What is happening?

Tonteau

on July 21 '17 @ 10:47

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It's simple, they need to print more Tonteau.

JGTsunami

on July 21 '17 @ 10:49

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wow, you get really unto the point here (sorry my english is not that good), we need to do something about the haters/downvoters, there too many now, lowing the passion to keep posting more of your work here. We need this to comeback again: ***

"Threadless would do everything in their range to compensate the designer as fair as possible. And because of that, everyone worked as hard as possible to come out with both great ideas and a great product".

wow, you get really unto the point here (sorry my english is not that good), we need to do something about the haters/downvoters, there too many now, lowing the passion to keep posting more of your work here. We need this to comeback again: *** > "Threadless would do everything in their range to compensate the > designer as fair as possible. And because of that, everyone worked as > hard as possible to come out with both great ideas and a great > product". ***

vo maria

on July 21 '17 @ 10:57

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Totally agree! I feel the same about it. Seems that something special was lost along the way, that made Threadless a perfect place to find and share creativity. Used to have more contests, more interest on designers, more cool prizes. I miss the old days.

Tonteau

on July 21 '17 @ 10:58

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Ok, seriously. Probably the biggest thing that's changed is the community aspect. Back when I started (10-12 years ago) a thread could be off the first page of the forum 5-10 minutes after posting. It was that busy. There was a community feel and people who really dug threadless dug the weird and wonderful ideas too and supported them, I recall artists like Jess Walsh and Gemma Correll submitting and getting great support, but mainly from the blog forum folk. There were stupid competitions people would run themselves, controversies, many in-joke and running gags. That generation has kind of moved on and the one that could have replaced it really isn't interested in this kind of forum cos they've got instagram and twitter etc... and families and that kind of stuff of course. Threadless has done their best to remain a community but ultimately I think the market has changed and I can' see it coming back. If people aren't interested it aint going to happen. If you look at the forum now, the difference is this; It's almost entirely designers, promoting their work and getting feedback - myself included. The people who just really enjoyed t-shirts and wanted to buy cool stuff have pretty much gone. They were threadless's lifeblood from the community perspective and I certainly miss them.

edwardlepine

on July 21 '17 @ 10:59

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I understand your malaise, but your points are a bit vague. What qualifies as excitement? Since Threadless launched, the internet has changed, printing technology has been pushed forward. I think Artist Shops allows designers to make more niche things that perhaps the broader public wouldn't catch. It's not perfect, but they're doing a great job listening, and iterating. I still think the community plays a huge part here, it's part of the DNA of the site, but I'm curious if you have more concrete ideas to freshen up the community?

agrimony

on July 21 '17 @ 11:03

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i really miss the monday weekly print reveals. i want the old threadless contest to be exciting again :(

csweiler

on July 21 '17 @ 11:19

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I have only been on Threadless for a few years, and only super active for the past year or so. But I've spent a lot of time looking through old threads, and I see a distinct difference in the level of engagement over the past few years. I wish that I could have been around for the hay day, when the forums were busy and submissions were regularly scored by over a thousand people. There are still glimmers of that excitement every once in awhile around a thread, or a particular design challenge etc., but I would love to see way more of that. The on demand printing changed a lot I think. A lot of the new users are coming here for the artist shops as opposed to the contests, which I think is a big part of how the community is changing. Obviously, I think they had no choice in switching to on demand because of all of the competitors. To stay relevant they probably had to make that part of their business model, and you can't really fault them for that. But I see your point. Obviously I don't have the same perspective as someone who has been a member here for as long as you @mathiole , but I'm also passionate about threadless. I would love to hear if anyone has ideas on how to increase user engagement, or expand on that passion that is still here. I'll do some thinking myself and post here if I come up with anything. Would you mind expanding on how the some of the printed designs lately are 'cool but not awesome'? If some of my designs fall into that category (no offense taken if that's the case) I would be curious to know how I could improve.

gasponce

on July 21 '17 @ 11:22

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I think threadless decided to open up to more people. And that has it's good aspects and it's bad . It can't go back to "how it was" cause then no one "new" could ever come in here or nothing new could ever happen. I't's a loss for threadless too to be less super exclussive with less pampered "super-star-artists" and vice-versa! But it can't be helped! It's still an awesome "place" meaning it still provides awesome "working ground"for artists to showcase their art and communicate with each other and blah blah just not in the exact way it was back then. but to keep saying "back then" does no credit to whoever is part of threadless rn yourself included mathiole and to me you are like a threadless hero. imo.

robsonborges

on July 21 '17 @ 11:46

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Everthing is changing so fast. I think social media has taken the place of more closed communities like Threadless. People's behavior has changed, I see artists are more interested in having 100k of followers in instagram. For this they spend more time there.

