The Avatar Database Guide

Thank you <3 Day, Atlas, and Lily have been working tirelessly to improve the guide and give it some much needed TLC. I'm excited to post a large Newsletter update soon ^_^

 

Newsletter #7

Spoiler

A big huge thanks to @-PA_KaramelApples- for sticking with me a whole year and coding this beast of a guide!!

Happy March!! Can you guys believe the one year anniversary of the guide came and went on November 18th, 2020? I sure can't. Although, I also celebrate many different anniversaries on the guide 😂 The one that I really like to celebrate is when I started the project on April 29th 2019.

I bet yall are wondering why it's taken 6 months+ to update the guide or push out a Newsletter. Actually, if you were eagle eyed, a update was done a couple months ago along with an update to table of contents and my main guide front page. We spoiled a lot of the long intro, and I did a rehaul to the 'How to use this guide.' It's definitely worth a read if you are new.

Many of you guys do not realize an entire second page of the guide exists!

A revolution in forums happened last year! @Day created a The Box Database Guide among numerous other ones! @Maddi_Matsu is working on a massive furniture guide. @Muschi is the queen of story tiers and rewards. Lyssa, @Atlas, and many others overhauled a bunch of old guides and made new ones. I made a Pet Style Guide . Everyone always says that forums is outdated, but many people came together this last year to overhaul forums. I also figure I'll write out a few questions I think some of yall might be curious about and answer them.

What was it like updating a guide post launch for an entire year?
Hard. It's one of the hardest things I've done. It takes months to push updates out because of the coordination between multiple people. The sheer amount of avatars each month gets ever longer. However, it's also really beautiful seeing the guide grow. I never thought I'd see a whole years worth of avatars get uploaded. A comment section that was previously 'reserved' is now completed. I find that magical.

What goes into doing a guide like this?
Let's start from the beginning. When avatars get released, I have to track them down. Almost everything released, I can take pictures of myself. However, I need help with side story 3/4 avatars (Thank you @Asgardian, certain shard avatars, champagne space combineables (thank you Lyssa), and anything else that crops up sometimes.
Then, I have to screenshot and crop all those images. Remember when I said sometimes its 150+ avatars each month? That is 150 avatars screenshotted and cropped by hand.
Then, I have to collage them into four.
Then, I have to photoshop all that.
Finally, I crop all those images again and sort them into folders. I also have to make a banner for each hunt, spinner set, shards, and misc avatar launch. Which is my least favorite part of the guide. I can drag my feet on editing just because I hate making banners that much. It wasn't so bad when ATA made the avatar group photo transparent. (IF AN ATA DEVELOPER READS THIS AND MAKES GROUP PHOTOS TRANSPARENT AGAIN. I'D LOVE THAT) But now it's on a white background that has to be removed. Don't get me started on shard avatars fancy backgrounds. I made 70 banners this year for reference.
Then, it takes the coordination of others with photoshop and coding. It's not easy, but the little thanks I get on my wall and in discord makes it all worth it. Even just knowing that people use my guide daily is worth it.

Final Remarks
Most people don't realise I have major hand issues (among other disabilities). It was a passing joke I made in my intro. But it turned into a full blown problem that hasn't resolved. Everything about the avatar guide is difficult. It's not easy photoshopping and organizing all the photos. It causes a lot of hand pain. However, I do it all because it's a passion. It's a project that brought the entire community together. From the toughest farmers to the sweetest new players, we made something magical together. It's not something that I'd ever let die. It may take months to push updates. But I'm always thinking about the guide. I'm always hunting down avatars and editing. It's rare that I ever completely get caught up. I do not get help from ATA (except awesome support of course and the occasional avatar that has to be hunted down from the past). A huge thank to Day, Maddi, Lily, Muschi, Atlas, My RS Abs, and the many others who have supported me throughout this past year. The continuation of the guide has only been possible because of the support from them.

That being said if you've made it this far into my Newsletter. I will be looking for photo editors to help with the load of the guide. If it's something your interested in, feel free to wall me. I can also teach anyone.

Also, keep an eye out on my The Pet Style Guide. YES, IT DOES EXIST! I know the level of love is minimum over there 😂 I am working with Maddi to completely redo it.
Without further ado, these are the avatar guide newest additions! I won't be putting the banners up this time because the changes and edits are pretty massive. But I will write them out to the best I can remember.

"Patchnotes"
Overhaul to introduction
Table of Contents Update

Added:
MAIN EVENTS: 2020 Complete
SPINNER: 2020 Complete
SHARD: Complete
SPECIAL EVENTS: Complete
STORY PASS: Complete
ICONS/COVER PHOTOS:
SOCIAL SHOPPER: up to 9
VIP BOX: up to 10

Glitches:
2013 8 Days of Reindeer Missing Hunt/Avatars (Soon)
2014 World Cup Missing Avatars
June 2017 Pride Avatars VIP (Spinner set. Editors note: Definitely worth the look)
2017 April Spinner (removed biker bro/summer nights: replaced with lounge-erie style and sweet sweats)
2019 Eid Mubarack Missing Avatars (Under Special Events)