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UPDATES #17

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

We're featured in WingliNews !!!!!!
Kamsahamnida ~

Source : WingliNews

[SITE] Dorkistic Designs: Three Years of Hard Work Pays Off
Monday, July 19, 2010


We are honoured and thrilled to present to you our first recommended site: Dorkistic Designs. This site has become a legend within our community; with a total of three years under their belt, as well as outstanding services and support for many of their affiliate sites, it is an extremely popular site that many people frequent day to day.

Dorkistic Designs was created on May 16th, 2006 by Chazzie. It first started providing free MySpace graphics, featuring various artists such as McFly, Busted and Son Of Dork; however during 2008, the site debuted with a new area, providing a larger range of graphic requests as well as web management and freebies. Within the years, it has gained various awards for remarkable achievements. For example: it were nominated and voted as the Top Requesting Site at Feisty Princess. Also in July 2009, they won Lost Shadows' Site of the Month award.

Dorkistic Designs is truly an incredible site, so in order to get more background information, we’ve interviewed the webmistress: Chazzie.

Q: Why did you decide to create Dorkistic Designs?
Dorkistic Design was unofficially born in 2005 as one of the section under McFly Malaysia's fansite. It mostly provided MySpace layouts and contact tables featuring my favourite British band, McFly and Son of Dork. At that time, it was hard to find sites with graphics featuring them, so I decided to open one to share my graphics with fellow fans. It officially opened in 2006 when I started taking requests for contact tables and MySpace layouts.

Q: When did the staff start to design and code for layouts?
I started designing in 2004, using MSPaint, and then changed to GIMP and finally Photoshop in 2008. However, I started coding around 2002, when my father gave me a computer. I created class websites and personal blogs; that was when I started discovering the HTML language.

Nana started around the same year too, during her study in matriculation where she started learning to create her own b-sets after feeling jealous of other people's pretty b-sets in a forum she joined. She discovered HTML when she bought a new laptop, though without Photoshop software, and decided to learn website-making instead.

Pynkfaery learned Photoshop in her first year at university, and she's among the earliest requesters at Dorkistic Design too. She is yet to do layout coding, since she's too busy with her university life, but I'm sure she'll get her hands on it soon.

Q: How did the staff learn to design and code?
We learned (and continue to learn) from various tutorial sites and sources, such as LiveJournal, Lissa Explains it All, DeviantArt, reading local computing magazines, and through self-discovery.

Q: What motivated you to provide layouts as a service at Dorkistic Design?
I understand the feeling of wanting to have a layout your way, but don't know how to do it, and can't find it anywhere on the Net. I felt the same way too when I first created my website, because I have to search for hours before I can find a layout that suits my likings. That's when I decided to help those who are in need of their own website that totally describe their personality and site objective. In one click, they can request for a customized layout that is one of a kind, meaning no one else has the same layout design as theirs.

Dorkistic also has this working policy, whereby we try very hard to design the layout so that it will represent you. When a visitor visits your site, by looking at the layout they will say: “That’s so you,” “The layout really suits you,” etc. First, we visit the requester's site to know a little bit about them. For example, if the requester is neat, with a very organized content and carefully-written blog, the layout style will be simple, neat and less decorations. We don't simply read the form and design away. We do a little study first before we start designing them.

Q: Have you ever encountered any problems with Dorkistic Design? If so, how did you manage to solve the problems?
There are three major problems that we always face these days: code stealers, hotlinkers, and rule-breakers.

We always try to handle these problems professionally. We will email them and contact the person without letting the public know about it. We have to take their pride into consideration. However, if the person ignores our email, that's when we will handle it through their CBOX and will monitor the site for few months to make sure they won't do it again.

Dorkistic does not have a BLACKLIST page. However, we do have the list that we personally keep. We don't show it to public to protect their privacy, but should the same person break the same rule at other sites, we will inform the site owner about that too.

Q: What are your thoughts about Dorkistic Design?
Personally, I see Dorkistic Design as my baby. If ever people ask me, ‘”What’s the proudest moment in your life?” that would be having Dorkistic Design for four years!

It makes me laugh, it gives me a headache, and it makes me cry. 90% of my online life revolves around DD. I learn how to handle people, I learn how to communicate with people, and I met many new friends which I cannot do in real life [because of my introvert side]. DD makes me feel grown up too and I'm proud to be called “umma” (Korean for “mother”) by many of the visitors.

However, I also believe that DD has a very long way to go. We're just an amateur site, who shares our passion towards designing and “fan-girling.” Also, we need to work hard in order to be on the same level as other professional designing websites, and of course, to meet requesters and visitors' demand and likings.

Q: Do you have any advice you’d like to share with the public?
As one of the older sites in the community, we're proud to see so many new sites emerge, especially during summer. However, we're frustrated to see as many sites close in less than 2-3 months [from when they start].

We hope that those who have websites, or those who plan to open a website, will plan carefully and think deeply before they officially open the site. Opening a website is not a game. It needs your patience and hard work too. We hope that there will be more sites celebrating their first anniversary this year, and I hope you guys will keep on supporting Dorkistic Design by promoting us to your friends, or by simply visiting our site and saying hello. We're always excited to receive even just a simple hello on the CBOX.

And to WinglinNews, thank you for giving us the opportunity to share our experience. It was an honor to be featured in this site, and we wish you guys all the best!

Q: Any future projects we can expect soon?
Since last year, we've organized and collaborated a few projects, namely Shim Changmin B-day Bash, 100 Icons Challenge, Jay Tribute Project, Feisty's Popularity Contest, U-Kiss Fan Messages, Facebook’s Artwork Challenge, Facebook’s Wall-Contest Giveaways, and others.

We plan to have more activities soon to create a closer bond with our affliates, visitors and friends. Among the upcoming projects are DD's Gathering, Christmas Giveaway, fan meeting projects and many more. We hope that our visitors will keep visiting us and join our future projects too.

You can always drop by and ask more questions to us @ Form Spring

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We sincerely thank Chazzie for giving us permission to write this article as well as allowing us to interview her. We truly hope more people will support Dorkistic Designs in future.

Writer: ShadowYin
Editor(s): rxnh and Andi
Credit(s): Dorkistic Designs Feisty Princess Lost Shadows LiveJournal Lissa Explains it All DeviantArt MySpace Form Spring

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