Tonteau

on July 21 '17 @ 11:54

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What the lack of people just here to enjoy, support and buy good art/design on t-shirts robs you of is an objective voice of criticism. People who would tell you your work sucked as they had no reason to be nice to you (i.e. score their work). Now people often give positive comments in order to receive them in return.

daletheskater

on July 21 '17 @ 11:55

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More popular culture tv show/movie contests instead of these generic themed ones that have been constantly happening lately..

Tonteau

on July 21 '17 @ 11:56

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csweiler said: I wish that I could have been around for the hay day, when the forums were busy and submissions were regularly scored by over a thousand people. There are still glimmers of that excitement every once in awhile around a thread, or a particular design challenge etc., but I would love to see way more of that.

I think Jublin got over 3k votes once. Maybe not the all time record but very impressive.

<blockquote><cite>csweiler said:</cite> I wish that I could have been around for the hay day, when the forums were busy and submissions were regularly scored by over a thousand people. There are still glimmers of that excitement every once in awhile around a thread, or a particular design challenge etc., but I would love to see way more of that.</blockquote> I think Jublin got over 3k votes once. Maybe not the all time record but very impressive.

spookylili

on July 21 '17 @ 12:08

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Tonteau said:People who would tell you your work sucked as they had no reason to be nice to you (i.e. score their work).

Yeah, we need taz back to tell people they suck.

[+duracell-]

on July 21 '17 @ 12:15

I could probably list about 20 reasons but I think what is the most frustrating is that most of threadless's problems are so easily fixable (at least it seems so from the outside) yet they simply don't get fixed.

EZFL

on July 21 '17 @ 12:26

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All the big social media sites killed off the community here. Unique/high quality designs have been pushed to the side to make room for those that are much more mainstream and are easy sales.

mathiole

on July 21 '17 @ 12:36

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[+duracell-] said:I could probably list about 20 reasons but I think what is the most frustrating is that most of threadless's problems are so easily fixable (at least it seems so from the outside) yet they simply don't get fixed.

That's why I questioned myself if this current stage is the direction they're actually aiming for. Clearly threadless was a unique site once and now if feels just like another t-shirt site, with no 'special ingredients' on it. When I say I want the excitement back, I don't mean to just go back to past and bring all the old features to the present day. I understand that a company needs to be flexible and change itself to be competitive with the market, but within those changes, Threadless was unable to maintain it's aspect of 'unic'.

<blockquote><cite>[+duracell-] said:</cite>I could probably list about 20 reasons but I think what is the most frustrating is that most of threadless's problems are so easily fixable (at least it seems so from the outside) yet they simply don't get fixed. </blockquote> That's why I questioned myself if this current stage is the direction they're actually aiming for. Clearly threadless was a unique site once and now if feels just like another t-shirt site, with no 'special ingredients' on it. When I say I want the excitement back, I don't mean to just go back to past and bring all the old features to the present day. I understand that a company needs to be flexible and change itself to be competitive with the market, but within those changes, Threadless was unable to maintain it's aspect of 'unic'.

tobefonseca

on July 21 '17 @ 12:50

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I have to agree with you, after Jake left it got more evident. I don't know if they sells more now and if it's the only goal, but it's not what it used to def. I miss the old days and I miss that pride of being part of the best t-shirt site in the world. I still get a bit emotional when I remember the first print here, it was so meaningful. I really miss it. The other sites are getting bigger and bigger I feel like Threadless dropped the ball. But as you said, I really love Threadless, to be honest I still submiting regularly and I take my prints here as a badge, but something is missing, that energy we used to see in the pics, in the forum, in everywhere around here...

gasponce

on July 21 '17 @ 13:42

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What has changed here in some aspects has changed in other places too. Like in music. What people like Kanye West do others find it rubbish others a genius. It's progress though. Memes are an art form and they come up new everyday I don't get what's upsetting you most the big paycheck or the exclusivity. Cause tbh other sites and other artist I've seen with your skills do fine with being printed and getting deals so it's not like there are no "jobs" for "skilled professionals". Just an honest question. Cause I'm all about the art but honestly I really appreciate fresh faces and skills when I see them. I'm not hung up on kissing anybody's ass on seniority. And many times I'd take a newbs "weird"design over a "tried and tested" older designers same ol'same ol' boring design style- but that's just me. I'm a newb. And I love to break through whatever it is that needs breaking through.

JGTsunami

on July 21 '17 @ 14:36

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control of the downvoters / fake accounts
3. 4.

skaw

on July 21 '17 @ 15:00

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tobiasfonseca said:I have to agree with you, after Jake left it got more evident.

wowrainbows

on July 21 '17 @ 15:12

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EZFL said:All the big social media sites killed off the community here. .

