Has Vore Art Become"Worse"?

[Frednurk]

I think another aspect of vore art getting 'worse' (be it real or imagined, I lean towards the latter), is the rise of patreon and other such services to help artists monetize themselves. A large number of the artists that would upload work here frequently have started doing so less and less because they're putting more and more of their work beyond a paywall. I personally have noticed that a number of the artists that I've had on Watch here took a sharp decline in how often they've posted to their galleries after they set up their patreons... one or two posting nothing but preview images to entice people to support said patreons.

My great irritation these days is seeing a new picture uploaded by an artist I love, with a really promising looking thumbnail, only to find out it's nothing more than a clickbait advert for their patreon.

Sorry, guys, but no way in hell am I ever linking my real world bank account to a vore fetish. Not ever.

By all means have a patreon, but is advertising them really what this site is for?

[Hariken]

That is just bad tagging. I have seen actual vore on that site, but it is just series pulled from here or DA. Sometimes some artist that just have their own site etc. On that site I sometimes see tentacle porn being called vore. I guess sometimes it sorta is...just seems to be inaccurate.

Proper tagging could still lead to people not discovering new things, but then no tagging at all is bad.

For example ( with thumbnails on this site at least, while browsing tags ), something not tagged could just be overlooked, whereas something that is properly tagged through-and-through, if you have one tag that you have blacklisted, you'll see that item as blacklisted, so you'll ignore it. Though if you have everything you like tagged that it'll show up in your new submissions, you'll see it regardless of blacklisted tags.

Pros and cons.

[JackFrost]

My great irritation these days is seeing a new picture uploaded by an artist I love, with a really promising looking thumbnail, only to find out it's nothing more than a clickbait advert for their patreon.

Sorry, guys, but no way in hell am I ever linking my real world bank account to a vore fetish. Not ever.

By all means have a patreon, but is advertising them really what this site is for?

This a million times.

[Borealis]

I think another aspect of vore art getting 'worse' (be it real or imagined, I lean towards the latter), is the rise of patreon and other such services to help artists monetize themselves. A large number of the artists that would upload work here frequently have started doing so less and less because they're putting more and more of their work beyond a paywall. I personally have noticed that a number of the artists that I've had on Watch here took a sharp decline in how often they've posted to their galleries after they set up their patreons... one or two posting nothing but preview images to entice people to support said patreons.

My great irritation these days is seeing a new picture uploaded by an artist I love, with a really promising looking thumbnail, only to find out it's nothing more than a clickbait advert for their patreon.

Sorry, guys, but no way in hell am I ever linking my real world bank account to a vore fetish. Not ever.

By all means have a patreon, but is advertising them really what this site is for?

Hard to disagree with this.

The monetising of content is definitely something that's got worse over time, but I think it's natural when more high quality creators come into a community.

Personally, I vote with my wallet. Never used to pay for vore. Never have done. Never will do. People can call me an entitled content consumer but I'd rather be in a community of people that share content with like-minded fans, rather than sleepwalking into a provider and customer arrangement. Goes for furry too.

[MPennanti]

Interesting topic, and it's something that's hard to open a dialogue about without sounding like an entitled prat, so I commend OP for leading a respectful discourse. I agree with many of the points already raised, so I'll stick to a couple additional observations:

1.) Art is the same as it's ever been, but there's a lot less curation than there used to be. I remember Vor-Com updating like once a month (as someone mentioned) and the similar site authors having their own arbitrary quality bar artists had to meet to get featured. The downside of this is that no artist is ever great when they get started (look at the first pages of any long-running webcomic for examples) and it's only through an enormous amount of work and practice that we get the high quality stuff we adore.

2.) My only minor complaint about "lower quality art" is that sometimes users will bulk upload dozens of pieces of content at once, which makes it harder on obsessive people like me who actually do troll through every new submission to the site. In the past I made a browser extension so I could filter out some submissions by name because of this, but then you miss out on the eventual improvement.

