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Revision as of 12:03, 15 August 2005

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deviantART is the world's largest online artistic community. It was first launched on August 7, 2000 by Scott Jarkoff and Matt Stephens. The current CEO of deviantART is Angelo Sotira.

About the website

deviantART aims to provide a place for any artist to exhibit and talk about his or her artworks, and take part in a community of like-minded individuals.

• Over 1.5 million deviants.
• Over 14 million deviations.

Terminology

The site makes esoteric use of the style of its title, deviantART, by playing on the lowercaseUPPERCASE formula, and relating all facets of the site to deviancy. As such, the following terms are used ubiquitously throughout the site:

• dA: frequent abbreviation for the site's title.
• Deviant: a user of deviantART.
• Deviation: every submitted piece of artwork is called a Deviation, so long as it is declared by the artist (Deviant) to be fully polished and in a state for exhibition. If not, the work is a Scrap (an unfinished work, not exhibited prominently).

Artforms

Any artform that can be digitized in any way, may be uploaded onto the site. A brief selection of the type of art exhibited is shown below, but represents only a small fraction:

• Photography
• Traditional Painting
• Anime
• ANSI and ASCII art
• Flash animation
• Vector Art
• Text Art
• Pixel Art
• Photomanipulation
• Poetry
• Prose
• Tutorials
• Skins
• Emoticons
• 3D renderings
• Artisan Crafts

If a subcategory is missing and viable, it is usually added.

Features

Besides the basic features that any art-site should have, deviantART also incorporates:

• Several Forums
• A Shoutbox, and a chatting feature called dAmn (deviantART Messaging Network)
• A private messenging service. Private messages are called 'Notes'. This is a sort of internal emailing system.
• The ability to enter your longitude and latitude, by which to locate deviants that live close to you.
• Every deviant has his or her own private page (found at the web address http://*username*.deviantart.com, where *username* is to be replaced by the given nickname of the deviant in question. This page is entirely customisable, and may list the deviant's interests, mood, hobbies and so forth. It also exhibits the deviant's most prized work, his or her recent works, and his or her Favourites (see below).
• The personal page also displays the deviant's Journal. The Journal is a blog-like feature, whereby a deviant may write something down, as if in a Journal, to be displayed on his or her user page.
• The deviantWATCH feature. Any deviant may add any other deviant to his or her 'watch list'. Doing so will cause them to be notified every time anyone on their watch list submits a new piece of art (a deviation). One can also elect to be notified of the submission of scraps (see Terminology section above) or Journals (see above).
• Any deviant may mark out any other deviation as one of their 'Favourites'. This will place the deviation on that user's personal page, giving the original artist extra exposure. This is often used as a gesture to say that a deviation is particularly good.
• They may also buy themselves a Prints account, whereby they may sell their works for money.
• There is also an adCast program, for advertising art- and community-related products/pages at a discounted rate.

Subscription to the site (see below) unlocks other features.

Growth

The site is in a constant state of update and growth, and features continue to improve and increase in number. There is a forum specifically focused on 'suggestions', and another on 'known problems' to try to fix them. There was at one point a monthly magazine for all deviants called devMAG, but this was discontinued.

deviantART's current revision (deviantART v4, or 'Fournando'), was released on August 7, 2004, (deviantART's fourth anniversary).

Subscription

Any deviant may choose to become a Deviant Subscriber, to unlock extra features. It will also give them a new user symbol (see below, advantages).

Price

As of May 23, 2005, the prices for subscriptions were as follows:

• 1 Month - $4.95 / £2.63 - ($0.17/day / £0.09/day)
• 3 Months - $7.95 / £4.22 - ($0.09/day / £0.05/day)
• 12 Months - $29.95 / £15.90 - ($0.08/day / £0.04/day)

Advantages

Some of the feaures unlocked for subscribers are as follows:

• Advertisement-free browsing.
• Most customisation on the personal page.
• deviantMOBILE - the feature to download any (agreed) deviation to one's mobile phone.
• Private Forums for subscribers only.
• Faster surfing.
• The subscriber may browse the site with large thumbnails instead of the small 100x100 ones for non-subscribers.
• The subscriber may become a beta tester, to be the first to try out new features.

