I feel like I need to emphasize this.
Right now the Bridget gallery has 199 images. More than half of these were uploaded by Dull Man in Strange Time.
These were all fanart, most of them had no connection to identity-related issues, and the few that did were fairly subtle and not anvilicious. Random Man used to tell users that had problems with the site to "be the change you want to see". It is very clear that this was what was attempted. Instead of trying to confront images and users that had very strong opinions and were not looking for constructive criticism, the method of leading by example and uploading a large volume of good fanart to healthy dilute the culture ware related stuff to have a gallery to be focused on fanart was employed. But of course, more than a hundred pieces of good fanart isn't going to get the same attention as comics deriding certain interpretations.
Going through Dull Man's other activity, it is even more dispiriting knowing that you are going. Not only is there a very large volume of correctly sourced, well tagged fanart that isn't over culture war stuff, but I'm also noticing attempts to continually further improve upon your tagging and sourcing despite already being in the top 30 of non-staff/mod image uploaders and in the top 70 of non-staff/mod image editors.
And the interactions and comments that I've seen that I feel confident are what Dull Man felt dishearted by to the point of wanting to leave are from people who have generally contributed less than a hundredth, or in many cases, less than a thousandth in terms of tangible contributions compared to what Dull Man has. A few were clearly just aggressive trolls that joined a month or less ago and have since been banned. But others are long time users who might have valid points, but are so aggressive about them and dismissive of others that no reasonable person would want to actually have a conversation about it.
Before you get the wrong idea that Dull Man is perfect, there are a few marks for NSFW/ NC images and some tagging issues. And some of the images that aren't NC are ones that I'd personally think are a bit too much. But honestly, I don't really care. The site contributions so massively outweigh the negatives, especially when these "negatives" are essentially just technical formalities. The activities I've seen have been civil, friendly, and/or wanting personal self-improvement on the website paired with a huge volume of images. And not just uploads of one thing. Sure there are some that are preferred, but this isn't a case of just 2-3 fandoms being uploaded. These are memes, comics, fanart, and animations in many different galleries
I don't want to tell you you should stay, because if you're feeling burnt out now, then even if you do stay, the burnout will be even worse later. Again, I do suggest the KYM Discord but I also know that this is mostly just a chill place that is easier to ignore politics and isn't the same as uploading fanart to share. I want you to do what you feel is best for you. I think a lot of users that actually care will hate to see you go, but at the same time I know that this sentiment won't counterbalance your experiences on the site. Seeing this is particularly hard on me, though I do wish you the best.
