Thinking about old(er) DeviantArt

[Bakartridge]

Remembering how the site used to have a REALLY good design (both when they initially launched and from 2006 or so until like 2020), was a simple, effective design that looked really damn good and offered spaces for custom graphics on your page. Had a full burgeoning community too, I remember the chats and forums were constantly full and had people talking in em constantly. Then they screwed it completely up with the Eclipse redesign in 2020 that made it bloated, unusable, take up way too many resources, and basically killed the site and its relevance right then and there. It's honestly up there in terms of the worst web redesigns ever, up there with the Digg redesign in 2010 that broke tons of stuff and led people to hop onto Reddit, appropriate bc the DA redesign led lots of artists to jump ship to other places (mainly Twitter, unfortunately). Then it got worse in 2022 when DA leaned hard into the AI nonsense and the site has never really recovered. This whole thing just makes me so sad because DA means a lot to me, been going on there in one form or another since 2010, and was the first place I uploaded my own creations under my current(-ish) name, I even had a DA shirt for a while in 2017, so seeing it just completely go to crap is so upsetting. Though honestly, even if they reverted everything and went back to how it was tomorrow, the damage is already done, so maybe it's for the best the site just dies and better art websites spring up (like Sheezy and Cara).
Kind of a long and ramble-y post, just wanted to get it out there.

[dream]

You just reminded me of customize.org. Both sites then felt more like passion projects than software as a service businesses. Wish DA had maintained its style and just improved functionality / accessibility, kinda like how I perceive craigslist has done.

[invader_gvim]

The decline of Deviantart reminds me a lot of this article. Imo we can create a new place just as good as deviantart just by remaining a community and not a crowded bus station full of nameless faces. While I'm sad that old deviantart is gone, I'm also happy that it once existed. It was a good place.

Sometimes I feel sad about the old places where I posted art being gone in the same way, and it makes me want to not create. However there are still places to share them. I simply just have to share them with the few people who choose to look, as opposed to the crowd of faceless everyone.

The internet has a bright future and it is because of the creative spirit that isn't motivated by a company trying to get a bigger and bigger number of people to come and visit. A much happier model is finding something that invites people to stay and create, as opposed to visiting and watching.

[Capybara]

DeviantART was the closest thing I had to an internet home. I discovered it in ... 2002, according to archive.org I made my first account in 2003 though. I was too young to understand or use it, but i just kept lurking and coming back, making and remaking accounts. I didn't finally become active until 2009-2010 I think, and I still frequently searched and browsed even when I stopped posting art publicly for nearly 8 years. And... Then it was bought by Wix, and Eclipse and later DreamUp happened.

I get the site always, ALWAYS had its share of issues. There was a big Nazi problem in the late 2000s, for one, and the stamps section was a hotbed of pre-Tumblr toxic political discourse. But it was heartbreaking to see it just become mainly people using it as a Photobucket to post memes, softcore fetish crap, and AI garbage. I know some normal artists still post because it's a long standing site, but it's so hard to find them since the search tool is busted.

[invader_gvim]

DeviantART was the closest thing I had to an internet home. I discovered it in ... 2002, according to archive.org I made my first account in 2003 though. I was too young to understand or use it, but i just kept lurking and coming back, making and remaking accounts. I didn't finally become active until 2009-2010 I think, and I still frequently searched and browsed even when I stopped posting art publicly for nearly 8 years. And... Then it was bought by Wix, and Eclipse and later DreamUp happened.

I get the site always, ALWAYS had its share of issues. There was a big Nazi problem in the late 2000s, for one, and the stamps section was a hotbed of pre-Tumblr toxic political discourse. But it was heartbreaking to see it just become mainly people using it as a Photobucket to post memes, softcore fetish crap, and AI garbage. I know some normal artists still post because it's a long standing site, but it's so hard to find them since the search tool is busted.

Idk why, but you reminded me of my friend who wrote a near book length Spyro fanficiton on Deviantart but rather than viewing it as an achievement he views it as a major blight on his life that he is forever embarrassed by. Maybe in a decade or so he won't feel so embarrased by it and I will be able to tell him that actually I am very proud of him for writing something so long, even if it was very silly in hindsight.

