#waterthoughts

Disclaimer: since it's hard to read tone over text, this should read pretty neutral. I'm passionate about the idea in general, but I want this to be seen as an informative piece? Or a thought piece. Comfort or Reassurance? It's not supposed to seem aggressive, that's the point. Anyway, I hope it's helpful in some way.

Once again, I've been sitting on these thoughts for a while and they haven't left, so I have to spit them out somewhere (and actually I did! but they're still around-), so here I am. I've seen some weird takes in regard to content creators lately, in a lot of places not just here. So I want to talk about platforms, creator-consumer relations, and the like while courage the cowardly dog plays in the background.

Creator & Consumer

One of the main issues that will be reoccurring is: seeing content creators as non-human. What I mean by that is they're sometimes viewed as content farms which is insulting and frustrating honestly. Before I continue, creators absolutely should have something to deliver for the consumer. They kinda can't just expect people to always support or donate to them without anything in return (that would be ~exploitation~). It reminds me of an artist (who I forgot please if you know who I'm talking about let me know so I can source it) who explained the process behind their album making: "Let's say the album has ten songs. I make eight for them, two for me." So it's like a present for them and self-serving for the artist. It's also a bit of knowing what the public wants and being able to balance doing what you want and "performing". However expecting them to perform and do all of their services and beyond? For free? All the time? Is kind of pushing it. They have every right to charge for their service or ask for support/donations of some kind to keep their 'business' going. They always say two things: never make your passion a full time job, or make sure you truly love what you do for your job so you don't begin to hate it. Both are true. Recent times have made this issue so grey and blurry but turning your hobby into your work is a risk because what do you turn to when you need a destresser now? It's possible to achieve a new balance but it takes a while to figure that out, which is why support and kind words are so important in the beginning.

I grew up on the internet, I have been here for a long time. I have also made loads of different stuff under different aliases while being here. I will never forget what it feels like to hear people's reaction to my creations in a viewing room. Hearing hushed reactions to my stuff. Knowing that people come back to my pieces as a source of comfort. I still remember the usernames of people who left feedback on my old content and the way they talked -- it made my day seeing a notification from them since they became 'regulars' in a way. Support does not need to be money. Knowing that I wasn't merely throwing my stuff into the void, but people were consuming it and enjoying it, someone was actively waiting for new stuff from me -- it made me motivated and excited to make more stuff on top of how much I enjoyed my hobbies. Creators aren't joking when they say it matters and they remember you.

Lately thank you's have become pretty rare and it's just become a request without a please even, barely an acknowledgment to the previous work, which is a whole other issue but I digress. Please show support to your favorite creator if you like their work, I assure you it makes their day a little better lol.

Platforms

Not to be negative but every platform sucks for creators. That's just the truth. Some have more benefits, but at the end of the day it's a business so they still have to put themselves before the creator so the website can stay up for the creator to profit off of it. Which is why it's so important for the consumer to carry some sort of weight (support) for the creator to keep shining. I shouldn't have to explain much about how Youtube has slowly gone down the drain in reference to creator preference. Most of it's creators are now relying on Patreon which is actually pathetic considering how Youtube started out. However, it's not like Patreon is a golden website for creators either. There's a reason why there are so many Ko-fi VS Patreon articles, but those two just come down to which one you prefer. I assure you they're hell of a lot better than Etsy, at least currently (it's pretty bad if the original creator makes a tweet against you). I know a lot of people usually speak to Tumblr's shitty system, but a good amount of well known artists on Twitter started off here. During the 'Twitter meltdown', a good lot of them mentioned going back to Tumblr, remember. Before the weird 'no reblogging' phase that started in 2017/2018?? Getting eyes on your stuff here was pretty easy. The only thing these sites have in common is that they're unreliable for artists or content creators, and consumers are so helpful for them. If you pay attention to intros/outros for youtubers, they've become more extensive over the years right? It's because of their algorithm. It used to just be if you liked it, subscribe. Oh likes help, give it a like. Comments now help: okay give it a like and a comment to help maybe throw me a boost into landing in their good graces? Oh you guys suddenly aren't getting notifs that's fine: Give A Like, Comment, Hit the Notif Bell, and subscribe if you like :). Literally none of the platforms are actually supportive of creators. Consumers are though, they are always the ones we're thankful for because like, you're the one reading/watching our stuff. If you didn't spread or interact with our stuff it's kind of game over for us since there's really no clear answer with these sites. However I guess if anyone ever cared about people pursuing the path that was fairly walked then the starving artist trope wouldn't be a trope then would it.

Erika Alexander has most of her inner planets in Scorpio, Mars in Aquarius and depending on the time, Moon in Aries or Pisces (in inclined to believe it’s Aries but that might be due to the character)

Meanwhile

T.C. Carson has the same Scorpio influence, but has a Mercury in Sagittarius, Mars in Taurus, and a Moon in Pisces.

The characters bicker (damn near rip each other to shreds) and have hated each other since they met. There was one instance of them trying to date but they preferred to stay ‘frenemies’ — what I did find interesting was the approach. Erika’s character was much more stubborn and independent while Carson’s was more open and vulnerable (moon). That’s what made me want to even look at their charts, didn’t even know it was that similar but there’s much more to be said about that.