Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Contents

For our first reader submission, let's talk about what you find when you open up your downloads. I'm not talking about your purchases, I'm talking about all that extra junk. You know, the NO Piracy graphic page, the Thank You page, The Contact Sheet page, the TOU page, the Preview of what you just bought page, the This is Just Here to Take Up Space page, etc.

I hate the No piracy graphic. It is ridiculous and feels like a smack on the face. Like I'm already branded a criminal. I swear, digiland is the only place I've ever downloaded something and had this graphic included with my download. I've never seen it in a font or music download.

So, what do you like to see when you unzip? What do you hate and immediately trash?

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

UGH! I hate the no piracy thingies! I think every designer should include a contact sheet and get rid of the preview image.

Anonymous said...

Raise your hand if you can't stand T. Murphy.

Anonymous said...

I hate the thank you for your purchase, unless it's a coupon :)

I don't mind the piracy graphic, it's exactly the same as the FBI warnings.

I hate this new trend of having a preview plus the stupid preview named folder.

I hate having a graphic TOU plus a text TOU.

I hate TOUs that are a Word document. It takes up so much more room than the plain old text one.

Other junk? Recolored items, shadowed and non shadowed elements (I usually get rid of the shadowed ones as they mostly very badly done). Safety pins, plaid paper, dotted paper, paper clips, staples, plain brads, sticky tape, polaroid frames, straight stitching. Seriously, you can only have so much of the same thing. If it's different, I keep it, but it usually isn't. Just the same junk.

Anonymous said...

UGH! I hate the no piracy thingies! I think every designer should include a contact sheet and get rid of the preview image.

February 28, 2008 12:13 AM

What is the difference between a contact sheet and a preview? I put a preview in my zips because I thought it was helpful for the customer to see everything all in one place.

Perhaps a contact sheet would be easier, if I new what the difference was.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

Raise your hand if you can't stand T. Murphy.

February 28, 2008 12:14 AM


*Raising hand*

Anonymous said...

After I unzip a file, I go and delete the Thank you graphic, piracy graphic, graphic TOU and anything that is junk to me and only keep the text file TOU. I hate the pdf and doc TOUs, delete those as well.
One thing that really annoys me is when a kit is split up into folders (ie alpha, elements, papers) and there are Thank you, piracy graphics and TOUs included in each folder as well as in the main folder. Why a designer would include those things 4 (or more) times is beyond me.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and I also delete the contact sheets, the preview file is enough for me.

Anonymous said...

I cannot stand having the piracy notes in my kits. It's like they assume every customer is a pirate. I also don't like the thank you notes and 10 additional previews and sample layouts. This shit slows down my downloads.
Then you have fellows who pack everything in separate folders. I end up having 5 folders with papers, bows, buttons, tags and whatnot. Each folder contains the same piracy grafic, thank you note, 10 previews and sample layouts. Before you know it, a 60mb kit becomes a 1g download. That's insane.

Anonymous said...

I'd like everything in one folder, and I prefer the preview to the contact sheet because I use the preview to identify the folder - I pick what I'm going to use based on color, usually. The graphics on the contact sheets (like in the DDE mega kits) are too small and don't give me an overall sense of the colors in the kit.

I toss everything but the text TOU file, but I'm not bothered by having to do that.

Anonymous said...

What I don't like is when a kit is advertised as 250mb but after I am done deleting all the fluff there's only 125mb left. I feel cheated when this happens.

Anonymous said...

Y)u say:

It is ridiculous and feels like a smack on the face. Like I'm already branded a criminal. I swear, digiland is the only place I've ever downloaded something and had this graphic included with my download. I've never seen it in a font or music download.


Don't you see it on your movies at the beginning?How about on the back of your CDs?

Just push the delete button and chill.

Anonymous said...

Just push the delete button and chill.

February 28, 2008 10:57 AM

I am sure your kits are loaded with the damn annoying things!

Anonymous said...

I don't care. I just delete all the extra junk anyway. If I need to refer to TOU, most designers have them listed in their stores.

Anonymous said...

Hey, another one from DSO! I almost forgot about kimb - she's great friends with Bunny and Heather, right? Is she another one we should be worried about? Don't hear much about her or the others at DSO. Were they all in this big sharing group?

Anonymous said...

What's DSO?

Anonymous said...

DSO is Bunny Cates' site. www.digital-scrapbooking.org

Heather Manning sells there too. Speaking of her, have you seen her new "pirate" monkey? Is she giving herself away through her "No Piracy" image?

Bunny and Heather are supposedly "reformed" pirates. But, once a pirate, always a pirate!

Anonymous said...

What size are all the graphics these designers include that they take up so much hard drive space? My piracy graphic is less than 50kb, and my previews are never more than 125kb. My TOU is html so you can view it in your browser and wouldn't be many kb. (All the graphics for it are stored on the web so you don't get them included in the kit.)

Don't they save for web at 72dpi/ppi?

Anonymous said...

It isn't the "size" of the previews, it is the quantity. We get one with every kit we purchase and all freebies. I personally have over 20,000 digital scrapbooking files. (When I first started I was a freebie hunter, most of these files are crap quality, so need to be deleted.)

Why do we need so many? Can't all kits just link to a piracy site for the damn image? They are all the same.

