@afterglowart.bsky.social

I love you :3

I will do my best to leave comments.

being given attention means something to me but purely b/c i want to connect to people.

I needed to read this. Thank you. I'm still trying to grow and get eyes on my art and writing and twitter and isntagram have been hell for my mental health because of the "it feels like you got a bad grade" vibes lol. Hopefully this site is better for me, for all of us, in that regard. Connection with cool people making cool things is all I ever wanted anyway.

art is communication. I don't need anybody to write me a book, it doesn't have to be eloquent, but say something back. let artists know there are others in the void they're yelling into. most artists don't want to be like little gods handing down creations from on high. we want to connect, we want to say something, we want to be heard. so say something back!!!!

+1 agree, this got me thinking though:

We can really, truly, replace meaningless numbers with real human connections - even short and fleeting ones - and show in a meaningful way how a piece of art makes us feel.

it's interesting to think that years of simple interactions on other media may have divorced people from "feeling" things from art that don't contribute to metrics. complicated emotions that come from a piece just get distilled down to a "like" or "retweet" which could maybe lead an audience to engage with art incredibly superficially. click. scroll. click. scroll. each click is representative of 0.5seconds of eyeballs and thought and moving on.

comments represent a longer engagement with the piece, long enough to at least form a few words. i know i've been trained by other online spaces to not engage enough with an individual post (cause you gotta see those ads and keep you online), and the process of unlearning that from sites like this has been enlightening!

but comments mean people have to perceive me

I'd already been making an effort to comment on art I particularly like here, but this helped solidify for me why that's a good idea, even if the comment is kinda simple. Thanks, good post!

Comments are good because it allows number to go up and my brain fucking loves numbers

It’s also great to just hear feedback! An exceptional post.

A comment has always meant more to me than just about anything else because it implies that I reached someone with my work. Thank you for articulating that feeling for the lot of us.

One thing I really haven't experienced enough of on the internet is making meaningful connections. It's pretty rare in today's age of the internet, and especially on the popular platforms. I don't even think I've really experienced much of it since 2015, maybe 2017 at the latest, and a lot of that has to do with the way that most popular platforms are formatted for gaining attention and likes, as stated in your write-up.

The most meaningful connections I did make, however, came from platforms that allowed for such. Forums were big with that, YouTube in older days was a bit, and a tiny fraction of that for me came from Discord. It's actually interesting to me that some of the largest platforms, like Twitter and TikTok, barely go for that aspect at all. Those two in particular limit discussion and only boil it down to something shorter without much room for detail or further conversation.

What I'm seeing with Cohost is that it has huge potential to be a refreshing social media experience due to the format it has. Everyone I've seen so far is trying to make it sincerely possible that it becomes something different, rather than as a replacement for existing platforms, and I'm totally down for that. I also really appreciate the posts that refresh on old internet etiquette, and hell, as an internet user on the younger side, I really find those informative. The fact that there's no limit for comments makes it great for discussion too.

I might be rambling at this point, but I hope I'm making sense with this. Cohost has a great thing going for it, and I hope that it can help provide a new look on making connections on the internet.

In the past I've run into this thing, that while if I get a few likes and maybe a comment that's unusual and exciting, but other people with many followers get hundreds of comments all the time and complain that it's a nuisance, people are wasting their time with low-value comments. Like on the one hand I wanna say that's an interesting question I've wondered about for years but on the other hand I never figured out The Answer so I don't have anything useful to say.

i've been trying to do better w/ writing comments recently, and trying out different platforms like this has helped me a lot. i especially like how you said art is about reaching your own people instead of as many people as possible. that's something i've been trying to remind myself a lot these days. it's much more fulfilling to engage with others.

sometimes when i post my art, it feels less like i'm sharing something i care about, and more like i'm casting a net into the ocean to nab as many "fish" as possible. when i made the transition from fanart to original art, the numbers dwindled and i felt incredibly inferior. i don't think it's entirely social media's fault since i might have an ego problem in general, but it absolutely contributes—no, feeds off it.

I think I have this aversion to being perceived that I'm still trying to get over.

hi! I appreciate the call to connection.

I agree!

This is why I advocate for removing the like button entirely, i think it discourages ppl from leaving comments, because they already feel they've interacted with the post. Or give us an option to disable likes on a particular post.

i really enjoy this website so far and i am glad to see so many people thinking the same.
i often think of people mocking "streamers with only 8 viewers"; do you imagine having 8 of your friends watching you play something in the same room? that's huge.

i am tired of these dark patterns modern social networks put onto us, and I am glad this website is the way it is, and most of its users are the way they are.
thank you for this post 🧡

Honestlyv thank you for being active on Cohost. Not only is your work delightful but you have been a great source for finding others to follow.

I really enjoy cohost for just, not, indulging in anything like that. I have full control over what I see, and that's amazing. I like to leave comments whenever I can. Finally, some good fucking food.

Incredibly well written and vocalizing something I really have been trying to put together. Thank you so much

Exactly this. This is why I joined Cohost even before the Great Twitter Exodus of 2022: I wanted to find a healthier place to live online. I once attempted to share my art on Twitter. I got essentially zero engagement despite posting dozens of pieces over the course of months. I found myself obsessing over the numbers and I knew just how unhealthy that was. So I stopped. Posting my art here has been an entirely different experience. I've only uploaded my recent dinosaur art and have already made connections with real geologists and paleontologists. I'm encountering interesting people just by using the site. Funny how much better life becomes when you cut out the rabid competition and corporate greed.

adding comments more will have to be a habit to build, especially here where like counters are not visible

I HATE to ruin the nice comment count but you're right, and I've not been doing enough commenting anywhere. A big part is social anxiety (what if the joke I'm making is bad, am I just repeating something many others have already said, will I get dunked on) but that's a me problem that I want to work on anyway. So thanks for giving me the gentlest of pushes in the direction I was already wanting to go :)

Thank you so much for saying this. I really appreciate the words that you brought to bear for it. From the bottom of my heart, thanks!

"Art in the age of social media should not be about reaching as many people as possible. It should be able reaching your people." Yessss! I teach marketing sometimes, and people feel so embarrassed or down about their follower count, or their email list count, and it is so much more about having an engaged audience who loves your work and wants more. The "growth at all costs" mentality that corporations use to justify the worst human rights violations also trickles down to us when we are growing our audiences and trying to capture so. many. people. Focusing on what you value and who you are is much more fulfilling at least for me.

Cohost is the only social media I use. I wouldn't change it for the world. I hope all social media looks like this in the future! Cohost revolution!

Thank you so much for this!! Now to actively re-teach my brain about the "social" part of social media. Because boy, am I not used to saying things on posts after how many years on mainstream socials where I would just smash like and share :')

I really like the way you do anatomy and bug people, and your textured paper deep watercolor looking light and color are really unique or at least I haven't seen it from anyone else. I look forward to bug people on my feed

agreed 👍

May I ask, as you are an artist on Cohost, do you think it's better to comment rather than making a reply in a rehost? I've been replying to quite a few art pieces I like, but is that too separated compared to a comment?
I love to compliment works and want to do it in a way that would make the artist more happy (I know there's no way you could speak for all artists, but if you have a general idea I'd love to hear it. Even if it's just that there's no real difference between the two)