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Watermarks on Artworks?
Posted 3 months agoSo Glaze, Nightshade and their siblings are dead.
For those of you who go "🤔 What are those?" - they're tools meant to make training AI on photos or artworks difficult or produce incorrect results.
I saw a paper that works around them by using noise injection + latent upscaling to lessen the artifacts enough so that finetuning a Image Generation AI model is feasible, and now there is this new paper that thoroughly rips out the artifacts entirely.
Link to a summary: https://www.technologyreview.com/20.....m-digital-art/
Link to the actual paper: https://www.usenix.org/conference/u.....ation/foerster (PDF link is at the bottom)
--
Algorithmic protection against AI scraping and abuse is a cat and mouse game that's not gonna work. You can't retroactively pull your old artworks from the web and reupload them with fresh protection. Too late. Copies exist now. I sure as hell save every nice artwork I come across, often the original disappears after some years.
That leaves regular, oldschool, bespoke, design-based watermarking.
--
So this is the question then, and something you can help with:
- Have you spotted artworks that have a watermark/logo in them that is decent in size, covering the center portion of the image, but not annoying?
Drop a link to an example in a comment if you know such a thing.
- Have you spotted an artwork where the watermark/logo just ruins everything? I'd also like a link to an example for that if you can find something. Optional though, I can see how this might not be something you want to point at and look rude in the process. xD I'm happy with just positive examples.
I'm not looking for anyone to bash my artist colleagues for censoring their works, or using watermarks that are crap.
I am trying to get an idea of where the limit is - what size or shape or kind of watermarking annoys y'all and ruins the viewing experience. And which kind is generally seen as okay and a fair trade-off because it doesn't ruin thefap enjoyment of the artworks.
--
Anyone with enough time and skill can either inpaint watermarks away in an automated fashion, or re-paint the affected areas by hand if they got art skills.
That takes actual effort though and most people who can do that don't need to have AI generate art for them. They can paint their own works.
Just stuffing my logo and link into a corner doesn't work - because that is more meant as an information to the viewer where to find more of my works, not as a hindrance to looking at things.
But. If I can make life for the rest of people/companies extremely miserable by having a large but not annoying watermark on my artwork posts, I'd like to do so. Once I understand what's considered ok!
Thoughts?
For those of you who go "🤔 What are those?" - they're tools meant to make training AI on photos or artworks difficult or produce incorrect results.
I saw a paper that works around them by using noise injection + latent upscaling to lessen the artifacts enough so that finetuning a Image Generation AI model is feasible, and now there is this new paper that thoroughly rips out the artifacts entirely.
Link to a summary: https://www.technologyreview.com/20.....m-digital-art/
Link to the actual paper: https://www.usenix.org/conference/u.....ation/foerster (PDF link is at the bottom)
--
Algorithmic protection against AI scraping and abuse is a cat and mouse game that's not gonna work. You can't retroactively pull your old artworks from the web and reupload them with fresh protection. Too late. Copies exist now. I sure as hell save every nice artwork I come across, often the original disappears after some years.
That leaves regular, oldschool, bespoke, design-based watermarking.
--
So this is the question then, and something you can help with:
- Have you spotted artworks that have a watermark/logo in them that is decent in size, covering the center portion of the image, but not annoying?
Drop a link to an example in a comment if you know such a thing.
- Have you spotted an artwork where the watermark/logo just ruins everything? I'd also like a link to an example for that if you can find something. Optional though, I can see how this might not be something you want to point at and look rude in the process. xD I'm happy with just positive examples.
I'm not looking for anyone to bash my artist colleagues for censoring their works, or using watermarks that are crap.
I am trying to get an idea of where the limit is - what size or shape or kind of watermarking annoys y'all and ruins the viewing experience. And which kind is generally seen as okay and a fair trade-off because it doesn't ruin the
--
Anyone with enough time and skill can either inpaint watermarks away in an automated fashion, or re-paint the affected areas by hand if they got art skills.
That takes actual effort though and most people who can do that don't need to have AI generate art for them. They can paint their own works.
Just stuffing my logo and link into a corner doesn't work - because that is more meant as an information to the viewer where to find more of my works, not as a hindrance to looking at things.
But. If I can make life for the rest of people/companies extremely miserable by having a large but not annoying watermark on my artwork posts, I'd like to do so. Once I understand what's considered ok!
Thoughts?
Tag your art uploads by species
Posted 4 months agoGentlemens, Wimmenz and DeathToasters,
now that FA has yeeted the gender dropdown into orbit and thus removed this useful filter from the Browse mode, we have to rely on the Search to find submissions with the gender or genitals + species we're into or risk retinal detachment and blindness.
But. Since we all use the dropdown to specify the species, often this results in no species existing as actual tag. Because why do that twice, right?
