When I came here, i thought randomly applying gradient and then doing some of those nifty filters in photoshop was the pinnacle of l33tness. Then i saw some bryce, and i thought : OMG! L33tfullness!11!! Then i got bryce, and started making things like elemental v3. Next thing, i find out about something called Astonshell 1.9, and presto, i'm a skinner..... and i have a skin that's been downloaded on the order of around 25000 times.

I've looked around, been awesomely impressed by things (ashamedly) imitated things.... maybe DA is even the reason why i have a knack for composition in photos and taking photos that 'look good' instinctively : looking at good stuff all the time is like learning by example without the necessity of boring teachers or books. It's like i've been incrementally learning stuff all the time i've been here.

DA is more than just a art website for me (though i've accumulated around 300mb of art on my HDD). It's been a place where i've learned things. I enjoyed it here, found some very cool art, and learned all my art skills. I'm sorry to see jark (and matteo) summarily ejected - and unfortunately, i think that even if the collectively rectal administration were to say tomorrow "'ey jark! ey matteo! we want to give you back your jobs - sorry about all that unexplained firing guff," the mood wouldn't be the same. We're here partly because we used to trust the 'collective admin', and we felt like some kind of vast family - but now, because of what was problably the actions of a few a-swipes, we no longer have any trustin what's left of the administration.

Admins! no-one trusts you anymore. You screwed up - and now, the best artists are going to move somewhere else. Without the best artists and the community leaders you've caused to leave, no-one will want to come here, and your commercial model will *fail*.

Happy christmas and a merry new year, biatches. Time to migrate to maybe digitalart.org, or gfxartist.

(yes, I will remain. Leaving won't fix anything, and besides, i know some people from here. Submissions, though - maybe it's time to find greener pastures.)