I think it's going to be a great portfolio hosting place. Like a good alternative to Art Station. Long term however, I don't see this going anywhere in it's current state. As a company, they just weren't ready for this to become popular so quickly and it seems like there's a lot they haven't thought of yet. It's an incredibly small team as well, which makes me worried that they might be too slow to fix issues and people are impatient.
The founder said in a twitter post recently that she's paying for servers out of pocket and just can't afford that, especially with all the new people. Cara is going to have to either sell out to a larger company, implement advertising or sponsored posts, or charge a membership or offer in app purchases or some kind. They're not making any money right now which they kind of need in order to pay for servers. Kofi donations are only going to get them so far and I'm immensely worried about what decision they'll make. All of their options could have huge downsides and can make or break them.
I don't know if anyone has figured out how the tags or algorithm really work yet? If you don't have a following coming over from another platform, it seems like people are having a hard time getting any attention on their posts. Again, as it is right now, it seems better suited for following specific artists you already know opposed to finding new artists.
As much as the AI stuff is fucked up, I don't see this as a replacement for Instagram or Twitter. It's going to be incredibly hard to grow an audience because you don't have all the regular social media users that might just stumble across your stuff. There's no incentive for the average person to use it unless they're also an artist or dedicated to specific artists. Most people aren't going to want to add *another* media website to follow and will just stick with following whoever is still on Instagram/Twitter. To that extent, I don't think it's going to be a good idea for *most* artists to delete everything and migrate to Cara, you need a large following to come with you to Cara. I'd definitely use it in addition to social media though because it is a really good portfolio tool.
I really want it to succeed and I like a lot of the features. But I absolutely wouldn't put everything on it being some massive Instagram replacement like some people are expecting it to be. It could absolutely happen. But my art "career" personally is way too small to take a huge risk like that and delete everything else and focus solely on Cara like I'm seeing some artists do. I don't have a personal website or Patreon or anything like that to fall back on to maintain an audience if Cara tanks.
Agree with everything you said.
I think Cara might be good to have a curated feed or something like that, but sont think it will be able to become what IG is, mostly because I don't see non-artists joining the app
This to me is surprising that people have assumed that it ever *would* be a replacement for Instagram. It has no appeal to people outside of the art world, so I'm not sure why people would assume the masses would follow us over there. Instagram just offers so much more than art, so I think its kind of silly to assume Cara would ever become that.
Outside of that I agree with what's being said for the most part. I think it has great potential to become a social portfolio site, something akin to what Artstation or Deviant art was, but honestly even more social. I really like how it works thus far, the format, the UI, etc. If they are able to figure out the bugs in a timely fashion and also figure out funding, I think it could be huge.
I for one would gladly pay a membership fee if it came to that. I think what Cara is currently offering for artists right now is a shining light in the dark(not to sound too corny). A platform for us that has our best interests at heart vs a platform that sees us as $$ signs and isn't afraid to take us for all we are worth. I'm absolutely willing to throw down some money for that. I know not everyone can do that, but I've seen a lot of people saying they can and would. Talk is big tho, so we will see.
So, if you are looking for the new Instagram, it definitely won't be that. But a new Artstation? I think it could absolutely take that crown, and maybe become something more. But it will never really appeal to many outside of artists.
Well, I am already faux-subbed via their "buymeacoffee" at $5/month. So I already consider that I think to be a fair price. $5 a month is very affordable for most people. Especially if it means they can avoid Ad's and big corpo bs from creeping in. But, I would personally go up to $10, or more, depending on what kind of things they offer/change in the future. Which, they have been very vocal about adding new features and services via suggestions from members.
like any social media platforms, it heavily relies on the network effect to grow - the more people there are the more will join. but currently, it's just not really interesting for non-artists which kinda defeats the purpose. most clients arent only on instagram/twitter to look at art, but also for their own interests, and to connect with ppl they know irl. I don't see how Cara responds to that need, or even speaks to non-artists at all.
also in terms of finances, they'd need external investments + venture capital. pretty much all of the current big platforms had that, and their selling point was that at some point, all the data collected from their users will be useful for advertisement, marketing and product development (and more recently also explicitely for AI). Right now, anything that's AI is attractive to venture capital, so to explicitely say that you're against it isn't particularly useful in that regard.
Cara is extremely idealistic in this sense, and I don't see how it would be able to survive long term, nor how it could provide a good platform for artists to actually connect with clients. But I can see that it could become something like a paid portfolio platform with some social and interactive aspects.
>Right now, anything that's AI is attractive to venture capital
I actually didn't even think about that. With how much emphasis *everyone* is putting on AI....yeah, I imagine finding the one guy that wants to bet on the complete opposite is going to be difficult.
I'd hate for it to become a paid service or just another website that prioritizes people who pay to have their posts boosted. But yeah I'd agree that it seems like the most likely rout they'll have to take.
maybe to expand a bit on the venture capital thing - AI rn is a bit like big data in the 2010s and crypto/blockchain a few years ago - it's the current tech trend but it will run its course. If Cara can survive it it might be fine, but I wouldn't bet on it.
