Thinking of joining??

[Melooon]

HELLO ARE YOU NEW??

           

Wow pleased to meet you; you might be seeing a lot of things here and perhaps you are considering making an account; if thats the case than this thread is for you!!! I'll try to provide some basic info!

Should I Join:
Maybe!!! This Melonland is focused on creative digital media (e.g. digital art, making websites, games dev, net art, neocities, and personal craft sites).

Melonland is run as an arts project and creative hub. Moderation is aimed at keeping the focus on fun, spontaneity and experimentation, rather than debate and defense. It's not intended to be used as an alternative to social media, and discussions and interactions here are deliberately slow.

The community is non-corporate and generally tends to be left leaning. Members range in age from teens to 70s; however many members are in the mid 20-30s! General knowledge of English is required! 

What can I do?
Having a MelonLand account gets you access to all sorts of things intended to help your digital arts adventures:

Stuffffff u can do

• Post and get help on the ML Forum!
• Customize your profile with HTML+CSS
• Get your site listed in the Surf Club Webring (a community website directory)
• Upload art to the Half Moon Art Hub, with an embed-able gallery for your site.
• Chat with people live in the Liquid Crystal Cafe.
• Join and create Guilds (mini social clubs with their own forums and webrings)
• Edit everyone pages (Many pages on ML can be edited by any member), plus you can make ur own!
• Edit the Wiki, where we host web guides, links and a graphics catalogue.
• Have your site banners included in the Banner Club (a pretend ad network)
• Start your own mailing-list and newsletter in the Post Office
• Upload files to Sneezy Files, our public FTP server and file host
• Log in to other sites that support MelonLand auth/Passport
• Play on the community Minecraft server!

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When Should I Join:
That's up to you; I recommend you read the forum for a while, maybe follow it on RSS - you don't need to sign up right away; get a feel for how the vibe suits you and sign up when you start to feel like there are topics you'd like to add! 

Please note the forum & chat are closed on Mondays for 24 hours, but many other parts of the site remain open! 

How do I join?
Making an account here is free (although donations do help!). You just need to sign up here, however please be aware accounts are manually approved!

How are accounts approved?
IMPORTANT! New members are manually approved - this is done to reduce the stress on moderation. (sometimes it takes a week!!)

When you sign up you'll be asked to provide a short intro and/or links to your site/artworks (this intro is only seen by moderators). When approving new accounts the thing we look for is effort and a feeling of who you are. We need to see some evidence that you are actively creating, coding or involved in any other creative project; with an emphasis on visual and net arts. This helps provide a good creative atmosphere here; and it also helps us weed out AI accounts and spam!

Click this to see Example Intros - good and bad!

An intro that would not be approved:

Hi, My name is bob, I like old computers and the internet. I don't like social media because it's bad. I enjoy drawing and watching youtube. I dont know how to make a site. I have no links. .... .... ...

An intro that would be approved:

Hi, My name is Bob ~ I'm into vintage MSX computers! I made a website showing my MSX collection here: 1234 - I'm still new to web crafting but I am learning lots. I also draw lizards in my free time (you can see a few here: 1234) - my favorite YouTuber is Action Retro even though he does not review MSX computers :(

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If you don't have a creative project or art online to share; I'd suggest starting that first and then coming back when you've had time to find your feet! ~ The biggest reason accounts don't get approved is because they don't provide enough meaningful info in their intro! 

GOOD LUCK