Subscribers' usernames are prefixed with the '*' user symbol. Subscribers who have become beta testers are given the '=' user symbol instead (see below, User Symbols).

User Symbols

All deviants on deviantART are referred to by their given nickname, which is preceded by a user symbol. The symbols are listed below.

• ~ Member - a basic Deviant.
• * Subscriber
• = Official Beta Tester
• ` Senior Member (also, former staff typically receive senior membership)
• ° Former Staff Member (used for former Core Administrators, although not all have received the °)

• @ dAmn/Shoutbox Staff
• : Premium Content Staff
• © Policy Enforcement Staff
• % deviantART Prints Staff
• + General Staff
• ¢ Creative Staff
• ^ Gallery Directors
• $ Core Administrators

• ! Banned User

Origins

The idea of a deviantART community, though inspired by other projects such as screenphuck.com, customize.org and skinz.org, which were all application skin based websites, was thoroughly original in nature.

"Fella", a small horned character, was chosen as the official deviantART mascot, while a stylized "dA" was used as the logo.

The deviantART website was begun on August 2000. According to Scott Jarkoff, by Matt Stephens and himself. According to other sources, the idea of deviantART sprouted in mid 1999, originally a solution to the need for a skin section on a site called DMusic, run by Angelo Sotira. Scott Jarkoff was the mastermind, and pitched the idea to Sotira, the idea of a website where users could submit and share their custom skins. Sotira gave Jarkoff the okay, and Jarkoff began work. Soon Matt Stephens became involved, when Jarkoff showed him his design ideas. Stephens suggested the site be open to all forms of artwork, instead of just skins. Together they brainstormed and coded, and the site opened on August 7, 2000. While Sotira was not a large part of the community until 2002, his initial involvement led him to claim he was also originally the third co-founder, a claim refuted by Jarkoff and Stephens. A legal issue is still pending about this argument.

Most of the staff-members on the site also have their own accounts and nicknames, take part in the community by way of their own deviations and chats, and are well known.

deviantART Shop

This service was formerly known as deviantART Prints, and before that, deviantPrints. Formally a secondary website (shop.deviantart.com), this shop, that acts as deviantART's store, is totally integrated with deviantART.com. Here, any user that has bought a Prints account may sell their deviations, printed onto a variety of media. One may also sell Prints without such an account, but will only receive 10% of the revenues instead of 50% of the profits; some members have protested over such a policy.

deviantART Summit

On June 17 and June 18, 2005, deviantART held their first convention, the deviantART Summit, at the Palladium in Hollywood, California. The summit consisted of several exhibitions by numerous artists, including artscene groups old and new at approximately 200 different booths. Giant projection screens displayed artwork as it was being submitted live to deviantart.com, which receives 30,000 new images daily. The summit also hosted various art-related workshops and seminars. Leaders of deviantART hope to hold a new summit each year.

Similar Web Sites

Other art sites such as SheezyArt claim to have the same format but with less artistic limitation and more customisation. SheezyArt however does not allow any form of artistic nude; comparisons between sites reveal a rough balance of criticism.

Criticism

Many of the disputes and controversies detailed here happened during Scott Jarkoff's administration of deviantART. However, it should be noted that, as there was an internal staff tussle during his administration of the web site (particularly between Scott Jarkoff and Angelo Sotira, which led to the dismissal of Scott Jarkoff), not all controversies could be attributed to him alone or even in the first place. Some, however, dispute this and claim that the controversies was created by Scott Jarkoff himself, and encouraged directly by him.

deviantART as a Corporation

In April 2003, deviantART, Inc. was revealed to have been a for-profit corporation from its inception (instead of having, for instance, started out as a volunteer made website such as Elfwood or GFXArtist).

