I wanna hold the hand of every skeptical artist who joined from bird site and posted "probably won't be here much" bcs they intend to go back to bird site after the rush dies down:
I get it, the devil you know and all, but give this place a chance! 🙂 Ppl are much more likely to interact with you the more you post and reply to posts! Hashtags are GOOD here! There's no Algorithm to fight! Put descriptions about your art and OCs on your images, get folks invested! You'll have a good time! 🤘😎
I still have my bird accounts and post my comic updates and such, but maaaan my scrolling time there has dropped pretty significantly once I check for new art posts - I hope that the artists I follow there eventually discover there's a better alternative and give it a fair shake 💁 come toot with us, it's rad

@jendrawscomics Right on, lol.

When I came here I only intended to feel out the site (especially since many people on birdsite seem to have negative opinions about it).

But some posts and many interactions later, I can say that I'm a convert. Love this community.

@Revvie welcome to the oasis! 😌👏👏👏

@Revvie @jendrawscomics

I started in June five years ago (on .social) but didn't delete my Birdhouse account until almost four months later. I had to adjust to this space and realize how much better I could feel out of that pressure cooker before I was ready to officially pull the plug.

@xenophora @jendrawscomics I'm not sure if I can follow in your footsteps and completely remove my birdsite account since I do have commission clients there unfortunately. But I have found myself limiting my interactions to just posting pictures.

Scrolling through feeds here just feels much better, and it's pretty amazing to be able to interact with strangers without worrying if they're terrible people. To just be able to interact like human beings, what a thought

@Revvie @jendrawscomics

Yep. I'm really more a draw-on-a-whim kind of person. I don't think my stuff is commission-friendly. But, uh... never say never maybe? 🤔

Thing is: once I began to produce again after years of inactivity, I realized hanging out there would do me more harm than good. It was such a stress-inducing time-sucker. So that was one factor in leaving, though not the only one.

@xenophora Oh my god, you're so right lol. I had been taking a few months hiatus recently, and my friends noted that I seem to be happier recently. Then I realized all the twitter doomscrolling I did had much more of a bad effect than I thought.
@xenophora @Revvie @jendrawscomics when I was on Birbsite I did not even see any art, as algorithms hid it in preference to political and religious discourse, and folk complaining about the bad transport infrastructure in my area, whereas on Fedi there is loads more in my timeline, so I suspect the potential audiences on Fedi are far greater..
@vfrmedia @xenophora @Revvie I've seen it posted more than once that while an artist has many more times the followers on bird site than here, they get many more times the engagement and monetary support for their art here, with a smaller follower count. I can't say that for myself yet, but I believe them, especially these days when the bird algorithm drops art posts almost as fast as ppl make them 😔
@jendrawscomics @vfrmedia @xenophora Yeah I've seen posts about that too, which is pretty heartening. I do believe them as well, since I'm getting pretty decent engagement even right out the gate which wasn't true at all for birdsite
@jendrawscomics blessing the algorithm but my favourite part is being able to edit the thumbnail preview when you post art 🥲
@Ritzueli isn't it great? I love dragging the little focus circle around on my art haha
@jendrawscomics hopefully the bird site will release their https://blueskyweb.org/ project making mastodon and the bird site will be interoperability 😊
Bluesky

@jendrawscomics
I would add that anyone who believes their work to have any moral/ethical/social/political worth should evaluate the larger damage done by centralized, commercial social media.
It detracts from whatever good you believe your art brings to the world if, in the name of convenience and exposure, you add to the tally of attention they can claim.