I'm indulging my 'I pay for this site' privilege a little bit today.
First, some background;
I am a writer. I make my money writing. I am quite good at it. I enjoy creative writing. I enjoy creative pursuits in general, including tabletop roleplaying & creative roleplaying on a text-based medium.
When I first started creative writing as a hobby, the internet was a glorious wild west. I was able to hone my craft in an environment that nurtured and rewarded my inventiveness and enthusiasm, while giving me a harsh reality-check whenever I let myself indulge in stale tropes, overdone cliches and other literary sins. In brief, I was able to find a cadre of intellectual equals who were able to keep up with me, critique me, and show me how to better myself.
Unfortunately, that was over a decade ago, and that group has long since moved on in life, or become insufferably pozzed. I'm the only one who made writing a career and still experiences the occasional urge to explore my creative urges in a digital space.
However, much to my chagrin, everywhere has become pozzed, to an unbearable degree. Over the last few months I've tried just about every creative writing space, roleplaying forum, Discord (yes yes I know, I hate the platform but if I don't use it I literally don't have an online social circle outside of here), etc, that I can find, and they all give me venereal disease on contact. It's an endless stream of rainbow flags, preferred pronouns, furries, NSFW channels and greasy men pretending to be women.
Okay, the last one was always the case, but the greasy men generally weren't trying in real life.
I'd be lying if I said any of this surprises me, but it also disappoints me immensely. The creative medium feels utterly corrupted and ruined now. It used to be that I was able to at least set aside my personal feelings and relax in a group of people who liked the same thing I did. Now I can't even do that without having to share the room with some random retard with a rainbow avatar banging on about how 'problematic' Thing X is or how 'inclusive' Thing Y is.
The only people I've found who I actually like talking to are, ironically, Mexicans and first-generation immigrants. They're not pozzed at all. Shit writers, but they possess the critical ability to laugh. Every other community space has been filled with insanely uptight feeling-police who will ban you the instant you refuse to take your Joy pills and dare say anything that isn't generic praise or vapid approval. This is for places that claim to offer serious critique and genuine feedback.
So what's this got to do with you lot?
Well, I'm just curious if anyone here is aware of any communities that have escaped this wretched scourge of forced mediocrity and conformist thinking. If you do, feel free to share them. They can be about anime, fantasy, science fiction, tabletop gaming, roleplaying, etc. Shill them if you want. I don't care. I just feel a need to scream out to the cosmic winds in the hope of hearing a faint voice in reply, telling me I'm not alone and that there are still good creative communities out there who haven't bent knee to the progressive mob.
First, some background;
I am a writer. I make my money writing. I am quite good at it. I enjoy creative writing. I enjoy creative pursuits in general, including tabletop roleplaying & creative roleplaying on a text-based medium.
When I first started creative writing as a hobby, the internet was a glorious wild west. I was able to hone my craft in an environment that nurtured and rewarded my inventiveness and enthusiasm, while giving me a harsh reality-check whenever I let myself indulge in stale tropes, overdone cliches and other literary sins. In brief, I was able to find a cadre of intellectual equals who were able to keep up with me, critique me, and show me how to better myself.
Unfortunately, that was over a decade ago, and that group has long since moved on in life, or become insufferably pozzed. I'm the only one who made writing a career and still experiences the occasional urge to explore my creative urges in a digital space.
However, much to my chagrin, everywhere has become pozzed, to an unbearable degree. Over the last few months I've tried just about every creative writing space, roleplaying forum, Discord (yes yes I know, I hate the platform but if I don't use it I literally don't have an online social circle outside of here), etc, that I can find, and they all give me venereal disease on contact. It's an endless stream of rainbow flags, preferred pronouns, furries, NSFW channels and greasy men pretending to be women.
Okay, the last one was always the case, but the greasy men generally weren't trying in real life.
I'd be lying if I said any of this surprises me, but it also disappoints me immensely. The creative medium feels utterly corrupted and ruined now. It used to be that I was able to at least set aside my personal feelings and relax in a group of people who liked the same thing I did. Now I can't even do that without having to share the room with some random retard with a rainbow avatar banging on about how 'problematic' Thing X is or how 'inclusive' Thing Y is.
The only people I've found who I actually like talking to are, ironically, Mexicans and first-generation immigrants. They're not pozzed at all. Shit writers, but they possess the critical ability to laugh. Every other community space has been filled with insanely uptight feeling-police who will ban you the instant you refuse to take your Joy pills and dare say anything that isn't generic praise or vapid approval. This is for places that claim to offer serious critique and genuine feedback.
So what's this got to do with you lot?
Well, I'm just curious if anyone here is aware of any communities that have escaped this wretched scourge of forced mediocrity and conformist thinking. If you do, feel free to share them. They can be about anime, fantasy, science fiction, tabletop gaming, roleplaying, etc. Shill them if you want. I don't care. I just feel a need to scream out to the cosmic winds in the hope of hearing a faint voice in reply, telling me I'm not alone and that there are still good creative communities out there who haven't bent knee to the progressive mob.