- Announcements -

Those who have been active for any serious period of time on this board will obviously have noticed that the level of activity has gone way down in the past months. While I've got some ideas to explain why things have calmed down, I'd like to have your input on this. Each point of view is worth something!

To make this easier, I've started a discussion on the message board, which I invite you all to join and post on this topic. Some ideas were already given, and we've got plenty of room to welcome your own thoughts. It's your board: you've got a role to play!

Of course, if you're rather contact me directly, my e-mail inbox always has room for you.

You: Wait, but you said that there wouldn't be...
Me: Can it and read on.

The latest mini-contest has ended with yet another selected picture!

This time, the winning entry is all about an happy Luna Platz getting a hug... or not, drawn by The Helldragon. A winner is you! Hell, I'll be contacting you directly about claiming your prize: a 20$ Amazon.com Gift Card!


Now, this mini-contest was supposed to be cancelled if fewer than four entries were received, but I decided to let this slip as we got three solid entries. On the other hand, I'm keeping myself the right to skip over the next event (scheduled for January 2010) if I estimate that the oekaki board's traffic is too low to be worth the effort.

Hopefully, that won't be needed!

Round #4, fight!

It's now time for the next mini-contest! As usual, this consists of a random draw made among all the members who will submit a valid picture through the month. More on what is a "valid picture" below.

There's one extra thing to note this time around: no random draw will be done if fewer than four pictures are submitted. If you find the participation level too low, then by all means, call up your friends to enter too! The more the merrier!!

The prize
One person will be selected randomly among the participants to win a 20$ Amazon.com gift card. That will allow you to purchase whatever you want, related to Mega Man or not.

The rules
Any picture that respects the board's normal rules is accepted as a valid entry. Each member is free to submit as many pictures as he wants, but he'll only obtain one participation entry (remember that the draw is done among members, not among pictures). In order for a picture to be entered in the mini-contest, it has to follow the theme given (detailed below). When you submit a piece of art and want it to be part of this mini-contest, please say so clearly in your comment. The submitted pictures will be added to this gallery as the month progresses in order to give everyone a chance to see the corresponding art from a single location.

The theme
Which Mega Man character do you especially hate? We love several of the characters introduced through the series, but there are also some that we just can't stand. It's time to express yourself!

You can't stand Clown Man and his horrible voice? Did Alia's constant interruption drive you crazy? Was Kraft merely an annoyance in the overall plot of Mega Man Zero 4? Did you really like Vent's attitude? What do you think about fetching items for that museum lady? What would you have paid to never see Viddy Marcy? For how long could you tolerate the emo-kids in Star Force?

Your task is to select one or many characters that you especially hate for a reason or another, and illustrate them. An explanation alongside your picture would be nice, but isn't required. You can simply draw the character itself, you can picture him being punished by someone else, or something else as long as the focus on the hated character is clear. Obviously, only actual characters from the series can be pictured: even if you hate someone else's fan character, you'll have focus on the canon content!

The deadline
This mini-contest will run for the complete duration of the month of September 2009 according to Eastern time. As such, you have until September 30, 2009 at 23:59:59 to submit a picture. The draw among the participants will be done shortly after, assuming that enough entries (at least four) were received.

To all those who decide to enter... Good luck!

It's now time to announce the results of the 2009 main drawing contest!

First of all, thanks for everyone who entered! We received only five entries, although they all deserved to win in some way: there is no half-hearted attempt to be found here!

Without making you wait too long, the end results:
- First place: Ultimate X - "Mia and the Magical Sunflower Meadow"
- Second place: ProtomanEXE - "I fail at deadlines." Which should be called "The board fails at deadlines"!
- Third place: Breakman - "One Reason..."

Congratulations to our three winners! As we've got a tie between the second and third place, the picture that was submitted first was given the advantage. See all of the entries on the results page!

All three of you will be receiving an e-mail from me tonight about claiming your prizes.

Judging was handled by your friendly oekaki board moderating task force: Kia Purity, Rioni Riishu, and myself, Dr. Cossack! You can read our comments alongside each contest entry, which might help you understand how the pictures were rated.

Hopefully, the next contest will see more contestants fighting for the top spot. See you then!

As the website approaches it's ninth anniversary, I'm happy to announce something that hasn't been seen for a few years: a full-scale oekaki drawing contest!

Unlike the mini-contest formula that has been used a few times already, this is a much larger event, with nothing held back: judging, larger drawing area, prizes for the top three winners, and more!

A theme has been selected for this latest contest: crossover. This can be taken in any way you can think of, including but not limited to: mixing two Mega Man series together, bringing elements from another game or anime series, taking characters out of context, etc. Obviously, your entry must feature a Mega Man element to be accepted

Prizes are available for the top three winners, based on merit: you'll have to put some efforts to think of something original and draw it as well as you can! The prizes includes the Mega Man Zero Official Complete Works art book, Mega Man PC games, Mega Man Battle Network merchandise, and more. The full list can be checked on this page.

The full details and rules are available from the contest section. As this contest formula is quite different from the mini-contest one, I highly suggest that you read carefully what's in there. The contest will run for an entire month, ending on May 31 at midnight (Eastern Time).