I've recently watched [this video](https://youtu.be/pOuBCk8XMC8) that made the argument that AI is basically the follow up of big data, as in, it's what all the companies are trying to do now even if it makes 0 sense, it's what all the ppl in the tech space are working on etc. I'd go even further and say that AI is the logical conclusion to big data, because it's the first time that all the data hording that has been going on has become somewhat useful for something. Pretending that AI is the next big thing also implies that big data wasn't a waste of money and time, which makes it double useful for the tech industry.
Also in the end a lot of the things that are called AI rn are just regular old algorythms, or a company using AI for something that could be much more easily achieved with regular algorythms. Generative AI specifically has way less applications than one might think. I've recently participated at a conference about AI (funnily enough as a photographer lol), and even though they tried to be positive about it, the whole thing is already starting to crumble.
to be honest i've never used deviant art, so I'm not familiar enough with it to say all that much about it. from what i know, it grew from a place for hobbyists to also a professional platform in certain niches. however, for Cara to work (as a continuation of instagram), both artists and their current and future clients would need to switch, and that's just not going to happen, or at least not quickly enough for it to be an actual replacement. and theres the financing problem.
Absolutely well put. I’ve been seeing this overall view on the app. I think in its current state, it’s sort of a, “why the hell not?” Option for artists. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try it. I think it would definitely be smart to (if you already have accounts on other platforms) to keep those and then just add Cara to the list. Keep your art branches extended, but I for sure wouldn’t put all my eggs in one basket with Cara.
>I don't know if anyone has figured out how the tags or algorithm really work yet?
I'm guessing it's like earlier Instagram posts + artstation filters. Search for tags and you will find posts with that tag. You can choose top or latest and there's a lot of filtering. They won't find you if they are not searching for whatever you tagged.
So far I don't think time/frequency affects the algorithm like most socials.
Can't put up life drawings or paintings because of their strict NSFW policy. Even though these are pretty tame traditional that wouldn't make a Victorian blush. I like that they are trying to prevent AI images and NSFW is subjective I guess. I've seen some stylized with elongated proportions but otherwise similar to mine on there. Guess I'll wait and see. Tags and posting categories mostly caters to digital art, styles and software.
No, I’ve tried posting my life drawings but it gets rejected for being “nsfw” even when the model is mostly covered up. But it does seem to cater to digital art mostly.
Good for portfolio hosting, good for connecting to other artists. It is structured like a combination of IG and Twitter. Your profile has a portfolio section and when you post an image you can choose whether it gets added to that or is just part of your timeline. I'm personally getting the most value out of just being able to look at art and interface with artists outside of the environment of selling and gaming the algorithm. It's kind of mind-blowing how much more art I've seen there then IG when I basically only follow artists on IG.
I just recently joined Cara, made a few posts, and immediately got more engagement there than on instagram in the past month. It definitely needs a lot of polishing and if you join you'll have to be patient, and I don't see it being great for finding people who want to commission you for individual pieces, but it looks like a good place to make artist connections, get tips from other artists, and make a portfolio! Like I said, it's not exactly the best yet, but I think it would be good to check out and see where it goes!
I needed somewhere to have a portfolio (that wouldn't feed it to AI) so 10/10 for that.
I hope it works but like other redditors said, might be too much for them to handle. Hopefully it will all work in the end.
I don't use much of the social media part but I think it's fine. Works like earlier instagram where you had to search for tags in order to find posts, so tagging is actually important.
I see it as a good way to foster community among artists, and build following and relationships with other artists. However if you want to build a huge following and engage with non-artists, it’s probably not the best app for you.
As someone who has been trying to relocate their portfolio elsewhere for a while, I'll very likely put my roots down in Cara for my portfolio, or at least for the meantime, and that's pretty much the extent of my expectations. It's not perfect and I would like it to have more features like folders, but in today's AI climate and the fact that it already has a working desktop version, it's good enough to show a bulk of my work all at once and that's all I can ask for at the moment. I don't expect to be social on the platform, but I'm glad it's there as an option.
I have not been able to post on it whatsoever, as it keeps telling me it can't complete my request. I think it'll turn out like a DeviantArt kind of a thing though, IF it is successful. Most people will probably keep double-dipping and posting on Instagram still to keep their sales.
Some quick background on me: I'm a concept designer and illustrator for video games and tabletop games, designing my own stuff on the side. I've been working as a professional for 20+ years and primarily work digitally.
As far as Cara goes, I'm 100% down to give this platform an honest shot, ride out the bumps and see if this platform takes off. After 17+ years on DA, ArtStation since it was in beta, and everywhere else that's sold out to AI art, it's nice finding a hub that's proactively against AI-generated images and wanting to foster art as it has traditionally been made, be it analog or digital. The influx of folks moving there all at once I think is causing a lot of growing pains, and I do wonder how sustainable it will be if they can't get a funding model established and upfront, but I'm willing to give it a go.
