Echoes of the Past

[Vaporeon Lugia Krabby]

I guess I have been sitting, watching from afar for a long, long while now. No heart really to jump into this community anymore. A lot of the people I knew left, have forgotten this place, the people, its soul. It's like it died years ago and was only barely resuscitated, put on a ventilator and stuck watching "All My Children" for the rest of eternity. I searched for my username in Google and apparently, 6 years later I am still a member of this place after another one of its 'big crashes'. What's new here?
I noticed there is a gallery, but not exactly a place that is looked in or is discussed about. Guess it finally gives an opportunity for those without websites to finally post their art instead of being part of another community as well (photobucket, 4chan, side7, deviantArt, whereas I had my own website just so I could post pictures back in the day). But where is the mass discussions, the streams of people coming in and ridiculing or praising pictures? Why in the world is there a forum within this forum for just requests (...and why are they all for sigs, wallpapers and sprites)? Where did all the good artists go? Like the people who drew sleuths of images or those who had such insane quality that everyone else was aflutter with compliments? Is there anyone left from when BulbaGarden started?
Guess I just want to know if there is anything worth to return to. The 'Art Forums' was what I called home for years. There were flamers and spammers (King Spamma), love and hate, lots of comments and criticisms, Snorlax fads and tons of art with flourishing artists who all seem to have left. I'm just wondering if what I left behind remains here.

 

[Blazaking]

I understand your feelings.

But whats so wrong about making sigs or sprites? People enjoy making them, and it makes people happy.

 

[Princess Viola]

Reading this reminds me of this forum I used to go on. Back in 2007 it was pretty popular, had a couple thousand users and such, good community, decent art area, and the likes. Then the website that hosted it got a virus and got shutdown and lost everything.

People scattered creating various versions of it. None were the same as the original. The best one, while being hosted on a free server, never got to 500 users before it was shut down in August 2008.

Many things were lost when the original site. Many great signatures and artwork and stories.

 

[Vaporeon Lugia Krabby]

Blazaking EX: Basically there was just a lot less of it when I was around some 6-9 years ago (I am a fossil...). A lot more traditional art was available, and spriting was far less common. In fact it was so uncommon then that those who did sprites managed to trick people into believing they were actually real Pokemon. It's way more common now but I have a lower appreciation of it than actual drawings because sprite artists basically copy and edit bases, first of all, and they also spit this stuff out at lightning speed. I appreciate effort and originality over anything else, which is why I downplay sprite, sig and wallpaper artists' efforts more readily. Not saying it isn't art or takes effort, but it's rare for a sprite of a character to take longer than a drawing, especially on the higher skilled levels.

Dr. Pichu: I don't remember the first forum I started at, but I ditched it back in 1998/1999 for BMG. Once BMG started faltering terribly in 2002, due to hacker attacks I was already heavily involved in a Mewtwo RPG Forum and prefered to be there over here due to a mass exodus in 2000-2001. After 2003 I wanted more of an 'art community' and left for deviantArt. You went to this community after your original one faltered, but with everyone I knew leaving I could no longer find a lot of justification to stay, which was sad for me to do but it wasn't like the new people knew me or would miss me. You're a Mod and you've known of this place for less time than I was an active participant here. Strange how things go around.

 

[Glaciachan]

I agree. I wish there was more traditional art on this board.