Izvy Raspberry

So one of the things I think that would be nice for Furaffinity to steal from Itaku, but they won't because they make one change to the website every four years, is discoverability.

Discoverability of new art and artists on furaffinity SUCKS. Nobody "browses" furaffinity, at least not like they did in '07. Maybe once in a while, you're real horny and type in a kinky search term. When I discover new porn lately it's always on twitter. The ability to share things I found that are hot with other kinky furries is VERY useful, not only for my balls, but for the artists trying to make a living on commissions.

But yes I agree nobody's going to stick with Itaku, we've seen this time and time again, people are too rooted in on FA.

Itaku's community guidelines also feel very... kinkshamey? At least they do to me. I can understand stressing the importance of putting content warnings on all your shit - even Cohost seems pretty big on that. But the fact that Itaku puts stuff like inflation and ABDL on the same level as things like gore and snuff just feels... icky to me in ways that I can't quite articulate.

Cohost seems built on the "don't like, don't look" philosophy of old, whereas Itaku feels more like "you're allowed to post this, but we don't want to see it and we are definitely judging you for it."

This is my feeling on itaku and inkblot, they're gallery sites and they serve that purpose, some artists can't afford a personal/portfolio site or have the technically understanding to make one and that's what these sites are for and having one such archive is useful.

Personally though? I'm not interested in artists just circlejerking and self promoting themselves on my feed constantly. I like to brush shoulders with other forms of art and creativity as well as the mundane for inspiration alongside boosting those for others to see.

Tumblr had issues (heighten by the NSFW ban) but concept and design wise it was wonderful, everyone having access and promoting their niche interests alongside artists and artists not over saturating the space.

Twitter since my sign up (2014? maybe earlier, didn't use it but took a name etcetc) has always been repulsive to me as a site design, unable to elaborate and discuss topics with ease and no archive function for artists and later down the road the horrible compression for files and awkward thumbnail automation.

Along with that it grew so vast and has built in problems that incite mass harassment and dogpiling, it's stressful as an artist to want exposure but not THAT much exposure.

All that being said, I'm on the side of wanting people branch out and maintain as many places as possible, it's not my first rodeo of hoping site to site, (my work not being furry enough vs being too furry drove me to making my own archive and turn away from places with intense or too vague content guidelines, I haven't the energy for it). Anyone who has the energy to maintain multiple spaces has my blessing as currently it's so tough just finding a community driven space to post NSFW art to begin with.

As a little counter to you trying to understand why they would flock to that place, I can understand artists specifically favouring itaku/inkblot because all they've had is FA and they just want a new hub that is more recently updated and better for showcasing work than FA currently. FA was nice to browse and engage with but when artists treated it like a portfolio site, hid their favourites or flat out didn't have any and acted like every other artist was competition it became kinda miserable.

I understand and feel the same way as you though, I have a site to make a gallery how I want, some aren't as lucky and probably want FA that isn't FA. It must be frustrating not being able to make an archive how you like and depend on pretty flat services.

For me though, I'm interested in tumblr-style site, which allow reblogs and exposure to fellow artists AND people who like my work sharing their interests which might end up being similar to mine.

Tumblr unfortunately has spoiled me rotten with the front page custom design, additional pages to have a portfolio/FAQ/anything you want, internal dashboard feed and ability to share posts and actually give exposure for more than just artists trying to get commissions.

Pillowfort seemed too rigid, had a rough start, felt more like Livejournal and at the time I feared it would be saturated with artists and end up like FA pretty much, having signed up to it I'm enjoying the site redesign, still rigid but that can/is being improved, I'm especially fond of the privacy functions per post, would love to see something similar on cohost.

This is long sorry, I caught this on the general feed and I have so many thoughts and feelings about artists trying to find comfortable spaces to post. Having lost so many in the tumblr purge even if I don't touch any of the services they branch to, all I can do is be somewhat preachy and say "it's a good idea to have more than one venue."