Top Crafters

Great idea if you're in the mainstream (project popularity). Some crafts are just "hotter" than others. I see a lot of value to continued creativity as well.

Here's a curve ball.... "average" the number of favorites per project or some other formula combining the two. Anyone who consistently averages (blank) number of favorites would be top.

I could see a lot of "so-so" projects get deleted by someone to improve their averages. It would make the site cleaner!

There's probably a lot better way but it all involves "someone" doing extra work...

(I can hear Crafterella crying now!)

;)

I like that idea. I can see it creating a headache for Tom but I think the top crafter section needs some tweaking so that it encourages quality rather than just quantity. I'd love it to recognise some of the newer site users and it might encourage some more traffic to the site. I know the site has lots of registered users and tons of projects but the number of active members has dropped off a bit over the last few years. By active I mean people who post regular projects and join the forums.

True all true.. I have also deleted my projects that have 0 faves because well, it just fills up cutoutandkeep and second no one will find it ever again anyway!!

I really like the idea, and the idea of averages. Anything that puts quality over quantity is a good idea in my books!

I can agree with the quality over quantity thing, but I think that the top crafters should go deeper than the main page.
I think it would be awesome if there were top crafters listed for all of the major crafts and tags. Steampunk, Kawaii, Gothic, etc would all have their top crafters, as well as Crochet, Knitting, Sewing, etc.

That way, more people are being recognized for more specific skills and styles.

Monika: good thinking ..I think one of the top crafters of Gothic should be you!

I'm not sure about deleting projects that have already been published, it would really annoy me if i'd faved something, then gone back later to see it had been removed. I like that CO+K is about show casing people's ideas and projects, even if the projects aren't 'high quality'. Who determines what is high quality and what is not? The emphasis should be on people taking better photos of their projects to show them in the best light. Other websites like tip junkie post tutorials, but CO+K has a real sense of community.

What does bother me sometimes, is the number of repeat projects, people posting tutorials for the same thing, rather than posting a version. I think there may have been a few crafty superstar posts that are basically the same project that other 'ordinary' members have produced, but the superstar projects are promoted over the others.

Yeah, I have noticed that with some of the crafty superstars. It really pushes the person who made it first out of the way.

It is a shame. Maybe there just needs to be a bit of checking before the superstar projects are posted that there isn't already a similar project on the site. A lot of the crafty superstar bloggers are prolific in their posts and so should have plenty of alternative projects to choose. The other project already available on the site could then perhaps be made into a featured project.