Why are deviant users LEAVING Deviant Art?

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Deviation Actions

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So this news or concern maybe a year old or even older, I only just stumbled upon it after reading a notice from Deviant art regarding ‘ART THEFT’ – which is causing a lot stirs from everyone who has an account on deviant art. it’s an interesting read. If you haven’t read it –  protectart.deviantart.com/jour… : follow this link to the page where you can read other people’s opinions on art theft and also enjoy the raging rants, comments and concerns of other users about ‘art theft’ and ‘deviant users leaving deviant art’ – I honestly have no idea what to write or how to respond, yes there are comments and reviews there from other deviant account holders I agree on. And then there are others who I feel are just angry with ‘deviant art’ in general. Everything so far shared within that forum is a growing concern,  and it’s great that these issues have surfaced. Hopefully Deviant art admins can absorb these and work towards making its platform better for everyone. Anyone remember the logo design? To this day I feel no one likes it, and I am one of many who prefer the old logo design.  As for the format, not sure what everyone is complaining about, I’ve read comments via that thread that people have issues with users who are premium members and are able to decorate their page with other features that are locked for those who don’t upgrade.. If deviant users are leaving because of that, then I feel that is silly.. It’s a choice to upgrade or not, if you prefer free stuff, then you are limited by options and be grateful that deviant art is for free, where as those who pay for premium memberships then it’s only fair that they get features for them to decorate their wall / profile.  Imagine if Deviant art became a paid subscription, then ‘yes’ voice out your concerns and freeze their servers with negative reviews and say “NO.” Also, don’t forget that Deviant art has a nice feature for us to have a separate portfolio feature that presents our work in a general medium manner. Something like ‘carbonmade.com’ site – I like ‘carbon’ a lot now– now that it has a blog / log feature. But D.A will always be my H.Q for sharing art and these rants.

 

There’s also comments regarding the ‘filters’ – This I am unsure of, as I don’t really experience or browse the main home pages ( the tabs with popular, trending, unknown, today, weekly etc etc ). Sometimes pages are riddled with images that I feel isn’t any part of the art community. I wish there was a way you can have an option to filter that the ones you want to randomly want to see or might want to follow rather than the ones that are popular or trending. I’m not going name names or even give examples, if you’ve got an account, it’s pretty obvious, we are all guilty of those Id pictures and a lot of us do get carried away with it. It would be nice to have a feature to somehow control what you want to see on your timeline or page. I know that there are tabs for different  filters of search, but even still – the odd ones do pop up over which does over shadow pieces of art that deserve actually views and likes. About the front page too, I hope I am not the only one, I barely go on the front page now, if anything I usually jump on other peoples pages that I follow via my own‘ book marks’ , check out the undiscovered page for unknown artists and at times ‘the today’ page-  or in most case my own page, to upload and log off. It’s pretty difficult to interact with anyone on deviant art now, because of this fast paced generation or path we are on, we don’t make any time to comment on or fav anyone’s work. Not because we are selfish, it’s mainly because we have to attend to other social media sites too, when we upload an image here, we have to share it on other sites too. Yes 5 years ago, when D.A was at its prime.. You could feel that community of artists / hobbyist band together, leaving comments, faving work, mentioning other peoples work.. Those days are long gone now. Unless you are one of those ‘top dogs’ of the art community where you get millions following you  & commenting on your progress. But are you surprised at it, that this medium or deviant art users have changed? You shouldn’t be.. It’s a natural process.

