10 ms·

I suck at web design, so I made a contest to design rubycommitters.org.

55 points by tenderlove 16y ago

tenderlove 16y ago
There were supposed to be hearts in the title, but I guess they got stripped out, so here are some hearts: <3<3<3<3<3
- spicycode 16y ago
  O/\O Have a high five, well played sir.
pavel_lishin 16y ago
Am I the only one who briefly paused before clicking on that link at work?
- tenderlove 16y ago
  I like to think that everyone does that. ;-) https://skitch.com/aaron.patterson/r8s8i/keywords-google-analytics https://skitch.com/aaron.patterson/r8s8i/keywords-google-ana...
lwhi 16y ago
http://www.no-spec.com/ http://www.no-spec.com/ EDIT: Actually, I feel a bit bad for posting this - still, I do believe that spec-work isn't good for designers. Competitions aren't necessarily the most productive way to go about creating a new web design for an open source project.
- sudont 16y ago
  Why do you feel bad? One of the biggest common gripes here is the non-technical partner who "just needs a programmer" to get the project off the ground. Everyone bashes those types, yet this exact thing, except for exploiting designers, is on the front page. There'd be a riot if some marketer came on this board looking for a programmer, cheap.
  - jrallison 16y ago
    This isn't a startup. It's a fun side project no one is expecting to make any money from. I understand the no-spec mentality, but it seems odd to apply it to open source or a fun, no-profit side project. If a designer is interested in Ruby committers and wants to make it look pretty, then have fun!
    - sudont 16y ago
      Then why not provide a 200 dollar RFP, solicit designers that love open source, and pick the best one? You gotta realize that designing stuff takes time. This means that there's a bunch of designers working hard for a prize that will most likely not be there. This isn't like OSS contributions where patches are integrated, this is direct competition for compensation, in the form of a spec work contest.
      - jrallison 16y ago
        I'm pretty sure building http://rubycommitters.org/ http://rubycommitters.org/ takes time as well and I don't believe anyone is paying Aaron to build it. In fact, it sounds like it's costing him his hard earned "love bucks". Get over your hostility and either do something fun on the internets, or don't.
        lwhi 16y ago
        You're missing the point. Aaron doesn't work on the off-chance that someone will accept his work. There aren't multiple people doing exactly the same thing as Aaron - completing for a single chance.
        jrallison 16y ago
        I don't think I am. I never said Aaron and the potential designers are in the same position. I was merely responding to sudont's notion that a person's time must always be compensated by an up-front, cash contract. In reality, people spend their time on many things for many different reasons. My understanding is http://www.no-spec.com/ http://www.no-spec.com/ is a reaction to businesses exploiting designers through spec work (if that's wrong, please enlighten me). There is no one exploiting anyone here, just a developer who would like his open source, zero revenue, app to look presentable. A designer who only opens photoshop for cash probably won't be interested, but a designer who also loves to design in their free time may. In that way, Aaron and a potential designer may very well be similar. They don't treat their craft as a day job, but more as a lifestyle.
- jellisjapan 16y ago
  Maybe they aren't the best way, but contests can make things more fun if you don't take them so seriously. I don't think he's scouting for cheap work to capitalize on, rather he's just looking to get the Ruby community's help involved in building a pretty looking site (hence why he isn't offering it on 99designs) and offering a prize to make it more fun.
  - tenderlove 16y ago
    Love Bucks is serious business.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- jamesteow 16y ago
