Shirt.Woot

taternuggets wrote:Here's a bear chasing a wolf.

That is begging for Yakety Sax.

Jestik wrote:and whatever happened to "Jestik"?

He used to post here all the time, buy shirts here all the time, and was a pretty positive and cheerful sort of guy.


wonder whatever happened to him.

Yeah, what about Jestik?

Just one of the artists who used to be an active participant...

There are a lot of artists who submit, but don't interact outside of their own threads and a 'great shirt' comment on a few other submissions. It's kind of sad.

Moving this here so as to not clutter the derby thread...

tgentry wrote:It may not be quite as bad as some might think. Since Derby #211, around 44 of the winning derby shirts were not pop-culture related. 23 were pop-culture, about one out of every three. That means non-pop-culture tees still dominated the derby 2 to 1.

This is partly because we still put no pop-culture rules into place, such as the recent Underwater, Motivation, and Winter derbies. Also, there are plenty of times when we allow pop-culture and the winners are still largely non-pop-culture related, such as the recent Letter A and Overindulgence derbies -- only 1 out of 6 of those winners was pop culture related, even though it was completely allowed.

A LOT of our audience loves pop-culture related stuff. A big portion of our audience doesn't. You both are here, and we'd ideally like to make you both happy. This is why we mix it up between the two. Because we run pop-culture allowed one week doesn't mean we're trying to stick it to the pop-culture haters, and vice-versa.

Because I believe myself to be even-handed and prefer facts to speculation, I went ahead and charted the rules just to see. This pivots around Derb 211, since that's where I started on the notion that the rules were relaxed to help accommodate the new 5000 print capacity.
Blue indicates either Double-take or bag.


For the record, I don't dislike pop-cult. I have quite a few such shirts from Woot and others, but I do think the variety of the designs is greater when it is disallowed.

Mavyn wrote:There are a lot of artists who submit, but don't interact outside of their own threads and a 'great shirt' comment on a few other submissions. It's kind of sad.

I'm going to slightly disagree with this. I understand that a lot of people would enjoy seeing more comments, maybe from artists in particular.

But... when you're an artist who isn't commenting, it's not usually a sad thing for you personally. It can be pretty great thing. You're probably spending that message board posting time making more art (either here or for other sites as well) or unplugged from the net entirely. Odds are decent that by not obsessing over what people are or are not saying about your designs (and the designs of others) you're able to make more of the kind of art you personally enjoy, without fearing that the more critical sellout-y comments will show up or that you'll somehow embroil yourself in some wooty drama.

It's really not a bummer for most of those artists not participating. Especially since many have their own private artist-only communities to get (maybe?) more informed critiques, all out of the very public Woot eye where they have to worry about their personal opinions affecting their performance in a popularity contest.

geekfactor12 wrote:I'm going to slightly disagree with this. I understand that a lot of people would enjoy seeing more comments, maybe from artists in particular.

But... when you're an artist who isn't commenting, it's not usually a sad thing for you personally. It can be pretty great thing. You're probably spending that message board posting time making more art (either here or for other sites as well) or unplugged from the net entirely. Odds are decent that by not obsessing over what people are or are not saying about your designs (and the designs of others) you're able to make more of the kind of art you personally enjoy, without fearing that the more critical sellout-y comments will show up or that you'll somehow embroil yourself in some wooty drama.

It's really not a bummer for most of those artists not participating. Especially since many have their own private artist-only communities to get (maybe?) more informed critiques, all out of the very public Woot eye where they have to worry about their personal opinions affecting their performance in a popularity contest.

Granted. Doesn't mean that those of us who are not part of an art community don't miss the artists.

geekfactor12 wrote:I'm going to slightly disagree with this. I understand that a lot of people would enjoy seeing more comments, maybe from artists in particular.

But... when you're an artist who isn't commenting, it's not usually a sad thing for you personally. It can be pretty great thing. You're probably spending that message board posting time making more art (either here or for other sites as well) or unplugged from the net entirely. Odds are decent that by not obsessing over what people are or are not saying about your designs (and the designs of others) you're able to make more of the kind of art you personally enjoy, without fearing that the more critical sellout-y comments will show up or that you'll somehow embroil yourself in some wooty drama.

