What do you think of deviantArt?

[monotone_ink]

I haven't gone there in a while, and I've heard there have been many changes to it since my absence.

As a place for an art community, interaction, and just general experience, what do you think of deviantArt at the moment? I'm thinking of resuming activity there, but I'd like to see everyone else's opinions before I do.

[J.Lovelace]

Deviantart is like my home to be honest. I spend a lot of my time there, if my browser didn't crash occasionally, my DA tab would stay always open. I have a lot of friends there that are like my family, and I plan a future together with someone I met there slight blush

Of course the site has it's flaws and a lot of drama going on here and there. Like the reputation that Deviantart is full of art thieves, sometimes ridiculous adoptable market, weird staff choices and whiny artists that would rip each other apart because their original species look vaguely alike.
I am salty over certain staff choices, because most of the time they're counterproductive. And it seems like they don't listen to the community and do stuff on their own pretending that they do listen to us.

Luckily, I avoided most of the drama, and the people I meet are friendly and awesome. There are some people I regret meeting, and I'm glad they never tried to pester me after I blocked them. (pester as in make new accounts to talk to me, or send their friends to talk to me).

I think that Deviantart is like every other site - it's okay as long as you can meet the right people and stay away from drama/haters. It will be always biased towards fanart, but that's common everywhere. Making it big there is super hard if you're not popular anywhere else.

[LoboSong_Hitaka5Ever]

It has become pretty crappy actually. The staff is shit, people there have no idea how the art industry works, their pro tracing is distasteful, their stance on art theft is even worse (they basically said digital art is okay to be stolen because it isn't physical like a painting) and they just aren't a community like it used to be. I only stay because of the groups I have. I have given up on my friend and I trying to get commissions there because peoples' stance on "high" prices are despicable (ie people expect artists to make full on comic pages for only $10 a page; like F that) and it was ruined because the point system is BS ($1=80 points) DA is basically less art and more profit/corporation and the fact they haven't gone out of business yet is kind of surprising. Even former staff and veterans of the site have abandoned them because of their shit. One such person even pleaded for them to actually LISTEN to the community, but so far it seems they no longer care. I wish I could 100% up and leave but I've been there for so many years that it doesn't really matter (but if they go out of business, then oh well, their fault not ours)

There are still really good people on there that I continue to follow, but otherwise, the site isn't worth being around anymore unless the staff decides to change. Unless you're really popular, its the worst place for feedback especially. If it were me, I wouldn't return (if feedback's not too important for you, then do what you feel is best I guess)

[J.Lovelace]

I'm still laughing over their new logo, gosh that was such a fail. Not only they threw a lot of money on it, it was supposed to be unique and they made it look like a lot of thought was put into it... it was suppposed to be a symbol of originality. AND then there were like two other sites with the same logo out there, and everybody thought it's a "Z" letter :'''"D

[AliceHoffmannArt]

I like the way uploads work (quick but detailed), dA still has many members, the forums can be a good place to find project partners, active groups are neat...
It can be a nice tool if you use it properly.
I enjoy it there because I filter out everything I don't need/ want.

But yeah, I dislike the staff's stance on art thievery (it honestly seems like laziness to me that they just allow it as long as the original artist doesn't report it). Same thing with toxic people on their forums.
It got unnecessarily time-consuming to contact the staff at the help desk because they built in a wall of questions that you need to pass before you get to the URL of request forms.
Seems like a bad joke to me.

If I ever come across drama, I watch from a safe distance if I'm really bored enough.
Any place with many people is going to feature a few complete wackos you don't want to get involved with. As for commissions, if I'd do them, I'd just shrug my shoulders at the kids who don't want to spend their precious pocket money and think everything above 3 points is "expensive". No one forces them to buy anything.
I generally used the same actual pricing for money converted in points, no matter how high those numbers are in contrast to the most of the community.
I did get commissioned nonetheless!

All in all, it really just depends on how you feel there.
Maybe have a look at the new features, randomly visit artists and see if you like the atmosphere.

[spadesart]

one time some anti-sj tried to pick a fight with me and got super offended that i refused to get into an argument and acted like i was some huge asshole bc i shut them down before they were able to start some bs so that was interesting

court groups and octs are kinda the only reason i still go on there

[UrMom]

DA is a cesspool. There is no quality control so it gets flooded with garbage, leaving artwork to get buried with no hopes of being acknowledged unless the artist is already popular. People steal art right and left, spank material is everywhere despite the site meaning to be child friendly. The admin and mods don't care about the quality of their site, or about the artists using it. It's nearly impossible to get shit taken down when someone is stealing shit.

I hate it, the site is awful and I abandoned my account on there years ago.

[Herofeeder]

DA isnt all that bad but it is overcrowded..but i found jobs there and it helped me get in to Comics..everyone has a different opinion on it.but for me it was a very pleasent time

[angelfire]

I've effectively avoided everything that dA has. I've been on the forums and as great as they are sometimes, they're the most toxic place to be. I've stuck to watching artists and posting my own art

I know its not the best way to use it but i find it to be alright. Its hard to get people to watch you this way, but I dont wwnt to get too involved with the wackos on the site cuz honestly their scary

[shazzbaa]

I was on DeviantArt back in the day when it was the art community, basically facebook for artists, and I had a following there when I started my comic, so I started uploading my comic there as well at the time. I was never big on the forums or anything on DA so I can't speak to that.

