Disclaimer: I thought Bluesky was it. I believed the PR. Fell for the hype posts. Sent invite links everywhere. Driving traffic since 2023.

I was wrong. Jazzy slogans and tech jargon doesn't change the people running a company.

I might be wrong again. I hope I've learned enough this time.

Never recommended, no matter how bad things may get:

𝐖𝐏-𝐛𝐫𝐨'𝐬 𝐓𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐫: Only if you missed the first collapse and bankruptcy, and really want to say you were there for the second.

𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐥𝐨𝐩: lol no

𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞-𝐛𝐫𝐨'𝐬 𝐀𝐈 𝐆𝐅: 💩

𝐙𝐮𝐜𝐤'𝐬 𝐈𝐏 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤: rofl

It's not it: 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐨𝐧. Enormous respect for those who spun up good instances and have defended their members against harassing backseat moderators. Join those niche communities. But after the censorship-loving masses get your instance blocked you'll no longer have a full social network open to you.

Can't quite recommend: 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐚. What they're trying is neat, I hope they succeed. But their inflexible no-NSFW policy is the most massive red flag ever. We see how bad actors go after creators they dislike by labeling their work NSFW. Hope someone else tries the same model but no built-in censorship.

Wish I could recommend: 𝐑𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐭. Oh how I have tried. Reddit's spam filter is terrible, every week I see artists get banned. If you have a years-old account with karma, you are probably safe. If you have a new account, ask for help first, there are ways if you are careful and go slow. Nightshade.

𝐏𝐢𝐱𝐢𝐯: Maybe? They try to play both sides, which in the end never works, and they are due for another self-inflicted crisis. For users outside the US and EU, maybe. The global user base is enticing. But there will be another self-inflicted crisis, and another, and another.

𝐈𝐦𝐠𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭 & 𝐋𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐝𝐮𝐦𝐩. This is for your private backups, vs. Dropbox, Drive, or Mega. Hard drives fail. Posts get taken down all the time years after posting, and then they're gone. Fans are always asking "Where can I find this piece?" Both sites also do password-protected galleries to fight piracy.

𝐏𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐨 & 𝐏𝐢𝐜𝐳𝐞𝐥. Not every creator can stream, you need a good PC and very good internet. But stream watchers are loyal, they come back, and they commission more. Plus good fan interaction. With all that is going on I'm committing more to watching creators who stream, and I hope others will too.

Don't discount the community-building of 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝. Yes it's all fragmented across different servers, and you need another website to post invite links to. But it is the best place for fans and creators to interact. Artists, always Nightshade your images, Discord loves AI way too much.

I have never put 𝐏𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭 atop my list. I wasn't a Tumblr person, I don't have that nostalgia. The image compression bugs me too. But they are trying, which means a lot right now. They do neat things. Plus they backed their users against censorship bullying. I'll keep backing them with clicks.

Yes, 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐬 is still alive and kicking. They do some neat things too. I like their multi-image galleries, I like their user pages. They've fought these censorship battles for years and they backed their users. Gimme a website who is actually on our side, I'll live with the cropped thumbnails.

𝐅𝐮𝐫 𝐀𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲. Yeah it aims to be for furries. But there is no furry quota, many creators who do both furry and non-furry work post their stuff there. Mostly people grumble over it being very web 1.0. But all web 2.0 social networks and art sites have been terrible. If only we stuck with MySpace.

I've long been rooting for 𝐈𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐮 to succeed. So many neat features, stuff that seems basic, obvious, intuitive, and then you wonder why every other art site and social network never did that. Thought and care went into the design. Real DA vibes from before DA messed everything up.