Cara and other art websites (DA alternatives)

[Griffin]

I spent a good while yesterday combing through my DeviantArt watch notifications, I haven't visited in ages. In my apparently-not-so-unpopular-opinion the site has been going downhill for years (for me the "new" Eclipse interface killed a lot of the functionality) and the recent infux of AI stuff + their bad policies seem to have caused a mass exodus.

I've been so inactive with my art for years that I never really considered starting over in another site, but I found myself wondering if it would be a sensible thing to do after all. I was wondering if people here have experience with alternatives? Recommendations? I'm mainly thinking of websites specifically intended for sharing and following art, not social media like Tumblr or Bluesky.

Cara seems to be popular among professional artists now. I briefly explored it but would love some insight from people who have actually used it. I wasn't too excited with the layout (seems very much like DA Eclipse but I guess that's the aesthetic of today) but I can deal with that as long as the functionality is there. So I'm interested to know - how are the options for organising your gallery; for finding and liking/favouriting art made by others; what kinds of notifications do you get when you follow people (or rather, how do you browse new submissions from your favourite artists), and so on?

Are there any other viable alternatives?

I guess my main concern in choosing a new home for my art is that my own works are all over the place - I make pony art, non-pony art, 2D art and sculptures/customs/crafts. Is it weird to have such a varied gallery, and are there other hobbyist artists like me there or are these other sites mainly for professional art? Are there any pony artists there? I don't offer commissions (at least for now) so finding that kind of audience is not my priority.

One thing I always loved about DA was the favourites folder(s). I was devastated when they turned everything into endless scrolling, I have probably thousands of favourites I've collected over the years and when they took the pages away it became virtually impossible to access the older ones. Luckily they brought the pages back later, returning some of the functionality. In any case, I still love my favourites folder in DA and to be honest it's one of the main reasons I'm hesitant to leave the site completely.

Oh, and please feel free to discuss anything related, you don't need to answer my questions!

[BlackCurtains]

Weird you should post this! I logged into DA yesterday for the first time in years. I've been thinking of cleaning it up and posting there again. It has changed A LOT since I was there last. I looked around a bit. I'm still on the fence about it though.

Honestly, the only other art-focus sharing site I know of that isn't social media is Fur Affinity.

I'll check out Cara, never heard of it until now.

[Lady Frostbite]

DA? A site I haven't thought about in a LONG time, I deleted my account there a long time ago. Bearing in mind I joined in 2005 or something. The site has been going downhill for a very long time, I watched the Jark fallout, the llama/badge/stamp invasion, the rules regarding mature artwork (and certain pieces that SHOULD fall afoul of it being allowed), the redesign including that awful logo and changing the Fella to a Disney-looking mascot thing.

(... been there a long time as I say)

Fur Affinity has recently undergone a hack lately, so that might not be a good option, plus it's pretty specific. Most artists I know host their art on their own sites or Cara. So Furry is another art site for furry art, and there's a couple of others that don't have great reputations due to what they do and do not allow to be posted.

I use Tumblr for looking at art these days as at least it's stable-ish, and mature art is not allowed under TOC but most artists link to their Twitter or own site for mature pieces or pieces they aren't sure will be allowed for other reasons (such as copyright).

[Griffin]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, BC and Lady Frostbite! I suppose this is just one more example of how today's internet is kind of fragmented. There aren't these big communities anymore where you could expect to reach people.

I'm aware of Fur Affinity, I never got interested in furry or anthro style art so I stayed away.

