# Wait. What?! Wasn’t this supposed to be decentralized social media @ourzora ?! Source: https://x.com/cibellecibelle/status/1851732835356545491?s=46 ## Summary Cibelle (cibelle.eth) says they feel misled that Zora, which was promoted as decentralized social media, now turns users' posts into collectible NFTs, which they describe as cheapening NFTs. They say they believed the platform differed from Web 2 platforms, citing its repeated "Decentralized Social Media" messaging and jabs at Zuckerberg. They also thank Foundation and Rodeo Club for material for their artistic research, say they will keep posting, and invite readers to send money to cibelle.eth or PayPal instead of minting. ## Article Wait. What?! Wasn’t this supposed to be decentralized social media @ourzora ?! What do you mean COLLECTED?! Ok so, now all our shitposts and art process and generous free art in exchange for the minimum accountable material repayment for the emotional and digital labour of posting on social media has been turned into the cheapening of NFTs?! -yeah yeah u are not the only one to do this rn; however- Cool. Thank you for the wake up call and memory refreshment. Not like I didn’t know that blockchain is full of “Web 2 platform gaslighting extractive capitalism as usual” but I really DID believe that it was different here, you did say Decentralized Social Media all the time and memed shade on the Zuck. Move fast break things confuse everyone and zero alignment with rhetoric is so exhausting. Then one “wonders” why do we constantly get the long threads of “is NFT dead?” “when is NFT back?” “is minted art Art? “is NFT Art?” I’m exhausted of finding meaning, working on subversion of said meaning for socio-political change oriented art, of embedment practice, of being mislead with tricky meaning. Sincerity and consistency always feels better bc then we KNOW what we are doing and can take care of our actual art practice accordingly however we may feel like, without any ridic puritanism: yes we all would like to be able to continue to make a living from our art practice, however careful or reckless. With that, I’d like to share my most sincere gratitude for affording me so much material for my artistic research and deployable social sculpture projects. No shade in the thankfulness. Thank you and thank you @foundation @rodeodotclub, like wow. W O W. Curve balls and a zillion plot twists: there are no goodies or baddies like there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism, or so they say. With that, of course I’ll keep posting -or was it minting?!- some posts -or was it NFTs of tumbled value?!- oh, the axiology of it all and all entrapments. * insert renaissance religious ecstasy/exhaustion figurative oil painting facial expression here * The universe says [it’s all experiences, learning and context beyond duality] Cool cool. I’ll prob put this tweet/X/?! on chain- or not. if u identify with these feelings and want to throw coin at these words bypassing any chain mintpost post-minting: cibelle.eth / the paypal is my X handle it’s also perfectly fine to just feel it and watch me pay Elon Musk for the promise of meager visibility and longer typing space. No judgement, no shade. We are all so entrapped just trying to survive these algorithms. All compassion to users baited as data source material for profit on our actions and emotions. I see you, I see us and I love you. {there’s not a single emoji, combination of, or dank meme that could illustrate the exhausted jadedness I feel rn - gonna go rewatch The Fly or read Kafka; or both at the same time} *insert internal screaming and delirious cry laughing* ## Comments **timdaub.eth**: - Zora frontend was never open source - Maybe do some research before you majorly commit to a project to only get disappointed. Don't believe everything the founder says. Fact check before That said, if you're an artist then open source won't save you, unless you're also a really good developer. The point of open source is that someone with the appropriate skills can fork away from trunk if they're feeling unhappy about the founding team. An entitlement that "open source is going to fix itself" is unjustified because it won't. Most open source work is unpaid labor. Nobody is going to fork "for you." Which means that unless Zora also has a strong open source developer culture around "taking matters out of Jacob's hands when he misbehaves" the "decentralized social media" label doesn't matter much. That's not only true for Zora, it's just a practical reality for any crypto project, quite frankly. **mishaderidder.eth**: > now all our shitposts and art process and generous free art in exchange for the minimum accountable material repayment for the emotional and digital labour of posting on social media has been turned into the cheapening of NFTs?! I think quite some, especially OG 2021 artists like @cibellecibelle, feel betrayed by Zora. The thing is Zora has in the