When I joined DeviantART almost five months ago, I was unsure what to expect upon joining.  In a short timespan I have had the most pleasant surprise of meeting many quite talented fellow artists and establishing some wonderful friendships along the way.  I was amazed at how quickly I was able to be exposed and connect with fellow artists from all sorts of backgrounds, experiences, talents, and abilities.  Without DeviantART, this sort of interaction would have never taken place, and I am incredibly grateful for the new opportunities it has provided.

Yet as great as DA can be, it would be incredibly foolish to assume that a website of this overwhelming magnitude runs without a hitch.  There is a perpetual undercurrent of grumbling from various artists for a wide range of personal reasons, claiming anywhere from: the existence of an unresponsive administration; stating that there is an overall decrease in submission quality; incessant bickering among particular members; to squabbling over how certain submissions became a Top Favorite (DTF) or Daily Deviations.  To my own disheartenment, several talented artists that I have been watching, whom have made solid contributions to this website by not only the quality of their art, but contributions to other artists, have left DA out of frustration.  I am unable to claim whether these people are a few disgruntled members, a growing minority, or an existing majority - and for the purpose of this statement, it doesn't really matter.  Perhaps this stems from my selfish desire to be exposed to these artists, but I would argue that even one loss is too many.

I am also personally sick of reading forum strings in which members futilely complain and fight among each other about art, or what they claim to be the lack thereof.  It is critically important to realize that everyone will always develop varying opinions on these matters: how we view how DA should be utilized; what our mannerisms should be; what the quality and range of our submissions should be; bickering over policy violations; how we critique deviations; even how submissions such as "Stop Drawing Nightcrawler" becomes a DTF (just for the record, I thought this was ludicrous).  This sort of discourse is always going to arise and quite frankly, is very healthy for a site in which the vast majority of the membership AND administration are aspiring (and young), creative (and young), amateur talents (did I mention young?).

Oh yes, by the way - in case you have not already gathered - we are a young group.  As a group we lack the overall maturity, perspective, and experience than those twice our age are able to appreciate.  So we are going to argue over the most inane subjects on DeviantART as if the fate of the world hinged on it.  And yes, this statement applies to both membership and administration.  No matter how well-intentioned we are, we're just not going to handle things in a perfect way.  We never really do, but a lot of our issues stem from the fact that we are an incredibly young group.  If the majority of this site were in the 40-50 year old range, as opposed to 15-30, the nature of our membership and administration would carry on much differently.  Note that I didn't imply that it would be better, I just claimed that it would be different.  To compound this issue, the limitations of the internet allows greater opportunity for miscommunication and misunderstandings.  Let us also remember that DA is less than three years old, and has meteorically risen to the ranks of one of the busiest and most popular sites on the internet. This community has had to experience not only the excitement, but growing pains of such an expansion in a severely compressed amount of time.

With this understanding and perspective, I would like to address certain issues for the (hopefully majority) portion of this community, who like me, is concerned not only about their personal growth as an artist, but following other exciting artists, and assist other aspiring deviants as they mature.

Issue One: "Popularity"

As I indicated earlier, I have witnessed countless strings of forum posts that complain that many deviants are just concerned with the amount of pageviews or favorites that they attain.  Honestly - if you are really not concerned about popularity, why are you concerned about how other people view it?  You've set for yourself a dangerous double standard.  If you're truly concerned about quality submissions and greater exposure for some of the hidden gems on DeviantART, then this should be the least of your worries.

Some people receive more pageviews/favorites than others - so what?  If you continue to create and be as active a member of the community that you can, then the right people will come to your corner of DA, not necessarily the most people.  As a true artist, isn't this what you would want anyways?  Personally, it's always a great surprise when new people visit my site.  I am sincerely appreciative for the number of people who visit, and thankful for those who think enough of my work to add it to their favorites list; however, it's also the least of my concerns.  What I appreciate are visitor's comments, as well as their candor and honesty; I use DA as one tool out of many to grow as an artist and to be exposed to other artists with different views on exactly what art is.  The quantity of people that visit me and comment isn't so much important as to who visits me and just as importantly, why.  If I was concerned about pageviews, I could easily submit a pair of breasts and get every horny male teenager in a university computer lab at my site in a snap - but that's not my concern.

This is what I use DA for.  Some people are concerned about the amount of pageviews and favorites they receive, and to this I say, "go for it".  That sort of attitude doesn't appeal to me, but whom am I to judge if they have a different focus on what they want to achieve here?  The population of DeviantART is too large not to have a variety of members with different priorities.  Instead of worrying about others and complaining that these people might be of "detriment to the site", why don't you choose to focus on developing associations and collaborations with artists such as yourself who are truly concerned about the wonderful things we create here?  This way you get you want, others get what they want, and we're all satisfied with what we get out of it.

