1 Year on SUA: A (Long) Retrospective

On March 23, 2017, I ed SU Amino.

:tada: :tada: :tada: :tada: :tada: :tada: :tada: :tada:

People in the SU fandom on Tumblr and YouTube sometimes mentioned SU Amino and told me I should , but I didn't want to at first. I needed another distraction like I needed a hole in my head, and I didn't really understand the technology because I'm kind of an old lady who adapts slowly compared to y'all (I have literally NEVER run into anyone older than me here). I don't like composing long pieces on my phone and I tend to resist apps that I can't access easily with a keyboard.

But I made my first post. (Predictably, it involved Garnet.)

I looked around and fell in love a little. The featured posts were eye-catching and the art was inspiring, and people were sharing all kinds of things: fanfiction, gemsonas, theories, personal thoughts on episodes, drawings of characters from every skill level. It was great to see some really masterful art, but seeing the pieces from developing artists was just as inspiring, working well to make newly ing artists feel like there's a comfortable place for them! :heart:

And I felt this was a place where people loved Steven Universe as much as I do and could enjoy what I enjoy. I would find content to love and people to appreciate what I make too.

I read the guidelines and saw that art should include progress shots, and I ed a Stevonnie drawing I'd done where I'd taken progressive pics, so I made another post for it. Someone in the comments coached me on reordering the pictures, since at the time I didn't know people would be more willing to look at a post with the finished art as the first image. I was happy people were so helpful and I wanted to make more stuff to entertain them! I decided to try to post something at least once a day, but it didn't take long before enthusiasm pushed me to post more often than that.

I shared my first quiz and promptly found out hardly anyone wanted to play it because the questions were obscure and hard and the quiz was long.

See, when I ed, I also took a bunch of quizzes. I was a little disappointed in some of the quizzes because many had garbled language or quiz questions that were misleading, or opinions instead of facts, or just meaningless stuff like "did u like this quiz?" "Yes" "maybe" "idk" "I hate u." I'd wanted to make something complex but figured I'd need to tone it down on the complexity if I wanted anyone to take my quizzes!

Though I think I did make my first SUA friend with that quiz. keroinvasion expressed dedication to ing it, and we ended up in these in-depth chats that moved to Tumblr because of our shared hatred of typing on phones. We are still friends.

Once I'd been on Amino for 3 days, I decided to post some pictures of my toys. I literally have every official SU toy and was excited to show the collection, and when I did I got my first featured post. (Again, someone had to tell me what to do, but I didn't understand at first.)

It was a really neat experience getting a feature, because I got to connect with other people on a larger scale and talk about collecting toys and what merch we wished existed! I also got someone who told me I was lying about owning so much stuff and had "no proof." They apologized when I gave them proof. Hmm. Also, ScaryLapis popped up on my post and became a friend and regular encourager. Hooray!

I began to post a variety of content, encouraged not only by the enthusiastic reception but by the fact that Amino is...well, less critical than Tumblr. I LOVE Tumblr but sometimes the weirdest things make aggressive strangers blarf discourse all over your blog.

Amino is younger, and that has its plusses and minuses. It's harder to find sophisticated content since the young people generating it are rarer, but it also means less in-depth tearing your posts apart limb for limb. And while I DO constructive criticism, every content creator can appreciate a little enthusiastic with no qualifications.

I posted fun art for a few days and enjoyed the new friends and comments from my first feature, and then I saw the SUA Awards and thought..."I wanna enter."

So I pulled out the best SU-related thing I'd ever made. The fan comic "VACATION," which I thought would be a success here because it had been well received on Tumblr and was repeatedly stolen and reposted on YouTube and Insta without my permission. (That's love, right? Bah.)

I got my second feature with that post and SO many wonderful comments, AND then unexpectedly I took home the trophy for the art category. Whut?? I really was shocked. I wanted to play but never thought I'd win, especially in ART. I'm not even known for being an artist, but there it was. :heart: :grinning:

And I got a permanent title, which I also didn't understand was a thing until I had one. Loser. :confounded:

What you've got to understand is that I had been running a Steven Universe blog on Tumblr for quite a while before ing Amino, so I had a giant steaming pile of "good" content in the pipe. Crafts and recipes and art and theories and song covers and analysis and merch posts and personal anecdotes. So I just kinda kept making posts, and they kept getting featured.

Third feature, posted April 1.

Fourth feature, posted April 5.

Fifth feature, posted April 6.

Sixth feature, posted April 10.

Seventh feature, posted April 14.

