I would like to unleash a MASSIVE STORM of visibility on the world

[Redbeard]

If you're someone looking to submit t-shirt designs, apparently they need to be HUGE. This graphic needed to be 30 inches wide to print at that size! Keep this in mind when designing stuff.

This is important when dealing with producing designs for display on things other than computer screens: Your images have to be super-high resolution or there's a chance they'll look terrible. You pretty much have to use a vector graphics program for design work like this, drawing a bitmap in Paint or even Photoshop just won't cut it. Do you have the pixel size and DPI that they're looking for?

I've done completely amateur design work in the past. Signs, design knock-offs, t-shirts, bumper stickers, that sort of thing. I had a CafePress shop for a couple of years and barely made enough to cover the cost of having the shop. I was less than successful, but still, it was fun. If I come up with any ideas, I'll send them your way.

I think bumper stickers were my biggest sellers. If Zazzle lets you sell bumper stickers, I'd suggest getting a few of them in your store and see how it goes.

GAH EVERYONE EVERYONE LET'S MAKE AN ASEXY CALENDAR. :lol: :lol: :lol:

IS ANYONE DOING THAT YET?!?!?!?!?!!?!!!!

We can have like...volunteer models doing asexy things like drinking tea, eating cake and hugging cats. ;)

Definitely like this idea...

And regarding the bulk purchase prices through Zazzle, that's probably not a good idea, unless you know you can move the merchandise. (Like if you're taking them to a big meetup or want to give them away at something like a Pride festival.) Otherwise, there's a good chance you're going to end up with a garage full of t-shirts that no one wants to wear and you'll be out the initial investment. One of the best parts about a place like Zazzle or CafePress is their print-on-demand services. The shirt isn't made until someone orders it, so if no one orders it, no one's stuck with unwanted inventory. It might end up costing a little more to buy one of these shirts, but you're pretty much guaranteed to lose out if you try to pre-order what you think people will want and guess wrong.

[Member33070]

^ good advice there.

Here is the Zazzle page about image sizes for different items.

http://zazzle.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/85#shirt

I can resize most things in my graphics program. You guys would most likely have a tough time emailing me images that are 30 inches wide. Just try to make them pretty big and I'll talk to someone if there are any issues.

I like the inventory comments. Apparently anything already in the shop can be ordered in bulk and people save money. So, if anyone wants to use the stuff for an event, go for it. :)

[Laramie]

I love those shoes -drool-

Reworded 'open letter'.

Dear Sir or Madam,

We are writing to you concerning the sex education/PSHE program at your school.

As a teacher or sex-educator, you can have a significant influence both on the lives of individuals and on awareness and understanding in society. We would like you to understand the value of incorporating asexuality into your course content. At all levels, in schools and in postgraduate-level courses where it would be relevant, the provision and content of teaching about sexuality varies greatly. We are not arguing here for more widespread or in-depth teaching, although many of us think that would be valuable.

In this letter we invite those of you who are teaching courses that include discussion of minority sexual orientations, to incorporate asexuality as such an orientation. We also want to hear your views and would welcome any contribution you would like to make by reply to this letter or online on the AVEN discussion forums (link below).

If the purpose of sexual education is to help people come to understand their own sexuality and that of other members of society, it is important to represent as many perspectives as possible. The existence of people who do not experience sexual attraction, that is asexuals, is rarely acknowledged. This has two effects.

1. There will be a small proportion of your students who suffer because they never relate to what is taught in school. This is particularly important for young people anticipating the development of their sexual selves, surrounded by friends who describe experiences they don’t understand, and often left wondering what is wrong with themselves. Everyone should know asexuality exists so if they think it is appropriate, they can identify in this way. The sexual orientations widely recognised by society today are hetero-, homo- and bisexuality. These identify people by the gender of person they are sexually attracted to and thus implicitly exclude people who don’t experience sexual attraction at all.

For people who cannot attribute their lack of desire to a plausible cause such as a medical condition or abuse, this may lead to profound feelings of alienation. They may suffer from isolation in a society where they are surrounded by expressions of sexuality to which they do not relate. They may feel inadequate as they try to engage in relationships and find they cannot reciprocate the feelings of their partner. Knowledge of the existence of asexuality is empowering.

