FA+
Shop
My Thoughts on Crossposting
11 years ago
There's this weird new trend that I don't get with some artists on Weasyl and FA. It's not just one person (so if it's you, I'm not just picking on you), it's a trend. I don't get it.
People I watch have been either posting "Exclusive to Weasyl" preview pics on FA, or posting to Weasyl first and then deliberately waiting a day (or more) to post to FA.
Please note, artists who do this: the below statements are my personal opinion. They may not be indicative of your reasons for doing it, but this is what this watcher thinks when you do.
First impression: God, that's a waste of time.
You're either dedicating extra time to having to make a special image just to taunt your FA watchers with the fact that they can't see your artwork unless they accede to your personal choice in gallery preferences DESPITE THE FACT THAT YOU'RE STILL ON FA, or you're having to remember to go back the next day to post artwork when it would be more easy and time-efficient to post it all at once, since the only people who are really going to notice and care are the rabid fans who absolutely MUST be the first to post a comment.
Second impression: Wow, that's a dick move.
So instead of just leaving FA for whatever personal reasons you chose to do so, you're staying on to try and forcibly convert everyone else to move over by taunting them. Instead of standing up for your own personal feelings on which gallery you choose to use by simply moving over, you're attempting to push your personal feelings and choices onto others. If you don't like FA, go to Weasyl. Stop posting to FA. It's that simple. Just tell people you're moving and move, instead of coming back and basically saying "Nyah nyah, look at what you're missing, don't you wish you had this, gosh, you should really have followed me to Weasyl, sucks to be youuuu!"
All that said... if I'm watching you, I like your art. That's why I watch people. Despite my personal annoyance at what I see as petty behavior, I will still TRY to watch your art. But not everyone is as patiently tolerant as me.
Good luck.
For those who watch me, I post to both sites. As simultaneously as possible. Watch me here, watch me there, won't matter. Except on Weasyl you'll be getting a pretty banner, as soon as I can make one. Woo. Oh and I'm gonna post the banner here as art. XD
People I watch have been either posting "Exclusive to Weasyl" preview pics on FA, or posting to Weasyl first and then deliberately waiting a day (or more) to post to FA.
Please note, artists who do this: the below statements are my personal opinion. They may not be indicative of your reasons for doing it, but this is what this watcher thinks when you do.
First impression: God, that's a waste of time.
You're either dedicating extra time to having to make a special image just to taunt your FA watchers with the fact that they can't see your artwork unless they accede to your personal choice in gallery preferences DESPITE THE FACT THAT YOU'RE STILL ON FA, or you're having to remember to go back the next day to post artwork when it would be more easy and time-efficient to post it all at once, since the only people who are really going to notice and care are the rabid fans who absolutely MUST be the first to post a comment.
Second impression: Wow, that's a dick move.
So instead of just leaving FA for whatever personal reasons you chose to do so, you're staying on to try and forcibly convert everyone else to move over by taunting them. Instead of standing up for your own personal feelings on which gallery you choose to use by simply moving over, you're attempting to push your personal feelings and choices onto others. If you don't like FA, go to Weasyl. Stop posting to FA. It's that simple. Just tell people you're moving and move, instead of coming back and basically saying "Nyah nyah, look at what you're missing, don't you wish you had this, gosh, you should really have followed me to Weasyl, sucks to be youuuu!"
All that said... if I'm watching you, I like your art. That's why I watch people. Despite my personal annoyance at what I see as petty behavior, I will still TRY to watch your art. But not everyone is as patiently tolerant as me.
Good luck.
For those who watch me, I post to both sites. As simultaneously as possible. Watch me here, watch me there, won't matter. Except on Weasyl you'll be getting a pretty banner, as soon as I can make one. Woo. Oh and I'm gonna post the banner here as art. XD
I know I'm guilty of forgetting to crosspost some stuff. And some stuff I left off Weasyl because I don't like it and didn't think it was worth reposting because it was old and sucky. Not because it was a political statement.
I totally agree with her opinions on the matter.
Now if they're wasting their time to post teasers here pointing elsewhere, then most likely they discovered the hard way that not all (or many any) of their followers are going to jump off a cliff just because they did.
Get over yourself or leave.
Say your leaving fine. Unwatched.
Come crawling back? I'll have to see your back an you will have to earn your watch back
... 'Course, it'd help if I posted more often to begin with, I suppose. : P
Now, if I there's a reposter for dA, SoFurry, and InkBunny too, I'm all in! XD
$20 is certainly worth it if it'll cut my upload time down by 80%. Now, I just need to find it. XD
[1] e.g. FAExtender defaults to a 2 second delay between download requests.
[2] As in: You no longer have one.
At first I thought you ment "crossposting" as just having two galleries, which I don't see as a bad thing at all for people who want to put forth the extra effort.
I've seen people say "It's so I don't lose my watchers" but that's probably the worst way to go about it. In my opinion, the best way to go about it is this:
STEP 1: Make a picture that states you are leaving FA and going to Weasyl. You can even make it a cute hobo pic with art supplies in a canvas bag on a stick, with a tattered hat and everything. ADORBS.
STEP 2: Post said pic to FA. People look at pics. People will see pic and think "Aww, I don't want to not see adorbs anymore! I will be a Weasyl too!"
STEP 3: Stop posting to FA. (The only acceptable reason to crosspost to a site you are 'boycotting' is for moneys: auctions, sales, etc.)
