In my opinion, the evolution of the internet has not been that positive for the pixel art community in terms of collective learning. Maybe I'm biased by nostalgia, but I feel like the move to social media and Discord have changed the way people communicate. When we used forums with threads, people would invest more time in tips and edits because their feedback would stay visible forever. Feedback didn't disappear in the feed and become invisible after a few hours, so people who were active with feedback would get more attention and praise for their work. There was as much praise for edits as for the originals, sometimes.
I also feel like whenever I try to critique someone in 2021 as opposed to 2015, they're often... just looking for compliments. It was always the case that some people were more willing to change their work than others, but now I feel like artists are more sensitive. If they don't like the CC, they will ignore you or react negatively instead of being grateful that someone tried to help. As pixel artists get better, there's also a bit of elitism going on, but I won't get into that. More importantly, I think the whole nature of Discord and Twitter is kind of angst-inducing. Everyone can see what is being said in real time. They can see if someone is typing. And when no one answers, the silence is deafening. If someone critiques your work on a server with a lot of people, it feels more significant than getting a reply in a thread. I have definitely sinned in different ways as well, so I'm not simply criticizing everyone else.
But yeah, maybe I'm just an old fart. There are some positive aspects too. I notice some Discord servers have a real fellowship going on. For some people, Discord is definitely better. I'm CELS # 2625 (without spaces) on Discord, I can send you invites to some Discord channels if you want to check them out. PJ is probably the best place to start though.
