Look, I know Tapas is a creative place, and creative people like validation and acknowledgement and can get frustrated when they don't get what they think they should.
But can we please stop the hate on other creators.
I see it constantly on these forums and it's becoming a nightmare. I have some pretty low stats, do you know what I'm not doing? Blaming and hating and demeaning more popular creators and works.
Even if you ignore what I've previously said about it making you look childish and petty, pulling the creative equivalent of "I'm not like other girls", it can turn this forum toxic. We used to have a lot more premium and larger creators regularly on this forum, helping people and giving lots of good advice. And how did many people respond? By complaining about how premium creators have it easier, how it's unfair, how popular works are soulless and their creators don't actually care about their work, just being popular.
It's fine, if you think popular/premium works are all samey (and perhaps think of the logic that many of them are samey because that's what sells and what's popular and there's nothing wrong with that) but rather than treating premium/popular creators like they're doing something wrong, how about you act like a decent human being and treat fellow creators with respect? Rather than treating popular/premium works like they're all hollow copies of each other churned out by a factory, you appreciate the skill that goes into them and try to learn something?
If nothing else, think about how you would feel if your work suddenly got popular and suddenly you were accused of not having put in any effort and just copying a popular formula.
Please can this forum stop blaming premium/popular creators and works for your own lack of popularity and stop tearing down the efforts of fellow creators and instead treat them with a bit of respect.
(And while we're at it, don't blame the audience either. Stop shifting the blame and treat everyone with respect.)