have planned. Please keep in mind that this is far from a full list of new features and additional descriptions for each feature will be provided at a later date. 

 

Community Enhancements:

• Group expansions: Create and grow a community where you own and control your own marketplace! Give yourself and trusted shop assistants administrative and moderator permissions*.
  • You will be able to charge membership fees either one time or as a subscription (COMPLETELY OPTIONAL)
• Group "Pins" feature and advertise your community!
• Designated Customer Support to provide the fastest response to all your needs!
• Art Haven's very own Dispute Center! With the addition of member controlled marketplaces, we will be able to provide direct assistance with submitting and completing disputes on-site.
• Custom coupons for Community Owners! Artists will now be able to create their own coupons for their buyers to provide discounts, vouchers, and special sales.
• The ability to Gift a File (files include custom slots, premades, and other artwork)!
• Gift Cards are coming back!
• AND MUCH MORE!
       

*Art Haven Staff will continue to moderate and regulate all forums and marketplaces in order to provide an extra layer of protection while you and your staff are away. Certain features will remain the responsibility of the Art Haven Staff in order to protect both parties (warnings, banishments, other disciplinary actions).

 

Website and Server Enhancements:

• A new logo! We are currently working on a brand new logo for Art Haven. Re-branding happened quite some time ago, but a new logo was never decided upon and released to the public. We will have a special event to not only help us pick a logo, but also pick our new website colors!
• A new WEBSITE DESIGN! NO MORE WHITE, NO MORE BLACK! Our new website design will be based on our chosen colors! We are working on a design that colors the site in a way that is easy on everyone's eyes whether you like light mode or dark.
• A reorganization of staff positions to fit the community and general site enhancements plus new positions to help out in other areas!
• New ways to advertise your social media and Discord servers! 
• A redesign of our Discord server with a designated server moderation team!
• New features in our Discord server ()
• A way to block or hide yourself from unwanted users and visitors.
• Other security enhancements. 
• ADDITIONAL TOP SECRET FEATURES
       

 

As you can see, we have several updates and features to install. We hope to get the bulk of these done during the same maintenance period to minimize the amount of downtime for the community. Once we have fully installed, we will begin beta testing to ensure that everything is working properly and as intended in order to provide members with a smooth transition. At this time, there is no current ETA for when maintenance will occur or how long it will take. There are still a few details that the administrative team is working on. Additionally, our current priority is to release a new logo design and theme colors first before any other major changes occur. 

 

If you have any questions or would like to suggest additional changes, features, or updates, please feel free to comment below! Feel free to also suggest theme colors (WINK WONK).

[Aiko]

FAQ

Will the site still have forums outside of groups?

Yes! Forums will still be available to artists who aren't active enough to create a dedicated group or those who simply do not want to manage a group at this time. However, we do hope to eliminate most of our forums that are dedicated spaces to buying and selling art at some point in the future and transition into a full on marketplace where you can still easily communicate with artists and customers. There is no ETA for when this will be released and will likely not happen for quite some time. As some of you are aware, we were working on a marketplace feature and moved onto a beta testing phase - however, the developer we were working with passed away suddenly. 

 

I already own a group, will this be different from what is currently available?

Yes and no. Groups as they are now function as a fun community where you can communicate with other members about common interests. Some groups do have their own forums where customers can make requests or purchase premades. The main difference is that you will be able to control your own marketplace, meaning you will not need to use a forum topic in order to sell artwork or purchase them. There are other features planned for groups as well, but for this preview, we have released our set plans rather than possibilities. 

 

Additionally, by expanding on how groups function, newer artists will be able to easily grow their own community and established artists will be able to have an additional space to interact with their current following. We hope that by adding marketplace features, it'll be easier for artists to organize their orders and minimize clutter. Forums within a group will also be excluded from our cleaning practices, unless there are over 100+ pages in a topic. 

 

So when you say that forums will be eliminated, will that include the premade market too?

No! We will always have forums in some capacity. However, we hope to eventually move the majority of sales to a dedicated marketplace with Art Haven issued invoices, so that we can handle disputes and chargebacks on-site. This would mean that should a buyer need to dispute a transaction, we could investigate the situation surrounding the dispute (ex: failing to deliver the goods that were promised), and issue a refund to the buyer without them having to go directly to PayPal or their financial institution. 

 

Any forum "market", such as the Premade Market, may eventually look like "classifieds" section in order to integrate a marketplace system with the forum.

 

To be updated as more questions come in...

[Aiko]

Update: Added a quick poll!

[Hauntings]

I'm just a little confused, I'm sorry!

It seems like it's a really good idea in all seriousness,

But do I really have to pay to access a specific members form just to then pay again for their art?

Since they're also paying for their art, they'll be able to ban or warn them from their shop or is it completely from AH alone?

I'm sorry if I seem a little picky, I'm just not understanding ;-; plsnohateme

[Aiko]

14 minutes ago, Hauntings said:

I'm just a little confused, I'm sorry!

It seems like it's a really good idea in all seriousness,

But do I really have to pay to access a specific members form just to then pay again for their art?

Since they're also paying for their art, they'll be able to ban or warn them from their shop or is it completely from AH alone?

I'm sorry if I seem a little picky, I'm just not understanding ;-; plsnohateme

 

Are you inquiring about subscription based communities?

This is a completely optional feature that group owners can decide upon. I don't see it being used frequently by our artists on Art Haven unless it's an exclusive "elite/VIP" group that an artist would like to have in addition to their regular group. Sort of like a Patreon.