But yeah, I can understand if they use it to make announcements for auctions / commissions / etc but I totally see your point about the thumbnail / partial picture thingy.
and honestly if they really wanted money they'd already be posting on all The artsites anyways ... if you want to leave fa ...leave but stop extending the drama ... make your offsite your main account but don't do exclusive crap to tease fans ...
1. They don't want to post here, but they're still posting here.
2. There's not much reason a fan can't move sites. You just create an account, it's that easy. It's free.
3. Therefore, they must be doing it for people who WON'T move sites. Which makes no sense.
4. If the art is marked anything other than General rating, you MUST create a Weasyl account to see it. Even Moderate (13+) art is blocked.
Conclusion: Artists are doing this to coerce users to change sites.
She doesn't do it anymore, but only because her long string of suspensions and warnings finally ended with a banning.
Personally I tend to update my journal here if I do post things to other sites, since a lot of people don't keep up on other sites for updates like they do here, and I want them to have a way to find it. It's especially relevant during times when people are slowly migrating over to another site, as someone who might not have watched me for updates a few months ago after finding my work there, might be more inclined to do so now if given a reminder.
My work isn't welcome here (by virtue of it being mine, rather than any policy against the material in particular, since the admins don't like me) so it's not going to be posted here at all. When I stopped posting it years ago, I might as well have just dropped off the face of the earth as far as my readers were concerned. Now that there's other venues with growing activity where I can share it, it makes sense to let people here know where my work is going.
If (like I commented above) artists posted ONE dedicated picture about how they are moving, make it interesting so people will actually look at it, post it to their FA with a link to their Weasyl, make it the last thing they post, set it as a featured submission, etc. - that would be incentive. Mayyyyybe occasionally (like once a month or so) post a reminder piece: "Missing my art? I've moved here!" If someone is watching them, they would see it and know that they better either move their butt to Weasyl, or say goodbye to this artist's work. The end.
Instead, they're bombarding their watchers with constant annoying and condescending reminders that they don't post here (ironically, by posting here). You don't have to bludgeon your users with teasers every time you post art. When you post a submission, it stays in your watchers' Submissions list until they choose to delete it. An occasional casual reminder is enough to catch the few who might have accidentally deleted the first notification.
I mean honestly, thats a good way to get me OFF of your watch, not follow you around like a dog.
I Crosspost everything within the same time unless I've forgotten/was busy/ etc. but I do it as soon
as I can get to it, thats my point.
I have concluded that: people are jerks.
I'm just going to "LOL. Nope." and just move along. Seriously, I don't
know why other artists waste their precious time creating a submission
when it's just a cropped image of the piece, then turn around and expect
the viewer to site-jump to Weasyl to view it in it;s entirety. Don't care if
one has the right to do so, but it's really annoying and not worth my time.
Basically, what you've already summed above.... I just don't get it, either.
I'm not so super impressed with Weasyl, it's got a lot of shiny Web 2.0 bloatware attached but the UI isn't all that much more solid than FA's. Decent site, but the way people bang on about it being sooooo much better...tiresome.
If someone has accounts on weasyl, or wherever, fine. That's their choice. It's no biggie to me. I'm here on FA, because it meets my needs quite nicely, not to mention there are some wonderful furs on here.
Writing a script that posts to all sites simultaneously would go over really well. Only one form to fill out.
My general ethos on free art to look at: Easy come, easy go (not talking about requests). If you post stuff even a year later, it's of no consequence to me, I'll see it when I see it.
Of course, if they 'come back' to FA, it'll probably take me a long while to rediscover they're reposting their art full res / uncensored against, 'if' I find out.
That's not to say I don't checkout multiple art sites, I do. But I don't really care to add to my general collection of sites to check out, which are not strictly furry. Such as photography, sci-fi & space illustration, 3D scenes and demoscene. So do forgive me if I don't care to add more sites to my already 16 sites (four of them are furry) I check out.
As an individual watcher, I am not that interesting for most furry artists to retain; I have made 19 furry commissions in the past 6 years, quantity wise, it's not much. That's three per year and I don't usually commission the same artist twice. Although, when I do make a commission, its for maximum quality possible, so generally expensive. However only 5 of the commissions ever worked out (I had a bit of bad luck, some popular artists took and ran with my money - I don't blame furry fandom or artists as a whole for this).
You do get them on Deviantart occasionally, simply because you can't post some content there, so it gets cropped or edited. That's fair.
I've also seen art posted that says "only on this site", but that's to cut down on art theft. If you see it posted anywhere else, it's not the author/artist posting it.
Honestly, it doesn't seem that much different from artists posting censored / WIP pics and going 'If you want the full version, go to this pay site and spend monies!' ('cept for no monies needed for Weasyl)
What I dislike though is when they refer to all the users in the site they dislike in a derogative manner, as in "I don't post my art there because everyone there is [insert something here]"
Here's how I see it.
The trigger was, allegedly, some melodrama relating to a central figure within FA, involving allegations that never materialized as fact. Lots of people were up in arms, went on over to "The other side", and began trying to bring over a small following.
Then the watch notifications started.
Popularity... She is intoxicating. After a short while it shifts into a less superego-driven state and more of an id-driven state where the individual in question is almost literally drunk with the feeling of power and influence that comes with that mountain of new watchers.
I know a lot of people leaving and trying to shove their watcher-base/ commissioners over, not because they're doing it for some moral reason, but because financially, they can't afford another week long outage happening because the outdated code hasn't been updated in -years-