Experiences with social medias
At the suggestion of one of my neocities neighbours, I thought I'd partake and unpack my experiences with various social medias (some with intentions of being used for art as well) and how I felt about them. Keep in mind this is from a vibes standpoint and less of TOS or other things, some of the things I may not have direct links to and it's more of stuff I've heard, and it's more how I felt as a person on there + the community.
Being able to hold a personal and art account contributes a bit to some of it, but not a lot (it's rare for me to be very personal on my art accounts, it feels too weird for me :( ).
Tumblr
I have to start with the one I'm most familiar with, just because I've been here since 2012 (mishapocalypse you will always be famous). Don't get me wrong it's a shithole, I only say that half affectionately, cause it's a buggy mess, the UI fucking sucks ass if you don't get extensions to fix it, the CEO is a transphobic asshole and it bleeds into the voices of trans women being banned, it basically allows AI to scrape things (with a button you have to opt out with it not even guaranteeing that people will respect it), etc etc. Their newest debacle is introducing a banner ad on themed pages (the [url].tumblr.com domains).
... negative introduction for all that, LOL. It's a site in a rough state, and honestly not very welcoming for new people who aren't already used to the tumblr culture, or have a community they can integrate themselves into, and I truthfully would not recommend uploading your art or writing to it if you worry about it being scraped (I'm at the point I don't give much of a shit, sadly).
The one thing tumblr has that very few sites I've been on emulate, is a proper filtering system, a sideblog system to be able to create blogs for niche content (like I have one where I hoard PNG and resources for editing), and a culture around tagging that most people do respect. There's some small fandoms on here that thrive (the 10 Dance manga still gets active updates and news by a few blogs that are keeping up with it), and projects such as someone going through Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint to re-translate it properly. Edit Tumblrs that make Rentry layouts, share resources, PSDs, and many other things, and niche blogs for things you couldn't find otherwise (I follow someone who shares horse figurines).
I've heard people say that the culture around tumblr is toxic and people start fights all the time, but honestly I've seen very little of it. Maybe its just that the mutuals and people I follow don't really start shit, and any 'combative' posts that are reblogged I can just ignore, or filter out. I'm not saying there isn't, I know people who have been harrassed for the most innocuous shit, it's just I've not personally had any experiences of that in the years I've been there cause I never really contributed to fandom discussions or content (aside from klance voltron art I made like ... 8+ years ago. shudders).
It has the energy of a site full of adults who are just tired and kinda resigned themselves to a corner of the internet that's old, and struggling to keep itself up. But nowhere else have I quite gotten the same energy I have here (except for maybe Pillowfort), and it's fond memories to me; where I'm at, there's community and people interacting with each other (yumeshippers), and I find a deep fondness in just seeing what my mutuals are interested in even if I understand jack shit about it. I'm just here for the ride.
The roleplaying culture I haven't seen emulated on any of the other social medias I've partaken in, either (though to be fair I've only tried it on twitter and it sucks ass).
In terms of art, it harkens back to the fact that you do need to dig out your own community for it, and have an active following to really be able to get your art around, or draw fandom art primarily. Tumblr's architecture does mean that old art does get circulated around, just as old posts do, but it takes time to really make much of a following there.
(I'm lucky that I reblog a lot of my art to my very old personal blog of 13 years, which is where I interact the most with people in my fandom/interest spheres, so they end up reblogging things from me as well.)
Bluesky
Following the entire Twitter enshittification, I joined the bandwagon of moving over to Bluesky, and was also lucky a lot of the yumetwt followed over as well, plus many of my mutuals, so rebuilding wasn't too hard. But with the system of lists, it makes it decently easy to locate new people to follow. Bluesky having a proper tagging system does also help (and having to feed into making ... well, feeds that show only specific tagged items), so filtering is a lot more robust than what Twitter was (who nuked you for words lol).
But because Bluesky has the beloved (/s) system of limited words, there's still only so much you can tag a post as by the end, so it's still a game of whack-a-mole that people do tag their stuff (and hell, even I've forgotten sometimes to tag due to being so used to Twitter culture (ew)).
... basically shit for NSFW artists though, and also pulling the good old transphobic card by refusing to ban people who are openly transphobic so yay! /s
Okay for a social media, no option for private accounts like Twitter put me off from making a personal account on there, oddly enough. I do have it, it just holds my username just in case. I do like that it has an option to force you to add ALT text to images, which has bled out to me doing it more often on other social medias as well if there's an option to.