This feels like the answer. Anyway, the only thing that bugs me these days is the new shirt quality and smelly printing... but they had to do that to bring fair pricing for the artists... who were leaving because they weren't being compensated how they liked... because people were leaving (probably due to the influx of other social media sites/shirt competitions.) Tough world, but Threadless is still king.

<blockquote><cite>EZFL said:</cite>All the big social media sites killed off the community here. .</blockquote> This feels like the answer. Anyway, the only thing that bugs me these days is the new shirt quality and smelly printing... but they had to do that to bring fair pricing for the artists... who were leaving because they weren't being compensated how they liked... because people were leaving (probably due to the influx of other social media sites/shirt competitions.) Tough world, but Threadless is still king.

mathiole

on July 21 '17 @ 15:19

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gasponce said:What has changed here in some aspects has changed in other places too. Like in music. What people like Kanye West do others find it rubbish others a genius. It's progress though. Memes are an art form and they come up new everyday I don't get what's upsetting you most the big paycheck or the exclusivity. Cause tbh other sites and other artist I've seen with your skills do fine with being printed and getting deals so it's not like there are no "jobs" for "skilled professionals". Just an honest question. Cause I'm all about the art but honestly I really appreciate fresh faces and skills when I see them. I'm not hung up on kissing anybody's ass on seniority. And many times I'd take a newbs "weird"design over a "tried and tested" older designers same ol'same ol' boring design style- but that's just me. I'm a newb. And I love to break through whatever it is that needs breaking through.

First of, i'm not talking about money, or jobs. Threadless is my main source of income despite my lack of dedication here. As I pointed out, I understand almost all the changes they did in the past years. But those changes did not followed the spirit that the company had to be always innovative, always trying something new, something fun, something that worked for both sides. There is nothing that separate Threadless from the other t-shirt/competition sites around the web, and that is what bugs me. I have absolute no problem with newcomers, quite te opposite actually, to embrace everyone and make then feel 'home' is a great value for a company. But as Tobias said, maybe it was when jake left, I don't know, but it seems the company doesn't have the same excitement do to things anymore. They're just running on autopilot because that works

<blockquote><cite>gasponce said:</cite>What has changed here in some aspects has changed in other places too. Like in music. What people like Kanye West do others find it rubbish others a genius. It's progress though. Memes are an art form and they come up new everyday I don't get what's upsetting you most the big paycheck or the exclusivity. Cause tbh other sites and other artist I've seen with your skills do fine with being printed and getting deals so it's not like there are no "jobs" for "skilled professionals". Just an honest question. Cause I'm all about the art but honestly I really appreciate fresh faces and skills when I see them. I'm not hung up on kissing anybody's ass on seniority. And many times I'd take a newbs "weird"design over a "tried and tested" older designers same ol'same ol' boring design style- but that's just me. I'm a newb. And I love to break through whatever it is that needs breaking through.</blockquote> First of, i'm not talking about money, or jobs. Threadless is my main source of income despite my lack of dedication here. As I pointed out, I understand almost all the changes they did in the past years. But those changes did not followed the spirit that the company had to be always innovative, always trying something new, something fun, something that worked for both sides. There is nothing that separate Threadless from the other t-shirt/competition sites around the web, and that is what bugs me. I have absolute no problem with newcomers, quite te opposite actually, to embrace everyone and make then feel 'home' is a great value for a company. But as Tobias said, maybe it was when jake left, I don't know, but it seems the company doesn't have the same excitement do to things anymore. They're just running on autopilot because that works

gasponce

on July 21 '17 @ 16:41

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skaw said:
tobiasfonseca said:I have to agree with you, after Jake left it got more evident.

mathiole said:
gasponce said:What has changed here in some aspects has changed in other places too. Like in music. What people like Kanye West do others find it rubbish others a genius. It's progress though. Memes are an art form and they come up new everyday I don't get what's upsetting you most the big paycheck or the exclusivity. Cause tbh other sites and other artist I've seen with your skills do fine with being printed and getting deals so it's not like there are no "jobs" for "skilled professionals". Just an honest question. Cause I'm all about the art but honestly I really appreciate fresh faces and skills when I see them. I'm not hung up on kissing anybody's ass on seniority. And many times I'd take a newbs "weird"design over a "tried and tested" older designers same ol'same ol' boring design style- but that's just me. I'm a newb. And I love to break through whatever it is that needs breaking through.
First of, i'm not talking about money, or jobs. Threadless is my main source of income despite my lack of dedication here. As I pointed out, I understand almost all the changes they did in the past years. But those changes did not followed the spirit that the company had to be always innovative, always trying something new, something fun, something that worked for both sides. There is nothing that separate Threadless from the other t-shirt/competition sites around the web, and that is what bugs me. I have absolute no problem with newcomers, quite te opposite actually, to embrace everyone and make then feel 'home' is a great value for a company. But as Tobias said, maybe it was when jake left, I don't know, but it seems the company doesn't have the same excitement do to things anymore. They're just running on autopilot because that works

