Baraag

What the fuck is Baraag? That’s what I set out to discover when the link landed in my inbox this morning. Most of the domains I see have some kind of clue in their name about what they’re peddling, but this one’s a goddamn mystery. There’s no hint in the logo, either, with its completely SFW blue elephant that could be selling damn near anything, from baby toys to zoo passes and wholesome recipe sharing. Hopefully, there’s something to jerk off to in there, too!

Baraag.net is an online community where users can share uncensored art, and you know what that means. They aren’t sharing photos of their fucking dinner; I can tell you that much. The strength and value of an online community are tied pretty tightly to the number of active members they have swinging by to share with the rest of the class. The server stats on the front page of the site shade a promising image of these picture-painting perverts: they’ve got over a hundred thousand users, and nearly a third of them are active.

Sharing Porn Art on Mastodon

I really wanted to know what Baraag means, so I did some Googling before I sat down to write this review. It might be a Hindi word for a braggart, but I’m not even 100% on that. What I did learn, though, is that Baraag is built on the Mastodon platform. Remember Mastodon? Me neither, but it was initially intended to be an updated, decentralized, open-source, next-gen version of Twitter.

It obviously didn’t take down the social media giant, but Mastodon’s got some good things going for it. The decentralized nature of the thing makes it a good candidate for communities like Baraag.net, though it isn’t limited to just masturbatory content. Another advantage of building Baraag on Mastodon is that you can access it with various iOS, Android, web, and desktop apps.

Baraag.net is running their own Mastodon server, which means they get to play by their own rules. By that, I mean they play by very few rules, as laid out on their front page. “Freely share all types of art,” it says, going on to list precisely two rules: no real-life photographic pornography and no illegal content. They also mention that there are “Zero guidelines on fictional characters.” In other words, damn near anything goes in this world of sex art.

The one immediately obvious downside to this setup is that Baraag has a little more upkeep, responsibility, and cost to deal with their server. As I reviewed the site, it was clear their bandwidth needs weren’t quite covered. “Server is under heavy load,” read the front-page disclaimer, blocking off the registration form. “Please check back in 15-30 minutes for registration to open again.”

I Believe You Like Your Drawings Filthy

I kept coming back and refreshing the Baraag.net front page for a couple of hours, working on some other reviews, jerking off, and finishing my 4/20 celebration brownies in the meantime. When the registration box finally reappeared, I was able to get signed up and signed in without any issues. As much as I disliked the wait, I think it may have ultimately made for a smoother visit. Once I did get in, I didn’t have any issues with load times, dead pages, or anything else.

If you’re in a big hurry to see what’s going on inside, but you haven’t been able to register yet or don’t want to, there is a live stream of public posts available. It’s a good way to get some free fap fodder without having to give up an email address, though you won’t be able to interact with the community.

As soon as you get logged in, you’ll see a feed of the freshest stuff, just like you will on any other social network. By default, all the “sensitive” images are hidden, which means you’re going to see a wall of blurred-out drawings. You can click each one individually to reveal it, or you can put on your grownup pants and make your way to the preferences panel to turn off the setting that hides sensitive media.

Guys, no shit, I had Baraag.net open in my browser for like three hours before I really knew what it was all about. I knew it was going to be porn art, but I didn’t know if I’d be fap-testing pregnancy hentai, furry threesomes, or your garden-variety superhero incest stories. It turns out, Baraag has all kinds of really perverted imagery. I guess they weren’t kidding with those two simple rules.

The newest images included Adventure Time nudes, a fox lady and a cat lady scissoring, and a nude dildo-stuffed character from the cartoon Cakfu. There’s a series of Pokemon footjob drawings, a Danny Phantom blowjob, and a couple questionably SFW pics of buxom superheroines with their clothes on.

There’s also an absolute shit-ton of lolicon and shotacon, often with a parody or a furry twist. You find some artistic depictions of young characters on any hentai or sex art site, but it looks like Baraag.net’s lenient set of rules encourage the loli and shota artists to post here.

In case you missed it from my descriptions, there’s a ton of parody porn art in the collection. They’ve got that tall vampire bitch from the new Resident Evil giving a tit wank, Penny Proud taking on two BBCs, and Disney’s Alice in Wonderland flashing a bald twat. They also have the rabbit from Space Jam with her original boobs pushing a basketball from her cunt.

These Artistic Perverts are Fucking Busy

Just like on OnlyFans and other social sites, when you’re a newbie, your initial feed is going to be stocked with some of the most popular content on Baraag. My feed included some work from JabComix, whose site I’ve reviewed here and who has an official account on Baraag.

If you hit the Federated button, you’ll see all the latest public content posted across all of Mastodon. But you don’t want that. Instead, click the Local button to see all the general stuff posted on Baraag. Users are adding fresh material to the network every couple of minutes.

In the last half-hour, users have added SFW Gorillaz fan art, NSFW Dragon Ball shotacon, SFW cutesy Nickelodeon characters, and an NSFW drawing of Frances Frankie Foster from Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends pissing all over the floor. The newest post links to a live stream of a nude hentai drawing session for those who like to see how it’s made.

With all the freaky shit popping up on the screen, it’s easy to forget that Baraag is a social media network, and it’s got all the features you’d expect in one. It’s compared to Twitter for good reasons. You can reply to posts, Boost them onto your timeline, hit the star to add them to your Favorites or share via phone, OneNote, email, or plain old text links. There’s also mentioning and direct messaging if you want to connect with one of the artists, or you can block/mute them if you’re annoyed by their content.

The social media format definitely works for sharing all this kinky and perverse art, but it’s not without its downsides. The biggest problem is that it’s a lot harder to browse and sift through than your typical gallery-style image site. You can browse through the profile gallery to see who’s creating what and subscribe to your favorites, but there’s no master list of content or genres or anything else to peruse. I even found the search bar to be of limited use, though it can help you find some tagged posts.

I don’t think the navigation issues will be a real dealbreaker because much of the fun of Baraag lies in seeing what the freshest content in the feed is. If you visit the site regularly and have picked out some favorite artists to follow, you should have new fap fodder every time you check out the site. This place will appeal to furries and hentai fans, especially those who appreciate lolicon and shotacon, which seem to be their most popular categories. Whether you use it as a social network or just a source for masturbatory material, there’s plenty to keep you busy.