Anonymous said...

I am sick of d/l a kit that contains 5 folders (and I get that it is split up for those poor souls on dial up) but to stick the piracy images, I-used-atomic-cupcake graphics, tou, and that stupid folder image AND the preview image in every stinking folder.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Atomic Cupcake, how annoying is it in damn near every kit it says in the description "Special Thanks to Atomic Cupcake" come on people, get a life!

Their stuff is crap compared to some real actions that you don't have to credit in the description, and many styles do a way better job!

So Atomic Cupcake, are you going to get with the times and quit requiring credit in descriptions?

Anonymous said...

So Atomic Cupcake, are you going to get with the times and quit requiring credit in descriptions?

Now THAT I would like to see. I have often passed AC actions by these days, because there are so many alternatives that do NOT require me to advertise for them! If I paid for an action I shouldn't have to advertise it too.

Anonymous said...

Now THAT I would like to see. I have often passed AC actions by these days, because there are so many alternatives that do NOT require me to advertise for them! If I paid for an action I shouldn't have to advertise it too.

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Now THIS is my biggest pet peeve of them all! I can’t even begin to understand how anyone thought this was a good idea; and for the life of me I can’t understand why any designer actually does this! AS if putting all this crap in the TOU isn’t bad enough (cuz, I know when I was just “scrapping” I never read those things!), they want me to advertise for them? And pay them for this pleasure?? This is the biggest crock of shit there is. Imagine if every business was conducted this way? The attitude of some of these designers is beyond imagination – just who in the hell do they think they are? Does a seamstress tell her customers where she got the fabric to sew the fabric? Or what sewing machine she uses? Oh, and don’t forget to disclose where she got the pins and the scissors! And the thread! Don’t for the thread!! As if any customer cares? Sheeesh, give us all a break here. Designers stop worrying about all the “credits” and concentrate on creating quality goods, your time would be much better spent in this way. Stop trying to police an entire industry – you’re going to kill it before long.

Anonymous said...

The only things that really bug me, are the fan blinkies, extra previews (I only need one!),thank you graphics and links to their store/blog (If i bought from you, i already know where its at!)...Oh and the weird mac/psp files that sometimes end up in downloads.

I get the no piracy graphics, obviously it's a problem in this industry, so I don't mind them. And I also like having the new TOU, in case I need to get in contact with a designer.

Anonymous said...

Thank-you graphics really bug you?? Weird. I thought it was a nice gesture.

Anonymous said...

6:15pm: I cannot stand having the piracy notes in my kits. It's like they assume every customer is a pirate.
I can totally understand you point, however these graphics are not included to treat every person that downloads a pirate, it is for all the newbies as a reminder and explaination of what a pirate is.
I thought I would also comment on a few things that bug me: I hate all the thank yous, blinkies, read me and a tou (i mean one should be enough), also is it really necessary to include the detail preview images, just the basic all in one is good for me. I do actually like any simple to read TOU, don't care the format, but let's get rid of the conflicting information, and make it easier for the customers to understand. When I do my zips, I try to only put in the things that I myself would actually keep when buying products, okay, okay, except the piracy graphic, I get it, and don't need the reminder in every kit.

Anonymous said...

What size are all the graphics these designers include that they take up so much hard drive space? My piracy graphic is less than 50kb, and my previews are never more than 125kb.
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It's the little things that add up. I delete an average of 600kb-700kb in graphics and stuff from everything I buy. Some contain more, some less. You times that by about 1,000 (that's how much stuff I have!) and you get a large amount of wasted space I'd rather use for something else.

I don't get why designers include detail previews in their kits. I already bought it. Hello?! I also don't get when designers include x amount of example layouts. All that gets deleted together with any piracy graphics, thank you notes, blinkies, links, graphic TOUs and regular TOUs. Yes you read it, I delete TOUs. I am not a designer, I don't scrap for hire, I don't give a hoot.

Anonymous said...

What the heck is the big deal about the piracy notices? Half the big stores require that designers put them in, and generally, the graphic is small, and very easy to delete when the stuff is unzipped.

What irks me more is designers who zip their individual package of elements, papers, and alpas, put them into one folder, then zip the entire folder again. What a pain in my backside!!!

Anonymous said...

I don't even know what comes with the downloads cause I don't even look at any of it. I've never opened the piracy file. I'm not a pirate and I know the rules.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, I just always assume the following:
-no piracy
-no sharing
-no comm use
-no S4O use

Anonymous said...

Oh and the weird mac/psp files that sometimes end up in downloads.

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LOL, on the Mac side, the weird Windows files, or the files made just for Windows which is that stupid folder preview.

Anonymous said...

Thank-you graphics really bug you?? Weird. I thought it was a nice gesture.

February 29, 2008 8:27 AM
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No, it's just one more thing I have to delete. I don't need thanks after I have bought something and I don't get why there are people who are so hot on that. You don't get thanked by the designer personally after you have bought something in a real store, do you? Nope.

Anonymous said...

31 previews, tou's etc. graphics files in the primavera collab at catscrap. That is ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

31 previews, tou's etc. graphics files in the primavera collab at catscrap. That is ridiculous.

March 2, 2008 8:42 PM
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That is ridiculous! How many designers worked on that? Three? Sheesh, that's 10 graphics each!