User:Sweets4ever/Craftster



Craftster (Craftster.org) is a virtual community for internet users who "love to make things but who are not inspired by cross-stitched home sweet home plaques and wooden boxes with ducks in bonnets painted on them. If you've been known to run with scissors, you can break 'the rules of crafting' with your fellow rebel DIY'ers there."

Craftster was created in August 2003 by Leah Kramer, computer programmer and self-proclaimed craft junkie. Leah is the author of The Craftster Guide to Nifty, Thrifty, and Kitschy Crafts: Fifty Fabulous Projects from the Fifties and Sixties. She resides in Boston where she is an owner of the Magpie and is an organizer of the not-your-grandma's craft fair Bazaar Bizarre.

Features
Craftster is compromised of four main areas: The Forum, Blog, Classifieds and Picture Hosting.

Craftster allows members to customize their accounts in several ways. Members can upload graphical avatars, which appear next to the username on the forum. Each member has a "Profile," "title" and "signature" space in which they can customize to include a variety of data including contact information, age and location.

Craftster has member "positions," which include Newbie, Jr. Member, Full Member and Craftster God/Goddess. Craftster is maintained by a team of State Moderators, Swap Moderators, Category Moderators, Global Moderators, an Assistant Administrator and an Administrator (Leah Kramer).

"Friends of Craftster" (commonly abbreviated as FOC) subscription members have access to a private forum to discuss and preview new features as well as participate in contests. Friends of Craftster receive a special icon next to their username to show that they are a financial supporter.

Craftster has several ad campaign packages for businesses who wish to advertise on the site.

Statistics
As of September 2007:

Total Members: 107780

Total Posts: 2017618

Total Topics: 159955

Total Categories: 30

Total page views: 301399300