Losing Touch with Posting Art on Bluesky 

Ever since I've been posting random shit on this platform the moment I joined, I've actually gotten engagement on them from my mutuals, especially for the art that I'd share in them. 

The issue

Bluesky was just like how Threads and Cara both are where you post anything and you'd at least get 5-16% of engagement. So for art, even if some people who follow me don't like the art I post, I'd still get engagement from the other few. Nothing about pigeonholing existed. And the thing about this was that before FCL_C0MPLEX was ever a thing, my art was very convoluted and complex, which I know that people would appreciate busy eye-darting art than to appreciate coherent art. 

I didn't have an issue with posting art here in Bluesky because of that, but throughout time, my mutuals just progressivy stopped acknowledging my existence on here, regardless of the post. I went from 0 folllwers to a decent 100(?), getting engagement from mutuals who actually care about what I post, but as soon as I've gotten enough followers, those mutuals just kinda decided to pull the plug and only engage with my posts if they're tagged in them...or just not even at all. In the context of sharing my art this also proves to me that sharing art that looks very convoluted and maximalist will never have any engagement that would match it, compared to art that looks decently ordered and minimalist that would actually fit this no-engagement kind of space that I now have.

Why a personal website is better than social media

This is essentially part of the reason why I think the indie web movement, no matter the web hostong service, is better for posting art in a personal website than on social media platforms, specifically Bluesky, because for me, Bluesky became much like how DeviantArt, YouTube, and Tumblr were to the point where you have to focus on grinding with posts to get a new set of mutuals who will "for sure" engage with your art-related posts by reposting and sharing your posts to their audience, only for them to also become "mutuals" who never will engage with your posts.

Engagement and pigeonholing on other platforms

DeviantArt 

I left DeviantArt for Cara because I was being pigeonholed into engagement on my fictional firearm art and not on anything but, but at least I still got engagement even from non-mutuals compared to Bluesky.

Cara

On Cara, I started with absolutely fuckall while posting random stuff there, and—just like with Audius—I somehow now have 23 followers, some of who are actually engaging with both my art and my posts. And most of these followers aren't even mutuals either. 

I don't think this required a grind, but apparently Bluesky became a platform I have to grind on even for just random-ass shit that I'd post if it's not art. With a personal website like the current FCL website that I have (which I want to port to Framer), there's no grind, as it matches this quiet-kid vibe my profile gives off.