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Coding Confessions

pronounsthey/them
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vvvaporwavesearned bits
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vvvaporwaves
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[mitski voice] nobody nobody nobody nobody nobody
flare Avatar
design is the bane of my existence when it comes to templates/skins. i am just uncreative as hell.
syhrinx Avatar
i like to code but i never, like, go out of my way to code something?? i only do it if i need or want something specific. the utility is there but not the artistic creativity u__u i wish i could pop out codes like a lot of y'all... with ur fanciness and ur animation things and your incredible variety

to this idea of being "uncreative" or "lacking in artistic creativity": creativity!!! is!! a!! skill!! that you learn via practice and work in the same way you get better at drawing via practice, or you get faster at coding w/ practice. (in my experience) creativity is 95% iterating and 5% actual "creativity". if anything, when you break down creativity, it's just a matter of thinking about the utility of the product you want to create and then figuring out how to execute on that idea. sometimes you come up with an idea you really want to execute on right away, sometimes you start with a blank canvas, add a box, pick a random colour and then force yourself to make do with what you have. 

my biggest suggestion to people who think they're "uncreative" or "not creative" enough is to code/create as much as possible and to consume a lot of different kinds of media!! the more you dedicate serious time and effort into it, the more it'll pay off and you'll realise that "creativity" is just as much of a process as any other form of art!! we all have a creative spark in us, and it's up to us to decide whether or not we want to hone it and how much time we're willing to dedicate to the growth of it!! 
last edit on Apr 28, 2020 16:42:02 GMT by vvvaporwaves
pronounsShe, Her
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punkiearned bits
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punki
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all of this mess is just my attempt to know the worth of my life; made of precious metals inside
syhrinx Avatar
i like to code but i never, like, go out of my way to code something?? i only do it if i need or want something specific. the utility is there but not the artistic creativity u__u i wish i could pop out codes like a lot of y'all... with ur fanciness and ur animation things and your incredible variety

flare Avatar
design is the bane of my existence when it comes to templates/skins. i am just uncreative as hell.

pretty much the entirety of my designs are just me putting a pretty graphic and song lyrics together and bulls***ing the rest. moral of the story is, creativity is for people with hand-eye coordination - the rest of us can somehow get by with hit-or-miss firing tactics. i'll cheer for you.
last edit on Apr 28, 2020 16:48:11 GMT by punki
pronounsshe/her
309written posts
syhrinxearned bits
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syhrinx
Spring '21 Dev Completionist
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punki Avatar
pretty much the entirety of my designs are just me putting a pretty graphic and song lyrics together and bulls***ing the rest. moral of the story is, creativity is for people with hand-eye coordination - the rest of us can somehow get by with hit-or-miss firing tactics. i'll cheer for you.

hahaha, thank you !

vvvaporwaves Avatar
to this idea of being "uncreative" or "lacking in artistic creativity": creativity!!! is!! a!! skill!! that you learn via practice and work in the same way you get better at drawing via practice, or you get faster at coding w/ practice. (in my experience) creativity is 95% iterating and 5% actual "creativity". if anything, when you break down creativity, it's just a matter of thinking about the utility of the product you want to create and then figuring out how to execute on that idea. sometimes you come up with an idea you really want to execute on right away, sometimes you start with a blank canvas, add a box, pick a random colour and then force yourself to make do with what you have. 

my biggest suggestion to people who think they're "uncreative" or "not creative" enough is to code/create as much as possible and to consume a lot of different kinds of media!! the more you dedicate serious time and effort into it, the more it'll pay off and you'll realise that "creativity" is just as much of a process as any other form of art!! we all have a creative spark in us, and it's up to us to decide whether or not we want to hone it and how much time we're willing to dedicate to the growth of it!! 

and yes, i agree! perhaps i wasn't clear enough or used the wrong wording. 