To all those you decide to enter... good luck!

May 2008 mini-contest

It's time to try something new!

To celebrate the Mega Man PC Website: Dr. Cossack's Lab eight anniversary, I'm now announcing a mini-contest set to take place on this oekaki board.

Unlike the previous full-blown contest, this one is a bit more modest (hence the name "mini-contest" ). Instead of having a competition based on drawing skills, this will be a random draw made among all the members who submitted a valid picture through the month. More on what is a "valid picture" below.

The prize
One person will be selected randomly among the participants to win a 20$ Amazon.com gift card. That will allow you to purchase whatever you want, related to Mega Man or not.

The rules
Any picture that respects the board's normal rules is accepted as a valid entry. Each member is free to submit as many pictures as he wants, but he'll only obtain one participation entry (remember that the draw is done among members, not among pictures). In order for a picture to be entered in the mini-contest, it has to follow the theme given (detailed below). When you submit a piece of art and want it to be part of this mini-contest, please say so clearly in your comment. The submitted pictures will be added to this gallery as the month progresses in order to give everyone a chance to see the art from a single location.

The theme
What if Dr. Light was a robot? Could Iris be a human? How would Ciel fight if she was born as a reploid? What if Bon Bonne actually looked human? Would a digital Mr. Match make the Internet any hotter?

The theme is simple enough: what would a robotic / NetNavi / EM Wave character look like in human form; or to the opposite, how would a human turn out to be if he became a robot / NetNavi / EM Wave? The goal is as such: take an existing, canon character from any of the Mega Man series, and transform it into it's counterpart as described above. Fan characters aren't allowed because of the lack of references available.

We want to see some creativity coming from you!

The deadline
This mini-contest will run for the complete duration of the month of May 2008 according to Eastern time. As such, you have until May 31st, 2008 at 23:59:59 to submit a picture. The draw among the participants will be done shortly after.

To all those who decide to enter... Good luck!



May 2008 mini-contest - RESULTS

And we have a winner!

I'll cut straight to the results for the curious ones: the winning entry is this very friendly-looking Beat, drawn by none other than HollowTorment! Congratulations!

Hollow, you'll receive your prize shortly: a 20$ Amazon.com Gift Card! Please check your message board PM inbox: I've sent you a message there.

While we're on the topic of the mini-contest, I've created a short survey to get your opinion on this new event. It's only 4 short questions, and I'd appreciate it if you took a few seconds to fill it.

I think that, overall, this mini-contest went very well. We've seen several interesting character concepts, and the idea was popular with many people. A big THANKS goes to all those who entered, and who knows... see you next time!



September 2008 mini-contest

Time for round #2!

The response to the survey I ran after the mini-contest in May was overwhelming in one regard: you people want to see more of these! As such, I'm happy to announce that the oekaki drawing mini-contests will become a regular feature of this board! They will be scheduled to happen every few months, with a different theme offered each time to keep everyone's creativity going. They'll stick to the format seen before, which is a random draw made among all the members who will submit a valid picture through the month. More on what is a "valid picture" below.

The prize
One person will be selected randomly among the participants to win a 20$ Amazon.com gift card. That will allow you to purchase whatever you want, related to Mega Man or not.

The rules
Any picture that respects the board's normal rules is accepted as a valid entry. Each member is free to submit as many pictures as he wants, but he'll only obtain one participation entry (remember that the draw is done among members, not among pictures). In order for a picture to be entered in the mini-contest, it has to follow the theme given (detailed below). When you submit a piece of art and want it to be part of this mini-contest, please say so clearly in your comment. The submitted pictures will be added to this gallery as the month progresses in order to give everyone a chance to see the corresponding art from a single location.

The theme
What is your favorite Mega Man characters pairing? The word "pairing" is used here to represent a match of two characters linked in a way, and is not only about couples.

Are Dr. Light and Dr. Wily meant to be complete opponents? Do X and Zero form the greatest team ever? Was Neige and Craft's love story the most unexpected one? Are Swill Waters and Bon Bonne the two goofiest characters of the entire series? Do Raoul and ThunderMan.EXE form the strongest net-battling bond? It's up to you to show us your favorite pairing!

It's up to you to select two characters (not one, not three: two) and illustrate them. If the link between the two characters is not obvious, please provide at least a short description to help us understand why you chose these two people. Please note that you can't just select two characters at random and draw them. For example, regrouping Glyde (Legends) and GridMan.EXE because they are your favorite characters isn't accepted: there has to be something beyond that. The selected characters have to be canon from any of the Mega Man series: fan characters aren't allowed because of the lack of references available.

The deadline
This mini-contest will run for the complete duration of the month of September 2008 according to Eastern time. As such, you have until September 30, 2008 at 23:59:59 to submit a picture. The draw among the participants will be done shortly after.

To all those who decide to enter... Good luck!



September 2008 mini-contest - RESULTS

The second mini-contest has closed, and we have a winner!

This time around, the winning picture features a silly-looking Treble held by a confused Bass, as drawn by ProtomanEXE! Congratulations!