<blockquote><cite>skaw said:</cite><blockquote><cite>tobiasfonseca said:</cite>I have to agree with you, after Jake left it got more evident.</blockquote> <img src="http://i.imgur.com/7jAerv5.gif"></blockquote> <blockquote><cite>mathiole said:</cite><blockquote><cite>gasponce said:</cite>What has changed here in some aspects has changed in other places too. Like in music. What people like Kanye West do others find it rubbish others a genius. It's progress though. Memes are an art form and they come up new everyday I don't get what's upsetting you most the big paycheck or the exclusivity. Cause tbh other sites and other artist I've seen with your skills do fine with being printed and getting deals so it's not like there are no "jobs" for "skilled professionals". Just an honest question. Cause I'm all about the art but honestly I really appreciate fresh faces and skills when I see them. I'm not hung up on kissing anybody's ass on seniority. And many times I'd take a newbs "weird"design over a "tried and tested" older designers same ol'same ol' boring design style- but that's just me. I'm a newb. And I love to break through whatever it is that needs breaking through.</blockquote> First of, i'm not talking about money, or jobs. Threadless is my main source of income despite my lack of dedication here. As I pointed out, I understand almost all the changes they did in the past years. But those changes did not followed the spirit that the company had to be always innovative, always trying something new, something fun, something that worked for both sides. There is nothing that separate Threadless from the other t-shirt/competition sites around the web, and that is what bugs me. I have absolute no problem with newcomers, quite te opposite actually, to embrace everyone and make then feel 'home' is a great value for a company. But as Tobias said, maybe it was when jake left, I don't know, but it seems the company doesn't have the same excitement do to things anymore. They're just running on autopilot because that works</blockquote>

gasponce

on July 21 '17 @ 16:52

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Threadless has "changed"things massively to incorporate pod and keep the high level of really good artwork without it being "exclusive" you can still go sell it to other sites- yet you get pretty good exposure 1000$ in prizes etcetc. god knows i wish everyone could get printed i have so many designs/artists I consider favourites of mine but i understand that it can't work that way. Imagine threadless printing like 20 designs daily/weekly their catalogue would be like 1000 pages in 2 years! things need to stat fresh positive new but still the"art"out there is amazing in levels and volumes.

skaw

on July 21 '17 @ 17:28

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I didn't leave sillies

quick-brown-fox

on July 21 '17 @ 17:32

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Looking back, you could see things changing slowly over time. I got the impression that customers were less interested in buying new designs the day they came out, and just waiting for sales. So Threadless were paying a fortune for a run of screen printed designs, on custom made shirts, plus a $2,000 prize, and must've only been breaking at best because everyone was just waiting for sales. Remember when you'd have to buy a shirt because it might sell out? Even when you felt a little bit of kudos for having a "first run" version of a design? I remember @skaw posting a random list of designs and how many copies were selling. Something like 10% of sales were propping up the other 90% which weren't viable. I even felt guilty about this, because I felt like my designs were amongst the 90%. I know a lot of people were motivated by the money, many people submitting were/are full time illustrators & designers and getting regular prints here was part of their income. Then there are people like me, who aren't good enough to make a living out of doing it full time, but see Threadless as a fun hobby or outlet for their creativity. I do really miss the way things used to be - all the fun in the forums, the "popcorn" threads where people would get in to awkward arguments. I still love this place and it still takes up a big chunk of my leisure time. Everything seems more fragmented these days with social media. So much has changed. The thing I miss the most is the excitement of receiving a new design in the post. I always knew the screen printing would be good, but it was a matter of how good. I remember the last screen printed shirt I received in the post, it was one of mine. I was so blown away by the quality, I took photos of it and posted it all over my social media pages. I don't really know what my point is. It's late. I guess I agree, it used to be magical here, but things had to change because if they didn't change, maybe there'd be no Threadless at all. PS - Jake's still here

quick-brown-fox

on July 21 '17 @ 17:32

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skaw said:I didn't leave sillies

Beat me to it!

