i am aware that custom clothing is an option, but i am nevertheless interested in contributing to updating old art of some of the wearables, the gas masks below in particular, since there are very few options to choose from, and i'd like them a lot, if they didn't look quite so outdated.

(+ color variations)

if i was allowed to do this, i would take care to match the art with other recently made and updated wearables. i would rather do this than just make custom clothing, because as i said there are so few, and i'd like if people had access to ones for SP and not be forced to use CSC only.

I don't think a feature like this would be beneficial to the site.

The main reason being that I believe there should be a distinct line between site created content and user created content. I have seen sites in the past that slowly leaned more and more into user created content, rather than site created content and it did not go well. I strongly believe that user created content should be used as an 'in addition to' type content that adds to the site. Not a type of content that keeps the site going. It also brings up problems when you talk about how compensation would work for this type of thing. Would it be volunteer work? (not very ethical) Would users be paid with site currency? (also not very ethical for large scale projects like this) or would staff pay for it? (when they've already mentioned being short staffed partially due to site revenue.)

Secondly, I think something like this could get very out of hand and cause a lot of upset users. Sometimes when site artists revamp a beloved item, it creates a big uproar, and in the past I've seen very, very disgruntled users. Art is always going to be a matter of opinion / be objective, and I believe the decision on what art needs to be updated and how should be at the hands of staff, and not the user base.

Finally, there is already a lot of pressure on CW artists. During the last major update to CWs, we were told that because CWs have been made more accessible, that staff would be taking a step back from creating general wearable content. (Referencing point one of this post.) Staff was hoping they could focus their artistic efforts elsewhere. And we have for the last few years seen this. We have seen a significant drop in non-seasonal / non-event themed wearables from Staff, and a lot of that 'new wearable content' has been placed on the shoulders of CW artists to produce it. This, in addition to staff mentioning quite a few times in the past that CWs are a major part of the site's revenue has honestly placed quite a bit of burden there already. I would not like to see something like this open up, and have even more expectation placed on existing / new CW artists to fill the gaps that staff cannot currently fill.

I believe revamps will be gotten to when staff has the time / desire to do them. There are 70k+ site created items, and we simply need to understand patience, as that's a monumental task to sort through and make decisions on.

I think CWs really is your way to go. You can manage a shop that charges less so that you can offer your CWs at more accessible prices. (This is how my shop operates. I ask for a 25-50 csc profit on items, based on the price it costs me to submit them, making my shop one of only a few shops that operate with lower prices. It can be difficult to operate at a general 'profit', but I receive a lot of comments from users who are new to the site / don't have a lot of extra funds / etc who are generally very appreciative of the effort to make these prices cheaper.)

user submitted volunteer work has been suggested before in many different contexts - from art, to coding, to other stuff. Unfortunately I can't find any direct quotes at the moment, but has made detailed explanations of why he does not want to take the site in that direction. Things about fairness to staff and the volunteer artists, issues of quality control and site standards and so on.

While there are many good ways to combine volunteer work and paid staff its just not as simple a suggestion as it might seem.

Your best bet would be to add a suggestion about updated gas masks to the Survival event (when it comes around), or to the current Masquerade thread: Masquerade 2023 Suggestions

i see! that is understandable. thank you very much, i do think i will make a suggestion to the survival event when it comes around, and get around to making some custom wearables in the meantime.

those are good points, thank you for the input! i hadnt thought about it that way before. perhaps it is a tad selfish of me to suggest that these items need to be changed, not everyone is going to agree on that, youre correct. i do think i will open a cheap CW shop then!