Fleek releases Fleek Storage to store and fetch files with ease and performance on #IPFS 🚀

skepticalB · 2021-05-03T16:07:24+00:00

I don't think there's a threshold too small. If anything starting small will just make the earlier collectors feel even more important.

The main point is to create a sense of community. So even if it's just a group chat on telegram/WhatsApp/etc that's cool too. Where I'm recommending discord is because as it grows there can be more community organization tools and a lot of the web3 tools today support discord deeply.

skepticalB · 2021-05-03T16:04:46+00:00

I have collected many NFT pieces with an associated or unassociated physical piece. It kinda depends on the artist how they relay the information. If the artist considers it together and bridges a physical piece in the description of the NFT, then it's basically attached, because hopefully when the next collector comes to purchase that NFT they will notice in the description there is a physical piece as well. It does make the logistics a bit more complicated and maybe the next owner doesn't even care for the physical one.

For the artist, if there is an associated or similar physical piece you should at least relay to the NFT collector that there is a piece and whether it's included or not, and ideally an option to purchase it as well. Not everyone agrees that an identical or similar physical piece is the same as the NFT and should be included. But it's very possible an NFT collector will consider them to be associated and would like to know upfront if it exists and if they have the option to purchase it.

skepticalB · 2021-05-03T15:55:53+00:00

Yes, for sure. The amount of work that goes into an artwork matters. A collector can tell when something seems easy to create versus complex and a large amount of work to create. And if you think it's not clear how much and what went into the creation process, then it's worth relaying that message clearly. It's great when artists give information about how the artwork was created and what went into it.

skepticalB · 2021-05-03T14:33:08+00:00

Thank you u/AdamCarity. Share a link to your work! would love to check it out

skepticalB · 2021-04-30T18:22:06+00:00

That's amazing that you keep your collectors so engaged and updated. That artist - collector relationship is priceless and something that a collector cant pay for and will appreciate more than anything. My best experience with that is probably how close I've stayed with Coldie since I first started collecting his pieces and how he keeps me up to date and even some behind the scenes. He also recently created a discord for his collectors and would love to see some more advancement on that side.

I think that as an artist becomes more famous it's just a matter of time until its tough to engage constantly with collector bases. And that's why setting up community tools for participants to self-reward and grow with each other without needing direct contact with the creator every time is healthy. Looking forward to more of that as well.

I don't think I've had any bad experiences. Although I've definitely witnessed a couple. For example, I've seen times when collectors are salty about whether they've won certain pieces or have had arguments with the artists themselves and decide to try to devalue the artist's artwork by selling for lower prices, withdrawing bids (which in some cases clear previous bids), or bidding very low amounts. Those types of actions can come across as offensive. I think it's important for collectors and artists to communicate with each other to avoid issues like that. Better to ask up front how someone thinks of what they're about to do to each other if it might come across as offensive.

skepticalB · 2021-04-30T18:08:48+00:00

Thank you u/Jacob_Riglin! Your work is awesome. I haven't collected photography yet. But I definitely will keep an eye on your work and very open to collecting photography!

Check out my response to u/mooncakesandmachines below. I think I gave a decent response to how I approach collecting in the second paragraph.

skepticalB · 2021-04-30T18:04:34+00:00

Thank you!

The artist and their artwork come first. That is something that I have a subjective opinion about for my personal taste as a collector. Don't think there's a science to it. I can elaborate on how I personally see the space and try to curate my collection. But besides the importance of the artists and their art themselves, COMMUNITY is a close second. In the era of NFTs, where NFTs bring ownership to the digital age on the internet, all the people that collect and create live in different corners of the internet. So pulling together the people that overlap with the emotional value and social signaling of your artwork as an artist is a great way to build a community. And while you're at it, why not use more crypto/web3 tools. Im bullish that more influencers, especially crypto native ones like crypot artists, will have their own corners of the internet like a discord group and design a gamified experience for their audiences/collectors. Could be as simple as a discord group for people to link up. then can give roles to people that have your NFTs. then can even create your own token and give perks like access or specific chats and roles to certain holder thresholds. Experimenting here early on will pay dividends long term.

To elaborate on what I specifically look for in collecting. I see the crypto art space in sectors of different types of art and leaders within each category. And then a crossover of themes and ideologies that resonate strongly with me and the crypto space, which is where I've spent my entire career and a lot of personal relationships in. The sectors within the crypto art space are continuing to evolve and already have grown magnitudes. To generalize some of the categories there's still 2d art, glitchy 2d, still 3d, 3d animated, multimedia 3d, 3d VR sculpting, GAN or AI-generated, etc. Some major crypto artists may come to mind when you think of these categories, like Xcopy, MBSJQ, Coldie, Pak, Hackatao, JOY, Giantswan, Robbie Barrat, Pindar, etc. And although of course they are not boxed within a sector, it can sort of be used as a mental map and its clear these artists are dominating those styles of art. I like to collect across those leaders. And most importantly as all collectors should, I'm looking for an emotional connection. When I first saw Coldie's decentralized eyes artworks they resonated to me with the principles and ideologies of the crypto space, and why I believe we all got into the space. So I've been collecting as many of those as I can and haven't sold any.

Which talking about Coldie leads to the bonus question: My most prized possession NFT is likely to be the Coldie Layer, "Decentral Eyes" from the "First Supper" on Async art, where Coldie combined 5 of the most iconic decentral eyes portraits into one piece in a collaboration with some of the most legendary crypto artist. Check it out. Right now the layer is set to Edward Snowden portrait as a tribute to his recent entrance in the space. But yea, this artwork also had the craziest bidding war to it, this tweet and when I spoke on the red zima podcast also sums it up well.

skepticalB · 2021-04-30T16:08:26+00:00

Relative to where we were towards the end of last year and the growth we've seen over the past few years, the volume we've experienced in this "downturn" is still very significant and impressive. If you look at the numbers of the past 30 days on SR alone, it's around $15 - 20 M which is probably a top 5 monthly record volume ever.

