To those not in the know, Rarible is a marketplace for buying, selling, and minting NFT artwork and collectibles. It is ranked fourth on DappRadar's list of NFT marketplaces by volume and is quite popular in NFT circles as a place to... well, mint, buy, and sell NFTs. 

     However, there are, in my opinion, serious structural issues with the platform which effectively suppress creativity and funnel most of the profits to be had on the platform towards 'verified' accounts. As I found out the hard way, Rarible is crappy for small creators, especially, it would seem, if you are not very active on social media. 

Oops. All verified!

     The only way to even see art from non-verified creators is to select a filter in the search settings buried under the 'Explore' section and uncheck 'Verified only' - a setting that is always checked by default and never saves.

     Not to mention, anyone who does so will still additionally see pieces by 'verified' artists, so anything from an unverified account is still impossible to consistently see.

Here we see the results of searching for a piece I've made, resembling the reproductive structures of fungus. (It is safe for work, don't worry)

     Unfortunately, if you search for the name of any unverified creator's artwork in Rarible's searchbox, you will not find it. And there is no way to toggle this on or off, the search box exclusively shows works and creators who are verified. You cannot even find an unverified creator by name if you instead search for users. 
It wasn't always this way. Prior to the waves of NFT mania, I was able to score some sales of my tokenized art on the site, but it is now nigh-impossible for any account not verified. 

      But the verification process, surely it's straightforward and easy to get your account verified if they'd gate content this aggressively? Well... it's deceptive.

(View the full page here) 

     Seems straightforward enough. It seems, that if you simply meet these criteria, you'll be verified. Yet in the past 10 months, I have submitted no less than 4 applications for verification. Each time I easily and provably met their (changing) criteria for verification, and each time not only was there no communication from Rarible, but nothing happened. I asked for assistance or some sort of update from their support team on their Discord repeatedly to no avail. Also, notice that this information is not available on rarible itself. You must search elsewhere to find it. 

     While Rarible urges patience with the verification process, I have been on the site for over a year and have created 73 original pieces of art on the platform - they claim they "do their best to review your application within 14 days." If it hasn't happened yet, I don't believe it ever will. I made a twitter account - a platform I despise - and posted links to my Rarible works, showed works in progress, and even hosted a giveaway there solely in the hopes of becoming verified, all for my creations to become increasingly buried beneath these more popular verified accounts.

     If Rarible wants to vet creators to ensure that art is not simply being stolen and reposted from the internet, I completely understand. To that end, the Rarible team should be transparent about how the process works, dedicate more people to reviewing NFT items and verifying accounts in a timely manner, and make their verification a requirement for posting anything on their platform at all. 

     If this isn't an issue for you, I don't mind. I have no real prejudice against those who use Rarible and can get the platform to work for them. If you manage to get verified, good for you. Personally, the experience has been incredibly frustrating, and despite really wanting to like Rarible, and enjoying a brief flash of success. I'm moving to OpenSea. It seems to be the superior option.