Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
- 158
- 2
What is this place?
This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a
court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to
optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.
The weekly Culture War threads host the most
controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are
appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy;
if in doubt, post!
Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts.
You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.
Why are you called The Motte?
A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently,
it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey",
originally identified by
philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial
but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens
this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for
the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired
propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."
On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.
New post guidelines
If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it.
A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts
such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a
submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).
Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or
significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.
If in doubt, please post it!
Rules
- Courtesy
- Content
- Engagement
- When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
- Proactively provide evidence in proportion to how partisan and inflammatory your claim might be.
- Accept temporary bans as a time-out, and don't attempt to rejoin the conversation until it's lifted.
- Don't attempt to build consensus or enforce ideological conformity.
- Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
- The Wildcard Rule
- The Metarule
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Huh. I could see how you wouldn't prefer that style, but also feel like the main problem is not so much that the image generator did a bad job, as that the concepts simply aren't great, and hardly anyone would do much better. And those who could do better are engaged in more upscale projects to begin with.
There seems to be a rationalist market, and a market by definition has a lot of booths at it, so it drew a lot of booths, and put in a vanishing point that really emphasizes how large the market is. Makes sense, given the concept, I'm unsure what an excellent graphic designer would do with it. Doesn't look oversaturated? Markets are known for having a lot of bright colors to entice customers, but maybe the sun shouldn't be that low? Is sunset part of the concept, like the sun is setting on the free exchange of ideas or something? It's clearly still not great at making signs with words on them, but is visibly improving from last year.
A guy with a lot of books and papers. I assume the room cluttered with papers and the clock are part of the concept, and that they asked for pen and ink? Clearly not oversaturated. If the clock isn't important, it doesn't belong there. If the prompt didn't include "an office cluttered with papers," then that's weird.
Comic. Weird feet and flags in the last frame. It looks like it becoming increasingly chaotic and cluttered is, again, part of the concept? If not, that's an odd progression. It looks like print comics were included as a style reference, so the coloring is to be expected. There are some distracting splashes of red in the background, especially on the second panel, I doubt a human would do that, or the implication in the second panel that now there's another floor desk under the man's desk. The first panel has a visible dot gradient, like a metal plate where the gradient was burned in with resin and acid -- or more like a cross between that and a fine hatch. It's kind of funny that it's trying to emulate plate printed comics in that one instance, but otherwise looks more like a vector graphic, but, eh, I guess I don't expect it to have a model of what physical processes cause what effects. The hands and facial expressions are pretty good. But, also, the concept itself looks even more cliche than the art.
More options
Context Copy link