It's really not a bummer for most of those artists not participating. Especially since many have their own private artist-only communities to get (maybe?) more informed critiques, all out of the very public Woot eye where they have to worry about their personal opinions affecting their performance in a popularity contest.

MJ pretty much hit the nail on the head here, as she usually does.

The best thing any artist can do is work. Draw, draw, draw. The more public an artist is, the less actual work they're doing, which isn't good. I read something great recently about why the best artists usually arent active online participants. It's because they're making art, like mad machines of art!

I wish I had more mad art machine time :\. Maybe I would if I'd quit babbling here....but I like to babble too. There's no winning!

Mavyn wrote:Granted. Doesn't mean that those of us who are not part of an art community don't miss the artists.

^
This.

bassanimation wrote:
I wish I had more mad art machine time :\. Maybe I would if I'd quit babbling here....but I like to babble too. There's no winning!

No, but there's plenty of whining.

j5 wrote:
Your turtles are peach.

ochopika wrote:

Hahaha!
Well played, ma'am.

ochopika wrote:

I'd wear this. Print!!!!

j5 wrote:I believe Adder has intentionally "gone dark". He mentioned in the past (either on his blog or here or at TilTeed, I don't recall) that he was doing so.
Tilteed wasn't really Adder's site, I think he just "worked" there (I'm not sure if curators were paid, need to ask JadenKale since she's still somewhat active here...I think). Therefore, I don't think there is causation between the decline of Tilteed and Adder's departure, unless you consider the failure of the former to have a dispiriting effect on the latter to such an extent that Adder "gave up"

Is it sad that I know this?

I can answer many of these questions, beginning with "Where's Adder?"

Adder is still fighting the good fight against all tee failings on the web, but he has become quiet about it since October, when Tilteed asked us to discontinue being curators there. (And as paigeg said, "a bought of disinterest" doesn't help.) To be honest, I felt the need to lay low as well... to a certain degree... because Tilteed never informed customers or artists that they were going to pretty much shut down operations, save for the pieces Patrick (the owner) has the rights to sell. We were left with our hands full of artists in various positions of curating (we had a month and a half's worth of artists lined up - with contracts completed - waiting for print dates) when we were told we basically wouldn't be working for them anymore. We were wary of it happening, but the blow was immediate, painful, and the feelings of all members involved were hurt. It wasn't pretty.

For the next three months, if he got even HALF the emails I did when Tilteed stopped all attempts to promote the site, he was still wading through a ton of stuff. I was swamped. The worst was needing to decide who would know a bit of what had happened, and simply telling others, "Sorry, but feel free to offer your work to other sites". We didn't give up. We actually tried to come up with ways to keep the site going so people could continue to send us work. Most every solution we came up with was shot down or unfeasible, financially.

So after Tilteed's short lived "Daily Limiteds" and nearly 2 years of Limiteds, Adder and I were on the streets, so to speak. We were a month into fall, he had schooling to attend to, and I started a second job to make ends meet, now that I had lost the small amount of supplementary income I had coming in.

Fast forward to now. I've got a lot of free time on my hands, so I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things, though I'm hoping I can get some support again.


As for Adder... he's going abroad to study in Italy, so he may be out of touch with the tee world for even longer. I don't think he'll have a regular an internet connection there.

JadenKale wrote:I can answer many of these questions ...

Thank you for the update. And in spite of the mockery some of us have been guilty of doing, I really can't fault someone for their passion either.

After the third week of the sale, the writing on the wall was sadly becoming clearer. If it's anything I'll say, it's that my collection of (original) Tilteed shirts outnumber (pop culture) TeeFury shirts, so no, words have not been completely lost on me.

Narfcake wrote:Thank you for the update. And in spite of the mockery some of us have been guilty of doing, I really can't fault someone for their passion either.

After the third week of the sale, the writing on the wall was sadly becoming clearer. If it's anything I'll say, it's that my collection of (original) Tilteed shirts outnumber (pop culture) TeeFury shirts, so no, words have not been completely lost on me.

I'm definitely not as harsh as Adder was/is on the subject. I understand that there are people out there that would simply prefer to wear a poorly drawn idontcarebear than an expertly drawn collaboration like The Butterfly Effect. There are two major differences: 1. I don't write walls of text and insult everyone at the same time. And 2. instead of getting all worked up, I just used the extra time and my position at Tilteed to make sure we were giving those pieces that deserved the print, a chance.

