Post AQmATn4AXvWkLrIPnU by VickiKyriakakis@writing.exchange
(DIR) More posts by VickiKyriakakis@writing.exchange
(DIR) Post #AQm9obUmf3H4ao6bhI by alannawrites@mastodon.art
2022-12-19T18:02:43Z
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Y'all are chasing working artists away from this place by harping on how "sad" and "pathetic" it is for them to hope for a large follower count here. It's not about attention. It's about their bottom line. More followers means more commissions, more customers in their online shops, more direct exposure to people with hiring power. It's honestly really cruel to keep acting like they want adulation when really they just want to pay rent. They have ample reason to mourn what they built.
(DIR) Post #AQm9ocLFVzF3DWeVTU by john@sauropods.win
2022-12-19T20:33:20Z
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@alannawrites Yep. If I could make a living by having a follower count low enough that I could know everyone and interact with them like a normal person, I absolutely would do that. It's just not possible (well, unless you only interact with billionaires I guess).I shifted to Mastodon early, went at it really hard, and can see that it will probably work out for me. But I know artists joining now looking at a follower counts in the low hundreds, and that's got to make them apprehensive.
(DIR) Post #AQm9odQFUspqZK00uG by alannawrites@mastodon.art
2022-12-19T18:10:03Z
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You have to understand that, at least right now, losing their audience probably feels like going from having a well-established, high-traffic store in a luxury mall to having a stall at the flea market. They can climb back up from there, of course, but it's going to take time and work. It's silly and mean to shame them for not wanting to start over when they already worked so hard to get where they are.
(DIR) Post #AQm9ofA12D2RxYQ4si by alannawrites@mastodon.art
2022-12-19T18:12:51Z
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And I'm not blowing hot air when I say you're chasing away working artists. I follow a ton of artists elsewhere, and that's what I see them saying. They feel demeaned and dismissed by this attitude that wanting a lot of followers is vapid, or selfish, or something they need to unlearn. They know what's best for them and their business. Cut it out.
(DIR) Post #AQm9ogoStIzL5ILtZI by alannawrites@mastodon.art
2022-12-19T18:21:28Z
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And one last thing--I'm saying all this as someone who actually really likes Mastodon and would love to see more creators from my industry show up here! I've done my fair share of evangelizing, but I can't blame them for staying away when so much of this rhetoric is flying around.
(DIR) Post #AQm9oiffyx98qcFu9A by alannawrites@mastodon.art
2022-12-19T20:16:12Z
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lol oh boy this one sure escaped containment. For the people who it's resonating with, I wish you all the best as you navigate these uncharted new waters. For the people arguing about things that have very little to do with what I was actually saying (which was just "please stop scolding working artists for having feelings") enjoy your time in my mentions but I probably won't be engaging much further!
(DIR) Post #AQmATn4AXvWkLrIPnU by VickiKyriakakis@writing.exchange
2022-12-19T20:40:47Z
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@john @alannawrites Because they are monitoring the wrong metric. Any social media manager (of which I was one) will tell you follower count is a meaningless metric on its own. Engagement levels are what counts and Mastodon outperforms birdsite on that front
(DIR) Post #AQmAsADI8ZdN5iBXIO by john@sauropods.win
2022-12-19T20:45:14Z
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@VickiKyriakakis @alannawrites It does, but not as much as some of the more optimistic, oft-boosted toots would have you think. The engagement rate *might* be something like three times higher. Most people are looking at follower counts ten times lower or worse.Don't get me wrong, I think this is the future, and I'm 100% in. I just think people need to understand this is not just idle worrying.
(DIR) Post #AQmXKWzfETj4qIk6kK by stevestreza@indieweb.social
2022-12-19T20:33:15Z
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@alannawrites This weekend me and my partner (@abigailstarling a comic illustrator) opened an instance for creators to be another space to promote their work and find an audience. If you know folks like this who are in need of a space to land on Mastodon, they are welcome to apply: https://artistalley.space/
(DIR) Post #AQmozQMUUbsNMsVMLg by skypage@noagendasocial.com
2022-12-20T04:14:53Z
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@alannawrites Follow counts here tend to be more qualitative than Twitter since there's no algorithmic prioritization. I've repeatedly heard people getting more interaction with posts on the fedi than Twitter with a fraction of the follow count.
(DIR) Post #AQn0p58ljlTm6avBdg by madjo@mstdn.social
2022-12-20T06:27:19Z
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@john @VickiKyriakakis @alannawrites no one starts at the top.It's frustrating to have to start all over again, especially if it means no income. But artists have special hashtags on this site ("mastoart" among others), so they already are ahead from others who don't have a natural way of finding their peers.Also, Mastodon isn't new, there was already a community here, with their own rules. You're the new guys who are suddenly trying to colonize their spaces. This is going to cause friction.
(DIR) Post #AQplsofQ0kGoKmOZXs by john@sauropods.win
2022-12-21T14:24:04Z
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@madjo @VickiKyriakakis @alannawrites I don't think you can say that there was a community "with their own rules", no one agreed to that. There were norms in parts of the fediverse, that's about it. And "no self-promotion" was not a popular one. I started my own server well before the Eternal November, and I would never even have considered having a rule like "no self promotion".There's no universal terms of service for federated software, that's part of the point.