Are Designs that are Nothing but a Solid Color Allowed?

[Cat]

I know there has been a lot of discussion recently about designs that are just solid black appearing in the marketplace. It's pretty clear that these are not allowed because most of them were also full of tag spam.

But now I'm seeing a lot of designs that are just a solid color that isn't black. The tags are sorta relevant, but it's not really a design, just a color. Should I report these, or are these allowable designs?

I'm not gonna call anyone out on the forum, but if you want to see what I mean, check out this query: Solid Color | Zazzle (Some of the products in that query have an actual design on a solid background - that's not what I'm referring to. The ones I'm puzzling over are just one solid color with no other design elements.)

[Cat]

Holy Moly, guys! I just spent an hour or two looking for "create your own" designs and reported hundreds of them. Here's the thing. A bunch of them are from stores that have nothing but these sorts of designs and some are silver and gold level designers! 

[ColsCreations]

And now that that's all in your Zazzle browsing history your Z home page recommendations will be littered with them. You're stuck now seeing them 😉

[Cat]

Bwahahaha! I guess no good deed goes unpunished!

[Sea-Change]

I reported thousands a few weeks ago, all with only white or only black designs. I am apalled that some of these accounts have achieved silver and gold level by simulating the Z template.

The only designs I've seen action on were ones with distinctly wrong tags that referred to something specific that clearly wasn't there, e.g., animals, beach scenes, and specific occasions. The designs with product details  or tags like "minimalist," "create your own," and "trendy" are still there, unfortunately.

I think it's an awful look for Zazzle and unfair to designers who put time into their work. I've also seen lists of "Other Designs You Might Like" that have more than 10 blank designs. All this is bound to hurt sales. Between the same designs and styles being featured year in and year out, and this massive volume of white and black drivel, customers are hard pressed to see all that Z has to offer and are apt to look elsewhere. 

[GabiwArt]

It really annoys me that many of these people are using keywords like "abstract,"
often even in the title.
What are customers supposed to think when they search for "abstract"?

[Barbara]

Zazzle has never been all that open with their reactions or future plans, and so I imagine they're looking at the current problem and perhaps working on a method to deal with it. A full-time staff would likely be required as watchdogs, so maybe they're working on an algorithm to pick off the offenders. If they are, I'd prefer they test it thoroughly because, as we all know, algorithms don't have actual brains.

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[Sea-Change]

I would love to see more action when complete collections and stores are all white or all black with "create our own" or "your design here" tags. It's frustrating that so many stores have 1,000 plus designs, perhaps created via automation, and have obviously made decent sales per their status. When customers create designs, they might not know which option is the real Z template, so these accounts piggyback on the Z template and earn a royalty.

I don't see an issue with collections where people might have an item with a plain coordinating color, such as a wedding or home decor collection. Perhaps Z could find a way to gauge this, perhaps through automation. Maybe the algorithm could evaluate the percentage of plain designs per store or collection, but certainly a store with 1000s of blank designs should be flagged.

I've flagged several all-blank designs, with limited results, and I've noticed that some blank-design creators encourage customers to message them for assistance. Here's an example: "If you need any help personalizing...contact me and I will be happy to help." I realize this is a common practice for creators, but if the all-blank designer's intent is to spam, I'm concerned about what might occur with the potential customer engagement. I don't want to infer any ill intent, but I do think Zazzle should take a closer look.

[SBS]

I think the reason you see that some of these simple products are not deleted after you report them, might be that this hasn't always been prohibited. I remember they added that to the agreement a couple of years ago. So those designers didn't violate the terms when uploading them. Also if those have been actively promoted, it would be a stupid idea to throw away those inbound clicks. No offense, just a thought.

[ColsCreations]

That's a really good thought. Zazzle is here to make a profit, it doesn't matter to them which designer is getting paid for what type of design as long as someone is buying. So if something is being promoted and drawing traffic and sales, why would they care? They aren't seeing it from our perspective. (I think they should care as it cheapens the site overall.)

Re they weren't violating any terms when they uploaded the designs. That's a plausible idea. But they didn't apply that reasoning to the "... lives matter" situation where as I recall all existing designs were pulled when they brought the hammer down on using that phrase if it was anything but "black lives matter".
Also, that they were able to pull all such designs, and recently, all 'alligator alcatraz' designs, that says they do have the technology to go out and find & remove things en masse based on specific criteria. If they want to.