DA informs me I've been there for 18 years so yeah, it's a long time! I haven't been too happy with many of the changes they've introduced along the way, but I stubbornly stayed because I didn't want to lose my gallery/history (and those favourites), and because I still followed many great artists there, even if many of them were also leaving. And they have been fixing some stuff, too, even though I still think they're making a lot of wrong decisions. For example, at some point my front page was completely full of weird fetish stuff (so I always just quickly skipped to my notifications), but they fixed that and I started actually enjoying the front page recommendations, I found many new artists to follow. Then the AI craze hit and the same happened again, it seems like ALL I see is AI-generated pieces. While their AI policies still aren't what I would hope, at least I'm starting to see actual human made art again. Especially now that I've started clicking "show less like this" every time I spot something obviously AI-generated. I think it would be much easier if they'd kept the categories, they got rid of them at some point and that's one of the absolute worst things that ever happened to DA in my opinion. Tags aren't of much help if people don't use them correctly. At least with categories you were forced to place your piece under a certain classification, and back in the old days I also enjoyed browsing works by categories (Artisan Crafts in particular - nowaways if I try to search for those I get maybe 5-10 % of actual crafts and the rest is either AI or something completely miscategorised).

For a while I didn't really give much thought to this topic because I was using Facebook and Twitter and was able to keep up with art on those as well. But I've abandoned both and now I'm feeling a bit lost. 

[CowboyRaccoons]

I would not recommend FurAffinity right now, they've been hacked. 
Since the owner passed the site has been a mess.

[BlackCurtains]

I don't use FA myself, was just saying it was an art site I knew of.

I didn't know DA did away with categories.

Griffin, I know you wanted non-social media but have you tried Instagram? There are a lot of artists there. I haven't been active on mine for a while but it was easy to find people to follow and easy to post your own stuff. You can also get plug-ins that make tagging easier.

[Griffin]

Griffin, I know you wanted non-social media but have you tried Instagram? There are a lot of artists there. I haven't been active on mine for a while but it was easy to find people to follow and easy to post your own stuff. You can also get plug-ins that make tagging easier.

I considered it at some point but then decided it would be too difficult to combine all my various interests... This was a couple of years ago, however. Now I probably cannot use it for the same reasons I stopped using Facebook, I don't want to give my consent to using my data for advertising purposes. (I believe this is for European users only.) And yes I know they always did that, it's just that now they demand everyone to explicitly agree, which I don't want to do, so I can't even access my FB account anymore, and other Meta products are out of the question, too.

[BlackCurtains]

Oh, I had no idea That really sucks.

[ChocolateStarfire]

Hi Griffin!

I remember the good ol' days of DeviantART, I still have an account there (ChocolateStarfire is my username there!) but I don't use it anymore due to AI nonsense. I still link to the gallery on my own art portfolio website.

I also have lots of varied hobbies and I would love to seriously start selling my art/stories, but I'm not sure how to do so via social media again. My Instagram/facebook accounts were hacked/inaccessible due to constant login errors, and since quitting those I've been sad and miss my pony/doll collecting account friends. I follow a few on YouTube, and I also have a YouTube (bambiraptor9), but it's hard to upload there frequently and get traction with my original art (folks tend to like my toy review vids more than anything else).

I've thought about Cara, too. I don't know if it would be viable in the long run and I don't know if it's a site folks are searching for in general.

I use Ko-fi to sell my art and update folks. It's rough going. Many people would rather see my free stuff. I get it, my money is tight, too. It just makes things even harder in the months I don't work.

I used to use Tumblr, I might venture into that again.

I have a WordPress blog but I don't use it for art.

I stepped away from the furry community a few years ago, around 2021? I stopped using SoFurry because a user made a mirror site and took my stories from it, along with other creators. I made a fuss about it on their forum and got ratioed, so I up and left that account without art/stories. FurAffinity has always been a mess, and still I am sorry to hear their owner passed away. Still, yeah glad I stepped away from the community to venture on my own artwise for a while.

I paid for my own website through HostGator a few weeks ago because my homepage through Wix didn't work at all. (In case you're curious--I'm still updating the look of it--http://dlpauthorartist.com/)

It's been a journey sharing art online yeah!

Well...I hope you can find a solution. I am considering making a mailing list through my website and I might start a tumblr or maybe go back to Instagram for my art only.

Sending you pony hugs in solidarity <3

[BlackCurtains]

I might go back to Tumblr too. I wasn't there for art but I did end up finding some great artists there.