 

There are other reasons why people leave D.A or close their accounts, maybe that phase of creating art – writing blogs hasn’t worked out here so they move over to another platform, the most common ones are Tumbler, instagram, twitter, facebook or creating their own websites. I feel there are legit reasons and good reasons why people deactivate their accounts.  Maybe they are tired of D.A and want to start fresh somewhere else.  People close accounts to work on other things in life, or they leave the account running and active and inform others to follow them somewhere else (facebook, twitter or personal websites)

I’ve been with D.A for roughly 7 years, I’ve definitely seen the changes and I completely understand other peoples concerns, but at the same time.. I’ve grown to understand the ‘change of time’ – nothing is forever, nothing will be the same – change will always happen in time without your consent.. change happens because of competition. During this change, good things and bad things naturally occur. The only change we can make in deviant art is to make an effort to change what we upload or share and voice those out, rather than keep quiet, upload and log off and expect comments and favs, - but please understand this, the older we get. I’m pushing 33 now, we have less time interact with anyone due to day jobs, personal activates and health. – Oh I forgot, our hobbies too. Don’t get wrong, it’s not an excuse to ignore friends and followers, which I haven’t. – it’s them that are faving your work, commenting and supporting you – so it’s always respectful to reply back to them as soon as possible. I’m 100% on the dot when it comes to replying – mainly because I don’t much watchers & followers commenting on my stuff so when I do get comments, it’s not a lot here on deviant art and it’s easier to reply back to them than it is to deal with private messages via social sites. So when people don’t comment your stuff, please don’t take it seriously and to heart. It’s because some of us are old, or are too busy with other daily responsibilities / routines that I try to keep on track especially with health. Lifting weights isn’t easy but if it helps with my health. I’m on it. - Is that really a bad thing? – Also if you notice, those who leave deviant art, they are relatively new blood, anyone that is with D.A for over 5 years or so, or even longer, their account is still open, not active.. but it’s there.

Is Deviant Art becoming like ‘facebook’ – another growing concern in the comment sections I noticed, and it is linked to the filters.. rather than see art from talented & the unknown individuals, I sometimes at most see  random photographs of daily life of a user, like quick selfies of themselves, with their friends and pets – etc – just like facebook.  Random images that shouldn’t be over shadow real art from talented individuals or the undiscovered individuals . Wish there was a way they could separate ‘those’ from digital work, traditional work and photography. I’m not too fussed about that, since I don’t see that much of that trend here. I tend to follow other peoples work so I see those rather than those ‘random’ images. I don’t really have much say on it to be honest, you are the account holder, so do what pleases you on your D.A wall and expect a good welcome or a wave of hate comments.

There’s also suggestions about having a timeline here on D.A.. any thoughts on that. I’m 50 50 on this because if it is done right, if we get a timeline on our page of those we follow, and the time line is of art and photographs.. I wouldn’t say no to that.. my only concern is that if they use this to share daily pics of their life and routines.. that’s facebook to me. So no sir, no thank you.

 

From what I gather, a lot of users are closing their accounts because of the ‘art theft’ – people are getting their work stolen and being sold at amazon or ebay from different users.. god damn if this is true.. then by all means do what you have to do to get it fixed.. if deviant art admins can’t help or won’t help (I’ve been hearing funny stories about D.A staff ( not good stories) – that is also a 50 50 issue from different users about their experiences of D.A staff ) – by all means terminate your accounts, or find the right help to get it fixed.. I won’t comment much on this or rant, as I feel I’ve burnt myself raging and sharing my 2 cents on it.  You can read other people unfortunate experience on this, and it isn’t nice.. they’ve gone through some nasty times and some cases.. they don’t have the power to do anything - it hurts to read it. We’ve all had some experience in this. You can’t do anything and hope for the best for those fighting their cases against thieves.

 

Lack of original content – everyone is tracing peoples work claiming it is theirs /  everyone is now a photographer -  Could this be what is hurting the art community here in D.A – I can’t comment on this coz I don’t even know how to share an opinion on it. I understand and completely agree with the concerns.. but does it make me and other people a bad person? I’m no pro at what I do, yes there was a time I did a healthy amount of commission for the vectors. Never considered myself an artist, I just enjoyed the process of it. Vectoring art isn’t going to be my career where I actually make it a form of income – never will and it took me 7 years to finally accept that, I’m done chasing it or hoping for the best to make that lucky break. I just vector coz it kills time and it’s fun, I find peace and fun in it, especially when I am mixing the type of vectoring I do with those who are cool with me to do that on their photos, for example the photographers, there’s only 3 that I can think of now that are ‘game’ – that are cool with me vectoring their photos. As long as I credit them and inform them who it is.  I’m sure there are other photographers in the past that I’ve vectored that are super cool and friendly and have given me that green light to mess around with the vectors of their photos, and then there are others who are not so willing. That I avoid and stay away from. Regarding originality – is there anything today that is original? Be honest.. anything we see now or are exposed to in adverts, illustration or pictures are ‘borrowed, recycled, reused, re coloured, re introduce, re claimed – re booted’ – now repeat that. It’s everywhere. I think people should relax a bit before stressing out and venting out. It’s a process that is going to repeat itself regardless.. nothing original will be original.