At the time the feature laws for one per week were not in effect yet, and I ended up with more than ten posts featured my first month here. One time, I had two on the front page AT THE SAME TIME. That's not supposed to happen, but I didn't know it was weird, and I also didn't know how nomination worked so I was baffled that my stuff got picked so much when I wasn't tagging for review.

I tried to slow down on posting the stuff I was more excited about because I didn't wanna slam everything good into SUA's face and then run out, so I padded it out with silly stuff like image sets, simpler drawings, and pictures of toys acting out scenes from the show.

Gabe kept stopping by to congratulate me for features, which was really nice. Scary had a joke about the frequency of my features. It was nice because even though people NOTICED I got a lot of attention for a new member, they seemed totally ive and excited to have me. Even when they pretended to be salty they were just kidding.

I kept sharing song covers with my ukulele using YouTube links because I didn't know how to insert them. :confounded:

I finally scraped another quiz together about SU parents, and it was much more well received than my previous nigh-impossible quiz.

Then I started posting recipes (*ding*! Featured for Cookie Cats), episode analyses, and older drawings. I began work on my Sleeping Gems Series and got so excited to share new portraits.

I started copying SU book reviews from my Amazon reviews (*ding*! Featured for The Answer). The featuring rules got adjusted and I had to try to plan my posts so I wouldn't post something I thought was really worth seeing on the front page if it was too close to my last feature.

Getting that kind of attention made it hard to stop trying to outdo myself, to be honest. I'm a naturally prolific person in EVERYTHING, but when things I made were so APPRECIATED here it was so encouraging. Often the things I saved for tagging for Curator Review did not get picked, while things other people nominated got picked when I didn't think it was one of my best. I was soooo happy when my combined collection of Sleeping Gems drawings became my thirteenth feature on May 24 because OMG I worked so hard on that one.

Soon I second place! How cool!

I learned to make my own GIFs from phone videos and used that to enhance one of my posts. The cake recipe became my fourteenth feature.

On June 4 I hit 1000 followers!

In June I noticed Gem of the Month existed and participated for the first time with a Month of Pearl Merch Post. Sixteenth feature!

And lapidot4 made me a mood board :heart_eyes: :heart_eyes: :heart_eyes:

When my post about Sapphire's role in Sugilite's behavior became my seventeenth feature, something that turned out to be significant later happened. Someone disagreed with me and said so, private messaged me about the disagreement (but was civil), and ended the discussion amicably. That person later almost succeeded in destroying what I'd built here. (Read on.)

I made more quizzes, had more fun with new friends, posted more song covers and enjoyed ing my friends' posts, chatting with them, and finding great new art, cosplay, and theories. I started methodically posting about SU official comics, reviewing one per day. At this point, in June, I was down to posting twice a day. By the end of June I'd gotten my twentieth feature.

My twenty-first was another something new for me: I wrote about something personal that I hadn't said much about before. I wrote a post about asexuality, in context of SU. Some people had noticed that I had the same name as a well-known ace activist, and that's not a coincidence, 'cause uhhhh that's me.

It was a little weird because I usually don't bring my activism into cartoon fan stuff, but sometimes that overlaps, and I was thrilled that people here were ive.

In discussing features with others, I came to the conclusion that I had a better chance of getting featured often because of posting so many KINDS of content. It's very diverse so I don't get known for doing just one thing. But at that point I was kinda frustrated that none of my cover songs had ever been chosen. I went to college for music! It should have been easy to do a feature-worthy cover but it reaaaally wasn't.

In July, the incredible Steven Universe: Art and Origins book came out, and I was really sick and home from work that day, but I managed to crank out a review and loved getting to talk to others who had received their copies in the mail!

Then I entered a fan-comics-making phase and just kept cranking out ideas. I made some a grossly cute comic about Connie and Steven. And through all this I got frustrated with the tediousness of some aspects of traditional art. I really wanted to try digital art but I was afraid to.

The San Diego Comic Con happened and I started my cosplay photos post was my 25th.

In August ileyrey4 made FAN ART OF ME and I couldn't even believe it.

People's awesome digital art on Amino continued to inspire me, and even though I got a lot of features I rarely got featured for art, so I figured I might try to learn some digital techniques. Intimidating! I tried my first hybrid drawing: The outlines were drawn traditionally and then scanned, and then I did color and shading digitally.

And then I tried my first music feature for my duet cover of "What Can I Do For You"! I was so happy, except I was dealing with a lot of other hard stuff: Mom in the hospital, work was hectic, and I was packing all my stuff because I was going to move to a new house.

ScaryLapis invited me to do my first Tag Team post, so Scary did the writing. Fun experience! I don't often collaborate.

I hit 2000 followers in September.

