@kita mikichi:

Yeah, that is all very true. ^^

It's a shame that DA is not communicating/listening to user feedback, and it stinks that DA is making the users pay for their unnecessary expenses in regard to the logo revamp. (I read in one of the ex-Senior Member's journals that that was part of the issue.) I don't have a premium -- I mean "Core" -- membership, but I can definitely understand people's anger over this.

But it would kind of be a shame to see it go, if they're hurting that bad financially. A bunch of my comic buddies from high school are on that site (part of the reason I was looking at making an account in the first place), and a good number of people from here migrated over there, too. Also, DA makes it fairly easy to do commissions, with the widget that allows payments to easily be converted to PayPal (the second reason I made an account). The other thing that I like there is that you can submit literature and animations.

@KyraChan:

Oh you're more then welcome. Here are the links to Obsidian Dawn plus a couple others just for reference. :)

Here are some graphic resource sites besides dA that have proved helpful to me in the past.

1. Obsidian Dawn: This site is my absolute favorite for finding unique brushes and textures. I recommend this one above all others. :)

2. Celestial Star.net: Provides a ton of helpful graphic art creating resources such as renders, brushes, textures, tutorials, and other neat little bonuses. I've used this site off and on over the years.

3. Photoshop-(ers) Unite: A world created here on theOtaku by Kami-chan.x3. This world provides a ton of userful resources for every hobbyist graphic artist such as Photoshop actions, tutorials, and even PSDs which create amazing effects. :)

Well these a just a few of the many graphic resource sites available on the web. Hopefully these will help you as much as they've helped me. I'm just passing these on.

@Rainbow Dragon:

That's true. And thanks for the recommendation! ^^

@KyraChan:

Even if they do "go under" there are still many reputable graphic source sites on the web. Obsidian Dawn is one of my favorite sites for brushes/textures and maybe the occasional render. :)

@Rainbow Dragon:

I hadn't thought about the resources I use. Man, now I hope they don't go under, because then that'll cut off a lot of my resources... dangit.

@:

Yeah, change can really suck sometimes.

@Darkarax:

Yeah, I usually don't post my stuff there anymore. But I agree on the art theft thing.

@Keba Si Rota:

Oh. That makes sense.

First off that sucks that your favorite artist/writer is boycotting dA. Though in a way I see her reasoning. I know they've changed the way they deal with "art theft" problems and read their whole (basically) "We don't gives craps about our artists" deal and whatnot. Premium memberships are expensive anyways but to increase them more is rediculous.

I have a dA account but I've never really used it. I don't want to post my art there because of everything that's happened on there. It isn't worth it to me.

I think dA's going to loose a lot of loyal members this way. Its very disappointing they're taking this approach. I've found a lot of great art off of Da and valuable resources for graphics, for that part I like it but in regards to posting art, it won't happen for me. TheO is perfect for all my art posting needs. :) and I have a ton of great friends here.

I do not have a dA account. I've thought about getting one a couple of times, but I'd hear bad things about the site here on TheO. For instance, someone here not long ago posted about how someone was stealing the wallpapers she had made here on TheO and posted them on dA as her own work. So yeah, I'm not too keen on getting an account on dA.

That said, this revamping the site's doing with the premium accounts really seems to show how the staff doesn't really seem to give a crap about the site's members.

@KyraChan:

I know about Tokyopop trying to make a comeback. I actually was referring to their DA knockoff site that they had to shut down six or seven years back.

@Keba Si Rota:

I actually agree. I've seen a lot of the crap on dA that's been going on, especially with the art theft thing. =.= It's true that I feel like deviantART stopped really caring about their members a while ago.

But, on a side note, interestingly enough, Tokyopop might be coming back.

@:

Yeah, I can see how they might be trying to make it a better program overall. Thanks for your insight ^^

DA is going broke? Good.

I'm sorry but DeviantART is made of yuck. Don't believe me? Read this. And that's on top of all the trolls, haters, thieves copyright infringers, and freaky fetishists (decapitated furries, anyone?).

The staff on DA is what bothers me most. They are CONSTANTLY lying through their teeth. There used to be a feedback system about what people thought of articles/updates, but now it's gone because users were unhappy with certain things the staff did. Oh, didn't like the changes? Let's sweep all that under the rug and say that users were "mostly positive".

I stopped posting anything after the disastrous hashtag overhaul and the complications that came with it (#whoneedsaspacebaranyway). Congratulations. Now when someone searches for, say, "Peter Pan", they'd get different results than if they were to search for "Peter", "Pan", or "PeterPan". People complained that DA was becoming more like a social network rather than an art site. The staff's official reply? "No we're not." Because we live in a day and age where saying something makes the statement automatically true. Sure, that was the least of the problems that the hashtags caused. The most was that they were so buggy that they had to delete all the old tags from previously posted pieces of art and telling users to re-tag them. What about the people who no longer use the site? Their artwork will be lost forever. Maybe it's for the best. After all, I don't plan to re-tag all of the things I posted.

Of course I had just about had it when they put up an article saying that they were "deeply concerned" about theft. Refer to the link I included. I posted a comment about that, and some people had the nerve to defend this stupid site, saying that the staff can't patrol it 24/7. I shot back saying that I wish that were the case, because they barely patrol it AT ALL.

See, there's a reason why the word "DArama" was coined.

I really hope that DA falls as hard as Tokyopop.com did. (Now that's a story for another time. This comment is long enough.)

@misachan83:

Thanks for replying ^^ And yeah, I totally agree, I've left a lot of websites because they were just too hard to get noticed on... that's why I love this website, because basically everyone is included and can get some attention. And because it's user-friendly ^^