Post by @erinaceus@chaos.social
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I was inspired recently after someone asked me about why I didn’t have an Instagram, to make a four page comic on why. I'm not going back to Instagram.
Maybe I can just hand this out if people ask me now.
#Comic #Autobio
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#Comic #Autobio
@jeypawlik I don't understand this. Why would it make a difference for someone who just wants to look at your comics whether they go to your website or to an Instagram account?
I mean, it would make a difference for me, because I don't like Meta, but if you don't care about politics is there any advantage of Instagram?
@erinaceus because owning your own space is important. The comic is about Instagram permanently suspending me and losing 10 years of posts in an instant. With my own website, that won't happen because I own it and run it myself.
Instagram is a huge disadvantage to me because of all this. They decide what they can do with my stuff, not me.
Of course not everyone can do this, but it's important to think about regardless.
@jeypawlik I see why having your own space is important. What I don't see is why people would be shocked to hear that you do not have an Instagram account.
1 like
@erinaceus OH I see what you're saying now!! And honestly I don't know. People, especially when it comes to looking at art, are just really obsessed with Instagram and it really bothers me.
It could be the comfort they have in a website they know how to navigate? They're not willing or ready to try out RSS? They like being on one website and one website only (I saw something similar when I used to have a Twitter)
Baseline, it sucks and I do wish more folks were ready and willing to go to privately owned websites!
@jeypawlik@comicscamp.club
this reminds me of how @fluffy@plush.city mentioned folks are less likely to listen to your music if you're not on spotify, and they'll be surprised if you aren't
kinda sad how algorithmic, corporate social media and streaming services have turned art into a commodity. a thing purely meant to be consumed rather than experienced
@ericjames @jeypawlik yeah, and also people are so used to streaming that if you tell them something like “Oh my music’s just on Bandcamp” they’ll say something like “I’m not subscribing to another service just to hear your music!” and then you have to explain what Bandcamp even is, and then they walk away about 10 words in because they think of music as just background noise instead of something to actively enjoy and curate.
I was never on Instagram for even more reasons, but I get why people ="everyone" want it on Instagram. If your question was serious:
- it's not about a website it's about one universal all day used app
- they still think it's a community and it's great to be where cool people are and sharing the same space (like an exclusive club)
- it's easier for them (being in the Instagram app all day) to like, share and engage
- any serious account or obvious advantage kind of justifies their Instagram addiction
- it's just what everyone does, why wouldn't you make it easy for everyone, too?
@daisy @erinaceus@chaos.social @jeypawlik@comicscamp.club
Tomorrow I'll have a meeting with a person, who has her own cafe, not far from me.
She did a kickstarter campaign to raise some money and promoted it only via her Instagram (as far as I found out).
Now, she still does only use IG (via a friend, who does it for her ...).
That comic comes at the right time, as I want to try to convince her to at least get an account in the fediverse additionally, in order to build a local community.
Reasoning against IG is difficult, however I want to try it, as far as I know, she doesn't own her own webspace (website), I hope I can convince her about the advantages of one.
@fasnix @daisy @jeypawlik You can have both, of course. You can link between them. I would recommend everyone who has their own small business to have their own site. A dedicated website looks more serious than an Instagram account. More importantly: People without an Instagram account would be unable to view your business information.
(if you convince your friend to have a dedicated website for the cafe: _please_ also convince here to add the opening hours on the homepage).
@erinaceus@chaos.social
Of course, you can have both and link between them.
And yes, of course, I'd vote for the opening hours on her website :)
@daisy@littleone.littlefedi.social @jeypawlik@comicscamp.club
@fasnix @erinaceus@chaos.social @daisy@littleone.littlefedi.social @jeypawlik@comicscamp.club
Actually I'm not sure the big GAFAM allow any external reference. I read stories of posts taken down when giving fx fediverse addresses
@fasnix
Yes, one of my favorite Restaurants stays only on Instagram for a while now, too. It drives me nuts not even being able to see the menu or changed opening hours. I even reserved them a nice Mastodon account on their local city instance but they prefer now to update their opening hours only on Google maps... 🤷
@erinaceus@chaos.social @jeypawlik@comicscamp.club
I never trust the opening hours on google maps. Who knows who entered them there. They may be very wrong.
@fasnix @daisy @erinaceus@chaos.social @jeypawlik@comicscamp.club
While I don't do any big company because I don't have control of my data, I can understand business want to be in the space where they think they have the best chance to sell themselves.
However, the thing is she doesn't have to be ONLY on instagram.
As you rightly point out, having IG and the fediverse are not mutualy exclusive.
Once she has both, there is a very simple trick to see which site brings the most customer:
have a code on IG that gives a rebate or a gift, and another code on the fediverse.
That is a simple trick to see which of the two is actually sending customers.
I'm sure IG has a wider reach. Now the question is, is that relevant ?
She has 255 follower is stasiland (*).
Great.
But how many will actually push the door of her shop ??
It's a simple quantity vs quality exercice.
just my €0.02
(*) yes, I know. I originaly wrote swaziland, but I thought this was funnier. Yes, I have a warped sense of humor. Moving on...
@daisy my question was totally serious. I mean, you can have both a website and an Instagram account. But it's the internet. What do I want from a website of a cartoonist?
- information about the artist
- metadata about their work
- their work itself
Whether you get this information from Instagram or from a dedicated website does not make a difference. You can still link to the website from Instagram, right?