quick-brown-fox

on July 21 '17 @ 17:40

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I think the way that Threadless is evolving is the Artist Shops. I know a little about wordpress, but there's no way I could set up my own shop, that can carry my brand, that I can update regularly. I get the impression that there are a lot of clever people constantly working on it, to make it better and better. It's something I'm quite excited to see develop.

agrimony

on July 21 '17 @ 21:23

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Exactly that. Pod means that there are no longer limited runs in shirts. I think part of the excitement was to get a particular design before it sells out. I wonder if it's possible to do that now, albeit artificially. Maybe winning designs can be printed in a limited number in a special way for example

agrimony

on July 21 '17 @ 21:24

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Sort of like how pins worked

csweiler

on July 21 '17 @ 21:34

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agrimony said:Exactly that. Pod means that there are no longer limited runs in shirts. I think part of the excitement was to get a particular design before it sells out. I wonder if it's possible to do that now, albeit artificially. Maybe winning designs can be printed in a limited number in a special way for example

Interesting idea. Then the artist could put the design in their shop if they want to continue to sell it. Sales would be less than they would be on the regular site, but higher profit margin potentially. Alternatively, they could offer more designs on less common products not available in the shops like hats, pins, stickers and patches. That would help set them apart from the other sites in my book.

<blockquote><cite>agrimony said:</cite>Exactly that. Pod means that there are no longer limited runs in shirts. I think part of the excitement was to get a particular design before it sells out. I wonder if it's possible to do that now, albeit artificially. Maybe winning designs can be printed in a limited number in a special way for example</blockquote> Interesting idea. Then the artist could put the design in their shop if they want to continue to sell it. Sales would be less than they would be on the regular site, but higher profit margin potentially. Alternatively, they could offer more designs on less common products not available in the shops like hats, pins, stickers and patches. That would help set them apart from the other sites in my book.

donnovanknight

on July 21 '17 @ 23:23

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This post just makes me sad. Like I've missed out one something great. Where the hell was I? (Oh, I know living a miserable life with my ex, but no more!)

dnice25

on July 21 '17 @ 23:32

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I think two things have changed threadless throughout the years. Their was a core base that hung out here like trolls under a bridge. That core has moved on in life pursuing other adventures. Every now and then they may pop in for a guest appearance but for the most part they've moved on. The silly threads where taz would poop in with consistent and hilarious jabs are over, posting Jeffs face all over random things is over, thread wars on the site is over, and dedication to the site is over. Artists are now spreading their creativity through various sites instead of sticking with Threadless . The community is very important here, more so then any other site. I feel their should be a dedication to the community that's aggressive. The second thing is threadless trying to follow trends due to other competition from various other websites. Threadless is a site for the artist by the artist and that will always remain but sometimes I feel they may chase trends too often and forget the quirky art that it's known for. Yes!!! I get the business aspect but their will always be great business with creative work.

Steelbath-Worx

on July 22 '17 @ 0:34

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Hello I am new here (even though it says 2013) I don't know anything about the community, but aren't you more concerned about the drastic dip in quality that everyone is talking about? I haven't even ordered a shirt from here in like 7 years. But I hear nothing but terrible things. I also hear many people complaining about the art and designs, how does that reflect on Threadless? The artists submit the designs. I personally am not here for contests, I'm here for the print on demand aspect.

gasponce

on July 22 '17 @ 6:27

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Personally I've ordered my art from my shop on s6 and here and I think this place has a better quality. As for the pod aspect. As for the main site the prints and t's I've received are gorgeous. I've only ordered from qwertee for reference and the print was ok but the t really scratchy. So if this is their "worse" it's pretty darn good in comparison.

sachpica

on July 22 '17 @ 7:45

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I think they fell into the comfort zone...

danrule

on July 22 '17 @ 10:26

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Those were really cool times! busy forum, high payout for design, special photo shoots for designs. Think reddit took that forum traffic, that high payout wasn't tenable not tied directly to sales and no reason for individual photo shoots when you don't actually screen the product nor pay 2 grand for the design. Threadless can let designs sink or swim on their own appeal. I appreciate being part of that past, don't know if or how it would come back. It's a totally different world than when they started. It's hard to be a crowdsourcing product without the crowds, so maybe that's the obvious difference.

danrule

on July 22 '17 @ 10:32

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Mathiole that's impressive this is your main income source! For me, tshirt income went from helping pay for building a house to helping family eat out a few times a month.

mathiole

on July 22 '17 @ 11:21

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sachpica said:I think they fell into the comfort zone...

