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I kept debating this post, but the siren call of the Soap Box is too strong. I'm adding Heart's tags and follow-up post to this reblog for the added context, sorry not sorry for the light mode screenshots. I've also spoken about AI at length before, but to TL;DR-- I won't use it for graphics, but I understand why some people in this community do. I sure as hell won't use it for writing, and I hope you feel the same way.
So... as a community, we tend to go through high and low cycles of active creators. I don't want to start ringing the Doom Bell too soon, but I do think that this particular low cycle happens to coexist with a high spike in AI content, and that's pretty damn unfortunate. AI cannot ever replace this Community in a meaningful way, and I hope those of you who enjoy those videos know that. I also hope that no one here is taking this Community for granted.
And look, I'm not saying that if you read this, you now have to submit a five-paragraph minimum fictional story. I understand that not everyone wants to be a writer. But that doesn't mean you don't have some sort of creative outlet that you could pick up as a hobby. Draw the illustrations, paint the portraits, compose the jingles...embroider the tapestries, whatever. But do something, you know? No one (credible) is expecting you to be an artistic savant right out of the gate. No one is demanding that you immediately monetize your hobby with Ko-fi or Patreon. You are allowed to be bad at it! You are allowed to be bad, share it anyway, receive tips, and keep practicing to slowly improve over time! I swear that is a thing you can do. I promise you that if the idea is good, people will still read it and enjoy it. I promise you that your self-doubt and your inner critic is much more harsh than any random online user will ever be.
That said, some of you have other hobbies and other creative outlets, or a lack of time, a lack of a stable environment, whatever-- and being a creator is not for you. And that's fine, it really is! But that doesn't mean you're off the hook. This is a Community, and there are other ways to contribute. Do you realize how much of an impact reblogs have on a story's share radius? To simplify the math, every one reblog is an extra five likes. Blogs that exist to share work that they enjoy are the backbone of this Community, and quite a few of them do not write a single piece of original fiction. That doesn't make them any less important! Readers are important, sure... but Readers alone do not keep this community afloat. We need Authors, and we need Rebloggers. Create a secondary or tertiary blog if you need to keep your primary account free of porn or erotica, you'll get no judgment from me! You'd have to pay me at least six figures to publicly link my primary username to this NoNotNolan account.
But I hope you'll be inspired to do something. It's a harsh political world out there, and times like this are when we need Art more than ever. Yes, even weird gay niche fetish art. Hell-- especially even weird gay niche fetish art. Please don't take this Community for granted. Without a new generation to keep carrying the torch, it's just going to fall to the ground. And I, for one, would be quite heartbroken to see that light get extinguished.
