I'd like to see some talk about alternatives.

I do crafting with an inkjet printer and something like the Cricut would be an interesting addition but I had two problems with it:

(i) the quality of work it does is not terrible but not great -- it's better than somebody who's bad with scissors but worse than somebody who's good with scissors.

(ii) when I was looking at it in 2021 they'd announced they were going to put limits on how many unique designs you could upload in a month, but the abandoned this after outcry: https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/18/22338801/cricut-crafting-...

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doubled112 5 hours ago | parent [-]

My wife has a Cricut from before they started adding most of the subscription BS. I think it's an Explore Air 2 or something like that.

I have a hard time believing anybody is that good and fast with scissors (or craft knives). I cut out a vinyl iPhone skin last night, for example, and it took about a minute.

Maybe I'm just not tumbling down the correct YouTube rabbit holes, and maybe I just really suck at scissors.

	▲	PaulHoule 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		There's fast and there is good. If I work slowly I can do better that the Cricut, if I work quickly I do worse. Slow detailed work causes more tension in my hands and discomfort. I do most of my cutting now with a rotary cutter which is effortless but I regularly do straight cuts on longer pieces with a straightedge and knife. If I had the Cricut I'd probably doing projects that involve many more cuts of complex shapes but I wouldn't be sure I'd be 100% proud of the quality. To elaborate on my point (ii) it's that anti-consumer announcements have a rachet effect: I heard that they were going to crack down on users, I didn't hear that they'd backed down. So they still lost a sale, not from residual anger or my belief that they are of bad character, but because bad news spreads further than good. It's one more reason why brands should think not just twice but twenty times before making obviously self-destructive moves.