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I miss all the Photoshop brush packs! It's all paywalled or AI gen'd now.

I kinda remember that... I guess no matter where or what, there will be some people unhappy with the system and also people who'll game it to their advantage.

:( that is really sad to hear

I mean, Newgrounds exists

* bragging My phone is not cooperating.

DA really started ruining itself the moment money became more attractive than actually supporting artists. Even before the AI thing. Also remember when everyone was crashing out because Core changed from dark green highlights to bright orange highlights? Ah, times were truly simpler…

I went back and posted onto FA (fur affinity) again recently and it feels the same as it always had, which is kinda nice. So at least some places are hanging on. I do miss old DA and the conceptart forums though.

I also selfishly wish for the days when social media was purely for fun, no businesses/need to promo yourself were on it Totally unjustified wish I know

I agree it's the same as my longing for forums

I miss Trillium (messenger) so much lol RIP 💀

DA forums had artist drama, if I recall lol. But there probably were some threads or channels that were more like art forums, where it was critiques or people just sharing stuff they made. I think, my memory is getting vague...

DA at its peak was an amazing space. Just an absolute TON of us being as weird as humanly possible about our art & ocs. If you found the right forum too, that was a vibe.

For some there's always something to gain over the guise of helping or something else.

Old dA was great made a lot of friends there, but I miss Tumblr more (before the purge). Felt more community imo. I could always go back sure, but I would rather not after the purge.

I don’t think it’s like… we can divorce ourselves from needing to make money. But I think we were kinda tricked into making everything, even our hobbies, about making more money, and it’s not a good solution to the underlying problem.

I miss the time when we weren't all desperately clawing after enough money to let us live. Like, part of what made that possible was that we *weren't* half an inch from financial disaster. We could spare the time and attention to make art for its own sake. That feels... much less possible now.

Every time anyone in my life has told me "youre so good at (x) you should start selling it" ive had to tell them to lay it off. Once you turn your hobby into a job you will stop liking it... But I'm really not sure how easy it is to undo that switch in your brain

Eh. I'm still baffled by people, random people, people that doesn't even sell comissions refusing to leaving twitter because the numbers are bigger there It's a mix of vanity and sunken cost fallacy I think

For me, I'm still here primarily for community... 🥺 But at the same time, I have that crushing weight over me that it would legitimately save me and my family if I could make a living... Problem is, I'm not an advertiser at heart and it pains me to try and make money from what I do 😔 I won't-