I think the same. I don't think threadless needs to do everything they once did to regain their status of unique and awesome company. POD is a reality and that was a correct thing to do. However, where is the passion to do things differently, to think on new ideas? I don't see this anymore and that's what bugs me. Maybe we should discuss what can be done to 'make threadless great again' (sorry for that), but only if the company really thinks like most of us do. Because, honestly, I don't think they have the same passion now...but who knows

<blockquote><cite>sachpica said:</cite>I think they fell into the comfort zone...</blockquote> I think the same. I don't think threadless needs to do everything they once did to regain their status of unique and awesome company. POD is a reality and that was a correct thing to do. However, where is the passion to do things differently, to think on new ideas? I don't see this anymore and that's what bugs me. Maybe we should discuss what can be done to 'make threadless great again' (sorry for that), but only if the company really thinks like most of us do. Because, honestly, I don't think they have the same passion now...but who knows

JaymeArt

on July 22 '17 @ 19:08

Since the addition of pod and Artists shops, people can upload and sell their work on their shops without much reason for joining in forum activity. Perhaps the 'community' from the past that people miss, is not why most new people are here. Some want honest advice for improvement, but seems to me like artists are here mainly to sell their art on shirts. idk @dnice25: "Their was a core base that hung out here like trolls under a bridge. ...I feel their should be a dedication to the community that's aggressive." Dedicated, aggressive trolling? lol, thats not nice. "thread wars on the site is over" --10 was the last one. Ever? That would be sad. Quality products, customer service, competitive pricing, and really good SEO are important imo. That, along with streamlined uploading and customization of stores for the artist, and ease of purchase for shoppers. The free Placit mockups integrated in the upload process would be cool.

opifan64

on July 23 '17 @ 11:50

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If you go to the landing page it's evident even there that it's a very different atmosphere than the old threadless. The t-shirts used to be modelled by staff but now they're anonymous models with the faces cropped out - an apt metaphor for threadless becoming a bit more "faceless". I'm not sure if it's possible to bring back the same sense of community that threadless used to have. As others have said, the world has changed and there's a lot of competing social media now. As nice as it is from an artist's perspective, I think having the licensing terms change from exclusive to non-exclusive did take away some of the magic from threadless, and the ability to stand out from the crowd. I'm not sure how realistic it would be to have exclusive terms now, but I think something needs to be done to distinguish the brand over other sites. The relaunch of the website was a hiccup that the forum never quite recovered from. There was a long stretch of time when the website wasn't fully functional and it seemed liked it lost quite a bit of social media gravity during that transition. Even after the site was functioning smoothly, there was a bit of the sense of "where did everyone go?" Maybe it's just my imagination, and the community was shrinking prior to this, but it does stand out in my mind as a dividing line between the old threadless and new threadless. I think the Artist Shops were a good idea, and a move to make threadless more competitive with other PoD sites, but I think it needs more integration and support from the home site. It's currently too reliant on the artists' self-promotion to drive traffic. As an artist, I wish they had kept the design thumbnails as part of the forum. I liked looking at the forum thread and noting which designs seemed to be getting bumped a lot. It was an easy way to get a sense of which designs were doing well, and helped keep voting alive within the forum. It also helped preserve the focus on the real lifeblood of the site - namely, the art. From a purely selfish perspective, it was exciting to see your design get bumped into to the forum whenever someone left a new comment. I say all this not to be critical, but because I do love the site and credit it with launching my career in art. I don't think I'd be working full-time as an artist if I hadn't stumbled upon threadless all those years ago. I'd like to see some of that old magic return, but unfortunately I don't have that many concrete suggestions.

gasponce

on July 23 '17 @ 14:58

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I for one would like the voting to change from anonymous to where you can't see who voted what to a system where each result is broke down in the end and you get to see who is voting for you 1 through 5 like how the system in fb has to show who has "liked a post or sommething similar. Cause I know for some of you it might not be " a big deal" but for me no matter what kind of design I submit my first 10 votes are downvoters -the first vote given in the first 1to 3 min. of submission has me thinking it might be even a bot- and if you consider that overall in my last submissions I've been geting something like an average of 30-40 votes I'd like to know htf it is who's been holding a grudge like a bitch for the past couple of years. Or if it's a totally random thing to ease my mind and get back to my crummy monotonous art. But this-the downvoting- is not helping me or anyone see threadless as a "happy place". And also I'm not going to go around scoring people one's just because other's do it to me. I vote people on a possitive note not on a negative one. Not that I haven't given out 1's and 2's but that's not my whole "point"of scoring. To ruin someones chance of getting noticed or printed or feel happy or genuinely know what their art is "worth". Anyway that's me. I'm tired of the anonymity and the trash hiding behind it in the voting system.

gasponce

on July 23 '17 @ 16:10

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Also one thing I totally like more compared to say qwertee is how you can search designs when it comes to shopping. That should go into the discover part as well. I know you said you'd add a search by tags thing but you haven't so I'm just pointing it out.

mathiole

on July 24 '17 @ 8:28

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Given the feedback we received from the staff so far,I can only assume this is not a relevant matter for them, as I suspected. I guess I don't have high hopes for things to change, or at least they won't try to change.

skaw

on July 24 '17 @ 8:56

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mathiole said:Given the feedback we received from the staff so far,I can only assume this is not a relevant matter for them, as I suspected. I guess I don't have high hopes for things to change, or at least they won't try to change.