Surprisingly I've got the most followers there (not counting Ko-fi because I think you insta-follow someone if you grab their assets, and since I sell my carrds on there), despite not being heavily active?
Pillowfort
Newest addition to my collection of social medias I’ve tried, and I like it. I can’t say I’m immensely active on there but it's entered in the ‘check on it every day at least’, even if I don’t post as often. I love the privacy post options on there to limit your posts to public, people signed in, your followers, mutuals, or just you.
If you edit a post, it edits ALL reblogs. If you delete a post, it deletes it everywhere.
Communities are also big on there and allow you to share your art and stuff around pretty easily, and Pillowfort smartly reduces reblog ‘clutter’ by turning it into one single post on the dashboard.
Because it’s so small, it feel a little easier to keep up with everything. I can’t say I’m as terribly incensed to comment on things, though, but I also don’t do that on tumblr much. I yap mostly in tags, but that’s not really a thing in Pifo, so sadly my comments are kept lowkey.
Regardless I’d recommend it for people who want a smaller, more active community and don't mind things being slow. Even if it’s nowhere near the number of likes you’d get in other places, you’re far more likely to have eyes on what you make and engagement.
As etiquette, tags do not carry over in reblogs nor are they filtered from OP’s post, it’s common practice to copy and paste OP’s tags or to be thorough with tagging to make sure people’s filters catch it.
Dreamwidth
Also one of the newer additions … I can’t say it’s as good as an art sharing site cause it’s not … specifically catered to it? And even with socializing you do need to be proactive like Pillowfort to find people and communities, but so far I’ve been enjoying my time.
Due to its more closed nature and not for content sharing, socializing feel more meaningful and thoughtful in terms of commenting on things or engaging in events. Its system to find people based off interests is nice as well.
I do think it’s a bit of a loss to not have a tag filtering system, but because tags are less for finding content and more for self-organization, it’s not Terrible, and it’s super unlikely I’ll come across content I don’t want to see through stuff like communities or checking out random people.
I do like the privacy features to limit your posting to either people with access, or just yourself.
Very good for those who like blogging and posting their writings though!!! Also for card games tehe :)
Toyhouse
...? Would you call it a social media...? I guess technically not since it's primarily a character hub, but the inclusion of forums allow for some avenue of socializing, and for selling services as well. I can’t speak for socializing on there cause I don’t do it outside of the occasional comment on a mutual’s journal post, and even that’s rare as hell, so I don't have any experience with how the forums themselves are.
Good for archiving OC stuff and art, but there’s also alternatives to this.
DeviantART
lol dead. Sorry, I'd add more, but literally all you need to do is go onto the site to see them shilling their generative AI stuff and seeing gen AI slop in the galleries. Dead corpse of the great site it once was. Power to people who are trying to push through on there, it looks abysmal and soul sucking as hell.
I’m sad as someone who basically began my whole art growth on there in the 2010’s and watched it rot once it got into Wix’s hands.
This was actually a really cool article read on deviantART and why many art sites/social medias cannot truly capture what it once was.
Sheezy.Art
Ok, hard to be social on it … I don’t really get much engagement there sadly. I know it was made in the spirit of deviantART, and I love the customization you can do on your profiles, but … I dunno, something just doesn’t click.
I don’t feel terribly inspired to go comment on things, and maybe it’s because it’s still missing some of the oomf needed. A sense of community. I circle back to this article because it talked about Sheezy as well.
I do still post on there, as a gallery site it is nice, but … man, even deviantART still had sections showing the newest literature submissions. I think the front page is just lacking personalization in the form of showing new things from a variety of groups, not just the most recent uploads and journals.
I wanna see the newest uploads from my mutual without going into my notifications—and even those are displayed as list items, not the artwork itself in full. I wanna see what literature has been written. Something is just missing.
Newgrounds
It's ... ok? I'd like to pick up posting on it again, but I can't say I feel very inspired to. There wasn't much interaction, and I feel like a weird, sore thumb there with my OC and fandom-esque art. Definitely an ok atmosphere, it's more on me for not finding comfort in using it cause I felt like the wrong artist demographic for it.
Cara
Artstation 2.0. Sadly I didn’t use Cara a lot to offer a solid response … I did get traction on my art in the form of people seeing it, but it has that looming feeling that Artstation does where it’s a professional portfolio, and that ‘anime’ art stick out like a sore thumb there, so I did not feel comfortable staying or continuing to use it. Maybe the environment is different now (since I joined upon release), but I don't think I'd have much fun there.