I've been thinking about pixel art learning and how it's impossible to recreate the dynamic of a good art critique forum on social media and therefore the web at large nowdays. Thread permanency and longposting, edit-posting back and forth, search capacity... we really needed & still need that. - ThreadSky

helmll.bsky.social • 200 days ago

I've been thinking about pixel art learning and how it's impossible to recreate the dynamic of a good art critique forum on social media and therefore the web at large nowdays.

Thread permanency and longposting, edit-posting back and forth, search capacity... we really needed & still need that.

Comments

androidarts.bsky.social•200 days ago

The show and tell and scroll of social media feels a bit vapid in terms of engagement yeah... more distanced and corporate somehow. Here's a product for random whatever people to look at, let's get numerical measure of how it's received. 126, pretty good, but not as good as 449. What did I do wrong?

andersdenkend.com•200 days ago

Forums really served a specific purpose for which there is no real equivalent right now. I also miss them.

helmll.bsky.social•200 days ago

more than just missing them, we need them. I look at the wide and powerful pixel art scene as it has matured and blossomed and think 'imagine a portion of these artists actually co-creating a corpus of knowledge again', it would help so much to progress an artform and help newcomers.

amorphouspixels.bsky.social•200 days ago

I miss the thirst for knowledge and desire for critique that people took as a given on the forums. Obviously everyone should set their own boundaries around feedback, but the ethos and etiquette of pushing each other to be better and looking for the extra 1% in everything was so valuable

helmll.bsky.social•200 days ago

not saying Pix did everything right (from it actually in terms of boundaries) but it did some right that proved to be invaluable and the moment it stopped doing them it was no longer meaningful. As older people with more life experience we would've had a better go at it today but alas the investment

lampy.casa•200 days ago

It's not like everyone left forums for social media, but both big communities for pixel art got gutted for own reasons. Are you looking for encouragement to start one?

helmll.bsky.social•200 days ago

I can tell you from admining Pixelation/Way of the Pixel for years, running such a place is a full time job (especially if job board attached) and as such it was impossible to dedicate a lifetime pro-bono. Pixel art gig is smalltime enough that petitioning for financial support feels wrong. Catch 22

lampy.casa•200 days ago

ikr. it's brought up rather often around me, but not in a way that's going to happen. How can it happen then?

Tofu's cafe dot is probably the closest thing we have now but it's still affected by discord way which is (imo) draining.

helmll.bsky.social•200 days ago

it could happen only if people are willing to financially support, longterm such an endeavour. It would mean a few people such as I would have to reorient their lives to effectively do teaching and administration full time and I don't know if this is a viable strategy in an already uncertain world

lampy.casa•200 days ago

yeah good luck with that ತ⁠_⁠ʖ⁠ತ
i remember vagrant's attempt that one time long ago. the fees weren't really high but only two or three people joined.

u can count on if i ever get obnoxiously rich tho.

helmll.bsky.social•200 days ago

I appreciate the moral support more than you'd think.

lampy.casa•200 days ago

I agree that moderation is the biggest problem here really. Or anywhere online.

themorganne.bsky.social•200 days ago

While not a perfect replacement, the Pixeljoint discord comes pretty close.

helmll.bsky.social•200 days ago

discord is just not the format. Moderation, search-capacity, long-term threading, even longposting are not what a glorified irc channel is supposed to be about. The culture isn't there.

themorganne.bsky.social•200 days ago

I mean... There is a search feature and I can find things as far back as 4 years ago, it is moderated and there is a thread style posting option. Culture is something you have to bring yourself and I think we're doing a decent job of that. Its not as long lasting as the forums used to be, but...

themorganne.bsky.social•200 days ago

Most of the old forums are being lost to time. As far as keeping up with new generations of internetting goes, it's the best way to receive concrete harsh critique and pass along resources that I've found this far.

kingkilburn.bsky.social•199 days ago

The shift from forums to social media has been great for aftermarket automotive companies but terrible for the people modifying their cars. It's turned into a competition of conformity to fads rather than communal self expression and shared knowledge. Bring back forums.

kingkilburn.bsky.social•199 days ago

Also, I miss the bolt city flight forum. What a place for artistic expression and honest critique.

helmll.bsky.social•199 days ago

what's that?

kingkilburn.bsky.social•199 days ago

This was back during the web comic "boom". The creator of a particularly good web comic called Copper hosted a forum(flight) on his website(bolt city). The heavy hitters from the forum ended up in the published anthology series also called Flight.

helmll.bsky.social•199 days ago

oh I've heard of the Flight thing, a friend of mine ended up in there as well if memory serves

kingkilburn.bsky.social•199 days ago

There were hundreds of artists across all styles of 2d art sharing all aspects of their process with each other. It was a great place to be on a wild west internet.

bethalaurus.bsky.social•200 days ago

Cafe Dot's not really focused on feedback and critique outside of a couple channels, but we'd still love to have you if you ever want to host a lecture on either the critique process, or anything else related to art. I'm sure everyone would be excited to learn from you.

helmll.bsky.social•200 days ago

getting some random one-off critique here and there isn't even the thing missing, it's long-term commitment from peer to peer in each other's betterment over time, actual human connection, mentorship and communal uplifting. It's an ethos that is getting lost.

helmll.bsky.social•200 days ago

I'm on the server and it feels like a huge sprawl very hard to tell what's going on and where it's happening but I'd love to do that yes. I'm moving house this month but when I'm situated back in home country I'll pursue this. But we need something more, a more permanent and searchable thing.

bethalaurus.bsky.social•200 days ago

Yeah, forums were really nice back in their golden age. There are some modern forum setups available now, but you're right. Setting something up like and maintaining it is definitely a ton of work.

Okay, well let me know when you're all settled in. Good luck with your move!

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