> Discovering good artists in the old days was a very difficult endeavor.
> Fast-forward to the 2020s, and the artistic community has been largely disintermediated.
You had art forums before Facebook, but just because you could join, view art and possibly even post it, didn't mean you were in any elitist circle of artists. But it did seem like all kinds of weird stuff was easier to find when Google search was worth a damn, e.g. you could literally type in what you wanted and it would come up, but phone apps and web apps have made things like Discord forums the place where that stuff happens now.