Dead Communities, Lost in Cyberspace
Piqued by curiosity, I follow the link that I've seen posted. And there I see something I've never seen before: the most incredible paintings, all created in Photoshop.
The year is 2001, and the site is goodbrush.com
Craig Mullins, the owner of that site, is a pioneer of digital painting. The work on display is breathtaking, groundbreaking, and will spawn a legion of imitators.
But best of all, Craig hosts a forum. A small community of people curious about his work, where he gives guidance and shares some of his techniques. He has an eager audience, and he is generous with his advice.
And by following that forum for a while, I was able to pick up the basics of digital painting. By using Mullins' speed painting technique I learned the concept of blocking in, and how to avoid getting bogged down in unnecessary details in the early stages of a piece.
My work was mediocre, and my progress was slow, but eventually I improved, and the knowledge I gained from that forum was a major reason why.
That forum is now long gone, as well as many other art-based forums from that time. Conceptart.org, CGTalk, and Sijun.com. Swept away by social media and YouTube.
A few years after stumbling upon goodbrush.com, I came across another forum that changed my life: Luxology. This one was bigger, and much more vibrant, and unique in that the founders and staff were active participants in the community. I had never seen anything quite like that before.
I loved that forum. As part of that community I devoured all the information I could, and learned my way around Modo. Any questions were quickly answered, often by employees of the company. Sometimes even by the founders.
It was a great place to hang out, with an unforgettably friendly vibe.
That forum does still exist today, as part of the Foundry community, but it's a graveyard. A dead mall.
The closest thing we have to the old Luxology community is the PixelFondue Discord server, which is very active and welcoming.
But Discord servers are not the same as forums. They're tucked away out of sight and not easily found via Google. The discussions often take place in one big bucket, and even a short absence means you will be greeted with a mountain of unread messages on your return. This makes them impossible to keep up with unless you visit them multiple times per day.
The world has moved on from forums.
A species on the brink of extinction, out-competed by Instagram, YouTube, and Discord. Forums are the dinosaurs of the internet.
The leisurely pace of forum discussions has been replaced by the relentless march of the feed. Algorithms now decide what gets seen, unless you're on Discord, where chaos is king.
I think we've lost something in the process. The human connection that came from discussion and the exchange of ideas. Trading likes is a poor substitute.
Forums were the go-to place for help and problem-solving. Now help comes in the form of a Google search or a YouTube video. It's a one-way street, not a discussion.
And that's a shame, in my opinion.