Is DeviantArt broken?

[keii4ii]

@fanyart It is basically that, only for creators (illustrators, photographers, etc). I highly recommend turning friend requests off because I got a TON of spam friend requests until I did that. Other than that, I like the place!

[fanyart]

@keii4ii I see, thanks for telling me! I'll explore the site on holidays, but this is something I should do right away! XD

[greyshire]

I have noticed the art community in general migrating from Deviant to Tumblr over the last couple years. In my experience it's a lot easier to find an audience there, but I do love the comment sections on DA for more direct feedback.

[Caelestie]

could I join it too?

[keii4ii]

@Caelestie Sure thing! As far as I know, the invite code doesn't run out.

[greenraptorstudios]

So I don't know if the is temporary or not, or my computer is acting up, but now when I go to Deviant Art, the front page no longer seems to exist , now it just gives the me the groups in these giant in your face bundles. So once again, good luck getting noticed to all of you out there, things just got more difficult.

[Tentakustar]

no. my front page looks like that too. what happened? lol

[Kura]

They updated the layout for the front page.
It's like a newsfeed kinda deal. (not really my thing, I don't use the site as a social media one. Also REALLY not sure why one would need this? Since you know... new submissions and journal entries for the people you watch end up in your notifications section... so why have another place they're all listed?? And not in an organized/categorized fashion...)

I guess it's not working for some people?

Not sure if this is a beta thing or for everyone.

Edit: Man.... it also shows when the people you follow add things to their collections. I reeaaally don't need a glimpse into that every time they add something... I honestly did not want that face full of fat fetish starfox porn.

[AffectedMind]

@kurapikasuki don't forget they like to do pointless updates, just like the upload button is everywhere (I don't really use the one they put into your gallery) and now the feed is thrown everywhere. It would make sense if it WASN'T ALREADY EXISTING! So I have no idea, why and what for. And I prefer to browse my feed in notifications since I don't like endless scrooling (watch section)
EDIT: And they didn't bother AGAIN to inform community about upcoming changes. lel

[DeadAccount]

This is how I think DA looks like every time they're trying to add some new stuff:

They're really past their expiry day now. Like most people, I use Twitter and Tumblr to interact with other artists. I still check and maintain DA as I've got a few people who only follow me there, but yeah, from how incredibly dead my account is, it's hard to tell I've got 1.4k watchers.
The only time I did really well on DA was back in my teens - my art was dreadful, but I drew tons of fanart. As soon as I stopped, people stopped caring : D

Having said that, it's not fair to just blame a website.
I think all communities go through through this "golden age" when they're still a novelty, so everyone wants to interact with everyone and make a life there. That's the DA I remember back in 2003-2004, when I just signed up. I'd get comments on my 13-year-old-self's terrible art, every time. And I'd comment on everyone elses stuff, whether it was good or not. But eventually the novelty wears off, and with twitter and tumblr becoming big, you just can't invest as much time into DA. So artists end up using DA to just to drop off the work and leave. Especially since many DA veterans are now grown adults, often with demanding art jobs. So yeah...every community goes through this. It's just that DA are too big to go at this point.

[Maxiachan]

Paigeeworld is a pretty neat site, and is the site I prefer posting art instead of deviantart atm.

[Wolven_Sister]

I just joined PaigeeWorld a few days ago. And I love it. I would say it's like instagram except they don't really like selfies, which is a huge plus to me. I love the community and how easy it is to upload art and share. What's your PW? I'll check out your page! :')

What sucks is that a lot of these art sites become like a second myspace or facebook after a while with all the flooding of selfies. I'm fine with photography but imo a selfie is not art. Adding a vintage filter doesn't make your selfie look anymore artsy. I'm not a photographer, but I have friends who are and what they make with their photos are fabulous!

A note about dA. I've been a member for 10 years and I can say in my first few years I got 400 watchers by just talking to people. The sense of community was prominent, I was even regularly talking to some dA staff members just for the fun of it. It used to be a lot easier to talk to staff, mods, and other users. There were still trolls but they were few and far between and if you were trolled people would stand up for you. Fan art was always a way to get noticed even back then (I remember a LOT of Naruto fan art in the early days) but original art also got it's share of love too.

I'm still on dA but over years I've lost a lot of friends who just don't get on anymore :c I still have a good group of friends that I've kept in contact with for the past several years, but I can say I haven't made in any new friends with the "new" dA in the past couple years. The community is gone, I will agree with that. But if you really want a fanbase and a billion watchers you'll have to make some sacrifices and give the audience what they want--which is something I don't adhere to and if you don't agree with it, then you don't have to go mainstream either. But what audiences on dA want is fan art, fan art, fan art of anything popular but Disney/Pixar characters will get you huge viewership along with MLP fan art and Anthro art. If you enjoy doing this stuff, more power to you, but if you don't then definitely don't give in and feel like you're forced to go with it, I'm just explaining what you have to "adapt" to if you want to be famous on dA.

Another thing is don't bother with CORE. It doesn't help promote you like it used to back in the day, and talking to members doesn't help establish lasting friendships like it used to so the best way I can say to go about it is: Submit to groups, join contests, participate in art trades or collabs and I guess if you want, share your art in art threads in the forums but I see the forums not as beneficial as they used to be. It's just a dumping ground now.

