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Being a Drifter
- Thread starter Agave
- Start date
ForAcademicPurposes
Member
Agave
Gold Member
No just this place, if you want I can @ you in the next chapterAgave
Pretty cool narration, I enjoyed it, totally waiting for chapter 3, do you have any other place where you are writing this? Or where I can keep track of it.
thief183
Member
Do it!!
Days like these...
Have a Blessed Day
It's a trap he's going to use us for fodder in one of his future word salad entries! 
Agave
Gold Member
What does that even mean??It's a trap he's going to use us for fodder in one of his future word salad entries!
Agave
Gold Member
CHAPTER 3:
TuxedoCat:
As we explore more into q̵̛͚̣͉̪͍̭̲͒̏͝1̵̧͈̗̝͔̜́̑̉̏̽̚͜x̵̛͓̣̤͕̳̉̇̎l̶̖̼͉͛́́̄@̶̢̻̯̈́̑̚ͅͅr̵̭̱̳̋͘t̷̡̬̍̇̑̔͘ we found that there's a whole variety of users.
Some are silent, some are talkative, some are cringe, some are beloved, some are looked down on, and then we have the popular ones . . . is there any?
From my experience, despite the large population, everyone who's active on the site all collectively know each other, so there wouldn't be any kind of clear hierarchy like TikTok or YouTube. Everyone had their fair chance to shine, and their art wouldn't be shoved aside in favor of someone more famous who also uploaded a drawing. I mean, the site had its own dedicated section promoting underrated artists' art to be displayed upfront, whether it be on your feed or the corner of the screen, in case you missed it (Literal title of the section). Granted, some would get more followers than others (in fact, if I remember correctly, for the site's standards, having 10,000 followers is the equivalent of having 100,000 YouTuber subscribers), but to me it still felt more like a shared space where reputations took priority, shaped less by the number of supporters you have, but by presence, contribution, and how people chose to interact, hence why I used to like that site a lot back then, it opened many doors for me to many great friends I loved so much, as socialization and connectivity was the core. Too bad I had to ruin everything once I got comfortable.
So what does any of this have to do with the friend we're discussing today? Well everything I said about the followers kinda contradicted how I first viewed him, all the way back in the mid-21st century, but then later he changed my views to how I see followers now, so . . . full circle!
2021:
So I knew of this guy's existence before we became friends, he was close with one of my other friends for a while, for he contributed a bit with his game project (more on that one day). At the time, he was at least a top 15 most popular user at the site, and back then I didn't see him as just another user in that shared space, his presence felt louder, not because he dominated in terms of art or attention, but because he interacted with so many users, no matter their status, and I was like, "How does this guy do it??" something so unnatural to me at the time since before then, my experience with popular users is that they're in a closed bubble hanging out with their peers equally in the same high status of them. So to see a guy having the time to chill with us felt like a breath of fresh air, so I had to get his attention to see if I could be friends with the popular kid on the block, and luckily, it came sooner than expected.
Staff Pick Earned:
We'd talk about the "in case you missed it art," now we're entering the big boy section, the staff picks! Pretty self-explanatory, it's pieces of work so good that they're recognized by the site staff and displayed on the main site, on the side of your screen most of the time. I mean, don't get too excited about this concept (if you are for some reason) the system is kinda rigged (even today) since while the site did had moderators, they had no voice in deciding which art was worthy to be displayed and which didn't, all that came down towards the creator of the site, who actually had an account and hung out kinda with his civillians. He was the one who picked and chose art that HE liked, and most of the time his decisions were valid, other times were really, really damn questionable, like I remember this one time he chose the simplest watermelon gif and gave it a staff pick, and it was the most goofy sore thumb art I've seen when compared to other staff picks when others put blood and tears into their dragons, or nature, or aquarium art.
Anyways, around September, I uploaded a pretty sick drawing, in reference to the classic Bathaniel Nandy joke, "Gamers, welcome to my boulders," and it went VERY WELL, like, first drawing to hit 1,000 views, then 5,000, then 10,000! And the likes, holy shit, 500, 1,000, 2,000!! The peak of my art career for a damn good while, and it got the attention of the creator of the site as well, thus I had the honor of earning my staff pick, the sweet, sweet gold badge.
