Just let people post their art, even if it's their OC making out with Sonic.
Anything but "AI" slop
this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2026
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That's the plan, the thread idea was just for people who want to share stuff that they don't want to put in a post or want feedback on.
I'm not gonna police it either way, just wanted to make sure people coming here knew that it was okay to post their stuff since most posts right now are not OC.
Maybe a separate comm named like "oc" for creativity and all kinds of original works? I think it's important to counter the current information economy of market-based "content", "consumers", and "slop" with good old creativity too.
Still think it's best to keep it all in one place. Most comms are pretty minimally utilized. Plus I think art is art.
Just hit it with a [OC] tag if you want to make it clear it's yours and are seeking feedback. If I do end up setting the [WIP] mega, that would be a place to share progress without blowing up the main feed with posts. Also just kinda like the dynamic of the megas in general for faster paced communication.
As someone who shares original work here, I would be unlikely to use a megathread. I want people to see my work and putting it behind an additional click just limits that.
Are we sure enough people are going to post their art that we need to hide it all in a mega?
Probably not, but this all started because someone wanted a place to share art that's still WIP. Figured having a place to share that isn't a post would be nice.
The other proposal was a whole new comm
If we take one step further back, I don’t think the original thread that kicked this all off was about WIP art so much as whether specific styles of OC art are acceptable here. While I might not fully agree with the OP of that thread about the broader umbrella her art falls into, it sounds like it’s welcome here?
Ohhh, I thought this was just about OC. I'm probably gonna stick with no porn here.
There are porn comms for that. I only read that second thread and that did not have the context of pornographic content.
Now if it's just like fursonas or character art that's cool, just no massive dongs and overly sexual stuff is probably a good line.
It didn’t sound like the art she wanted to post was porn, or overly sexual, though I might have misunderstood:
I don't post anything explicit
In that case post away
Tags are gonna be useful for this kind of thing
I wish lemmy had a tags feature.
Some day 1.0.0 will release 
I, selfishly, prefer when things show up on my new feed. That’s my main concern with a weekly or count-based post.
I think everyone should just submit individually instead of into a weekly thread.
Very much agree with that idea too, if we were to do a thread, I'd probably make it a monthly and give it a general WIP vibe and maybe a prompt/theme or something.
But I’m not sure how to feel about making a thread solely dedicated to community member pieces. I wouldn’t want community members to feel like their artwork isn’t “good enough” for the main feed. Does that make sense?
And at the same time, I understand some people might not wish their artwork to reach the main feed. Maybe something like a weekly WIP thread might be good.
I think this is a valid concern.
Yeah don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of more engagement in this comm. Anything to get me off my ass and post some my own stuff. I personally like seeing community members’ work mixed with professional pieces. I like that vibe.
I think the problem is formalizing community member submissions into a weekly or mega thread would actually take away from the community. However, dedicating threads to WIP seems like a good idea. The parenting comm has a weekly thread about just sharing what’s going on with community members’ families. It’s nice reading updates each week and seeing familiar/new users.
Right. Emphasis should be on making a low pressure place to post stuff without splitting off a separate community. Perhaps with a suggested indicator for posts where an artist wants crit and feedback, I've seen that work well elsewhere.
I wouldn’t want community members to feel like their artwork isn’t “good enough” for the main feed. Does that make sense?
This was just suggested because the OP expressed concerns about it. Specifically since a lot of the art posted here is like actual famous masterwork art (though I think if this experiment works out and people start sharing more that will change).
Would also just be nice to have a spot to show off WIP stuff and have discussions etc without having to keep track of a dozen posts. Especially if you're planning on coming back to something later.
A mega solely for sharing incomplete original work and art-based discussion would be nice. This comm could be a space for people to have regular discussion, get feedback and encourage people to pick up a pencil/stylus and keep improving.
I suggest the structure of a biweekly pinned thread, give it the theme of a particular piece of art or a particular artist, with a bias towards artists and works from socialist countries, but including modern artists such as manga/comic artists to avoid impressions of elitism or gatekeeping. In the body of the post there should be a conversation starter, such as "What do you think about the depiction of nudity?", "How strong are your perspective skills?", "What particular artist inspired you recently?", etc. After that a random prompt for people to try sketching/doodling/painting.
Lastly a reminder for people to not post images that they shared with their real name.
The most important aspect would be to keep the thread as casual and welcoming as possible, while it would be mainly targeted towards artists who want to share their work it should welcome non-artists that want to share their thoughts about art and feedback towards those who share their sketches. One thing I noticed is that people treat this site as a super secret communist hideout and that mentality must be overcome for such a thread to work.
The one obstacle to solve would be the range of subjects allowed to be depicted. Nsfw art depicting nudity should be allowed but the question is to what point, furry art is tricky as well, this hypothetical thread could include it as well with content warnings but there is already a comm for that. Lastly there should be some sort of mechanism to encourage people to actually post their completed works standalone, I recommend a biweekly change of the comm's icon and banner art where only original works posted standalone are considered.
To ~~flex~~ give myself some authority on this subject, I am an artist who has posted their own work here before several times and I am looking for a casual space for mutual feedback and regular discussion as I have described.
I'm neither an artist, nor a real member of this community, but I would have opsec concerns about encouraging sharing personal work here. Hexbear has rules against sharing selfies (AFAIK) because they could be linked back to individual people, and sharing art here that is also posted on other social media makes de-anonymization easier. If people were to post their own creations, there should be some guidelines or info about opsec and keeping it separate from your IRL persona.
Absolutely. At the very least there should be information in the sidebar about opsec and scrubbing exit data from images.
Fair, I can update the sidebar with info on EXIF scrubbing and not including like a signature or something. People share pictures of their pets and art in other comms pretty frequently. This would basically just be a continuation of that but in this specific comm
Reverse image search exists regardless of signature or exif data. Not saying people shouldn't post their art, just be aware that someone can track it to socials if even if you scrub it and don't mention your name.
these concerns are really important and its good to point out here.
its a topic that is probably overdue for another discussion site wide sooner than later. or some good effort posts re: how to conceptualise the risk hexbear might pose to you the poster and best practices for certain types of posting.
I’ve previously checked EXIF data for images I’ve uploaded and it gets cleared, though it would be a risk if it’s uploaded elsewhere that doesn’t.
I think community member art should be encouraged but I also am not really a poster in this community so take my opinion with very little weight. I just think it would be cool to see
I was thinking of possibly doing weekly threads where people could share their art without having it show up in the main feed, but I would also like to open up a discussion on it.
I like this, it seems like an elegant solution.
I'd suggest it might be easier to not replace them weekly but just let the "WIP and misc OC thread" (or whatever you call it) age until it approaches a reply limit.
Like the news mega, but not a 3000 reply limit necessarily, since that would probably take years to reach.
That way you wouldn't have to make new threads on a weekly basis regardless of activity. Less regular work that way, among other possible intangible benefits.
I'm down for this, I'm also in agreement with the other folks here that the pinned thread should be more for feedback and casual sharing for people who aren't ready to show something on the main feed. Or just a general place to ask for feedback etc.
Would keep it clean and when someone's ready to share a final work, they can put it in its own post
Also would you want to be given control over these threads? I'd say a monthly rotation is probably good. Could even be fun to hit the post body with an artist or an idea like how the other megas work.
If you want that but don't want to manage it, I can find time to set one up every month too.
when someone's ready to share a final work, they can put it in its own post
That’s a great idea.