Barktic Fox Nov 9, 2022

I've seen a bizarre amount of trash-talk lately aimed at people - primarily freelance artists - who have expressed concerns about their ability to maintain an audience on Mastodon, because people shouldn't be trying to "make it" here. Because the Fediverse isn't about "building your brand". Because the "popularity contest" of amassing a Twitter following isn't something to strive for here.

The thing is, freelance artists need to be able to make money to LIVE by selling commissions, and if they have no reach (or ability to grow an audience) because of the way Mastodon works, they *can't* make this their Twitter alternative.

I get it, capitalism sucks and nobody wants The Brands to find the Fediverse to be an acceptable target audience, but y'all are the guy in the well haughtily chiding artists for participating in society. You get that, right? You do understand that there's a difference between Beyonce or Skittles and an independent full-time furry artist just trying to sell commissions at $40 a pop to make rent and needing the ability to reach new fans of their work to do so. Don't you?

Show threadStephanie Helms 🏳️‍⚧️
@alahmnat My 2 cents, and that’s what it’s worth, is that this platform can be a very successful and fruitful space to promote creative enterprise. It won’t have AI algorithms as a black box assist, and may be harder to gauge as a result, but I’ve seen artists with good followings putting their work out. My hope is that this space as it grows will work for them, and grow their following and market. Putting all the eggs in Elon’s bluebird nest may be a bad business decision, even for creatives.
Dec 17, 2022 at 6:03amWeb
Show threadBATBUNNYDec 17, 2022
@sidhra @alahmnat it is a terrible business decision and I have seen many artists say "i can't leave twitter, it's my only source of income" ( i'm not blaming them by the way, it's hard to get an active following on several platforms all at once).