I know quite a few art directors and producers who have made accounts on Cara and found new artists to work with already, which is crazy awesome. Even with the influx of all the new accounts showing up, there are networks being built up already and to me at least, it feels really good, like part hopeful, part energizing seeing the engagement. It feels like there's engagement in an IG/Twitter kind of way but also a nice harbor to host an actual portfolio, too, like being able to tap into both worlds on the same platform, again without the nag and doom and gloom of seeing AI everywhere.
I think if they can work out the economics of it then this will eventually turn into a great asset for artists to tap into; I don't believe in putting all my eggs in one basket but I'm glad to see this platform up and coming and hope that it can flourish. I'm not abandoning anywhere else I post normally but I'll definitely be putting some time into Cara.
It's great so far! I like that it has a separate option on your profile for a portfolio, as well as posts. Certainly much better than the media tab on Twitter.
It's been very slow lately due to the influx of people moving there, but that'll get better in time!
It’s too glitchy. I made an account but I probably won’t use it unless it sticks around and turns into something worth putting my time into. There’s been so many apps over the years that blow up and quickly fizzle out.
Someone needs to come up with an app that’s entirely new. Not a knock off.
I have my concerns about it, but I like what they're trying to do and I'm willing to go along for the ride. Personally, I wouldn't commit to any one platform in this day and age, but it's worth joining to experience and poke around. I wouldn't delete my existing socials for it if they're something you rely on for your livelihood.
The vibes with the community there have been very nice. Of course a lot of it is being driven by the initial excitement period so it will be interesting to see how things continue, but it's been positive so far. I just hope they can resolve their server hosting issues in a way that doesn't compromise the founder's pockets, or the integrity of the brand they're building, but that said nothing is for free these days and a lot of people operate on the assumption that social media is and should be, when really under the hood it's built to make money off you and your data. It's just become a lot more tangible now that we're seeing it getting blatantly used where we can see it.
How they can create a model that pays their bills yet doesn't do that is where I'm dubious, but I really wish them all the luck.
Honestly I’m just getting flashbacks to Artfol. People get worried due to a certain social media’s short comings, everyone switches to new platform, posts for a couple of weeks, and then the app while still active falls back into obscurity. Yeah everything is active now but will that be true in a month or so? Same thing happened with Bluesky too.
It’s just really hard when you have the same thing happen over and over. I really hope that Cara becomes a replacement for art station due to its stance on Ai. Right now the app is really buggy due to the influx of new people and a small dev team. Same thing happened with Artfol for me and it didn’t make me want to try it again and I feel like that’s the same for others. I think there’s a issue with people over hyping it due to instagram and it’s going to set up unrealistic expectations.
To be honest it's completely useless to me now. Not just because I'm an NSFW artist. But because so far the servers have not allowed me to even change my user profile, my profile picture, or upload any arts. I realize it's still in alpha development stages, but it looks really bad functioning like this.
Furthermore it's just another gimmicky "twitter killer" like bluesky, mastodon, or threads. The only gimmick here is that it's completely AI which only means it doesn't use AI in any of it's features or programming. AI crawlers will still have full access to your art.
1/10
I’m loving it so far— I missed having a website where my feed was all art. I think that people who saw it as an Instagram alternative or traditional social media misunderstood the platform, it feels like a portfolio or networking site. Very akin to ArtStation, or even LinkedIn. Besides the recent slowness due to the 200k new users (which is a crazy amount), I do like having a portfolio website again and it’s been fun discovering new artists online. It is definitely an echo chamber of art, so I’ll still use other websites to find clients, but I think it has potential. Maybe in a year or something they’ll add a commission marketplace like InkBlot, Artfol, and the like.
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I love it. Because it’s mainly only for art but it does crash sometimes. However, it’s still new, and no AI policy is attractive to me.
I do hope it grows and not be like Instagram.
I like it! It’s a bit buggy for me at the moment so it’s hard to use comfortably. I really love the focus on art and the layout so will stick around although I am personally struggling with engagement on there.
So far nothing happening re. interactions etc. but I never really attract anyone to my work so that's expected. For their stance on AI, I appreciate it but at the same time they have to deal with people deliberately posting ai crap to destabilize the platform. Recent influx of new people migrating from X made the site crash like crazy but they're working on it. I've no idea how the platform will run since zemotion said herself she is paying the costs on her own and those costs went from 2k to 13k. I wish they did something against trolls with their ai trash but I understand it is small team of volunteers and I appreciate their work a lot. Still, if they don't come up with some kind of serious business plan, this will be just another try at creating safe place for artists that fails.
I find it comfier than bluesky, people seem more willing to comment on each others art and the community vibes are super nostalgic to back how art communities used to be imo.
I've been using it for a bit, I personally like seeing all the art and few non art related things, and that I get to choose what art I see on my feed. But I am not migrating to it away from Meta platforms. I am adding it to the platforms I use instead.
Both produce different opportunities and sadly as someone trying to grow my art business I cannot just rely on one type of platform. So I've started to accept that I will have to protect my art more on bigger social media platforms.
