Not like I don’t have enough to do, keeping up with inventory and markets during the holiday season. No. Surely I needed something else. And that turned out to be learning that Meta was threatening to scrape and crawl our websites and social media and use all of our art and intellectual property to train their AI per their latest terms of service update.
Uhm NO!
But yeah, if you use a professional Insta profile with a link to your website in it, that was the deal.
Needless to say, the art and literary world have put up a huge fuss. Even some senators are getting in on it.
And I once again bemoaned the lack of places to share and connect with fellow Pacific Northwest artists, vendors and market organizers.
So I hatched a Discord Server to that end, here: https://discord.gg/sgEbfzUUG
It’s called the PNW Makers and Markets Community. All Pacific Nortwhest (primarily Oregon and Washington) small businesses, vendors and artisans and crafters are welcome to join. It’s free. (If you are a small business who has or might like to host a small craft market, you are welcome too.)
The intention is to give us all a space to safely share our businesses and art, and most importantly to me: upcoming markets. Whether as the organizer, or an attendee. As well as discuss this issue, and alternatives to Insta and Meta in general.
I’ve never run a Discord Server before. This was not on my bingo card. But, here we are. It’s just barely sputtering to life. I need a little more activity from other folks to say it has a pulse. BUT, come on in, the water is fine.
I so wish someone would invent a truly kind and caring version of Facebook and Insta. I’m seeing a handful of potential competitors, but haven’t had time to pursue them in earnest yet.
It feels like every time I’m about to make ends meet, someone moves the ends. But… everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end. Onward.