Cara: Art & Social 12+

OK, so I want to start off this review by saying I totally get that currently Cara is in a beta phase, which I think is probably ideal. And I am really excited about the potential for it as a replacement/alternative to Instagram!
however, that being said…
I am a figurative artist. I do a lot of work with the body particularly women. I was frustrated to discover that in posting my first Portfolio image onto the site I was told it was NSFW the work in question features a seated nude female that is not doing anything overly sexual, just sitting. after putting stickers over her nipples, I was able to post the image. as a portrait artist working with a female body, it frustrates me that yet another platform, cannot get the difference between over sexual content and a female nipple. Would we flag Botticelli‘s Venus for having an exposed breast?

I would urge Cara‘s development team to focus a little attention on whatever program or system they have in place for determining what is appropriate and what is not. if we are determining that Female nipples alone Cause something to be NSFW I fear that a great deal of art that could be presented on the site will be flagged. I know there’s a trend among “the algorithms” to target people presenting female bodies in non-sexual art, and I am very much hoping that Cara can break this trend.

I waited a bit before writing anything but honestly, I am loving Cara. Keep in mind, this app is in BETA, so it is not perfect but each step along the way the team has been transparent and each update is an improvement. As of writing this review you may notice a few things such as slow load times when uploading a post or the occasional error but nothing crazy, especially for something in beta still.
The app is a mix of Instagram/Twitter in the way it functions and your profile will have a portfolio/timeline and about me section. The categories when making a portfolio addition are a bit lacking as of right now but each update seems to bring more options.
When you get a notification about a comment and click on it, unfortunately it only takes you to the post and not the comment so it is a bit difficult to respond to comments as of right now but I am confident a future update will resolve this as well.
Overall, Cara is a breath of fresh air thus far and if you are looking for somewhere to display your art, I highly recommend giving it a try and being patient. I have not only experienced more engagement but seeing nothing but art has been so much better for my mental health. I feel inspired again and it is just so dang nice. I am excited to see where Cara goes as it develops.

i love this app. is it completely perfect? no. & is there more that can be done? yes! but considering the developers been paying out of pocket to create this and it isn’t made by some big corporation with a fat budget, i’m impressed that they’re doing what they can as well as so grateful for going out their way to deposit their working money into what started out small (& still relatively is) but is growing & becoming more of a safe space for artist. for what it is so far, it beats instagram for me to share my art. personally, it’s more peaceful, there’s no A.I or meta, and i get to look at other people’s art.. ALL types of art & that’s all i see. art made by people! i love the mixture of former twitter & instagram as well. i love that it’s safe for work & appropriate for artists’ of all ages as well. every-time i look through comments it’s very supportive of one another & it’s a breath of fresh air. art is to be seen by everyone including an audience of who isn’t artists, i get that, but it’s just nice to still be around former ones. that being said, i appreciate the joy this app brought to me. thanks cara team! work hard & i will support you in this project (ik it won’t be cheap especially with the way people’s been coming through loool). excited for future features; what you have so far is great.