Issue Two: Quality

Quality is a relative issue.  I have witnessed deviants complain about the quality of work submitted to DeviantART, without putting this into any real perspective.  You may have talent, but the rate at which that talent is developed varies from person to person for a numerous amount of reasons.  For example, I'm 28 years old and am still maturing as a young designer.  The quality of my creations has been far from instantaneous - it has taken a lifetime of practice and hard work.  Three years isn't a lot of time, and DA has been around for less than that - what if the quality of work that certain deviants submit is the best they can do?  Instead of slamming an artist and informing them "they suck" or "they'll never make it as a designer", why don't we encourage them and offer some friendly words of advice instead of slamming them?  Are we going to discourage someone who is 14 because their submissions do not seem up to par with what we believe is good work?  That is half my age.  I look back to when I was 14 - if the Web and DA had existed at the time, and I chose to join and submit, I likely would have received the exact same scathing commentary.  Quite frankly, I'm amazed at what members submit here  - whether they are beginners or professionals, young or old!  We all had a beginning, and we all had to start somewhere - how can anyone claim that they didn't?  Creativity is a perpetual maturation process that lasts our entire lives, how are we to judge someone who is at a different level of maturation than we might be?  If I went back in time and told that 14-year old boy that he didn't have what it takes, would I necessarily be doing the wide variety of things I get to do now?

Just something to think about.

Issue Three: Fashion vs. style

I have seen people complain about the fashion of submissions - anywhere from the amount of anime and furry art to even freeverse variations of poetry.  It is important to realize the difference between fashion and style.  Had DeviantART been in existence when I was growing up, instead of anime, furries, and Nightcrawler drawings, I would have been drawing Transformers, Voltron, or GI Joe.  Most people who draw these things are young - and frankly, why wouldn't they be drawing these things?  I was doing the same thing when I was a kid.  We could put these sort of submissions under a large umbrella called "fashion".  Fashions are quite transient in nature - they come and go.  One day we love them, and the next day we hate them.

What remains consistent is the substance of style.  Fashions may come and go, but it is your style that stands the test of time.  This is why years from now, we will only appreciate a small percentage of the type of submissions that are considered popular and fashionable - because we lose interest in the greater percentage that did not have style.  This happens not only with everything we create, but the clothes that we wear and the music that we listen to.  When a creative piece of work possesses style, this means there exists a meaning, content, or substance to the work that supersedes whatever fashion this work may have been detailed in.  The difference between fashion and style if a more intangible murky area than you might realize, and often cannot be distinguished without the perspective of time.  My own personal style - whether it be photography, artwork, poetry, prose, or any of my designs - is just a personal interpretation of my immediate environment and my place in it.  So whether my work is spectacular, romantic, sexy, or beautiful - or commonplace, dirty, grimey, or ugly - it's the meaning behind my work that is important and it is THIS that transforms a drawing, photograph, design, or piece of writing...into art.

Issue Four: Constructive criticism

There's nothing wrong with dropping a comment stating, "I like the angle, color, and tone".  However, if this comment becomes predominant all over DA it becomes quite a debilitating issue.  There are so many artists who produce such great work, sometimes we don't know what to say but "Wow!" or "Cool!"  However, as an artist, it's sometimes a little frustrating if this is the only comment we receive, as many of us desire serious input on what we can do to make our works better.  It is absolutely unnecessary to make a comment on every single submission that shows up on your devwatch - over time your comments will become redundant, and the effectiveness of your commentary will not benefit another artist.  By being selective on not only what you comment on, but how you comment will benefit you, the artist you are critiquing, and DeviantART as a whole.  Sometimes if you don't have anything real to say, it's sometimes better not to mention anything at all.

If you do like a piece of work, go into detail about why you like it - the artist will appreciate it!  In addition, do not ever be afraid to select "somewhat dislike deviation" or "dislike deviation" - but do not do so in the spirit of meanness.  Explain the reasons for which you don't like the deviation, and go even one step further - give recommendations an artist might consider to improve it!

