/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>>4368865
(2/??)
As an example, imagine an online fashion community where people are making whatever style of dress they like and the criteria for whats good is (mostly) formal.
>Attention to fabric types, colors, the way cloth falls, how materials interact with each other visually as well as comfortably, etc
Just as you might expect some people are better than others so a natural stratification of skill emerges. This is ok, very few people get mad at a system where shared meritocratic criteria are applied fairly across the board.
Now lets take 'Joe'.
>Hes a middling hobbyist fashion designer, his work isnt bad but its nothing special, the kind of work you scroll past and dont even realize ur scrolling past to get to the actually GOOD guys work. Not so bad you make fun of it, but hes run-of-the-mill.
Joe does something a bit different, he takes his lameass generic designs, finds pic related, and does a photo-op with her. Now Joe is getting eyes on his pics, Joe is the guy people who are coming into the community name as who they want to make clothes like when they get "good", Joe is getting followers and has gone from forgettable hobbyist to making damn decent income. People aren't dumb, they see this, they see what hes done and how its worked so they decide to do the same thing.
Now suddenly the community(or at least large swaths of it) are concerned less about the previous formal criteria (what they view as the more pure components of their art), they're concerned about more meta shit.