500 Followers Later: The Numbers Aren't the Interesting Part

Well, it happened.

500 followers.

At 499, I responded in the most reasonable way possible: I uploaded about 15 images and videos and attempted to brute-force the problem. Apparently it worked. 😂

I joined Civitai in January. Since then I've posted more than 1,200 images, experimented with more models and workflows than I can remember, fallen headfirst into AI video, hosted bounties, built software, written articles, and somehow reached #24 in Master Generators (Video).

But looking at that 500 this morning, I realized something:

The number isn't actually the interesting part.

Somewhere Along the Way, This Became a Community

I originally came here because I like making things.

That's still why I'm here.

This is a hobby for me. Everything I create and release is free, and I don't plan on changing that. I have absolutely nothing against creators who monetize their work—it simply isn't what I'm here to do.

The same goes for Buzz.

100% of the Buzz I receive goes back into the community.

That became the idea behind my Buzz Board and eventually my bounties. I wanted to create something fun, help good work get noticed and, yes, get my own name out there a little in the process.

My current bounty, A Slice of Unlife, will probably be my last for a while.

Not because I've stopped caring about the community.

Quite the opposite.

I Think I Found What I Want to Do Next

I recently wrote Make Civitai Great Again, and one of its biggest themes was discovery.

Civitai has an incredible amount of great work that disappears almost immediately beneath the next thousand uploads. I argued that community members who find, curate and support great work are valuable too—not just the people creating it.

Then I realized there are already people doing exactly that.

@tehalex86's Share Some Love brings creators together specifically to interact with and appreciate each other's work.

@Chumple's Community Gallery gives creators another place to be discovered.

And @carefull_time's Hidden Gems deliberately hunts for creators who aren't getting the attention their work deserves.

That's where I'd like to spend more of my energy: finding great art, supporting these community projects, building galleries, tipping creators and helping good work get seen.

Building the Tool I Wanted

That same frustration with discovery is why I built Civitai Artist Discovery.

It's now at v2.2.0, with creator-first browsing, personalized discovery, emerging-artist discovery, Time Machine creator search, and now video support.

I built Artist Discovery to help people find artists whose work they might otherwise never come across. @carefull_time is taking that idea to the next level: finding those artists and then actively sharing them with the wider community through Hidden Gems.

That's exactly the kind of creator discovery I hoped the app could help make easier.

And Then There's Video...

Lately I've fallen pretty hard into AI video.

It has become one of the areas I'm most excited about exploring. Turning a still image into something that actually feels alive—without losing what made the original image work—is an entirely different creative challenge, and I've been having a ridiculous amount of fun experimenting with it.

This is one of my favorite recent examples.

I'm still figuring out what works, what doesn't, how much motion is enough, and where this technology is going. That's part of what makes it fun.

To the People Who Keep Showing Up

There are names I now recognize immediately.

@jbear2447, @Beerluminati, @Liant, @EmmiAI, @5990ef66795d77d0, @Shorgall, @giminic, @Bone_Of_Moon, @hasemadao377, @KAOxNaLisa, @tehalex86, @carefull_time, @JaneDoe01, @ferretduck, @Samson07, @Daisyrling, @HackAfterDark, @Chumple—and many others.

You've sent Buzz, commented, chatted, participated, shared things I've built, supported my bounties, or simply kept showing up.

I noticed. Thank you.

So yes, 500 followers is pretty damn cool.

But finding people whose names I recognize, helping creators get noticed, sharing what I learn, building tools people actually use, and occasionally making something that makes me stare at the screen and think "holy shit, that worked"?

That's the interesting part.

In my last article, I wrote:

"That is the Civitai I want to see."

500 followers later, it still is.

Now I'd like to do my small part to help build it.

Thank you for coming along for the ride. ❤️