It is 2019, and there are no more online communities for art. That is why we built ARS— to take back our art from big brother (aka Facebook/Instagram).

Why ARS (art) is the answer

The problem:

There is no longer any online art communities where we can get real feedback on our photos/artwork anymore.

The answer:

Join arsbeta.com and become part of the new wave.

What makes ARS different?

With traditional social media, this is what happens:

You upload your photo online, and the algorithm of Facebook/Instagram determines how “worthy” it is to be shown in the news feed of your friends/followers — based on arbitrary measures (posting time, content type, frequency of posting)

Now what is the problem with this?

The problem is that social media turns into a treadmill— like the red queens race in Alice in Wonderland, you gotta keep running faster to just keep in place. You got to keep uploading photos to get more likes, and if we don’t keep getting the likes, we feel shitty.

What does Facebook/Instagram want?

Facebook (who owns Instagram) desires this:

For you to become a crack addict (addicted to likes) and for you to keep “engaging” with the platform, in order for you to view and click on advertisements.

Now I don’t think this is necessarily “bad” or “evil”— it makes sense. Facebookgram is a business, and they gotta make money.

But the problem is this:

Facebook/Instagram isn’t the ideal place to get honest feedback on your photography, which we consider our artwork.

Facebookgram is good if you want to upload photos to get the likes, and generic comments from friends/family. But we cannot get real feedback on our photos — how to improve, develop, and grow.

And without having real feedback on how we can improve and become stronger visual artists — we are at a serious disadvantage.

The more you help others, the more you help yourself

With ARS, the notion is simple:

You give others honest feedback and critique on how they can improve, and others also help give you critique and feedback on how to improve.

What is unique with ARS is our “double blind” algorithm: You don’t know who is giving feedback on your photos, and others don’t know who is giving feedback to them — thus, people are more honest and direct!

What about online trolls?

At ARS, our ground-truth is that human beings are good, and if given the opportunity to help others, we will!

A lot of people are afraid:

If there is online anonymity, won’t that bring out everyone’s inner-troll?

The answer is no.

Our data and metrics from Ars have proven that 99.999% of people are “good actors”. Out of our 5,000+ members, there has only been 1-2 trolls. Data doesn’t lie.

Furthermore, this is what we discovered which is fascinating with Ars:

If you don’t make comments publicly visible, there is no incentive for any troll-like behavior.

I’ve had my fair share of trolls in my day, and I’ve actually met some of them in real life. And this is what I learned about their psychology:

Most trolls are very intelligent people, who are just very sad and lonely, and need affirmation or a hug.

A constructive and productive online community for visual artists

The ARS team (Kevin, Cindy, Annette, Jun, Ben) believe this:

We can become the change which we wish to see in the world, to make an online platform for photographers and visual artists to actually become empowered and grow together.

Furthermore, we believe that the internet isn’t a “zero sum” platform. There is need to “compete” with other photographers or visual artists, because the pie isn’t limited. We can all grow infinitely together.

What are you waiting for?

Upload your photos to arsbeta.com to get honest feedback on your photos, but also contribute.

I believe we can all grow together as an art-photo community. Even though we are a small David and fighting against Goliath (Facebookgram) we believe that we can all become the artistic change we wish to see in the world.

ERIC

arsbeta.com