*Checks non-existent watch because i’m not a scumbag who buys overpriced watches when i already own a phone*
Hmm, haven’t made an unnecessarily long post about my own self loathing and my issues with the site.
Hmm, alright. So yeah, this’ll be another of my ultra long comments where i just say some thoughts about what’s happing in the community and what my worries are for SN’s future and my guesses on how to fix it (but always get rejected despite me being right 90% of the time), if you don’t want any negativity, i’ll give you the luxury of simply going to another post, the activity section’s basically infinite, you have plenty of choice.

———

Okay, so i have two points, meaning this is gonna be as big as the balls of a guy who beat the Ender Dragon on Hardcore Difficulty. My first is an apology. This isn’t for just anything recent like fighting with Ramox or anything, this is in general, for everything. I’d like to take you back to a much older time, a simpler time, back when even proposing the idea of transparency was absurd and you’d be laughed at, everyone knows SN can’t handle that. Back then, i joined SN, properly. I’d scouted once or twice but only got hooked upon talking to people in the fig comments. It was the only way to comment back then so the ability to make random posts was impossible, i sort of wish it stayed that way sometimes, even if HostGator was a pain in the ass with the constant 304 Errors. Back then, from what i saw, JackFly, ExplosiveBullet, DmLan and Berke seemed to take a centre stage, i’m not saying Ralph because he’s just obvious. I met these guys and immediately grew to like them. Bullet with his incredible figs, Berke with his quirkiness, they all worked off each other like a well scripted show. This was also in the time i was first beginning to ditch scarf and base figs. While i didn’t like them that much, i never really told anyone to think any different, i knew it wasn’t my place. Not until something happened. I made some figs, a lot of figs, very fast. I grew some recognition especially from certain ones like Empress Roux, Ralph with a Tutu and Demon’s Lair. I grew a fanbase for the first time and it felt incredible. But, being young and naive, though ultimately goodwilled, i used this power wrongly.

Once the Community Section hit, i was able to hit people and hard. I would criticise, i blatantly attacked people, straight up insulting their creations with the intentions of getting them to try using more advanced figs. I’m glad this was cut short by a quick snap from JackFly who fortunately knocked some sense into me. He told me about how vile i’d been and I reluctantly listened, for the good. While i can thank him for this, i find it sad that he and his little micro-community of friends hasn’t really forgotten that side of me as i still feel very unwelcome by them, his group just feeling so alien from the rest of the SN community. I’m not here to talk about HOWFians and the such though, i’m here to state my own issues.

For these acts i did back then, i’m sorry, i am deeply sorry. I’d go back to tell myself not to if i knew what it would cost. It’s more than likely why the community feels more like a battlefield than a group of mates. Everyone is so hostile, even if it’s for irony sometimes, drama is what this place lives and breathes off of and it disgusts me to know i was more than likely the root to this horrible tree.

I’d try to improve from that day on though, i’d tried again and again to be a better person and slowly but surely, i’ve been getting better. Unfortunately, due to my autism kicking in or just me being very easily stressed, i’ve shouted and screamed at people anyway, many a time recently too, but only really on Discord. This usually happened when i was already stressed and people just told me i was the issue and stuff without giving a clear explanation as to what i was doing wrong, many a time not even caring if i told them that their solution wouldn’t work or if i just straight up told them to go away, i remember recently getting very stressed and had Toxic come to me to calm me down but even as i told him to go away he persisted, leading me to just explode in rage and make the issue far, far worse. For the future, if i do seem stressed, please just leave the conversation where it is, you’ll only make the issue worse if you pursue.

But yeah, those stresses will never go away which hurts. I’d say by now i’ve managed to shed myself of those older sins of causing drama though even if i have, i still have people telling me i harshly criticise, even if i barely criticise at all nowadays, even rarer being about negatives. I’m trying to be a better person, trying to make the community happy, accepting, fair. But it’s so hard now that i just don’t have that same connection with the community. I used to be confident when calling myself the popular guy jere as it was basically fact. But by now, even if it may or may not be the case, i don’t feel safe saying so, whether it be because i feel i tarnished that title and don’t deserve it anymore or the fact that by saying anything positive about myself i’ll be immediately attacked by this unfortunately now toxic and hostile community.

I just want the old community back.
Which leads me into my second point; the community is no longer fun.

I used to come here daily, very daily, 5 times a day many times. Why? Maybe cause i didn’t use any social media (still only really use Discord), maybe cause i wasn’t playing games as much? While these could be the case, a more likely claim is that the whole community just feels like a battle royale now. The second you log on, you are a target to anyone on the site, it’s almost as hostile as going on the Dark Web sometimes. I’ll make a post let’s say, maybe that i made a fig and think it’s cool. More than likely the comments i get will be just one or two “oh cool” sorts of things and the rest are just slightly irrelevant memes, irony, or just “ok”. You used to see these proper nice things where people call your things amazing and stuff, even if they didn’t really sometimes. Even if many could’ve been white lies, the thought is what matters and it really mattered to me. It showed the site was pure of heart and wanted to spread happiness. Unfortunately, not anymore. What posts you get now are low quality stickmen with questionable colour and design choices fighting, a random meme off twitter that has zero relevance to Animation or SN or just some guy ranting about how everyone sucks like Johshtick or me… but i do it better quality so it doesn’t count, lol.

For a good year or two now, i’ve been watching this shift and have despised every bit of it, watching people fight more and more, seeing my points rejected over and over even if they were to better than community. Even my plan to make everyone just be positive in general failed in a matter of days. It hurts horrifically to see how this place has rotted. I could bring up points on how Ralph needs to be more strict with rules to scare people into being less hostile or straight up random/retarded or how i have some cool plan but whatever i say, it gets turned down. Ralph barely ever listens to my ideas to help the community and the community never listens to my ideas to help them. I just feel like everyone just hates me but hasn’t said anything.

I’ve been ranting for VERY long by this point and i’ll wrap it up productively with, despite what i said, a little word of advise.
Try to be more nice. I don’t care if you hate tween, i don’t care if you hate furries, or if you want to ‘help’ some bad animator. I don’t give one. Whatever kind of negativity you bring will only breed more. If you want to be in an accepting community once more, you need to contribute and be nice too, avoiding so will just lead you back to where i am, in a miserable limbo where you can’t help people no matter how hard you go.

I love this site like a partner and don’t want to lose that special feeling. But by this point, i can only feel that through certain users like Ralph, Dezway and Red. Explosive has basically became a husk of his former self, JackFly’s became an isolationist asshole, Berke and DmLan have pretty much left, it’s just sad to see how far this sit went yet dipping down all the way. I don’t want this site to die and i know you don’t too. If you really want to help. Please, just be nice.

Goodnight guys.