Girl meets vampire boy, vampire boy leaves girl, girl meets wolf boy… It’s kind of complicated but it’s the world of Twilight as Twi-hards know it. And here at CafePress, the madness has ensued with some of our staff. We’ve read all the books, discuss whether Team Edward or Team Jacob is better, play Twilight trivia, etc…
Check out the fun photos of CafePress Twihards below.
Twi-oween: The Cullen Vampire Baseball team makes Halloween a home run.
Twilight Game: A lighthearted game of Twilight trivia is the perfect way to spend lunch with fellow Twi-hards.
BK New Moon meal: The Cullen Baseball team shelves the uniforms to grab lunch at Burger King, to celebrate the launch of the BK New Moon meal (CafePress is featured on the Edward & Bella card!)
New Moon Movie release party: Some of us attended the midnight showing of “New Moon” on opening night that included a movie release party hosted by TwilightersAnonymous.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon movie: The CafePress team viewing of New Moon.
Everyone was moved by the story of interspecies star-crossed lovers.
UPDATE: Folks, please note that some of the designs that you’re finding as “still there” are simply thumbnails that haven’t yet churned out of our Marketplace. If you click on them, you’ll most likely find that the products themselves are no longer available. The thumbnails themselves will also disappear shortly thereafter.
Please understand that, given our size and the sheer number of people adding content to our site on a daily basis, you may run across a design that has been only recently pended. If you refresh your browser and take a breather, in short order you’ll find that that design has been yanked by our team.
Thanks!
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This morning we made the decision to remove all Psalms 109:8 designs from CafePress.
The public debate started with questioning if the design was simply intended to be criticism of the President or something much worse. The discourse was surprisingly civil online, given the heated nature of the topic. Given that, and the positions of groups like the ACLU and the Anti-Defamation League, we decided to let the dialogue play out publicly before making a final decision.
Last night we posted a poll on our blog, read through the emails we’ve received and weighed the nature of the calls we’ve received on the topic. In the process we also learned that many of the original designers of the Psalm 109:8 designs had already decided to remove them on their own.
General consensus has proven that the design does point to a broader interpretation of the Psalm and thus has been deemed inappropriate for sale at CafePress.
We try to create an atmosphere of self-expression. Many of the things we encounter are not black and white, but grey. When the dialogue is civil, we want to let the larger community work things out rather than making an uninformed ruling. The dialogue has played out and common sentiment has reached agreement – this merchandise is not appropriate.
UPDATE 11/20: Please see the updated Psalm 109:8 post. Thanks, all, for your civil input on this heated topic.
Over the last 10 years, we at CafePress have become accustomed to the T-shirt being a springboard for people to express their views – including those that are political, religious and various combinations of the two. The discussions that result from these designs can initiate healthy political dialogue or debate and, sometimes, strong criticism.
The past couple of days have illustrated this point rather clearly, as user-designed merchandise with “Pray for Obama – Psalm 109:8” has come to public attention.
When folks started talking about the Obama Psalm 109:8 merchandise, we weren’t particularly shocked to find that a T-shirt had caused heated political discourse. What did catch our attention, though, were the folks claiming that Psalm 109:8 was being used to advocate Barack Obama’s assassination.
We take our Content Usage policy seriously here, and no content that advocates the harming of any human being is acceptable. But is that what Psalm 109:8 is trying to convey in the context of a T-shirt?
Psalm 109:8 states: Let his days be few; Let another take his office.
To date we have treated these designs much in the same way we took the “No W” and “Impeach Bush” merchandise. But does it mean something more?
As the leaders in User Generated Commerce we strive to manage our content in a way that protects self-expression and free speech, while also making sure that we’re not allowing the promotion of violence.
Sometimes, though, iconography and words can take on new meaning over time – and this is often as a result of public discourse. If we see that the overall public discourse has determined that the meaning of this use of Psalm 109:8 goes beyond it’s literal meaning, and is being construed as threatening to the President, we will revisit our decision to allow the designs.
We’d love for you to weigh in on the Psalm 109:8 designs:
To see how experts – including representatives from the ACLU and the Anti Defamation League – have weighed in on the subject, check out this article.
Turns out that the U.S. Preventative Task Force issued a new statement that advises women between the ages of 40-49 that they don’t really need mammograms. This announcement prompted fierce debate over the issue, at which point “The Today Show” brought on their Chief Medical Editor to discuss it.