I'm not a complete hater of pop-culture work either. I have purchased pieces like Travis' "Plumber" and even curated his "Dangerous Creature"(both from Video Games Through Art History Derby). I own James Cho's "Alice Painting Caterpillar" (Graffiti Derby). But as you can see, I prefer them to be well done and very unique.

I don't jump for every '80s kid reference I grew up with. Just because it has a carebearish character on it, doesn't mean I want it.

(Don't get me wrong, I'm picking on this tee, because I saw it at work today, so it's fresh in my mind. However, the past does not simply fade away for everyone. I remember too many things happening in the forums since I started back in Derby #17 - Consumerism)

ANYHOW... The biggest things for me are concept along with overall completion of that idea. It may be great to have a Portlandia joke, but don't make it out of stick figures after 10 minutes of fiddling around in photoshop. Even still, I'll probably go for Red Run or Apres Moi le Deluge from DBH first: No pop-culture and still expertly created.

JadenKale wrote:

Fast forward to now. I've got a lot of free time on my hands, so I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things, though I'm hoping I can get some support again.


As for Adder... he's going abroad to study in Italy, so he may be out of touch with the tee world for even longer. I don't think he'll have a regular an internet connection there.

Thanks for the update, Jaden. I'm sorry for what happened at Tilteed. I really enjoyed your dailies there. I actually had never bought from them before til you guys started curating the dailies. Thanks for picking those great tees for us.

Also, I never got along with Adder, but Im glad he's finding new interests that make him happy. Sounds like he has a lot of adventurous things happening in his life. We should all be so lucky! :D

In the end, this site is my tee home. Even those I dont get along with add a little bit of spice to the pie.

bassanimation wrote:Thanks for the update, Jaden. I'm sorry for what happened at Tilteed. I really enjoyed your dailies there. I actually had never bought from them before til you guys started curating the dailies. Thanks for picking those great tees for us.

Also, I never got along with Adder, but Im glad he's finding new interests that make him happy. Sounds like he has a lot of adventurous things happening in his life. We should all be so lucky! :D

In the end, this site is my tee home. Even those I dont get along with add a little bit of spice to the pie.

Agreed. I mean, I love woot... but for a while I was so damn discouraged, I couldn't deal with it and went searching for other venues. Tilteed ended up taking most of my time, but at least I made others happy getting tees printed that should have gotten the love a long time ago.

I WAS going to get back into the swing of tee designs this weekend, but alas, I accidentally dropped a drink on my wacom tablet last night after I got done with work. It's currently in a garbage bag with rice. I'm not sure if I saved it, but I hope to god I did. I can't draw on a laptop otherwise.

If not, I'm going to have to see if someone upgraded recently and would be willing to work out a plan to sell me their old one.

bassanimation wrote:
In the end, this site is my tee home. Even those I dont get along with add a little bit of spice to the pie.

Yes, definitely. @Jaden, I'm also sorry to hear about tilteed, the designs you guys picked were top-notch and their level of quality helped me understand what adder was ranting about, lol.

ochopika wrote:Yes, definitely. @Jaden, I'm also sorry to hear about tilteed, the designs you guys picked were top-notch and their level of quality helped me understand what adder was ranting about, lol.

I REALLY wish I could have gotten the October line-up printed. I know we had Drakxxx in the wings, I think I had been working on another MissMonster piece, and cmdixon had already signed his contract.

I wanted Nightmares Taking Hold so badly, that I was flipping out when we were told nothing slated for October would be printing.

JadenKale wrote:I REALLY wish I could have gotten the October line-up printed. I know we had Drakxxx in the wings, I think I had been working on another MissMonster piece, and cmdixon had already signed his contract.

Shame to hear that. MissMonster's designs, in particular, were always a pleasure to see. (As the Animal Hat and Krampus tees in my drawer will attest.)

Speaking of many talented names I miss seeing around this site ... does anyone know what Edgar or VonMonkey are up to these days?

Adding my appreciation for JadenKale coming in here and updating us all.
Thanks Jaden!

A true shame about TilTeed, but at least I can finally get another copy of "Another Dramatic Moon Scene"...hopefully.

endangeredomega wrote:Speaking of many talented names I miss seeing around this site ... does anyone know what Edgar or VonMonkey are up to these days?