past been pumping manifesto's that they're here for the artists and creating new ways of earning, etc ,etc. Now it's just free mints and also, that is one of the main critiques I think, through these free mints has been devaluing NFT as a way to seriously your release your art digitally. They feel Zora has become like web3 IG and exploitation is perpetuated under a new ownership. In this respect I also I have to think about our discussion about 'The Comedian' and how capitalism often absorbs its critiques and sells them back to us. Anyway Zora has been cranking out manifesto's like these: https://zora.energy - This is a recent one when they launched they're own L2. The original manifesto from 2021 "They Thought They Could Own Us" can't be found anymore ?! ( https://zora.co/@manifesto ) but is referred to in this article https://zine.zora.co/zora-psa-haun where they in 2022 announced Haun Ventures is leading Zora’s latest $50M fundraise. I retrieved part of it here https://www.are.na/block/16811508 But it's not the full manifesto as I remember it. Maybe when trying to build new alternative economic systems you should create them without manifestos but follow a non-narrative approach. By this structural intervention you might resist re-packaging and disappointment in the end. **timdaub.eth**: > I think quite some, especially OG 2021 artists like @cibellecibelle, feel betrayed by Zora. The thing is Zora has in the past been pumping manifesto's that they're here for the artists and creating new ways of earning, etc ,etc. Now it's just free mints and also, that is one of the main critiques I think, through these free mints has been devaluing NFT as a way to seriously your release your art digitally. They feel Zora has become like web3 IG and exploitation is perpetuated under a new ownership. That's fair. I think Zora has run some kind of Embrace, Extend, Exstinguish model with NFTs actually [1]. I remember using it to sell some NFTs of an artist I was working for in 2021 because they seemed to be an alternative to Open Sea. Then shortly after, they started the open mints. To be honest, about what I said that: > - Zora frontend was never open source I have never been outspoken against a majority of Zora's infrastructure being closed source. I have done it for Warpcast though because it felt more personal and since I never was much of a Zora reliant person. > Now it's just free mints and also, that is one of the main critiques I think, through these free mints has been devaluing NFT as a way to seriously your release your art digitally. I wonder if Zora can be blamed here. From what I know Open Sea activity is still down bad while the primary mint market is thriving. I always wonder how much of this pressure to develop is a matter of the market pulling a product out of the team vs the team creating the market with the product. In my personal experience selling NFTs at auction is just not a meaningful activity as to make it a consumer-centered one. So for Zora to expand their user base, they have to broaden the platforms appeal: > [...] Zora has become like web3 IG and exploitation is perpetuated under a new ownership. This is what they're becoming because they want to survive, no? 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish **mishaderidder.eth**: Yes, I agree NFTs as they were understood during the 2021 hype days and the following burst of the bubble can't be blamed on Zora. But the critique is I think also in the aftermath of the burst Zora just made it worse and did nothing (contrary actually) to bring back value. And also I agree with you it is an "embrace, extend, and extinguish" strategy by Zora. As said no new economic models to be found here. But the disppointment in Zora is part of a larger disappointment of artists in web3 space and promises, it's like first the royalties that were not enforcable, then you were forced to promote your work all day on a failing social network, now the new creator economy being just like the old creator economy. Artists feel triple fooled. But well, all I can say, and as always, don't believe the hype and do your own research. Still the sentiment remains. In this regard I was struck the other day by this analysis of NFT by Venkatesh Rao: > NFTs were a massive banana-peel slip moment for the entire blockchain sector. Lofty theories of art economies wearing top hats slipped and fell. In this case, it is hard to tease apart the individual humans slipping and falling (failing to realize artistic ambitions for value the NFTs were supposed to unlock) from the technology itself slipping and falling (limitations of how much you can do simply with securely ownable pointers to things that must still live in the real world). (posted on Kiwi https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Can-Machines-Slip-on-Banana-Peels?index=0x672263cc9f2e8c7ee31756f54c2daf45eb676b8418c973f08cf43437c7c0e4dfe6c72816 ) ... talking bananas again lol.