And it just so happens that CafePress Shopkeeper Kathleen Moore was watching this segment, and it got her pretty fired up. Here’s what she said:
I was watching The Today Show this morning, and they were interviewing Dr. Nancy Snyderman about this new study that recommends doing away with routine mammograms for those under 50. She said, “You may have to screen up to 1900 women in that between-the-ages-of-40-49 group to save one life — so it is pitting the American Cancer Society against some other academic groups.” I found myself responding out loud to the TV “that 1 in 1900 is my sister!” My sister was diagnosed with breast cancer thanks to an under-40 routine mammogram. Then I started thinking about all those “1-in-1900s” — they’re all someone’s sister, or mother, or daughter, or wife. We know that a mammogram catching something doesn’t necessarily save a patient’s life, but early detection gives you the best chance.
To me that cuts to the heart of the issue: when you start making public health decisions based on statistics instead of medical science, you lose sight of the point — to save and preserve life. In cost-analysis terms, 1900 procedures for the benefit of one person may seem ludicrous, but to that one woman’s sister it means the world.
Kathleen started the 1 in 1900 shop to inspire her friends and family, and tells us she’s donating proceeds from the sales of the shirt to the American Cancer Society.
To put some perspective on the number: 1 in 1900 is 48 people at a sold-out Los Angeles Coliseum. It’s 4,368 people in Manhattan. It gives you 1/6 the lifetime odds of accidentally dying via firearm (that troubling statistic is one in 300 people), but about the same as your odds of dying in a year due to an accidental injury (1 in 1600).
So: is that one person in 1900 enough of a reason to continue with early-detection mammograms? While the debate continues around not only the necessity of the test itself but whether or not insurance companies will begin to deny coverage for under-50 mammograms given the new position of the government, we’ll go to the polls:
With “New Moon” hitting theaters on November 20th and all the great fan-created Twilight T-shirts and such we’ve been enjoying, it seemed only fitting to make crazed Team Edward-or-Jacob-ness accessible to everyone.
And so we bring you the New Moon Free Sticker Pack Extravaganza! Just visit the site and choose how you roll (or in this case, who you run with), and use this code for redemption: CPNEWMOONGIFT2
Feel free to share that code around – tweet it, Facebook it, email it, shout it from the heavens. Yep, there really is such a thing as a free sticker or three.
On Friday we hosted a Twi-hard Trivia Treasure Hunt through the various Twilight T-shirts in the CafePress Marketplace. (If you want to test your own skills, start here. Type the answer into the search box, find the new question and answer it, and keep on truckin’ until you’re at the Treasure T-shirt.)
We’ve had a lot of requests for us to publish the answers, so if you scrooollll to the bottom of this post you’ll find them, in order, for your own higher learnings and such.
“New Moon” hits theaters on Thursday 11/20. But you knew that, didn’t you?
Answers to the trivia questions below…
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(1) Isabella Marie Swan (2) papercut, Jasper Hale (3) Demetri (4) The Bloated Toad (5) March 19th (6) moonless night (7) la tua cantante (8) port angeles (9) the denali coven (10) the cold ones (11) Never Think, Robert Pattinson
Here at CafePress, it’s a given that you can find T-shirts on any subject imaginable (and several thousand topics that you can’t begin to imagine).
But as new state tax laws now go into effect in California (and taxes continue to rise around the country), it’s getting harder-and-harder to find T-shirt designs that give a thumbs-up to our tax system.
Unless of course you’re a tax preparer or work for the IRS. Then you give two BIG thumbs-up.
It’s not that people seem to have a good solution for our current tax woes. But at least here in the CafePress community (and this is backed-up by counting the available inventory of tax-themed designs on our gear), we have to conclude that people are … well, feeling taxed about the situation.
TWI-HARD TRIVIA TREASURE HUNT CONTEST OFFICIAL RULES
HOW TO ENTER: This Contest begins at 9:30 AM PST on November 13, 2009 and ends at 10:00 PM PST on November 13, 2009 (“Contest Period”). To enter, you must have a Twitter.com account and be following @twilightees on Twitter.com and be able to access the CafePress.com marketplace (http://shop.cafepress.com/). No purchase necessary.
1. HOW TO WIN:
Access the first trivia question at www.twitter.com/twilightees on or after 9:30 AM PST November 13, 2009. Type in the answer to the first trivia question into the search box on www.cafepress.com. If your answer is correct you will be presented with a search result, which will contain the next trivia question. Type the answer to the second trivia question followed by into the CafePress.com search box. For further instructions please see the detailed instructions set forth at http://blog.cafepress.com/2009/11/12/twi-hard-trivia-treasure-hunt-instructions/. There are a total of eleven (11) trivia questions, if you answer each one correctly and enter your answers into CafePress.com search box you will proceed to the final product. Once you have the URL for the final product you need to:
a. Tweet the link to the final product to @twilightees with #treasurehunt in the tweet; AND
b. Email the product link to Product Question 11 to twilightees@cafepress.com
All trivia questions and answers are only in the CafePress.com Marketplace, not in individual CafePress.com shops. The first eligible contestant to complete the contest in accordance with these official rules and the instructions at http://blog.cafepress.com/2009/11/12/twi-hard-trivia-treasure-hunt-instructions/, shall be eligible to win the First Prize, the second shall be eligible to win the Second Prize and the third shall be eligible to win the Third Prize.
THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITY WILL AUTOMATICALLY DISQUALIFY YOU FROM THE CONTEST:
You tweet, post or otherwise share any contest question product links, other than the final link, publicly
You tweet, post or otherwise share the final link with anyone other than @twilightees
You get the product question links from someone else
2. ELIGIBILITY: Open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 years or older at time of entry. Void where prohibited by law. Employees of CafePress, its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries, participating advertising and promotion agencies and prize suppliers (and members of their immediate family and/or those living in the same household of each) are not eligible
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3. PRIZES: First Prize: 5 hoodies, 5 T-shirts, 5 SIGG bottles, 5 stickers, and 5 minibuttons, all from the CafePress.com Marketplace, excludes fulfillment products. (Approx value $503. USD)
Second Prize: 1 hoodie, 1 T-shirt, 1 SIGG bottle, and 5 minibuttons, all from the CafePress.com Marketplace, excludes fulfillment products. (Approx value $106. USD)
Third Prize: 1 hoodie and 5 minibuttons, all from the CafePress.com Marketplace, excludes fulfillment products. (Approx value $48. USD)
4. CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION: No transfer, assignment or substitution of a prize permitted, except that CafePress reserves the right to substitute a prize for an item of equal or greater value if the offered prize is unavailable, in CafePress’s sole and absolute discretion. The prize is awarded without warranty of any kind from CafePress, express or implied, without limitation. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply. All taxes are the sole responsibility of the prize winner. Entrants agree to be bound by the terms of these official rules, the CafePress Terms of Service, the CafePress Privacy Policy and by the decisions of CafePress, which are final and binding on all matters pertaining to this Contest. CafePress is not responsible if the prize cannot be awarded due to delays, technical problems or interruptions due to acts of God, acts of war, natural disasters, weather or acts of terrorism. Potential winners may be required to sign and return an Affidavit of Eligibility, and Release of Liability, and where legally acceptable, Publicity Release within three (3) days following attempted notification. Failure to comply within this time period may result in disqualification and selection of an alternate winner. By accepting a prize, winner agrees to hold CafePress, its respective directors, officers, employees and assigns harmless for any injury or damage caused or claimed to be caused by participation in the Contest and/or acceptance of any prize. CafePress is not responsible for any typographical, printing, technical, human or other error in the printing of the offer, administration of the Contest or in the announcement of the prize.
5. INTERNET:CafePress, its affiliates, partners and promotion and advertising agencies are not responsible for technical, hardware, software, telephone or other communications malfunctions, errors or failures of any kind, lost or unavailable network connections, website, Internet, or ISP availability, unauthorized human intervention, traffic congestion, incomplete or inaccurate capture of entry information (regardless of cause) or failed, incomplete, garbled, jumbled or delayed computer transmissions which may limit one’s ability to enter the Contest, including any injury or damage to entrant’s or any other person’s computer relating to or resulting from participating in this Contest or downloading any materials in this Contest. If for any reason the Internet portion of the program is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this Contest, CafePress reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest. In such event, CafePress reserves the right to select winners from eligible entries received as of the termination date.
6. USE OF DATA: CafePress will be collecting personal data about entrants online, in accordance with its Privacy Policy, unless otherwise set forth in these Official Rules. By participating in the Contest, entrants hereby agree to CafePress’s collection and use of their personal information and acknowledge that they have read and accepted CafePress’ Privacy Policy.
7. ADDITIONAL TERMS: Any potential winner may be requested to provide CafePress with proof that such winner is a United States resident and was at least 18 years old at the time of entry. Any automatic, programmed, robotic or similar means of entry are prohibited. CafePress reserves the right at its sole and absolute discretion (i) to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest; and/or (ii) CafePress reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to disqualify any individual it finds, in its sole and absolute discretion, to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Contest or website. CafePress may prohibit an entrant from participating in the Contest or winning a prize if, in its sole and absolute discretion, it determines that said entrant is attempting to undermine the legitimate operation of the Contest by cheating, hacking, deception, or other unfair playing practices (including the use of automated quick entry programs) or intending to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other entrants, CafePress or users of the CafePress Service. Any attempt by an entrant to deliberately damage any website or undermine the legitimate operation of the Contest is a violation of criminal and civil laws and should such an attempt be made, CafePress reserves the right to seek damages from any such entrant to the fullest extent of the law.
*Twitter, Inc. is not affiliated with nor a sponsor of this Contest.
