Howdy, the name's Salty. I've been on the Hub for almost a year now, and I've decided to make this post to voice some grievances I assume a lot of people have on the Hub. This is for the talentless folks, those of us who can't draw, manip, etc.

First off, OCs. God damn do I love me some original characters. They can be anything you want, from any fandom you want, and they can look however you see fit! OCs are, without a doubt, something great. See, here's the issue. I can barely draw, so most of my OCs are never leaving my cranium, as I can't commission anyone to draw something I've only got a text description of.

Speaking of commissions, man, can you believe how many well-known pieces on the Hub are from commissions? If only I had the cash money to spend on them. I do not. Seriously, shout out to all the penniless scrubs like me. We'll have our day someday.

Anyone else hate that feeling of seeing some flawless piece of Hypno art, and seeing "Oh boy! Text!" then realizing that it's in Japanese or something and no one's translated it? God damn, it's tragic. I've seen shit almost a year old that still ain't translated, and it hurts being unable to read the text. Not to mention you can't even google translate that shit, because Japanese characters aren't letters like we know 'em.

So, you've just fallen in love with a character from something, right? And you're super excited to see if the Hub has anything of that character. And then it doesn't. So, okay, no hypno porn of this character, fine. So you check... I dunno, some other random-ass R34 site. And still, there's nothing. Nothing good anyways. And what makes it worse is that there's MC in the series the character's from. What's even worse is if the character themselves is actually affected by or uses said MC. Shit's brutal.

Finally, and this is even more painful, let's say you've just finished watching a REALLY good show, or you've been playing a REALLY good game, and you see a character in it you fucking adore right? Now, imagine looking that character up, thinking "Well, they're obscure, so I doubt they'll have anything", but you actually find an image, maybe multiple, with that character. Now you're excited, like damn, the site recognizes the tag! But then you look closer, and oh. Oh no. You hate something about the image. The art style, the side-fetish involved, etc. I've had this happen countless times with good characters, and it infuriates me to no end. And it's not like you can fuckin do anything about it. You can't draw, you can't manip, you just get to stare at what could've been.
Okay seriously though what's with the only pics of Akatsuki from Log Horizon being 2 parent/child images with excessively... Over-the-top foot stuff? That's not even fair, there's not even romance in the actual series, and now I can't even get that with hypno shenanigans. Why must I suffer so?

Anyways, those are some of my pet peeves of the Hub, as a user with little to no artistic talent, and no software to manip. Got some stories to tell in regards to any of these? Or maybe you've got your own grievances about being unable to create stuff for the Hub. Either way, share 'em here.

I understand this.

I can't add directly but a couple of my stories have art based on them that have been put up here. My avatar is one.

If I had the money to spare I would commission art based on more of my works.

i'm not a fan of manips.

This hurts so much because it's the truth.

Yeah, same here, I understand exactly how you feel.

If I could chime in from an artist's perspective~.
Trust me, we're not oblivious to the fact that there are great ideas out there that can't get any funding behind them. There are a few ways to compensate for this. I've got a suggestion box over on my page fav.me/d9bnqns , for example. Some artists hold raffles and giveaways in their streams, so keeping up with those (you can find a lot of them in these very forums) isn't a bad way to get a shot at free art.
As for getting a character out of your head and into something more perceptible, you might try Kisekae goo.gl/hh3QY6 . It's a robust doll editor that should allow you to generate something close to what you have in mind.

Hopefully that's of some use in curing your frustrations. We thrive on imagination here, so, I'd hate to see people with ideas they're passionate about get discouraged. =)

Okaaaay, here's a #relatable gallery of comments and messages for us artists instead.

imgur.com/gallery/zDi5n

You have absolutely no pity from me.

Every problem you're so bothered by could be fixed by contributing to the community and commissioning some art yourself.

Penniless? Art commissions are priced so low at the moment, even the best artists make less than the minimum wage. You're not penniless, THEY are. And many of them are still working hard to make free content for you, even so.

Literally, if you are not starving to death right now, and you have the Internet, you can afford to spend a couple dollars a month supporting a Patreon, or commission a piece of the character you like.

Every dollar you put into this community pays you right back, by growing and improving the hub, the level of support and incentive for artists, and the subgenre(s) art that you personally like. That's how communities work.

This is all true but what if you're now trying to grow another community... *ahem*Saiminbooru*ahem*...

Hnngg I think I just suffered an aneurysm.....

I really thought that, for once, we could have this conversation without the usual, intentional meanness.

Holy shit, guys, fucking chill. First off, I wasn't looking for "pity". This was a joke, meant for some laughs amongst people. It wasn't meant to come off as me bitching and moaning, and, oh shit, it doesn't. I usually consider the Hub a place with a decent community, but you can't even post on the forums anymore without someone throwing around insults or being a dick.

Hmm, to be honest, it didn't sound to me like they were being a dick--maybe brutally honest would be more accurate. I didn't think you sounded like you were bitching and moaning, personally; I can relate to some of the things you were talking about myself, and I'm an artist. I have OCs that I would love to have drawn, but I can barely ever commission people because I'm usually broke as fuck--all the money I myself make from commissions go toward my family's expenses. And people tell me "well why don't you just draw it yourself?" Well, it doesn't really work like that, at least not for me anyway. Lack of time, experience, and inspiration are usually the main problems for me.

You don't have to remain talentless,to be fair.

Though I kind of figure improvement comes easier to some than others, and definitely once we get older, it's disheartening to have to start from the lowest rungs of ability.

Also you could always try free stuff like opencanvas or firealpaca if you wanted to try your hand at manips.

Like I get you just wanna sorta...complain in a humourous way so you might not actually want solutions but...*shrug*