 

I'm not sure I quite understand your second question, but if you are wondering if artists will be able to ban or warn customers, the answer is no. Disciplinary action will continue to be handled by the Art Haven Staff Team. Hosting or partaking in a public dispute is against Art Haven's guidelines. Additionally, any time a group owner requests a ban, the staff team will conduct it's own investigation into the situation in order to ensure that no member is being excluded unfairly. These bans only apply to that specific group. It is not a sitewide ban. 

[Hauntings]

4 minutes ago, Caedis said:

 

Are you inquiring about subscription based communities?

This is a completely optional feature that group owners can decide upon. I don't see it being used frequently by our artists on Art Haven unless it's an exclusive "elite/VIP" group that an artist would like to have in addition to their regular group. Sort of like a Patreon.

 

I'm not sure I quite understand your second question, but if you are wondering if artists will be able to ban or warn customers, the answer is no. Disciplinary action will continue to be handled by the Art Haven Staff Team. Hosting or partaking in a public dispute is against Art Haven's guidelines. Additionally, any time a group owner requests a ban, the staff team will conduct it's own investigation into the situation in order to ensure that no member is being excluded unfairly. These bans only apply to that specific group. It is not a sitewide ban. 

I'll illiterate, I was indeed talking about the subscription. I was just trying to confirm and getting a better understanding of the group cost thing. You explained it better, so thank you plenty.

 

For my second, I wasn't sure if it was mainly up to shop/helpers to outcast/ban someone from their shop, not the form. I,e; if another person didn't want someone to buy a third premade, they'd be on a hold for a period of time and they'd be allowed to completely hide their topic/group completely from said user.

[Aiko]

27 minutes ago, Hauntings said:

For my second, I wasn't sure if it was mainly up to shop/helpers to outcast/ban someone from their shop, not the form. I,e; if another person didn't want someone to buy a third premade, they'd be on a hold for a period of time and they'd be allowed to completely hide their topic/group completely from said user.

Nope! Any sort of ban or disciplinary action that needs to take place within the group, will need to be handled by the Art Haven Staff rather than the admins or mods of the group. If it's something related to a cooldown, the customer should not be banned or barred from accessing the group since these bans are permanent. I can definitely look into adding a cooldown feature though. That's a super good idea! For now though, there is no way to hide or ban a customer temporarily from a group. Additionally, artists will be able to deny or refund a purchase if need be. They can also contact our support team for assistance!

[Careworn]

I'm sorry if this has been answered, but in the post one of the impending features mentioned  was "a way to block or hide yourself from unwanted users and visitors" - is this obscurity site-wide, or just for our profile pages?

 

Of all of the changes/improvements/and additions listed, I think this one is my favorite so far.

 

Also...periwinkle. 

[Aiko]

49 minutes ago, Careworn said:

I'm sorry if this has been answered, but in the post one of the impending features mentioned  was "a way to block or hide yourself from unwanted users and visitors" - is this obscurity site-wide, or just for our profile pages?

 

Of all of the changes/improvements/and additions listed, I think this one is my favorite so far.

 

Also...periwinkle. 

It would be site-wide! Meaning if you block someone on our site, they are barred from accessing your profile, messaging you, posting in a topic you own, etc.! 

 

Ooo, I do love me some periwinkle! It's actually one of the colors we have in mind already  The one that we came up with is a mix of periwinkle, blurple, purple, and some gold 

[Sweeten]

Color/theme idea : purple , light blue, & white. Easy on the eyes. 

[Smile]

These all seem very exciting! I was wondering though, it was mentioned that the end goal was to eventually remove forums regarding art and moving onto the marketplace system that was going on.

 

My question, will we still be able to have our own shops as they are? (As how it is now, a page where we can post our slots, prices, examples, information and get replies under our shops thread) or would we be posting listings like we do with files currently and rely on descriptions to add information?

 

sorry if it doesn’t make sense, 1 am brain but a concern I have.

[Aiko]

2 hours ago, Smile said:

These all seem very exciting! I was wondering though, it was mentioned that the end goal was to eventually remove forums regarding art and moving onto the marketplace system that was going on.

 

My question, will we still be able to have our own shops as they are? (As how it is now, a page where we can post our slots, prices, examples, information and get replies under our shops thread) or would we be posting listings like we do with files currently and rely on descriptions to add information?

 

sorry if it doesn’t make sense, 1 am brain but a concern I have.

As of right now, yes! We don’t have any plans to completely remove forums from the site any time soon. 

 

Forums will still be available to those who are not ready or wanting to create and manage a group. When we do add a marketplace, it’ll still have similar capabilities. My hope is for it to be a “store” where you can list slots, progress, examples, etc.

 

That being said though, moving to a marketplace won’t happen for a long while, especially since it’ll likely have to be a completely custom application. 

[Smile]

2 hours ago, Caedis said:

As of right now, yes! We don’t have any plans to completely remove forums from the site any time soon. 

 

Forums will still be available to those who are not ready or wanting to create and manage a group. When we do add a marketplace, it’ll still have similar capabilities. My hope is for it to be a “store” where you can list slots, progress, examples, etc.

 

That being said though, moving to a marketplace won’t happen for a long while, especially since it’ll likely have to be a completely custom application. 

That sounds lovely, for when it does eventually happen. I’m excited for the updates to come! 

[Aiko]

33 minutes ago, Smile said:

That sounds lovely, for when it does eventually happen. I’m excited for the updates to come! 

I'm so glad to hear that! ♥ We're super excited too and hope that this will improve the site and how it functions.