I agree with all of you and think artists and others alike should be able to share their work and allows other to contribute to their passion. Should we just remove the No Ads from the rules? Maybe the answer is to modify the rule. I just to make it clear that I don't want users aimlessly ad spamming the communities.
sh.itjust.works Main Community
Home of the sh.itjust.works instance.
Thank you for taking a look at it! I really appreciate it! I don't think you should remove the "No Ads" rule, but maybe specify that self-promotion is ok and maybe let community moderators define how much self-promotion is ok in their own communities? I am not sure how much power / trust there is in community mods here though. Another option could be something like: no more than one post per creator per day / week etc (whatever folks here decide they are comfortable with) per community.
Rule to clarify that self-promotion is cool while pure ads/eBegging/spam isn't, some language to try and define where the line is (from what I've seen from you specifically, you'd be above board), and a commitment that artists must participate in good faith (see: posting a dope-ass map you want to share along with a link to your patreon is cool, just saying "I make dope-ass maps, click this link to see them" probably isn't).
I think with a little definition for clarity, this isn't a problem.
Middle ground: Put your Patreon link in your bio and point people to it if they're interested in supporting. Comes off a little less spammy.
Though that said, like others mentioned I don't think anyone would truly take offence to an innocuous link. It's low effort, not-in-community-spirit crap that I think people are trying to avoid. Worth shooting a message to admins directly if you want clarity on this.
That should probably be clarified in the rules then. I'm sure OP isn't the only one who looked at the rules and thought they couldn't post their work. They are just the one that made a post about it.
Right now they just have it as the watermark and in the hyperlink as the source. They don't even mention it in the text of the post. I think that's definitely fine, but I guess we'll need to wait for the admin to weigh in
There is, of course, a difference between a post that's pure ad, and a post that's art that contains a Patreon link. One provides nothing to the viewer, the other is a normal post with a little self-promotion added.
It's good to err on the side of caution in this, but the admins should really add a note about self-promotion to any rule about ads, to clarify this.
I really do hope that they do. Otherwise, I do not think that, at least this instance, is going to have any artists, musicians, writers and other creatives be active here.
I personally don't mind seeing a link to the artist's patreon or website or whatever on a post, as long as it's not over the top or inserted clearly as an ad for whatever is being sold. I feel like it's OK for that to be there for the people who want to see more of your work or purchase something. What I don't like to see is my feed getting filled with what I perceive as advertisements. So I think there is a happy middle ground.
Hmm, I haven't seen any rules that disallow self promotion aside from nsfw. Could you point me to where you're seeing that?
do you want an art community? Ill add one to my instance, a lot of my work involves tooling for artists, im just neckdeep in AI right now.
Just try it. You'll be fine. Better to ask forgiveness than permission.
Pretty dumb rule to not allow content creators to not link to their own patreon.
I'm pretty sure there is instances that would not only welcome you with open arms but even have communities so that you can promote yourself.
Choosing your home instance is the most important step. Or you can choose a neutral instance and use it to post on artist friendly communities that might be hosted on remote instances.
This post could have been a message to the admins. Just contact them, ask if you could have a community for the kind of art you sell and how you plan to keep it from being/becoming too spammy with the links.
Seems like this post is helpful for other people with the same question, and a good basis for discussion about what the community sees as acceptable norms with regards to self promotion.
I don’t know about sh.it just.works, but on kbin I doubt anyone would have an issue with you putting a link to your patreon in your content post. It’s not spamming and asking for donations for your work is not an ad either. After all, I see people who post their Steam pages and App Store pages up and no one complains (and that is far closer to an ad).
This isn't the only instance. You have a bunch more and maybe one maybe OK with linking to patreon. It's probably easier than creating your own instance.
Btw, if you want an instagram alternative that's on the fediverse, try out pixelfed
Come on over to the kbin instance. I see at least one magazine so far and no rules about Patreon links: https://kbin.social/m/art
Personally I would WELCOME you to post your Patreon. It's just a link, it's not an ad or spam. You put a lot of effort into your work and that's only fair. In fact as we push for a more decentralized web, I think it's critical content creators are able to receive funds independently of ads or platforms. Many of my favorite YouTube channels are only possible because of Patreon subscribers.
Couldn't agree more. You throw a street musician a coin in their hat when you walk past, and I think the same is only fair on the web. You make good art, something I enjoy and want to see more of, I make a small donation to you (which I like a lot better than having 'sponsored by evil corporation' written left, right and across your picture)
Agree with others that I believe kbin will welcome you with open arms. Personally, the more artists the better. Having a patreon or some other link to support your work only makes sense. Heck, all the admins ask for donations to keep the instances running. What’s the difference if you do the same?
This is dope. Our dnd master uses a lot of influence from art like yours. He would love this
Would love to see more art popping up around here. Just the thing we need.
Are there any concerns around image hosting? I'd be up for more art too, but curious if a standard should be put in place around image hosting - namely to not overwhelm an instance's servers during a period of already meaningful growth
And more folks using Patreons or less-enshitified Patreon-alikes.
Literally the owning of your own labor.
Why do you think that artists or patreon links aren't welcome?
I don't think it's not welcome as much as no one has really started a "magazine" or "community" for it yet. Kbin/lemmy as fairly new to the masses and it just needs a little time to grow. Please post your art. I followed many art subs on Reddit.
If you're in a position to ask the mods directly, I do think that's a good idea. It seems like a lot of places have had broad, sweeping policies trying to keep ordinary advertisers away, and norms about individuals like you or even just smaller operations haven't been worked out.
It's not quite the same, but I really liked this (very long, sorry) Mastodon thread specifically about how there's a lot of unexplored potential approaches to "commercial entities on the fediverse," and how we might be able to set some good rules and community norms. It might be too focused on Mastodon and on larger companies for your use, but perhaps it will be a helpful input?
This isn't a advertising platform, it's a community for discussion.
As a fellow artist, I'd love to say otherwise, but sometimes we have to admit that not all platforms are built for growing your art business. Sure, you can probably get away with plugging links to your patreon/etsy every time you share your work, but you're not going to get very much revenue from it. You'll be squeezing a square block into a triangular hole.
It's not that artists aren't welcome, it's just that the threadiverse (and reddit by extension) wasn't designed for the purposes you're describing, so you're not going to find the success you're looking for. There's nothing wrong with finding another platform that suits your needs better.
There's !vart@pathfinder.social (pf-soc allows self-promotion).
!dnd@lemmy.ml, !pathfinder2e@lemmy.ml, or !rpg@lemmy.ml are probably worth looking at, too (lemmy.ml disallows spam and advertising, but many Fediverse instances make distinctions between advertising and "self-promotion").
dnd@lemmy.world (though .world's policy on self-promotion seems to be a little more forceful).
Also maybe look at !ttrpgs@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Finally, others have mentioned kbin.sopcial, and there's !RPG@kbin.social, but if you create an account there, you can also hit up #TTRPG and #DND (as well as #art and other visual art and design hashtags) on the microblog/"Mastodon" side of the Fediverse without juggling multiple websites.
First - that's beautiful work.
Second - I wish more open source folks would make a distinction between "advertising" and "self-promotion." I've never minded the latter as much as the former.
That said - nuance makes for more argument and difficulty in moderation. It's the same question of "tasteful nude photography" or "porn".
Not sure if this will work, but I haven't been able to respond to any comments for a while - I think the servers are probably chugging and my responses just hang.