crowdspring crowdspring.com crowdSpring is an unethical sweat shop which takes advantage of a wide group of people Chicago, Illinois
crowdSPRING or cS is a site which I tried out for a few days to test the waters, despite the cries I had heard from the design community at large, I could do with the money. CrowdSpring.com is a so called weasel industry, or as they like to call themselves, a crowdsoucing site based around the production of logos, web and print graphic design.
In short, this is a legalised sweatshop which goes under the name of a competition website. Tight wadded owners or managers of business use crowdSPRING to acquire cheap graphic design at a fraction of the cost of the usual process. A buyer posts their offering in dollars and a thoughtless vague spec for a job, and then hundreds of vulnerable, desperate, bored, skilled and unskilled people set to work ploughing their own time into producing work and then uploading it to the crowdSPRING site. The buyer then sits at his desk like a slave master watching his slaves work for them on a promise that only one of them will get paid, and not the one who works the hardest, but the one who, in his mind, did the best work.
The buyers take the role of they know whats best where graphic design is concerned and often award some of the worst logos and graphics ever seen with their cash prise, its akin to asking a fashion model to consult you on the engine in your car.
I myself with my last crowdSPRING experience worked closely to a design spec designing graphics for a door hanger, around 5 hours say. After uploading, the buyer commented that this isnt what he was looking far as it contained no lifestyle photos. In the spec he ONLY quoted that the logo has to be included, absolutely no mention anywhere of lifestyle photos. This left me feeling used and abused by some megalomaniac who is made to feel like a king by crowdSPRING while peasants come grovelling at his door begging for scraps.
I tried to send the buyer a private message, but the workers are chastised from talking to the buyers but are instead aloud to post a message to a public board which it would seem no buyer ever reads or is interested in reading, they just want the work. So, I left a frustrated message on the board explaining the owner was out of order for making people work on one thing (as per his spec) and in his head meaning another. I also emailed crowdSPRING support asking if the owner will be reprimanded in any way for wasting peoples time, only to receive an email explaining THAT I HAD BROKEN THE RULES, and I am banned from the site!
crowdSPRING does nothing to protect the workers, they have no voice, because for anyone designer who finds their voice and asks for justice and human rights, there are a 100 more vulnerable and desperate compliant suckers stood in the line behind the door crowdSPRING swiftly kick you out of.
This site is immoral on so many levels and is hard to differentiate it from the sex trade or slavery, I suppose its a mixture of both. There are many desperate people in the world today and many, many black souled people out there willing to take advantage of them. Why isnt immoral illegal? I guess thats why crowdSPRING and those alike are called weasel industries, because they are barely legal SCAMS, ran by weasels.
Its no secret amongst designers that these sort of sites are taking food from their table in an industry that is historically rarely appreciated or paid fairly, but using and abusing people as crowdSPRING and the like are, sucks unbelievably; I would like to see these scam sites closed down or at the very least some sort of law protection and voice or union for the workers like in real life. The poor workers on these sites have no rights and are open to being used and abused through legal loops holes and a careful play on words this is wrong.
6 Updates & Rebuttals
Cg
Vaughn,Ontario,
Slavery and.. Sex Trade??
#7Consumer Comment
Thu, March 21, 2013
You compare a website offering multiple artists graphic design sketches to that of SLAVERY and the SEX TRADE???
You do realize many people (mostly women and children) ARE in fact FORCED into horrific prostitution, human trafficking and sex trade organizations, don't you? Slavery wasn't by choice either. I think you're grossly mis-informed when you made that analogy and is an insult to all those victims of human sex trade and trafficking rings.
You think that a graphic designer who goes out of his or her way to try and make money utilizing a crowd-sourcing website is the same as people around the world FORCED to perform sexual acts on others out of the threat of death or harm to ones family is a COMPARISON?????
Again, that's a pretty big insult to those victims.
I get it - your pissed at some crappy/shady company that banned you. Great. But next time choose your words more carefully.
Bigjim
Nepean,Ontario,
Canada
Not a rebuttal of original article
#7General Comment
Fri, March 16, 2012
"no one is forcing you"; Thats hilarious!! No one is forcing you to get scammed? Thats the whole point isn't it?