Edgar has a shop at http://edgarmcherly.com/shop/, although his comic at http://invisiblehairsuit.com/ hasn't been updated in a bit.

JadenKale wrote:I can answer many of these questions, beginning with "Where's Adder?"

Adder is still fighting the good fight against all tee failings on the web, but he has become quiet about it since October, when Tilteed asked us to discontinue being curators there. (And as paigeg said, "a bought of disinterest" doesn't help.) To be honest, I felt the need to lay low as well... to a certain degree... because Tilteed never informed customers or artists that they were going to pretty much shut down operations, save for the pieces Patrick (the owner) has the rights to sell. We were left with our hands full of artists in various positions of curating (we had a month and a half's worth of artists lined up - with contracts completed - waiting for print dates) when we were told we basically wouldn't be working for them anymore. We were wary of it happening, but the blow was immediate, painful, and the feelings of all members involved were hurt. It wasn't pretty.

For the next three months, if he got even HALF the emails I did when Tilteed stopped all attempts to promote the site, he was still wading through a ton of stuff. I was swamped. The worst was needing to decide who would know a bit of what had happened, and simply telling others, "Sorry, but feel free to offer your work to other sites". We didn't give up. We actually tried to come up with ways to keep the site going so people could continue to send us work. Most every solution we came up with was shot down or unfeasible, financially.

So after Tilteed's short lived "Daily Limiteds" and nearly 2 years of Limiteds, Adder and I were on the streets, so to speak. We were a month into fall, he had schooling to attend to, and I started a second job to make ends meet, now that I had lost the small amount of supplementary income I had coming in.

Fast forward to now. I've got a lot of free time on my hands, so I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things, though I'm hoping I can get some support again.


As for Adder... he's going abroad to study in Italy, so he may be out of touch with the tee world for even longer. I don't think he'll have a regular an internet connection there.

Thanks for the update, Jaden. Here's hoping you're back in full swing reall soon!

I agree with Wednesday basically, I've bought 2 shirts in the last 6 months but mostly feel apathetic about the derby these days. Why bother fighting the good fight when the unoriginal and pandering still wins most of the time? Most of my favorite artists are gone or rarely seen. Talented new artists show up from time to time but you can actually see the progression where they get discouraged and either conform to the low popular winning standard or leave.

Ramyb is "Artist of the Year" and almost got a design on the shipping bags earlier in the year. That's pretty much the death of any passion I had for the derby.

The shirt.woot community seems to have become a place where all critism is viewed as a personal attack and mindless baseless praise is expected. That's not how you achieve greatness.

Having a cash grab instead of an art contest pretty much sucks away any enthusiasm I used to have.

JadenKale wrote:I can answer many of these questions...

Thanks for answering Jaden, and I'm sorry as well to hear about what happened with Tilteed. I had a similar experience with a theater I used to work for where, without warning, we were told we had about a week and it would close. As much as I disagreed with Adder, it is a terrible thing when something you are excited or passionate about suddenly evaporates like water on a desert floor. It's even worse when you actually are helping to put food on the table while also doing something you enjoy. Harsh blows by something you love can lead to apathy. Even with our differences of opinion, there is a basic level on which I can understand where he's coming from personally when it comes to fighting apathy. I do hope he finds that personal reawakening (and uses it in a good way) while studying abroad.

Also, I hope you are able to find a new tablet to work with. I can't imagine what I'd do if suddenly the hard drive and various USB drives containing my creative writings had something spilled on them. (Actually, I can guess that there'd be a fair amount of hulk-rage and weeping.)

bluejester wrote:Also, I hope you are able to find a new tablet to work with. I can't imagine what I'd do if suddenly the hard drive and various USB drives containing my creative writings had something spilled on them. (Actually, I can guess that there'd be a fair amount of hulk-rage and weeping.)

i hope you're backing your stuff up regularly. then it'd be just a case of acquiring new hardware.

bluejester wrote:
Also, I hope you are able to find a new tablet to work with. I can't imagine what I'd do if suddenly the hard drive and various USB drives containing my creative writings had something spilled on them. (Actually, I can guess that there'd be a fair amount of hulk-rage and weeping.)

Luckily, after 2 days, a garbage bag and a about 8 cups of rice later, it's back in working order.