There was something about old deviantart that gave people courage to share what they otherwise wouldn't. I think that was sweet.

ALso, I read your article on Hazbin Hotel and really liked it. ^_^   I shall decide to give the show a chance today because of it, and like you I will not watch it via streaming sub.

[Capybara]

Idk why, but you reminded me of my friend who wrote a near book length Spyro fanficiton on Deviantart but rather than viewing it as an achievement he views it as a major blight on his life that he is forever embarrassed by. Maybe in a decade or so he won't feel so embarrased by it and I will be able to tell him that actually I am very proud of him for writing something so long, even if it was very silly in hindsight.

There was something about old deviantart that gave people courage to share what they otherwise wouldn't. I think that was sweet.

The Spyro fandom on dA was kind of fun in 2009-2010 (teenage drama aside lol), I miss it :( I hope he didn't delete it at least, if I wrote something that long I'd like to at least see it a decade later. Or at least posted on AO3 under an orphaned account, so it'll be online but anonymous.

ALso, I read your article on Hazbin Hotel and really liked it. ^_^   I shall decide to give the show a chance today because of it, and like you I will not watch it via streaming sub.

Thank you so much, you're sweet! We have to preserve this stuff since I know streaming won't last forever...

[Corrupted Unicorn]

Oh, the golden age of Deviantart. I think this was one of the few art communities where artists of all levels could mingle. And it felt like an actual community. Right now it's very hard to navigate through it, with the UI mess and the art quality dropping significantly since so many artists left, but some of the best art advice I've ever learned was from Deviantart. It's the only place where I could learn the ins and outs of being in an artist alley without messing with articles created either by AI or someone who has absolutely no idea about how an artist alley actually works in a shoddy seedy website that has articles on cars, technology and a lot of unrelated stuff.

...Kinda derailed there, but you get it. I think there was nothing quite as Deviantart.  (SheezyArt? I know it exists, but I've never been there myself  ).

I think the closest thing to Deviantart now is Furaffinity, but it's a little too niche and adult-oriented for my tastes. 

[2010]

i discovered n made my first dA account in 2014 at the age of 9 haha ! ive been on the site ever since n its really hard finding another place that i feel as comfortable sharing my art onto other than deviantart honestly u_U theres lots of wonderful art still being posted that im fortunate about :] deviantart is honestly a big interest of min even w/ its downfall - it also extends to my interest in the 2000s n art from that period ! i have a whole folder on deviantart thats primarily art from 2003-2013
i find it really fun to scroll through the favorites of old abandoned accounts , its like a time capsule :] its so fun seeing comment sections that are larger than the amount of favorites on the image from back then
there was a giant community aspect to the site! but (in my experience , probably not so much the same for really popular deviants) nowadays its a little uncommon to receive comments sometimes
i try to leave comments when i can tho :] despite all its flaws , its fascinating to learn about n how the community differed from today

[Capybara]

I think the closest thing to Deviantart now is Furaffinity, but it's a little too niche and adult-oriented for my tastes. 

Furaffinity gets some points from me since the late Dragoneer (RIP) banned AI before dA did and staff takes down AI slop that slips through the cracks, but it's kind of quiet if you don't draw NSFW. Even if you are okay with it like I am, genuine interactions are even rarer than they were when I was active a decade ago. A lot of artists also just mainly advertise for commissions, which is fine, because I came back for the sake of commissions and adoptables, but I miss how old dA wasn't solely professional or for-profit oriented like other art sites are nowadays. Ah well...

[MrsMoe]

I was never an active deviantart user, but I have so much nostalgia for that damn site. Whenever I developed a major interest as a kid (MLP, Animal Crossing, Spyro, etc), my favorite thing to do was to always type it into DA and browse through everything that was there. It really was so much fun for me a little neurodivergent kid with intense special interests 

Looking at deviantart now, with all the AI art and horrific fetish content and not much else left, is like looking at your childhood playground, now rusted up and abandoned...