We are listening.

DinoMike

on July 24 '17 @ 11:01

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I've been pretty close to writing a similar post for a while now. I've been actively subbing work to Threadless for the last few years now, and I've been extremely lucky enough to get a few prints, especially last year. But for me personally, I've seen a few changes since the start of this year which I felt affected me negatively. I don't want to be too critical, as I still really enjoy subbing stuff to Threadless, but these are the main issues from my point of view: Artist Shops: It's clear the Threadless has put a ton of effort into setting up the Artist Shops and I can see the huge potential in it from their point of view. However, for myself, I can't afford the time to promote and maintain a shop on my own. Although I'm a professional designer, I don't really have the online following to warrant promoting my own work, and I tend to rely on the support of whichever website I'm on to show off my work. Which is why Threadless was initially amazing for my work, as printed designs were given a huge amount of visibility in the week they were printed, and really allowed good designs to get a foothold, even if the artist was relatively unknown. Competition Prints: Since Christmas it looks like Threadless are printing less designs per week. Which is fine, but since a few of these are going to be prints from specific themed competitions, as well as sometimes a featured print from Artist Shops, it makes it more unlikely than ever that you'll get a print from subbing to the regular Threadless competition. For example, my last print was from a design I subbed August last year. And since then, I've subbed almost 50 more designs, most of which have scored really well, but I don't think I'm as likely to get a print as I was before. I'm not saying I'm entitled to a print, as that is 100% Threadless's decision, but I do think it's definitely a lot more difficult to get a print these days. Downvoters: This isn't a massive issue, but I still think downvoting is a easily solvable problem. This generally seems to happen in specific competitions (for example the recent Minimalist comp), but it definitely impacts the way I view subbing. I had two entries in the Minimalist competition and both were sunk within hours through downvoting, meaning that they couldn't gain any visibility and ended up scoring really badly. I probably would've subbed more to this competition, but it just felt completely pointless. I really think the simplest way of combatting this would be to give the ability to vote to users who have submitted deigns themselves, or have bought something from the site. Therefore, you'd know they were real people and not an army of bots. There would be less votes cast overall, but at least they'd be genuine. I know that these issues are probably very specific to myself, but I just thought I'd add it to the discussion. It's really interesting what you guys have to say and I think one thing that Threadless has always had in it's favour, is that they do listen to us.

I've been pretty close to writing a similar post for a while now. I've been actively subbing work to Threadless for the last few years now, and I've been extremely lucky enough to get a few prints, especially last year. But for me personally, I've seen a few changes since the start of this year which I felt affected me negatively. I don't want to be too critical, as I still really enjoy subbing stuff to Threadless, but these are the main issues from my point of view: **Artist Shops**: It's clear the Threadless has put a ton of effort into setting up the Artist Shops and I can see the huge potential in it from their point of view. However, for myself, I can't afford the time to promote and maintain a shop on my own. Although I'm a professional designer, I don't really have the online following to warrant promoting my own work, and I tend to rely on the support of whichever website I'm on to show off my work. Which is why Threadless was initially amazing for my work, as printed designs were given a huge amount of visibility in the week they were printed, and really allowed good designs to get a foothold, even if the artist was relatively unknown. **Competition Prints**: Since Christmas it looks like Threadless are printing less designs per week. Which is fine, but since a few of these are going to be prints from specific themed competitions, as well as sometimes a featured print from Artist Shops, it makes it more unlikely than ever that you'll get a print from subbing to the regular Threadless competition. For example, my last print was from a design I subbed August last year. And since then, I've subbed almost 50 more designs, most of which have scored really well, but I don't think I'm as likely to get a print as I was before. I'm not saying I'm entitled to a print, as that is 100% Threadless's decision, but I do think it's definitely a lot more difficult to get a print these days. **Downvoters**: This isn't a massive issue, but I still think downvoting is a easily solvable problem. This generally seems to happen in specific competitions (for example the recent Minimalist comp), but it definitely impacts the way I view subbing. I had two entries in the Minimalist competition and both were sunk within hours through downvoting, meaning that they couldn't gain any visibility and ended up scoring really badly. I probably would've subbed more to this competition, but it just felt completely pointless. I really think the simplest way of combatting this would be to give the ability to vote to users who have submitted deigns themselves, or have bought something from the site. Therefore, you'd know they were real people and not an army of bots. There would be less votes cast overall, but at least they'd be genuine. I know that these issues are probably very specific to myself, but I just thought I'd add it to the discussion. It's really interesting what you guys have to say and I think one thing that Threadless has always had in it's favour, is that they do listen to us.