  Instead of doing a competition, I think it would've been better to reach out to designers in the community to see if they wanted to contribute. I remember offering my services to the Appleseed social networking project as to help the project garner more attention and look more professional. I'm sure there are other designers out there willing to do so knowing that it is open source project. But a competition? No way. I'm not spending hours on a project with little contact with the 'client' when my work might never be used. On a sidenote, spec-work is still very common with large companies. I guess that's the price one pays when it comes to multi-million dollar contracts.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- tptacek 16y ago
  Oh come on. It's a TWO HUNDRED DOLLAR PRIZE. It's obvious to everyone involved that they're not looking for the best possible design for this site; this is a satisficing exercise.
- icey 16y ago
  If you asked him nicely, I bet the prize would also be payable in the form of grizzled man hugs, a video of sweet karate moves or maybe he'd even let you get to first base. Don't get me wrong, I don't know tenderlove at all and I've never even met him (or twatted with him on the twitter). But I have a lot of karma so obviously I know things.
- proexploit 16y ago
  Have you taken a look at what he actually wants designed? It's a single page that lists the committers. It's not a full site design, he's not looking for the world's best designer. I think he's offering a very fair price and the time commitment is low compared to true spec work. I'm a designer. I'm against spec work. I don't consider this to be spec work.
dangero 16y ago
99designs.com lets you host contests like this. It's a great site. I have used it a lot lately.
EGreg 16y ago
how is this different from 99designs?
- tenderlove 16y ago
  There are Love Bucks at stake.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - EGreg 16y ago
    if you put it that way ... ok :)
- lwhi 16y ago
  It isn't different .. this is a request for speculative work - and they're also asking for completed projects up front (in the same way that 99designs does). There's also a very small 'prize'.
- chc 16y ago
  This isn't some guy looking to get cheap work from random designers. It's a core member of an open-source project asking its ardent followers if they'd like to contribute something, with a smallish cash prize as a nice thank-you.
leftnode 16y ago
Why not just buy a nice theme on http://themeforest.net http://themeforest.net or any of the other template websites and modify it slightly?
icco 16y ago
The place you'll want to fork to get to work: https://github.com/tenderlove/rubycommitters.org https://github.com/tenderlove/rubycommitters.org I am constantly blown away by how overly complicated rails is for getting a simple site set up. It almost seems like this site would be better as just plain html (or a simple sinatra site...). But oh well, I digress, sounds like fun.
- veeti 16y ago
  A static site generator like http://nanoc.stoneship.org/ http://nanoc.stoneship.org/ would work too.
  - bradleyland 16y ago
    Or even better, Jekyll, which is the tool that powers GitHub Pages: http://pages.github.com/ http://pages.github.com/.
cancelbubble 16y ago
http://www.builditwith.me http://www.builditwith.me A web site that connects design & development entrepreneurs. It exists to make creating apps easier by connecting you with like-minded designers & developers with the same goal: create cool & useful apps. Build It With Me will help you bootstrap your ideas into actual apps. http://collabfinder.com http://collabfinder.com (this site is not responding as I enter this) Why'd we make it? Because we want to make it easier for likeminded developers and designers to meet and collaborate with one another. In other words, we want to help folks actually build the lovely projects they're thinking about.
enra 16y ago
I felt like helping out, so here's my entry: http://karrisaarinen.com/rubyc/ http://karrisaarinen.com/rubyc/ Tried to bring the minimalistic Japanese feel to it, like Ruby is. (The signature on the upper corner is only for the heroku preview. I wanted to sign it for the competition, but didn't want to write my name anywhere on the site)