I finally got the last piece of SDCC merch I was missing after getting screwed by an eBay seller. So I wrote about the fun experience of getting my big Cookie Cat plush. And then it was time for more sad stuff.

A big hurricane hit my state. Irma came and messed us up pretty good. I went into hiding and drew a feelsy comic about Amethyst and Steven while the hurricane tried to kill us, and chatting with Scary and others was helpful keeping my mind clear. My mom was injured during the storm and went to the hospital with a broken nose, so I dealt with it hiding at her house and drawing. We didn't lose power at my mom's so I was actually able to make art while all this was going on.

I went back to work after a few days wearing subtle Amethyst cosplay. Kinda made me feel a lil more cheery.

Then it was time to leap into moving, which involved a cool opportunity to take some new pics of my merch! As I packed my things, I shoved all my merch into one spot so I could have a massive picture to share with Amino at the end. Here it is.

I received my Lion, Mane of Mystery book on my literal last day in my old apartment, while I was cleaning it after moving out! It was my last post from my old home. I lived there for 10 years! :pensive:

I moved into my new big house at the end of September and as soon as I had my markers and drafting table set up, I drew my first picture of Jasper. I posted it on September 30 and then October 1 was declared Month of Jasper, so I tagged the drawing and got my 29th feature!

Things were going okay. I had so much more room in my new house and so I got to devote a couple bookshelves to SU media and a bunch of space to SU toys! I enjoyed sharing my new arrangements with Amino.

Housewarming present

New toy display

New plushies display

New book display

New trinkets display

At the end of October I was settled enough in my new house to have my first party, so I had a Halloween party and actual Halloween costume to give out candy.

Then I began to share my journey of playing Save the Light. Mostly people seemed to enjoy my posts but someone also made fun of me for not understanding video games so that wasn't cool. I was planning to continue updating folks on my progress but then in early November I woke up one Sunday morning and couldn't use Amino because I had been banned with no explanation.

🤔🤤

At first I assumed it must be an error with the app but I quickly found out I'd really been banned. What could have happened? I couldn't figure out how to a Leader because the app won't let you message anyone if you're banned. I was forced to create a new to begin my investigation, and I finally got through to a Leader who told me I'd been reported by another member for sending NSFW material in private chats.

I obviously had not done the crime, but the Leader made it clear their hands are tied on Instaban offenses like this, and unless I had any proof that I had NOT done the thing, the screencap showing I HAD was evidence enough. It's kinda impossible to prove a negative, and I was surprised that my many months of authentic involvement and unblemished history didn't inspire more of a proof requirement for the acc, but of course it was unreasonable to expect them to just unban me for saying "oh, that wasn't me."

I decided to look into it with the overall Team Amino to see if they could somehow review my activity and get proof that no such message had originated with my , and in the meantime I was advised by the Leader to just use my new if I wanted to post stuff.

So I did what they told me, sad and confused but still wanting to participate in the community. The very next day my art on the new was featured.

It caused a bit of a stir, since by this point I had a little following on my original and I had a recognizable style, and some of the comments accused me of art theft while others were like "wait, wtf happened to swankivy?"

And within a couple hours of the feature, I was reported for explicit imagery again and banned on the new . 🤤

Wow. Someone was definitely after me, falsely accusing me anytime I popped up doing something notable, and trying to get rid of me. And even though I was actively in the process of trying to prove I didn't do anything to deserve a ban, the reports on me continued to speak louder than my protests that they were not genuine.

I made another new and pursued the matter. This time I chose a name and picture that had nothing to do with Garnet (since my adoration of her was well known), and I continued to pursue help with Leaders and Team Amino. I did not post anything on the new because my style would be recognized and the stalker would find me.

There was a long drawn-out saga that I won't detail here, involving Team Amino reviewing and unbanning my but then I got immediately banned AGAIN, plus a bunch of incomprehensible stuff where it was apparently impossible to prove innocence in my case but easy to prove guilt with an edited screencap. Sadly our staff isn't really given the tools to be able to investigate stuff like this, so they weren't able to help me and had to err on the side of caution. I was eventually told it's a hopeless situation and it was just more believable that I was sending the images than that I was being aggressively impersonated and libeled by a determined stalker. :broken_heart:

I made it through this partly through the kindness of some friends. AthenaNix invited me to Senior Amino and I chatted with that group about my issues, getting lots of great from the leadership and folks like Dannie, Chey, Athena, Derse, Puffs, Melanite, Altersky, Chrys, and others, plus ers from SUA like Anca, Lapidot23, Topaz's Universe, MáńgØ, Aqua, Emerald, Mayalavee, Pearlfect, and Ames/Peris, plus the leaders who tried to help (especially Annie, who eventually cracked the code, but I'll get there in a minute). Topaz even made me a ive GIF to make me laugh.