ProtomanEXE, I've sent you an e-mail in order to confirm your e-mail address. Please reply to it, then I'll send your prize your way: a 20$ Amazon.com Gift Card!

Thanks to everyone who entered... and see you next time!



January 2009 mini-contest

Let's begin round #3!

People seem to enjoy those mini-contents, and we've received some great entries in the past events. As such, it's now time for the third one! As usual, this consists of a random draw made among all the members who will submit a valid picture through the month. More on what is a "valid picture" below.

The prize
One person will be selected randomly among the participants to win a 20$ Amazon.com gift card. That will allow you to purchase whatever you want, related to Mega Man or not.

The rules
Any picture that respects the board's normal rules is accepted as a valid entry. Each member is free to submit as many pictures as he wants, but he'll only obtain one participation entry (remember that the draw is done among members, not among pictures). In order for a picture to be entered in the mini-contest, it has to follow the theme given (detailed below). When you submit a piece of art and want it to be part of this mini-contest, please say so clearly in your comment. The submitted pictures will be added to this gallery as the month progresses in order to give everyone a chance to see the corresponding art from a single location.

The theme
What is your favorite Mega Man moment? While this especially applies to story elements, or major plot items, you could also represent your own special moment such as turning on Mega Man 2 for the first time.

Was the first showdown between Mega Man and Bass a turning point in the series? Was Iris' tragic destiny a moving moment to you? Did X's fate in the Mega Man Zero era changed your opinion of him? Have Pandora and Prometheus caused you much grief? Did you laugh at the dog chasing Tron in Mega Man Legends? Were you touched by Battle Network 6's ending, 20 years later? What did you think of Pat's past? It's up to you to represent a favorite moment of the series!

Your task is to select one or many characters, a scene, some other element, or a mix of all this and illustrate it. No abstract drawings please. If the moment represented isn't clear enough by the picture itself, please provide at least a short description to help us understand your choice. Obviously, only actual characters and moments from the series can be pictured: fan-games don't count.

The deadline
This mini-contest will run for the complete duration of the month of January 2009 according to Eastern time. As such, you have until January 31, 2009 at 23:59:59 to submit a picture. The draw among the participants will be done shortly after.

To all those who decide to enter... Good luck!



January 2009 mini-contest - RESULTS

The third mini-contest has concluded with a new winner!

The first winning submission of this new year features a determined Nightmare Zero drawn by MegamanZero66! Congratulations!

MegamanZero66, I've sent you a private message on the message board in order to confirm your e-mail address. Please reply to it, then I'll send your prize your way: a 20$ Amazon.com Gift Card!

Thanks to everyone who entered. We didn't get many submissions this time around, so let's try to be more involved next time!

Here comes another update! v1.6 is a bit special as it's been planned for a long time, before work even began on v1.5. The core component of the board, which receives the data sent by a drawing applet to save it to the server, has been rewritten from scratch. The new core is much more stable and allows to add some new key features to the board, which means that resume and animations are now available! More on that below. In the meanwhile, I'd like to thank Mr.Mettaur, Rioni Riishu and Shadowfire for helping me test this system before it went live. Thanks to their help, I was able to fix several things before they became a real problem.

New in this version:
- Added resume! (Shi-Painter only)
- Added animations! (Shi-Painter only)
- Galleries are now available to display groups of related pictures
- Tutorials have been regrouped together in a single gallery
- Added the ability to claim back older pictures to add them to the user's profile
- The memberlist will now remember the options set while changing of pages
- Fixed a rare bug where two pictures, if submitted at the exact same time, could get mixed up
- Post preview is now available
- Better error handling on posting
- Overhauled the search engine (it now matches more than simple keywords)
- Made the labels of forms (memberlist options, search tool) clickable
- Improved the background code (almost 100% standards validated!)
- Added account activation by e-mail
- Improved the layout of several pages


As mentionned, IOekaki v1.6 finally includes the resume feature that several of you have been long waiting for. It's available for use on all new pictures from this point forward, but it works differently than what you might have seen on other oekaki boards. As usual, you can start drawing up something. During your draw time, if you need to stop for any reason, you can hit the applet's save button to send the picture to the server. It's at this point that things are different than before: you're now offered the choice between submitting your picture to the board, or to keep it aside for a future resuming. Note that, if you decide to post the picture for everyone to see, you can NOT resume it later on. One of the reasons for this is to having seeing the board flooded with half-finished pictures that people never really go back to completing.

If you go with the second option (resuming later), your drawing data will be kept on the server until you come back. Until then, a notice will be displayed at the top right of any board pages to remind you of your waiting art piece. You can resume the drawing by clicking on the link offered there, or by accessing any of the drawing applets. Note that you can't be working on more than a picture at once. As such, if you send a new drawing to the server, the data to resume something else will be overwritten and can't be recovered. The purpose of that single picture limit is simple: each picture's data is taking room on the server, which has limited space. Please note that, because the proper data wasn't saved until now, picture that were submitted before this update can't be resumed. Also, PaintBBS is not compatible with the resume feature!