This then makes your upload invisible in the search results tho.
So remember to write that into the tags from now on.
And I guess we can stop using the dropdowns entirely. :Tc
Anyway I think my submissions should be good to go.. looking all the way back into 2009, I did write the species into the tags out of habit. AH HAHAHHAHA I AM A PROPHET-DEX, build me a CHURCH ALREADY
EDIT:
Aha. Took them a day to decide to revert it and implement a better workaround as per their last journal.
Still, doesn't hurt to tag things comprehensively. :>
now that FA has yeeted the gender dropdown into orbit and thus removed this useful filter from the Browse mode, we have to rely on the Search to find submissions with the gender or genitals + species we're into or risk retinal detachment and blindness.
But. Since we all use the dropdown to specify the species, often this results in no species existing as actual tag. Because why do that twice, right?
This then makes your upload invisible in the search results tho.
So remember to write that into the tags from now on.
And I guess we can stop using the dropdowns entirely. :Tc
Anyway I think my submissions should be good to go.. looking all the way back into 2009, I did write the species into the tags out of habit. AH HAHAHHAHA I AM A PROPHET-DEX, build me a CHURCH ALREADY
EDIT:
Aha. Took them a day to decide to revert it and implement a better workaround as per their last journal.
Still, doesn't hurt to tag things comprehensively. :>
So they're nearing 70% data transfer
Posted 5 months agoAt least that's what their last tweet said some hours ago when I looked.
.. Can I say tweet when I only read their bluesky feed? I think some other word was used over there to refer to such posts, except I never saw it acknowledged on any button in the actual UI ... skii ..skeet? IT'S A STUPID WORD I HATE IT AND IT MUST DIE 💥\@M@/💥
Ahem. Wonder how many pictures/uploads exist on FA that are of such a quality that nobody has ever looked at them in a decade or ever, in general. Except for the original uploader. Who has a copy of the data elsewhere. So they could just delete them. You know the stuff that you stumbled onto while browsingthrough the 8451741 YCH adoptible reminders and then instantly forget.
>3> I could conveniently brush some of my less than successful artworks of the distant past under the rug that way too, eh hehhhehehehehehhe yeah you know what? Great idea, let's do it. UwU
Except no website ever does that and I find it bizarre. The companies are moaning over the exabytes of data they have to somehow store, yet they could just nuke 80% of the shit nobody ever looks at. At least on mainstream services. Selfies. Food pics. Dickpic number 841781 of the world's least impressive set of genitals.
Obviously you'd not want to nuke the only remaining copy of a technical maintenance manual about some rare piece of hardware ...
NO I DON'T MEAN A NUCLEAR POWERED WW1-DILDO, GET THY MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER! 😤
Just never really noticed how frequently I check FA for new contents and how it is the overall background hum of activity or reading comments from familiar sounding usernames that are part of the experience! And how that all grinds to a halt and then sucks. >:V
So have this journal #2 !
.. Can I say tweet when I only read their bluesky feed? I think some other word was used over there to refer to such posts, except I never saw it acknowledged on any button in the actual UI ... skii ..skeet? IT'S A STUPID WORD I HATE IT AND IT MUST DIE 💥\@M@/💥
Ahem. Wonder how many pictures/uploads exist on FA that are of such a quality that nobody has ever looked at them in a decade or ever, in general. Except for the original uploader. Who has a copy of the data elsewhere. So they could just delete them. You know the stuff that you stumbled onto while browsing
>3> I could conveniently brush some of my less than successful artworks of the distant past under the rug that way too, eh hehhhehehehehehhe yeah you know what? Great idea, let's do it. UwU
Except no website ever does that and I find it bizarre. The companies are moaning over the exabytes of data they have to somehow store, yet they could just nuke 80% of the shit nobody ever looks at. At least on mainstream services. Selfies. Food pics. Dickpic number 841781 of the world's least impressive set of genitals.
Obviously you'd not want to nuke the only remaining copy of a technical maintenance manual about some rare piece of hardware ...
NO I DON'T MEAN A NUCLEAR POWERED WW1-DILDO, GET THY MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER! 😤
Just never really noticed how frequently I check FA for new contents and how it is the overall background hum of activity or reading comments from familiar sounding usernames that are part of the experience! And how that all grinds to a halt and then sucks. >:V
So have this journal #2 !
Doesn't say we can't make new JOURNALS!
Posted 6 months agoAh ahahah! Yes yes. Uwu
We can still post comments and apparently journals! So how about this.
HELLO earthlings and various peoples of lewd dispositions! How are we all doing?
Wonder if I exhaust the attention span of the average internet person by adding another paragraph.
LET'S DO JUST THAT!
It is May now. That also means in another month we're gonna near the half-way mark of this year. 😐
There have been many good game releases so far, so there's that. Still, time flies...
