Well, here I am, 3 years after I first found this wonderful website for us 3DS, 2DS, and DSi users, and a lot has changed both with me and with Paint itself since when I first came here back in 2019.

First of all, almost all of the friends that I had made here back in 2019 (most of whom had joined Paint several years before I got here) have now left Paint.

I already complained about this in my last anniversary blog, and since I am now on Discord, this isn't nearly as much of an issue for me personally anymore, now that I am able to talk with most (but not all) of my old friends who left Paint over there.
(And for those interested, here is an invite to the SDK Discord server, and here is one to the unofficial DSiPaint Discord server.)

Although I found this website on my Old 2DS, it has been broken for well over a year now, and I have been using my dad's tablet (which has Android 5.1) to access Paint for quite a while now, and although it's kinda old, it can load most webpages that my 2DS couldn't.
(I still miss my 2DS a whole lot, though.)

Earlier this year, I finally got around to being active on Social Cu.be, a cool website that (like Paint) was designed to be usable on devices like DSis and 3DSs, which a friend from here on Paint had told me about back in 2020.

Although I created my own Social Cu.be account back then, I (unfortunately) wasn't very active over there at the time, as I was focusing almost exclusively on Paint with what little time that I got to spend online.

As far as I'm concerned I should've started being active over there much sooner, but I am VERY glad that I'm active on Social Cu.be now, as I have made a lot of new friends over there, just like I have on Paint.
(It doesn't have everything that Paint has yet, but it's still a great website IMO.)

Another one of my friends, Mimi (who left Paint at the end of February), was kind enough to let me use her old Social Neko account (Social Neko being another 3DS/DSi website, just like Paint and Social Cu.be) when I was having trouble creating my own, but although I was a little active over there for a while, and thought that it was a really cool website, I didn't spend nearly as much time over there as I should've, and now Social Neko is gone.

Another cool 3DS website that I missed out on completely is 3DSPlaza, which I had tried (and failed) to create an account at back in 2019, but unlike Social Neko, nobody lent me their 3DSPlaza account, and now I will never even be able to experience what it was like.
(And both Social Neko and 3DSPlaza will undoubtedly be missed by many people, including myself.)

There were probably many other 3DS/DSi websites that disappeared long before I even knew that websites like this even existed, and although most people would probably not care (or even notice) if all of these websites were to just disappear one day, I would, and I have made it one of my personal goals in life to try to preserve websites like this, and although there is little that I can do to help Paint or Social Cu.be RN, this will eventually change.
(I can't remain some powerless nobody forever, right?)

Having finally seen what Discord is actually like for myself, this is what I can say about it now:

Discord (like Paint, Social Cu.be, Social Neko, and 3DSPlaza) is a cool website, with lots of wonderful people on it, and many different servers devoted to all manner of interesting subjects, such as gaming, anime, art, and many more.

All that being said, as cool as Discord is, much of what is done on Discord (such as sending public messages in different shoutboxes channels, and sending DMs to specific individuals) is also able to be done right here on Paint, and there are many features that Paint and Social Cu.be have that Discord doesn't.

By no means is this intended as a criticism of Discord (although it is certainly rather laggy and glitchy on the older devices that can actually run it, like this tablet), but rather as an acknowledgement that Paint and Social Cu.be aren't inferior to Discord or anything, nor are they inferior to any other mainstream social media websites, and that (unlike most of those other websites) Paint and Social Cu.be work well in almost all devices' web browsers, they don't collect your personal information or "metadata" to sell to advertisers and/or the government, they don't censor people based on their political views, and aside from just talking to other people (which can be done almost anywhere), they allow people like myself and countless others to engage in a variety of creative hobbies, such as writing blogs, drawing pictures, and coding.
(Which is why it's kinda sad that so many former Paint members have left in recent years, only to wind up talking to the same people about the same things that they did on here, but on the SDK and RD Discord servers instead.)

Of course, getting back in touch with so many former Paint members is without a doubt one of the best things (if not the best thing) to happen to me this year, and it also has enabled me to (FINALLY) battle some of my friends from here on Paint on Pokémon Showdown!

Although some of the people who offered to battle me on Pokémon Showdown in the past couldn't find it in their hearts to actually do so (now that I can actually take them up on their offers), others did, and I'd like to personally thank my friends acidAPPLE, DCTheGamr, and Dedode, for the wonderful Pokémon battles that we had on there!
(And I hope that we have many, many more!)

Also, although my RL situation has become a little more complicated in the past few days, and I still have a few details to iron out (such what I need to type into Showdown to set the rules correctly), I am now almost ready to hold that big Pokémon tournament that I had wanted to hold back in 2019!

Nothing is set in stone yet as far as the rules or the battle format is concerned, but I am leaning towards using a modified version of the rules for this year's Official Pokémon Video Game Championships, which (unlike the VGC's rules) would allow the use of the entire National Pokédex (including not only all Dexited Pokémon and moves, but also Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, AND Dynamaxing), up to 2 Special or Mythical Pokémon on each team (Mythical Pokémon are banned under the VGC's rules), and that even allows the use of the various Gems that were removed back in Gen 6, and the various Fakemon created by as a part of Smogon's Create-A-Pokémon Project.
(I'll listen to what all of those interested in participating in the tournament have to say about these things before I decide on the rules, though.)

Lastly, I would like to mention that although my RL situation is in many ways even worse than last year (certainly my mom's health is), I plan on trying to be online more often (on here, Social Cu.be, Discord, and Showdown), and I also plan on trying to write more blogs this year.
(I might even finish writing MoD one of these days, lol!)

Sayonara, and God bless!