2. The majority of students, once adult, find it very difficult to imagine that some people do not experience sexual attraction, and that this should not be seen as a disorder or problem. This leads to the stigmatisation of asexuals. In this way, the lack of sexual attraction which is not an intrinsic cause of distress, can become a cause of socially-imposed distress. A general awareness and understanding of asexuality would minimise this and ensure that asexuals are distinguished from those who suffer genuine sexual disorders.

Our goal is to improve the well-being of asexuals and we believe wider recognition of asexuality as a sexual orientation is necessary to achieve this. We hope you will contribute to this by incorporating asexuality in your teaching. This might be simply mentioning the existence of people who identify as asexuals, or it might involve including asexuality in an extended discussion of the concept of sexual orientations.

If you would like any information or support, or have any questions, we encourage you to get in touch. There are several ways to do this:

1. Reply to this letter at the above address.

2. Visit the FAQ at www.asexuality.org, or ask questions on the forums.

3. Ask questions at www.visiblyasexual.tumblr.com or search Visibly Asexual on Facebook or Twitter.

We thank you very much for your time and hope you will consider our request.

Yours sincerely,

***

[NotAllHere]

SOMEONE NEEDS TO BUY ME THAT TIE!!!!

I've thought of a few designs, Birdwing, but I'm unsure as to what to do with them. Post them here, PM them to you, or send them to your email or something? I'm not sure how well they'll work out, because I'm going to have to take a picture of the paper since I don't have a scanner anymore.

[Member33070]

ANYONE WHO WANTS TO SUBMIT DESIGNS FOR THE ZAZZLE SHOP, PM ME AND I WILL SEND YOU THE EMAIL ADDRESS TO SEND THEM TO.

(I could post the email address because I didn't link it to my personal email after all, but I'm trying to avoid spamming bots...still thinking about the best way to submit them)

nice letter rewrite! We're not quite there yet...but soon!

[SubtleFire]

Good job on the letter re-write. Might we want some of that in the first person, to make it more personal? "I am writing to you..." etc. It might go over better if it is clearly from an individual who is speaking on behalf of the group. The majority of it is fine with "we/our" though.

I also had the thought that if we really are going to try to reach every sex ed teacher, GSA and LGBTQ center we need people to research those addresses! Anyone who doesn't want to or can't respond to letters could do this. Maybe divide it up by state, or regions of each state? We could each email a final list of addresses to the person in charge of sending those letters, or have a Google Doc or spreadsheet (access limited to the research team) that we update as we find addresses. Then the letter-writers can mark each address as done when they send that one. This will also help personalize the letters. "Dear Ms. (Teachername)" is always preferable to a generic greeting.

And another thought I had while typing this! The senders should probably be from the general region of the recipients. For example, if an Alabama teacher gets a letter from some California hippy activist-type it could easily get shunted aside faster than if it comes from someone in, say, Georgia or Virginia. (Sorry to be so completely US-centric. It just popped into my head and I haven't thought it out beyond what I've written here.)

[Member33070]

That makes perfect sense and was actually what I was hoping for...to get volunteers in each general area to send out letters. Personalized letters would be great, perhaps using the same basic template as that letter, but then allow each person to send letters with their own testimonials about how important asexual visibility is to them and what it may have been like not having these things expressed in a sex ed class.

Just a thought...

I'd like to get started on the website this weekend for all this so that the volunteers for the visibility projects can get going, but I know this is going to be a ton of work. I need to find some kind of a host and perhaps someone to help me with coding to make it look all pretty.

Any professional web designers around willing to help out? You'll get credit.

[Laramie]

I'm not professional by any stretch of the imagination but I'll help if there's no one else.

