What do you think of deviantArt?

[joannekwan]

I used to post there but never really hit it big nor did I get into the forums and groups and whatnot. Now I never post anything but I'll check up on it every so often to see if the artists I'm watching have added anything new. But I've noticed they've gone quieter as well.
It's all tumblr for me now, for posting and following.

[GesuGesu]

I use DA because it allows me to post large image files in .JPEG, .PNG, .GIF. whatever. Cool. I also like the sta.sh thing that came along. I can upload some art I want to show someone privately and they can download the file without me having to post it publicly in my DA gallery.

The bad:
- Severely underpriced commission economy. I see people selling on the forums for 50 pts (50 cents) because anything over 100 pts is unlikely to get any replies
- The kids on there are salty faggots about page views, CORE membership, being not good enough, no one wants to commission them, etc.
- I still find it difficult to make friends on there. Like, long-term friends despite joining a couple of RP groups.
- People on there make drama and big deal about tracing (sometimes false accusations with some forced overlays of common poses) and completely destroy an artist's reputation online
- Art thievery is real and easy

The Good
- I can upload/post a 10,000 x 10,000 px canvas on 350 dpi resolution without being told my "file is too large"
- I can upload gifs, png, flash, whatever file type
- Groups make it easier for art exposure or finding artists with common interests
- Sta.sh is great for passing your stuff to commissioners without having to publicize commission and leaving it open to art thieves
- The site has a large userbase so it's easy to get started and also find attention/watchers if you're good with social media, cross-platform sharing, and being a suck-up to anyone.

[shaneoid77]

I quite like DA, the art theft thing has been my only big upset in over a decade. I enjoy it over other art sites because a lot of talented amateurs like myself are there and there's groups that are about having fun rather than the people who're wanting to go pro, or are pro, and you get to see a lot of different types of art, even if they are just pencil sketches.

It is interesting to read that people think it's gone quiet over there, however, I thought it was just me.

[smolrice]

Tbh I'm really surprised at the amount of people who dislike Deviantart. From my experience with it, it's a fairly good site and everyone I've interacted with were quite pleasant. I also really like the uploading and watermarking systems that it has and I find that if you watermark, there's an extremely low chance your art will get stolen. In terms of community, I feel like as long as you don't get involved in drama, you'll almost never get any kind of harassment. Heh, for me tumblr's scarier since the anon system and reblogs make mob mentality and harassment easier and more likely to happen :"D

[NickRowler]

I like the concept of DA. It's easy to post and search for art. And honestly, it is a much better site for posting art than Tumblr. Before DA, I actually used an art site designed by Tokyopop, however it went to hell when the management could not keep up with what was being posted and the huge chuck of the site became stolen work and porn...hum sounds familiar.

However, my biggest issue with DA is the community and the staff. There are some people on there who just get way too political and they turn into little keyboard warriors who set out to stop anyone who disagrees with them. I have come to absolutely dread Stamps (and memes) for that exact reason. And when people deck their Profiles out in them, it it just makes them look like a whiney ass brat. I really wish the Staff would step up and deal with the drama and the trolls.

Tho on a personal note. I used to be a lot more popular but within the last few years, I felt like all my viewers just disappeared. So despite having better art than I did back then, it is sort of a bummer that no one really appreciates it. Fanart has always dominated the site, and once you lean away from that, people tend to leave. A majority of the most popular people on the site are fan artist. From time to time, I will get a Fav on a original piece but then I find out it was done by a "Fav Bot".

[Aspie_Gamer]

DA STAFF: Hi thanks for contacting staff. How may we be of service to you?

Community Member: Uhh yeah. Somebody literally stole my best friends art and is trying to sell it as his own. I've gone through all the proper channels and I have full documentation of this person's crimes.

DA STAFF: Okay. We'll look into it and we'll contact you again as soon as possible. Have a nice day.

Couple of weeks pass and the art thief is still going strong

Community Member: Uhh...I seem to recall getting in contact with you a couple of weeks ago and I hate to say it, but that art thief still hasn't been stopped and worse, my friend has been harassed/doxed for politely telling the art thief to stop selling his art as if it belonged to him. Please tell me you didn't forget about my request

DA STAFF: Did you try blocking him?

Community Member: How is that going to put a kibosh on the art thief and his illegal activities? I want an actual solution, not what seems like an automated response!

Couple more weeks pass

Community Member: Just so you know, my friend recently committed suicide after being harassed non-stop for allegedly being a plagiarist no thanks to you and your fellow staff members incompetence. Seriously, **** you for allowing something like that to happen!

DA STAFF: We have found evidence that xxx_!ik my ba1z_xxx committed art theft and as such, we will be suspending his account activity. We hope this helped solve your problem. Have a nice day.

Yeah...from all the horror stories I've heard from even popular artists about how incompetent the staff over at dA is about doing their jobs, I think the above dramatization I just posted is pretty accurate for the most part.

