Pie artist Jessica went into detail about how we can tell whether or not a certain skill is worth learning for us personally. "Sometimes, you find you 'have a bit of a knack' for something new, and even though you still have to work hard, you are able to find enjoyment, or that 'flow' state, a little more easily than others. This is usually an indication to me that the skill is worth investing the time and effort in, even if you don’t see professional-level results right away," she told Bored Panda.
"If it comes 'a little bit easier' to you than others, you'll probably be able to get to where you want to be if you keep at it. If, on the other hand, the work feels like banging your head against a board from day one, and you're just not having any fun at all, you may want to consider picking a different skill to cultivate!"
According to Jessica, how much taste and skill overlap depends a lot on the context, as well as the community that's actually judging whether something's tasteful or tasteless. The larger the community, the less subjective and niche the group's interpretations are likely to be.
"In a small community with a narrow definition of 'taste,' the bar may be lower for the quality of 'tasteful content.' But if you are looking at the internet at large as your audience, for a group that size to predominantly agree something is 'tasteful' it is generally a pretty good indicator that the creator is at the top of their game," she explained to Bored Panda.
"And it makes sense—if you as a creator are exposed to a broader selection of content that is informing your sense of taste and your work, you are probably also exposed to a broader selection of skills and techniques executed at a high level."
The artist also added her insights about the type of content that gets posted on the 'Awful Taste But Great Execution' subreddit. "In the case of many of these posts, the creators are intentionally making a controversial, subversive statement, and likely don't intend their work to be taken as an expression of their refinement and taste!" she shared her opinion.
A while back, Bored Panda spoke to Jonas Nyffenegger and Sébastien Mathys of the Ugly Design project on Instagram about aesthetics. They explained that beauty, in their opinion, is boring. Ugliness, meanwhile, is exciting, fresh, and captivating. And it definitely stands out in your social media feeds.
"As our love for ugliness keeps growing, the line between ugly and beauty is getting a bit blurred. It appears more and more of our followers have completely lost their taste. That’s a good thing. It means they’ll have to find it again. It will most likely be forever changed," they shared with us.
“When seeing an ugly design rather than perfect aesthetics (as defined in the 21st century)—scrollers takes notice," they told Bored Panda that the key to getting attention is not being predictable. That way, content doesn't go stale.
Previously, Bored Panda spoke to the ‘Awful Taste But Great Execution’ moderator team to learn more about the online community.
The founder of the entire subreddit explained that r/ATBGE was created as a spin-off of another subreddit. The mods of that particular subreddit kept rejecting ATBGE posts, so the moderator was inspired to create a separate community, a niche entirely for their vision of what the content should be like.
“In the beginning, /r/ATBGE focused heavily on automotive-related posts, but we knew doing this would potentially limit our user base. To make /r/ATBGE more appealing to the masses, we opened up the subreddit to include things beyond autos (tattoos, fashion, décor, etc.),” the moderator told Bored Panda.
#11 Pretzels Dipped In White Chocolate And Laid On Poppy Seeds Make Up This Delightfully Smoky Charcuterie Board
“As we grew, moderators were added and subreddit rules were further refined. Now we are here and things are still looking good. We continue to add new subscribers each day, which is a good thing (considering we all do this for free),” the mod said.
The subreddit has amassed a whopping 1.6 million members since August 2016. And it seems like its growth isn’t stopping any time soon.
If you’re planning on being an awesome member of the community, you’ve got to keep r/ATBGE’s rules in mind. They’re nothing too fancy, but everyone needs to be reminded of the rules from time to time, whatever subreddit they might be a fan of.
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In the case of ‘Awful Taste But Great Execution,’ naturally, the focus of the posts has to be on awful taste and great execution. When one of these crucial factors is missing, the entire point of the image is gone.
“All posts must be of something exhibiting awful taste but great execution. If it does not display great execution it does not belong here. Great execution is defined as a work of quality craftsmanship,” the moderators write, adding that they will always remove any posts that are related to music videos and car wraps.
“Posts that are cute, funny, unique, or otherwise tasteful will be removed. Taste is highly subjective, so use your best judgment. Just because it is a tattoo does not mean it is awful taste. Do not post something you made or own,” the mod team explains, regarding the taste aspect of the pics.
What’s more, the sub actually tries to minimize any hateful or overly critical comments that reach the creators of all of these tasteless projects. That’s why they ask people not to post any direct links to the creators and artists. That way, the subreddit can still have its fun while the creators don’t suffer backlash because some redditors simply couldn’t hold their tongues behind their teeth.