Days went by, earning tons of notifications every minute or two, receiving a new like or follower, until one of those users caught my eye. It was Tuxedo Cat, and he just followed me!! Even better, HE POSTED SOMETHING ON MY WALL (status update section)
I . . . can't remember what he said- I imagined he was complimenting my art- so here's this meme that encapsulated my feelings towards that past moment
Okay, let's actually talk about him. Besides being like popular and all, he's a very cheerful and polite guy, no bad bones in him. I know this is like the 3rd friend in a row, but he's also pretty simple-minded, NOT in a bad way, it's just I don't think we ever had any deep conversations pre-incident besides talking about video games and spites sheets. Speaking of which, one of the dude's favorites games is Kunio-Kun, like he LOVES Kunio Kun, basically any kind of beat em up games, since he also loved The Simpsons Arcade game, and there were also some non-fighter games like Sonic and Rayman, but his love was mainly Kunio Kun, which in fact he introduced me to the franchise and I must say it's a pretty damn good game series, I'm glad it's still going and it's nice to see him be so passionate about it since most of his artwork were sprites of Kunio Kun, which I respect since it's A LOT, like around 200 pieces of sprite sheets done by himself. It was basically his artistic identity to me, but he did other sheets, which I guess is why he earns so many followers, he uploads frequently, like 2-3 sprite drawings a day if I recall. However occasionally, he would drop a bombshell of a masterpiece of his artwork. Yup, the guy proudly has 5 Staff Picks and 3 Pictures of the Day (Essentially the highest praise of your artwork, think of it like employee of the month type shit where your work is displayed EVERYWHERE for the entire day) and it is the most detailed piece of video game art I've seen, all hand-drawn by him
He was also a frequent and prominent member in developing one of my other friends' indie projects, erm- I'll call it RAMEN. I have like no involvement in it other than I've known it's been in development for years with a fairly small group, but the creator is hardworking, and I wish them the best of luck in finishing it wherever they are, and Tuxedo Cat was a great guy in contributing a lot in the sprite making.
Over the years, we became pretty close, since he's always been an active member. I've always enjoyed seeing his progress in developing the sprites, but it occurred to me that my old way of looking at followers and fame started to not really apply to him at all. I mean, with every generation before, big numbers meant hierarchy, and Tuxedo Cat had it all, 5 Staff Pick, 3 Pictures of the Day, a constant stream of uploads, and a feed that never went quiet. If you looked at him from a distance, you'd think that was the source of his fame, his status, the shiny badges that told everyone "this guy is really damn cool and important, and doesn't have time for little users like us," since that's how I used to read popularity back then, that was the system for every other famous content creator, but it didn't matter to him, none of the artists in that site were like that. What actually stuck with me over time was how present he was. He didn't rank above others, he was with us. He helped, engaged, he was one of the boys and his popularity did not put a distance between me and others, and it felt so refreshing, I mean he literally befriended me in Minecraft. It opened my eyes to the community I was in, we were in this together.
But there's one last thing why I gave him his own chapter. Not many of my friends post-incident know where I am today, except Tuxedo Cat, who is one of two who know that I'm still alive somewhere.
It was around 2024, we met at his Minecraft world, we chatted a bit, and I told him some of the truth. I was gone from our old site, and I couldn't bear coming back. I wish I could give more on what else happened in our convo, but I can't remember. Everything after what happened shortly is a blur to me, like seeing in a snow blizzard, trying to find your way. But he does know about me, not where I am, or what I'm doing, but he knows I'm okay (to him at least-). I wanted to try to talk to him again to see how he's doing, but our only access to chatting was Minecraft, and that new UI update is making it really hard for me to access his worlds whenever he's online, but one day we'll meet again, somewhere in the abyss he knows I'm around.
3/25
TuxedoCat:
As we explore more into q̵̛͚̣͉̪͍̭̲͒̏͝1̵̧͈̗̝͔̜́̑̉̏̽̚͜x̵̛͓̣̤͕̳̉̇̎l̶̖̼͉͛́́̄@̶̢̻̯̈́̑̚ͅͅr̵̭̱̳̋͘t̷̡̬̍̇̑̔͘ we found that there's a whole variety of users.
Some are silent, some are talkative, some are cringe, some are beloved, some are looked down on, and then we have the popular ones . . . is there any?
From my experience, despite the large population, everyone who's active on the site all collectively know each other, so there wouldn't be any kind of clear hierarchy like TikTok or YouTube. Everyone had their fair chance to shine, and their art wouldn't be shoved aside in favor of someone more famous who also uploaded a drawing. I mean, the site had its own dedicated section promoting underrated artists' art to be displayed upfront, whether it be on your feed or the corner of the screen, in case you missed it (Literal title of the section). Granted, some would get more followers than others (in fact, if I remember correctly, for the site's standards, having 10,000 followers is the equivalent of having 100,000 YouTuber subscribers), but to me it still felt more like a shared space where reputations took priority, shaped less by the number of supporters you have, but by presence, contribution, and how people chose to interact, hence why I used to like that site a lot back then, it opened many doors for me to many great friends I loved so much, as socialization and connectivity was the core. Too bad I had to ruin everything once I got comfortable.
So what does any of this have to do with the friend we're discussing today? Well everything I said about the followers kinda contradicted how I first viewed him, all the way back in the mid-21st century, but then later he changed my views to how I see followers now, so . . . full circle!
2021:
So I knew of this guy's existence before we became friends, he was close with one of my other friends for a while, for he contributed a bit with his game project (more on that one day). At the time, he was at least a top 15 most popular user at the site, and back then I didn't see him as just another user in that shared space, his presence felt louder, not because he dominated in terms of art or attention, but because he interacted with so many users, no matter their status, and I was like, "How does this guy do it??" something so unnatural to me at the time since before then, my experience with popular users is that they're in a closed bubble hanging out with their peers equally in the same high status of them. So to see a guy having the time to chill with us felt like a breath of fresh air, so I had to get his attention to see if I could be friends with the popular kid on the block, and luckily, it came sooner than expected.