Question for you – Is it a growing trend, is it lazy work and is it fair on the original artist / photographer that others are using their work as base and altering it? They have every right to be angry and have every right to do what they need to do – to get the problem solve. But i feel there is a limit on that, give out notifications to the user and ask them not to do it, rather than D.A give out hasty strikes on accounts which I’ve got one so far or ‘instant bans’ without investigation. Users have every right to do what they want to do whether it be morally right or wrong.. It’s really down to the individuals choice to do so – but if you do wrong, it’s only a matter of time it will turn around and bite you. So be humble and respectful, don’t do the wrong things and take peoples work!!! That is not good. And it causes unnecessary stress to the artist.

RIGHT NOW we live in an age, where there are massive amount of content being uploaded into these art platforms, so it is expected that art and photos are going to be nicked or used as base to create something new.. – it’s that term ‘dog eat dog’ – ‘borrowed art to create something new’ – Maybe it’s one of the many reasons why people are closing accounts. Right now, all these content of art and photos are just opportunities for others to use for their sneaky advantages.. it’s those people D.A should keep an eye on. The ones who bluntly steal and claim as their own.

Fan service art – which I am a part of, most of my stuff are fan vectors of stuff I grew  up on and enjoy, I vector them and share them out for anyone who wants to see, I don’t expect them to comment or fav it. I just enjoy being a hobbyist, to vectoring stuff that appeals to me, whether it be nude themes or ‘movies, games or comics’ – Am I listed as one of the bad account holders here on D.A who is talentless and acquire un-tasteful things? I’ve had my share of problem with DA admin, haters, and ‘trolls’ here and of the vectors I do. khuantru.deviantart.com/journa…

Same things apply to hobbyists of photography, the amount of comments I’ve read not just here but also on facebook, “you’re not a photographer, you’re amateur at WORST” “blah blah blah” – i don’t think this applies to me, coz vectoring is my hobby, taking random pictures is just for fun and also to share my views of London with others who don’t live in London. So far no hateful comments on those (sign of relief) lol . – Is photography original? You take pictures with peoples permission, claim it is yours by slapping your name or water mark it.. knowing that there are possibly other people taking the same image.. It swings both ways.

 

F@cccck... 4 pages of my rants on this?? - - - - need to end this now– when it comes to art, - ART IS borrowed, recycled and re –used and re packaged differently – then it repeats itself.. it’s stepping on egg shells.. – not know which surface will crack and what the outcome is. When it comes to art theft.. there’s no way of escaping or avoiding it.. only procedures you can do is to protect yourself the best way possible and expect the worst to happen.. – to why deviant users are closing accounts.. well that is called ‘choice’ as you grow older, your vision and routines alter through time, so you either keep hobbies, add new hobbies to the list or you lose one or two and move onwards. If people dislike it, people leave..

 

If none of this makes sense.. good coz now that I think about it.. reading that bloody post from deviant art on art theft, and reading the mix comments from users being angry, to reasonable to now plain weird made me talk out of my backside.  Lol.

Enjoy and regards from North London. 

Giggle :happybounce: OMG MOAR POEMS! :squee: :stinkeye: :eager: by darkmoon3636 Boogie!



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akyanyme's avatar
Maybe the good and classic school has gone. New "arts" too incomprehensible, as the stupid ponies that do not have great science.