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Ask HN: Do people still use DeviantArt?

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Re: Ask HN: Do people still use DeviantArt?

#31

Post by FrozenVoid »

avian wrote: post #6

I used to have an account with a bunch of art there. Not anymore. Some time after the redesign I deleted everything and now I only rarely visit the site. The only thing I miss is contact with a few artists I got to know through the site. Off the top of my head, some of the reasons: After the redesign the site was practically unusable on my computer. Viewing a single artwork froze my browser and took a minute or two o…

Same here, deleted all accounts. They bet on being some mobile abomination built on facebook-type javascript-based dynamic pages(and really slow, cludgy javascript btw) which ruined everything the old site had, instead pushing premium membership to people they ignored for decades and changing aspects (e.g. art discovery) to push their professional/commercial 'art gallery'-type expirience which failed(site was mainly geared for amateur art) and they had to sell it to Wix.

Re: Ask HN: Do people still use DeviantArt?

#32

Post by Falkon1313 »

I used to draw all the time and used DeviantArt quite a bit for about a decade. I didn't post all that much, but I used it all the time for inspiration, stock photos for models, color schemes, examples of good shading technique or composition, new styles to try out, etc.

Then went through a bit of a tough patch and got out of the habit of drawing, so I haven't looked at it much in a few years.

Looking at it now, it appears they ripped out all of the UI and navigation and hid everything except for a few tiled images and a search bar. There's not even a proper pager, just a 'Next' link. The community stuff is all hidden. The categories, all hidden.

That's really sad. There's so much stuff there, and now it's all hidden away where people will never see it unless they know exactly what to search for and get lucky.

Re: Ask HN: Do people still use DeviantArt?

#33

Post by Gualdrapo »

I did but closed my profile like 10 years ago or so. I was working on an icon set for KDE and shared my progress there, but afterwards started noticing that my work ended on several websites that didn't gave me any credit. When asked, all of them told me they just "took them off DeviantArt".

Re: Ask HN: Do people still use DeviantArt?

#35

Post by PinkPigeon »

zeruch wrote: post #21

Former gallery admin/volunteer staff here (2004-2008): The site got bought by Wix a few years back and is a mixed bag at this point. It's had a long history of junior management/hubris making avoidable errors and missing opportunities to lead (I also attribute this to being led from LA, by very inexperienced management, where media/content properties see things through a very Big Content distorted prism in and of its…

Wix are true experts at terrible UX ;)

DeviantArt was the first place where I shared photography, a very, very long time ago. My account still works, funnily enough. It was a great place that reminds me of the MySpace / wild west days of the earlier internet.

Good memories.

Re: Ask HN: Do people still use DeviantArt?

#40

Post by iszomer »

Freak_NL wrote: post #17
avian wrote: post #6

I used to have an account with a bunch of art there. Not anymore. Some time after the redesign I deleted everything and now I only rarely visit the site. The only thing I miss is contact with a few artists I got to know through the site. Off the top of my head, some of the reasons: After the redesign the site was practically unusable on my computer. Viewing a single artwork froze my browser and took a minute or two o…

It looks like the site lost a large part of its community and visitors with the redesign. It makes me curious about how this process proceeded from the viewpoint of the site's owners. Any redesign will upset people who invest a lot of time in a website, but there must come a point where metrics show that the new website caused a drop in visits and uploads with no sign of improving. What I wonder is if despite the gen…

Yes, the UX deteriorated over the years. DA was my main source for desktop wallpapers and Winamp skins until newer repositories sprang along, such as wallbase/wallhaven and most recently webamp as highlighted by a recent HN post.
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