The collapse of Twitter still concerns me from an art standpoint. I have yet to commission someone here, and all of my business is still performed on the other platform.
I -want- artists to switch to email, but I keep seeing pushback about how archaic it is. Email is perfect. It creates a paper trail and is easily organized.
It also feels like 90% of the artists I followed moved to BlueSky while everyone else moved here.
@swiftfoxfire the main issue is not so much doing things via email its the visability IMHO. Thatās why many artists flourished on Twitter was the visibility compared to what FA offered. And why so many newer artists were able to flourish especially when pared with Patreon.
An lets be honest while Iām really beginning to enjoy Mastodon it doesnāt quite have the same reach Twitter does. A lot of that being folks just not wishing to change a platform plus learn things all over again. Which is why Bluesky is all anyone seems to talk about.
Itās so much like Twitter, both good an bad, that you have artists begging for keys an/or offering commissions for them. Personally I think itās a mistake but if artists can get enough people over there to feed their business model theyāll not go anywhere else. Which is depressing to think about but I canāt blame them -_-
Myself Iāll probably have an invite code soon & will create an account there just to have it. But this is my home now an while Iāll be a very infrequent poster this is where Iāll be spending what lil time I have between N+ study an potentially a new job.
@ayumi_silverfox Email wouldn't reduce visibility. They can still post saying they're open, but instead of relying on DMs which are tied to that platform, they simply have a Google form and handle everything through email.
If Twitter tanks while I have some of these commissions in queue, I'm going to need to locate these artists and maintain contact somehow.
@swiftfoxfire but where would they post to? FA? Why do you think folks were excited to do business via Twitter? Mastodon? Theyād have to build up a following an learn a new platform. Itās why many are going to Bluesky it is Twitter 2.0 (personally I hate that description especially when itās only selling point is the interface is similar an it has a āno racistsā slider.).
I donāt like it but thatās how Iām assuming many artists are looking at this. Which is a bit sad since, with the right app, Mastodon is way better than Bluesky is in many respects.
Remember youāre preaching to the choir here puppyfops š„°
@swiftfoxfire I don't really get why artists don't use PostyBirb to increase their reach then just take commissions through a Google Form and continue the transaction through email. Taking commissions through any kind of DM seems really unwieldy and, not to mention, unsafe. Use PostyBirb to post a "Commissions Open!" notification for the reach, then just take commissions through a form.
[Start BlueSky Rant] Why artists are putting any egg in the BlueSky basket is beyond me. I find it baffling. BlueSky is literally the *only* option where you can't link your work off-site. Twitter makes discoverability difficult for non-logged in users, but at least they backed off on totally blocking off-site users. I've yet to see a single upside to BlueSky, and I'm confused why so many furry artists are going there. "It's easier to use" like, yeah, because it's in alpha and it has no features. When the only thing your website does is let you press post then firehose it to a bunch of people, it's pretty hard to be complicated.
@Rusty Basically all of this. It's relatively easy to set up universal posts to most major platforms, and email and commission forms are universal and should be made standard.
I have an account on BlueSky because parking a name is just a smart thing to do. But without the ability to link offsite, its a very silly platform to be using. Plus, there aren't even DMs.
@swiftfoxfire Wait, there aren't DMs? That's pretty sad. x3
Also I think people kind of overestimate how hard it is to make a form ;;;
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