Tutorial 6 - Online Communities

I was introduced to a website last year by workmates, which i never really thought much of until it was spoken about at class last week.

The website is www.threadless.com

It has some pretty sweet designs of t-shirts on there. Whats good about it is you can become part of the community, and help choose which designs will become threadless t-shirts. If you are keen, you can also post your own designs for t-shirts on there, and hear what other people have to say about it. People in the community can comment on why they like it, or why not, and what you could do differently. If they like it, they may choose to score it (between 0-5) and say whether they would buy it as a tee or a print. If the designer gets it printed (from winning enough people's votes in the community) they get $2500 (plus $500 for reprints). So if you are a creative person, and love to design things, why not join this community, post your design up and see how you go! This kind of money would be useful for getting through the year while studying.......

People in this community appear to contribute their own ideas through designing something, or helping others towards designing something people like. It is also a way to buy some cheapish t-shirts that you like, rather than going to the shops in town spending more than you need to on a shirt you may not like that much.

Potential ethical issues could arise in this community, such as copying other peoples ideas, or taking credit for someone else's work. From what i gather, though i could be wrong, it seems pretty safe, and you would have to accept an agreement before signing up to the community first.

This is a much more effective and efficient way of communicating with others than traditional ways, such as club meetings on wednesday nights. You can talk to people across the world, and look at a photographic image of designs, rather than flying overseas or within your country to have a look at designs. There are challenges with this community though, as it requires the use of technology which, lets face it, is confusing most of the time. This community cannot provide the interpersonal relationships that traditional communities do, as you don't talk and comment in person, it is all in writing, which is not always representative of what is actually meant to say.

Check out threadless for yourself and see what you think of it and the designs they have.