I wasn't there when the whole drama took place, but  from what I hear Paul Robertson got scared off in the same manner as most demosceners did. Regardless of the 'purist' rues, if you come and upload your old work and expect everyone to go ZOMG U R GOD then you're probably in for a big surprise. What people appreciate the most is involvement with the community. Even tho PJ may look like a competitive environment, actually it's all just an excuse to get people motivated to draw stuff, help others, comment and rate their work, etc.

As for the whole purist thing I think that nowadays it's pretty much established on both PIX and PJ that pixel art is defined by the esthetics rather than process or software. PJ has a pretty rigid (and honed over the years) criterion of what is and what is not allowed, but it's all common sense.
As with any community, if you don't want to accept the rules that everybody else has agreed upon, you're probably in the wrong place.

Having said that, I wish there was more of this kind of approach back in the late days of the amiga demoscene, there'd probably be considerably fewer scanned-and-retouched dragons and fashion ads

Oh, yeah, definitely. I wasn't trying to rag on Pixeljoint. It serves it's function, but it feels more like a social site than somewhere to efficiently hone your skills. I've been out of the loop for a while so I didn't know there was any drama between them.

It's got some issues (too little art visible on the front page. No way to link directly to someone's gallery. Hall of Fame apparently being based on total rating scores, as there are so many pieces in there that aren't particularly good, just really old) but overall it's a really nice site for showing your work and finding great pixel art.
Pretty good community too.

Some demosceners apparently got scared away because of the strict/strange definition of pixel art they used to have.

And of course Pixelation is better for learning.

Im agree with Ilkke, you cant compare them, they are thinked to be different, btw... And i didnt mention pixelation/wayofthepixel to evade drama and purist in boths websites (we never know when they are around here!!!!) XDDD and there is also more websites, but those are the populars...

Btw, as ilkke say, best thing about PJ, is that you can get in the rail participing on weekly challenge. You can rate pixelart which made the community better. Have plenty links and a "hall of fame" which is really accurate to pixel art in general terms, in my opinion.

The bad thing about that and few other communities (including CM), are the trolls/purist, in less words "they" scared Paul Robertson from PixelJoint, but still is a good community.

I like it a lot. It is a well-designed website, in my opinion.

That is a silly thing to say. They are two very different websites.
It largely depends on what kind of feedback and community you need.

Wayofthepixel dot net is better if you're serious. Look up some of Helm's posts.

Yeah, it's very nice for a showcase forum, like 8bc for pixels I guess.
The best bit about it is weekly compos which is how I've been able to quickly get back in shape after like a decade of not pixeling.
Also you can get inspired by other's work, as there's quite a few really good artists in there.

If you're looking for more theory, analysis and critique, then go to pixelation forum instead

oh, i get it know!... youre talking about our opinion/feeling about that community?

is a good place to look for pixel art and is more a "showcase" place. You will find good shit there and bad shit, good ppl and bad ppl, etc etc... as many other communities.

can be n00bish, but I've had some great content come out of it

* edit for spelling

Nice grafix

woots?

just wondering?