Happy (2 days late lol) Pico Day everyone!!

I wanted to post this on time, but between my busy-ass schedule and a multi-day power outage, it just wasn't possible. :/ This is my first ever Pico day so I wanted to make a special tribute to thank @tomfulp for making a place where artists and creatives can truly thrive!

I spent a lot of my time during the power outage reading the Calvin and Hobbes Ten Year Anniversary book in which author and cartoonist Bill Watterson recounts his experience creating his comic. Throughout the book, he details his constant fight for creative liberty and artistic integrity; explaining how he consistently turns down countless requests and offers to further commercialize his work with merchandise and spinoffs. He emphasizes the importance of respecting one's own art and not succumbing to needless commercialism that may jeopardize the integrity of the original work. His insights and perspective, in my opinion, translate nicely to the modern landscape of art and media on the internet.

Most sites nowadays often put profits first, incentivizing creators to optimize the production of their work to be as profitable as possible with the least effort possible. YouTube is a good example of this. Early YT was a much different place from what it is today, where everyone was just posting whatever they wished, occasionally building a small following if their content was entertaining enough. There was little to no expectation of profit for creators, so people just made whatever they wanted because it was fun to. Now, with the advent of algorithms and changed monetization, many modern YouTubers are forced to overwork themselves or hire expensive production teams just to try and stay relevant. It's that, or become buried under thousands of hours of passionless slop content, which frankly, sounds exhausting. As more sites become this sort of algorithmic nightmare, it makes me miss an earlier internet where people were just creating dumb fun stuff because they wanted to (Alongside an admittedly huge supply of questionable and disturbing content lol). So then, imagine my surprise when I discovered Newgrounds!

Newgrounds is what I believe the internet should be: a haven of creativity where people are rewarded for skill and experience, rather than because an algorithm said so. It is a community in which people can share their passion projects and work and actually see valuable engagement from other real people, free of AI junk and spambots. The community itself is also extremely welcoming to newcomers in my experience, with people appreciating your hard work and offering constructive criticism where applicable. It's been a very positive space for me and I am endlessly grateful to everyone who has accepted me into this little world of creativity. I'd also like to offer a huge thank you to Tom and the rest of the NG team for continuing to improve and support this place; you guys are all amazing!!

Anyways, that's enough yapping from me. I hope you all had a very fun Pico day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM!!

- Nat <3