Hello everyone, great to see you again.
I know I tweeted a lot today and yes first it was a knee jerk reaction but as I talk to more creators on Twitch. I have come to see it’s not just a knee jerk reaction. It’s a statement of who I am and who the Creative community is as streamers on Twitch. I’m rather sad to see that the Twitch think tank seems to show that they aren’t clearly understanding the rift that they are starting. How has this come to be?
Well, today Twitch brought up what they are going to do to creative come in Mid-September. They are bringing new ‘categories’ into play. This will break up creative and end the creative collective whole. It is their definition of two such tags are causing a rather large stir. To put the “categories” as they call it as such:
“Art – For the artists creating paintings, illustrations, animations, comics, photography, and more, whether you’re using digital or traditional methods or techniques.”
“Hobbies & Crafts – Use this category when you’re crafting real world objects or working on DIY projects. Includes making costumes, sewing, sculpture, LEGO, woodwork, metalwork and more.”
This is a great disservice to many in creative that are professionals in their field to be brought down to a craft or hobby level. This means those that are professionals and have made their skill and art; are being labeled as nothing more than a weekend crafter that does it for fun.
People make money doing this and live off that money. I can name at least a dozen people that make their art a passion to fund their living and to put them in a craft category because Twitch doesn’t understand is wrong.
Let me show you a few things that would have been labeled ‘hobbies & crafts’ and you tell me if this isn’t art.
With these examples alone, each having one or more keywords in Hobby & crafts; do you agree that this is art? I would love to have someone tell Michelangelo or Picasso that this was a hobby, or it was a craft. Things would quite different if those people were tagged in a different category.
To define Art by Webster’s is in one definition “the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects.”
To define Hobby by Webster’s “an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure”.
To define Craft by Webster’s “an activity involving skill in making things by hand”.
In defining these three words out, all artists are crafters but not all crafters are artists. To then state that crafters with hobbyists; you are forgetting those that do this for a living. They might do it for pleasure, but they are not using their leisure time for it. It is their job so then to define them artists you would then have to say who is the artist and who is the crafter.
Guess what? You can’t. Not all artists you have defined as ‘traditional art’ are living from their art, and are really hobbyists. However, you are then belittling the ‘crafter hobbyist’ who is the professional chain mailer, quilter, cross stitcher, knitter, crocheter, wood turner who lives from their job and has had many years and dollars sunk into their profession.
Another point as well, as an average the Creative community has about five to six thousand viewers in a day. If I’m wrong with this statistic, please let me know. I don’t understand the point of breaking up a rather small community in comparison to say League of Legends, World of Warcraft, and DOTA to name a few. We are 1/8th their size and mostly a self-contained non-toxic community.
We promote pretty much positivity, creative and inventiveness; help and promote each other and support one another. Why break that up? Creative has had its hashtags taken, our view spot removed from the front page, and many other things done to make us smaller and smaller. And yet we thrive, grow, and have helped other artists join the community.
If you’re really about the community, about the creators that stream on your platform, and about supporting us as we grow, then please listen to us. We have fought for every nickel and dime for what we do. It might seem to be a craft or hobby to you; but its our lives. That’s not defined by Webster’s, and you want to know why?
To be an artist you must have passion, drive, skill and an immense love for your art; you’re going to spend hours on end, money you don’t have and all the skill in your body to produce perfection. That’s not a category you have on Twitch and it’s not a dollar sign you can slap on it to sell.
I design my own patterns, I work on them myself. I create things for other streamers and pass my love for my art on to others. To tell me I’m nothing more than a weekend crafter, you’re wrong.
I’m a single mother of an autistic child going to college and trying to make ends meet in a two-bed apartment in Chicago. You think I have money to throw into a craft or hobby not to make money? Not to help support myself and my child? Think again, Twitch.
I’ve been a cross stitcher and designer for 13 years, a paracord designer for 7, a digital and traditional drawer and painter for over 20 years. Don’t cop this crap on me that you’re going to make our small community even smaller because you don’t understand what we do.
Hint: Don’t kill the Creative category. Let the ‘tag’s you have be sub tags, like what #hashtags used to be.
We are a small passionate community that wants to keep together. Keep the support, love, positivity and family alive. Please rethink this, and if you need help, I know a few professional artists that would love to be a part of your think tank to help you through it.
Best Wishes,
Junie