These questions will test your knowledge of both “Twilight” and “New Moon.”
The eleven questions are posed, individually, on products in the CafePress Marketplace.
When you know the answer to the question posed on the Product, you will type the answer into the search box.
If you type in the correct answer, you will get a search result (click to see how that works). The next clue will be on another product in those search results.
It’s your job to find the next question, figure out the answer like you did the first time, and type it into the search box.
Continue on in this manner until you and your Twilight brilliance bring you to the TREASURE T-shirt. This will be marked with an X, as all good treasures are.
Click on the product to obtain the product link
Your winning entry consists of 2 parts:
Tweet the link (URL) of the final product to @twilightees with #treasurehunt in the tweet. EXAMPLE: @twilightees http://www.cafepress.com/+robot_evolution_yellow_dark_tshirt,137986484 #treasurehunt
Email the product link to Product Question 11 to twilightees@cafepress.com.
Other useful info:
The clues look very much like the sample clue above at left. They are all on CafePress Marketplace products. They are not all on white hoodies. Be forewarned.
The contest will start when @twilightees tweets the link to the first clue. This’ll be around 9:30AM.
The contest ends when three people submit winning entries or at 10PM PST, whichever comes first.
A winning entry consists of BOTH a tweet to @twilightees with a link to the final product (which has instruction to remind you of its import), as well as an email to twilightees@cafepress.com with a link to Product Question 11.
If you want to say something like “Woo I’m the winner!” in your tweet, we recommend you use bit.ly or another link shortener. Otherwise, the entire product link + the #treasurehunt should fit within 140 characters.
DO NOT TWEET A LINK TO ANY PRODUCT QUESTION OTHER THAN THE FINAL ONE. This will disqualify you, and it will annoy everyone else. Please, don’t be That Guy.
Also, don’t tweet a link to any Product Question to anyone other than @twilightees. This, too, will disqualify you and relegate you to being known as That Guy.
For those who want more detailed instruction, @twilightees brings you… More Detailed Instruction:
Above, as noted, is a sample product question. Click on it, and it will take you to a CafePress Marketplace result. (I tagged it with thunderchickenlegs just to make sure I could find it. I don’t know why I used such a random term, but let’s forget about that for now.)
Note that, in the search result, if you mouse over the product (don’t click) you will see an enlarged image. A screen shot of that is also to the right. If you click the product, it you will go to a product detail page that will then allow you to zoom in on the image, making it much larger. This may be helpful for some clues.
The search box, called out at right, is where you’ll type your answer.
The screen shot here at left is what it’ll look like when you correctly type in the answer to a question. (You can click it to hit a larger image.)
Once you type in the answer, you will be taken to a search result. (Click on that search result link if you want to see what a search result looks like.)
If your answer is correct, within that search result will be the next Product Question. It may be the only product that surfaces on the result, or it may be among a few others.
Continue answering questions in this manner until you get to the last T-shirt, at which point you’ve found the treasure and it’s time to…
Come on, you know this!
Tweet the link of the final product to @twilightees with #treasurehunt in the tweet.
Email the product link to Product Question 11 to twilightees@cafepress.com.
The time of your tweet will be considered before the time of your Product Question 11 email, so we recommend that you send it first.
That’s it. Best of luck, everybody. Now re-read these instructions, twice.
What are you waiting for? Seriously, it can’t hurt to re-read them, can it?
OK, now the fun stuff – PRIZES! All prizes are chosen by the winners from the CafePress Marketplace. We will be awarding prizes for first, second and third place.
First Prize:
PARTY PACK OF FREAKING AWESOME FOR 5
5 Twilight hoodies
5 Twilight t-shirts
5 1.0 Liter Twilight SIGG bottles
5 Twilight stickers
25 Twilight minibuttons (5 for each of you, or you can hog them all)
It’s Veterans Day today, a day when we pause to honor the military servicefolk who have risked (and ended) their lives to protect our country.
And so we at CafePress take a moment to day to honor our veterans – and, it may be noted, we have a whole lot of designers who have done the same thing via the almighty T-shirt. The same goes for troop support, which is a popular theme among our community.
For those of you who are interested in supporting troops currently deployed, check out Operation Gratitude – they have a great program helping out the future veterans of America, including an online shop.
Now ask yourself if you’ve hugged a veteran today, and if you haven’t – get on with it. (We recommend of course that you hug a veteran that you actually know, in order to prevent the likelihood of a socially awkward moment and/or arrest.)
Girl meets vampire boy, vampire boy leaves girl, girl meets wolf boy… It’s kind of complicated but it’s the world of Twilight as Twi-hards know it. And here at CafePress, the madness has ensued with some of our staff. We’ve read all the books, discuss whether Team Edward or Team Jacob is better, play Twilight trivia, etc…
