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Artists and their watchers
14 years ago
General
I'm somehow a bit bored and felt like going a bit with the flow, after reading :usericonten: 's journal ( http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3261159/ ).
I know pretty much nodoby watches/reads me, so it's very unlikely that people will give a shit or answer this journal, but i'm fine with that. Tbh I usually wouldn't give a shit either.
*******************************************
TL;DR
1) I don't see why somebody would have to always watch back their watchers. I think it's disrespectul for everybody : the people you watch for a genuine motive, the people you watch back "just because they watched you", and also for yourself.
2) FA is a social network.
*******************************************
1) So, first thing to talk about is "Should artists watch their watchers?"
The first question that it raises it "why do you watch people on FA?". It's true FA is a mix between a giant art gallery, but also a social network. Do you watch people for their art/journal or because you want to be social ? It's up to you.
I would say that watching people without any personal reason kinda ruins the watching thing. It's not making sense anymore. It means watching somebody lost all its meaning, and that a watch is no longer deserved, but something everybody will always get back.
Watching everybody back means that for you everybody is the same. Man, do I feel that insulting for your folks / real pals and the people you really care about, but also for those people you mindlessly watch back that you actually don't give a fuck about. That's what I call being a hypocrit. People deserve honesty. You can lie sometimes if you see it's gonna help them feeling happy or something, but doing that systematically ? I would be offended.
A watch feels good because it's precious, because somebody else genuinely meant that for some reason, he's interested in you or your stuff.
If you genuinely feel like watching back everybody : i'm absolutely fine with that, it's your right.
Now If you feel compelled or want to force people watching you, something is just WRONG.
So in the end, you'd have to watch a shit ton of people filling your "new submission pages" with thing you deem to be absolute uninteresting crap. Way to go, man. The more watchers you get, the more shit will pile on your account. Sweet. Who'd wish that to somebody else?
You know what? If somebody is in this situation, he probably has another account that only watches the people he really wanna watch. How would it feel to know that?
Final argument, but probably the most obvious one : why would do anything to thank a guy who just clicked on a "+ watch" button because of his own interest? Do you think he clicked on that "+ watch" button out of sympathy/pity or whatever? He already got his share. I did all the work : I've drawn the whole thing (or paid for it). I'm the one sharing it.
I'd say 80% of watchers never even left a shout on your page or a comment on your drawings.
My basic rule of respect is checking out the guy's page, because I'm curious about who he is and what he likes : it's a way like another to bump into potential friends. Then it's a click for a click : I tick the box to erase that notification of "xxx watched you".
2) "FA is not facebook or myspace"
LOL. FA to me is by far the biggest furry social network I ever seen (may you consider it as such or not : it's a fact).
In this fandom, everything revolves around art. Everything. Without art and stuff, I'm not a snowleopard : I'm just a guy that you never seen. We are mostly gathered here because we like the representation given by anthropomorphic characters. This is probably one of the very few things that unites a BIG part of the fandom.
So naturally, you want to be part of the adventure, you want people to know you belong to the community and tie links with them.
We are (almost all) bound to either draw or commission art. Because for this community, art is where it's at : it's the way to exist, see and be seen. How many people did you follow / encounter just because they had a cute icon or because you saw hot porn of them drawn by somebody else?
Did you never notice how many newcomers and people with poor / no art skills are themselves going through the effort of giving it a shot? They just wanna be part of it.
The social, and as such the popularity part somehow, is actually something important here.
To be totally clear with you, very few people answer journals with something interesting or really care about the content. If you're a popular guy, you can make a one-line journal saying something totally random, and you will get dozens of answers just because you're "popular" and everybody wants to hang out with the "cool" kids.
Same with drawings. I'm sure plenty of you realised some "popufurs" (good I hate this term, it's just lame and childish) can produce quick / effortless reasonnably drawn stuff with absolutely not creative poses and situation, get tons of favs and comments (generally uninteresting, since the art itself was uninteresting) while masterpieces made by more discrete people, that have depth, content, ideas are just...left aside.
Most people aren't here for "the sake of Art". They're here to fill the urge of filling their minds with "decently drawn" porn, and for the social part.
----
It might be alot and a bit confused.
I made this journal for my own satisfaction.
I know pretty much nodoby watches/reads me, so it's very unlikely that people will give a shit or answer this journal, but i'm fine with that. Tbh I usually wouldn't give a shit either.
*******************************************
TL;DR
1) I don't see why somebody would have to always watch back their watchers. I think it's disrespectul for everybody : the people you watch for a genuine motive, the people you watch back "just because they watched you", and also for yourself.
2) FA is a social network.
*******************************************
1) So, first thing to talk about is "Should artists watch their watchers?"
The first question that it raises it "why do you watch people on FA?". It's true FA is a mix between a giant art gallery, but also a social network. Do you watch people for their art/journal or because you want to be social ? It's up to you.
I would say that watching people without any personal reason kinda ruins the watching thing. It's not making sense anymore. It means watching somebody lost all its meaning, and that a watch is no longer deserved, but something everybody will always get back.