3.) In my opinion, the quality of writing is a lot lower on average than the quality of drawings. Some of this is because the time investment to read something is much higher than to glance at a picture, and some of it is I'm a prissy spoiled reader. I don't know how to encourage and nurture upcoming writers, maybe I should be less of a lurker on the forums, but I would love it if more people felt comfortable inventing their own characters and universes. It's fine to wholesale steal most of your character's personalities from existing characters you enjoy, but I find it a shame when even really good writers limit themselves to dealing exclusively in fanfic.

[Jayezox]

To alleviate the burnout effect, I often switch from stories to art. I read a story then look at some artwork that may be related. Then again, vore is not a mere kink for me, it's a full blown fetish.

I definitely agree with DeviantArt being lower quality than it used to. I first found out about it there and when you searched it 5 years ago, it was almost all excellent quality.

[LilianiMirx]

My great irritation these days is seeing a new picture uploaded by an artist I love, with a really promising looking thumbnail...

That reminds me, I hate the "new" (I guess it's been quite a long time since it was first implemented but I remember a time when it didn't have it) thumbnail thing that Eka's Portal has got going for it where the user can crop a portion of the image. When I look through the latest stuff from the people that I'm following I constantly see thumbnails that look promising but then when I click in on it I see that it is actually not my cup of tea. If I could see the full image (just scaled down to a thumbnail size) then I could make judgement calls much easier. It's not fun to have to go through a bunch of stuff I have no interest in just because the user has to crop the image.

It might seem like it looks better to have a portion of the image in a thumbnail but to me it just feels like I'm being mislead a lot of the times. I really wish this place never adopted that thing in the first place. I've never liked it and it's just ended up wasting my time. It's worse when it is about baiting you with stuff behind a paywall (like you, Frednurk, said) but I find the cropped thumbnail bullshit to be annoying for pretty much everything.

I'd much rather that thumbnail images on your personal messagepage from users you watch to be increased in size and for the cropping feature to be disallowed. That way you could still make out what is going on in the thumbnail and you don't have to be mislead into wasting your time. If your art is good then it will be clicked on, if it isn't then it shouldn't be encouraged by the website's features to mislead people into clicking into your stuff.

"Then why do you watch those people?"
Because maybe I like 50% of the stuff they do? I'd just rather not waste my time on the 50% I don't care for.

Here's an example of what I mean:
http://aryion.com/g4/view/324862 Look at the thumbnail for "Would You Smooch a Snek?"
http://aryion.com/g4/view/335165 Look at the actual picture.
I thought the thumbnail looked interesting, so I clicked into it, but the whole picture is not my type. (I don't care for male naga's, oh and I saw the thumbnail in my personal message thingie for the tag "Naga", so while I know that person's art-style is heavily M-pred focused I didn't know it was his stuff from the thumbnail in my personal message-tab. Because the image was cropped...)

Seriously, fuck this cropping system. I really hate it.

And I know that the system is optional. I don't care. Just because something is optional does not mean it is a good feature if it is abused. And the way I see it, it is being abused constantly to mislead people. The worst offender is the patreon stuff, but that doesn't mean that the free stuff isn't annoying when it misleads.

- - -

I just went into my message-tab and saw 5 pictures that were cropped but looked interesting, clicked in on them all and not a single one was interesting to me once I saw what the full picture depicted. If it absolutely have to be an optional feature for the uploaders to use can't we (the viewers/audience/whatever) get an optional check-box thing in our settings where we can choose to un-crop all images? That'd be a win-win as fas as I can see. The ones that want the cropped pictures can still have it and the ones like me that can't stand being mislead don't have to as we'll always see the full image in its thumbnail form. Is there such a feature?

[SilhouetteofKid]

The ones that want the cropped pictures can still have it and the ones like me that can't stand being mislead don't have to as we'll always see the full image in its thumbnail form. Is there such a feature?

I think it would be cool to have the same feature like the latest artwork, just hover your mouse over to the pics and an image of the whole pic shows up. That way you can see the image and if it doesn't fit your taste just keep on scrolling. Simple and easy!