Meanwhile, people were starting to get wind of what happened, and I was seeing messages like "WHAT THEY BANNED MY AMINO MOM" and someone being sad because I'd been so inspiring to them and they wanted to be like me when they grew up. :persevere: Athena was annoyed because my banning had interfered with her intention to use one of my recipes for her kid's SU themed birthday. It was a mess. :broken_heart:

I ended up striking a deal with Annie after some discussion, deciding I would begin posting content on the third new like normal, and if the stalker came after me we'd have an opportunity for a leader to ask to be invited to the supposedly offensive chats I was sending, while if they didn't strike, I'd just...have a new place to start over. Sigh.

I changed my profile picture to a Garnet screenshot and began smothering SUA with my best posts. They often got noticed and people were like "WAIIIIT, swankivy?" but I explained privately when necessary, hoping the stalker would strike again. I thought it would take a featured post to get their attention, and I finally got my first new feature on Thanksgiving with my SU cosplay outfits, but no stalkers came after me.

So, I just went on with my life. Reposting old stuff so it could be up for merch and review resources, eventually sliding into posting new content again too. I did that for November. And December. Went through the holidays and new episodes marooned on the replacement .

Ames/Peris gave me a New Year's present: a new icon. This was vital in getting my back.

I spent most of January, including my birthday (lol I'm a Garnet birthstone), still locked out. It was a bummer, but I was still having a good time here...and since Swankivy gonna Swankivy, I put everything into bringing my best content forward and a new quiz that trended.

Then one day Annie messaged me to ask what profile picture I'd had on a particular date.

I showed her my Garnet screenshot version, from before I'd changed it to the gift art from Ames/Peris, and then it became clear that the person who'd gotten me banned by lying about me had tried to do it again. They had a screenshot of "me" sending more porn, but they claimed I'd done it months ago so of course they could no longer prove it was real by inviting a Leader to the chat. And they'd made the fake screenshot with my new profile picture, saying I'd sent the offensive material in November while using it. Which I could prove was a lie because the profile pic didn't exist before January.

🤤🤤🤤🤤🤔🤔🤔🤔

The person accusing me pretended not to realize they were caught but behaved suspiciously and left. They were the same person who messaged me that one time to disagree with me about one of my featured posts, but I'd had no experience with them that should have made them hate me enough to lie about me over and over and try to destroy my content and separate me from my friends. I just don't know why they did it.

I got my back but to be honest I felt a little lost. My other had about 80% of the same content, some new stuff and updated stuff, and was active with newer followers who didn't know the old . But I decided going back here was the sensible thing to do, and...

My first post after being reinstated was my ukulele cover of Stronger Than You. Just because.

I guess things got back to normal pretty quickly after a flurry of "what happened??" and "omg you're back." I was really disappointed in that person who tried to hurt me and I'll probably never know why, but I did NOT let it stop me from making and sharing things, connecting with friends, and feeling good about SUA. I still love it here.

I've spent my eleventh and twelfth months here sharing a cool screenshot challenge. I've participated in Month of Sugilite and Month of Aquamarine. I've made new friends, and even had my first voice chat here (with Detective Knight). I've gotten a couple more features with my recipes, bringing me to 32 for this profile and 41 if you count the ones from the other profiles.

So...the future?

I'm just as enthusiastic about sharing content as I was when I first got here. I'm really excited to make more and talk with all of you going into my second year here. You can expect:

:four_leaf_clover: Several more fan comics

:four_leaf_clover: An impractical amount of fan art

:four_leaf_clover: More song covers

:four_leaf_clover: More cosplay

:four_leaf_clover: A bunch of SU recipes

:four_leaf_clover: Analysis and theory stuff

:four_leaf_clover: Merch updates

:four_leaf_clover: Funny image sets

:four_leaf_clover: Quizzes about obscure crap

:four_leaf_clover: Book reviews

:four_leaf_clover: Comic reviews

:four_leaf_clover: Podcast recaps

:four_leaf_clover: Interview recaps

:four_leaf_clover: My discussion of Save the Light

:four_leaf_clover: Toy reviews

:four_leaf_clover: More features?? :eyes: I'll work hard!

:heart: :blue_heart: Garnet love!!!

Basically the only stuff I don't do is roleplay, fanfic and gemsonas, so I'm into just about everything you can imagine with this show! I'm not going anywhere, I guess until or unless someone decides to lie that I broke the guidelines again, but I plan to keep up with all my projects and keep enjoying this wonderful show with all of you!

I love you! Bye!