The time has come...

[marshmouse]

Some added perspective: things were hopping when people suddenly had a way to share their work. A lot of it had been built up in private over years, some over decades. The late Nineties open floodgates for an enormous amount of creative work. Unless some previously isolated generation comes online, I doubt there will ever be another surge of available creative work like that. Especially from such an esoteric interest like this one. Maybe if and when the Chinese government finds some advantage to a wide open internet policy. Imagine what that flood might look like . Other than that, it's nice to be nostalgic for any golden age, but really hard to recreate one.

[Mynock]

Just remember that the more free shit you give out the more people will bitch that it isn't enough.....one of the things that HASN'T changed about the community since '96 is that it's still full of vultures who think they deserve something just for signing in.

[kham]

PM bullshit -- you post publicly, be prepared to get your ass handed to you publicly

Who, do you imagine makes all these vids and photosets, hmm??

Do you think that production values increased by pixie dust and unicorn farts? Or maybe that the people involved spent their own money, and time, and sweat, and blood to do them? That digital camera gear gets paid for by the community? WAKE UP --- if there wasn't still the desire to do this, no one would be doing it. I'm pretty sure I could find something to do with the thousands of dollars spent over the years on camera gear besides this.

BTW -- with one exception, EVERY SINGLE NAME on your list has not been involved in qs related activities in years, so I am not sure what your point is. Especially since there are plenty of other artists who have replaced them

[kham]

Just remember that the more free shit you give out the more people will bitch that it isn't enough.....one of the things that HASN'T changed about the community since '96 is that it's still full of vultures who think they deserve something just for signing in.

THIS
+100

[Parzival2600]

Please let's not blow this up. To insinuate that I'm a vulture is to twist my words and intent. I'm not out to get anything, actually quite the opposite, but that will be proven soon enough. So please don't hurl conjecture, it does no one any good. As for the comment about my asking to handle this in PM, I simply sought to spare the forum any flaming. As I said, it's not condusive. I certainly never intended to stir up such resentment. I do apologize again if I offended anyone, it really was not my intent. I appreciate and respect all efforts, as I stated in my earlier post and recognize what goes into it. Prehapes my words came out wrong. Please forgive me if that's the case. I have nothing but good intent for this community as will be seen soon.

[Conspiracy101]

I don't want to argue this, I respect all views. However, I disagree with the assertion that there wasn't much back then. If you'll recall Wamsat. There was alot of people such as kaol, Longshot, Der mud gecko, QSArtist, Ol'Boggy, Foster Blake...to name a few, who clearly did what they did out of a love for our interest. I'm not knocking commercial endeavors, I fully understand their contribution to the community as a whole and I appreciate the hardwork put into them. I enjoy them myself. What i'm saying is that something fundamental has been lost. It's been mentioned that traffic on QSF isn't heavy. One only has to compare it with the heyday of DS to see that's true. I'm not blaming QSF for this in anyway. The community as a whole doesn't feel like a community anymore, there's no sense of identity. It's hard for me to put into words. There was a time when I was excited to see a new work from kaol or Derek Jayson. I felt connected. That barely exist anymore. I dunno, like I said, i can't fully put it into words, all I know is that the community is beginning to feel like any other fetish community and that is so not what I saw this community as. There seem's to be no encouragement to be creative, to contribute. It's sad. Don't believe me, just go to the wayback machine and peruse the QS community of yesteryear, note the interactions, the creativity. Hell, browse through DS's archive from when they first started and you'll see it.

Once again, I'm not knocking commercial endeavors, but this community should not be built around it, it should be just another feature of it. Please note that i don't fault producers with this, I blame those who have the power to effect this community, but do nothing. Thing's change, yes, but they change for the better. Stability doesn't always equal quality, infact it can sometimes promote malaise.

That's all I'm going to say on this matter. My plans stand. judge me when i unveil them very soon.

Yeah I don't feel very connected to things that I take a decade break from either. You may not like the changes that have come about in our quicksand community and you are quick to blame "those in power" for having not changed thing according to your liking during your absence, but you don't want to offend anyone and don't want a public bashing for this after posting this in a public forum. I myself don't feel offended, but there is so much wrong with nearly everything you have posted thus far that a response of our opinion is truly necessary. The only good I will give you credit for is saying that you will try to bring about some of this "change" to the community yourself.