Staff Pick Earned:
We'd talk about the "in case you missed it art," now we're entering the big boy section, the staff picks! Pretty self-explanatory, it's pieces of work so good that they're recognized by the site staff and displayed on the main site, on the side of your screen most of the time. I mean, don't get too excited about this concept (if you are for some reason) the system is kinda rigged (even today) since while the site did had moderators, they had no voice in deciding which art was worthy to be displayed and which didn't, all that came down towards the creator of the site, who actually had an account and hung out kinda with his civillians. He was the one who picked and chose art that HE liked, and most of the time his decisions were valid, other times were really, really damn questionable, like I remember this one time he chose the simplest watermelon gif and gave it a staff pick, and it was the most goofy sore thumb art I've seen when compared to other staff picks when others put blood and tears into their dragons, or nature, or aquarium art.
Anyways, around September, I uploaded a pretty sick drawing, in reference to the classic Bathaniel Nandy joke, "Gamers, welcome to my boulders," and it went VERY WELL, like, first drawing to hit 1,000 views, then 5,000, then 10,000! And the likes, holy shit, 500, 1,000, 2,000!! The peak of my art career for a damn good while, and it got the attention of the creator of the site as well, thus I had the honor of earning my staff pick, the sweet, sweet gold badge.
Days went by, earning tons of notifications every minute or two, receiving a new like or follower, until one of those users caught my eye. It was Tuxedo Cat, and he just followed me!! Even better, HE POSTED SOMETHING ON MY WALL (status update section)
I . . . can't remember what he said- I imagined he was complimenting my art- so here's this meme that encapsulated my feelings towards that past moment
Okay, let's actually talk about him. Besides being like popular and all, he's a very cheerful and polite guy, no bad bones in him. I know this is like the 3rd friend in a row, but he's also pretty simple-minded, NOT in a bad way, it's just I don't think we ever had any deep conversations pre-incident besides talking about video games and spites sheets. Speaking of which, one of the dude's favorites games is Kunio-Kun, like he LOVES Kunio Kun, basically any kind of beat em up games, since he also loved The Simpsons Arcade game, and there were also some non-fighter games like Sonic and Rayman, but his love was mainly Kunio Kun, which in fact he introduced me to the franchise and I must say it's a pretty damn good game series, I'm glad it's still going and it's nice to see him be so passionate about it since most of his artwork were sprites of Kunio Kun, which I respect since it's A LOT, like around 200 pieces of sprite sheets done by himself. It was basically his artistic identity to me, but he did other sheets, which I guess is why he earns so many followers, he uploads frequently, like 2-3 sprite drawings a day if I recall. However occasionally, he would drop a bombshell of a masterpiece of his artwork. Yup, the guy proudly has 5 Staff Picks and 3 Pictures of the Day (Essentially the highest praise of your artwork, think of it like employee of the month type shit where your work is displayed EVERYWHERE for the entire day) and it is the most detailed piece of video game art I've seen, all hand-drawn by him
He was also a frequent and prominent member in developing one of my other friends' indie projects, erm- I'll call it RAMEN. I have like no involvement in it other than I've known it's been in development for years with a fairly small group, but the creator is hardworking, and I wish them the best of luck in finishing it wherever they are, and Tuxedo Cat was a great guy in contributing a lot in the sprite making.
Over the years, we became pretty close, since he's always been an active member. I've always enjoyed seeing his progress in developing the sprites, but it occurred to me that my old way of looking at followers and fame started to not really apply to him at all. I mean, with every generation before, big numbers meant hierarchy, and Tuxedo Cat had it all, 5 Staff Pick, 3 Pictures of the Day, a constant stream of uploads, and a feed that never went quiet. If you looked at him from a distance, you'd think that was the source of his fame, his status, the shiny badges that told everyone "this guy is really damn cool and important, and doesn't have time for little users like us," since that's how I used to read popularity back then, that was the system for every other famous content creator, but it didn't matter to him, none of the artists in that site were like that. What actually stuck with me over time was how present he was. He didn't rank above others, he was with us. He helped, engaged, he was one of the boys and his popularity did not put a distance between me and others, and it felt so refreshing, I mean he literally befriended me in Minecraft. It opened my eyes to the community I was in, we were in this together.
But there's one last thing why I gave him his own chapter. Not many of my friends post-incident know where I am today, except Tuxedo Cat, who is one of two who know that I'm still alive somewhere.
It was around 2024, we met at his Minecraft world, we chatted a bit, and I told him some of the truth. I was gone from our old site, and I couldn't bear coming back. I wish I could give more on what else happened in our convo, but I can't remember. Everything after what happened shortly is a blur to me, like seeing in a snow blizzard, trying to find your way. But he does know about me, not where I am, or what I'm doing, but he knows I'm okay (to him at least-). I wanted to try to talk to him again to see how he's doing, but our only access to chatting was Minecraft, and that new UI update is making it really hard for me to access his worlds whenever he's online, but one day we'll meet again, somewhere in the abyss he knows I'm around.
3/25
Last edited:
Agave
Gold Member
Last edited: