have noticed a good amount of other visual artists joining fedi recently, which is always really wonderful to see!!
Something I would like to say for new folks joining, is that it is pretty widely expected on fedi to have image descriptions on your art!
fedi has a large blind userbase, and there is a lot of community care here to make sure that fedi remains a place accessible to all of its users. I know coming from other social media where there isn't as strong of an expectation that you put image descriptions on your visual art, it can feel jarring to suddenly have to start doing that. but to be a bit blunt about it, it kind of sucks to have a space that is known for its accessibility, that has been able to have community grow and flourish over years because of it, start have that accessibility get gradually diluted as new folks who aren't aware of those norms join. it alienates users who need it, who were already here and who have formed the spaces you are now joining!
Also, as someone who often likes to make more abstract or up to interpretation art, I know it can feel akward and add new friction you never dealt with before to figure out exactly how to describe things while maintaining that. and to be honest it just is going to be akward at first! I've found that we started to get better with it after our first few times though, and at this point it's just something we naturally do! and while the friction was new, once it was something we already expected when it came to uploading things, it no longer felt like a chore, it just became a natural part of the uploading process
in general on fedi, you are going to encounter more friction-inducing things like this. the thing that makes fedi different from every other social media platform is that it is not owned by any one corporation, and it is not profit driven. it is community run and owned, and it exists to create community, not money! profit driven platforms have a massive incentive to make every action as frictionless as possible, to keep you on for longer so they can harvest more advertising data to sell. fedi, on the other hand, is incentivized towards building lasting communities, and often that is going to mean more friction and cultural expectations than you're used to. it is an adjustment, but I think it is very worth it <3