I'm not nearly as active as I used to be on dA because they really snapped the last straw with me by doubling their premium or "CORE" membership price without notifying ANY OF THE USERS not one public announcement was made. So I basically gave them the middle finger and lowered my activity drastically, but I still upload for my current watchers and mainly for my friends on there.

Weasyl - A good site. They're really neat and organized and uploading is very streamlined and easy to do. Not a lot of traffic, but there is a more sense of community and it's easier to make friends and "fans" if you want. I haven't been on in a year, but I do need to get back on it.

FurAffinity - Mainly anthro art, but they accept other art forms as well. Quick to get watchers and the community is still prevalent but be aware of the forums, if you don't follow the rules to a "T" they'll rip you to shreds.

[Shanny8]

I dunno. I've been on DA for 6 years- but I've never really just "been on it" all the time during the entire time I've had an account there. I dont get on there trying to be "the most popular artist"- I just go there, post some art, fave some art that I like, and leave.

Short of lately, I have been chatting it up in their forums, but not like there is anything holding me there. I figure if folks like my art, then they'll see it...

[foxowl]

I have a wysp account, it's a really quiet but nice website. Not many people talk to each other though unless you post lots of stuff.
Weasyl has a lot of traffic but nobody talks to each other, but they have nice features there though like character profiles.

[Maxiachan]

My Paigeeworld is LovelyMax,What yours?
Also yeah posting art over there is pretty easy. Which is why I prefer to post art over there first then Deviantart later if I really like the art but most of time it doesn't get as much feedback. .The reason I stay on Deviantart now is because most of my favorite artist are still there, even though most of them have a tumblr. Also there a bunch of tuts I have faved over there.

I never had a premium membership expect that one time where they gave it away for free for a day. It doesn't really appeal to me and I don't even have the money for it anyway.I'm also still kind of butthurt that they took the webcam thing. On a different note I started to post my art on forums and it helped. But yeah I do a lot of fanart but only about shows I care about.The only art of mine that did extremely well was my Tikal fanart.
Other sites I go to is wsyp and tumblr once in a blue moon. Only because I don't really like how tumblr treats artist, not saying all of them are bad but I don't like the attitude of "you have to draw x character this way or else you're x.". Wsyp is a cool site but it feels empty and quiet only because it's not as popular as Deviantart.

[Aspie_Gamer]

Tbh, I can't say anything about dA that hasn't already been said on here.

You'll only make it (maybe) if you draw creepy pornographic MLP x whatever's popular right now crossover art.

The mods/staff are not only incompetent at best, but the staff in particular seems to have long since stopped caring about what the community wants i.e they've done plenty of shit behind the community's back (Core Membership) or without asking us first (redesigning their logo which for the record had absolutely nothing wrong with it into something I'm 99.9 percent sure they stole from somewhere else. (ironic since the staff claims to be against art theft, yet they have no problem ripping off someone elses logo instead of having the community design the new logo for them))

The overall community...is toxic for lack of a better description. At least that's the vibe I've gotten after a while. You know how high school and college have the popular clique? That's the community in a nutshell. Give helpful criticism on a popular persons art or even their business practices (there was this one adoptables artist selling cheap "cinnadogs" sprites for like 50 dollars a pop and on top of that had allegedly ordered a copyright on her creation so nobody else could make their own unique cinnadogs. In other words, this artist I guess thought she had a monopoly on stupid over priced sprites) and BOOM goes the dynamite in the amount of responses you'll get in hateful comments from their fan base. I'm sorry? Did I skin your cat, blow up your parents house with a drone, and steal your frosted flakes cereal? There are far worse things than someone having an opinion that goes against the norm on somebody else's work.

The forums or at least certain parts are also toxic. Someone acting terrible in general or to you for no reason knowing full well they wouldn't be to get away with said behavior on any other site? Better not stand up for yourself or call them out on said behavior. The regs there (or most of them) will similarly defend mr/ms asshole without a seconds thought and never let you hear the end of how much of a loser or terrible person you allegedly are. Even if you block them, they'll endlessly swarm every thread you make with OP UNBLOCK MEEEEEE which you sadly can't hide when you block them in the first place. Lastly, never try to have logical arguments or sane discussions on certain parts of the dA forums. You'll go bananas in no time.

[Wolven_Sister]

:'D Awesome! You have stunning works!! Mine is wolvensister ^_^

[Maxiachan]

Thank you so much!! Your art looks wonderful too!!^^

[DavidDaneman]

In my opinion, yes.

DeviantArt was a place where many of us got our start, but at some point in time, the readers disappeared.

Over the years, (and I'm talking 10 years) I have written the staff a few times about my frustration, but they seem happy with the way it is working.

Therefore, I think the sad news is that it is only our problem.

dA works for dA.

[Aspie_Gamer]

dA works for dA.

That I could not have said better myself.

DA Staff: Is someone cyberbullying you and do you have proof? You do? Well here's what you do. Block them. Have a nice day.

Me: dafuq? I waited months for you to get back to me on my case and THAT is how you have decided to respond to my very serious case? No wonder people are flocking to pixiv, tumblr, conceptart, tsu, etc.