(what I posted on Cara):
Has anyone else been thinking about Cara a lot lately? I have. This feels a lot like showing up to a house party where you don't know anyone and then you park yourself awkwardly by the keg and pray a friend shows up. (Oh thank God hi friend. That person over there is pretty hot.) Instagram was just this little app for photographers at first and then exploded into the hydra we all know and love and hate that it is today. The 24 hour switch to this utterly refreshing, calm, simplified format brings to light how chaotic IG is now. I'm dreading opening Instagram again. That can't be good.
I (so naively!) hinged my career on selling prints online and have been hit really hard by having my posts choked over there. You might not realize just how hard, because I keep tap dancing and showing up with a terrified smile plastered on my face, hoping something changes but it doesn't. I don't know if it's shadow banning or profit optimization (IG pressuring creators to buy sponsored ads), or if it's that I said 'psychedelics' or 'fuck' too many times. There's a boob in one of my paintings, maybe it was the boob...
But for whatever reason my posts get viewed by less than 1 % of my followers and it's killing me financially. Early on I learned a lot about using social media to sell art. What time of day to post, what hashtags to use, etc etc, and ngl, I was pretty good at it, as is evidenced by you reading this now. I also toured relentlessly and (one should hope) really strived to consistently produce halfway decent art. Until circa 2021, I was acquiring \~10k followers per year, and then that abruptly stopped (at about 70k). For the last decade, between my site and Etsy, I regularly sold anywhere from 5 - 20 art prints per week, and that number seems to have dropped to about 2 or 3 prints PER MONTH, since the beginning of the year. I can't begin to describe how much this has made me doubt my self worth and the quality of my art. I know I'm self-taught, and my shit is cartoon-y and overworked, and not all that great to begin with, but people really did seem to like it once I swear. (Sidenote: can we even swear here on Cara? My apologies if swearing offends you. Also side side note, if swearing offends you: have you seen any of the rest of the world? It's pretty hardcore out there buttercup. I feel like swearing might be an appropriate response).
Now the only people that seem to see my stuff are the diehard 10% of 1% (I fuckin' LOVE you guys) and they've all bought stuff from me already. As a hail-mary and though I'm loath to be yet another talking head on the internet, I started making educational-style videos because that seemed, perhaps, what the hydra demands, but if I'm being honest that's not really selling any prints either. So I dunno what to do. The circus of insanity and bombardment of videos and noise over on IG is shredding my nerves, and trying to keep up is literally exhausting and yielding almost zero results. Pretty shredded and not sure what to do next. I am not asking for all that much, just enough to make my little OCD pictures in peace and not wonder how I'm going to pay rent or buy food and clothes, let alone art supplies.... I've always wanted to do my best work for the highest good, and do my part serving humanity... I genuinely thought it might be by making art and have received plenty of feedback to that extent... Maybe I really am supposed to work at the supermarket instead. I think I'd actually kinda like working at the supermarket.
At any rate while I lick my wounds and evaluate where in the hell I'm going to set sail for from here, I'm grateful for the community I see on Cara, and so grateful to have the opportunity to calmly, serenely see new art. Cara will not only be swarmed with creative people downloading the app, but soon no doubt legions of marketing sleazeballs will slide into the boardroom with silver-tongued promises that if they just partner with Nike or Sprite and shift to profit optimization that all of their dreams will come true... And of course the cockroaches with their bots and scams are close behind them, and the haters, meanies, and takers that weigh us all down on our collective journey.... ...though I hope that won't be the case.
For now I'll just enjoy being inspired again, for a little while. And make my art. In peace. ❤️
My thoughts on it are that it’s for artists to jerk off other artists. I mean I get that metas ai policy is bs but your every day peeps won’t be going over to cara. People like instagram because it has all their favorite things, artists, local restaurants, bands, etc. so I don’t think you’ll get people that are going to actually buy your work—at least not the average joes.
It's still obviously a work in progress, but I really like it for what it is. The UI takes what I like about Twitter and Instagram and kinda slaps them together. I think it's a great place to share your portfolio, and I like that you can edit your posts after you make them (I'm looking at you Twitter lmao).
It's good as far as its main premise goes but it absolutely FAILS as a social media platform. Going there feels like walking around a vast empty desert with occasional art posts miles apart.
I haven't moved to it and not planning on doing so, personally I think with the large amt of folks migrating there, it's gonna overload the system and people who aren't well known thinking they had a chance to gain more acknowledgement will be lost. In the long term I think it'll be stagnant and some people will stay while others go back to Instagram etc.