The animations display is also made possible with the new core update. Below each picture, near the date, a new link is available under the title "Animation:" in order to view how a picture was drawn. The pop-up which opens contains a smaller applet with some tools to control the animation speed. Artists can disable the animation display by deleting the related data either at picture submission time, or later on through the "Edit" button. This is especially useful if you feel like the animation data isn't really worth it, or if you want to protect your drawing technique. The data, once deleted, can't be recovered. For the same reasons as the resume feature, the animation data for pictures submitted before now isn't available. PaintBBS is not compatible with this either.

I'll take the time to mention one last new feature: galleries. These display a group of related pictures in a scattered pattern, allowing someone to only view the pictures without having to scroll through the comments. Obviously, it's possible to click on any picture title to view it's full information and list of comments. A gallery has been added to each member's profile to display that person's pictures, while the classic listing is still available. Several other galleries will also be created to regroup pictures that are related somehow, such as those drawn in the context of a monthly theme for example. If you have suggestions for galleries that would be nice to have, feel free to ask Kia, Rioni or myself.

I'll be looking forward to see what you people can do with the new tools available! If you have any comments or questions, remember that you can post them in the dedicated forum on the message board!

In order to complete the current moderating team, I've decided to appoint a new moderator to check over things on this board. Joining myself and Kia Purity will be Rioni Riishu, who has been a member here for over two years.

She's proven during her stay that she values positive feedback and is willing to lead newcomers to teach them how to use the various oekaki tools. Having an extra moderator on board will help us to ensure that someone is always around to help if needed.

Welcome in the team, Rioni!

1) Megababies. Yeah, that's right. Megaman characters as babies. I know this is silly, but it seems that there's babies EVERYWHERE. >.>

2) Draw your favorite Megaman Cover. (AimMan's suggestion, even though it's supposed to be a fake theme XD)

3) Flower themed Megaman villians. (...yeah, there's Plantman, but he's the only one. XP)

April's Fools! Raise your hand if you believed me!

Of course we always like to see art of all kind, as long as it's done within reasonable limits. There's no way that I'd prevent people from submitting pictures that feature characters or scenes from other series. The off-topic pictures were simply hidden from display through the use of modified board scripts, nothing was actually deleted. The purpose of the main website hasn't changed either: it's still focused on the series as a whole, and not only on fan content (even though that's an important part!)

Head to this topic on the message board to chat about this year's happening!

Nevermind this, read the above announcement instead!


For the past few years, there's been an ongoing debate about the balance between Mega Man pictures and other sources of inspiration on this board. It's time to put that behind us. As a new policy, and to go along with the new purpose of Dr. Cossack's Lab, all pictures that aren't related somehow to the Mega Man series are no longer allowed. This has the benefit of clearing up what is acceptable and what doesn't belong.

As a result, the updated rule #8 now reads as follows:
8- Type of pictures. This is a Mega Man website, and the theme goes along with it. As such, pictures that aren't related to the Mega Man series will be deleted without warning. Also, don't keep drawing the same thing over and over again... Variety is good.

All of the pictures already available that aren't related to this new theme have been removed from the board. Some of the correct ones still happen to be missing, mostly among the older pictures, which is something that will be fixed in a few days. Any new picture that isn't allowed will be deleted as I find them.

Since I have backups of the pictures that were removed, artists that wish to get them back can e-mail me to request them. Please allow me a few days to get back to you on this subject.

File submissions happened to be broken over the weekend (from sometime between March 10 to March 12) as a result of an unexpected bug. I've fixed the issue and restored the pictures that were submitted during that time period. Please let me know if I overlooked one by mistake.

I know this is a royally silly announcement, but I'm not going to erase pictures over this sort of thing.

Everyone (this includes me) needs to be careful with the usage of space in pictures as it can really make the picture feel "empty" with a figure only taking up very little space.

Close-ups are good, but too much of them can be little jarring as much as too much space can be.

It's all about trying to figure out some sense of balance. We're all still trying our best at art, aren't we, after all?

Personally, I do have things that I still need to work on in my artwork which includes background and object in proportions to people. I'm sure everyone else has little things on their list that they want to work on.

Feel free to practice that one little thing on your list and present it for critiques/suggestions on how to improve it.

Jan 2007
1) What kind of resolutions would a MM character make...?

2) Winter themed Robot Masters

Feb 2007
1) How would a Megaman character design their Valentine's Day Cards?

2) Data theme~ the monkey needs some love. XP

March 2007
1) Freely abuse green for St Patrick's Day. (but don't overdo it!)

2) Why has no one given the monkey love yet? XD Trying Data Theme here again! (You can even draw the other Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation if you're feeling silly.)

3) Rejected Robot Masters, round two!

I've just created a survey in order to get some more feedback on the current and potential IOekaki features. Note that what I wrote in there doesn't mean that the feature WILL be implemented: I'm merely requesting ideas and suggestions. Also, the drawing applets are not coded by me, so I can't change the tools themselves. Take the survey, it's only five questions! Thanks to anyone who will take a few seconds of their time to answer!

