I have now been here 8 years. Running strong - this is the one place I've never left, the one place I always come back to when I sometimes abandon other sites inadvertently by losing interest or simply being severed from it for a long period of time through bullshit or shenanigans and feeling awkward to return. I never feel awkward about being here, that's the thing. Barely anyone notices me and I'm lucky the people who do aren't just here to troll me, because then I probably would have just left. No one steals my art because its not good enough, but people like it enough that I do get fav'd a little bit. I don't think I've ever really been clear on how much each and every single person on my friends list (as in who follows me back) or even just who follows and faves randomly means to me - you were and are my friends even if we didn't really talk much or ever, and those of you who've supported me over the last 8 years of my life I've chosen to waste here on deviantArt and mucking around in my sketchbooks or writing (most of which has been, of course, moved to as you'll recall) are precious to me. If not for wanting to see how many of you will like a piece that I've done, I wouldn't really bother posting some of this stuff because I just think its bad most of the time. When I post something I think is just terrible here I get surprised because other people actually like it - its proof to myself that I am at least a little bit improved from even just two years ago. And I am finally getting my art to a place where I am not at all embarrassed by it and can show it to people freely without feeling overly protective of it, which is nice. I attribute that to this place and the (albeit minimal) advice I've gotten from other artists and from friends and just from seeing other peoples art and sketches and WIP's and such. I even have to give credit for helping out my anatomy, I'm getting a lot better since I started actually using them for reference for poses and such.
I may disappear from time to time as mentioned, but this is probably the only place I will always end up coming back to, because it'll never lose my attention for longer than absolutely necessary. You guys rock.