it's more... hmm. i think for me, it's more that i learn(ed) to code, and i like to code... because i want something specific that isn't already available on resource forums and the like. it's not that i don't consider myself uncreative, but rather, i don't see the point of making codes just for the sake of making codes or exploring hovers/gradients/animations/etc.

i wish i could! because many people make very lovely things, and they seem to have a lot of fun, and it's definitely a form of art, what y'all do. but it's like... i can't code stuff just for fun. and furthermore, i don't really want to in the first place?

hmmm. hopefully that makes sense? basically: creativity is there, but drive and willingness to code just for fun not there, for me, personally... and that's alright tbh! 
pronounsany
297written posts
flareearned bits
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flare
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rp is supposed to be fun, remember
it's also worth noting that, there is a difference in creativeness.

you can't always compare design in coding with other forms of art and creativity in them. like, i have made profit off of my drawings before but in that, you can draw what you see - e.g a human, a tree, architectural building etc and that makes it far easier because there are set rules that just doesn't change. a nose will never not look like a nose, you will never have to innovate on a human face but you will have to get better at drawing different kinds of faces. that's a different set of skills.

but when it comes to coding, there are not those set rules. you can google created designs and get inspired, but there is always a need to innovate on your visual library so that you are 100% certain that you are not stealing someone elses work in first place. this makes it so that every template i do or want to publish has to be completely original, which ends up being more taxing than "just draw a human face on spot". i find coding even a template to be really exhausting if i have to do it from scratch for this reason. and as syphinx said, that's also why i sort of dread making templates even if i do love coding itself.

so yeah, i do see myself uncreative because i struggle with imagining what already does not exist - which coding asks for, but i can easily draw an OC i've made.
last edit on Apr 28, 2020 19:22:14 GMT by flare
pronounsShe, Her
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punkiearned bits
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punki
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all of this mess is just my attempt to know the worth of my life; made of precious metals inside
That's because coding (or to be more specific, skinning or templating, web design in general) is more like cooking or storytelling. One of the base things you can learn as a storyteller - there is no such thing as a completely 'original' story. It's not a perfect analogy and I apologize if I'm saying something everyone already knows, but I feel the general principle still applies, because you're right, your work will never be totally unlike someone else's, and it's completely exhausting to try to be totally unique. Been there, done that, sucked at it, drove myself into a depressive rut with it, then decided I was done with that and kicked that mindset to the curb because I love making pretty things and I don't care if they kinda look like other people's work because I know I sat at my computer for hours putting this stuff together.

The components never really change, either - if you look at skins, they all have recurring concepts - banners, titles, subtitles, categories, buttons, miniprofiles, user menus - with functions and roles that really don't change from one to the next. Same with posting templates. You can mix and match, dress them up or dress them down, discard some things and add others, but ultimately a cooked chicken is a cooked chicken. Had to get that cooking analogy in somewhere.

So the point I'm trying to make here, in my rambling, wordy manner I apologize for any wayward tangents, is that not being able to create a coded piece of work that is 100% original by the point-blank definition of the word doesn't make you uncreative in that regard, at least not in my eyes. What constitutes stealing with coded work is worthy of an entirely different discussion, but let it suffice to say that I don't think you need to worry about it to the extent that it becomes the reason you don't publish anything. <3

So don't be down on yourself! If you love to code, do it to it, because that sh*t is freaking hard and there's no one who will ever dispute that. Except maybe computer geniuses who were born speaking HTML and CSS as second and third languages.
pronounsD A R K
275written posts
offlinecurrently
Death is just a new beginning.
My confession is that I rely really heavily on my best friend when to comes to coding. She knows all the ins and outs and so whenever I'm stuck which happens a lot... (I'm talking 30 minutes trying to figure it out stuck) I go to her. But I kind of wish I didn't.

