Throughout my time here, I have struggled when being seen within this dev(il's) playground, but every challenge has pushed me to grow and ultimately gain more recognition by using my own path and being true to my own voice.
My personal journey was not as bright as it might seem; there has been a lot of misinformation and changes to the protocol, some for the better and some that just made it harder to keep visibility through the neediness of this platform and the sure numbers game that needs to be played either on your part or if you have the powerful friends that are the seeded group the prayer and hope that they are willing to help raise your social score without having to generate content on the regular. You can go back to doing more quality vs having to placate the quality and quantity by looking for loops and gimmicks.
When I first joined this platform, I was filled with excitement. I saw it as a new opportunity to showcase my work and connect with a community of fellow artists. That's still my goal, and I'm eager to learn how to make the most of this platform.
I went dark for a few months after this happened on the app and completely forgot about it until I had friends who finally used my code to join, and they brought me back into the platform. The damage went from mild to worse in a few months.
Bot or not, once told me I was a buildooor, and shortly after, without knowing it, my only guess is others in the channels started labeling my posts as spam.
Sharing too much art due to my excitement of diving back into the Warpcast scene, thinking I was sharing my creations and light with the world, and going from seeing the "top caster badge" on my profile to even being shadowed from my channel, I co-ran at the time /wac
When the world feels dark, and you seem to be in an endless pit, remember to stay true to who you are. Continue to sound your voice and make yourself heard. When you are looking for recognition, keep in mind screaming into the void, falling into the shadows, and continuing to be you. You are special and unique.
If you know someone from outside this app always reach out compassion can be found in many different places, @letsglitchit was one of the first to take her powerbadge and started to showcase other artists around after hearing my story. I was lucky enough for her to hear me on our Cohort9 group one day after seeing the beautiful art she always posts. I interacted with and was again unseen.
@awedjob.eth, who has been a witness to my story the whole time, has been one of the only reasons I have been able to make it to this point and not give up. I seriously was about to abandon this primary account. I tried and made a secondary one that somehow ended up having even more issues of not being able to even keep the tips of less than 500 $degen that I had gotten that season since my friends accidentally tipped @jacquec's wallet, which was and still is different than my main account. At that moment, it made me realize even if I tried to start over, Warpcast wouldn't let me. My only option now was to lean in harder to my current FID and hope to break through.
What I would post and pin in the channel to bring awareness to others artists within the community.
What the rest of the world saw when they went to the channel the same time and same day.
It became impossible, draining, and so disheartening that I honestly cried for a weeks time trying to help grow my community and not even being able to show my appreciation for others who were actively posting in our group channel trying to show support and validation to them when I was getting stifled by the algorithm without warning.
There were jokes in their ever-changing rulebook, so I know it exists and wish to high heaven that I could find it again where they were laughing and joking about NERFs (which are real and I have seen) and Shadowbans saying that it was test and only a test on their system.
Yet users got caught in the crosshairs. One could feel like they were locked into a void with no way out, and some still do; even with the ability to turn off Priority Mode, there are still a select few that choose not to do it at all since we are overrun with AI bot account, cyborg account (half and half human run and AI programmed) creators and what is deemed as spam posting.
Even I was finally able to reach @debbie after asking a few times, and it made some of the biggest impacts, getting the start of my visibility outside my cozy corner here.
I was ever so grateful for the friends I brought along with me. Honestly, without them, I would have given up. Now, I'm working to do everything in my power while I can maintain it to give back to them and others unseen here. @josepe-matteo took degen out of his own wallet and not only found other artists for the community since his account had more visibility and not the issue of my shadowbanned account, but we also found so much inspiration from those who participated.
Throughout this whole time, I was still finding those who were my peers and inspirations. We chatted outside the app, and every answer was the same. They couldn't even find me when I gave them my user name for a search or see me under their posts unless they clicked into them directly when I sent them the links.
Yet, despite all the pain, I kept working to give back and get my new friends into the same light that was slowly being shown.
@hanisart is an amazing artist; I have fallen in love with her view and creativity. The second art contest win was an even larger honor since I got to pay it forward and support others on this platform.
Then, months later, that day finally arrived. I was in the middle of an interview with @sinfulmeatstick, and we were discussing my art journey for over 30 years and how I came to be on came to be behind the NFT. It may have been even longer if we hadn't gone onto the /wac channel in our discussion, and I got to talk about myself and others who inspire me every day. I had to bring my face in so close to the screen and saw a purple check mark by my name. I almost started crying out of pure joy, knowing that this was hopefully the sign of times changing and that if there was hope for me, everyone who radiates authenticity could also find this.
Yet the battle still rages on every week. I see outstanding artists with pure and original content lose their badges. It's not a guarantee, and any week, I could fall back down. Warpcast can be very needy for attention, and even if you are genuine and putting your most authentic best foot forward, it doesn't mean that the algorithm agrees. There needs to be a more mutable solution that helps validate foxl to create fostering all walks of life in this world.
Everything is an art form, and everyone is an artist. Art is what we live and breathe from the nature around us, which gets things done in its own time, and no one asks it to rush to the code that is written, helping the world bridge boundaries and create the sites that we marveled at daily.
