When it comes to experiences with my community of SoundFont makers, I’ve found a distinct drought of SoundFont communities, so I end up being the admin on a fellow SoundFont maker’s Discord server. And while my SoundFonts have tens of thousands of downloads, I unfortunately see so little people using them on YouTube because of the endless amounts of people running E1M1 through the Super Mario 64 SoundFont, which is about as yikes as you’d expect with regards to sound quality. Yet they subsume things me and my fellow SoundFont makers spend years on. Outside YouTube though, people are more open (relatively) about my stuff. I’ve even had fanart drawn of me because of my SoundFont making. I completely consent to that. Of course, I’m nonbinary AND intersex (literally), and have green hair so that must be considered. So, like, I have a fandom, but not really on YouTube even though my subscriber count is starting to climb. I have enough of a fandom to count on Archive Of Our Own’s RPF category. Ultimately, my community of SoundFont makers is so far fine (barring one exception who I will not name, and some small troll comments in the Musical-Artifacts.com pages, but they aren’t worth my time.) Some parts of the retro community (chiptune included in some cases) are highly toxic, and I’ve seen stuff that is absolutely ridiculously horrific go down in the retro community, including retro music communities. I’ve had people deliberately misgender me but nobody else just because I am neurodiverse, and that’s only the beginning. Not everyone in the retro community (including retro music) is toxic, but dearie me do I see a metric ton of that stuff go down. I would say that the SoundFont community (including chiptune SoundFonts) are much nicer than chiptunists and modders. I learned all of this from experience. Unfortunately.

When it comes to my experience as an LGBTQIA+ and neurodiverse person, I’ve seen places that claim to be safe but in reality are highly toxic. Most of them (as well as the toxic retro circles) are large. That, I have found, has tended to produce toxicity. I could fill a book on these, but you get the idea. I somehow have a tendency to accidentally surround myself with highly-toxic people. There are significant exceptions though. The SoundFont-making community and the nonbinary community have not really had much toxicity. But enough about the toxicity.

Some good things: I’ve had people make fan art of me, I’ve had people offer to donate stuff even though I didn’t have the logistics set up at the time, and I’ve had people say they like my energy. So the toxic people aren’t worth my time talking to.

Now, when it comes to my experiences with my collaborators, it has actually gone swimmingly. They love what I do. Sometimes, they have even helped me with my efforts. Like in the case of this project. Also, given my nature of going above and beyond the call-of-duty with regards to some of my projects, yet in an absolutely outside-the-box way, I’m sometimes seen as an outside-the-box mage of whatever I do, especially in SoundFonts. Like, I do the things that people would tend to say “Only you would try this.” in response to what I do, either due to their difficulty or silliness, or the amount of time they require, etc. al. but people like the results despite how outside-the-box they are, so ultimately I’m respected for what I do, and people who have a problem with me being nonbinary, a furry, an otherkin, an MLP fan, polyam, pan, a salmacian, a Jedi, a Tumblr devotee, an otaku, an intersex person, plural, a Redditor and/or neurodiverse are not worth my time dealing with. Having said that, while I may be neurodiverse, I DO have a certificate in cybersecurity, so people thinking I was dropped on my head as a baby are wrong. While I may do things that many would find outside-the-box, I make it my mission to do them right. Even if it takes a long while. Also, I am in many communities because I do various types of projects, not just SoundFonts and JavaScript games, 3D art, and file compressors. Being a jack of all trades does not require one to be a master of none. I’m a Type 3 polymath. I do my best on ALL projects I work on. That’s how I roll. My projects are designed to help people, so it’s important to do them well so that they are the most helpful. In truth, I like helping people, and it’s something I find fulfilling!

I hope you enjoy my passion projects in all their glory!

Best Wishes, stgiga