this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2023
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Furry Chat

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Could we create a better gallery site? (yiffit.net)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Could I just do it? Not right now. My programing experience is python scripts and embedded systems and I have no knowledge of anything sysadmin or infrastructure.

People are always complaining about whats around and we have lots of smart techy people here, so why not?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's easy enough to just set up a Mastodon/Lemmy/Pixelfed instance, and people have already done so. You could do it yourself with your own moderation policies if that's something you're worried about.

The big problem is how to get people to use your platform. Artists want to go where people are and people want to go where artists are.

If 2023 is anything to go by, it takes a really, really big thing to actually materially move people from one platform to another. Looking at Bluesky, people don't really care about features either.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It’s easy enough to just set up a Mastodon/Lemmy/Pixelfed instance

I don't consider any of those gallery sites, the closest would be pixelfed.

The network effect is always the big problem. With twitter and FA, people are always looking for a better option. FA always wins. Bluesky seems to be winning vs mastodon as it is a singular thing as opposed to a collection of things. Other than a code, the process has little "friction." The only thing that comes to mind to help startup would be automated systems to pull new content wherever it was posted. Think postybirb, but built in.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What is a gallery site? Like e621/FA? Assuming e621 counts I think that's going to be a tall order since the booru system works very well for image searching, the e6 community puts in a ton of effort to tag images properly, and hosting costs are probably expensive.

Do you happen to remember what exactly people are complaining about?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

furaffinity, DeviantArt, weasyl, SoFurry, InkBunnny... A more art and commission focused site as opposed to a forum (this), or micro-blog (Mastodon, twitter).

Each one has its own issues I've seen discussed.
FA, moderation, photography, and more recently a very ambiguous moderation change. Every few years they change something and people flee, but its where the most people are so most come back.
DA: AI scraping, art theft
weasyl: dead looking, no comments from developers for a few years now.
SF: old/awkward
IB: That's where all the cub artists went.

I'm sure there are more, but this is what I remember off the top of my head.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Any thoughts on itaku.ee? I've recently started seeing some links there but I don't know enough about how those sites work to judge it.

I think if I were to design a gallery site I'd probably base some aspect of it around the Fediverse instead of trying to create my own walled garden. People clearly enjoy posting on Mastodon/Twitter about their new art etc, so I would try to integrate any chat spaces onto the Fediverse directly to keep people from needing to duplicate their posts to many places at once.

I'm not sure how the logistics would work but I would also prefer to see the hard work of e621 not go to waste. Some sort of integration with it or even e621 adding more social features would be ideal to me. Any other site's tags are just bad, and you'll often run into things you don't want to see.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

for itaku, I couldn't really find anything about who runs it. Their about page only refers to themselves, not even any admin or dev accounts on the site. Their roadmap and plan look decent enough, but without knowing anything about the background or philosophy its hard to know.

I think twitter is popular because of the ease of posting. Another complaint about FA is difficulty to post, especially many at once. I don't post anything, so I can't comment to that. As for fediverse, yes integration would be a bonus. Whether a fediverse site, or something that talks to it would have to be determined. A stand alone site has more capabilites to grow with certain features that would add value, such as an integrated escrow system for commissions, ability for subscriptions and direct payments. With the fediverse you have all the connections and integrations that are already there and should be able to integrate with them. You also have the plus and minus of dispersed moderation and communities.

In my idea, a good api would allow plugins and tools for the community to build integrations.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Mm yes I agree - it would be hard to improve on E6. FA has its problems, but it's not that bad.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

e6 as a repo is outstanding, but as a gallery, its frontend is a bit inconvenient.

(tho I'm working on an Android app for that (and other boorus + inkbunny as well))

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I only ever think of e6 as a place to browse. A lot of whats on there is not uploaded by the artists. For what it is, I don't think you could easily improve on it

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd say FA is better in that respect, because it (usually) comes from the artist themselves and you can get more of a background on their page. Like you say in your other comment, people often abandon ship but FA always comes out on top.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Part of FA coming out on top is because there is a feeling of nowhere else to go. I've lost track of how many artists/creators have gone to twitter only.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's a shame, because browsing Twitter really sucks in my opinion :( I have noticed the same thing though

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Browsing Twitter sucks even more now after the manchild got ahold of it. Whenever I try to find a source for something and it's on Twitter I just give up and link their handle instead. Great if you want your art to scroll across someone's timeline, not great if you want to find it ever again.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I have never had a twitter account. If I want to see something have to use nitter now, nitter.privacydev.net/ is the only one I know that supports 18+. I avoid using that instance when possible because it gets rate limited frequently.