Arkany

Spawned for use in Creating Community Environments class at ITP in Fall of 2010

[arkany-blog]

“The Gregorian chant that greeted visitors to even the first version of the monastery library belied the fact that I was largely inspired to build the library by going to LA's vibrant punk rock shows and feeling that I was doing the same kind of thing with computers that groups like the Minutemen did to the Rock of the 70's. I saw myself as one worker seizing the means of production and distribution of information and ideas from corporate-sponsored ‘culture-vultures.’ I felt like having fun.” If Monks Had Macs... © Brian Thomas

http://www.smackerel.net/black_white_04.html

[arkany-blog]

I love books. I love reading them. I would totally buy and eReader. But I just can’t. Why? All the books I want to read on the subway are books I already own! Why should I have to buy my books all over again?

But like most people, I only donate the books I will never read.  I continuously hold onto the books I want to read, which results in low-quality books distributed to those who need them most.

My proposal hopes to get people to donate higher quality books by offering them the digital equivalent.

[somethingdifferentsoon-deactiva]

[arkany-blog]

hellyeahhowimetyourmother:

love love love this. must post again.

reblog if you are awesome.

[arkany-blog]

Not everything that comes out of man's darkest hour is bad.  Both the case of Esperanto's two main waves of adoption and the rebirth of Hebrew as a spoken language, there was pogroms and ethnic violence, and with the subsequent migration of communities, everyone was more open to new possibilities, even new languages.  They were born out of hope, they were adopted out of idealism.  They remain survived by their communities. 

[arkany-blog]

Etsy - Amazon.com for the truly independent

The main issue with exploring Etsy is you inevitably buy something from Etsy.

2 quick purchasing thoughts.

1.  I've wanted a vinyl sticker for my computer for a year and a half, but I'm horribly chicken about these sorts of things.  I believe I found one.  But there's still something holding me back. *UPDATE* No More!  I needed confirmation from an IRL friend to help me get over my initial hesitance.  

Zombie Snow White

Again, I almost purchased a bag from mariclaro but I need a backpack, not a messenger bag...

2.  I originally wanted the Snow White with Kerchief look, but when I looked recently, I saw that 3 or 4 stores were selling the exact same thing.  Awwwwwwkward.  How do you control that in a hand crafted environment?  You could easily find out who sold it first and block all the others, but they haven't...

Example

Overall Analysis

The site is very clean and remarkably devoid of advertisements considering the state of the web these days. I think that the side panel could be utilized better.  For example, I need to click to another page to see a fancy visualization to find out 'how many people heart this shop'  That's wasted time and a chance for me to lose focus.  The shop overall is a bit standoffish and could benefit from some warmth.  Perhaps skeumorphic choices from mom and pop stores would help bring people in.

[arkany-blog]

For my Creating Community Environments class. From the website:

What is Regretsy?

Regretsy is the fail blog of hand crafts.

What is the purpose of this site?

1. To make you laugh 2. To raise money for charity (all revenue raised by this web site is donated to charitable causes) 3. To help sell the weird crap we feature

I have enjoyed several fail blogs over the years, http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com being one, but the benefit is people who are trying their hand at crafts are making money, even with their bad work.  The issue will forever lie in the emotional ties creators have with their work.  If you find out someone is buying your hand-crafted word because they think it sucks, then it changes the game for many.  Depending on the work, I would be really upset too.  

But now there's another tier.  When you buy a person's work, they donate the money to charity.  So no one has to feel bad, right?

Still too much? Sometimes don't mock the item, just how it's presented. Sometimes they actually feature stuff they love.  It does make the website easier to handle and if everyone gets that it's good natured prodding for charity, then we're all good.

Divorcing yourself from the work is vital to making it and getting better.  Some of the writeups on regretsy are a bit harsh and don't offer the work to speak for itself.  If I had to take a stance, I would say, a purchase is a purchase, get better and make sure that your stuff is so good that it never ends up on regretsy or push it as far as you can into crazy town and make sure regretsy gives you a cult following.

[arkany-blog]

I need to test this out, so let's give it a go.