I started drawing tonight. I think I have a far better chance printing outside of derbies. I don't seem to be the market for derbies anymore. If I try to be complex, I'm not as good as those who throw loads of halftones in their work, and if I'm too simple, I'm not as simplistic as Jasneko (for example) who seems to print far more often than I expected.

JadenKale wrote:Luckily, after 2 days, a garbage bag and a about 8 cups of rice later, it's back in working order.

Yay! On the previous post, when I first saw 'garbage bag' before finishing the sentence, I was like NOOOOOOOOOO!

I started drawing tonight. I think I have a far better chance printing outside of derbies. I don't seem to be the market for derbies anymore. If I try to be complex, I'm not as good as those who throw loads of halftones in their work, and if I'm too simple, I'm not as simplistic as Jasneko (for example) who seems to print far more often than I expected.

Democracy has good and bad points about it, and it can be hard to gauge what mood Wooters are in that week too. The time aspect is real - the best shot of winning means a design has to be subbed by Saturday night; 36 hours, inclusive of sleep and any work during the day, isn't always enough time to get every detail down.

On the corollary, I expect Jasneko to print MORE often than she does - her simplistic and whimsy designs can be a nice change to the overprocessed. Or maybe I'm just biased because it's Chinese New Years and I'm wearing her first (half) print, Lantern Lights today.

Me laugh so hard! Judging by the Wootbot writeup for the new Derby, travis or someone has been listening in on this thread.

ochopika wrote:

totally lurked this thread but had to give some love to the purtle ^^^

snooty2toes wrote:totally lurked this thread but had to give some love to the purtle ^^^

Ditto... ochopika, do you mind if I save that little guy to my hard drive and maybe use it as an avatar in the future? I figure there may be a time when I want to disassociate my online identity from Blind Melon's bee girl...

It would be cool to have more artistic discussion. I often try something that doesn't work or that does for reasons I don't understand. ^__^ Also I often feel like I don't know the other artists here all that well, even the ones who print all the time. The front page is always more about the awesome Woot write-up than the designer.

Everyone is so busy working on their own designs in the pre-derby thread that time is scarce to offer much help or feedback. People hesitate to give advice or critique on the actual derby entries in case it's unwanted or worse, seen as gameplaying.

I've wondered if a kind of Monday morning quarterback thread would be good? Someplace to discuss what went right/wrong with your design, open it up for everyone post their critical thoughts. An informal kind of community thread that's not for venting, as tempting as that can be (why are you just submitting another tree, dammit!), but where anyone can allow their work that week to be open for constructive/impartial/friendly/informed/gut criticism.

As someone who is new to the shirt.woot forums, I think it's important to point out that some of us (I'm of course speaking for people I've never met or interacted with, so perhaps I'm a bit presumptuous) don't post much because we aren't sure that our opinions are warranted or welcome. I see a lot of the same names posting in the community, and those are a lot the same names I see creating shirts for the site. I'm not even remotely an artist. I'm only here because I like the site, and I enjoy getting the opportunity to purchase original and inventive designs. If us newbies felt like we were wanted, and like we were expected to post our opinions (even if we're not artists and don't speak the lingo), the discussion boards would probably be more active.

missmelis wrote:Ditto... ochopika, do you mind if I save that little guy to my hard drive and maybe use it as an avatar in the future? I figure there may be a time when I want to disassociate my online identity from Blind Melon's bee girl...

lol!!! Yes, you can certainly do that! harharhar... also, how can you change your avatar?? I've tried before and nothing happened...

@spacegirl: I think that all the artists who post here would love to see input from everyone. I know I do

spacegirlag wrote:As someone who is new to the shirt.woot forums, I think it's important to point out that some of us (I'm of course speaking for people I've never met or interacted with, so perhaps I'm a bit presumptuous) don't post much because we aren't sure that our opinions are warranted or welcome. I see a lot of the same names posting in the community, and those are a lot the same names I see creating shirts for the site. I'm not even remotely an artist. I'm only here because I like the site, and I enjoy getting the opportunity to purchase original and inventive designs. If us newbies felt like we were wanted, and like we were expected to post our opinions (even if we're not artists and don't speak the lingo), the discussion boards would probably be more active.

I'm not an artist either. I know what you mean, and it can be intimidating. So, what I try to do is explain why something appeals or doesn't, without worrying about the lingo. I am not an art critic, I am not a fashionista. But I have a LOT of tees, and I know why I like what I do. I can share that, and artists can choose to listen or not. Most listen, even if they don't agree or change their work as a result.

