Email or username:

Password:

Forgot your password?
Bart Decrem :mammoth_gold:

Seriously pissed about this. Offering $10,000 in seed funding for a Deviant Art alternative built on ActivityPub. Q&A below or email your pitch to info@moth.social. slate.com/technology/2024/05/d

29 comments
Steve Foerster 🌐

@bart This phase of the enshittification cycle is always disappointing. 😒

Mister Moo 🐮

@bart Earnest question, is PixelFed not a fediverse DeviantArt alternative?

f♯ a♯ ∞

@MisterMoo i was coming here to suggest a third-party frontend for pixelfed, actually 😁
@bart

Bart Decrem :mammoth_gold:

@tsadiq @MisterMoo I commented on this elsewhere on the thread. But beyond it being more targeted, specific than IG/pixelfed, I really think a renaissance of the web will be on top off ActivityPub, so I’m really excited to see specific communities build their own apps, with the UI and features that best match what they’re all about, and just think of AP as the social plumbing underneath it ... reaching whole new waves of users.

MyIgel

@bart I would say @dansup 's @pixelfed would be an option (if a little bit extended perhaps?)

Bart Decrem :mammoth_gold:

@MyIgel @dansup @pixelfed big fan of pixelfed! and yes, this could be built on top of pixelfed, but DA is much more specific than IG, right? a very focused community, there’s an Etsy component etc etc...

Space Catitude 🚀

@bart
If you just want a gallery, Pixelfed is a pretty good existing AP option.

e.g.: px.filmfreedom.net/lunatics?m=

Is it the attachment to the print/merch storefront that you're looking for?

I've given this a bit of thought -- enough to decide it's beyond me.

But basically, my notion is that instance-hosted storefronts could have federated catalogs and carts, but process transactions locally. Resulting in something like "Ali Baba" or "Amazon Marketplace", but federated.

Bart Decrem :mammoth_gold:

hi folks, this will be a conversation ofc. the critical thing here is to truly understand what DA is/was all about, what this community needs. prolly means the right team has at least 1 person that is a DA power user or superfan. you don’t have to have all the answers. you can just send us a paragraph with a few thoughts, or expression of interest. THIS CAN BE A CONVERSATION & we figure this out together. Thinking about doing a Discord or Zoom convo in a day or 2 to bring interested ppl together

zeruch

@bart I was a former Gallery Admin (2004-08), Support Desk admin, Forum mod, and 'power user' for a couple of decades. I don't know how much I can contribute, but am open to participating in any meaningful way I can.

I'm also still in personal contact with several of the key community members from the golden era (e.g. Lolly, Ryan Ford) but you know...

deefdragon

@bart My only request is strong tagging support. I am always amused by the fact that E621 (a furry art (largely porn) site) is still one of the best tag searching systems on the internet.

Captain Jack Sparrow

@bart

Is it possible to detect and block AI generated images?

Bart Decrem :mammoth_gold:

@Captain_Jack_Sparrow I love that idea. Should be a core aspiration or value of the project- a place for humans, not bots and ai

mirabilos

@Captain_Jack_Sparrow @bart not without a nōn-insignificant amount of false positives, and not without hassle (picking tools, multiple tools, tools change over time, tools are mostly “AI” themselves, etc.)

If it’s got a mod team and the flood is not too intense, not doing it automatedly might suffice.

Otherwise, at least provide ways for people to contest the decision of such bots…

OT for this subthread, but the posts from moth.social don’t load on my instance for some reason: consider that federating with AP will mean people on other softwares (Pixelfeed, but also Akkoma/GotoSocial/Mastdarm, etc.) will want to interact with that, so make sure that works as well as it can. I’d personally be reluctant to register “just another account” on an instance of your new system since I have a perfectly working AP-federated GtS instance here myself, for example.

@Captain_Jack_Sparrow @bart not without a nōn-insignificant amount of false positives, and not without hassle (picking tools, multiple tools, tools change over time, tools are mostly “AI” themselves, etc.)

If it’s got a mod team and the flood is not too intense, not doing it automatedly might suffice.

snahn ip

@bart what would the infrastructure look like though? That's gonna be a lot of high resolution images and more.... What about #immich and #pixelfed as viable starting points?

Bart Decrem :mammoth_gold:

@sn0n yup- this is a pretty serious app, both frontend and backend. Will be a non-trivial undertaking. Starts w a deep understanding of what has made this community special

Danny Dragon

@bart Not surprising, especially since DA tried to not opt out with AI scanning the art for their "Art"

Bart Decrem :mammoth_gold:

@Dragonholley yeah, that part of the story caught my attention. @nilaypatel uses the word “Taking” for this - it’s so on point.

Vaughn

@bart could this be done with a PixelFed instance?

Bart Decrem :mammoth_gold:

@vaughnhannon def spiritual brethern, tech to use, etc. for sure there should be Share To Pixelfed as a core feature. But i do think that what we’re looking for is a next gen social web, a new generation of websites & communities sprouting up in the aftermath of the current wave of destruction. so this is about finding a place for the next generation of young, up and coming amateur artists to post their work, connect w each other, find audience etc. it’s its own place.

Chris

@bart This could be designed not just like DeviantArt, but also adding interesting component from existing art-related gallery like Behance, Artstation, Pixiv, CureCosplay, Xfolio, and so on.

Go Up