Maybe it's just me. I don't know.

I've been here for over a year now, place has made me feel more alive than ever, made me feel worse than ever. It's given me the loves of my life, and given me so many friends. But like, I just feel a general sense of gloom drawing over the place. Everyone's bickering now. Nobodies confident in their own work, and everyone jumping down each others throats isn't helping. Bunches of great artists are DNPing themselves, and I just can't help but feel depressed when I'm alone and thinking about the site. Cap it off with the fact that I can't help but feel this is my fault, for basically starting all this, and I just don't really know what to say.

Are we dying?

I don't know, but I've noticed everyone's gotten angrier for some reason. But it's not your fault Pinky.

this seems kinda passive aggressive

I mean, a few artists have left, sure.
Some people have gotten a bit more riled up in a sense of late, ever since the new President got elected. Which didn't help when some posts became very political for some people.
And yeah, from time to time we have users bickering. That's the internet though, so no surprise there.

But hey, come on now.
We've gotten new artists come onto the site, and if anything, we have a bunch of them still sticking around. Those like Myuk, Zko, and myself even, have school getting in the way of things. But worry not, we still wanna put out fun content in th future.

Chin up. Not everything's doom and gloom.

GeekGirl DNPing herself out of nowhere was a hell of a thing.

Need to see if she'll let me re-post my commission. She did good work on that one, shame to have it live exclusively on my PC.

She did....damn that really suck I liked her stuff

Well, yes and no.

See, here's the thing. While DNPing may seem kinda "out of the blue" usually people have a reason, and a good reason at that (save someone like Jimryu who still hasnt asked that his stuff be removed but always whines about it) but as you can imagine they may not always want to share that reason.

As for why it feels like a lot of them are DNPing? Well, simple math. The more people do it, the more it feels like it's happening because... well it is. BUT more artists are arriving on the scene too. And you'll find this trend in any community of any kind of people anywhere you look. The best thing to do is realize that yes, some people may leave, but more will always show up.

Now, as for people getting angry... I feel like this issue is being dealt with.
Thing is that a lot of it was lack of moderation (not "taking things in moderation" like "Moderators of the site") because honestly the guidelines a few months ago were... loose. Like "If I tried to use this rope to keep something in place it wouldnt work" loose. Now things are tighter, there are more mods, and that means better moderation. The issue was not that people were getting angry but that a few "firestarters" were saying things to MAKE people angry. Whether it was on purpose or accidental, it happened a lot. With increased moderation this seems to be happening less. Give it a little time.

Also it is in NO WAY your fault. Honestly I'd say the first major offender was... someone who I won't name but everyone knows EXACTLY who I mean and because said person got away with it for so long it not only "inspired" others but left a large vat of toxic gunk in his wake. Best thing to do is just focus on the positives and realize that realistically, while you may have done some things to annoy in the past (something most of us, including myself, are guilty of) you just need to move ahead. Onto the bigger and better and try to improve both your own attitude and, by proxy, the site.

And if none of that works then... I dunno. Go look at some hypno boobs or dicks or whatever floats your boat. I mean, that always makes me feel better ;)

You know, I was in the middle of writing some kind of optimistic speech about how everything would turn out alright in the end, but then I realised that it sounded absurd. So instead I'm just going to say that while it seems we're in the middle of a bit of a slump at them moment, things are likely to improve.

EDIT: Also, disregard my avatar. It doesn't reflect my opinions at all!

Outside of a couple of posts that caused arguments I still find the site a pleasant place and am glad to have met a lot of good friends though it

I think it is less about this site and more about the entire internet.
The internet often reflects the current mind-set of its users and if you compare e.g. youtube comments... well do I have to say more?

My guess is the current state of many parts of the world that turns the internet so gloomy.
Remember the arabian spring a few years ago? "The middle east finally becomes modern and secularised!" We know how that ended. Now maraudering MERCENERYS -not fanatics- terrorize them and the idea of peace is gone. And everyone is pissed of...
Refugees swarms form and try to flee to Europe. The people there are pissed of about that and even more about the (lack of) reactions of the EU and there own government.
And in the US? The regressive left pissed off everybody, Trump became President because of that and the whole election was just... madness. Now everybody is traped in the black and white painting of the world and eveybody has to be on one extreme end since the tame middle lost its voice.

As Metal Gear Rising's "Monsoon" said:"Expose someone to anger long enough and they learn to hate. Anger, greed, despair... all memes - all passed along."

The world turned cynic and less optimistic and the internet reflects this.

Damn

Kojima was right all along. #FuckKonami

Firemario's post from the vent room sums up everything about whats wrong with the hub from my perspective. As someone who posts very strange things that puts a lot of people off I don't really see much of the positive side of the hub. Even though a lot of the negative comments are done in a playful manner it still gets to you. I do feel like the more vanilla of an artist you are the more you'll experience the positive side of the hub.

I don't have the numbers so I don't know, but judging by the amount of trouble here I wonder personally if the site hasn't died but actually gotten so large that a tight knit community with loose moderation won't work anymore, and we're moving more into a larger community with less warmth and less knowing each other. Again, I would need to look at the numbers to confirm, but I feel like this is also why moderation had to start cracking down because users can no longer self-regulate nor regulate other's effectively anymore by sheer peer pressure.

You could also argue that the majority of the users on this site lean one way on the political spectrum in general due to current population statistics, but tend to not be approving of the current political events, while others on this site who would be in this case a minority are getting more energized and talkative thanks to those same events. This would also explain Firemario etc problem with the large amount of "boring stuff" that would appeal to larger generic group of people rather than a small tightknit community that was also in favor of loli and shota which is why the hub was made in the first place.

This all of course speculative as I am not able to see if there are more users showing up who are lurking and comment rarely or anything like that but it's the general idea.

Well, to start off, I don't think the site is dying. First of all, because it would be very sad since I just found a place that shares my fetish.
I don't know if it helps, but I tend to put it in perspective. Think about how many famous people died in 2016. You can probably name a lot. Now think of all the famous people who were born in 2016. You can't. It's not that we don't want to, its just that its impossible for us to do so.
Yes, It's unfortunate that people stop creating hypno-art, but then again, even more people are joining. Humans have a fear of overpopulation, not underpopulation. Therefore, I also believe this site will not buck under that easy.
And with the thoughts of negativity on the site, I know it probably does not help much, but I have not been feeling any negativity since I came here. From when I first got here and got myself familiarised, to when I asked for tips and "created (I guess it's more manipulated)" my first piece of art.

TL;DR:
Remember to look at the positives.