Yooo! So hi everyone. I'm really happy to see that so many people are using Weasyl lately. In the last week, daily submission rates have been incredibly close to that of Weasyl's biggest competitor, and I've found it very inspiring how much people are throwing themselves behind the site. That being said, I've noticed there are a lot people that predict that when Weasyl's largest competitor comes back online, that activity will slow here. However, I know from what I've seen that this isn't necessarily what people want, knowing the shortcomings of said competitor.

The truth is, things don't have to be that way. As a community, I feel it's very important for us to recognize the power we all hold as individuals, and realize that it is possible to make a change. Weasyl's largest competitor may be free, but so is every other art site. Make sure to consider the people who put time and effort into Weasyl, and think about whether you'd rather reward that, or a website that hasn't made significant progress in the last 8 years its existed.

Now of course, the biggest obstacle is "I stay there because my client base is there!" I understand this entirely, and think it would be foolish to leave the central hub just like that. Instead, one should use the resources of said hub to help facilitate change. Some of the ways to do this:

1) Post previews or low-res versions to the competitor, and link to the full-res image here to give people an incentive to come over.

2) Get the word out that commissioners are very much welcomed to join Weasyl and to upload works that were made for them.

3) Spread the word about all the fantastic features Weasyl has, such as:

-Folders for submissions

-Tag filtering

-Friends-only settings on submissions and journals

-Being able to set what kinds of notifications you get from individual followed users

-A thumbnail cropping tool

-A proper streaming system

-And a site layout that scales perfectly for mobile browsing

And in general, just make it clear that every individual can make a difference. And then, once everyone's comfortably on here, weeks or months from now, and most of Weasyl's kinks have been worked out, -then- users can begin truly migrating. To be truthful, going cold turkey never works-- It has to be a process.

I know some people are very jaded about this topic, and yes, Weasyl isn't perfect yet. But right now, it has the best shot anything has ever had at becoming the dominant force in the art community, and in that same vein, it's the best candidate out there. The coders are working their asses off to fix things (I see contact info finally went live tonight!), and as such, I foresee a lot of bright things in the site's future. It might not quite be there yet, but I have no reason to doubt the coders will stop working to make the site as robust as possible; and to me, that's the kind of dedication that deserves to be rewarded with a strong userbase, be they artist, art appreciator, or both.