[LilianiMirx]

I tried doing it and it doesn't work for me, is it because I'm using an Opera web browser or something? Either way, yeah a feature like that for your message-tab where everything you "watch" pops up in would be at least a step in the right direction but I fear it'd just end up annoying me to have to wait a second for that image to load up and then a second for the 2nd image and then a second for the third image and then a second for the fourth image and then a second for the fifth image and then a second for the sixth image and then a second for the seventh image and then a second for the for the eight image and then a second for the ninth image (see how annoying this is getting?) and go on and on for like a hundred images. It's not really a solution to me, it'd just make it slightly less bad but still bad. If users get the option to crop their images then other users should get the option to uncrop all of them in their settings if they so choose. It's terribly one-sided otherwise.

- - -

Oh, you meant the one on the frontpage.
Yeah, it's quick enough that it could work actually.
I was thinking of another website that used the same kind of feature and it took like a second for each image to pop up.
For this one's frontpage it takes like a third of a second for me so yeah, it could work.
I'd still prefer a checkbox to uncrop everything so I wouldn't need to even hover over stuff but that frontpage thing could work wonders in the message-tab too.

[SilhouetteofKid]

It could be a setting thing, have the image pop up and uncrop images. Could be a checkbox combo. XD

[Dekkard2]

eh yes and no. Like others have said there's always going to be the sub par artists that just machine gun uploads with little to no time or effort put into said submissions; which will always drown out the amazing (god tier) artists mainly because good artists actually take the time and effort to put together a decent work of art and not just rapid upload every single thing they draw regardless of quality. I also agree with the ones that say most artists don't start out amazing. I look through my old crap from time to time and see how much I've improved since I've made a conscious effort to get better at drawing. Anyone can get better when they put their mind and will to it.

[WankersCramp]

Just go to DeviantArt and search "vore" 99% of it is either garbage or/and shit-posting.

[soline]

Yes and no.

No vore art is not going down the toilet, there are SO many more incredible artists around these days than there used to be. I don't just mean total number of artists on the site, I mean proportionally, way back when it used to be maybe half a dozen really good artists/authors and now there's easily ten times that number in semi-regular activity.

However it's very true that the community is less talkative (just look at how sparsely these forums are posted in with new content, once upon a time checking the forums would genuinely provide new content not found in the gallery), and there is far far more rubbish artwork kicking around in proportion to 'ye olde days'. This alongside the rise of endless patreon/ych sprees/purchasable comics I think is very much a generational thing/symptom of the times. Best example of this is in video games. Since the end of the noughties there's been a steady shift from a focus on content to a focus on both monetization and quick-short lived satisfaction. Most published games come with DLC and other ways to spend more money where they used to be all inclusive and contained 'cheats' for the stuff you pay for today. Go to any flash games website and instead of the platformers, shooters, arcade games you'll find endless reams of 'idle clicker' games. It's the same here, artists are increasingly shifting towards a monetized approach because it works and generates more money (and fwiw I've always thought the fetish-art world was massively underpaid, $30 for something that takes at least an entire afternoon to create is cheap as all heck.) and there are increasing populations who just want that quick fix, either a short burst of attention, or any vore-art they can find, which results in the 'artists' and 'manipers' (particularly on DA like WankersCramp pointed out) just spamming out 15 minutes worth of work and drowning out the hard work others put in.

[stearwing]

vore art is not going down the toilet

Which is a damn shame, since good disposal artists are a pain to find.

[Kitsouille]

I have not been into vore for very long (less than 5 years) so compared to people who have been into it since they were a child might know more from their experience but personally yes and no? It depends where you look I guess. The good stuff on deviantart is old, same for youtube although a lot of vids there are gone because of reports, deleted users, copyright infringement, etc. On Eka's, giantessbooru and pornhub it's still good. Of course there are more websites than those but they're my main source.

Then there's also I've read some artists have deleted their entire gallery and disappeared but my point is some artists are still there and their work is as good as ever (ie. Karbo), so at least if one would think the art has gotten worse, there's still really good stuff out there, maybe only in smaller number. Also there is patreon that helps creators make content, dunno if it makes them work faster but it helps them.

Imo part of the "shit content" derives from the accessibility to the internet and ease of "stealing" content. Anyone can open MS Paint and draw, anyone can pretend their couch is a pred, anyone can download a vid and post it on their channel, anyone can record their screen and read a comic made by someone else, anyone can make a slideshow of their favorite porn pics, anyone can stick their phone in their mouth with a dumb "raawwhh" noise.