Issue Five: Responding to comments/favs

I don't care if you have 200 pageviews, or 70,000 visitors - you're not too big to take time out of your DA addiction and visit someone else.  When people stop by and comment, do you ever visit their gallery?  When someone fav's one of your submissions, do you go by and thank them, or pay them a visit and discover who they are?  I'm amazed at how much I've stumbled into just by visiting people who have stopped by humble abode.  If you're one of the "popular artists" that many perceive (note: perceive) as absolutely unresponsive, why don't you stop indulging in yourself and check them out?  You might be surprised.  Contribute back by giving them criticism back.  I don't care who you are, you are not too big to visit and critique someone else.  For example, if you make a submission and receive a hundred favorites, take a break from submitting once in awhile, and spend some of your time to thank the people who thought enough of you to take their time to visit you.


On the other hand, it's not necessary to thank people for every comment you receive.  For example, if you have developed a working association with another artist, eventually it just becomes understood and you don't have to take offense if they don't stop every single time you make a comment or submission.  Eventually you may become so comfortable with someone else, it's just not necessary.  But always remember to show them your appreciation once in awhile.


Issue Six: I can't get someone with a symbol to visit my site.

You can't get someone with a $, #, :,  +, ^, or ' to visit your site? To this I have to say to you: "Aww...poor baby.".  Seriously - boooooooooohoooooooo.  What do you need them for anyways?...to get more attention?  There are plenty of artists without funny little symbols in front of their nickname worth knowing and will contribute heavily to your growth as an artist.  Get over it, already - your existence on DeviantART doesn't depend on exposure to these people.  They are artists/contributors like you - no more, or no less.  However, they've been given special recognition for whatever they might have, or continue to contribute to DeviantART.  But don't ever get in your head that you are any less valuable than these people - that sort of perception runs exactly counter the purpose of this website.

Issue Seven: Perception of administration

Recently, one of the people on my devwatch that left DeviantART stated this: "WELL, IT IS THE QUALITY OF OUR ART AND THE NUMBER OF OUR PAGE VIEWS WHICH CREATE THE VALUE, COMMERCIAL VALUE, OF THIS SITE, AND FRANKLY I DON'T WANT TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE COMMERCIAL VALUE OF A PRODUCT OWNED AND RUN BY INCONSIDERATE AND INEPT PEOPLE."

I take no real stance on this issue.  DeviantART is not a democracy, not should it ever be.  This is a gigantic venture and it depends on a lot of people to run it and for the most part, these administrators have performed a superb job.  Some of these people have quite a bit to take on for such thankless jobs.  As a result of having such a large bureaucracy to keep this website running smooth, the administration can often seem cold and impersonal.  This doesn't mean they actually don't care about you, but many do have a lot on their plate to handle.  Sometimes it can be frustrating to take on the concerns, complaints, and issues of members in addition to the tasks they may have to complete.

However, on the flip side, it can be very frustrating for members as well.  It is important to realize that some people DO perceive the administration as cold and impersonal, and that this perception is not completely undeserved.  As the saying goes, "Nobody's perfect".   Sometimes people feel like they don't have a voice in the future of this website.  When you really look at it, we're a large bunch of kids running a mammoth-sized website.  As much as we try, we're not going to be perfect in handling issues, and occasionally we lose perspective.  Those things will always happen - from an administrator or membership standpoint - young or old - so don't take it so personally.

Conclusion

Other ways to contribute are:
1.  Aiding underexposed artists that you believe deserve more attention.  There are so many gems on this website - some are quite popular, and others are so hidden that you may never discover them.
2.  Creating rebuttals or responses to a submission.  One of the things I find most exciting is when deviants make a counterpoint to a prose, or create a piece of artwork based on a prose submitted by someone else.
3.  Collaborate with other artists to put together deviations - what a great way to fully explore your potential with someone else.
4.  Join a DA community.  There are more DA communities/collaborations than you can shake a stick at.  Join a couple and discover not only how much you can learn, but how much you can contribute.
5.  Forums.  Don't be afraid to add to forum strings.  You'd be surprised how many people might read what you have to say.

One of the latest journal entries by Melvinkobe http://melvinkobe.deviantart.com captures the continual essence of DeviantART: "I still haven't come to grips with the complexity of this website. Everything you submit, whether it's a creation, a comment or a favourites addition, will create tiny ripples. Other people will detect these ripples and amplify them, and sometimes the result ends in a tidal wave.  Fascinating, fascinating..."

Fascinating indeed.  How long that fascination remains fresh is really up to you.  I hope these suggestions can help artists interested in their own personal growth can maintain that fascination instead of being consumed by frustration or disillusionment.  You can sit on your ass and futilely complain about what you would like to see changed, or you can help set the standard and become a leader.  Who stated that you need a funny little symbol in front of your name to do that?  By setting the standard, you give other deviants something to shoot for, and we all become the better for it.  DeviantART can be a great tool if you want it to be - use it wisely.