Anyone on Dribble here?
What’s it all about? I’ve signed up but looks like I can’t do much without an invite although I’m signed up?!
Yes, I’m on Dribbble. There are some more here who are.
Dribbble is a social designer community where people post whatever they’re working on. You can get feedback and get yourself in front of potential clients (spectators) who will contact you directly via Dribbble. It also has Twitter-like features, such as following/being followed.
There are three types of members: Spectators, prospects, and players. Spectators are people who watch community activities, usually they’re potential clients who eventually contact someone whose shots they like. Prospects are people who are looking to become players. Players are those who “play”, meaning people who can upload their works (shots).
It is an invitation-only community, meaning you need to get invited by someone who already is a “player”. For a player to be able to invite someone, they need to have invitations. These are given out at random at any given time, so you need to watch the community closely as people who have received invitations usually offer them up on Twitter or elsewhere, sometimes even on Dribbble itself.
Sounds a little restrictive and has a degree of chaos in this process…wouldn’t it be better just with free access (with a healthy anti-spam bot enabled) ?
Actually, it’s quite the opposite. They have no chaos whatsoever because the community is closed. And it’s impossible to keep a certain level of quality if just anyone can get on.
true, but that’s why some sites have moderators and admins that make sure the submissions meet a minimum standard, not necessarily of quality, but some sort of standard - even something boring for me could be useful for someone else.
Interesting, seems to be a little elitist then! Where can you find the invitations on the site then? via comments, discussion etc?
if it’s random, it’s random, you can happen to get one, or know somebody who does, but in the same time you might also not…so it’s tricky…leaving it up to chance… invitations should be given by how much an individual user contributes to a site, to a community - this rewards dedicated/power users.
It’s their site, and they can run it however they want. It seems to run very well, from what I’ve seen. Like they say, “You’ve gotta be in it to win it”. I guess those who actively engage in the process Maleika described will be more likely to be noticed and welcomed when the invitations come along.
Yes, some people do say it’s elitist. While some people might be elitist, it doesn’t hold true for the community as a whole. In fact, it’s a very nice community with some fantastic people.
You can sometimes find a player posting an invitation shot. If you type in “invite” into the dribbble search, you will get plenty results of past (and maybe) current contests or giveaways. The easier way to get a dribbble invite is via Twitter, though, the best way is to know a player directly who has invites, obviously.