Is DeviantArt making a comeback?

[Luminosophy]

mass exodus-es from site A to site B are understandable, but we need to realise that none of these sites' algorithms are working for us. they have overheads, they have investors, they have employees - they need to make a profit, and if that means pushing us down then so be it. thats true for dA, its true for tumblr, its true for twitter.

Thank you, I was thinking that today lol. Everyone mass exited to tumblr, then tumblr became too much and people moved to instagram and twitter because there were better opportunities for money. Then both crashed and burned because they were never set up for artists in the first place and never will have them in mind when they're making new updates. People need to be a lot less married to certain sites and seek to push their own brand rather than just a presence.

[Shanny8]

People need to be a lot less married to certain sites and seek to push their own brand

Which is the reason I'm still pushing to make my own site. Social media sites will come and go- gain popularity & die, but I need to make sure what I'm doing has some longevity.

[Milhamah]

Good thread. I heard people on Twitter discussing DeviantArt, and while I have an account that's about a year old, it never appealed to me.

These days I only post links to my main website on Twitter. My goal over the next few months is to build a discussion forum on my Wordpress site, invite some dependable supporters to post comic and entertainment topics, and see if it becomes interesting to casual visitors.

Funny enough, Instagram used to be great for me, but I suspect (with limited evidence) that some algorithm has been throttling my hashtag visibility lately.

In the last two months, I only get 15-20 likes for content that used to get 60+ likes (and my art has only improved). That's been the biggest disappointment lately.

[Zyephen]

DA isn't nearly as active as it once was, but I still get comments and interactions when I post. If you are looking for commission work or just want a nice gallery for your art, I'd recommend it. I also think DA has one of the better UI of the other social media sites where people post their art these days. Instagram is maybe second to DA for an art gallery UI, but Instagram is also stupid because you can't directly upload your art from you computer without a 3rd party program, and I'm pretty sure most of us don't draw on our phones.

[nostalgicroxas]

(I follow you on dA and haven't read your comic, but totally stalk all your art and con announcements and have for years lol)

Actually you can upload to insta from your computer without a 3rd party application. You just need chromium type browser up, go to instragram and hit F12 or so to get the inspect element window open, where you can adjust which smartphone to emulate. Totally free, built into the chromium (so Brave and Chrome both have it). You might need to hit refresh for the lil upload icon to appear, but it works even on my win7 laptop of ancient age.

I agree about dA being a better portfolio site. Gallery folders, Scraps, and Featured are the best things done to the portfolio UI there overall. Every other site I've been to pales in comparison for clean neat organization.
I mean, look at this. You can even adjust folders to have thumbnails, details and names -all for FREEEEEEEE

[Moshimitsu]

I'm amazed with the opinions on dA, but cannot disagree with some though. I started browsing it for art ten years ago and it was much more different. Now it sometimes feels as some porn site, I actually stopped browsing through Newest which I used to find new artwork... Not to mention not switching on mature filter D:
I'm still using it though since I'm used to this and other non-art related sites kind of terrify me. Avoiding social media for years definitely doesn't help with self-promoting skills.

[xabelmind]

There's nothing secured, not even a personal website -stares in the horizon-

[xabelmind]

where you can adjust which smartphone to emulate

Sorry, I got lost here

What do you do without destroy anything in the attempt?

[Rhonder]

Actually you can upload to insta from your computer without a 3rd party application. You just need chromium type browser up, go to instragram and hit F12 or so to get the inspect element window open, where you can adjust which smartphone to emulate. Totally free, built into the chromium (so Brave and Chrome both have it). You might need to hit refresh for the lil upload icon to appear, but it works even on my win7 laptop of ancient age.

I also recently discovered that some computers are able to download the instagram app proper and upload that way. I have a 2 year old HP laptop on windows 10 that has some sort of app store on it. Out of curiosity I looked up instagram on it one day and it was there, and now I can upload my art directly like that. mileage may vary depending if the computer has apps or not though lol.

[Iris-Grimoire]

You can upload with what nostalgicroxas said, but only one picture at a time; still gotta use the app for any settings or messages, and apparently the business account stuff.

[Reign]

I used DA when I was younger, but...uh...it was pretty disgusting. Most of the stuff on there was really explicit, and a lot of the people in the forums were perverted and posted gross pictures. I don’t think DA is worth it. If I could go back in time, I would stop myself from even knowing what DA was. It’s just a lewd mess of crap that I never want to see again. I hate it with a fiery passion. (Not saying everyone on there was perverted, but most people that I ended up meeting, were.)

[JeanGuillet]

great tech tip thank you!

[nostalgicroxas]

So open Chrome / Brave, ect and go to instagram.com then hit ctrl+i or F12 (should do both. but on my old laptop it was f10) and you'll get this list.

If you hit refresh it'll switch you to the smartphone version. Of note, this "inspect element" does not stay for the entire browser and you'll have to re-open it every time you go to instagram on your computer.

[xabelmind]

Oh, dude, thank you!

[Nika]

Just a reminder that you can get banned from what I heard if you upload from computer. Don't understand why tho

[xabelmind]

I read that about schedule apps, but not about you just changing the browser view to upload at that very moment

I guess it's all about not using third-party apps, which is ironic since they make you download extra stuff to have certain features on their app.

Or maybe they want all our phones controlled, so they can spy on us 24/7, and provoke as much addiction as possible.

Who knows?

[inkycharland]

I started doing this and it's amazingly convenient.

[Freemints30]

You can but so far If you are not obvious about it then you'll be alright. I don't use any 3rd party apps just basic window functions so I think I'll be fine.

[Phantomskyler]

As someone who still uses DA, its still usable imo. There's still issues with drama between users sometimes but it's okay.

Only major problem is their content laws. Obviously porn artists know they don't have a place there, but the PG-13 cheesecake artists always have to potentially deal with harassment and false reports from overly zealous fans of certain series who can't stand those artists 'perverting' their characters. Happens a lot with people who draw PG-13 RWBY art.

So I'd say if you're a SFW artist, DA is still usable, if you're a borderline NSFW artist, it can be dodgy depending on what series you draw cheesecake of.

[Iris-Grimoire]

Really? That's interesting. Back when I used it the bigger problem was that it had too many teenagers with no concept of mature tags, so you got bombarded with NSFW without even asking for it. Odd how things change in so little time.