P.S. This would also mean that Threadless would actually have to enforce their rules about not posting links to your own designs in the comments section!

we constructively criticize threadless all the time. most of the improvements that have been made to the site are due to us making requests.

You'll fit in great here.

does threadless have official rules about posting links or is just rules as a society if fans that we made up?

Wow. That's not my impression at all...

The comment section is whatever the commenter wants it to be. If you want to say "nice" or "cool" to show support, do it. If you want to give criticism and advice, do it. If you don't want to comment at all, then you don't have to.

It's user-based, dude!

If you don't want to be in the circle jerk then keep your pants zipped (so to type).

i agree to an extent, but i think that if all comments were anonymous, you might lose some of the community spirit, plus if you want to give a bad score, you don't have to accompany it with a comment, the critiques are a good place to get constructive critisism :)

Yeah I don't feel this way either. I comment when I like something, or feel I can help. Even If I just say "Great!", I meant it. I never post a positive comment and then score low.

i agree robbino, i wouldn't post a positive comment if i was going to score low :)

I don't like the idea of people being able to comment without an identity. That would just give people more freedom to be jerks and it would quickly turn into formspring.

@biotwist Yes it is specifically stated in the informational kit.

@bygrinstow How is this not your impression at all when your own design here is full of nothing but fluff comments and your friend said: "Little disappointed in the score, but what can you do? Back to the drawing board. Thanks again for doing this Jon." Judging from the comments on your design, you would think it would have scored higher right? It didn't do so well because of this problem I am talking about.

@SuperRyan The comment section should be whatever the commenter wants it to be, but as is clear by actually looking at the comments, only a select few leave actual feedback. Your design Bowie Knife, (which I feel is a very nice design that I would wear myself) has tons of comments about how cool it is, yet the score is a surprisingly low 1.74. Wouldn't you have liked to hear what those people actually thought about your design so that you could have improved upon it appropriately?

@pixel_pixie You definitely bring up a great point about the community aspect, and this is a detail that must be thought about if considering changing how the comments work. You are also correct about scoring designs poorly and not commenting, but personally if someone gave me a low score, I would love to hear why they did so. Right now, I seriously feel that people are too scared to do that.

Actually, I've received a lot of feedback on my work. Which even helped me improving.
The thing is, people who say "nice" or whatever supporting comment, isn't the same people who vote 0 or 1.
I think it comes to a personal judgement, whose advice you'll take into consideration is up to you. And there are lots of talented folks willing to honestly critique.
Perhaps you sub your worst piece, and they keep going "sweet". Well, they don't love it, but they sure think you can do better next time, you know.
Just some thoughts about it.

@SuperRyan The comment section should be whatever the commenter wants it to be, but as is clear by actually looking at the comments, only a select few leave actual feedback.
Comment section is not defined. As I said, comments are whatever the commenter wants it to be. Just because it doesn't match what you think it should be doesn't mean it is invalid.


Your design Bowie Knife, (which I feel is a very nice design that I would wear myself) has tons of comments about how cool it is, yet the score is a surprisingly low 1.74. Wouldn't you have liked to hear what those people actually thought about your design so that you could have improved upon it appropriately?

No, because I'm a freaking adult and can decide things for myself. I appreciate people's comments and would have appreciated their attempts at advice, but I don't want advice.

You assume a designer wants advice and criticism, but that is not universal. Sure, some want it or just don't mind it, but others don't want it.

I don't see fear as what keeps people from saying why a design is terrible. I'd suspect lack of motivation and lack of reward. If a certain concept sucks balls, then there is no point in advice. If a design could use improvements, a comment doesn't guarantee a designer will take it or that you will get recognition for it -- why waste your time commenting, in this case?


That's all I'm going to say about this whole thing.



people see things differently but it all comes from a good place :^)

I usually score all designs, and most just comment on stuff I like, usually thats what the critique section is for no? why submit somethign expecting critiques at that point? once in a while i will leave feedback and usually try too as well on the blogs when people ask, but I would never finish scoring if I sat there and tried to critique everyones art

^what he said.

what they said

@SuperRyan Being an adult and making decisions is different than listening to the opinions of others, especially others who are going to pay money to buy your t-shirt. No one can look at their own work through the eyes of others and see what they see, and there is always something to be learned by hearing a different point of view. Definitely your choice if you don't want to listen to anyone else, but you will grow a lot more slowly without any input but your own.

