hey, i'm back. kinda. sitting here, in my room, sick :/ i was apart of the aes comm for about two years, at least i used to be. at first it was fun, i got to meet new people, make banners, and join new communities with super nice scratchers. but somewhere along the way, there was a turning point. people that were in this community got older, and people that I really looked up to started quitting, including some of my own friends. and that made me less motivated, with nobody supporting me anymore. more toxic people spread, and more studios got deleted, like the aes comm scratch started to get boring. people were just farming views and followers, and it seemed like a race more than just a place to express yourself and meet new people. making new projects wasn't as fun as it used to be. what's the point of making them when they are boring, repetitive, and are gaining you nothing? i felt like i couldn't be myself anymore. i had to talk a certain way so people wouldn't fine me "cringe." make specific projects that everyone else is doing, because then i wouldn't get any views. this is the first time i cared about views. follower counts also starting increasing, and it started to seem like having 50 or even 100 followers wasn't as big of a milestone as it originally was. now i just check in once in a while, mostly to chat with my friends. I've checked other aes accounts once in a while, to see how they are doing. it just finally hit me that this seems more like a cult than a community, everything is so repetitive. i can't tell you how many times I've had to change the way i make my banners, because I've always felt that it's not good enough. i know the aes comm is still up and running, and it definitely will be for a long time ahead, but it just breaks me to see that such a great community turned into no more than just a copy and paste cult - soqhiee
