ATC distribution discussion

[Madge]

Because we are an inter-continental band of quirks - (or should that be inter-quirkinental?) the cost of posting and exchanging real live ATCs would be quite high, especially when you're on a budget, like I am.

That got me thinking - since our ATCs are digital - why not make some available for sharing via email? Of course they would not have an artist's signature which is a minus, but we could add our names to the very bottom edge of the image.

My idea is as follows:

Every time we upload a DATC to the gallery, we could add sharing availability details. That is - Not available - Limited edition of 6 (or whatever) available by snail mail - Open or limited edition available on request by email.

That way if we see an ATC that we love, we can request it if it's available, by whatever means is allowed by the artist. Swaps can then be arranged. Of course, organised swaps would be separate to this.

Does any of that make sense? Basically what I'm saying is just add availability details to the gallery, and let the fun begin! :)

I welcome your thoughts...

[Nevermore]

I would love to see the replies to this thread. I have never done a swap or trade before. Not sure if I am ready but am very interested.

[mishou]

Madge, I like your idea of putting the availability in the details of an ATC when posting.

For those of us (like moi) who have never swapped digitally before, can we talk about how exactly that works? Do you just zip it and email it? Any special protocol involved there? I had this idea to maybe include 2 files with each ATC, one with the actual artwork, and one image the same size but with the artist information that would go on the back. That way, if the person prints your ATC they can print the backside too and have that information. KWIM? Is that what people normally do?

That brings up another question. What do people typically do with digital ATC's they receive from other people anyway? Do you print them? If not, what do you do with them? Just keep them on your hard drive for yourself to look at? I guess if you were gonna do that you wouldn't really need to swap though LOL You could just look at it in that person's gallery . .. .

I guess a small part of me worries about what someone might do with it. Because it would be so easy for someone to just take it and post it somewhere else and claim it as their own, you know? You hand someone over a digital image and they can basically do what they please with it. That isn't so much a problem with normal IRL ATC's. . . Am I the only paranoid freak who thinks of this stuff? LOL

Also, if anyone has ever done an organized email swap, could you please share here the details of how that was done? Does one person collect them all and distribute them all together or does everyone just send their own to everyone?

[Cre8tvlyYrs]

I actually am working on details myself for an e-mail swap I'd like to do for a LOTR (Lord Of The Rings) E-mail/Digi Swap. I have hosted and been in tons of handmade swaps which are way more confusing so I believe that an e-mail swap will take out the postal stress involved in handmade swaps.

I am actually planning on using a similar process that this ATC Recipe card swap used:

*Basically everyone would post their work in the gallery...
therefore protecting your copyright of your work > Note for Mishou ;)

* Then the file would be sent to the hostess (I would encourage artists to include their name or symbol of their name somewhere on the card for further protection of your work).

*Then the hostess sends a zipped file to those in the swaps.

As for individual ATC's...perhaps we could do some sort of RAK thread or a wish thread where you could state which cards you would like and then if a playing quirkster is interested she can state that she'll either send you a printed card or they can share it digitally if she so prefers...all this is up to the person who designed the cards of course!

Well these are a few suggestions...what do you think? I don't mind setting up the Wish/RAK thread if there's and interest for it. :)

[mishou]

Gina, I really like the idea of a hostess collecting and zipping all files for an email swap. In case you haven't noticed, I tend to be lazy and am more apt to join something like that if someone else is gonna do the work for me LOL

A couple of things have occured to me since my last post. Like you mentioned Gina, if you post the ATC to the gallery you are kind of protecting your copyright on it. It also occured to me that I might have offended some of you with the implication that you would take my work and claim it as your own LOL Sorry, didn't really think that one through. I definitely feel like I "know" most of you now well enough to trust you . . . I guess I was thinking more in terms of trading with strangers. But anyway, I think I'm over my fit of paranoia ;)

I think Madge's idea of posting availability when you post your ATC combined with Gina's idea of a designated thread for non-organized swapping would be a good way to go. The thread could also be used for people to say "Hey, I'm too lazy to go back through the dozens of ATC's I have posted already and put the availability in the details so I just want to come here and say that ALL of my stuff is available for trading" . . . Notice the lazy thing there again? LOL

Don't forget it's also really easy to PM people to ask them for things. Rather than post it in a thread, that would be more personal for approaching one artist at a time.

[SteinwaysMom]

I know there are free services like yousendit www.yousendit.com or www.filelodge.com where you can upload the file and post a link. Also rapidshare.

