Welcome back, my fellow astro adventurers, to Cosmic-books popular monthly editorial, In My Opinion or IMO for short.
In fact, I’m super glad you joined me because this month’s posting might be the most important IMO in the history of IMOs. After 29 editions published on this webpage under the title IMO and another 12 more art blogs published under the Cosmic-books banner, this is the Liberté edition, the freedom edition, the last kick at the can.
While I have enjoyed writing these little blog posts over the past 3.5 years, I have only ever done so to add substance to my otherwise meaningless art. The entire venture has always been based on creating art every month, and I honestly thought that if I included a short article to accompany my work, it would be fun and exciting and perhaps improve my writing skills as well.
I spent close to 3 years writing a monthly political blog on an alternative news website before opening Cosmic-books as another personal project. That was called something like WTF, and while brash and centred on corrupt politicians, it evolved into this slightly less political venture, more focused on popular media and art.
The rise of AI over the past year has honestly rendered my feeble attempts to gain attention for my art or writing completely futile. Accompanied by social media’s outright censorship and hostile AI-controlled algorithms, has proven detrimental to the whole effort. I am at the point where I can no longer afford to spend a week of my time every month creating something that receives zero attention because the 500 people who follow my page never see my posts. When I use my images as comments on art-related posts, I get flagged as spam.
Is posting a picture of Star Wars on a post about Star Wars unwarranted? Is it Spam?
Well, guess what? I didn’t ask to see their posts of AI-generated Star Wars images, and I’m not even complaining; I’m simply sharing my enthusiasm.
Yes, I know I’ve never done this for the likes, but this is more than that… It’s the endless hours I spend every month creating artwork until my hands are numb… only to have all my exposure blocked because of AI.
X, the primary place I promote my artwork, sucks at promoting small accounts; they throttle content makers, and Facebook is no better. I’ll probably just post on Art-station from now on. I might keep this page alive to post my art but we’ll have to see.
At this point. Cosmic-books may stick around for a while yet, but I’m finished with the self-imposed timetable of a monthly project. Hell, I’m not even sure I can afford to keep Cosmic-books alive once the renewal date rolls around, so this might be the end, end.
I hope you have a wonderful life, and thanks for all the support.
Au Revoir