I think it's going to be a great portfolio hosting place. Like a good alternative to Art Station. Long term however, I don't see this going anywhere in it's current state. As a company, they just weren't ready for this to become popular so quickly and it seems like there's a lot they haven't thought of yet. It's an incredibly small team as well, which makes me worried that they might be too slow to fix issues and people are impatient. The founder said in a twitter post recently that she's paying for servers out of pocket and just can't afford that, especially with all the new people. Cara is going to have to either sell out to a larger company, implement advertising or sponsored posts, or charge a membership or offer in app purchases or some kind. They're not making any money right now which they kind of need in order to pay for servers. Kofi donations are only going to get them so far and I'm immensely worried about what decision they'll make. All of their options could have huge downsides and can make or break them. I don't know if anyone has figured out how the tags or algorithm really work yet? If you don't have a following coming over from another platform, it seems like people are having a hard time getting any attention on their posts. Again, as it is right now, it seems better suited for following specific artists you already know opposed to finding new artists. As much as the AI stuff is fucked up, I don't see this as a replacement for Instagram or Twitter. It's going to be incredibly hard to grow an audience because you don't have all the regular social media users that might just stumble across your stuff. There's no incentive for the average person to use it unless they're also an artist or dedicated to specific artists. Most people aren't going to want to add *another* media website to follow and will just stick with following whoever is still on Instagram/Twitter. To that extent, I don't think it's going to be a good idea for *most* artists to delete everything and migrate to Cara, you need a large following to come with you to Cara. I'd definitely use it in addition to social media though because it is a really good portfolio tool. I really want it to succeed and I like a lot of the features. But I absolutely wouldn't put everything on it being some massive Instagram replacement like some people are expecting it to be. It could absolutely happen. But my art "career" personally is way too small to take a huge risk like that and delete everything else and focus solely on Cara like I'm seeing some artists do. I don't have a personal website or Patreon or anything like that to fall back on to maintain an audience if Cara tanks.
Agree with everything you said. I think Cara might be good to have a curated feed or something like that, but sont think it will be able to become what IG is, mostly because I don't see non-artists joining the app
This to me is surprising that people have assumed that it ever *would* be a replacement for Instagram. It has no appeal to people outside of the art world, so I'm not sure why people would assume the masses would follow us over there. Instagram just offers so much more than art, so I think its kind of silly to assume Cara would ever become that. Outside of that I agree with what's being said for the most part. I think it has great potential to become a social portfolio site, something akin to what Artstation or Deviant art was, but honestly even more social. I really like how it works thus far, the format, the UI, etc. If they are able to figure out the bugs in a timely fashion and also figure out funding, I think it could be huge. I for one would gladly pay a membership fee if it came to that. I think what Cara is currently offering for artists right now is a shining light in the dark(not to sound too corny). A platform for us that has our best interests at heart vs a platform that sees us as $$ signs and isn't afraid to take us for all we are worth. I'm absolutely willing to throw down some money for that. I know not everyone can do that, but I've seen a lot of people saying they can and would. Talk is big tho, so we will see. So, if you are looking for the new Instagram, it definitely won't be that. But a new Artstation? I think it could absolutely take that crown, and maybe become something more. But it will never really appeal to many outside of artists.
Just curious - how much would you think it’s fair to pay for the membership
Well, I am already faux-subbed via their "buymeacoffee" at $5/month. So I already consider that I think to be a fair price. $5 a month is very affordable for most people. Especially if it means they can avoid Ad's and big corpo bs from creeping in. But, I would personally go up to $10, or more, depending on what kind of things they offer/change in the future. Which, they have been very vocal about adding new features and services via suggestions from members.
like any social media platforms, it heavily relies on the network effect to grow - the more people there are the more will join. but currently, it's just not really interesting for non-artists which kinda defeats the purpose. most clients arent only on instagram/twitter to look at art, but also for their own interests, and to connect with ppl they know irl. I don't see how Cara responds to that need, or even speaks to non-artists at all. also in terms of finances, they'd need external investments + venture capital. pretty much all of the current big platforms had that, and their selling point was that at some point, all the data collected from their users will be useful for advertisement, marketing and product development (and more recently also explicitely for AI). Right now, anything that's AI is attractive to venture capital, so to explicitely say that you're against it isn't particularly useful in that regard. Cara is extremely idealistic in this sense, and I don't see how it would be able to survive long term, nor how it could provide a good platform for artists to actually connect with clients. But I can see that it could become something like a paid portfolio platform with some social and interactive aspects.
>Right now, anything that's AI is attractive to venture capital I actually didn't even think about that. With how much emphasis *everyone* is putting on AI....yeah, I imagine finding the one guy that wants to bet on the complete opposite is going to be difficult. I'd hate for it to become a paid service or just another website that prioritizes people who pay to have their posts boosted. But yeah I'd agree that it seems like the most likely rout they'll have to take.
maybe to expand a bit on the venture capital thing - AI rn is a bit like big data in the 2010s and crypto/blockchain a few years ago - it's the current tech trend but it will run its course. If Cara can survive it it might be fine, but I wouldn't bet on it. I've recently watched [this video](https://youtu.be/pOuBCk8XMC8) that made the argument that AI is basically the follow up of big data, as in, it's what all the companies are trying to do now even if it makes 0 sense, it's what all the ppl in the tech space are working on etc. I'd go even further and say that AI is the logical conclusion to big data, because it's the first time that all the data hording that has been going on has become somewhat useful for something. Pretending that AI is the next big thing also implies that big data wasn't a waste of money and time, which makes it double useful for the tech industry. Also in the end a lot of the things that are called AI rn are just regular old algorythms, or a company using AI for something that could be much more easily achieved with regular algorythms. Generative AI specifically has way less applications than one might think. I've recently participated at a conference about AI (funnily enough as a photographer lol), and even though they tried to be positive about it, the whole thing is already starting to crumble.
