I haven't used #deviantart in years, yet a big part of my journey is documented there.
Conversation threads with friends three pages long underneath my early awkward steps into art.
The works and words of people who made a huge impact on me who have since passed away or disappeared from my life.
I hear they changed the controversial move of needing to #opt-out manually to not have ones work used by their #AI but that it even happened in the first place makes me consider deleting my account. 😭
@Sukeile another artist friend said they changed it so you have to opt in and not opt out ^^ apparently a bigger artist said " hold up..." and made them change their minds
@Zolah I saw and I'm glad.
Still feels like damage was done but I might just be having an unusually pessimistic day. 😅
@Sukeile that's OK, you maybe need to have one of those days. Kinda like when people need to cry, I think it's the same with many emotions. Be angry, worried or sad - get it out of your system and let it make room for more enjoyable ones ^^
@Zolah I'm pretty sure I have most of the artwork saved in other ways but the real loss would be the comment logs.
I still return sometimes to reread old conversations.