I figured while I’m at it, I might as well write up the other suggestion that has been floating in my mind for a while as well lol.
What if we had a feature that allowed you to see similar patterns to one that you’re interested in? Like if you click on a pattern, an option that says ‘see more patterns like this’ or something like that. I think it would be really helpful for when you’re trying to find a pattern that matches what you’re looking for, or if you find the idea/concept of a pattern interesting but want to see what other options to it there might be. Sometimes I click on a pattern thinking ‘this is kind of nice, but if ____ were different it would be even better! I wonder if there are other patterns that suit my vision more?’
Sometimes I just wanna see what variety exists to a pattern so I can decide what I like best or want to make the most.
The idea of a specific option to ‘see more patterns like this’ is preferable over just showing similar patterns because I don’t want to spend hours scrolling through patterns and saving a bunch to my wish list when I was originally just doing a quick search for one thing. That’s what Pinterest is for lmao.
That was probably unnecessarily long, but anyways. Let me know what you all think!
Yes! This would be more specific to individual patterns. The search bar will loosely cover a general item, but a feature that would show you patterns similar to a specific one would be really useful I think!
So, lemme give an example. If I wanted to search for, let’s say, patterns for dolls, then a simple ‘doll’ search would show many options for patterns of dolls. But if you were to click on a specific one that you like, and had the option to see more patterns like it, it would show you similar patterns to that specific doll pattern, rather than just dolls in general. So if you clicked on a chibi doll pattern, or a realistic doll pattern, or a clothed doll pattern, and you wanted to see more like that specific one, it would show you similar doll patterns to that style. Sometimes a general search gives you too many options, and a specific search might exclude options that you actually would like to see, so it would help to have a more specialized tool for that sort of thing. Then you could get a better idea of patterns that match what you’re trying to achieve.
I am concerned that this might support copying patterns. The person who’s having a brand new idea and putting all the effort in to make it work will most likely make it paid. Others copying the idea have much less effort so they can make it cheaper or even free. A direct comparison might lead to people clicking this trending pattern, find a cheaper alternative and go for that instead of the original, that has put effort into marketing or is just better known because it is there the longest
I see your point, but I think people do that anyway. If there are multiple patterns in a specific style, most people would try to find one that suits their needs the most, and if they can’t pay for a paid pattern, they’ll go for the next best thing. I don’t think that giving people the option to see nuanced variety among patterns will increase that, it’ll just show the options more clearly. I’d argue that it would actually promote unique pattern creation so designers could make an impression on the viewers, and it would also actually show you the unique patterns that maybe aren’t trending or popular that get buried deeper in the search results.
Having more refined recommendation tools serves a lot of purposes, and I think it would mainly just allow for more detailed selection of patterns. If there are patterns that look similar enough, there will already be competition between them. This feature would just show you your existing options more accurately, so you can see the patterns that might not even show up easily in search.
Sorry, I just reread your comment and realized I missed your point a little.
I know what you’re saying now, and yeah I could definitely see how that could be a concern. But I also imagine that that might make it easier to spot when a pattern idea is being copied so there can actually be more management over that? Because right now, people can still copy ideas they found from an existing pattern, but a lot of people might not have seen the original to know it was being copied, so they can get away with it easier. I imagine that seeing direct comparisons might make it easier to catch that when it happens too.
That’s only a benefit if something is done about the copies then.
As far as my research goes copying ideas isn’t illegal, as long as you make the pattern yourself. But coming up with ideas, developing a way to turn them into crochet and marketing them is a lot of work. Looking at an excisting pattern and recreating it is much easier.
Ribblr is full of illegal stuff already, like Pokémon&Co, so I doubt there will happen anything against idea thiefs, even if we agreed that we don’t want to see it