Where do I begin? First off, this community is still very much a community that shares it's experiences, ideas, and opinions on all the content that crosses the internet waves. Every thread is buzzing with members talking about what we like and don't like about producers content as well as sharing personal experiences in the real world and now more than ever, as far as I've noticed, we have producers and actresses talking directly to the members regarding what it is that makes up our interest in quicksand. I don't know why you feel so disconnected from the community, but it's not because people are sharing experiences, I can promise you that. Secondly, who exactly is in power to change things, and who says things haven't changed for the better? All the change we see before us are because that's what members and board administrators wanted and we think things are just as good if not better than before. You can't take a 10 year break, see things change in a way that you don't like, then say the "people in power are to blame." It's people that sat behind like you and did nothing that are to blame for the things you personally don't like. I can't really recall the last time I saw someone on the forum comment how detached the environment feels here considering, few if any have made that complaint. You don't want to insult anyone, yes you said people in power sat by and did nothing as the community change in a manner that you don't particularly like. That sounds like an insult considering you are directly blaming people (vaguely) for a problem that only seems to exist in your eyes. This all kind of leads me to think that there's nothing broken here except for your attitude. I'll admit, again, that you said you are bringing change back to the forum, but I would consider your "change" more of an addition to everything we already have here seeing as how nothing is really broken and in need of change. I strongly welcome, as much as anyone else here, your additions to the growth of the quicksand community, but so far all we've seen are vague and hallow insults from someone that hasn't really been around much to contribute to what we have all built here. Don't let our words deter you from your endeavors, but next time maybe it would be wise to take the time to word your opinions more carefully before making wild allegations that our community doesn't feel like a community any more and that we have lost something fundamental. I'd let everyone's response to your opinion be the determining factor in whether or not we aren't a "community" anymore.

[bfc796]

Reading the original post and all of the replies, and then going back and reading the original post again; I wonder if what was meant has been misconstrued as 'there aren't enough freebies anymore'. I would agree that it's a bit sad to see the lack of amateur contributions to the Member Submissions sub-forum - that is not a complaint, but a recognition that interest in participating and sharing fun excursions does seemed to have largely dried up, for some unknown reason... Maybe the cultural spirit of the times is not conducive towards 'play' in general. Things have got kinda heavy and 'serious' around the world in the last 5 years. Taking a long break from this forum and DS for that long, I can see why you might have gleaned the impression that the sense of community is not what it once was.

[Mynock]

....To insinuate that I'm a vulture...

I was assuming from the first post you meant to give something to the community at large. It was more a warning that you'll be eaten by vultures then to insinuate you were one.

[Parzival2600]

....To insinuate that I'm a vulture...

I was assuming from the first post you meant to give something to the community at large. It was more a warning that you'll be eaten by vultures then to insinuate you were one.

My apologies Mynock.

[dlodoski]

.... I would agree that it's a bit sad to see the lack of amateur contributions to the Member Submissions sub-forum - that is not a complaint, but a recognition that interest in participating and sharing fun excursions does seemed to have largely dried up, for some unknown reason... Maybe the cultural spirit of the times is not conducive towards 'play' in general. Things have got kinda heavy and 'serious' around the world in the last 5 years. Taking a long break from this forum and DS for that long, I can see why you might have gleaned the impression that the sense of community is not what it once was.

This sentiment/observation is mystifying to me, unless the focus is strictly 'play' related photos and/or videos. Which, even if that, there was never very much of that at DS or any of our other venues. Between Photos, the Home Videos section and Youtube, this type of traffic is spotty, but it's as strong as it's ever been. And, I'm not sure how 'play' is defined here, but what about the steady diet of bog jumping and quicksand stomping amateur vids on Youtube (that get linked in Nuggets)? They are not community based, but folks are definitely playing....

Aside from that, stating that there is a lack Member Submissions in general is just plain wrong. Stories and Drawings in particular are very busy. Those two areas are as prolific now as they ever were, anywhere.

I think it's important to remember that at DS, all member submissions and producer content were mashed together - mostly in Late NIght. Here, member submissions are separate from producer posts, and spread out by category. That's a huge difference. So, don't compare the per-forum traffic at DS or earlier venues to QSF, it's apples and oranges. And, as Marshmouse pointed out, there aren't any more floodgates to open like there was in the 90's.

These are just my observations. As far as opinions go, I think that showing up and saying that the community is broken is an insult to everyone who contributes and comments here at Quicksand Fans.