58. where do artists go now that the internet kinda sucks
last week, i made the mistake of posting my art on twitter.
a few seconds after that, some dipshit decided to tag grok under my post, told it to redraw the same work with ai, and to put the disgusting israel flag behind it.
this further cemented a thought i've had for a while:
wow the internet sure hates artists now.
... and that posting art on the internet just isn't fun anymore. for the most part, it's a numbers game. a lottery of whether your art will appease the algorithm or not. almost all news feeds are sorted by what's popular, what's "for you", and it usually gives you shitty ragebait on a platter before you find anything meaningful!!
(and sidenote: sure, maybe TUMBLR is a little bit better. i've never properly used it for art, but it still has an algorithm sadly. and a weird pornbot problem, from what i can remember..?.)
if you don't care about the algorithm like me, you also still have my former problem of having your works fed to the machine and used to generate some pretty hateful stuff. let's not forget the endless harassment/doxxing problem on the bivgest social media platforms!
it kinda (really) sucks!!
when was the last time it was fun?
probably before deviantart went downhill maybe.
i was there for deviantart at its prime, and it was such an AMAZING place for artists. i'm genuinely really sad about its reputation as the "fetish art site" or the "cringy oc site", because it offered SO much.
anyone could post anything creative. it wasn't just drawings - there was photography, profile customization codes (god bless profile customization), stories, fucking FLASH games man. i once used to be very invested in people who would craft stuff from plushies to steampunk accessories. you had groups, you had roleplayers... ROLEPLAY GROUPS!! those highly organized warrior cat roleplay groups were FUN.
sometimes i think to myself: remember when artists used to have fun and supportive spaces?
and then i look at the corporate-sanitized, ai infested garbage that is the new deviantart and sigh. they also openly support genocide too, btw.
where do artists go now?
this post was supposedly just a vent post, honestly. because i was pretty stumped too. it's like this place is becoming more hostile to artists by the minute. i've seen talented people on twitter delete all their works and close up shop for good because of how increasingly difficult its been. not moving, but quitting art for good.
i guess that was too bleak, though. i don't want this blog to be published, for an inspiring artist to see, and then suddenly feel discouraged about art as well. so!!
what alternative has worked for me?
i've briefly considered just having a neocities/nekoweb archive of all my work. but the thing is, unless you get lucky enough to have your site noticed by people, it is still a pretty isolating experience... to some though, i can see how that might be rewarding!! and honestly, good for them!! i can barely code, let alone have the strength to code a webpage every time i wanna showcase new art... so that's a pass.
another brief consideration: bear blog. i mean, i kind of already use it as my "personal site" anyway... and while this is a lovely space, don't get me wrong!! ...it certainly isn't exactly centered on art. i mean, it's in the name. bear blog. keyword: bear.
sheezy.art
disclaimer i'm not doing a promo or anything here. honest to god LOL. but i've looked through "deviantart alternatives" and found that this one worked best for me.
sheezy.art is a revival project of the original sheezyart. or something. i actually never used the original platform, but it was made as a "free, indie alternative" to deviantart that was shut down some years after. this one is by a different team, and while they may have had some setbacks in the first few years of running the revival project, it does have a more stable community there now...
it's currently run by one person and a large team of volunteers, but it looked pretty solid to me. they have a rebuild in the works, which will introduce all sorts of features the old deviantart had like groups, forums, art folders... and one of the features i'm most excited for: an built in art trade function :)
oh it has profile customization, something lots of deviantart users mourned over. it's functional on both web and mobile, very lovely.
i am genuinely optimistic about it!!
yes, i've taken a look at other alternatives. pixiv is a bit dodgy on the community aspect, since the language barrier might make things difficult. inkbunny is catered to furry artists i think. artfol is app only last time i've heard, which i could imagine might be a bit disastrous. artstation has heavy emphasis on professionals and industry-level.. professionals. and toyhouse...
toyhouse is pretty decent too actually...
... IF you make original characters. other than that, anything that isn't directly linked to character or world building is kind of in a gray area where people CAN get away with posting fanart... on certain conditions. i wouldn't personally risk it, though. BUT i do have ocs and the community is brimming with creativity, so i've decided it to be one of my OTHER main art platforms.
though it doesn't exactly help that it's still invite only to this day. if anyone wants a code, i can try helping them BUT no guarantees... 💧
last alternative i've considered: bluesky
this one i've put in my list, because i wanted to bridge a gap between artists vs non artists. does that make sense? just like how both artists and non artists can access art on twitter and other social media, i decided i'd like to do the same... but on a platform whose feed curation is infinitely better than twitter.
i'm still a little distrustful of bluesky, though. i'm scared of it one day going to shit... for now, though, it'll have to do.
conclusion
i hope the internet becomes a kinder place for artists. we pretty much have to fend for ourselves here. but i promise you there are kinder spaces, if you took the time to look for them. some are a little niche, yeah, but any sense of community is better than none at all. you don't have to automatically assume that the platforms i've listed out are EXTREME MUST-JOINS... i just find that those work for me in the mean time :)
let's keep creating, okay?
links of interest:
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