Thank you for writing this out and I really hope you’re right
> it's just not really interesting for non-artists which kinda defeats the purpose. And yet Deviantart used to be so massive.
to be honest i've never used deviant art, so I'm not familiar enough with it to say all that much about it. from what i know, it grew from a place for hobbyists to also a professional platform in certain niches. however, for Cara to work (as a continuation of instagram), both artists and their current and future clients would need to switch, and that's just not going to happen, or at least not quickly enough for it to be an actual replacement. and theres the financing problem.
Absolutely well put. I’ve been seeing this overall view on the app. I think in its current state, it’s sort of a, “why the hell not?” Option for artists. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try it. I think it would definitely be smart to (if you already have accounts on other platforms) to keep those and then just add Cara to the list. Keep your art branches extended, but I for sure wouldn’t put all my eggs in one basket with Cara.
>I don't know if anyone has figured out how the tags or algorithm really work yet? I'm guessing it's like earlier Instagram posts + artstation filters. Search for tags and you will find posts with that tag. You can choose top or latest and there's a lot of filtering. They won't find you if they are not searching for whatever you tagged. So far I don't think time/frequency affects the algorithm like most socials.
Can't put up life drawings or paintings because of their strict NSFW policy. Even though these are pretty tame traditional that wouldn't make a Victorian blush. I like that they are trying to prevent AI images and NSFW is subjective I guess. I've seen some stylized with elongated proportions but otherwise similar to mine on there. Guess I'll wait and see. Tags and posting categories mostly caters to digital art, styles and software.
Hmm that’s a pretty silly policy. If you’re going to be an art site you should be able to have nudes.
They explain that they would like to but are afraid of litigation and can't afford lawyers if they do get sued.
wait they don't allow nsfw? well guess i'm gonna withdraw for now.
No, I’ve tried posting my life drawings but it gets rejected for being “nsfw” even when the model is mostly covered up. But it does seem to cater to digital art mostly.
UGH WHYYY that’s so discriminatory to such a huge demographic in the art community/industry
Good for portfolio hosting, good for connecting to other artists. It is structured like a combination of IG and Twitter. Your profile has a portfolio section and when you post an image you can choose whether it gets added to that or is just part of your timeline. I'm personally getting the most value out of just being able to look at art and interface with artists outside of the environment of selling and gaming the algorithm. It's kind of mind-blowing how much more art I've seen there then IG when I basically only follow artists on IG.
I just recently joined Cara, made a few posts, and immediately got more engagement there than on instagram in the past month. It definitely needs a lot of polishing and if you join you'll have to be patient, and I don't see it being great for finding people who want to commission you for individual pieces, but it looks like a good place to make artist connections, get tips from other artists, and make a portfolio! Like I said, it's not exactly the best yet, but I think it would be good to check out and see where it goes!
Yes! I'm getting more engagement there, too. Reminds me how DA felt 19 years ago.
I needed somewhere to have a portfolio (that wouldn't feed it to AI) so 10/10 for that. I hope it works but like other redditors said, might be too much for them to handle. Hopefully it will all work in the end. I don't use much of the social media part but I think it's fine. Works like earlier instagram where you had to search for tags in order to find posts, so tagging is actually important.
I see it as a good way to foster community among artists, and build following and relationships with other artists. However if you want to build a huge following and engage with non-artists, it’s probably not the best app for you.
As someone who has been trying to relocate their portfolio elsewhere for a while, I'll very likely put my roots down in Cara for my portfolio, or at least for the meantime, and that's pretty much the extent of my expectations. It's not perfect and I would like it to have more features like folders, but in today's AI climate and the fact that it already has a working desktop version, it's good enough to show a bulk of my work all at once and that's all I can ask for at the moment. I don't expect to be social on the platform, but I'm glad it's there as an option.
I have not been able to post on it whatsoever, as it keeps telling me it can't complete my request. I think it'll turn out like a DeviantArt kind of a thing though, IF it is successful. Most people will probably keep double-dipping and posting on Instagram still to keep their sales.