[Member33070]

K cool awesome. I got this really cool idea for a shirt design in class so once I'm done with that I will start on the website. This shirt is great, it combines the definition of asexuality with the flag colors and the triangle. :D

[SubtleFire]

Is the website going to be just for volunteers or is it also going to be something we link to as a resource? If it's just us, a nice simple Wordpress site might do. It's free, or if you want your own domain the hosting is cheap. Although, you can have a pretty shiny site with Wordpress if you have someone who knows what they're doing. It can save a lot of time in getting things set up.

This is going to be a metric crapton of work. I spent about an hour looking at a few college websites and it ranged from no information to almost too much. (One place had about 5 different student groups and support services that would be appropriate which, hey, all the better!) If we can't find contact information for a GSA-type group, maybe we could send things to the campus counseling center. In fact, maybe send to counseling centers anyway?

[Member33070]

^ Ideally the site will be a place for volunteers as well as a resource for people who want to get started on their own visibility projects. I'm thinking an all-inclusive place with documents, success stories, recipes for asexy cake and pizza, craft ideas, legal thoughts, volunteer sign up sheets, etc. etc. etc.

I know that will be an insane amount of work for sure.

Re: the letters, it might be good to address them something like

"Attn: Sex Education Program

at Such-and-Such Middle School

1234 Blah Yak Street

Something Something, CA 1245"

and/or

"Sex Education Program

c/o Somebody Important

at Something Something Middle School

1234 Some Other Street

Such-and-Such, CA 12345"

Same deal with GSA:

"Gay-Straight Alliance

c/o GSA President Name

at Blah Yak High School

1234 Somewhere Else Street

Someplace, CA 12345"

Pretty sure any of those will work OK...

[BlackRose]

An Etsy account may not be used for the purpose of redirecting traffic to another web location. This includes shops in Vacation Mode. Please contact Support to have your account closed if you are no longer using it.

So I have to delete the shop if we're not using it, and this kind of makes me wonder if I can direct people to the not-handmade shop (to keep in line with the rest of Etsy's rules) on the handmade shop (the Etsy shop)

Multiple accounts held by one person

DOs and DON'Ts > Membership > Multiple accounts held by one person

Having more than one account ("multiple accounts" or "alternate accounts") is not something Etsy encourages, as it has the potential to cause confusion. Keep in mind that information and accounts cannot be merged in any way, so if you change your mind later, you will not be able to transfer information (for example: listings, feedback, Favorites or purchase history) from one account to another.

All of your usernames must be clearly disclosed in the Public Profile for each account. A statement such as, "I am also on Etsy under these usernames..." would be acceptable. This includes all buying and selling accounts, as well as any collective accounts in which you are involved.

You may not use an alternate account to purchase items from yourself. This is called "shilling."

You may not list the same unique item in more than one shop on Etsy.

Etsy will not issue refunds for accidental activity stemming from multiple account ownership (for example: listing items in the wrong shop). Members who do not comply with Etsy's policies may be subject to review, which can result in suspension of account privileges and/or termination. This includes all of your accounts by virtue of association. In other words, Etsy reserves the right to suspend the use of the site for a person and all username(s) he/she operates under. Suspended or terminated members remain obligated to pay Etsy for all unpaid fees per our Terms of Use.

I don't have an Etsy shop, but anyone that does who wants to be involved should be aware of this.

Multiple people using a single account (collective shops)

DOs and DON'Ts > Membership > Multiple people using a single account (collective shops)

An account that involves more than one person is called a collective. There are three scenarios, outlined below, in which multiple people who know each other may use a single Etsy account.

[snip...we're not a collaboration]

Sharing a Shop: Multiple people who know each other use a single Etsy account to post their own separate items in one shared shop. For example:

Two jewelers share a collective Etsy shop, but they create and list their own jewelry items in the shop.

Friends, a painter and a furniture maker, share a collective Etsy shop to sell their work together.

Vintage sellers share a shop to sell their vintage finds together.

This would be us.

If your shop is a collective, you must comply with all of Etsy's policies, including these additional policies specifically for collectives:

A collective may not be an entity that represents multiple artists by contract (for example: a gallery, a consignment shop, an art agency/dealer).

Okay, so no being paid for your work somewhere else and selling it here too. *shrug* I doubt that's going to happen.