(Oh, and congrats Kia. You managed to start the themes after I started writting the survey, but before I had a chance to finish it... I had to do a last-minute change!)

On another note, I added a new smiley that Ultimate X sent me some time back. Although he originally called it "kawaii", I went with a more traditional "cute" to avoid the potential spelling mistakes from those who directly type in the name of a smily. You shouldn't have any difficulty finding it: it's the only animated one in the set! Thanks, Ultimate X!

Oct--
Since everyone seems to like the theme idea...
So, here's two themes:
1) Fall
2) Halloween!
You don't have to draw a theme picture if you don't want to. It's just a lovely idea to help you guys along.

Nov--
1) Anything to do with Thanksgiving
2) Pirates!
If you want to suggest more themes, please drop me a note via PM at the message board.

Dec--
1) Christmas
2) James Bond Villians (suggested by Rioni Riishu!)
3) Winter fun

Jan--
1) Winter Fun (this theme hasn't gotten much attention, so I'm resuming it.)
2) Ninjas! (...hey, we had pirates.)
Just remember, you guys can suggest themes to me via PM on the messageboard or just place a comment on the oekaki.

Feb
1) Samurai! (Rioni's idea)
2) Underappreciated Robot Masters (Hollow's idea)
3) Valentine's day! XP

March
I... wow, February was such a short month! Apologies.

1) Catpersonified MM characters (a slight adjustment on Ryoga's original theme idea which was catgirls...)
2) Other Capcom Characters (Heatman.exe's idea!)
3) Characters that don't get drawn enough! (Someone sent me an e-mail and didn't list their name. )

...and this is amusing, there's an impromptu theme going on right now, Nightmare theme. XD; I didn't expect this to happen.

April

1) The things that Megaman Characters would NOT do/say... (keep this clean, folks!)
2) Forgotten FF characters (Azumitaiko's idea!)
3) SPRING!

May
1) The things that Megaman Characters would NOT do/say... (keep this clean, folks! Also: No spoilers, please. ^^; )
2) Megaman characters in the Wild West.

BTW, if you're already an member of the messageboard, you can go to here to post your theme ideas. I'll love you a lot for that. <3

June
You can always go to here to post theme ideas. XP

1) Megaman levels that you loved or hated. (Hollow's idea!)
2) Robot Masters and their .EXE counterparts (Morphman's idea!)
3) What would the megaman characters do during the summer...

July
You can always go to here to post theme ideas. XP You know, that's what it is for. *COUGH*

1) What would the megaman characters do during the summer... (this is still summer, after all.)
2) ...Megaman characters as MGS characters? (I'm just asking to be shot here... built on Morphman's idea XD; Or you can do the viceversa: Foxhound members as Megaman bosses o_O)
3) ...obsecure enemies like Sniper Joe, Suzy... etc etc XP (...everyone?)
4) Yeah. Don't forget that guy on the green bike. THE CHARACTERS THAT NO ONE REMEMBERS! (Doc C and Hibiki. Hell. Everyone.)

August/September
1) Mad Scientist Appreciation (Shadowfire's idea!)

2) A character from a different MM game drawn in that particular style of the MM game. (Example: Drawing a Megaman Zero character in the style of Megaman X...) (Morphman's suggestion) Note: This may be tricky for the beginners.

3) Servbot theme. (Yes, a theme with servbots in it!) (Hollow's idea. >.>)

[EDIT] Apologies, I haven't gotten enough theme ideas for september and it doesn't seem that August got much use... so, the themes will be reused for September. >_>

Oct
So, it's the anniversary of the themes... ;

And unfortunately, it also appears that the themes have dried up.
...meanwhile, I'll just toss in some lame theme ideas here:

1) Halloween (good ol' halloween)
2) Nightmare theme (repeat, but hey, halloween)
3) Penguins.

Nov

As I said before, you can refer back to the previous themes and I don't think we've gotten any new theme suggestions...

1) Pirates on a pumpkin

2) Megaman ZX (I know I should've posted this earlier >:|)

3) What if a Megaman character did something out of character...?

Dec Themes

1) Christmas (in form of "Christmas Cards moments", "Christmas themed Robot Masters", and more!) (suggested by various people.)

2) Original artist-created Megaman characters (suggested by Rioni!)

3) Cover Art of a made-up game... (helldragon's idea.)

Yeah, it's gotten to be annoying. Just bragging you're the first to comment isn't exactly appealing!

But still, commenting on pictures is good. Just remember: No "I made it here first! HA HA HA". Please. <3

I'm not coming hard on anyone, but it is a friendly reminder to play nice!

To our users, please don't respond to the ones who intentionally start fights. I know you guys are angry with the people who come to the board and wreck everything, but remember, I am ALWAYS around!

Leave the modding to me and Doc. We are the ones responsible for keeping the board clean and pretty! (And it's better not to respond to the lamers because that only makes them do stupid things and spam the board.)

So, please don't provoke the rule breakers.

* Stop pretending the picture is attacking you. It's not cute and it's annoying.

* No whining about your age.

* Just remember Kia Purity watches the board because she has no life. <3

Doing a bit of spring cleaning here! And a bit of updateness.

