Favourited in the hopes of having a 'bandwagon' effect for this deviation. I hope more deviants will be able to read this.

--
There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those that know binary and those that don't.

*Apophysis *da-ma =philippines

Agreed (since I copyedited it, rofl).

Here's to short-term rocking the boat in the hope of long-term stability.

Thank you so much for writing this!

I am here on DA to improve my art and to share stock images, but it's not working out quite like I had hoped. If I get one more 'awesome ' or 'very pretty' comment, I will scream.

I only read part of this so far, but I have two questions right off: Why is this not submitted as a lit piece (which is really just a slightly peeve-y question, because I like highlighting lit to keep track of where I am on the screen and that's impossible with this picture-lit format) and more importantly, why in the 'Things change: The Big Problem' section do all the questions ask your readers about the feedback received instead of the feedback given? A person has no control over what kind of feedback others will offer. The more legitimate question then, in my opinion, is 'when is the last time you actually bothered to put some thought into a comment and offer constructive criticism and reasons for your suggestions?', or similar.

Continuing to read, at the end of that 'big problem' section, I'm not sure socialities is a word. Also, why do you start columns after that point? I disagree with that formatting choice; whereas on a printed page you would just look over at the other column, online you have to scroll around and it looks a bit weird. As of the 'art and society' section I'm deciding to ignore grammatical errors and concentrate my feedback on content.

The first (lefthand) column for 'art and society' seems like redundant fluff, but I suppose there are readers out there who haven't encountered these ideas before. I know it's bad reasoning to think 'I know this already therefore cut this part down', but it does seem like it could do with some trimming. Also, the comments about uneven wealth and validation in this section seem kind of communist and out of touch with the reality of free market enterprises (about which I honestly don't know that much myself). It's like saying the well known clothing brands should move over because some lowly tailor is making really kick ass stuff and not getting recognition: it just doesn't work that way. It would be nice if it did, but it doesn't. ok, moving on.

In the 'ranking art' section, left column, the paragraph that begins "If a person looks at two pieces of artwork" really doesn't make sense to me. I don't know if I misread it somehow, or if there's a word missing, or what. The problem is probably ambiguity, but the paragraph doesn't seem that necessary anyway because of the paragraph preceding it. Actually, the next paragraph after that also seems kind of nonsense. I made myself go on and complete this section before I came back down here to the commenting box, and I have found that whole 'ranking art by numbers' section to be a morass of ambiguity, poor subject-verb agreement, possible mistaken word choices, and messily expressed ideas in general. I am disinclined to read the rest based on the difficulty I had making heads or tails of it so far, and based on generally disagreeing with your ideas. (The 'ranking art' system ignores the importance of comments, for example.)

I would probably have deleted this whole comment and left without saying anything except that you selected 'advanced critique' and it seems in keeping with the spirit of your article, what I read of it at least, to let my opinion stand.

great article! i really feel that lack of critiques around deviant art. i wouldn't mind more critiquing myself. i myself don't have alot of hits and people often don't look at my work. so i don't get alot of feedback, which makes me feel sad.

i think the biggest thin though is the paid accounts. notice that they are advertised more because of prints n such. if deviant art wasn't a free service like my space then there would be a more serious attitude.

--
"did you see the moon walking bear?"
free doodles... details here [link]

(and by 'system' in the penultimate paragraph there, in the parenthesis, I meant 'section.' drat. Good day.)

this article really has some great points and you state them very clearly for the most part. there are a good amount of mistakes in the technical portion of the piece, such as typos, grammatical errors, or misspelled words. fix those to show you're thorough about this issue!

i applaud you for putting together both an aesthetically pleasing and ideologically comprehensive piece. even further, you can deal with people like sisterjanet who completely miss the point of the article and don't provide any intelligent or truthful critique in return. instead, they provide emotionally invested nit picking that serves as backlash.

people on here simply don't know how to say "i don't agree, and this is how i would change it to benefit the piece."

unfortunately, DA is a company, as you said. it's capitalist through and through, and capitalism prefers numbers over ideas. i severely doubt this will ever be an intelligent or serious art community for that reason.

