I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been including PSDs when putting things in Crystal Check.  It makes my life a whole lot easier/more bearable to do crystal check every day (which means a fast/24 hr or less turnaround currently!) when even half of the customs in there have PSDs I can use :D

There’s 2 older ones from the beginning of January that I’m waiting for Eve to pick up (they’re complicated and since I hadn’t done Crystal Check in a while and rarely come across people making the base transparent so I completely forget how to do it :D) and then like...7 that I have questions about so those should hopefully be done tomorrow? But otherwise the queue is pretty much clear and I am *hoping* I don’t get swamped again with IRL job-related stuff and can try to go through it a couple times a week (or like at least on the weekends).

I cleared it out over the weekend (like...150 checks or something like that, haha) and in 4 days there were 33 more submitted so it’s a bit difficult to keep up with sometimes if life gets in the way D:

Hey guys!

So apparently there's been some upset about pinging people and asking if they still want their design Crystal Checked xP I'm gonna explain why this is happening (I cannot offer any insight as to why the queue wasn’t just cleared, I think staff decided the cons of clearing it outweighed the pros.)

I'm currently working through March 2015 (have about ~25 right now and then I will be able to start April, so maybe 2-3 days if I work diligently :D) on Crystal Check.  The queue was in December 2014 when I started going through it...~3 weeks ago?

I have 51 pages in my "Claimed Requests" tab, which means ~510 customs were submitted between December 2014 and the end of March 2015.  

In February, I claimed 70 custom checks and posted, "Please respond if you would still like this checked." 24 people responded with a yes.  That isn’t even half.

In March, (as of last night) I have claimed 81 custom checks and posted, "Please respond if you would still like this checked." on their check. So far, 25 people have responded.  Still not even half. (I claimed it last night, so maybe more will respond this time since it hasn't been 24 hours yet, but I don't have super high hopes since March 2015 was almost a year ago and a lot of people aren't active/don't seem to want their checks anymore.)

There is no time limit to respond that you'd still like it checked.  If someone with a check from December 9th comments that they'd like their check 2 months from now, they will get their check.

So yeah, that is why you are getting asked if you still want the check since...if I did all of these checks I would likely still be in December or mid-January and over half of them would be a huge waste of my time since people obviously don't want them anymore.  If you have a check in queue, please wait for me to ask you if you’d still like it checked.  I can’t see when user comments were made on checks so if you go and type “I still want this checked” right now, I don’t know if it’s from today or from 6 months ago and will still ask.

Once I'm getting the majority of people responding that they'd still like their check (like, 75-80%) I will be doing every check as I go and not asking if people still want their check.  I'll probably be checking their "last online" status though so I'm not doing checks for inactive accounts (and just asking if they'd still like it checked via ping like I have been.)

If you get a comment asking if you'd still like your design checked and you respond back, it's very likely you'll be getting your pet checked within the next 2-3 days (barring unforseen circumstances).

Here is the breakdown of how many designs are left in each month of the queue (NOT how many I am checking, since I have not asked people in these months whether or not they want it checked yet): April 2015 - 159 designs May 2015 - 150 designs June 2015 - 95 designs July 2015 - 85 designs August 2015 - 36 designs Sept 2015 - 33 designs October 2015 - 34 designs Nov 2015 - 32 designs December 2015 - 26 designs Jan 2016 - 36 designs Feb 2016 - 15 designs

(as of ~3 days ago, so February might have more)

Once I get through July 2015 it should take me 2-3 days to check each month if every single person responds (I can check 20+ in a day, but I usually stick to around 10-20 if I'm working since...full-time job and not enough time in the day and all :P).

If I’m able to keep working at the pace I am now, I have high hopes that the queue will be caught up by mid-late March (not set in stone, I’m estimating by looking at the numbers left vs. how many I’ve had to check previously, so of course if everyone in April/May still wants their check it’s going to take longer.)

Here is a handy link with Eve herself explaining how she crystal checks pets.

She also links a spreadsheet that does all of the math for you (the transparency part doesn’t work for me, so I would just leave that alone.)

After reading how Eve crystal checks and seeing that spreadsheet, I have made a thread offering to do free crystals checks.  Since I’m not Eve or being trained by her, I’m obviously not going to be 100% right 100% of the time, but I hopefully should be within 5-10% of Eve’s check, which most of the time is enough to say whether something is going to be blue/gold/silver.

So yeah, Crystal Check isn’t updated and hasn’t been updated for a year+, but there are other options as of right now until it gets updated.  Unfortunately they aren’t site supported options, but unless there are some crazy modifiers added in doing a quick edit coverage check should get you at least close to what crystal you need.

So, apparently this is 85%.

Which I would understand, if it were for a valid reason.

Apparently since the small amount of fluff on the body somehow adds a 20% modifier (because the fluff replaces 50% of the body??) it is 85% rather than 75%.

Fluff vs. no-fluff beside it.  Can someone please explain to me how the fluff changes 50% of the body when according to the KB article on custom %’s a taur normally doesn't even change that much?

I can even post an image about how much area the fluff edit actually covers since it’s in its own folder.

Heads/Tails/Appendages do not impact the modifier (straight from Gray herself) so it’s literally just the fluff bumping it up an extra 20%.

The new system has been in place for nearly a year now, get used to it. It was created as a direct response to artists trying to twist the bases to make them things they aren’t, and getting TOO creative on their edits.

Things people don’t seem to realize when looking at edits:

Earwings count as coverage. All of it. Yes, even the bit that is the ‘base’ ear. Because it’s no longer an ear. All it does is help lineart coverage. This goes the same for other things like reusing tail lines within an edited tail.

Edits not taking up over 75% isn’t enough, you have to keep 25% of the original lineart, even if it’s buried in the edits.

Heavy body mods will carry modifiers and severely reduce your edit coverage left. This is to avoid the base creature no longer being recognizable. This is mainly about Taurs, but taurs doesn’t just mean centaurs, it also means adding a new ‘body’ to a base (like turning a reve into a griffin)

Old designs were grandfathered into the new system. That means many old designs that passed as blue/gold under Skitty would NOT pass as such now, but Gray honors the old rulings to make things fair.

I am really sick of seeing people bash Graymare, when she’s been a boon to the site and how customs work. She singlehandedly created a system that is learnable and enforceable by others, meaning we’ll get some helpers too, and if she should disappear, the system can work without her, something we didn’t have with Skitty.

And just a FYI, there was a call for helpers. And I believe there were less than a handful. I’m severely disappointed that for all the talk about ‘we need helpers’ less than five people actually seemed interested in becoming those helpers we so sorely need.