* To people who found this board and have no clue what megaman is: You can go play the games if you choose to. But please, this is a Megaman Oekaki board. A little silly if there's constant non-Megaman fans coming here.

* Unfinished pictures: There is no resume feature!

* I don't care how old you are. It's no excuse for breaking the rules.

* Comparing artists are bad, mmkay? Don't do it. Comments with comparing artists will be deleted.

* Rude comments will also be deleted. These rude comments would be generally defined as insulting the users and admin/mods.

* Pretending to be your parent is a big no-no. That will get you in deep trouble right away and it makes you look stupid in front of everyone, having to pretend to be your parent if you don't get your way.

* If you're of a specific culture/nationality/disabled and demand people bow to you, I will come down hard on you. I'm deaf and could care less what your disability/nationality/culture is! You're here to draw and get along with people as well as having fun.

* Pictures with no effort will be deleted. Pictures that are done more than three times in a row will be deleted.

* Rating pictures is just as bad as comparing artists. Extremely RUDE. Rating comments will be deleted.

* Do not say: "Hi, I'm new but my picture sucks!" If you really think it sucks, don't send it in or work some more on it.

* No starting conversations on the comments! Take that to AIM/Yahoo/ICQ/MSN, whatever. Conversing while on the board can get extremely spammy.

* No constant spams of the same subject in a row on the board. This goes for all the silly Metool/Servbot spam. (We've had those in the past.)

* Remember to really draw Megaman as this is a Megaman oekaki board. You can draw anything, but seriously. Megaman!

* Spamming smilies is a no-no. I'll delete the extreme smilies and leave only one behind.

* No typing in l33t. It's extremely hard to read and I'll probably be trying to translate it when editing your comments or give up and post: "Unreadable".

* As always, read the rules!

<3

-- your rabid Mod, Kia Purity

The Oekaki Contest ended a week ago and now the results are in! I would like to thank everyone who had participated. Despite what score you got, all of the entries were great and creative. (Except a few and you know who you are...) This contest would have been boring without you! Now let's congratulate our top three winners:

1st Place: RubyChan - "Legendary Sword Reborn"
2nd Place: Rioni Riishu - "Drop Your Sword"
3rd Place: HJ - "First Impressions ~ RZ4"

You three will receive an email, to the address you provided, very soon from Doctor Cossack so you can pick your prizes.

For you others, here are the rest of the results. It was a pretty close contest...

Last but not least, I would like to thank the judges. Being a judge is hard job, but someone has to do it. Great job you guys! I also want to say a big thank you to Doctor Cossack for actually holding the contest. B)

Let's hope for another contest next year!

The following is a repost from the main page of the Mega Man PC Website:

While it has been around as a draft for a long time, it's now time to start this new step for the oekaki board: beginning now, a drawing contest is officially opened on the oekaki board! Co-created by Breakman and yours truly, this contest is attached directly on the oekaki board so you need to be registered there in order to enter. Once you are registered (and logged in, of course), visit the contest area to get all of the details about the rules and prizes. Wait, did I mention prizes? That's right! The competition features models kits and Battle Network import merchandise for the top three winners!

The contest will run for a month, starting now and ending at the end of May 31st. The main judging criterias are about creativity and the general quality of the art. The judges themselves are still being selected: the list will be known before the end of the contest. For more details, see the main information pages.

I would like to use the occasion to thank Breakman for her support and help during the preparations. This thing would probably still be in draft form otherwise!

Some people expressed the desire to see the Shi-Painter drawing applet available here. After some testing and adjustements to the board, I'm happy to announce that the applet is now available!

The Shi-Painter drawing board is coded by the same person who did PaintBBS (the other available applet), so it is quite similar. However, Shi-Painter is more advanced, with some new features. It's available in two formats: Shi-Painter normal is pretty much like PaintBBS, with little changes. On the other side, Shi-Painter pro has MANY more features like moveable toolbars and extra drawing tools. I'll let the artists proove how far it can go.

PaintBBS is still available for those who prefer it. I've taken the occasion to update it to the latest version available.

I hope to see some pictures done using the added drawing board soon!

To Newcomers:

It's hardly an excuse to post a bad drawing just because it's your first time to draw with a mouse or whatever else. If you're not good at it, you can practice scribbling random stuff here and there. Feel free to practice! Just don't post it OK?

Several of the members here are already sounding like broken records warning newcomers to put more effort in their works. Personally, I do not give warnings; If the work does not show much effort, it will disappear courtesy of yours truly. It is my opinion that warnings are passive, and are often ignored, So be warned...

"If you're going to make an impression by means of your Oekaki, make it a good one..."

From the MegaTokyo influenced mod, Kei-kun

Mhmmm... I know only one person in particular had the gall to do this, but I'm gonna clarify to everyone all the same....

If you do not like a particular drawing style(i.e. that of a particular Manga-ka or illustrator), that's all well and good, however DO NOT attack those who want to use it in their pics.