Because of the laws concerning charitable fundraising, a charitable collective shop must comply with Etsy's Charitable listings and shops policies.

Okay, so if we're considered a "charity" there's more rules to follow. Since we're not an official "charity" yet I won't worry about this right now.

Um... AVEN doesn't have 501©(3) status? I thought it did.

The Public Profile page for the account must fully disclose accurate information about each person, their role in the Etsy shop and the relationships between the members of the collective. Etsy may ask for additional information and require that the shop comply with additional requirements.

Each one of us will need to reveal ourselves. No anonymous-ness - LOUD AND PROUD.

The individual who registers the account is responsible for all activities of the account, the bill and any transactions. This includes participation in community features of the site.

Okay, that's me.

All standard listing policies (see Shops and Listings) apply to collective Etsy shops. All handmade items must be created by members of the collective.

Members who do not comply with Etsy's policies may be subject to review, which can result in suspension of account privileges and/or termination. Suspended or terminated members remain obligated to pay Etsy for all unpaid fees per our Terms of Use. If any of Etsy's policies are violated by a member of a collective, all accounts registered to members of the collective are subject to suspension of privileges and/or account termination. Etsy will not mediate disputes between individuals within a collective.

It doesn't sound like there's an easy way to do this...more research!

Yeah, I'm kind of thinking avoiding etsy might be a good idea... Ebay?

[hexaquark]

Um... AVEN doesn't have 501©(3) status? I thought it did.

As far as I know, AVEN does not have 501©(3) status (or any status as an organization for that matter). There was talk in this thread about it in 2007, but the consensus seemed to be that AVEN was not ready for it, and that it might be something to look to in the future. Also, needing a lawyer to help with all the legal stuff seemed to be an issue.

[Member33070]

Since I'm not really affiliated with AVEN in a mod-y way, I was thinking that this project would be separate and the charity thing would be easier to apply for if it was something I knew all the ins and outs of.

Not really sure what to do about that...I want to run it like a nonprofit but would really have to research before anything goes up as to how OK it is to call it a nonprofit when...it hasn't been approved by anything, y'know?

[hexaquark]

Since I'm not really affiliated with AVEN in a mod-y way, I was thinking that this project would be separate and the charity thing would be easier to apply for if it was something I knew all the ins and outs of.

Not really sure what to do about that...I want to run it like a nonprofit but would really have to research before anything goes up as to how OK it is to call it a nonprofit when...it hasn't been approved by anything, y'know?

I don’t know anything about laws or anything so: grain of salt.

I think part of the point of registering as a NPO is to avoid income taxes (and to reduce taxes for donors because you can issue receipts for their tax deductions). For example, to my knowledge, this is the reason the AVEN store aims to keep profits to a minimum, otherwise someone will end up with more taxable income since AVEN is not a NPO. Another reason for registering is credibility as a charity. But I believe registering requires that you have things like a board of directors.

Basically, if you are not a NPO and are bringing in money, the government wants their cut of the cake. You live in the US, different states will probably have different laws. I’m going to repeat here, I really don’t know anything concrete about this stuff.

I am intrigued by the idea of selling handmade things to raise money for visibility efforts, because I love making things. Also, Etsy is different because it is a community as well as a commerce site: you can participate in the forums, promote other sellers through making treasuries, favourite items you like... in other words, you can be visible to anyone you connect with through there. I’m not sure you’d get the same effect with eBay, but I know more about Etsy than eBay so I’m biased.

Sorry to come in here and be all “TAXES!” but it is something to keep in mind.

Here, to make up for it, have an offensively cute cake.

There goes my street cred.

[Yolly]

This all sounds awesome!

I am in the UK so would be more than happy to send letters etc (once my exams are over in mid-June), I am also the asexual representative for my university's LGBTUA+ society (Warwick Pride) (as far as I'm aware no other university has an asexual representative so this is pretty awesome) and I am currently trying to make contacts with other UK universities. Warwick is pretty much the best place to be ace; we have a couple of people doing PhDs related to it etc.

