ArtHelper Community

# ArtHelper Community — What It Is, How to Join, and What's NewThe ArtHelper Community is where artists gather to show work, get feedback, learn from each other, and make friends. It's built into ArtHelper — no separate app, no extra login.## What you'll find in the Community- **Public communities** — open groups organized around themes like watercolor, abstract, photography, printmaking, or business tips. Anyone can join. - **Private communities** — invite-only groups for classes, collectives, mentorship circles, or close colleagues. - **The main feed** — a rolling stream of posts from artists you follow, communities you've joined, and trending work from across ArtHelper. - **Direct messages** — one-on-one or group chats with artists you're connected to. - **Contests and prompts** — see [www.arthelper.com/contests](https://www.arthelper.com/contests) for what's running now. - **The Human-Made Art Society** — one of the most active spaces on ArtHelper, built around hand-made creative work. - **The Reputation Leaderboard** — a public ranking of the most active, helpful, and engaged artists on ArtHelper (see below). - **First-class search** — a new search experience that helps you find people and communities quickly. Start typing in the search bar at the top of Community or Town Square, and you'll see instant suggestions for artists and communities across ArtHelper.## How to join a community1. Tap **Community** in the main navigation. 2. Tap **Discover Communities** at the top of the screen. 3. Browse the list or use the search bar to find a group that fits your work. 4. Tap **Join** on any public community. You're in immediately. 5. For private communities, tap **Request to Join**. The community admin will approve or decline your request.Once you've joined, that community's posts will appear in your main feed.## Creating your own communityAny ArtHelper member can start a community around any creative topic — a technique, a medium, a niche, or a local scene. You're the moderator: you set the rules, manage members, and shape the conversation.1. Go to [www.arthelper.com/community](https://www.arthelper.com/community). 2. Click **Create Community**. 3. **Pick a category** for your community (e.g., Photography, Painting, Business) and click **Next**. 4. **Choose a community type**: - **Public** — anyone can view and contribute. Best for open topics and growing an audience. - **Restricted** — anyone can view, but only approved members can contribute. Best for curated discussions. - **Private** — only approved members can view and contribute. Best for collaborations, local clubs, or paid classes. 5. Click **Next**. 6. **Name your community** (up to 100 characters). The community URL will be auto-suggested from the name — you can edit it. URLs use letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores. 7. Add a short **description** (optional, up to 500 characters) so people know what the community is about. 8. Click **Create Community**.You'll land directly on your new community's page, where you can add an avatar, banner, rules, bookmarks, and invite the first members from the **Community Settings** menu.## Inviting other moderatorsRunning a community is more fun with help. Once your community is live, you can add other ArtHelper members as moderators or admins.1. Open your community on [www.arthelper.com/community](https://www.arthelper.com/community). 2. Click **Community Settings** in the sidebar. 3. Open the **Member Roles** tab. 4. Find the member you want to promote and click **Change Role** → pick **Moderator** or **Admin**.## Filtering the community feed — Following vs TrendingThe community feed now gives you two main ways to filter what you see, accessible via tabs at the top of your feed:- **Following** — shows posts only from artists you follow or are connected to, plus the communities you've joined. This is your personalized feed of people and groups you've chosen to keep up with. - **Trending** — shows popular posts from across all of ArtHelper, regardless of whether you follow the poster. This tab surfaces work that's getting a lot of engagement right now, helping you discover new artists and communities beyond your existing network.You'll see these two tabs in a tab row at the top of the community feed. Whichever filter you pick will persist as you browse — ArtHelper remembers your choice and keeps you in that view until you switch tabs again.**Why this matters:**- **Following** keeps you close to your creative circle — the artists and communities you've deliberately chosen to follow. - **Trending** opens the door to serendipity — it's where you'll find breakout work, emerging artists, and conversations you might have missed otherwise.Switch between the two tabs whenever you want a different perspective on what's happening in the community.## How the Reputation Leaderboard worksThe **Reputation Leaderboard** is a public ranking of the artists who are most active and helpful in the ArtHelper Community. It updates in real time based on:- Posts you publish - Comments you leave on other artists' work - Likes you give - How often other artists engage with your posts**Where to find it:**1. Tap **Community** in the main navigation. 2. Tap **Leaderboard** at the top of the screen (next to Discover Communities).You'll see the top 100 artists, sorted by reputation score. Your own rank appears at the top of the page if you're in the top 100, or at the bottom if you're not yet ranked.**Why it matters:**The leaderboard helps new artists find the most active voices in the community — the artists who are generous with feedback, post regularly, and show up for others. It's not a measure of how good your art is; it's a measure of how much you participate.**How to move up:**- Post your work regularly - Comment thoughtfully on other artists' posts - Like work that resonates with you - Join communities and participate in discussionsThe score updates every few minutes, so you'll see movement as you engage.## Discovering artists with Suggested ConnectionsThe Town Square sidebar now shows **Suggested Connections** — a personalized list of artists ArtHelper thinks you'd connect well with based on your work, the communities you've joined, and who you already follow. These suggestions update regularly and clicking any artist takes you to their profile where you can send a connection request or follow them.This helps you grow your network with artists whose work and interests align with yours.## What the Join button looks like nowWhen you land on a community's page, the **Join** button is now larger, bolder, and sits at the top of the screen — you can't miss it. This makes it faster to join a group you've just discovered.If you've already joined, the button will say **Joined** instead, and tapping it again will leave the community.## Platform-authored tips and announcements in your feedAs you scroll through your community feed, you may occasionally see cards from the ArtHelper team — helpful tips, product updates, community highlights, or celebrations of milestones. These cards look different from regular posts: they have a distinctive ArtHelper branding treatment so you can tell they're from the platform.**What these cards are for:**- Guiding you toward useful features you might have missed - Announcing new tools or improvements - Celebrating community achievements or highlighting inspiring artists - Sharing tips to help you get more out of ArtHelper**A few things to know:**- These cards are curated by the ArtHelper team — they're not AI-generated. - They appear sparingly so they don't crowd out posts from artists you follow. - You can dismiss any platform card you're not interested in by tapping the **×** or **Dismiss** button. - This is a normal part of the community feed experience — you don't need to enable or configure anything.Think of these cards as friendly signposts from the ArtHelper team, designed to help you discover features, stay in the loop, and feel more connected to the wider community.## Tips- **Join a few communities before you create one.** Get a feel for the tone, the post mix, and what your readers want. - **Pin a welcome thread.** A simple "introduce yourself" thread at the top makes new members much more likely to post. - **Use the bookmarks block in the sidebar** to link to your community Discord, a tutorial doc, or external resources.## What should we build next?Tell us in the official feature requests community: [www.arthelper.com/community/townsquarefeaturerequests](https://www.arthelper.com/community/townsquarefeaturerequests). The team reads every post.## Related articles- [Finding and joining communities](https://arthelper.com/help/community/joining-communities) - [Creating and running your own community](https://arthelper.com/help/community/creating-a-community) - [ArtHelper Community Standards](https://arthelper.com/help/community/community-standards) - [Understanding Your Connections, Network, and Messages](https://arthelper.com/help/community/connections-network-messages)