I've had a dA for over 8 years. Granted the first many years I rarely used it, got it because some friends said I should and after a year they sorta stopped using it and so did I. But for the past couple of years I've started to become a regular active user. I gotta say, I never use the front page. I never look in what's hot, new or whatever else the different pages are called. I use the forum sometimes, and usually skip most threads other than thumbnail shares, which I use to promote my art, like I do with groups. I've never been big on communities, I never seem to be able to keep up. It seems to work and I'm slowly getting more watchers. Granted I'm still under 200. I follow things I find interesting and people I like.
I think the problem with dA is the size of it. You need to really push yourself out there and shout loudly to be seen or heard. As the page grows larger, there has to be more admins, but that costs money, and when the money isn't there they are overburdened with work, and can't control it properly, not helping that their money solutions are unattractive for their costumers and the fact that almost everyone uses adblock nowadays. I'm not trying to defend or accuse anyone, merely deducting and speculating what can cause these problems.
They have also been bought recently by Wix and I doubt they have good plans in store for the site. I still hope that they will make it better and fix some of the bugs the page have, but I'm not holding my breath.
I still like dA though. Maybe because I'm a creature of habit and the affection value is there. Maybe it's because I'm finally starting to learn how to utilize their tools in my favor.
I want ot give a shoutout to the group Project Comment though. They really try and better the community, and promote good and constructive commenting rather than jusrt fave and run. they have a give and get comment system that works very well.