As the saying goes, "To each his own". Everyone is entitled to draw as he/she wishes, and it is not one's place to decide how another does so. Not even the staff can do that, nor would we want to. As long as it shows effort, it will stick whether we like the style or not.

~From the MOD who's about to miss his deadline on the next issue of his manga(which will never be published, BTW), Keiji.~

To all members:

Two Major Clarifications:

I know that most of you already know this, but to those who do not, I'll say it simple.This reminder has been said countless times already, but just needs to be made official: If you want to establish communacation with another member, do it via E-mail, not by asking him/her to do so in the artwork Such posts are considered spam because:

A.) It is a short message, individually or in a series.
B.) It has nothing to do with the artwork.

I don't care if the artist posted the invite. I will delete such posts that I see associated with what was mentioned above...

Second: As much as possible, do not type in all caps. It also qualifies a bit as spam(I don't care if the artist did it either), Not to mention that it makes it look like you're shouting, which comes off as rude to the other members. To paraphrase Doc: "Try to put more effort in your posts, as well as your artworks..."

~A simple reminder (not an invented rule) by Keiji~

Comments: Usually good or bad, an individual's opinion/observation/annotation on a certain element or the whole of something.

Critique: As the name implies, a critical analysis, coupled with evaluations and suggestions on various aspects of a type of work, as well as value judgements dependent on mannerism.

That's the difference between the two. However, you cannot have one or the other. When you put your work out for display in the Oekaki board, expect some comments and criticism to come your way. It is unthinkable to act all sensitive and assume that the others think that your work is crap and get mad at them. I mean, come on...

Criticism, or nitpicks as I like to call them, is very much beneficial for the artist: It gives an assessment on how the work was done, according to another's point of view. It is a well known fact that we think of our works that they are always good enough, but others may not see it that way. Some might insult it for all it's worth, while most others give their thoughts on how you can improve on your works so your future submissions will be better than the last one, with absolutely no intention of making you mad.

If you are one of those people who cannot take criticism in stride, then I guess that the Oekaki board is not for you, so just draw on something offline like Photoshop instead, away from the prying eyes of the critics you hate so much. This is a place where artists converge to help each other improve online, not just to admire each other's work and not learn from them. This is why this concept was developed in the first place.

~Keiji~

I'll say it simple: Nobody cares how old one is with regard to the quality of your artwork. The important thing is that it's something you can be proud of. The constant cries of time and effort are nothing to be sneezed at. No matter how old you are, you can do good work; just take enough time for it to look good... OK? Great!!!

Oh, and if I see a crappy drawing with an age excuse again, consider it deleted to oblivion without prior notice...

-Another friendly reminder from the Mod who can't stray from using technical jargon, Kei-kun-

A couple of weeks went by since I first opened this board. With the pictures not saving bug fixed, I can move on to other things. I'm now thinking about ideas and new features to be added to the board, and I'm curious about what your opinions too. IOekaki is a solid system in my opinion, but do you feel the same? How could I improve things? What features could be added?

If you want to share with me what you're thinking, please send me a private message on the message board, or send me an e-mail at dr_cossack@interordi.com . Because of the computer problems I still have, I won't be able to answer to all the e-mails I'll get, but be sure to know that I'm reading all of them.

Thanks

- Dr. Cossack

Now running v1.5.0 - 2006-07-22
IOekaki has been updated to v1.5.0! This major upgrade fixes some old problems, adds some useful features and puts IOekaki's code on par with IOBoard. This will allow me to update both systems more easily in the future. I'd like to take this moment to thank both Ryouga Hibiki and Kia Purity, who took some of their precious time to help me test this update. They were helpful in finding a few odd problems!

New in this version:
- Many bug fixes
- Performances improvements
- The board's look has been improved
- Long words will no longer cause the board's width to enlarge
- A flood control has been added
- The background HTML was switched from HTML Transitional 4.0 to XHTML 1.0 Strict (not 100% valid yet)
- The contest system was updated to allow several contests to happen over time
- Artists might be able to recover lost pictures due to a browser crash by visiting the applets' page
- Improved Who's Online: users will no longer be listed several times, as it happened in some cases
- Users can now delete their own posts
- Artists can edit the titles of their pictures
- Pictures titles now give you a direct link to that picture and it's comments
- Two new options in your profile: hide your e-mail address and enter your birthday
- Pictures submitted while the board is unavailable can now be recovered by the artist without help from the admin
- The max drawing area is now 500 x 500, compared to the old 400 x 400
- The look of the applets has been changed to match the layout of the board
- The applets have been updated to the latest version available
- The IP ban feature is more efficient
- The admin tool have been updated in several ways
- Moderators can now delete all of the pictures submitted by a member with a few clicks

The version numbering has also changed by adding a dot between the second and the third digit. The end result makes more sense and is consistent with most other software. I've updated the previous announcements to take this into consideration, and I've regrouped all the old update news together. Also, if you haven't visited it yet, there is now a forum dedicated to this oekaki board over at the message board. If you face any issues caused by this upgrade, you can post in that forum or e-mail me!



Now running v1.4.0! - 2004-04-25
I've just completed the latest update to IOekaki in order to fix some bugs and add new features.