[dojo]

I used to use deviantArt exclusively, but now my account just rots and I have zero plans on going back to it. I don't think dA is as bad as some people like to say it is (especially when it's really no different than a lot of sites where as long as you know where to look, you can easily avoid the stuff you wouldn't be that into), but it felt like it was a lot harder over time to really get noticed. I don't know if that's just because I would have pretty long absences inbetween activity spells or what, but I do know of a lot of people who would join expecting to be able to get commissions and junk there, only to be disappointed. If all you're using it for is a gallery, it's great, but if you want much more out of it, ya might not get it.

I personally just don't use it anymore because I've always had a difficult time juggling sites, and once I got into tumblr, my dA more or less was abandoned. If I ever used it again, I would just make a new account and start from scratch.

[J.Lovelace]

Very accurate!
I tried to report a serious issue with sta.sh and I wrote a very detailed ticket to them with all observations and concerns. Everything was explained in that very wall of text. And their responses were dry and pretty much copypasted, and they asked me questions that were already explained in the very ticket I sent. I went through a really long and pointless process of explaining the whole thing again as best as I could. AND I asked them questions while at it, that the staff member didn't respond to them. None of them. I was so frustrated I wantedt o ask if they actually read what I wrote.
In the end I just dropped the whole thing because it was pointless.

[vanessa0802]

absolutely disgusting
i hate it
so much
(so much)

[almondjoy445]

It was where I started first posting art but as time went on, I kind of moved to Tumblr and game forums with art sections. My activity on DA has gone back up and I gotta say...the site leaves a lot to be desired these days, plus when they changed their logo all I thought was how pretentious their description was and wondered why they chose "Z." I think Jollyjack illustrated my feelings:
jollyjack

[SpavVy]

Has too much creepy fetish art. Nuff said.

[Aspie_Gamer]

Has too much creepy fetish art. Nuff said

Oh gawd! Just for that, I feel like posting a "Worst of DeviantArt" youtube video. XD

[thorbjornlyk]

So just out of interest when does something pass the point into creepy fetish art instead of just being fetish art?

[Mocha]

To put it simply, the only way to describe the people of deviantart is: "the good, the bad and the ugly". Other than that i do enjoy coming across some nice fanart and originals from time to time, but that doesn't change the fact that the site is swarming with stolen art, traced art and crappy recolours of official art.

[SpavVy]

@thorbjornlyk Vore, radioactive pregnancy, dirty diapers, and women with no mouths to name a few.
Edit: Well dirty diapers is more disgusting but the ones I have listed I personally found creepy.

[SpavVy]

I'm surprised I haven't done that yet in all my years of being on that website.

[ToxicRamen]

When I first joined DeviantArt which was in 2003, I mostly posted up fanart and some original characters. But at some point during my time on DA, I was constantly harassed by a couple of trolls saying that I wasn't a good artist. One of them actually claimed they posted up a comic strips with a couple of my original characters but with different names. Out of fear, I told my parents for advice and my dad told me I should have copyrighted my art first and I removed my original art. That really discouraged me to post up any artwork online. It wasn't until years later I talk to my uncle who is a storyboard artist, and he told me I should post my artwork anyway which I'm doing now.

But I haven't kept track of my DA account lately since I've been using Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter instead.

[thorbjornlyk]

Out of fear, I told my parents for advice and my dad told me I should have copyrighted my art first

You should have have a copyright on any art you create if not stated otherwise though? According to the Berne Convention anyway. Not that you would have a lot force to put behind a claim anyway, but that wouldn't have changed much by filing for copyright first.

[Devika]

I should have copyrighted my art first

Copyright is automatic. It's not something you need to "do". If you made it, you have the copyright.

The problem here is with dA though, they have gone extremely lack with enforcing rules (and law in this case) so even if you do have the legal rights to your work, if they won't do anything there'snot much you can do.

[VermillionWorks]

Honestly I didn't know DA was THAT lousy until reading some of the posts here! O.o

Though I know they are pretty bad, and I've noticed I've been getting less and less favs and comments there. I can't tell if it's becoming obsolete due to other new places to post art or if it's just the community and admins that are making it that way.

I mostly post comic pages there, but I've been considering no longer even doing that and instead posting them as one big file there when chapters are completed and little else.

I've also had issues with their ads over the years. I've gotten SO many viruses from there and it took them YEARS to acknowledge that it was in fact an issue that needed fixing. Before that they actually blamed people for not having proper comp protection. XO

They finally kind of fixed up their ads, but I heard a friend pretty recently left DA open in their browser and they still got a virus...yet now they have an annoying popup notice if you have an ad blocker on as if their ads are perfect and you shouldn't bother being careful anymore. >.>

That place is a mess, and a waste of a good idea. Maybe Taps should consider making a new gallery site. XD

Has too much creepy fetish art. Nuff said.

Also this, this, dear god THIS.