Watching everybody back means that for you everybody is the same. Man, do I feel that insulting for your folks / real pals and the people you really care about, but also for those people you mindlessly watch back that you actually don't give a fuck about. That's what I call being a hypocrit. People deserve honesty. You can lie sometimes if you see it's gonna help them feeling happy or something, but doing that systematically ? I would be offended.
A watch feels good because it's precious, because somebody else genuinely meant that for some reason, he's interested in you or your stuff.
If you genuinely feel like watching back everybody : i'm absolutely fine with that, it's your right.
Now If you feel compelled or want to force people watching you, something is just WRONG.
So in the end, you'd have to watch a shit ton of people filling your "new submission pages" with thing you deem to be absolute uninteresting crap. Way to go, man. The more watchers you get, the more shit will pile on your account. Sweet. Who'd wish that to somebody else?
You know what? If somebody is in this situation, he probably has another account that only watches the people he really wanna watch. How would it feel to know that?
Final argument, but probably the most obvious one : why would do anything to thank a guy who just clicked on a "+ watch" button because of his own interest? Do you think he clicked on that "+ watch" button out of sympathy/pity or whatever? He already got his share. I did all the work : I've drawn the whole thing (or paid for it). I'm the one sharing it.
I'd say 80% of watchers never even left a shout on your page or a comment on your drawings.
My basic rule of respect is checking out the guy's page, because I'm curious about who he is and what he likes : it's a way like another to bump into potential friends. Then it's a click for a click : I tick the box to erase that notification of "xxx watched you".
2) "FA is not facebook or myspace"
LOL. FA to me is by far the biggest furry social network I ever seen (may you consider it as such or not : it's a fact).
In this fandom, everything revolves around art. Everything. Without art and stuff, I'm not a snowleopard : I'm just a guy that you never seen. We are mostly gathered here because we like the representation given by anthropomorphic characters. This is probably one of the very few things that unites a BIG part of the fandom.
So naturally, you want to be part of the adventure, you want people to know you belong to the community and tie links with them.
We are (almost all) bound to either draw or commission art. Because for this community, art is where it's at : it's the way to exist, see and be seen. How many people did you follow / encounter just because they had a cute icon or because you saw hot porn of them drawn by somebody else?
Did you never notice how many newcomers and people with poor / no art skills are themselves going through the effort of giving it a shot? They just wanna be part of it.
The social, and as such the popularity part somehow, is actually something important here.
To be totally clear with you, very few people answer journals with something interesting or really care about the content. If you're a popular guy, you can make a one-line journal saying something totally random, and you will get dozens of answers just because you're "popular" and everybody wants to hang out with the "cool" kids.
Same with drawings. I'm sure plenty of you realised some "popufurs" (good I hate this term, it's just lame and childish) can produce quick / effortless reasonnably drawn stuff with absolutely not creative poses and situation, get tons of favs and comments (generally uninteresting, since the art itself was uninteresting) while masterpieces made by more discrete people, that have depth, content, ideas are just...left aside.
Most people aren't here for "the sake of Art". They're here to fill the urge of filling their minds with "decently drawn" porn, and for the social part.
----
It might be alot and a bit confused.
I made this journal for my own satisfaction.
Watcher une personne pour moi, c'est pour voir ce qu'il apporte de nouveau quand il en apporte, pas juste comme une liste d'amis. En somme toutes la même chose que toi, idem pour la curiosité.
Par exemple en ce qui te concerne il est sympa de voir ce que tu nous sort parfois. ^^ Dans le cas présent, c'est amusant de voir ta vision des choses.
Bref, Agree with you for some points.
A vrai dire, ça faisait 3-4 ans que j'avais rien gribouillé avant que du coup, ça me donne envie de m'y mettre aussi.
Si le journal a pu t'apporter quoi que ce soit ou juste te divertir, c'est très bien!
Moi je suis déjà en train de me dire que j'ai passé bien trop de temps pour écrire ça, alors que j'ai probablement rien de spécial à en tirer, si ce n'est que sur le coup j'avais envie d'essayer d'écrire quelque chose d'intelligent pour montrer que je suis sans doute pas trop stupide lol.
On oublie completement le besoin social réel des gens ou même une partie de la creativite ou réflexion. On se dit qu'on perd du temps.
Mais en ecrivant ces mots a tu oublié de faire quelque chose de vital entre temps ?
Est-ce que j'aurais pu faire qqchose de plus utile pendant ce temps là? Oui, clairement. J'avais plusieurs trucs que je pouvais faire.
Par contre le fait que j'ai "perdu mon temps" à écrire ça, et le contenu même du journal, ça n'a en gros aucun rapport.
Le seul truc qui s'en approche, c'est que la masse ici ne réclame pas de la créativité ou de la qualité mais se satisfait majoritairement de trucs "potables" et en grand nombre (i.e te casse pas le cul à vérifier si ta pose est bien faite ou à créer quelque chose, fais du générique, et fais-en beaucoup).
Mais bon, la vision s'assombrit généralement si on se force à regarder un univers de plus en plus grand (i.e qui nous ressemble de moins en moins), au final on à qu'à se limiter à peu près à ce/ceux qu'on aime et se faire plaisir : on a qu'une vie ;p