I haven't had any bad experiences, personally, but I have noticed a huge dropoff in terms of interaction. A few years ago, getting 0 comments on something meant it must be a thing that seriously nobody could relate to -- now, getting 0 comments on a piece of art isn't surprising. I tended to get more interaction before, whereas now, my art just gets a little burst of favs and occasionally a couple of comments, and my comic pages generally get one or two comments and 4-6 favs per page.

There are still new people following me though. Like every week or every other week there's another couple of people who discover and follow me. So it's weird, it feels like, there's probably still people here, it's not dead... but it's definitely not like it was back when it was a bustling hub. It feels very quiet.

[Down_the_Rabbithole]

My only issue with DA is that I've become an adoptable slave. Once I think my roster is going to be complete there's a new customer and I just want a rest from it all, but they've paid their points and I gotta do it. I also feel really bad when it takes me so long to complete one, like I've kept people waiting for so long for art. It gets a bit stressful.

[69Michi]

I'm only in DA for the RP groups and Adoptable. I do have problem with the buyers on there though. If you are new, even if your art is sensational or super outstanding, you still have to under price yourself to get any business. It took me almost a year of under pricing myself to climb up on the commission and adoptable chain to actually selling things at the price that worth the effort I put in.

The place is definitely not dead. I know a lot of people are still active on there. It's just the matter of what side of DA you are dwelling in. Personally I'm in the RP groups and adoptable wise, as far as I can see, it's active everywhere. Even as shetty as DA is, it still holds a special place in my heart because that is where I met and made friend with some of the most wonderful artist and human being.

[Down_the_Rabbithole]

Yeah, I know the whole under-pricing thing. I think that's part of the reason I don't get any rest. I'd like to raise my price, but I just don't know when to do it.

I don't think I've been to my main DA page in over a year. It's just been the adoptable account.

[indagold]

it's dead from what I know because most people I talk to can tell it's inactive. I use it rarely now that it's a ghost town mostly, the site has bugs that it's not fixing anymore so it glitches and it's hard to use. As for the perverts and artists with no talent it's still flooded with them but there has been a change I absolutely adore. The site is being flooded with troll accounts resembling these artists and integrating themselves into the debauchery. None of them attack anyone they just pretend they're really bad at drawing. It's a breath of fresh air honestly and gives me a few laughs.

I still like Da because the community is horrible but pales in comparison to the beast that is tumblr. Tumblr is turning into a reverse 4chan meanwhile the worst you might get on Da is someone stealing your art or being creepy.

[69Michi]

Yeah it's very sad to see a super awesome artist put hours into their art but only sell for so little, while some other artists that are a little more well known can just throw out a 5 minutes sketch and people will surely fight over it :/ DA's business wise is a weird place to dwell in. I have seen so many artists I commissioned underprice themselves, and despite I'm telling them they shouldn't, I know as of right now it's the only way for them to get any business. All I could offer at that time was to give them a large amount of tips add-on to the commission price to cover up the underpricing gap.

I'd like to raise my price, but I just don't know when to do it.

How are you doing your adopts? Personally I don't do roster. I create adopt on a whim and put them on sale. Most of the time I do a sort of auction adopt. I put down the starting bid and a little higher autobuy. If I see more people have a tendency to head straight for the autobuy price, I know that is when I can raise my price. It's a good way to gauge your customer's price range!

[Down_the_Rabbithole]

I do a random gacha. It's a pokemon adopt thing. So, I gotta draw the pokemon, then its evolution sheet. Sometimes I have to do a trainer sheet as well with six pokemon and do the evolutions for all of them. It's actually more like a commission than anything and typing it all down, I've realized just how much work it is. I gotta stop doing this to myself!

[insomniascrawl]

Long story short, I used to love it, it used to be a place I was actively on, now it feels messy and hectic and over complicated in comparison to other sites I use. I feel like despite it being a site for art, it doesn't feel like that anymore for me, I don't know how that changed for me, it just did.

[69Michi]

Oh yeah omg that definitely sounds like a lot of work! You should slowly ease out of it if it's stressing you out :C not good at all.

Long story short, I used to love it, it used to be a place I was actively on, now it feels messy and hectic and over complicated in comparison to other sites I use. I feel like despite it being a site for art, it doesn't feel like that anymore for me, I don't know how that changed for me, it just did.

I'm with you on this tbh I'm not as active on there as I used to be anymore. Well, mostly because I started my comic, but could also be because some of my RP friends moved to Twitter and Skype.. But honestly I don't think DA has ever been that much of a fan art place to me If I got asked about DA, I would say: commission/adopt, weird fetish art, RP groups.

[JessJackdaw]

Oh gosh... I haven't used DA in six or so years. I'll only browse it if an artist I like has a gallery, and I have no idea what the community is like there now.

Now I primarily use Artstation.com which is a community built for professional industry artists. You won't get much attention if you're an amateur like myself, but looking and following all the class-A talent is really inspiring. Plus, I like the interface a lot better than DA or Tumblr, so it just works better for me.

Here check it out:
https://www.artstation.com/

[scythe]

DeviantArt? You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.