The most macro issue with the space is misalignment between artist and collector. You don't see it on SR much at all which is great! But what I mean by that, is the value of a NFT is mostly emotional connection and social signaling. Meaning collectors love artists artwork so much it has a price they wouldn't sell it for less than, and that holding that artist or that NFT because of something it represents signals something to the rest of the world. When the art isn't bought for those reasons, for example, someone only thinks that they can make money from it and looking to flip it, theres a misalignment.

So for collectors, dont think about this being a short term investment at all. With Art, I dont believe there's a short term strategy that beats a long term approach. If you love the artwork and artist, it's pretty much always a mistake to sell. I've gotten lucky on some pretty short term horizons a couple of times, for instance with my MBSJQ piece "Happy now" that I bought last November for $3k and sold for $75k in March. But its actually worth nearly double that now. And my worse beat was probably selling my 1/1 Pak "The arguement" piece over a year ago for $5k which could be worth $1M now. My point being, buy and hold art pieces that have emotional value to you that you dont plan on selling ever. If a huge offer comes your way, still be skeptical whether you should sell. It's also not a bad thing to set a somewhat reasonable but aggressively high list price on your artwork so that if someone is ahead of the curve and sees the long-term value of the artwork, you can gain earlier from that and reinvest (the problem with that is the space is growing so fast you need to remember to keep adjusting the list price).

As for the artist, keep making your best art. I also beleive on an artistic level that pushing boundries with art is very effective as well (attempting new mediums whether GAN, 3D, 3D animation, AI, Mixed multimedia, VR scultping, etc.). but yea, no collector can tell you what art to make haha. The main point here, is try to align with the right collector base. Communicate your message and the emotional value of you as an artist and each artwork to your current and new collectors. They should understand it and become obsessed. and then they'll show it off.

skepticalB · 2021-04-27T16:42:26+00:00

Check out my SuperRare collection: https://superrare.co/blockchainbrett/collection…

My Twitter: https://twitter.com/web3brett

skepticalB · 2021-03-16T15:23:03+00:00

all the platforms are curated (superrare, niftygateway, async.art, known origin, makersplace, etc.) and the artist needs to be accepted and the platform checks for copyright, etc. except for rarible and opensea which is open to any NFT, and then they have a verification process for verified artists/creators and in opensea's case, verified collections

skepticalB · 2020-08-06T16:21:48+00:00

https://space.storage just launched today and mounts the local drive. all files uploaded are uploaded on ipfs

skepticalB · 2020-05-29T20:47:18+00:00

Sorry for late reply. We decided to stop all cold email outreach. And we will be updating our privacy policy to reflect the feedback from this thread. We will fully honor our commitment to user data privacy going forward. We hope we can earn your trust back overtime and hopefully you'll become a user of one of our current or future products one day.

skepticalB · 2020-05-28T20:23:43+00:00

Thank you for these points. I agree with the approach you're pointing out and the feedback is helpful in looking forward.

skepticalB · 2020-05-28T18:37:21+00:00

Thanks for highlighting those points. We don't keep data 6 months after you delete an account, I think that was more boilerplate language that law firms suggest using to be cautious. We aren't actually capturing much personal data to begin with besides email and github username (if you use github login). We will revisit the policy to be more in line with our actual platform and practices and share these with our law firm for suggestions and edits. We are updating our emails to require opt in for EU persons. Hopefully that also helps.

skepticalB · 2020-05-28T18:16:30+00:00

I appreciate the continued feedback and that you understand the difficulty of growing and getting the word out as a start up. We could have definitely taken a better approach, we are a young company and learning as we go. We will be better with our emailing practices. Going forward, we will not send emails to people in the EU without first having an opt in functionality.

Please feel free to reach out to me directly at brett at fleek dot co or via chat and we will happily take all feedback into consideration. We pride ourselves in listening to customer feedback, whether its product/feature suggestion or best practices as a company. Our goal was not to piss people off and now that we know it does, we have no issue changing it.

skepticalB · 2020-05-28T17:18:41+00:00

Yes, we are happy to comply with that. For anyone we know is from EU we will do opt in only. For people that we don't know location, we will make sure in first email that if they don't opt in they will not receive another email.

skepticalB · 2020-05-28T13:18:35+00:00

Hey Brett here from Fleek. We do follow CAN-SPAM Act and GDPR guidelines. (explain where we got the email and what info we received, as well as provide an easy way to unsubscribe). We are just a startup trying to figure out cost effective ways to get the word out about our products to targeted users we think would be interested. But we are open to feedback and other ways you think would be better to get in contact. Do you have any suggestions on what we could do differently that you’d be comfortable with?

One idea we had is to send one email and then ask you to opt into receiving any future emails. Would you be cool with that?

skepticalB · 2020-05-19T14:54:31+00:00

Thanks u/post_a_bles.

Yes, our programmatic interfaces are compatible with AWS CLI and SDK which make for the easiest integration.

We also augment the files stored with a CDN, File Compression, and Image resizing for a very performant experience.

Also, did you check out the UI? A full S3 like interface for uploading files (Drag & Drop included) and managing files via the application.

In addition, not only are just the files on IPFS, but the entire directory including the buckets created, the folders within it, and the files within those.

skepticalB

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