Unfortunately, patterns canāt really be borrowed safely. We would have to trust that that person wouldnāt just write it down or take screenshots. The designer would just be giving you the pattern for free essentially. Plus this would greatly increase the chance of the pattern being stolen and sold elsewhere.
I understand that there are a lot of teens who canāt buy patterns but it would be nice to see an idea that promotes supporting designers and not finding new ways to get free patterns from us
Iām going to give the benefit of the doubt that the idea is possibly coming from a good place, but the only people who would benefit from this are the people receiving a āfreeā pattern thatās otherwise intended to be purchased.
The difference between a library, and a pattern designer, is that libraries still get funded despite their contents being free to the public, and their employees still make money working. A pattern designer, trying to make any kind of living or whatever their goal is, gets nothing for giving out their work for free. Also being a Ribblr+ member means nothing to a pattern designer. Itās not like Ribblr gives out any of the membership fees to designers; with the exception of gem patterns which still have their own concerns per se (the same designers having multiple patterns in a given month for gems, instead of showcasing more designersā patterns per month).
Itās difficult enough to get pattern sales on Ribblr as it is, given the sheer amount of minors that use the app who donāt/canāt buy things, and all the adults who just may not want to. I also tend to agree that this puts pattern designers in an awkward position to either have to reject/ignore/whatever the option to say ānoā. No matter how you swing it, the end result is it coming across as a no from the designer, which is undoubtedly going to be interpreted as being stingy.
As a designer, I can say with my tapestry charts so many hours have been put into creating those from a blank slate. This is still art, and we should be supporting one another, not looking for ways to take advantage of one another.
As a designer having to aproove, and getting people asking for my patterns for free all the time would probably drive me off of the app. Also, I already get people commenting on my pattern drop posts saying I should have all my patterns be free. I can only imagine this would encourage people to start dming me because they want their patterns given to them.
If Ribblr paid me for my pattern every time it was borrowed, I would be fine, but that is basically in the space of gem patterns.
Also, people already have lots of opportunities to get free patterns, they can test patterns, take place in giveaways, ect. And there are already a ton of free patterns on Ribblr.
This idea seems to at least somewhat defeat the purpose of paid patterns, if you can just ask for it and then get it for free, even if it is just for a short period of time. You might as well just be given the pattern for free, because you could just write down or screenshot the pattern.
You donāt have to take posts down every time people donāt agree with your ideas. Itās good to just let these things play out because understanding otherās views is a good learning experience for everyone.
I would say I agree that this aināt a very good idea as a pattern creator. But I can say as a pattern creator I do a lot of tester calls and I base who I choose from their makes section when they post a journal. So I say you should find a bunch of free patterns make them and make journals and then youāll likely be picked for those paid patterns more often which ultimately will help you get free patterns in a way that actually helps support the designers hard work
I get the idea just donāt feel it would work. Opens the ability for people to sell on other sites way to much.
When I look for testers for paid patterns I visit their bio, see how long theyāve been on the app and how active they are and if they put their profile together (tends to mean not botting).
I also look at their makes section. Doing journals of completed pieces is so important. I know itās a tiny extra step when youāre done but it makes a huge difference for both the creator and the ones making patterns if they want to test in the future.
Unfortunately pattern designers have to be cautious because there are a lot of unscrupulous people out there who want something for nothing by piggybacking on the hard work of another, by selling their patterns. Itās a big reason Iāve never sold on Etsy as itās rampant there.
I tried to sell on etsy once but the feels and everything took my 4$ pattern here to be a 6 $ pattern just so I could make money as well.
I also want to know I already priced my patterns lower in the sense of lowballing my prices, as a way to help accommodate to the minor age side of the community most of my patterns I would typically sell for $5 to $6. But Iāve been keeping them around $3 to $4 or less to help ensure everyone here has the option and ability to pay for a pattern since I know as a minor how many parents give you a budget. But unfortunately lowering my prices isnāt helping me support my family. As well as, if we did the library we would end up removing that financial side all together, Iām a stay-home mom and my patterns are what helps me make ends meet when it comes to groceries and give my family abilities to go out and do family activities. I canāt even imagine if we end up allowing a bunch of people coming into borrow patterns cuz I donāt deserve it because all they would do was steal and sell elsewhere. Youāve already had the issue all here before where someoneās taken free patterns from someone here and sold and elsewhere like onā¦ not that Thai post maker would do that nor would most people do so.. but it will definitely be an advertisement for those bad people to flood the Ribblr app. And wed.lose.so many good people here due to it :)
I would say itād a nice idea, but techically it already happens during Halloween, Christmas, and other holidays on Ribblr. You get paid patterns for free for the month. Plus, Friday Freebies. Itās a nice idea but thereās already sm similar to it.
As others said, I donāt think itās a good idea. As a designer myself(not a big/good one, lol) I definitely wouldnāt want ppl to trade my nonexisting paid patterns. Ribblr makes so many events where you can get free patterns, designers are doing giveaways, it would be profiting only for people who donāt/canāt spend money on patterns. As a person who doesnāt/canāt buy patterns, I understand it was meant in a good way, but I think it would make Ribblr really annoying for designers and they would leave, causing Ribblr to loose their great designers, which wouldnāt be good.
Itās probably been said already but since Iām about to dip out to sleep and thereās lots of repliesā¦ I think in theory the idea is really cool. But in practice, itās pretty much just giving out paid patterns for free.
Unlike a library, that pays a really high price to acquire their books to lend out, the pattern creator is only getting paid their normal single price. And unlike a library, someone could easily copy down the pattern once they had access and make it as many times as they want, without ever having paid. I feel like if people were up for that, the pattern would just be free in the first place.
There would have to be a membership fee to join this library and also a feature to prevent screenshots. There is a feature on some of my apps that if I wanted to screenshot the screen would be black instead of whatever was actually on the screen because it prevents screenshots. If a person really wanted to steal a pattern they would have to write it down the old fashioned way. To join the library designers could join for free but to borrow would be a fee. That way designers would still get paid when their patterns are used and users can use multiple paid patterns for less money than they would otherwise spend for individual patterns.
That is a very good point because then shop owners would not sell as many patterns as they usually would and you spend money buying patterns that you donāt just want to give away.
The issue with this method is that since Ribblr can be used on the PC and not just the phone app, itās very easy to get around sites that donāt let you screenshot things when on a PC. Nothing in the world can get around being able to do a print screen option, or a snip tool. Or just using a phone to take a picture of your computer monitorās screen.