New in this version:
- It's now possible to delete and change usernames as needed.
- A new way to navigate between pages. The dropdown box was getting pretty large (405 pages at the time of this writting), to the point that this change cuts the size of the pictures page HTML by almost half!
- Many fixes and improvements to the search page. It was not working properly most of the time since the last board update, so I corrected the problems. I took the occasion to improve the look and use of the search page. I also added a quick jump to reach a precise page of pictures, in order to replace the removal of the dropdown.
- Fixes to who's online to prevent unauthorized access to some scripts. It wasn't causing any issues before, but that's no reason to leave it like that.
- Some bug fixes, especially to the ordering by latest comments and pictures. The order is now displayed near the list of pages.
- And finally, a new board logo! The old one was annoying me more and more, so I put another one together.

With that new logo comes a new tagline for the board: "Where servbots are happy and metools are hunted." Since I'm sure many won't get it, allow me to explain: the first picture ever done on this board was one of an happy servbot. The picture is not available right now, but will be added back eventually. The second part of the tagline comes from the bunch of metools that were drawn a while back. So many of these were being made that some members were protesting and a few announcements even written against met pictures. That makes them to be "hunted".

This brings the board to version 1.4.0. I don't think there are any big problems still existing, but feel free to contact me if you notice something.



Now running v1.3.0! - 2004-01-29
I've updated the IOekaki board software today to bring in some fixes and improvements. Here is the full list of what changed:

- Some security bugs have been fixed (nothing was hacked, this is preventive patching).
- Some minor cosmetics changes.
- The pictures page ordering is now saved for the session. That means that, if you choose to order by the latest comments, it will stay that way until the end of your visit, or if you choose to order by pictures.
- The memberlist has been improved, with the added possibility of searching for usernames.
- Two new smilies have been added, thanks to Ultimate X for these!

There shouldn't be any problems with the latest modifications, but if you notice something wrong, feel free to contact me!



Various info & now running v1.2.5 - 2003-03-21
This board script update is a rush-release to compensate some flaws related to the recent server crash. I waited before opening to make sure that the server was stable, and that most bugs were ironed out. However, there *might* be some issues with registeration. If that's the case, please e-mail me.

Due to the crash, the few latest pictures were lost. The only ones I'm lacking are pictures #4635 to #4656 (that's 21 pictures). If you have these, send them over to dr_cossack@interordi.com

---

New in this board version:
- If a picture is missing, a default image is displayed instead of a broken link
- The member list page has been greatly improved, separating the displayed users on many pages
- Some changes in the admin panel

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On other news, Keiji will no longer moderate this board. To compensate, I'm now looking for a new person to fill the job. If you are interested, please post in the appropriate topic of the message board (prefered method), or send me an e-mail.



Now running v1.2.0! - 2003-01-11
After some time that felt like forever, I'm now presenting to you IOekaki v1.2.0! The changes are not Earth-shattering, but there is some nice material in there:

- Minor fixes in the Comments page (can no longer view the counter)
- Database improvments, for possible better performance
- Picture restoration now possible (more on that below)
- Minor bug fixes
- "LOL" smilie (thanks to Fred for the original concept!)

A newly added feature is the picture restoration. Available only to me (the board admin), it allows to possibly save some pictures that you didn't managed to add properly to the board. For example, you draw something, hit save on the applet, then your browser crashes while typing your comment. Instead of loosing hours of work, you can drop me a note, and I can readd the picture to the board. However, please note that it will NOT work if you draw something else between the crash and the restoration, so beware!



Now running v1.1.0! - 2002-10-25
I've upgraded the board today to run an improved version of the IOekaki script.

Here's what I coded in v1.1.0, from the user-side of things:
- Quick login from any page
- Edit post feature (finally!)
- Performance improvment (the board should be slightly faster now)
- More buttons are desactivated upon click to prevent double-posting and similar errors
- Search function by keyword, picture title and quickjump feature
- All pages now display the amount of queries used
- Users must now confirm their accounts through e-mail before being able to use the newly created username
- Some cosmetic changes

Future stuff:
I'm far from being done with that system! Here's a partial list of what I want to code (some of those might take quite some time before being available):
- Ability to see picture animation (how it was drawn)
- Stats page
- Lost password recovery
- More smilies

Also, I plan to have this board script available for download someday. That isn't going to be too soon, however, because I believe it still needs more work.



Welcome to IOekaki! - 2002-08-09
Back online, and for real this time! I'm proud to present you my latest work in web creation: IOekaki. This board is a completely new system written from scratch, hopefully to avoid all the problems that we had on the old board. If you didn't checked that yet, be sure to read the introduction speech on the entry page. Of course, make sure you check the Rules, as there are differences from the older board.

To ensure that everything will run smoothly, two MODs were appointed to this board: Kia Purity and Keiji. I am the main administrator, of course.

Feel free to look around, try everything and such. If you find any problems, drop me a line and I'll fix it shortly. Since I wrote this system, I know it inside out and can fix any possible problems quickly.

Have fun!

P.S.: It's somewhat hard to believe the board has been down for five months...