--
"Why doesn't the Lord blow out the sun so everyone can roll in fornication?" Woyzeck, 1979
Gallery
Website

excellent opinion, and well presented in a very professional looking design shape...thingy, whatever, haha.

it is sad how there is so much work, but when you look around, the most creative and innovative barely stand out.

While I fundamentally agree with the overriding idea of this piece, I find I have some issues with some of the statements. First though, I have to deal with the grammar issues that leapt up and snagged me by the throat.

In the section 'Popular Leads the Popular' there is a word missing in the last sentence of the first column that could lead to some confusion. In the same section these sentences seem as if they should be connected for ease of reding and clarity. 'This could happen for numerous reasons. Some of which include...'

My final mini nit pick... loose. Loose implies something that is not tight, as in 'My pants are loose and fell down.' The word you were looking for is lose, which is the state of having had something at one time and no longer possessing it. An example of this would be 'When I lose my temper, bad things happen to me.'

With that out of the way, I would like to say that while your article is interesting and thought provoking, the format in which it has initially been presented makes it difficult for interested parties to read, quote, and respond intelligently to the concerns and issues you raise. The issues are important and we need to come together to discuss them and have a rational debate on how we can make things better in this little section of cyberspace for everyone here. Only by informed debate can we start to suggest viable solutions to the administration about the issues and problems.

I would certainly benefit from more critiques on my art, as would any number of artists on dA and I believe you have accurately put your finger on why people don't comment on art with a more critical eye, however the system is only as strong as it's components. If artists are unwilling to critique, we cannot blame the system entirely for their recalcitrance. As individual artists and would be artists, we have to be able to find the confidence in our own abilities (or lack thereof) to speak up and seek the information we require.

Sometimes, the system is at fault, such as in obstacles as language barriers. We cannot guarantee that every deviant on dA speaks the predominant language without somehow closing the borders and thus losing even more of the artist population. Some allowances for obstacles such as these must be made as it could be some of the majority of the community who is devoid of artistic knowledge are also unable to understand this is an art based site.

That being said, it is difficult for dA to be a complete artists resource as they are not a college or university but a peer to peer based community. As we can see from peer to peer (P2P) file sharing communities such as Napster and WinMX, any P2P based community can run afoul of the innocent reason it was created in the first place because of an influx of members. Should dA ever wish to be more art based, they might consider adding art instruction to the already considerable list of services they provide artists (both good and bad - and sometimes downright ugly) but as a P2P community, this is not what they are all about.

Humanity tends to be a school yard, in whatever form the groups take. I spent many years working in an office and I have survived to tell you that high school was easier to deal with than large groups of people who supposedly have a common task. The only way to make any real and concerted change is to take a grassroots approach to it by changing one person at a time. If even a minority of the artistically devoid majority is inspired by dA to learn more about art, then I still believe the system is not entirely without its merits.

And as it is now late and my computer requires a reboot (preferably NOT out the window) I will take my leave and look forward to a good protracted discussion.

--
"I have learned silence from the talkative, tolerance from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strangely, I am ungrateful to these teachers"

I second everything in this journal.

This community is really turning into "Happyland" with everyone just spreading joy with their sugary comments. Some of the members here don't even know the meaning of the word "critique".

It doesn't look like a community that promotes artistic growth in the skills of their members.

I'm not comparing or anything like that but ConceptArt.org? Now there's an art community... Actually yeh... I am comparing That community is the best example we can all learn from as DA members I think.

DA has turned into a "relax station" where everyone knows they're bound to get some form of appreciation with whatever artworks they post.
That's good in some ways, but it's bad in the way that it's just too much sometimes that it hinders the artist to further develop his/her works.

I think a balance should be achieved.

--
"Practice never made anyone perfect... It just makes you suck less."