I feel like a broken record...
Jun. 2nd, 2023 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starseerdrgnSo, for those who aren't part of the furry fandom, one of the major art sites made a rule "clarification" that ended up making a lot of people uncomfortable or offended enough for another mass exodus. Many decided to focus on social media or chat apps as their "galleries", including Telegram and Discord. Enough that I also decided to limit what I post to said site, until enough people leave that I can comfortably move elsewhere.
The problem is that...many of the people I follow moved to Discord, Telegram, and social media almost exclusively. And those who went to social media either went to Twitter, or to Mastodon.
I don't have the spoons to deal with social media anymore. I barely have the spoons to hold conversations with my partners, much less be in the cacophony of chatter that exists on those platforms. For some, following them is the only way to get their updates, and a good portion of them on Mastodon either don't care about content warnings, or are hostile to the idea. So filtering out things that send me into anxiety hell is almost impossible, which means I can't follow them for the sake of my own mental health.
That's what makes gallery sites so valuable. Fans who have issues with political talk and the like can enjoy your work without having to turn around and get their mood completely tanked into the ground by things they can't really mentally handle. Separating your work from your general thoughts helps to not only gather and keep viewers (and potential customers), but also makes it so that those who want to follow you for your thoughts don't have to deal with things they might not want to wade through as well. It's why many people had a blog separate from their gallery page in the past.
I understand that people don't want to have to maintain multiple accounts and such, but it's something that fans will often appreciate far more than you could ever know. Unfortunately, at this point, not being thrown into a group chat just to see art, or being forced into the abusiveness that is Twitter and the Fediverse just to be able to keep up with an artist, is practically an impossibility. It's all people want to know, because they're too afraid of changing to something unknown, or can't afford to deal with maintaining their own presence on the web. And many complain about the abusive nature of one site, not realizing that the services they're moving toward can be just as abusive toward their users.
And unfortunately, the more people decide to silo themselves into one or two locations, the fewer alternatives become viable. It's why Discord is still so "popular", despite all of its screw-ups and abusive behavior. It's why people stuck to Skype until they literally couldn't do so anymore. It's why many won't leave Twitter, despite all of the insanity surrounding that platform.
There's no universal solution, and when there is, it's only a matter of time before it turns toxic. That's why it's so important to spread out. So that when the "best solution" turns sour, you have somewhere to go, and can point others in that direction.
The problem is that...many of the people I follow moved to Discord, Telegram, and social media almost exclusively. And those who went to social media either went to Twitter, or to Mastodon.
I don't have the spoons to deal with social media anymore. I barely have the spoons to hold conversations with my partners, much less be in the cacophony of chatter that exists on those platforms. For some, following them is the only way to get their updates, and a good portion of them on Mastodon either don't care about content warnings, or are hostile to the idea. So filtering out things that send me into anxiety hell is almost impossible, which means I can't follow them for the sake of my own mental health.
That's what makes gallery sites so valuable. Fans who have issues with political talk and the like can enjoy your work without having to turn around and get their mood completely tanked into the ground by things they can't really mentally handle. Separating your work from your general thoughts helps to not only gather and keep viewers (and potential customers), but also makes it so that those who want to follow you for your thoughts don't have to deal with things they might not want to wade through as well. It's why many people had a blog separate from their gallery page in the past.
I understand that people don't want to have to maintain multiple accounts and such, but it's something that fans will often appreciate far more than you could ever know. Unfortunately, at this point, not being thrown into a group chat just to see art, or being forced into the abusiveness that is Twitter and the Fediverse just to be able to keep up with an artist, is practically an impossibility. It's all people want to know, because they're too afraid of changing to something unknown, or can't afford to deal with maintaining their own presence on the web. And many complain about the abusive nature of one site, not realizing that the services they're moving toward can be just as abusive toward their users.
And unfortunately, the more people decide to silo themselves into one or two locations, the fewer alternatives become viable. It's why Discord is still so "popular", despite all of its screw-ups and abusive behavior. It's why people stuck to Skype until they literally couldn't do so anymore. It's why many won't leave Twitter, despite all of the insanity surrounding that platform.
There's no universal solution, and when there is, it's only a matter of time before it turns toxic. That's why it's so important to spread out. So that when the "best solution" turns sour, you have somewhere to go, and can point others in that direction.
