I was in high school in 2012(ish?) when the comic was updating. It was the golden age of tumblr and I devoured the fandom content that was being churned out faster than I could keep up with. I was super into early self-published webcomics (Ryan North stuff, Hark! A Vagrant, Octopus Pie, Rosalarian) and never made the connection that hussie was colleagues with many of them. By that point, Homestuck had surpassed being just another webcomic in the space. While it sprung from that loose network of online cartoonists, it took on a artistic and cultural network of it's own. It was like it's own new primordial goop of younger/newer cartoonists, animators, writers and musicians, creators of all kinds. Homestuck has always been a little messy and the teams have always had to balance a million plates while experimenting in how to be more equitable to creators, and I think without the failures we wouldnt have the successes, or this forum. Here's a video a pal shared with me of an early irl meetup between homestuck contributors at a con!

https://youtu.be/wMk-jNAuwWY?si=0MuQeD4b1XRz4trc