BONUS Post #44 - A Very Safe For Work Post
Back in post #110, I had mentioned quickly in the blurb that I would eventually talk about the recent changes going on with CivitAI, which had just occurred around the same time I had put up that post. I wanted to give it some time and distance first, and I have, so now I'm ready to share my thoughts.
If you're not up-to-date but have the interest, you can read for yourself CivitAI's announcement on Buzz changes, and then their follow-up announcement, right here:
https://civitai.com/articles/20211/civitai-green-gets-an-upgrade-important-changes-to-blue-buzz
https://civitai.com/articles/20844
Essentially, the ability to generate not-safe-for-work content using CivitAI's on-site generator and tools has been eliminated for non-subscribers. Now, if a non-subscriber tries to generate content and the content-detection system thinks the generation is or will be remotely not-safe-for-work, it will prevent viewing or access to that generation without spending Yellow Buzz, which is the site's premium currency. Previously, prior to these changes, a user could use Blue Buzz (the ‘free’ currency) to generate any level of content, including not-safe-for-work. With the follow-up changes from the second article, Blue Buzz can still be used to generate not-safe-for-work content, but only by subscribed users; i.e. users who have paid a subscription fee to CivitAI.
So...
I myself have not been very affected. Not only because I am subscribed so my Blue Buzz is still good as gold, but also because I've been getting into ComfyUI where I can generate locally without using CivitAI's tools—all of the images in this post were in fact locally generated; no Buzz spent at all. The seismic website update just hasn't changed things for me.
But it has affected a lot of people, as the outcry has demonstrated. And for what it is, that is a very lamentable turn of events because there have been free users generating some really great content, and I know some of the content here that I've enjoyed immensely has come from free users.
However... while lamentable, the change just... wasn't unexpected at all. If you've been around for awhile, and especially if you keep your eyes open as you live and grow, you'll see these cycles develop and repeat in many places. In the sphere of web services, it is an especially familiar and predictable pattern. There's even a name for it: enshittification.
Free web services degrade over time because, at the end of the day, someone always has to pay the piper. When the money is coming in from elsewhere—investment capital, venture capitalism, wherever—it's easy to offer a free service because you're not spending your own money to keep it going. Someone else is paying the costs. But those rides never last forever. Investors expect, in time, to stop paying and start earning. And that's when the service changes. Because it has to. Because it was, and always has been, a business.
When using a free service, spend some time wondering: “Who is paying for this?” Because if it's not you, then someone else is, and sooner or later they won't be. It's going to be their whims that dictate these winds of change. For AI generation this is certainly true, as the cost of the servers, equipment, and even processing time is very real and very significant in dollar value when scaled up to this sheer volume of data that some many users must generate.
The change we're seeing, of a completely free service (or nearly-free service) transforming to one that works harder to generate a return on investment, isn't the result of some sickness of greed. It just simple inevitability. It literally cannot be another way. The only other way it could have gone were being a charity, but in that case instead of the service changing it would have ended when the money ran out.
I won't chastise any user who has to take the loss that they shouldn't be upset about it. But I do advise them to put themselves in a place where they can understand that there was no avoiding it. The reality for free users of web services is that they will, inevitably, always bounce from service to service, as one degrades and others start up. There will never be a home. It's on the big lessons, in life even, in ways more broad than just regarding web services. It's why you should spend a little bit of yourself to connect deeply with other people. Bind yourself with them. Because a home is rooted to a foundation, but the people can pick up and travel with you.
Don't expect a serious or significant reversion from CivitAI. Some pushback can earn some reprieve—like the change that enabled Blue Buzz not-safe-for-work generation for subscribers—but there won't be any full turnaround because it'd be unnatural. For free users of not-safe-for-work generations, the realistic choices are to jump ship to other services, or to invest for themselves, either as a CivitAI subscriber or by getting hardware to do local generation.
Stop, breath, and think about it. Maybe it is time to go, but consider about who you'll keep with you. Or maybe it's time to make it happen and find a way to invest, and get some of that control for yourself.
Five of this post's images go into the Hi-Res Collection, and as a bonus they are extra hi-res. Since they're generated locally with ComfyUI, I was able to start pushing some limits in image sizes with @SXCD2719's new Checkpoint, Cinema. Compared to CivitAI's typical hi-res output, these images are about 33% bigger.
There are six images though! Why only five to the Hi-Res Collection? Does Fluttershy not belong? Why? Because she is 1440p (QHD) background sized, baby! Bigger than them all! I'm all but certain I'll create a background Collection at this point, but I want to generate just a few more backgrounds before opening it up.
All the Mane Six are here too, so this post goes in all their Collections as well.
My friends, take care of yourselves. Find the paths and the people that are right for you.