http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1405471

It's something I've always had in my head.

The idea of creating a community of creative people, sharing ideas and building new worlds, new possibilities. I've stated it in the past that this is one of the goals of Forgotten Dawn, as a project not simply related to audio, but extended to other medias and make it a social experience for everyone to share and enjoy.

Well, I think this might be a start. Starting from the beginning, obviously, which is Newgrounds. Pretty much my creative birthplace, back in 2009. I thought wow, this looks like a cool place. I could share my music, feedback and critique, I could watch some cool movies, play some great games, what more can a teenager ask? I didn't know any other place where I could do such a thing. It's not my first community either, and it's relatively rare to feel "home" in a website.

Now I gotta be honest, and this is where this newspost starts looking like a midnight confession rather than being informative, I haven't been very active from a community standpoint. Sure, I would participate in some contests sometimes, write a few posts, keep you folks updated on what I do, I am busy in real life and I pay my taxes just like everyone else, but at its core most of the times I don't really feel like sharing anything.

I've always wanted to avoid the drama because real life is already full of it, I don't need to be reminded of the countless gallons of gratuitious hatred and shitposting that happens every now and then on the boards and even outside the boards. It's detrimental to one's creativity. What gives? Just ignore it, right? Just suck it up and live on like a man. Well... no. It's not that simple, it never is simple.

If there's one thing that this kind of attitude brought in me is cynicism and apathy. Apathy towards what's really out there — the fact that out of the circle, there's a whole world to explore and there are millions of good people wanting to progress and evolve as individuals. Apathy towards the good things that make a community worth of being shared in the first place.

Cynicism towards the world for its ugly side that is constantly thrown in our faces, like everything's a sensationalist freak show we have to accept by an unspoken, unseen rule silently agreed by everyone around me except myself. Cynicism towards the community for what it is, believing nothing will ever change because that's what some people want you to believe. I'm sick and tired of people that do not want to change for the better while not letting others do their own thing peacefully. This nihilistic attitude is what hinders a community from seeing what is really there and what is actually happening to them.

Yes, I've felt like this for a long time. That's insanity.

I still believe deep down inside that some things will never really change. It's this existential nihilism, realizing the fragility of human beings and our volatile nature, that sometimes hinders me from giving a flying fuck in the first place. It's my lawn, and this is yours. Don't step in unless I ask you.

Stepping out of the circle and realizing the masquerade ball you've just left is more painful than you'd think. It's like realizing they have suddenly ripped a bunch of vital organs from your body, watching them tearing your body apart into a gory mess and you let them just do that, because you know, it's part of the circle jerk. It's a costume, right? Who gets more organs wins and the losers clean up the mess.

But you know... you eventually grow tired of that as well. When I realize I still have dreams to pursue. When I realize that there are people who have been investing in my capabilities. When I realize there are people that have already left this world, some of them still have a few years left to live, and I've been lucky enough to have met those people in time, embracing their legacy. It's the moment I need to realize that it's no longer my fight.

My ambitions and dreams are no longer "mine". It's the kind of wake up call that I wish more people would experience. Being able to embrace possibilities and build them, together. I created that forum post because I see it as a start of a movement of creative people wanting to voice their own ideas. Not ideals. Ideas. Many good ideas start from the underground and Newgrounds is a good place for blurring the line between "professional" and "amateur". I still believe Newgrounds is a goldmine of unscouted talent, or talents you have never even heard of. I want to give them a voice. That's where the idea of a "collective" started rooting in my head.

It's not a society, it's definitely not a hive. It's a group of Creators celebrating their creativity for everyone to enjoy and share. I also didn't want to call it an Audio collective because even if it primarily involves musicians/composers, more people might get involved, including visual artists, writers, animators, game designers, programmers, who knows. Possibilities are endless.

So... there you go. This is my legacy for the place that started everything for me.