seatopian

There's a new thing out called Cara. I at least made an account but I haven't done much else with it just yet.

I've seen some mentions of it amongst some artists I follow and some friends that make other creative content. It's a platform that won't allow AI and even has Glaze setup to be used. https://cara.app/about

But if you find something, let me know. I post to FA right now, but there is nothing keeping me there other than it being a gallery and I can use PostyBird to upload there. XD

I have definitely seen some Discussions™ pop up around Cara lately, but getting into details is outside the scope of this. I'll probably stake my usual name there but don't have any plans to use it.

I've been using mastodon.art for a couple years now and have been enjoying it, though how much you get out of that is going to be how much you are personally interested in using ActivityPub and dealing with intentional built-in limitations (like not being able to migrate your whole account and all your posts, just set up a redirect that says "I'm over here now").

Unfortunately that's kind of the end of the list right now for what I've got?
ArtStation still exists. Don't know what's going on with them recently.
Bluesky just... is. I made my own personal data server for it via a cloud VM a couple weeks back so I can own my data. I never look at my feed, and am healthier for doing so.

Self-hosting still feels like the way to go if you're willing to roll up your sleeves, and despite WordPress styling itself as the only option for self-management, Automattic and their CEO can stuff it. There's lots of other Content Management Systems you can use, though depending on which one it is, there can be some learning curves to adjust to.