I've learned over the years of doing small coding projects, but I find it takes a really long time for things to actually stay in my brain and not become lost. So yes, in short I am sorry, but I am also thankful that you always help me and haven't grown tired of my constant questions.
last edit on Apr 29, 2020 8:29:35 GMT by 𝓛𝓪𝓭𝔂 𝓐𝓭𝓲𝓻𝓪
praise the cats!
aliasthomas, breezescodes
pronounshe/him
896written posts
bcearned bits
offlinecurrently
bc
Summer '19 Bingo Completionist
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this is my murder mittens ^-^
syhrinx Avatar
and yes, i agree! perhaps i wasn't clear enough or used the wrong wording. 

it's more... hmm. i think for me, it's more that i learn(ed) to code, and i like to code... because i want something specific that isn't already available on resource forums and the like. it's not that i don't consider myself uncreative, but rather, i don't see the point of making codes just for the sake of making codes or exploring hovers/gradients/animations/etc.

i wish i could! because many people make very lovely things, and they seem to have a lot of fun, and it's definitely a form of art, what y'all do. but it's like... i can't code stuff just for fun. and furthermore, i don't really want to in the first place?

hmmm. hopefully that makes sense? basically: creativity is there, but drive and willingness to code just for fun not there, for me, personally... and that's alright tbh! 

well heLLO ME. 9/10 i just. look i code when im fucking bored and then i toss the results because its all shit it was an upward struggle throughout and it always shows in the piss poor quality. like, i just-- idk, sometimes occasionally i get the rare ability to code something that looks decent just because i felt like coding. but damn if that isn't a blue moon?? usually, i'm coding for a specific reason b/c i just. cannot just code. i don't got the motivation for that shit man
Stardust in me
aliasEm, Dragon
pronounsShe/Her/Hers
773written posts
rabbitearsearned bits
offlinecurrently
rabbitears
Part of the Furniture
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We're motivated by the stars that we're made of
Once upon a time I broke a whole skin by forgetting a semicolon. My shame to this day.
stultifera navis
aliasnines
pronounsshe/her
578written posts
ninelieearned bits
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ninelie
Part of the Furniture
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VOLITION [Medium: Success]
I keep forgetting to set up indents instead of spaces for my Codepens so I end up cursing at myself when I'm pasting it all onto Jcink and manually deleting all the spaces
praise the cats!
aliasthomas, breezescodes
pronounshe/him
896written posts
bcearned bits
offlinecurrently
bc
Summer '19 Bingo Completionist
bc Avatar
this is my murder mittens ^-^
i am torn between wanting to write for dabihawks week (starts in five days sweats) and working on a skin commission. hobby vs something i'm being paid for. man, i need to learn time management skills tbh
86written posts
cinearned bits
offlinecurrently
cin
Junior Member
cin Avatar
If this is not love, what should we call it?
sometimes i start w a Nice Dimension (TM) for images like say 500x250 or something and once i'm done with the template its some 472x186 size & i tell myself its needed for my padding: 50px and aesthetically pleasing template shape and just background-sizeit, say its 500x250 still, and call it a day.

and thus, i dont actually know the dimensions of any large image template i ever made lmao

370written posts
elliearned bits
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elli
Senior Member
elli Avatar
There is nothing worse to me than inconsistent indentation and missing spaces between properties and values.

I got a freelance email coding job this past week (I love coding HTML emails), and before I could do the actual work, I had to stop to correct their template's indents and add spaces to the HTML attributes and CSS prop/values. It was driving me crazy.

They were also missing a few closing tags... like wtf
After over 17 years, I've decided to move on from ProBoards. If you need to contact me, find me on my website.
phantom of the black parade
pronounsshe / her pronouns
4,373written posts
Kuroyaearned bits
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Kuroya
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what do you want to know? my height, hobbies, quirks, the color of my underwear?
i've entirely forgotten how to do the actual nitty gritty for profiles and mini-profiles for proboards (as in like installing them properly, not as in coding them)

i feel so much freer with this knowledge completely erased from my brain tbeh i regret nothing-
last edit on May 25, 2020 16:44:19 GMT by Kuroya

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