Not so bueno is my general worry about the future. AI enshittification and data harvesting / theft continue without any hindrances and it virtually impossible to find information with search engines without resorting to asking the shitty AI chatbots to do it for us. @m@ Somehow we all signed up to be installed in the wrong universe simulation, eh?
But fret not! Dr. Dr. Dr. Todex Dex, certified plumber and stiffener of cockmeats has a patent-pending solution to all these problems.
And if you thought "He's gonna recommend dong to all, isn't he" - ayyyy didn't know you were a telepath. WELL DONE get yourself a cookie(banner) and a nonskippable 30 second ad UWU YOU DESERVE IT!
We can still post comments and apparently journals! So how about this.
HELLO earthlings and various peoples of lewd dispositions! How are we all doing?
Wonder if I exhaust the attention span of the average internet person by adding another paragraph.
LET'S DO JUST THAT!
It is May now. That also means in another month we're gonna near the half-way mark of this year. 😐
There have been many good game releases so far, so there's that. Still, time flies...
Not so bueno is my general worry about the future. AI enshittification and data harvesting / theft continue without any hindrances and it virtually impossible to find information with search engines without resorting to asking the shitty AI chatbots to do it for us. @m@ Somehow we all signed up to be installed in the wrong universe simulation, eh?
But fret not! Dr. Dr. Dr. Todex Dex, certified plumber and stiffener of cockmeats has a patent-pending solution to all these problems.
And if you thought "He's gonna recommend dong to all, isn't he" - ayyyy didn't know you were a telepath. WELL DONE get yourself a cookie(banner) and a nonskippable 30 second ad UWU YOU DESERVE IT!
Long lived the fediverse
Posted a year agoYes yes Journals. By modern standards - or lack thereof - almost novels with how many words you encounter in a single chunk of text. :P
TLDR: I've nuked my fediverse presence. If you used to follow me there, you can delete it.
--
Now for my very opinionated take on why - if you care. If not, yanno. Grab a shovel and a box of dildos, go into a dark cave and have fun or something! You do you!
--
So faced with the choice to carry the instance onwards when migrating between hypervisors and root servers, and looking at the meager growth opportunities that the Fediverse presents, I strongly felt my will to live leave my body. 💀 And that's usually the point where I change things, so it didn't make the cut.
I like nerdy people who host their own instances. I can relate to them, I like tech, I like hosting things, I like tinkering with them. If it was for the sake of just staying in touch with techy folks and not to post art, then I'd maintain an instance.
But there the issues (issues to me, maybe not to you!) begin. You can't browse the fediverse properly.
You have to painstakingly pry your way through instances manually, hoping to find interesting stuff.
You can't easily find art because all of it is hidden behind walls of text. Content warnings. I will rant about them more later.
You can't find users because the fediverse HATES discoverability. Attempts of some people to make a large central registry were met with such hate and toxic responses that they abandoned the ideas pretty quickly.
Your own growth is limited by how many users your home instance has. Network effects do not really exist (outside of your small home instance). Which again is really no problem when you go out there to find a few people to share thoughts with. It *is* a problem if you want your artworks to be seen! And found. And spread.
10 months on it, less than 300 followers. Granted, many interesting people with their own instances. Just, from an art perspective.... What am I gaining for my troubles? Nothing much.
Rant incumming.
Content warnings.
The fediverse is stuffed to the brim with 'em. Everyone warning *potentially* offended people who are unfit to deal with life and reality, about virtually anything.
Character makes eye contact? WOAH it is triggering maybe, best warn about it.
Penis? Yeah no this is definitely horrible, OH GOD THERE ARE NIPPLES best warn people.
EXPOSED ELBOWS?!?!? *GASP*
Someone is smacking a mosquito, this is gross violence, we must warn about it!!!
OH NOE THE COLOR RED, THIS CAN HARM PEOPLE how dare u post this WARN THEM ABOUT IT -- you get the idea. I'm also not exaggerating by much.
Instead of art or interesting content you just see warnings written on behalf of people that exist on *some* instance out there (which the poster does not know!!), who will go thermonuclear if their instance imports those posts because one user on that instance - unrelated to them - interacted with it.
Is that the burden of the poster to warn about? I think not.
It's a systemic issue because nobody thought about implementing content types, and content rating metadata.
It is also a result of what looks to be an isolationist culture of mentally unstable, easily triggered pricks that make up the core of most old fediverse instances. Play by their rules, or they get triggered. Their rules. Not yours. You dirty newcomer with your dirty newcomer ideas and memes best fit in or ELSE. Don't you dare post X, it is not welcome! <Insert tribal warfare here>
When bluesky came around, it was an eyeopener. It still is. Frictionless, granular content types which you can block, hide, warn about, or show without any fuss. It works, it is easy to do, it is part of the protocol, every user can make their own choice about what they want, and if that is not enough they can subscribe to user curated block lists. Or custom feeds.
