Idea for an Optional Homepage Block "Blind Showcase"
Right now, browsing images on Civitai hits two major walls. Most Reacted is easily manipulated by reaction farming, bots, or early snowballing, while Newest gets instantly flooded by mass-uploaded image dumps.
Existing alternatives have their own blind spots. Featured images and New Creator spotlights still rely heavily on reaction counts (making them vulnerable to the same manipulation), and Curated Collections—while great in quality—naturally reflect the specific tastes of the curator rather than the full spectrum of the community. Meanwhile, existing features like Crucible Discovery are great if you simply want to compete and pick a winner, but they serve a very different purpose.
What I am hoping for isn't another competition to decide winners and losers. The real goal here is strengthening the site's long-term sustainability by keeping diverse tastes in circulation. To achieve this, it would be great to have a new optional homepage block (toggleable On/Off in user settings) dedicated purely to appreciating and comparing images without bias.
How It Could Work (And Necessary Trade-offs)
100% Blind & True Random Order: No usernames, no reaction counts—just the artwork. More importantly, no internal ranking or sorting algorithm. Creating another leaderboard defeats the whole purpose. Images in this block should be displayed in a completely randomized order.
Strict Upload Cap (1 Free + 1 via Yellow Buzz): Users can submit only 1 image per day for free, and spend Yellow Buzz for 1 additional slot (capping at a maximum of 2 images per day). Honestly, the cost-efficiency (ROI) of spending Yellow Buzz here might not be great since exposure is purely random, but I think that's unavoidable. Trying to guarantee impressions or boost exposure based on Buzz spent would inevitably turn the feature into Pay-to-Win (P2W), which ruins the core concept.
Mandatory Prompts & The "Charm" Button Reveal: To make sure viewers don't feel empty-handed after clicking an image, submitting to this gallery should require full prompt disclosure (with heavy penalties for fake/misleading prompts). When a viewer likes an image and clicks the new "Charm" button, it reveals both the uploader's username and the prompt, while filling up a "Charm" gauge that is only visible to the uploader themselves or on their personal profile page. (To be honest, I'm a bit skeptical and torn about forcing prompt disclosure since it goes against the spirit of being "for everyone," including creators who prefer keeping workflows private. However, I feel it's a necessary compromise to maintain the value and quality of this specific gallery.)
Preventing Multi-Account Spam & Realistic Limitations: To prevent reckless spam attacks, submission should be restricted to users above a certain account level, and the system must automatically exclude already-blocked users from appearing in a viewer's random pool. Beyond that, bypassing limits via alt-accounts or uploading low-effort test images will inevitably have to be filtered out by the viewers themselves using existing User Block and Content Hide features. Frankly, if even this is too difficult to implement or if major abuse is still expected, it would be better to scrap this idea altogether.
Why Civitai Needs This
This isn't just about "fairness" or competing for a top spot. It’s about keeping users with diverse tastes engaged so the platform can thrive and last much longer. By allowing high-quality, varied art to circulate continuously—free from manipulation and mass-upload spam—Civitai can build much stronger long-term user retention.
Note: English is not my native language, so this post was translated with the help of AI. Please excuse me if some nuances are slightly different from what I originally intended to convey!