I also have a friend who is running for NUS LGBT Women's delegate this weekend (which basically means if she wins she will be one of the people representing LGBT students in the UK) who specifically mentions asexuality in her manifesto (manifesto) so I have a good contact there too.

Unfortunately I'm not very creative but I'm sure I can help. However I'm going to hold off until my exams are over otherwise I will get too excited by this and not revise enough.

[Member33070]

The long-term plan I have at the moment goes something like this:

May - Building Excitement, Brainstorming, Research

- set up Tumblr

- set up Facebook

- set up Twitter

- start Zazzle shop

- develop submission system for Zazzle designs

- brainstorm website content

- figure out what to use the Facebook and Twitter for and how to integrate them with the website

- figure out how to integrate the Tumblr with the fully functional website

- find website host that can be free or not free, that I like (this is something that might need recommendations but ultimately it will come down to cost and ease of use of the tools. I want to avoid FTP if possible.)

- hopefully sell enough merchandise to pay the website fees to get a domain name (dot-com or dot-net or something)

- brainstorm website layout

- research funding, financial concerns, banking, etc.

- figure out stuff with the Etsy shop - paying artists, profits, how to get things from different people to appear in one shop, etc.

June - Draft Month

- work on website layout

- begin early development on volunteer sign up system

- develop system for users to submit recipes, craft ideas, visibility projects, etc.

- have volunteers test the systems to check functionality

- revise things based on feedback from volunteers

- begin integrating Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.

- gather volunteers to research resources and links to post

July - Content Month

- start writing resource articles (for individuals - FAQ, Q&A type articles)

- start gathering craft ideas and such

- set up wall of links with descriptions

- figure out a way of testing the link wall where dead sites will be flagged for removal or inspection

- continue building content

August - Initial Launch Month

- site early launch (early August) - now consists of resources, content, craft ideas, etc., and a volunteer sign up area

- develop visibility project resources (for groups, such as 'how to start an asexual group/accommodate asexuals in your group)

- provide a method to have people submit their success with visibility projects, crafts, etc.

- begin work on launch of visibility projects - gather information, ideas for projects, etc.

September - Visibility Launch Month

- gather enough information and resources to launch 1-3 large-scale visibility projects (this will take all month probably)

- launch these projects at the tail end of September or early August

October - Fully Functional Month

- celebrate the success of the launch of the site and the projects somehow :)

I know that's a long time frame but I feel like the website will take a lot of time, blood, sweat, and tears to get working the way I want it to.

I'm in university as well (*cough* double majoring in Civil Engineering and Science with minors in Math, Physics, and Environmental Engineering - and taking summer classes! *cough*) so I understand the lack of time. That's why taking it slow is a good idea to me...get everything figured out, get people excited and ready and prepared to launch with a BANG! :)

[Laramie]

You could just use tumblr as the main website. You can link it to a domain name if you want to. Eg: http://www.drawthis.co.uk/ uses tumblr as a host but has its own domain name. It would probably be fairly cheap; tumblr itself is free, comes with templates for design, is already integrated with tumblr since it is tumblr, and is easily integrated with both facebook and twitter.

Seems sensible...

[Member33070]

^ It is, but...gah I don't know how to explain how much stuff is going to be on this website...it's going to have to be a website form simply to accommodate everything. It's going to be huge.

HUGE.

It requires its own website.

I appreciate the thought though.

[BlackRose]

I think the point of registering as a NPO is to avoid income taxes (and to reduce taxes for donors because you can issue receipts for their tax deductions).

Yes. That's right.

For example, to my knowledge, this is the reason the AVEN store aims to keep profits to a minimum, otherwise someone will end up with more taxable income since AVEN is not a NPO.

That doesn't make sense. Whoever ends up with more taxable income will end up with more income after taxes. More income is always good.

Another reason for registering is credibility as a charity. But I believe registering requires that you have things like a board of directors.

Yes.

[Pippi55]

I'd love to help in any way I can. =) I can write pretty decently, if that's any help... (I write fanfiction a lot, some of it with asexual characters. Not relevant, sorry...)

