I’m looking forward to joining the next beta round, but more so excited for a place where I can enjoy photography- not only mine but others too of course - and not have algorithms decide what I’m going to see. As you mentioned, IG takes so much work not only to maintain your ‘status’ and actually show in people’s feeds, but likewise actually seeing the photos from people you’ve followed for that exact reason you want to see their work is ridiculously hard to do. It takes an enormous amount of time and work to try and cajole the system into showing what you want and why you followed people in the first place. I’m really hoping this works and you can get the uptake on higher tiers to make is sustainable as you scale. Fingers crossed!
If you would, please consider opening usernames up to 3 characters only. It's really difficult to migrate to a new platform when you can't use the same branding you've been using on social media for decades.
Good read! I’m excited to join the next beta round. Adobe’s Behance would be another good platform to compare foto to. I personally don’t use Behance, but I’ve poked around it a bit, and answered some Adobe user survey questions surrounding it a while back.
I am so excited at having an alternative to Instagram, which is proving to be such a frustrating application but one I feel photographers believe they have to participate in. There are so many YouTubers making a great living purely descibring their views on todays Instagram algorithm ! And so many photographers hungry for the Instagram keys to success.
Hi Michael, this is all very exciting. I'm particularly keen in the true social aspect of photo and I love the idea of a paid pro account where editors, curators and image commissioners can browse our projects. as a professional commercial photographer and emerging art photographer the ability to connect is invaluable! Looks like finally someone has put some serious thought on a better way to benefit photography and not themselves. I'm glad to be part of this journey!
A great image with the fish at the top :-) And a great article touching all the points important to talk about. I had almost the same experiences here the last years. Vero and Glass were the latest experiments that have failed to me as well. Michael and foto, you give us hope to get the own space back that our photography deserves, with own control by human decisions and not algorithms. I'm so much looking forward to the beta opening in February and the path you described with the planned functions. Is a local language support planned? I offer my help for a German version if needed.
Good read Michael. Nice overview of the differences with other platforms. Happy to be in this private beta (@marcel) but would like to have a slightly larger group involved so there's more interaction. Keep up the good work!
I’ve been a Glass user for about two years. You obviously didn’t spend much time looking at the site. Your beef – “Glass also focuses on camera gear with its current UI design.” is so wrong. It’s merely a few lines under the photo caption.
And you are incorrect saying Glass doesn’t have a free tier. AFAIK you can look at every single image on Glass.photo without signing up. That way you can see if you want to join. By having paying subscribers only people who are genuinely interested in photography are the members and not losers who just want to leave smart-aleck comments.
I’ve posted photos on many different sites, but this is the first one where people encourage others, pay compliments, ask questions and generally behave like adults. I have never seen a comment badmouthing anyone’s work, it seems we follow the maxim “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
Finally the Glass new message tone changes to a purr if someone posts a picture of a cat! You gotta love that.
I've been a little disappointed with Foto, in spite of me following plenty of other photographers, not many people follow me back again. As for people liking my images that never happens.
Yet post the same images else where such as Instagram and I'm getting likes and follows all the time.
Excited for this platform and the thought behind it. My question is how to bridge the gap between professionals and clients. If a non-photographer joins they will want to share the selfie or food pic but the platform will be more geared around photographers so what will be the benefit for them? And we are all addicted to likes and shares so how do we undo that narrative in the basic consumer mind?
I’m looking forward to joining the next beta round, but more so excited for a place where I can enjoy photography- not only mine but others too of course - and not have algorithms decide what I’m going to see. As you mentioned, IG takes so much work not only to maintain your ‘status’ and actually show in people’s feeds, but likewise actually seeing the photos from people you’ve followed for that exact reason you want to see their work is ridiculously hard to do. It takes an enormous amount of time and work to try and cajole the system into showing what you want and why you followed people in the first place. I’m really hoping this works and you can get the uptake on higher tiers to make is sustainable as you scale. Fingers crossed!
Good read...much appreciated.
If you would, please consider opening usernames up to 3 characters only. It's really difficult to migrate to a new platform when you can't use the same branding you've been using on social media for decades.
Good read! I’m excited to join the next beta round. Adobe’s Behance would be another good platform to compare foto to. I personally don’t use Behance, but I’ve poked around it a bit, and answered some Adobe user survey questions surrounding it a while back.
Looking forward to it! Will you add multi-photo-posts or is it mainly one-picture uploads?
I am so excited at having an alternative to Instagram, which is proving to be such a frustrating application but one I feel photographers believe they have to participate in. There are so many YouTubers making a great living purely descibring their views on todays Instagram algorithm ! And so many photographers hungry for the Instagram keys to success.
Hi Michael, this is all very exciting. I'm particularly keen in the true social aspect of photo and I love the idea of a paid pro account where editors, curators and image commissioners can browse our projects. as a professional commercial photographer and emerging art photographer the ability to connect is invaluable! Looks like finally someone has put some serious thought on a better way to benefit photography and not themselves. I'm glad to be part of this journey!
A great image with the fish at the top :-) And a great article touching all the points important to talk about. I had almost the same experiences here the last years. Vero and Glass were the latest experiments that have failed to me as well. Michael and foto, you give us hope to get the own space back that our photography deserves, with own control by human decisions and not algorithms. I'm so much looking forward to the beta opening in February and the path you described with the planned functions. Is a local language support planned? I offer my help for a German version if needed.
What about illustration or other art ... is this just for photography?
What a wonderful project/idea!
Best of luck! 🎉🥳
Good read Michael. Nice overview of the differences with other platforms. Happy to be in this private beta (@marcel) but would like to have a slightly larger group involved so there's more interaction. Keep up the good work!
I’ve been a Glass user for about two years. You obviously didn’t spend much time looking at the site. Your beef – “Glass also focuses on camera gear with its current UI design.” is so wrong. It’s merely a few lines under the photo caption.
And you are incorrect saying Glass doesn’t have a free tier. AFAIK you can look at every single image on Glass.photo without signing up. That way you can see if you want to join. By having paying subscribers only people who are genuinely interested in photography are the members and not losers who just want to leave smart-aleck comments.
I’ve posted photos on many different sites, but this is the first one where people encourage others, pay compliments, ask questions and generally behave like adults. I have never seen a comment badmouthing anyone’s work, it seems we follow the maxim “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
Finally the Glass new message tone changes to a purr if someone posts a picture of a cat! You gotta love that.
I've been a little disappointed with Foto, in spite of me following plenty of other photographers, not many people follow me back again. As for people liking my images that never happens.
Yet post the same images else where such as Instagram and I'm getting likes and follows all the time.
Excited for this platform and the thought behind it. My question is how to bridge the gap between professionals and clients. If a non-photographer joins they will want to share the selfie or food pic but the platform will be more geared around photographers so what will be the benefit for them? And we are all addicted to likes and shares so how do we undo that narrative in the basic consumer mind?