Uh oh! Uh oh!! New annoying rant of an essay time!! This one’s been on my mind for a hot moment, but I’ve never really been able to get my thoughts about it together cohesively. But maybe… I’ll try?
As a disclaimer – I do not hate Toyhouse! It’s a wonderful resource and I’ve met so many of my closest friends there. People there are creative and have a passion for art and storytelling. Consider this to potentially be an SOS flare.
I’ve been on Toyhouse for 9 years! That’s almost a whole decade!! And in that time, I’ve seen things come and go, as well as trends and attitudes change. So, with that in mind… I don’t like where things are going! But it’s beyond the obvious lack of moderation issue, and goes deeper into the community and changing of times as a whole.
Toyhouse has one member of staff. A mod, admin, whatever you’ll call it – there’s only one person managing the entire site… and it shows! Unless it’s blatantly inflammatory, the forums and comments are effectively an unrestricted free for all — which, as the userbase has began to grow exponentially, doesn’t bode well. The ‘free for all’ type of atmosphere has led to the development of a uniquely discouraging space that was once full of promise. However, this issue is not exclusive to TH – it just happens to manifest there quite a bit due to lack of moderation.
You cannot write bad things. Sure, murder and death is ok, but you must put a big huge warning saying ‘I DON’T CONDONE THE ACTIONS OF MY CHARACTERS’ on your bio – otherwise you condone it, as would be the obvious conclusion to nobody.
But any other type of ‘dark theme’? Simply portraying is is romanticization. If it makes you uncomfortable, it’s problematic.
This extends beyond themes, too. People will become so hungry for drama and their desire for a sense of justice is too strong, that they aren’t allowed to just ‘dislike’ something for no reason. The thing they dislike NEEDS to be morally reprehensible so they can feel justified.
This attitude is exhausting to see, time and time again – even as a bystander.
Everything has to be in bad faith, and arguments spark as easily as flicking cigarette embers out of the car while driving by a field in drought. Again, this is not exclusive to TH – rather, TH suffers from a symptom of the greater modern internet itself.
Rage and hostility is engagement. Engagement is good. Art and writing is content to be consumed.
It’s awful and I don’t like it, even if it makes me sound like an old hag. I just want to create things and tell the stories and emotions of the people in my head.
Ownership… what about it?
Maybe I’m only just noticing this because I only ‘got into’ adoptable recently, at least in the TH sense. As a teen, I’d buy and sell adopts on pre-AI hellscape dA using points. There were of course popular artists in my sphere, but the focus was almost always on their art instead of adoptables they’d make.
But… it seems different now. Especially in the last year and a half.
In the environment TH has fostered specifically, designs are trading cards. Sure, they may get a one-sentence blurb of story and potentially a name, but more often than not, it’s an endless rat race of foddering someone’s art in order to achieve ownership of a design by someone popular… only to fodder that design for different ‘pop’ designs.
These people’s art is being treated as disposable, made more evident by the rise of ‘dreamie’ lists. People will insist they aren’t shopping lists, but when you link that folder saying ‘any design in here is an auto-accept’…
And god forbid someone actually creates a story with a character design they’ve obtained, instead of dangling them on an ‘entertaining offers’ stick for eternity. If someone has many character designs by ‘pop’ designers and doesn’t show an indication of foddering them off, they’re a whale, a hoarder, and don’t deserve them.
What a mess.
On the reverse side, it’s also getting harder and harder to support smaller adopt makers too, as they begin herd-adopting more restrictive terms of use for their designs. Generally, the worst of these is the ‘don’t delete or hide my designs or else you don’t own it anymore‘, in my eyes.
What are you going to to when TH eventually succumbs to its hubris of exponential growth with no moderation? OCs have existed long before TH, and will exist long after it. To act as though you can simply ‘revoke’ a character that may have heaps of development and love simply because you can’t have your eyes on it at all times… it’s weird.
But what does it matter. They’re just designs to people. Trading cards.
Art is content and must be consumed quickly before moving on to the next new shiny thing, after all.
Hey there, thanks for sharing your thoughts. While I can’t say I’ve been on Toyhouse as long as you have, nor have I used it as extensively as many others do – I can definitely see where you are coming from. While I can appreciate the forum layout – it takes me back to a simpler time, before instantaneous messaging – I feel as though the community still expects this rapid-fire, fast turnout when it comes to content and reception. I try to err away from the more inflammatory areas of the forums — particularly the Services / Reviews area, as I believe in my opinion from what I have seen of it, most of the threads seem to be 0-1 post call-out threads of discourse and petty drama. For many, it seems it is difficult to have mature conflict resolution.
All I can say is try to keep your head up! I’ve just recently tried to make adoptables and have seen what you have described – just an influx of low quality ambiguous content thrown in empty threads in the desperate hope to resonate with someone. There is little engagement with the art – little emotional attachment beyond the price tag. I feel as though there is no sense of community on the website which leaves communication feeling quite antisocial; one-sided; transactional, sometimes.
This is just based off of what I have seen. I won’t let this deter me from continuing to practice making character designs. As long as I remain confident in my work, I’m sure it will persist, even beyond the AI and fodder, so to speak. I feel this way about anyone who remains incredibly passionate about their work – and I can see that unique creative blaze in you as well! Please don’t feel disheartened. You’re not alone in seeing all of this unfold.
I never knew owning/drawing character designs could be such a petty business, but I’ve been thoroughly surprised at some very shocking terms and conditions such as the ones you’ve mentioned.
I digress – sorry for the tangent – hang in there! I’m not sure what the future holds, especially for a place like Toyhouse, but all we can do is hang on for the ride and try to ignore the rabble-rousing.
poyoy
Definitely feel you in regards to the forums – it’s kind of interesting to see the parallels of the forums being build in a time before rapidfire communication, and yet the users adapt to it anyways.
I’m glad it’s not detering you, though! From what I’ve seen of your work, you have a unique mastery over texture and style and I’m glad you keep making things :}
I’ll definitely keep going as well — it’s been almost a decade dedicated to my funny little world, but whether it’ll stay on TH for the future is another question. Regardless, my work lives here no matter what, and that’s the glory of personal websites, I think. It’s just your own little space away from the hustle and bustle of everything else.
Don’t worry about the tangent! It’s nice to know my rant was able to resonate with someone.