Reflecting on 10 years on this account

I realized a little under a week ago that last month marked my 10th year on this website. Wow. It's... wow.

I've had good memories, less good ones but overall, I'm glad I was here providing content for all of you.

A lot has changed in 10 years.

My work has changed in 10 years.

I have changed in 10 years.

And for the purpose of this journal, this website has changed.

DeviantArt is fundamentally a different place from it was a decade ago and it was brought to my latest poll has brought attention by how many new watchers and fans I've been getting that have never experienced what the site used to be like.

To some of the new members, you might not even know that there are STILL features that old dA had that the current "Eclipse" version doesn't possess after 5 years of the change, like the ability to sort galleries and posts by date or popularity or the random browsing which allowed you to land of random art or artists for discoverability.

The whole Ai schtick (good and bad), annoying gatekept subscriptions and premium galleries, the obnoxious very biased "home page", or the ability for people to privately collect my art without my consent or my ability to do anything about it? Or Art Theft situation on the site getting worse and reporting is just as bad as ever?

Don't get me wrong, artists need to get paid. Duh. Do you know how ANNOYING it is to just hop on a gallery and 80% of it is locked behind a paywall?

There's definitely a commnuty aspect that was lost ever since Wix bought dA.

Just so we're clear, I respect Ai, probably a lot more than my peers.

But let's be real, some people have uploaded more art in the past 8 months than me in a decade.

There are no failsafes in place to protect the craftsmanship anymore. I- WE can't keep up with literal computers.

It's just... an infuriating feeling to feel like I'm a second class citizen on a website I've spent so much time and effort into.

Every worthwhile website is seemingly shitting the bed and their new replacements, while promising, aren't perfect substitutes quite yet. Everyone wants to be the next X(Formally known as Twitter™) while that thing is bleeding itself to death.

Tl;dr!

I'm not leaving, I wouldn't gain much from doing so.

Too many people follow my content here for me to just leave them dry.

I love my growing community. Your feedback, comments, criticisms and love is what keep me going.

Anyway here are my links if you want to follow me on other socials that aren't here.:

• ThwillArtz (@thwill) - Itaku - Probably my overall favorite platform currently

• Thwill | creating Comics, Transformation and Character Designs! | Patreon - Helps me get paid while not make this account a subscription paywall hell

• Our Community Azwiverse | Discord - Our community and very OPEN discord server

• ThwillArtz - Links in Bio (@ThwillArtz) / X - People keep using this in spite of the complaining

• ThwillArtz (@thwillartz.bsky.social) — Bluesky - Not the biggest fan yet but might as well

Also please consider donating to my tip jar, it helps keep my gallery entirely public (barring some early access here and there!) if Patreon isn't your cup of tea.

Thwill

Early Access

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$10/monthSubscribe

Sorry. I try to keep my personal feelings out of what is

increasingly becoming my "job" but I just had to let it out at this point. I want this all to stay fun and satisfying.

Who knows, maybe 2025 is the year I start hosting my own private website, we'll see.

Thanks for supporting me and I hope you'll all keep enjoying my content going forward.

Feel free to comment letting me know if I'm overthinking this or being a drama queen.