So do you think this shirt is better than my sort of similar submission Family Business? I'm not trying to be a prick, I'm just seriously asking (to get some outsider perspective).

So which one do you think makes a better Threadless tee? Hopefully I'll get better at designing shirts over time, with enough advice and practice.

But, is the scoring curve drastically different from about a year ago? First of all, I'm not complaining, but I noticed about twice as many people voted on my new design (compared to the rest I submitted not THAT long ago). Then I noticed that it's my LOWEST scoring design yet!! Hmmm.. a design that I probably put more time into than the rest, and it scores the lowest?

Sorry if this has been asked a million times.

So I saw the White Stripes in concertfor the first time in my life (Orpheum Theater, Minneapolis, MN). To say the least, it way almost to great to handle.

The stage was ALL red, with a giant red backdrop complimented with plants, trees, birds and other scenery that was ALL white. A very cool atmosphere. Then Jack had about 3 amps with 3 guitars leaning up against them, a giant red and white xylaphone, and a black piano with a synthesizer on top. Meg had her drum set, 2 huge red and white tympani's and some little bongo drums.

When they walked on the stage the place errupted. They wasted no time, got to their weapons of choice and started thrashin'. They had one of the best visuals goin' on... You see, they put a spot-light behind Meg's back pointing at her so there was this 100 ft. tall sexy ass - mystical shadow of her on the wall bouncing around as she reamed on her drums.

They went from song to song to song, slowing it down here, speeding it up there. Jack was able to sling a guitar around his back, jump on the piano and then just at the right part throw a slide on his finger and go right into the best slide guitar I've ever seen. Next thing you knew, an hour and a half went by, they walked off and then did a pretty lengthy encore. They then said their proper goodbye's and thank you's, and they were done.

The Greenhornes opened up for them, and the show was simply amazing.

THE END.

Oh man I've gotta tell you what just happened to me. I was shopping at my local Goodwill, as everybody likes to do now and then. I picked up an old school game of "Guess Who" in perfect condition considering that they made some cheesy new one that sucks.

So I'm in line and several people are commenting on it, one crazy lady who was probably 45 says, "You know that's a great game. You can even put in pictures of people you know." "Oh well I guess you could huh? Umm thanks." I replied. She continued on, "Check out this that I found" and proceeds to pull out a dinner plate with Ronald Reagan's face on it. I said, "So uhh.. you just gonna hang that on the wall or eat off of it?"

Then... she looked right at me with her bug eyes and said... "Oh I'm gonna eat off it."

Well the email I was waiting for arrived yesterday. (If you missed the blog entry that I posted 2 days ago please click here to read it...
Your Thoughts on Private Messaging? )

Jake Nickell (skaw) emailed me back and said that he loved the idea and that they will be implementing a private messaging feature into the site very soon. Very soon!! How cool is that? I think this is a classic case of "the members spoke and they listened." Considering that every person who posted in that blog thought it was a good idea.

Also he told me about another feature that I'm sure you're all gonna dig a lot. I'll keep that a big fat secret though so it doesn't spoil the surprise.

Last but not least, I think we owe the guys at Threadless a big fat "Thank you!" for keeping an open ear and actually going through with this.

Thanks guys, I really mean it.

(First of all, I apologize for the length of this in advance)

The point of this "blog" is to not only ask why there isn't a private messaging function on this site, but also discuss how important it could be as a feature.

There are 3 basic ways I can currently contact another member of Threadless. Keep in mind, that all of which are more difficult than a simple private message. One, if said person "happens" to have and use AIM then they can leave their screen name, and then you can reach them through that if you "happen" to have and use it also. I personally don't know anyone who uses it (maybe MSN Messenger, but not AIM). Two, if you happen to leave your email address in your profile. But as most people know, leaving your email address on a random site is a sure fire way to get your name added to plenty of spam lists. Not only that, but if I wanted to go through the trouble of actually emailing somebody, they then know my email address and some people can get picky about who has their email address. Me included. Third reason, and possibly the most annoying... Starting an entire blog (for all to see in the Blog Forum section) just to talk to a single person, or ask one person a question.

So how do you resolve all of these problems? Simple. Add a private messaging system to this site (and here's the SIMPLE part!) - It would work EXACTLY the way the Blog Forum already works! But instead the only person(s) who could read it would be to who you sent it to. Here's an example of what it could look like when you've got some messages in your inbox...



Simple. Clean. And you wouldn't even need to clutter things up with options like "Outbox", "Sentbox", "Savebox" or any of that. I know this site is really stripped down and simple to use, so it wouldn't be a problem. And when you clicked on that number (right next to your name) it would bring you to a section that looked JUST like your profile page looks right now. Your profile pic on the left (submitted designs under that obviously) and private messages (topic and then message) off to the right. And here's the genius part! When somebody gets your private message and you reply back and forth a few times it saves all of the them in the ONE original message, blog, thingy. Much like combining how Gmail works (saving replys in 'conversations' rather than seperate emails) and how your current Blog Forum works now. I guess you could consider it Private Blogging between 2 (or maybe 3 or 4??) people. God this would work so well it almost hurts.

So! It's example time. Let's say I want to ask "User X" a question about how he got his shirt design to look that way. Well I don't want to bother everyone and post it in the forum for all to see, and I don't want to leave it as a comment on one of his shirt designs and clutter things up with a personal question. So what would I do, I'd click "Send User X a Private Message." I'd give it a Title, type out my question, then hit send. Done. Then when he got around to answering my question he wouldn't even need to make a new message, just add a reply in the box (just like leaving a comment) and it would send the same message back to me and then it'd say that I have 1 new message in my Inbox. So on and so forth.

Actually, I'm sure some of you have AudioScrobbler accounts? They've got a private messaging feature and not only is it not needed as much as this site needs one, but this site has the HUGE advantage of keeping all replies in the same message. Also, I forgot to mention that discarding messages would be as easy as discarding blog entries.

Okay, so I'll stop there. And for the Threadless workers, PLEASE voice your opinion on this in here or elsewhere (I'll also be sending you emails with all of these questions and ideas). Thanks for reading all of this! I'm just trying to help make this site even better than it already is.

Whew! I'm officially one happy man. All 4 of my shirt designs have made it past the dreaded 1.5/100 votes rule. I don't know why but that rule is probably the scariest thing while submitting a design.

And as great as the comments are, you can only take them with a grain of salt really. Cuz I know I've read more than 1 "OMG I needs this shirt 5$" on really crappy designs. Hah.

But anyways, they're still up for voting. If anybody wants to give me feedback and/or comments on ANY of them feel free to do so in here or on the shirt pages.

Does one stand out? Do you hate them? Are they funny? Are they weak? All that fun stuff. Thanks.

Is there anything painfully wrong with this design before I submit it?? Even though I've already submitted 3 designs, I'm sort of paranoid considering it took me so freakin' long. Thanks guys.

Click here for the magic to happen