So I had this idea of digging through the vast archive on this site and pick a bunch of intresting art that has been long forgotten (probably) and resurface for others to enjoy. Giving new life to hidden gems that I find, so to speak.

First I intended on creating a group where I featured these in some way, but I think the easiest way would be simply to link them in a dedicated journal. A sort of accssible crate digging experience journal. With credits and everything - ofcourse.

Since I can't ask the artist for permission to feature these (most likely), it is in "tricky territory" and made me hesitant.

I know artists no longer here may not want to be in a spotlight they didn't ask for. On the other hand; there is plenty of good art (IMO) that you randomly stumble upon in the user directory that deserve to be seen and appreciated collectively again if there is a way to share it.

So what do you think? Is this a nice idea or an absolutely terrible one? 

Edit: this was a particularly cold potato it seems. Ok, scrap that then.

I love digging for old art (especially old anime fan art), this sounds good to me but also understand wanting to respect the artist in case they don't want old art resurfaced. Hard to say though because it's sometimes difficult to track down where artists from ~20 years ago went and ask permission to share their old art. I usually just assume that they wouldn't care unless they're still online and active, in that case I would ask.

It doesn't sound like a bad idea. It might even draw some of those old artists back in, if only to have them tell you to take it down.

I've been working on an idea for bringing more attention to older art, or random art in general. I don't know how I want to implement it, yet, but basically it would be a kind of "View More Artwork" kind of area with randomly selected pieces from the site.

-- BK

Honestly, I love that idea. But I do agree, some people might not like to see their art used in any way without their consent. Some people might also feel weird if they interpret what you do as a "there, I fixed it" of art that they were once very proud of. One of my sayings is that, "A ruined surprise is better than an unwelcome one." To that spirit, I would urge you to ask permission before recreating someone else's art.

I doubt that anything in my gallery would be appealing enough for such a project, but personally, I would be okay with it if you did reimagine one of my older doodles.

We sort of have a working precedent for this: Back in January '23 as membership was picking up, BK gave everyone free Featured Artist tokens, and it led to some long-gone artists cycling on the front page. I know I picked up some favs through that.

There's a lot of good work buried in the archives, and it leaves me with a bit of a dilemma: my artist self says they should be celebrated; my preservationist self doesn't want to draw attention, precisely in case it prompts the authors to come back and nuke 'em. They say the Internet never forgets, but by that they mean bad news—it'll gladly and gleefully lobotomize what's actually worth keeping. :c

Definitely support randomized curation: since existing search functions order chronologically, apart from Featured Artists it's difficult to really discover people unless you're making a deliberate effort. I just learned there is no root "Browse" page, so there's already prime space for expansion. ;P