Ask HN: Why is the Dribbble community so selective?

4 pointsimwhimsical12y ago2 comments

I've been wondering lately, why the Dribbble community is so selective about who joins and who doesnt. I understand that this prevents amateur crap from appearing on the homepage (or any other page), but I'm still confused at whether giving the users the power to invite members is the right way to expand.

Another emerging trend is for people to "win" invites. I mean, this makes sure that only good quality work and worthy designers make it to the community, but most of the times, it requires word of mouth and/or even knowing people personally to get drafted by them.

I put together a quick portfolio at : arsalanbashir.tumblr.com, and it was kinda confusing as to what I should do next, because there isn't a set "method" to get drafted. It depends on the whims of somebody else who may or may not even take your work seriously.

What is your opinion about this? Is this the right way to scale a user base?

Thanks

2 comments

2 comments · 2 top-level

helen84200012y ago

I think it's a great way to scale a user base! 'Bigger' isn't always the answer. Dribbble knows that exclusivity is powerful and makes people produce a higher quality of work, especially as it is a community of designers judging designers. Being a Dribbble member is now a standard that designers aim towards.

Personally, to get drafted on Dribbble I'd use some of the free PSDs they produce, I'd tweet & thank the creators and link to the work I had created. Do re-bounds of others popular work, take it in a new & fresh direction giving ample credit to the original creator. Integrate yourself with the community even before you get the invite.

Focus on quality over quantity, so instead of having an ever growing portfolio, cap it at 10 or so of your best pieces. If you create something new, something less awesome has to be booted to make space.

Any piece that is less than awesome work only serves to dilute your other work.

Arguably I'd say you could get into Dribbble just on having 2 or 3 absolutely pristine images and showing you are a designer that is generous within the community.

johnjlocke12y ago

In the beginning, Dribbble had to throttle growth, because it was a very large side project and not their full time job. I still like the idea of people being responsible for who they bring into the community, kind of like the mob.

I'm not sure if there is an algorithm for when they send out invites to people; it seems to be something that happens every so often, and there is a finite amount of them. Seeing as how many people use Dribbble as a place to find more work, I feel like there is more at stake than just making sure that the best work rises to the top. It's not my site to run, and the majority of people don't want to see those parts of it change, so I don't think it will.

I will second your feelings on the "contests" that people who do have invites run. It seems these gimmicks aren't really about finding great talent, hell, that's all over the place, but it seems like a formula for getting more Twitter followers and retweets, as that is always part of the "contest rules". If you have an invite, just give it to someone who deserves it, it's that simple.

My advice if you are trying to get more industry attention and you can't seem to get an invite is ask around and see if someone will simply share one. There are some cool people in the web industry who will, usually people who are the most well-known (hmm...there's a lesson). The other alternative would be to set up an account on something like Behance. I like the ability to tell a story on Behance with a project, and show all the steps and thought process anyway. Showing the thought process behind your decisions is a lot more valuable in many ways.