I don’t like that the fact that Instagram is the “only” service — that I know and it’s most popular — to enjoy other people’s superb photos. So many good photographers that I wouldn’t know where else to find their stuff.

@Gabz Same. I wish there was an open-web version of Instagram. I would even be fine if Instagram wasn't owned by Facebook.

@pratik @Gabz Bokeh is still very much going to be a thing!

Also, you're saying these super photographers only post to Instagram? They don't use their own site, Flickr, Twitter?

@pratik @gabz I am interested to see what Bokeh will be like!

@Burk @pratik me too!

@pratik @Ganz pixelfed.org is a thing.

@Gabz I do like VSCO a lot but it's not too surprising that there are talented photographers who only use Instagram; it is simply "where everybody is" and I think their account-based restrictions -- limited viewing, etc -- will probably only make that worse.

IDK I've been back and forth a lot on this issue over the past couple of years. It bothers me greatly that talented artists are not sufficiently motivated to have a online redundancies; it doesn't take much for these photographers to have their online photos just snapped out of existence and then where do they expect people to find their stuff? Hm. :/

@simonwoods I think the Instagram effect is the fact that they can probably reach a wider audience and the most people. Vs VSCO and others, are more “specific” ish? The thing is a good photographer, a professional photographer would not just rely on Instagram. But then you have me where I’m in the camp we’re “I found you on Instagram, why follow you somewhere else?” Which is probably the wrong approach.

@greggnovachek hadn’t seen dayflash before, thanks! Checking it out

@greggnovachek I’m gonna have to check this out !

@greggnovachek Thanks for the link! I might try it but new ad-based networks are a much lower on my priority list than they used to be.

@Gabz Yeah I get that. For me it's the conflict:

God damn it this is all crap, not just ethically but the design is terrible; ads, unreliable, genuinely bad design, etc.

VS

What does it matter; if the goal is to share to as many people as possible then just swallow the terrible option as a basic broadcasting tool whilst putting serious energy into the good options.

VS

Life is too short, just use the popular one, invest time and energy in physical spaces, and save the ethically minded digital activity for stuff like security and identity.

VS

Life is too short to NOT make the ethically good decision. Better to sacrifice some shallow things (in this case there are plentiful non-Instagram options for good and better photographers) and live a life knowing you made as many good decisions as possible.

... and then I feel sleepy and want to log off for forever. -_-

@greggnovachek Oh that's interesting. They seem to be selling that as their business model to photographers.

@greggnovachek @simonwoods i actually edit all my pictures on VSCO, or at least 70 % of them but I always forget if its “social/sharing” aspect of it

@simonwoods @pratik @gabz oh, Bokeh sounds good! This is the first I’ve heard of it. I’ll be watching how that rolls out.

@sgtstretch FYI, I believe @smith did an episode of the @monday podcast during the Bokeh Kickstarter, so you can (maybe) learn a little more about it there.

@simonwoods this sums up my feelings about Instragram quite well!!