But I was wondering... Is this project going to be worldwide, or are you focusing more on US? Because I'm from a small country in Europe, and we just had our very first article in a lgbt newspaper about asexuality. =) I'd love to do something to make us more visible here, especially since the start has been already made.

[Member33070]

I'd like it to be worldwide. ^_^

That's what the 'resources' bit will be good at - helping people get visibility regardless of the country, etc.

Not sure if the translator websites will do everything justice, but we'll see. :)

[Pippi55]

Actually... I think translating some general information, at least pamphlets, would be a great idea. At least into French, German, maybe some Asian languages? I mean, it wouldn't be too hard to do. I can do German and my own language, and I could get a friend to translate into French. I could most probably quickly find people to translate into Croatian, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, maybe Bolgarian...

So um, what I'm trying to say... if you ever want anything translated for the site, I can help.

[Member33070]

Maybe just some folks who would check the wording once it's been run through a translator? That would save them some time. :)

[Avistew]

Maybe just some folks who would check the wording once it's been run through a translator? That would save them some time. :)

I'm a translator, and... No, it rarely saves works :P Usually takes more work as you have to translate it back word for word before you can understand what it actually means. Using the same original text as the source would be much easier.

[Pippi55]

Yeah, exactly. =D Online translators manage to mangle the text completely.

[Mumkin]

This all looks really cool!

On the subject of translation I'll just agree with Avistew and Pippi and say that using online translators is a bad idea for all the reasons they stated.

That said I speak German, Arabic and English(native language)and would be happy to help translate any pamphlets or whatever you need for the site. I am also living in the UK so if you needed any help sending things to educators here I'd be happy to help. I'm afraid I'm not that artistic or good with more complex things online though.

[Redbeard]

Those pixel sizes from Zazzle seem to be similar to what CafePress had. In general, I was able to use an 8x10 300dpi image (2400x3000) for most things and it would fit fairly well. If it's anything like CafePress, you can upload one image and they'll scale it to fit just about anything. You will have to take note of the different shapes and sizes of things. What works well on a T-Shirt rarely works well on a bumper sticker, without modification.

I'd recommend using PNG files, even though they're usually larger than JPGs, since you can make them transparent and they won't have any compression artifacts. It really depends on the content of the image, though.

As far as web hosting goes, I use Dreamhost.com for my personal site and I've been fairly happy with it. It ends up being about $120 a year for hosting. I haven't looked at their offerings lately, but when I signed up, their storage and bandwidth limits were extremely high, you got a domain name free for a year ($10 a year after that), and you'd get e-mail for that domain, as well. They have a lot of applications set up with simple installs, just push a few buttons and you've got WordPress or a photo gallery or a content management system, etc. They also give you Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, etc., so if there's anything custom you'd want to develop, you can do that, too. It's got FTP and SCP and Shell access if you need it, but for the most part, you probably won't need it. (Most of the major hosting providers probably have fairly similar offerings, though, so shop around.)

I've found WordPress really easy to use and add content to. There are many people writing all sorts of plugins for it, so there's a good chance that someone's already done the exact thing that you want to do, and all you have to do is pull down the plugin. I'm sure someone's written Facebook and Twitter integration for it already. You can probably use WP as the basis of your entire site, not just for a blog.

[SubtleFire]

Wordpress now has built-in Facebook and Twitter integration. The catch is that the Facebook option seems to go to your personal page and I haven't found a way for it to go to a group or fan page yet. As far as I can tell, the auto-tweeting works great though.

Another option is a Facebook app called Selective Tweets. You add it on FB, give it permission to access Twitter, then it will send to Facebook any tweet you end with the #fb tag. You have the option of using it with your own page or a fan page (or both). It's a little time-saver if you're planning on posting the same updates both places, at least between now and when the site is running.

[justaspinster]

About Zazzle: There is a feature where you can import a picture (say the asexy flag) and zazzle will automatically put it on everything that they offer (or any combination of what they offer). It them lets you add in and edit each product individually, and add a general product discription and tags. So if you want to make a bunch of asexy stuff in a hurry, that might be the thing to do as it gives people many choices.