... nah, actually this sucks.
I'm definitely not the first one to do this and I won't be the last but... I think this time I might actually be done with this site, because of all the AI nonsense. It's not like deviantArt is the only place using my stuff for AI. It's just the only such place with an unusable interface. Sorry. 
Hope I can keep up with my site and a few other places that I'll link to there.
AI image generation (often called "AI art") is unregulated garbage. Years ago I made a post that I was happy deviantArt took a stance against it, but nowadays I'm just disappointed in them, though not surprised. I don't hate technology; hell, I almost got into an AI field because the algorithms are/were really fascinating. But if content scrapers have no respect for intellectual property, no rational person has any respect for AI tools who use that content.
Like I've seen and respected AI tools that gather content with integrity and consent. I still think algorithms are neat. And there's a nonzero chance that, I don't know, regulation and copyright will take over and they'll have to gather content ethically. But no one really thinks that's where we're going.
I'm considering deleting some of my gallery, but... is there a point? Spite? Everything's already been scraped. Also, my art is so inconsistent it probably breaks the generators; maybe people like me are helping the cause. 
There are some pictures on here so old and hideous that I'll never upload them to my main site, so my gallery here is sort of the only place to find some of those relics. And it's those really old, ugly crusty images that are worth the most in this AI scraping nonsense.
Ideally, I'd like to just be done with social media. Most social media is the same feed of recommended crap and advertisements. Like, THE SAME FEED with the same rage-inducing news and the same memes and the SAME ADS, every time. And I am terrible at keeping up with people close to me. If I'm being honest, I'd probably prioritize just keeping up with my health and chores more than I do now. I'm simply bad at reaching out to people, no matter who you are. ._.; Take care, whoever you are. Feel free to send me memes on some other site while I'm still here. I don't mind seeing doubles/triples/500ths of those if they meant something to you.
On that note, I'll leave you with that old video of cartoon cats marching in a band:
... that could've sucked!
I log on every few months contemplating whether or not to do an art backlog update. When the AI announcement went up about everyone consenting to usage in the algorithm by default or whatever, I drummed up a "well this is my last journal post ever!" entry in my head. But I thought, no this is absurd. There are people paying for this site; they HAVE to do some sort of backpedal else this site is going to implode on itself anyway.
And uh, looks like they did? So that's nice. Still stupid they even thought a significant chunk wanted to donate all their intellectual property once held dear by this site.
I think that's what this whole debacle boils down to. It's always so interesting to watch divides between artists and programmers, as someone who dabbles in both. I've seen AI recognition algorithms in their earlier (maybe not earliest) stages, and most of the uses are all the same: you feed it zillions of examples and eventually it figures out what's what. Art AI has to be similar, but because the "answer" it's looking for is a bit more abstract, I'm curious what people do to tune it. Y'know, people using their own algorithms that aren't just searching Google and cooking up the results in one go. Maybe I'd know more if I toyed with dA's generator but uh... it still feels so dirty to even experiment with.
I don't think AI is going away, like... ever? Animation has already seen a shift that benefits programmers, in the form of 3D and motion capture, more recently improved cel shading. Movies are just getting stronger, probably both because we still have artists working on it as well as because programmers are out there making the physics and graphics generators smarter. And I think, if we treat art the same way we treat code, AI art wouldn't be that bad. The problem on everyone's mind is that most people *don't* treat the two entities with respect for the creators, for some naive reason like "well it's on the internet, so it's free." 
Like, again, the shift to AI art reminds me a lot of the more specific shift from traditional animation to modern animation. And I still sort of hate that shift sometimes. I do think we're ages off from AI being capable of generating both the wild and oddly specific wants that artists can make, but I also think people want to get to a place where programmers are able to code their way around art. It may not happen in my lifetime, but it's something I think people will have to adapt to.
Ah, but anyway, I'm not really leaving or deleting anything for the time being. Frankly, I was looking forward to my old, lopsided art shattering their algorithm. But now that they've revoked the forced consent thing, I don't have it in me to manually spite them with the images I genuinely think are awful. But if the site does implode, remember I do have my own site in my profile. With this dumpster fire, Twitter's chaotic implosion, and the nearly forgotten tumblr exodus, it feels like my site is the only thing I can rely on anymore. I uh... do need to actually update it, though... I still plan to implement a "comic" feature where one entry is linked to multiple images, but coding is hard! 
... making my own milestones
I have a personal site for my art! No social media accounts required to enjoy!
I will still post to my other accounts since... I mean there's a 0% chance anyone will find the site otherwise. If I keep posting, maybe I can boost it to 5%. The site will have my "good" art; maybe deviantArt will remain my archive for uh... ancient relics.
I say that, but it looks like I came across one or two other "art goals" I had. They're silly goals not really based on skill or work, really more based on social media. 1) I got hate mail on tumblr the other week and 2) someone put my art on Zerochan, haha. Frankly, I was hoping both would happen and don't mind either; thanks, anonymous slices of cheese bread for the ego boost. Less thanks to the hate mail dude (though I don't know, maybe they were actually asking if I was immortal and phrased it weird! can't clarify, person was anonymous, oh well.) As for other indications I "made it big" on social media, still waiting on "stolen for youtube/ various other sites," "stolen for eneff teas"... and some that would be way more troublesome than those, so I'd rather not jinx myself.
All the more proof social media has just turned into a toxic mess, sometimes. 😓and the reason I started building my site. But I was also inspired by some old fan art sites back in the day, where a lot of my pre-2010 saved hoard comes from. They were simple, to the point, *algorithm-free*, and a treasure to find. 
I guess all that said, maybe making my first personal site is an accomplishment. Even if I needed Picano to build half of it... maybe most of it. But I'm in control of all the content now! It's a good feeling in the end.
... it's been 1000 years
Have I done that title already?
Ah. Well, all I know is, there hasn't been another site where I... just put up art. Other social media has been fun for a while but always becomes a clogged mess, even in my own blogs. You can't search everything or scroll through art easily because it's a bunch of memes and things. I think even though I barely log in here anymore, I like just having my stuff up portfolio style.
WI'm at the point in life where it doesn't feel like a lot changes except my age and health. Yippee. I mean there's that whole pandemic thing but that's affecting eeeeverybody, I don't have more to add (which is fortunate in a sense; haven't personally got covid). If you got any low-cholesterol recipes, I'll take them. Especially vegetables. Internet recipes that are just like cottage cheese every day just get depressing. 
What was it, Reddit of all random places marginally improved my poor commenting skills, or rather reassured me that there are other people just as lacking in words as I am, yet they're nice enough to thank people anyway. Maybe I just need to get over sounding repetitive.
Here's to more years of art. 
and forgetting to comment
... ah, only 3 years.
I think rather than art I jumped onto the video game bandwagon and have been out and about with obscure video game tournament scenes. Being good requires effort... which I sort of half-do and never come out on top. But I've really liked travelling and hanging out every few months.
Plus I've... had my own stuff to upload for a while, I've just been hesitant to log on and be social about art. 
Ion't wanna say I'm "back" but I'm "visiting sometimes" when I "have something to do" like "jokingly misuse airquotes."
Picano is a baller as always.