quick-brown-fox

on July 24 '17 @ 11:38

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Kind of off topic, but you're not wrong on the down voter issue. I actively avoid looking at my scores, to the point of moving the part of the window my score appears in to off the screen if I'm reading comments. I only look at scores if a design has been selected by Threadless. They used to be important to me, but now they mean nothing because seldom are they an accurate representation of how a design was received. Personally, I think new accounts should be tied to a valid email address. It makes it harder to make up 400 fake accounts to down/up vote.

Tonteau

on July 24 '17 @ 12:06

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mathiole said:Given the feedback we received from the staff so far,I can only assume this is not a relevant matter for them, as I suspected. I guess I don't have high hopes for things to change, or at least they won't try to change.

Skaw's reply notwithstanding, I think you can question a lot of changes threadless have made but you can never accuse them of not listening to people. It's basically how they've operated since the get-go. I've got some suggestions I'll jot down later.

<blockquote><cite>mathiole said:</cite>Given the feedback we received from the staff so far,I can only assume this is not a relevant matter for them, as I suspected. I guess I don't have high hopes for things to change, or at least they won't try to change.</blockquote> Skaw's reply notwithstanding, I think you can question a lot of changes threadless have made but you can never accuse them of not listening to people. It's basically how they've operated since the get-go. I've got some suggestions I'll jot down later.

gasponce

on July 24 '17 @ 15:13

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quick-brown-fox said:Kind of off topic, but you're not wrong on the down voter issue. I actively avoid looking at my scores, to the point of moving the part of the window my score appears in to off the screen if I'm reading comments. I only look at scores if a design has been selected by Threadless. They used to be important to me, but now they mean nothing because seldom are they an accurate representation of how a design was received. Personally, I think new accounts should be tied to a valid email address. It makes it harder to make up 400 fake accounts to down/up vote.

Maybe it's harder for you to track a pattern because you have more followers / fans better art but I can't help monitoring the downvoting when I feel I'm struggling with my "progress" . I'm here to grow and this is messing with my process. :/

<blockquote><cite>quick-brown-fox said:</cite>Kind of off topic, but you're not wrong on the down voter issue. I actively avoid looking at my scores, to the point of moving the part of the window my score appears in to off the screen if I'm reading comments. I only look at scores if a design has been selected by Threadless. They used to be important to me, but now they mean nothing because seldom are they an accurate representation of how a design was received. Personally, I think new accounts should be tied to a valid email address. It makes it harder to make up 400 fake accounts to down/up vote.</blockquote> Maybe it's harder for you to track a pattern because you have more followers / fans better art but I can't help monitoring the downvoting when I feel I'm struggling with my "progress" . I'm here to grow and this is messing with my process. :/

olie!

on July 24 '17 @ 18:33

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Wow, I haven't been on here in ages, but I see some old familiar avatars in here, along with lots of new ones. Hey guys. This thread has definitely regaled me with old memories. Hey everybody! I think there's no question Threadless is quite different from how it was 5 or so years ago. I remember I'd spend hours in the forums just shootin' the shit with people, a lot of the blogs I loved wouldn't even be design related. But pretty much everything changes over time, and as others have said more eloquently, social media was most likely one of the biggest catalysts for that change. I don't think the changes are necessarily positive or negative, but I do miss the strong community aspect that used to saturate this place. I also think that most of the very active users during that time have just gotten older and moved onto other things now, myself included. As we get older and technology evolves, new people, things and ways of interacting are constantly being introduced to our lives, and it's almost impossible for me to keep up with it all. There are lots of people I've met from this site and elsewhere I'd like to keep in touch with, but even if I used social media there's not enough time in my day anymore for me to do everything, and Threadless has almost completely faded out of the picture for me. It's a bummer, but it's also my fault I guess. I'm not quite sure what the atmosphere is like now, but I still see some cool stuff on here. It just doesn't quite hold my interest anymore as much as it used to, and that might be due to my tastes and experiences. I don't know if the company will ever make decisions to return to the blog environment to its former glory either, but even if it did I don't know how much it will change. The folks that populated this place once and the conversations we had probably won't ever return, and that's OK. It's just a natural progression in my opinion. Jeez I sound old.

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