55 points by tenderlove 16y ago

tenderlove 16y ago

There were supposed to be hearts in the title, but I guess they got stripped out, so here are some hearts: <3<3<3<3<3

spicycode 16y ago
O/\O Have a high five, well played sir.

pavel_lishin 16y ago

Am I the only one who briefly paused before clicking on that link at work?

tenderlove 16y ago
I like to think that everyone does that. ;-) https://skitch.com/aaron.patterson/r8s8i/keywords-google-analytics https://skitch.com/aaron.patterson/r8s8i/keywords-google-ana...

lwhi 16y ago

http://www.no-spec.com/ http://www.no-spec.com/ EDIT: Actually, I feel a bit bad for posting this - still, I do believe that spec-work isn't good for designers. Competitions aren't necessarily the most productive way to go about creating a new web design for an open source project.

sudont 16y ago
Why do you feel bad? One of the biggest common gripes here is the non-technical partner who "just needs a programmer" to get the project off the ground. Everyone bashes those types, yet this exact thing, except for exploiting designers, is on the front page. There'd be a riot if some marketer came on this board looking for a programmer, cheap.
- jrallison 16y ago
  This isn't a startup. It's a fun side project no one is expecting to make any money from. I understand the no-spec mentality, but it seems odd to apply it to open source or a fun, no-profit side project. If a designer is interested in Ruby committers and wants to make it look pretty, then have fun!
  - sudont 16y ago
    Then why not provide a 200 dollar RFP, solicit designers that love open source, and pick the best one? You gotta realize that designing stuff takes time. This means that there's a bunch of designers working hard for a prize that will most likely not be there. This isn't like OSS contributions where patches are integrated, this is direct competition for compensation, in the form of a spec work contest.
    - jrallison 16y ago
      I'm pretty sure building http://rubycommitters.org/ http://rubycommitters.org/ takes time as well and I don't believe anyone is paying Aaron to build it. In fact, it sounds like it's costing him his hard earned "love bucks". Get over your hostility and either do something fun on the internets, or don't.
      - lwhi 16y ago
        You're missing the point. Aaron doesn't work on the off-chance that someone will accept his work. There aren't multiple people doing exactly the same thing as Aaron - completing for a single chance.
        jrallison 16y ago
        I don't think I am. I never said Aaron and the potential designers are in the same position. I was merely responding to sudont's notion that a person's time must always be compensated by an up-front, cash contract. In reality, people spend their time on many things for many different reasons. My understanding is http://www.no-spec.com/ http://www.no-spec.com/ is a reaction to businesses exploiting designers through spec work (if that's wrong, please enlighten me). There is no one exploiting anyone here, just a developer who would like his open source, zero revenue, app to look presentable. A designer who only opens photoshop for cash probably won't be interested, but a designer who also loves to design in their free time may. In that way, Aaron and a potential designer may very well be similar. They don't treat their craft as a day job, but more as a lifestyle.
jellisjapan 16y ago
Maybe they aren't the best way, but contests can make things more fun if you don't take them so seriously. I don't think he's scouting for cheap work to capitalize on, rather he's just looking to get the Ruby community's help involved in building a pretty looking site (hence why he isn't offering it on 99designs) and offering a prize to make it more fun.
- tenderlove 16y ago
  Love Bucks is serious business.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
jamesteow 16y ago
Instead of doing a competition, I think it would've been better to reach out to designers in the community to see if they wanted to contribute. I remember offering my services to the Appleseed social networking project as to help the project garner more attention and look more professional. I'm sure there are other designers out there willing to do so knowing that it is open source project. But a competition? No way. I'm not spending hours on a project with little contact with the 'client' when my work might never be used. On a sidenote, spec-work is still very common with large companies. I guess that's the price one pays when it comes to multi-million dollar contracts.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
tptacek 16y ago
Oh come on. It's a TWO HUNDRED DOLLAR PRIZE. It's obvious to everyone involved that they're not looking for the best possible design for this site; this is a satisficing exercise.
icey 16y ago
If you asked him nicely, I bet the prize would also be payable in the form of grizzled man hugs, a video of sweet karate moves or maybe he'd even let you get to first base. Don't get me wrong, I don't know tenderlove at all and I've never even met him (or twatted with him on the twitter). But I have a lot of karma so obviously I know things.
proexploit 16y ago
Have you taken a look at what he actually wants designed? It's a single page that lists the committers. It's not a full site design, he's not looking for the world's best designer. I think he's offering a very fair price and the time commitment is low compared to true spec work. I'm a designer. I'm against spec work. I don't consider this to be spec work.

dangero 16y ago

99designs.com lets you host contests like this. It's a great site. I have used it a lot lately.

EGreg 16y ago

how is this different from 99designs?

tenderlove 16y ago
There are Love Bucks at stake.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- EGreg 16y ago
  if you put it that way ... ok :)
lwhi 16y ago
It isn't different .. this is a request for speculative work - and they're also asking for completed projects up front (in the same way that 99designs does). There's also a very small 'prize'.
chc 16y ago
This isn't some guy looking to get cheap work from random designers. It's a core member of an open-source project asking its ardent followers if they'd like to contribute something, with a smallish cash prize as a nice thank-you.

leftnode 16y ago

Why not just buy a nice theme on http://themeforest.net http://themeforest.net or any of the other template websites and modify it slightly?

icco 16y ago

The place you'll want to fork to get to work: https://github.com/tenderlove/rubycommitters.org https://github.com/tenderlove/rubycommitters.org I am constantly blown away by how overly complicated rails is for getting a simple site set up. It almost seems like this site would be better as just plain html (or a simple sinatra site...). But oh well, I digress, sounds like fun.

veeti 16y ago
A static site generator like http://nanoc.stoneship.org/ http://nanoc.stoneship.org/ would work too.
- bradleyland 16y ago
  Or even better, Jekyll, which is the tool that powers GitHub Pages: http://pages.github.com/ http://pages.github.com/.

cancelbubble 16y ago

http://www.builditwith.me http://www.builditwith.me A web site that connects design & development entrepreneurs. It exists to make creating apps easier by connecting you with like-minded designers & developers with the same goal: create cool & useful apps. Build It With Me will help you bootstrap your ideas into actual apps. http://collabfinder.com http://collabfinder.com (this site is not responding as I enter this) Why'd we make it? Because we want to make it easier for likeminded developers and designers to meet and collaborate with one another. In other words, we want to help folks actually build the lovely projects they're thinking about.

enra 16y ago

I felt like helping out, so here's my entry: http://karrisaarinen.com/rubyc/ http://karrisaarinen.com/rubyc/ Tried to bring the minimalistic Japanese feel to it, like Ruby is. (The signature on the upper corner is only for the heroku preview. I wanted to sign it for the competition, but didn't want to write my name anywhere on the site)