And it doesn't take me writing a novel to explain causal users how to use it.
Yes I know. It's still a shitty microblogging service owned by yet another narc of a billionaire CEO who will eventually sell out your userdata for quick ad money while getting rimmed by underpaid pirate prostitutes on his private sex yacht while fellating a bag of money, and it is not Tumblr or an art gallery. All true.
Sadly the enshittened internet isn't offering up anything better that has actual reach right now and appeals to people who do not like more traditional places like FA here.
I am actually hoping we'll get back to the point where everybody hangs out on a single art site or has a cute custom personal website but... well I can dream!
Anyhow, that's all.
Also if you made it this far I'll let you know that https://todexart.download has gotten six months worth of more Patreon-exclusive artssssssss! Enjoy UWU
TLDR: I've nuked my fediverse presence. If you used to follow me there, you can delete it.
--
Now for my very opinionated take on why - if you care. If not, yanno. Grab a shovel and a box of dildos, go into a dark cave and have fun or something! You do you!
--
So faced with the choice to carry the instance onwards when migrating between hypervisors and root servers, and looking at the meager growth opportunities that the Fediverse presents, I strongly felt my will to live leave my body. 💀 And that's usually the point where I change things, so it didn't make the cut.
I like nerdy people who host their own instances. I can relate to them, I like tech, I like hosting things, I like tinkering with them. If it was for the sake of just staying in touch with techy folks and not to post art, then I'd maintain an instance.
But there the issues (issues to me, maybe not to you!) begin. You can't browse the fediverse properly.
You have to painstakingly pry your way through instances manually, hoping to find interesting stuff.
You can't easily find art because all of it is hidden behind walls of text. Content warnings. I will rant about them more later.
You can't find users because the fediverse HATES discoverability. Attempts of some people to make a large central registry were met with such hate and toxic responses that they abandoned the ideas pretty quickly.
Your own growth is limited by how many users your home instance has. Network effects do not really exist (outside of your small home instance). Which again is really no problem when you go out there to find a few people to share thoughts with. It *is* a problem if you want your artworks to be seen! And found. And spread.
10 months on it, less than 300 followers. Granted, many interesting people with their own instances. Just, from an art perspective.... What am I gaining for my troubles? Nothing much.
Rant incumming.
Content warnings.
The fediverse is stuffed to the brim with 'em. Everyone warning *potentially* offended people who are unfit to deal with life and reality, about virtually anything.
Character makes eye contact? WOAH it is triggering maybe, best warn about it.
Penis? Yeah no this is definitely horrible, OH GOD THERE ARE NIPPLES best warn people.
EXPOSED ELBOWS?!?!? *GASP*
Someone is smacking a mosquito, this is gross violence, we must warn about it!!!
OH NOE THE COLOR RED, THIS CAN HARM PEOPLE how dare u post this WARN THEM ABOUT IT -- you get the idea. I'm also not exaggerating by much.
Instead of art or interesting content you just see warnings written on behalf of people that exist on *some* instance out there (which the poster does not know!!), who will go thermonuclear if their instance imports those posts because one user on that instance - unrelated to them - interacted with it.
Is that the burden of the poster to warn about? I think not.
It's a systemic issue because nobody thought about implementing content types, and content rating metadata.
It is also a result of what looks to be an isolationist culture of mentally unstable, easily triggered pricks that make up the core of most old fediverse instances. Play by their rules, or they get triggered. Their rules. Not yours. You dirty newcomer with your dirty newcomer ideas and memes best fit in or ELSE. Don't you dare post X, it is not welcome! <Insert tribal warfare here>
When bluesky came around, it was an eyeopener. It still is. Frictionless, granular content types which you can block, hide, warn about, or show without any fuss. It works, it is easy to do, it is part of the protocol, every user can make their own choice about what they want, and if that is not enough they can subscribe to user curated block lists. Or custom feeds.
And it doesn't take me writing a novel to explain causal users how to use it.
Yes I know. It's still a shitty microblogging service owned by yet another narc of a billionaire CEO who will eventually sell out your userdata for quick ad money while getting rimmed by underpaid pirate prostitutes on his private sex yacht while fellating a bag of money, and it is not Tumblr or an art gallery. All true.
Sadly the enshittened internet isn't offering up anything better that has actual reach right now and appeals to people who do not like more traditional places like FA here.
I am actually hoping we'll get back to the point where everybody hangs out on a single art site or has a cute custom personal website but... well I can dream!
Anyhow, that's all.
Also if you made it this far I'll let you know that https://todexart.download has gotten six months worth of more Patreon-exclusive artssssssss! Enjoy UWU