I think it could be than the vore art is not getting worse, but the ratio of content where people put effort, creativity and time vs those who doesn't is leaning toward the latter.

[Aces]

It's always been this way and felt this way. Trust me, the ratio of good and shit art is no different. You are just more exposed to the community at large.

Don't support artists who do the click bait shit though. Putting your content behind a permanent paywall and taunting them is how you lose fans.

I always laugh when an artist or writer locks all future content behind a paywall and wonders why they are losing money. They blame piracy but how are you supposed to gain new fans if nobody ever sees your work?

The crowd funding model has worked well for me. But, I digress. I am getting off topic.

[Marco]

Ulitimately, I don't think it has. I still find a lot of well drawn stuff, and most of the stuff I pass by, I do so due to my own preferences. DeviantArt may be worse for vote now, but I hardly ever search for it there now, and there may be a chance that goes artists avoid it, because they know that not everyone is going to like, so they go to places that are created for vore (like here) or places that are still for a majority of art, but still accepting to vore for the most part (like Fur Affinity.)

I will admit, I am unsure about Paetron. I feel selfish for saying it, because it might be those artiste's only way of making money, but it feels a shame to see some vore that I might like, and then find that I have to pay to look at it.

[Artemis]

My great irritation these days is seeing a new picture uploaded by an artist I love, with a really promising looking thumbnail, only to find out it's nothing more than a clickbait advert for their patreon.

Sorry, guys, but no way in hell am I ever linking my real world bank account to a vore fetish. Not ever.

By all means have a patreon, but is advertising them really what this site is for?

Back on DeviantArt, it's common practice for artists to bait and switch their vore content with patreon ads. Common enough to be a problem for group moderators, anyway. I remember dealing with lots of people trying to submit patreon ads to vore groups. Like actual ads--not just vore art with a patreon ad off to the side or something. It seems like there's a disconnect between artists who may not be experienced with well... marketing and the idea of trying to get people onto their patreon without kinda biting the hand that feeds them. Ultimately there has to be public art that's free to look at because if there isn't, you're kinda shooting yourself in the foot y'know? Having good, public art is the best advertising you can give yourself and there's really no substituting it. I don't personally do enough art to justify a patreon, but if I did I'd probably look into splitting my uploads between free and Patreon exclusive, using the promise of even more art like the free art as my one and only sales pitch. That seems like the best compromise to me. But eh.

Having dealt with that, having a patreon ad show up in my Eka's feed because I watched someone feels very tame in comparison. vwv

[Dekkard2]

The crowd funding model has worked well for me. But, I digress. I am getting off topic.

like kick starter or go fund me for specific projects and such?

I'm not entirely against Patreon as that may very well be the only way an artist can get income, especially if they live in a country where the economy isn't the greatest. Also if said artist is phenomenal at his/her art why shouldn't he/she get paid for their work? You could argue they could open commissions but those aren't always a source of steady income. I agree though that the best way to deal with having a patreon is to make your work available to patrons first then release it to everyone else in a few weeks or a month instead of a bait and switch ad.

[Aces]

The crowd funding model has worked well for me. But, I digress. I am getting off topic.

like kick starter or go fund me for specific projects and such?

I'm not entirely against Patreon as that may very well be the only way an artist can get income, especially if they live in a country where the economy isn't the greatest. Also if said artist is phenomenal at his/her art why shouldn't he/she get paid for their work? You could argue they could open commissions but those aren't always a source of steady income. I agree though that the best way to deal with having a patreon is to make your work available to patrons first then release it to everyone else in a few weeks or a month instead of a bait and switch ad.

I just straight up use Paypal. Users pay for each entry into a series. The series only continues when somebody pays for a part of it. Currently, Little Lamia in the Big City is my main project, but I also am working collaboratively to complete a comic series. I gain no profit from that; I just organize the income and forward the money to an artist or two. I already put in a shitton of work for a story though so it's not like I am twiddling my thumbs begging people to fulfill my smutty requests on their dime.