I see your stuff!✋🙂

I see your works!

I have to say, I am not sure!
I look into my inbox, open stuff that catches my interest in new tabs then clean it out.
But I just looked into your Gallery and for example your last post I am quite sure I have not seen.

Thats alright! I've been feeling a lot more social lately so I've just been noticing all the ways things have changed and was hoping it wasn't just me.

Social media/discord/telegram art channels have just changed the way people interact and/or cannibalized lots of traffic from other places, sadly, hence the lower amount of comments across the board.

yeah that makes sense :C

Yeah this, the "dead internet theory" (most of what you see is bots engagement farming even if you cant' tell, ESPECIALLY if you're on any site not FAQ). FA doesn't use algorithms the same way other do, so just activity alone is usually enough to grow here, but with the DIT and fracturing of the internet to escape it, most everything is seeing a return to forum-ey environments. Places like telegram and discord etc.

It's not you. Everyone is struggling to adjust. Even youtube is struggling on channels with HUGE (70 thousand followers), struggling to get anything other than bot comments.
You're art is amazing, it's just a hard time rn. I know that isn't a fix, but it's def not you.

Having had corrective eye surgery after 10 years of wearing glasses, yeah, I see pretty decently 2 months down the line 😁

Yeah, I know it wasn't literal - I do get updates when you upload new art, but it's not always something I'd personally fav or comment on (especially character sheets).

If it helps, 2 quick points:

1. FA has been quiet recently, I thank the ongoing global economic crisis - everything's overpriced, people are struggling, half of all jobs suck, there's less happiness in the world... people just aren't in the mood I guess? (FA being quiet)

2. Personally, I thoroughly enjoy your art style - the vibrant color ranges, the deep shading / shadows and lighting, and most of all, the emotive "full immersion" scenes where the character is focused and engaged in the emotion of the moment (pose, theme - what is the character doing? what mood are they portraying? can I empathize with the feeling of the character's expression with the setting?) - I guess you could summarize this all as "emotional depth", some of your works just feel full of expression.

So, yeah, people are here, but some might not be showing it (fav, comment, etc.) ✌️

haha yeah I had to upload so many ref sheets a while back. Thank you for the insight! I fully get the changing times, I do miss the old days before telegram and places like discord sometimes since things feel less community based somehow. It's weird.

i want to say FA's less active than it used to be, but also *I'M* less active and less social than i used to be, so i'm not sure if they just reflect each other x.x

Yeah.

FA is quieter these days. We lost of a lot people over the years due to drama and controversy ect.

I'd say of my modest follower count, a good portion of them aren't on FA any more, and less people are vocal. You're not going insane.

AFAIK, all submissions end up in your followers' inboxes (unlike social media). But FA has been slow for years now, I noticed a lack of written interaction especially (comments on subs, chatting on journals...).

Yeah it's been something I noticed a while back too, I guess I just wished it was like the old days! That makes me sound old but it's wild how things have changed.

I do miss the old days too ! Back then FA made me feel so welcomed compared to DA with how ppl liked to interact even for just a lil' chat on my journals.

It's definitely quieter because of *gestures at the state of the world*, but I find actively seeking or encouraging engagement definitely brings it. :3 It's not as passive as it used to be, but there are still a lot of people here!

oh definitely, yeah. I have been trying to encourage interaction where I can <3 Can be difficult across multiple platforms haha

OvO I see your work!

To me FA was always like an echoless void, merely just signals from people liking on art, a few comments here and there, but the community is engaging somewhere totally different. That, or people just too busy and overwhelmed to engage more.

I stalk, therefore I am

I think FA's engagement levels changed a LOT (for the worse)since a few years back, when the mod thing happened (abuse of power? taking down stuff that wasn't supposed to be taken down and the pedo mod). Many big artists left (eventhough most came back, it's just dead now) and people just felt less willing to interact, i guess ;w;

Hiii 👋

I see you! =D

I see you. I would say more, but I'm running late on my day.

Totally get you on this place feeling quite. I love making small stories in my post for the commissions I get and I used to get quite a few comments for both the art and the writing. Nowadays I feel like I get OK views but hardly any comments really, which is a bit discouraging considering all the work I put in to things folks might not be reading. Bluesky feels a bit better from that respect.

Also, for stuff I love I have got to say I have ALWAYS loved the way you light and shade your scenes, and I've always adored your Vash fan pieces to along with your big beasties ^^

I feel like I get no communication or interactions on my stuff haha so idk if I am always posting at the wrong times. I do see your stuff though! But I'm usually browsing and don't always get to comment etc. I try to interact when I can!

👀

I see ya.

I wouldnt change anything about your work per se. I personally dont browse the front page, i use my notifications to view what my watched artists have released since my last visit.
I don't always feel confident interacting with artists at first, i feel like i'll bother them haha. but knowing you're cool with and even looking for interaction is reassuring. I'll say hey sometimes ♥

I for sure see your works! I'm just bad at commenting kdsfhfd xD;

I do see you.

I'm just a heavy lurker lol.

I think its just because the internet is a bigger place than it was 10 years ago. A lot of people have dispersed themselves to other sites or have other priorities in their lives. The many controversies and site wide outages, the selling to other companies, or banning people for certain content in the past hasn't helped and most recently since Dragoneer passed away and some random guy "stole" the site domain temporarily in the transfer. I think its made people realize how fragile only being on this site can be and so they've moved elsewhere.

As far as traction goes, I've never had too many eyes on my stuff nor is my uploading frequent at all but I find its completely random if my stuff gets attention from new viewers when I upload. Butt one thing I have noticed is when people upload my stuff to other sites like e621 and give the proper links and credit, I do notice a smol bump in views and faves n watches n stuff.

I feel like if you're really trying to grow then you just have to be posting everything everywhere and just focus on where the most eyeballz seem to be.

i see your stuff but i do not tend to interact much if at all.

I still see your stuff all the time and still love it every time one shows up. Freya will always be a classic but then i still love all of your stuff Izz