Either way...dive in. Comment. No one bites very hard.

Spiritgreen wrote:I've wondered if a kind of Monday morning quarterback thread would be good? Someplace to discuss what went right/wrong with your design, open it up for everyone post their critical thoughts. An informal kind of community thread that's not for venting, as tempting as that can be (why are you just submitting another tree, dammit!), but where anyone can allow their work that week to be open for constructive/impartial/friendly/informed/gut criticism.

I think that's a really great idea, it would be interesting to see what kind of participation it generates.

I would love to be more involved in the community but since I moved and changed jobs a few months ago, I've been completely swamped. A couple weeks I've had time to do a design and participate, but most weeks I've barely been checking what the shirt of the day is, much less reading/responding to threads. And honestly, that makes me sad, but real-job has priority and has left no time for anything.

Mavyn wrote:No one bites very hard.

//me doesn't recall biting mavyn that hard at all!

Spiritgreen wrote:I've wondered if a kind of Monday morning quarterback thread would be good?

it would be good until someone at woot decides to move it to the "artist resources" forum and then everyone will forget it even exists.

no1 wrote://me doesn't recall biting mavyn that hard at all!

It left a mark. 'Nuff said!

Narfcake wrote:
On the corollary, I expect Jasneko to print MORE often than she does - her simplistic and whimsy designs can be a nice change to the overprocessed. Or maybe I'm just biased because it's Chinese New Years and I'm wearing her first (half) print, Lantern Lights today.

Appreciate that very much Narfcake. Thank you.

And yay to wearing Lantern Lights! That design always have a special place in my heart.<3

@spiritgreen/others - I'd definitely love to have more discussion about designs, even if it is after they've been submitted. I have the same questions - why didn't this work? Why did this work? I'm consistently surprised by which of my designs the voters take to.

Another point to echo - like a lot of artists, I'm usually concentrating and occupied working on my designs, which makes giving a lot of pre-derby advice and feedback difficult. During the derby, I can relax and look around and have more to say, but sometimes I feel hesitant to give too much advice/critique after they are already submitted. So I'd be interested in a thread to talk more about our designs of the week, provided it is all done in a friendly spirit

jasneko wrote:Appreciate that very much Narfcake. Thank you.

And yay to wearing Lantern Lights! That design always have a special place in my heart.<3

@spiritgreen/others - I'd definitely love to have more discussion about designs, even if it is after they've been submitted. I have the same questions - why didn't this work? Why did this work? I'm consistently surprised by which of my designs the voters take to.

Another point to echo - like a lot of artists, I'm usually concentrating and occupied working on my designs, which makes giving a lot of pre-derby advice and feedback difficult. During the derby, I can relax and look around and have more to say, but sometimes I feel hesitant to give too much advice/critique after they are already submitted. So I'd be interested in a thread to talk more about our designs of the week, provided it is all done in a friendly spirit

I sort of feel like a broken record, but I guess I don't see why there is so much hesitance to comment. Yeah, you can consider a submitted design a finished product, but even if changes aren't made artists can still learn from critiques. I'd also like to point out one instance that is near and dear to me partially because I was sort of a catalyst and partially because I think it was an excellent example of a really creative design that got honed through multiple rounds of forum critiques.

Robbie submitted this design for the robots save the world derby. It began it's life looking like this.There were several rounds of comments in the prederby thread after which the design was refined

There were a lot of improvements made, but I felt like the entire concept was completely lost by including the entire outline of the the alien spaceship. Apparently Robbie agreed and pulled the design even though it was in the fog and reworked it to the final form I first linked.

The design did make it back into the fog, but did it have to? No. Was it risky? Yes, but I completely applaud an artist's willingness to risk the print for the sake of the art. There's no way to know what would have happened had Robbie not pulled the original, but I think the design turned out for the better because of it. That's what really matters and that's what Adder always wanted people to care about. As soon as you start sacrificing the art for the print the designs lose their spirit and so then will the community and here we are.

The best thing that could happen is people start tearing into each other's designs. When something sucks tell them it sucks. When something could be better let them know how. Everyone benefits when no one is pulling punches. Yeah your rep might take a hit, but are you here to finance yourself on prints or to make something awesome?

edit: links now work