What digital designers do with their blog freebies is upload them to these services and provide a URL in their blog posting (or forum posting). If you want to restrict who gets it you can send an email to the person requesting it and the email would have the download link.

This would be easier than having one person trying to manage all the files. I get so overwhelmed w/projects that I can't blame someone for not wanting to mess w/this type of thing.

Or maybe for a big swap, open one of those accounts and give everyone the password so they can upload their files to the same location?

[mishou]

I was actually just on www.yousendit.com tonight looking to use it for distributing the prize kit. But I couldn't figure it out! LOL You get this screen called your inbox where you have to select the file but also an email address for a person to send it to. I couldn't figure out how to do the thing like Debra said where designers have their freebies up there for you to download. Maybe I'm just a moron but I totally wasn't getting it LOL I know this is a wee bit off topic but does anyone out there know what I"m talking about and what I was doing wrong?

[Nevermore]

Prize kit?

[Nevermore]

Would that be the prize kit (324)

[Nevermore]

for people who post 500 comments (325)?

[Cre8tvlyYrs]

for people who post 500 comments (325)?

Yes it is!! You go girl!! :D

[Madge]

I couldn't figure out that Yousendit site either! Glad I'm not the only one.

You raise a valid point about possible piracy of emailed ATCs, but I think sending them to fellow Quirks only would at least allay that fear. I would trust Quirksters implicitly. Also adding your name to the front of the artwork lessens that likelihood. After all, artists in other media do just that.

I was thinking of one-off email trades. That is if I take a shine to someone's ATC and notice that it's available for email swaps, I contact that artist and aske her/him. I'm not sure that a single 300dpi ATC would take too long to send as an ordinary attachment even for dial-ups. I would save them to a file, then when I have enough to print off a sheet, that's what I'd do.

I have in mind to start an Atecedary (like an abecedary but for ATCs!) - a journal with decorated pages where I'd attach clear, single ATC sleeves and slip the DATCs inside. That way they're displayed but still removable. The artist's name would be clearly shown.

It's great that we can discuss this and hopefully come up with a workable solution. Thank you. xxx

[kygirl]

YouSendIt is great if you just need to send a file to one or two people. When you're sending to a group, RapidShare is much easier. It gives you a link that you can post on your site and folks can click on the link to download the file.

Because it's a hassle to upload the files, you might consider having an ATC sharing week where participants could upload any ATCs they want to share to one zipped file. That would be much more time efficient than trying to upload ten or fifteen files.

I'd be glad to share my ATCs with anyone interested, though I'd probably not include those with living relatives (they might not like it.)

[akissling]

I did a digital swap @2peas and it was pretty easy. We all posted our atcs at 300dpi on rapdshare (http://rapidshare.de) (free although you think it isn't because there is a $ portion too). Then each person emailed there links (you get them after you post of rapidshare) to one person who then sent them out to each person that was in the trade. It was pretty easy!
I then printed mine out and put them together on a deck of cards. We had some beautiful atcs! Some people did fronts and backs, some only did fronts. I would also be interested in a digital trade here!!

[webchyck]

After you upload the YouSendIt file and the note is sent off to your intended recipient, you get a link for the file that your recipient will receive. This is how people then post freebies on their blogs--they just link to the storage URL at YouSendIt. They probably don't "send" the file to anyone in particular, just back to themself. The link expires in a few days, and then the link no longer works. But you can always re-send and change your or post a new link to it. Our hostesses for digital swaps could be sent all the .jpgs either through RapidShare or YouSendIt, then zip all the .jpg files together and either send everyone participating a YouSendIt/RapidShare link or post the link in the swap thread in the forums.

As far as copyright issues. One could always send a TOU with the .jpg.

I have some ATCs from other people that I've received digitally, but I haven't printed them yet. On my To Do list, though. I store all my mail swap ATCs in a cute little photo album for now...would just put the digital ones in there, too.

[Nightwolf]

I've hosted a few digital swaps (& I'm bout to host another next month). I just posted a topic, ppl made their ATCs & uploaded a sample to the gallery & then zipped & sent their full size atc to me. Once the swap was over I zipped up all the ATCs & then either emailed the zip file to everyone or just PMed them a link. That's pretty much how I've seen it done on other sites as well.

Never taken part in a Traditional ATC swap (but would love to eventually when I start making paper ATCs)

As far as copyright goes I always put a Credits/TOU file in with my ATCs, helps ppl see what supplies I've used too :)

Love the idea of putting availablity into the description in the gallery too.
Ok enough from me ;)