But that is not the point. My point is not necessarily that there needs to be more good constructive criticism on this site. My point is how can a design have nothing but positive feedback in the comments and an overall low score? Don't you think that is a bit silly? What is the point of the comments section?

The comment to scorer ratio for an average submission is usually about 1:20 (this is based off a few months ago, when we had a pretty low scorer count.) My highest rated sub is 1:10.

I'm guessing the less popular subs (be it whether the designer isn't well known or the design is just something that didn't grab any attention) would have even less comments. The people who do comment usually do so because they like the design. It's very rare for someone to leave something inflammatory, or extremely constructive, hence all the compliments in almost every sub.

My point is for a design that scores low, the vast majority of people who didn't like it would vote it anyways, that's the scoring process. In the end, that sub would still have a low score, despite the number of people who cared enough to drop a nice comment. And I've been through the process before, and from my point of view, I enjoyed the compliments, regardless of how helpful they were to me being a better designer. They made me feel good. And while a low score can be disheartening, it's encouraging to know a few people like what I make.

As for wanting more constructive criticism, it's your job as a designer to get that kind of feedback before you submit. That might be hard too, because not many people will give feedback if they don't care much about the design. But that's people. You just gotta do what you gotta do.

I like your avatar and that design!
yum yum ... more please.

honesty and truth ... did you see that movie "the invention of lying"?

I didn't like how when everyone told the "truth" it involved everyone saying everything they were thinking etc. usually being something negative or harsh ... that didn't seem like truth to me. that was something else.... anyways...

Owls are pretty neat!

I've made a lot of critiques and comments in blogs that were *asking* for help. But I wouldn't expect people to leave critiques in a submitted design, because that's not what that space is for. However, I have once in a while made a constructive comment along the lines of "if somehow this doesn't print as it is, then maybe try...".

Also, my one design is not exactly a representative sample... : )

i feel like i'm pretty honest when i comment... i've had no problem telling someone what needs to be changed or fixed... sometimes i tell the person to just trash the idea and move on...

i think most people are honest on the site...some people just can't take criticism and some people interpret any criticism to mean something totally bonkers...

and i pay AlexMDC to leave a comment on all my designs... he gets 3 Thin Mints per comment

What mike bautista said, is kinda what I was thinking. I like how he puts it.

I don't agree with the people saying critiquing a design or pointing out ways to make it better in the comments isn't the place to do it.

The point is (for me at least) to be honest to the designer, and give them a full run-down on what their design does well, what might improve it, and anything that it makes me feel or inspires within me. Since people can easily resubmit work and make it even better (and I don't think Threadless gives two shits in their decision to what anyone thinks should be improved, if they like it as is they'll print it up), I don't see why this would be a bad place to mention said things, especially if the artist didn't put their design into the critique/the commenter didn't see the design when it was in critique.

Also, everyone puts so much hard work into their designs on here (well, most of us, haha) that I almost feel it's something I should do as a member of the community to one another.

There's plenty of ways to be constructive or tell someone you're not the biggest fan of this in a respectful way, and I think this is productive for people to do so when people find ways to improve the design, changing something around and then they would buy the design on a tee, or explaining why they don't like it to maybe help the designer better understand what kinds of topics aren't welcomed here (racist, lazy, lifted, fan art, etc).

But at the end of the day, I think it's really cool when people leave comments on people's work good or bad, long or short, just to give encouragement to the artist that people are indeed paying attention and giving their work some thought rather than just plowing through designs, mashing 0 or 5 every half second.

I also really enjoy reviewing things, haha. It's a spill-over from when i used to review films for newspapers/websites. Commenting on art is one of my favorite things to do, and there's endless amazing and inspiring designs people make here to check out :)

Yeah we leave FA to do all the constructive/encouragement thing on here! he does it so well! (Love your work Evan) :)

there are usually 400/550 designs on here at any one time, I try to score them all. I'm more a tee buyer than a designer (I have dabbled and have some work in progress) so my votes are for what I see as something I would personally wear or something that is an outstanding piece of art (imo)

The ratios Mike talked about earlier are pretty spot on I reckon!

I liked Aleds coment too! hehe!!

If I type something in all caps on your design it gets a 5. If you get something less than a 3 from me, you won't see my comment. Also the quote from Jon's (bygrinstow) design is from me. I was hoping for a higher score because I was the one who came up with the idea.

wheres randy otter in this bitch

Whenever you do a thing, a popsicle comes out of your CD drive.

oh yeah food reward for commenting, now we're on to something! Who uses their CD drive anymore anyways?

I want french fries

Nice! 5$

Only popsicles.