First off I'll say, it goes without saying all of the rebuttals to this article are either Buyer companies or Crowdsourcing
companies.
Is Crowdsourcing Fair? No of course not. Thats how companies cut corners, finding ways, even unethical ways to cut
corners.
Crowdsourcing seriously needs governments to create laws about its practices. Apparently there is none as of now.
I've been trying crowdsourcing myself as a creator not a buyer company. From my perspective it seems unfair and illegal.
We are working for free, spending who knows how many hours and days on projects without pay. We are not allowed to know
the company names we are supposedly working for. So how can we protect our intellectual rights with the creative work
we've submitted? We can't. There is no protection or followup or any kind of auditing at all.
Why isn't there any laws on this?
I've repeatedly asked questions because of obvious fraud on the part of buyers, but only get a general reply, like;'like it
or lump it".
geraldad
Winnipeg,Manitoba,
Canada
CrowdSpring is a Viable, Trustworthy Service
#7General Comment
Sun, July 31, 2011
I've used CrowdSpring for a number of national-level artwork tasks and am quite impressed. All of the artists I've dealt with are both polite and talented. In the end, both parties benefited from the work and resulting transaction. If there are companies who choose to use the service in an unfair fashion, it should not reflect on the CrowdSpring concept as a whole. They provide an excellent resource for the sharing of art and talent. I will continue to use them and benefit from their service.
Flynrider
Phoenix,Arizona,
USA
Happily employed elsewhere
#7Consumer Comment
Mon, August 09, 2010
Sites like this wouldn't exist if there weren't a plentiful supply a graphic designers (both skilled and unskilled) willing to work for peanuts. Your comparison to slavery is absurd. As I stated before, no one is forced to participate. The "sour grapes" comment was in reference to the protest in your original post that someone with (what you consder was) an inferior design was chosen over you, and you were not allowed to contact the buyer to tell him how much better your work was.
As long as people like you participate in these bottom feeder schemes, they will continue to exist. It's not the site that is the problem, it is you and your fellow designers that are willing to work for nothing. It's not a question of slavery or human rights, it's more an issue of supply and demand. You are outnumbered by your colleagues who are willing to work for free.
Choosing to participate in such a scheme and then crying "slavery" when you are not successful is pretty lame.
MadeInBeats
United Kingdom"Sounds more like sour grapes to me"!!!!!
#7Author of original report
Sat, August 07, 2010
For anyone reading this, I 'suspect' this first reply is from one of the crowdSpring employees I was dealing with.
For the record, it isn't sour grapes. This comment is typical of the cherry picking attitude of crowdSpring, always focus on what makes them sound good, like your best friend, and to boldly ignore the very, very immoral side of this sham scam rip off.
I'm sure most people involved in the sex trade 'sign up' for it, but that is only becasue they are in a position where they are vulnerable and open to be victimised by shady immoral characters wanting to make a quick weasel buck.
It's a sweatshop industry clevery disguised as a 'competition'. Imagine how suprised I was when I found out one of the co-owners was/is a lawyer! LOL, says it all really doesn't it. Compaired to the scum he has probably saved from the penal system, this site must be immoral peanuts, including brainwashing the weak willed people who work for him into thinking he is top guy doing society a service.
If you are the, or a, willing participent who refusses to see the dark side to this website and have no remorse or conscience engauged to try and get THE WORKERS a better deal and more protection from being toyed around with by usless buyers, then sooner or later, what goes around will come around to you - that's just the law of nature and the universe. I'm no Bible basher, but I am willing to bet all of these people at cS are athiests (is anyone taking bets?).
Flynrider
Phoenix,Arizona,
USA
Simple.
#7Consumer Comment
Fri, August 06, 2010
"is hard to differentiate it from the sex trade or slavery,"
I'll help you out. No one is forcing you to participate. You are free to sell your design services any way you like.
The way you describe it, it's hard to call this site a ripoff. Everybody participating knows that they are submitting their work in hopes that the buyer will like it best and buy it. I'm having a hard time figuring out why you think this is immoral or illegal. Sounds more like sour grapes to me.