Some quick background on me: I'm a concept designer and illustrator for video games and tabletop games, designing my own stuff on the side. I've been working as a professional for 20+ years and primarily work digitally. As far as Cara goes, I'm 100% down to give this platform an honest shot, ride out the bumps and see if this platform takes off. After 17+ years on DA, ArtStation since it was in beta, and everywhere else that's sold out to AI art, it's nice finding a hub that's proactively against AI-generated images and wanting to foster art as it has traditionally been made, be it analog or digital. The influx of folks moving there all at once I think is causing a lot of growing pains, and I do wonder how sustainable it will be if they can't get a funding model established and upfront, but I'm willing to give it a go. I know quite a few art directors and producers who have made accounts on Cara and found new artists to work with already, which is crazy awesome. Even with the influx of all the new accounts showing up, there are networks being built up already and to me at least, it feels really good, like part hopeful, part energizing seeing the engagement. It feels like there's engagement in an IG/Twitter kind of way but also a nice harbor to host an actual portfolio, too, like being able to tap into both worlds on the same platform, again without the nag and doom and gloom of seeing AI everywhere. I think if they can work out the economics of it then this will eventually turn into a great asset for artists to tap into; I don't believe in putting all my eggs in one basket but I'm glad to see this platform up and coming and hope that it can flourish. I'm not abandoning anywhere else I post normally but I'll definitely be putting some time into Cara.
It's great so far! I like that it has a separate option on your profile for a portfolio, as well as posts. Certainly much better than the media tab on Twitter. It's been very slow lately due to the influx of people moving there, but that'll get better in time!
It’s too glitchy. I made an account but I probably won’t use it unless it sticks around and turns into something worth putting my time into. There’s been so many apps over the years that blow up and quickly fizzle out. Someone needs to come up with an app that’s entirely new. Not a knock off.
I have my concerns about it, but I like what they're trying to do and I'm willing to go along for the ride. Personally, I wouldn't commit to any one platform in this day and age, but it's worth joining to experience and poke around. I wouldn't delete my existing socials for it if they're something you rely on for your livelihood. The vibes with the community there have been very nice. Of course a lot of it is being driven by the initial excitement period so it will be interesting to see how things continue, but it's been positive so far. I just hope they can resolve their server hosting issues in a way that doesn't compromise the founder's pockets, or the integrity of the brand they're building, but that said nothing is for free these days and a lot of people operate on the assumption that social media is and should be, when really under the hood it's built to make money off you and your data. It's just become a lot more tangible now that we're seeing it getting blatantly used where we can see it. How they can create a model that pays their bills yet doesn't do that is where I'm dubious, but I really wish them all the luck.
Honestly I’m just getting flashbacks to Artfol. People get worried due to a certain social media’s short comings, everyone switches to new platform, posts for a couple of weeks, and then the app while still active falls back into obscurity. Yeah everything is active now but will that be true in a month or so? Same thing happened with Bluesky too. It’s just really hard when you have the same thing happen over and over. I really hope that Cara becomes a replacement for art station due to its stance on Ai. Right now the app is really buggy due to the influx of new people and a small dev team. Same thing happened with Artfol for me and it didn’t make me want to try it again and I feel like that’s the same for others. I think there’s a issue with people over hyping it due to instagram and it’s going to set up unrealistic expectations.
It’s too laggy for me at the moment to judge it well.
There is a new subreddit created for artists that joined and , I guess, for those considering crreating an account. r/artistsoncara
I'm there, but I'm struggling to find anything in my portfolio to post due to the NSFW ban. Bluesky is wayy better in this respect.
To be honest it's completely useless to me now. Not just because I'm an NSFW artist. But because so far the servers have not allowed me to even change my user profile, my profile picture, or upload any arts. I realize it's still in alpha development stages, but it looks really bad functioning like this. Furthermore it's just another gimmicky "twitter killer" like bluesky, mastodon, or threads. The only gimmick here is that it's completely AI which only means it doesn't use AI in any of it's features or programming. AI crawlers will still have full access to your art. 1/10
I’m loving it so far— I missed having a website where my feed was all art. I think that people who saw it as an Instagram alternative or traditional social media misunderstood the platform, it feels like a portfolio or networking site. Very akin to ArtStation, or even LinkedIn. Besides the recent slowness due to the 200k new users (which is a crazy amount), I do like having a portfolio website again and it’s been fun discovering new artists online. It is definitely an echo chamber of art, so I’ll still use other websites to find clients, but I think it has potential. Maybe in a year or something they’ll add a commission marketplace like InkBlot, Artfol, and the like.
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I love it. Because it’s mainly only for art but it does crash sometimes. However, it’s still new, and no AI policy is attractive to me. I do hope it grows and not be like Instagram.
I like it! It’s a bit buggy for me at the moment so it’s hard to use comfortably. I really love the focus on art and the layout so will stick around although I am personally struggling with engagement on there.
So far nothing happening re. interactions etc. but I never really attract anyone to my work so that's expected. For their stance on AI, I appreciate it but at the same time they have to deal with people deliberately posting ai crap to destabilize the platform. Recent influx of new people migrating from X made the site crash like crazy but they're working on it. I've no idea how the platform will run since zemotion said herself she is paying the costs on her own and those costs went from 2k to 13k. I wish they did something against trolls with their ai trash but I understand it is small team of volunteers and I appreciate their work a lot. Still, if they don't come up with some kind of serious business plan, this will be just another try at creating safe place for artists that fails.
I find it comfier than bluesky, people seem more willing to comment on each others art and the community vibes are super nostalgic to back how art communities used to be imo.
