I never had much luck with internet forums bro, btu I feel you it was the same back when the marble honrets slendy shit was ending and old buds kinda weren't the same. i don't know i'm not much of a community person just the ALONE WOLF that kinda sits in the corner with weird shit happening by sticking a paw out lol. Patreon is weird, but then again hasn't a bunch of legit artists looked for patrons to feed them? lol too much of a stubborn ass to cave for that. you're going to pico day too? that would be cool i'm not sure it depends on a few things, you're getting comissions first of all dude so that's good.
Template88
Work with the regulars to make it a better place. Recruit cool people you know and try to get them to join the community. Or give up and accept that maybe this place isn't growing as a place for artists to develop. I like the regulars personally, and I just ignore the one post wonders unless they're doing something amusingly terrible. The art portal is absolute garbage, and I think it should be fixed but the admins don't seem to really care about whole portions of the website. It is what it is, seeing a rational person like you posting on the boards is what keeps me posting.
SourCherryJack
Yo Template, I'm flattered that you read this, even more so that my posting is something that keeps you around. I've come to treasure your presence in the forum not just for your awesome art, but you also give good advice/critique/info that is in many cases entertaining to read as well.
I think the biggest source of the frustration is that the art forum can be (and has been) a strong, albeit smaller art community. Back when activity threads thrived and popped up all the time and collars were actually a thing a few times a year people have tried to get them up and running again but it's usually a weak turn out. I don't know what more we can do, I wouldn't know how successful an attempt at recruiting people would go, or what that would even look like short of saying to my friends hey you should use Newgrounds, you know, the site with all the games and flash movies, it's just really an uphill battle that one.
I think community projects and collaborations would be the way to go, but those are hard to organize and even when organized hard to complete.
The portal has a lot of great in it, unfortunately a lot more garbage, but sometimes it's worth it to trudge through, I do agree it could be tighter in its moderating.
Anyway, I'm kind of droning at this point, thanks for posting, always glad to see you pop in when you do.