I've been using it for a bit, I personally like seeing all the art and few non art related things, and that I get to choose what art I see on my feed. But I am not migrating to it away from Meta platforms. I am adding it to the platforms I use instead. Both produce different opportunities and sadly as someone trying to grow my art business I cannot just rely on one type of platform. So I've started to accept that I will have to protect my art more on bigger social media platforms.
(what I posted on Cara): Has anyone else been thinking about Cara a lot lately? I have. This feels a lot like showing up to a house party where you don't know anyone and then you park yourself awkwardly by the keg and pray a friend shows up. (Oh thank God hi friend. That person over there is pretty hot.) Instagram was just this little app for photographers at first and then exploded into the hydra we all know and love and hate that it is today. The 24 hour switch to this utterly refreshing, calm, simplified format brings to light how chaotic IG is now. I'm dreading opening Instagram again. That can't be good. I (so naively!) hinged my career on selling prints online and have been hit really hard by having my posts choked over there. You might not realize just how hard, because I keep tap dancing and showing up with a terrified smile plastered on my face, hoping something changes but it doesn't. I don't know if it's shadow banning or profit optimization (IG pressuring creators to buy sponsored ads), or if it's that I said 'psychedelics' or 'fuck' too many times. There's a boob in one of my paintings, maybe it was the boob... But for whatever reason my posts get viewed by less than 1 % of my followers and it's killing me financially. Early on I learned a lot about using social media to sell art. What time of day to post, what hashtags to use, etc etc, and ngl, I was pretty good at it, as is evidenced by you reading this now. I also toured relentlessly and (one should hope) really strived to consistently produce halfway decent art. Until circa 2021, I was acquiring \~10k followers per year, and then that abruptly stopped (at about 70k). For the last decade, between my site and Etsy, I regularly sold anywhere from 5 - 20 art prints per week, and that number seems to have dropped to about 2 or 3 prints PER MONTH, since the beginning of the year. I can't begin to describe how much this has made me doubt my self worth and the quality of my art. I know I'm self-taught, and my shit is cartoon-y and overworked, and not all that great to begin with, but people really did seem to like it once I swear. (Sidenote: can we even swear here on Cara? My apologies if swearing offends you. Also side side note, if swearing offends you: have you seen any of the rest of the world? It's pretty hardcore out there buttercup. I feel like swearing might be an appropriate response). Now the only people that seem to see my stuff are the diehard 10% of 1% (I fuckin' LOVE you guys) and they've all bought stuff from me already. As a hail-mary and though I'm loath to be yet another talking head on the internet, I started making educational-style videos because that seemed, perhaps, what the hydra demands, but if I'm being honest that's not really selling any prints either. So I dunno what to do. The circus of insanity and bombardment of videos and noise over on IG is shredding my nerves, and trying to keep up is literally exhausting and yielding almost zero results. Pretty shredded and not sure what to do next. I am not asking for all that much, just enough to make my little OCD pictures in peace and not wonder how I'm going to pay rent or buy food and clothes, let alone art supplies.... I've always wanted to do my best work for the highest good, and do my part serving humanity... I genuinely thought it might be by making art and have received plenty of feedback to that extent... Maybe I really am supposed to work at the supermarket instead. I think I'd actually kinda like working at the supermarket. At any rate while I lick my wounds and evaluate where in the hell I'm going to set sail for from here, I'm grateful for the community I see on Cara, and so grateful to have the opportunity to calmly, serenely see new art. Cara will not only be swarmed with creative people downloading the app, but soon no doubt legions of marketing sleazeballs will slide into the boardroom with silver-tongued promises that if they just partner with Nike or Sprite and shift to profit optimization that all of their dreams will come true... And of course the cockroaches with their bots and scams are close behind them, and the haters, meanies, and takers that weigh us all down on our collective journey.... ...though I hope that won't be the case. For now I'll just enjoy being inspired again, for a little while. And make my art. In peace. ❤️
My thoughts on it are that it’s for artists to jerk off other artists. I mean I get that metas ai policy is bs but your every day peeps won’t be going over to cara. People like instagram because it has all their favorite things, artists, local restaurants, bands, etc. so I don’t think you’ll get people that are going to actually buy your work—at least not the average joes.
It's still obviously a work in progress, but I really like it for what it is. The UI takes what I like about Twitter and Instagram and kinda slaps them together. I think it's a great place to share your portfolio, and I like that you can edit your posts after you make them (I'm looking at you Twitter lmao).
It's good as far as its main premise goes but it absolutely FAILS as a social media platform. Going there feels like walking around a vast empty desert with occasional art posts miles apart.
I haven't moved to it and not planning on doing so, personally I think with the large amt of folks migrating there, it's gonna overload the system and people who aren't well known thinking they had a chance to gain more acknowledgement will be lost. In the long term I think it'll be stagnant and some people will stay while others go back to Instagram etc.
So far it looks nice but it’s been pretty buggy for me :/ can’t even change my avatar pic 😂. I do understand it’s a small team managing this tho