Over the years, the website has grown so much that several features available to non-subscribers have been removed, some under the guise of encouraging members to subscribe (such as the ability to view artwork thumbnails in the user's message centre) and some for technical issues (such as the ability to search the site).

There have also been concerns regarding deviantART Prints' high mark-up.

Termination of Scott Jarkoff

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On July 29, 2005, Scott Jarkoff (aka jark) was removed from deviantART staff, causing an uproar within the community. With Matthew Stephens's resignation in 2003, supporters of Scott Jarkoff claim that now neither of the two founders remain in deviantART's administration, however Angelo Sotira (aka spyed) insists he was a founder, and also the first full time working staff member of the deviantART administration. The deviantART administration has been generally tight-lipped throughout the incident allegedly due to legal restraints.

A website was created by an unknown source that provides some alleged inside information on the situation through behind-the-scenes emails.

Various campaigns have sprung up in support of Scott Jarkoff, including the "Bring Back The Community" campaign, initiated by a member calling himself "onestar", and "Yellow Day" (this is because "Yellow Alien" was Jarkoff's nick-name), which was carried out by many of Scott Jarkoff's supporters on deviantART's fifth anniversary, August 7th 2005.

It is important to note, however, that the "Yellow Day" campaign was started by a supporter of Scott Jarkoff, who was probably inspiried by Scott's journal entries (). Some dispute this, however, and claim that the campaign was created by Scott Jarkoff himself to garner support for him and to entice the bandwagon-jumpers. Some even went as far as to claim that the situation (including the uproar and other related incidents) was an elarborate scheme created by Scott Jarkoff himself.

Angelo Sotira (aka spyed), current CEO of deviantArt Inc., recently posted an official response in an attempt to explain the situation, but instead caused another uproar many times over, as is seen in its 'Comments' section.

Copyright Issues

Historically there have been several rumours regarding deviantART's usage of uploaded art. deviantART staff members emanated a message about such concerns. However, some members are still not appeased, as the license agreement (which can be read here) is still the same. The agreement grants deviantART the right to re-use and even modify any artwork posted on deviantART, as well as the right to sublicense to any third party any artwork on deviantART.

Also, albeit legal under the first-sale doctrine, the reselling of prints purchased via the deviantART shop for profit have also produced a few controversies.

Concerns over Free Speech and Expression

Another growing concern among many deviantART members is the increasing intolerance towards certain kinds of art. Some menbers point out that there is a distinct bias against some forms of art which some feel the deviantART moderator's themselves are a part of. For example, many claim that it is extremely easy for entries that consist of a nude female subject to make it as a "Daily Deviation", a particularly spot-lighted deviation, while photographers and general artists who depict a male subject in a similar pose or picture are often removed on sight. This may had lead to the claim that there is a fair amount of hypocrisy amongst the deviantART staff. The main argument is that a website which is supposed to promote free expression should not be backing up such hypocritical behavior.

Also, deviantART staff have the abilty to delete any artistic creation and posts that go against the rules; it has been claimed that the staff abuses the position by deleting posts and art to censor people that do not agree with the staff's positions. It is also claimed by some that political expression has been censored; apparently, pro-war and pro-George W. Bush messages have been spot-lighted as "Daily Deviation" by deviantART's administrators (example of a message ridiculing anti-war protestors that has been spotlighted as a "Daily Deviation"), while other artistic creations, sometimes full of statistics and legal evidence documenting abuses against workers made by corporations like Coca-Cola Inc. and Nike (see Misplaced Pages's article on Nike documenting some of the alleged abuses), were deleted by the administrators.

An oft-heard reponse to why such incidents are happening is that, as deviantART is a for-profit coporation, it has the right to protect sponsors of the web site (which could be dealing in questionable pratices or even politics), either current or future, in order to ensure that deviantART remains profitable.

Concerns over deviantMOBILE

In addition to the copyright concerns recently raised on deviantART, there have many vocal complaints concerning a new service offered by the site, called deviantMOBILE. This service allows visitors to the site to set certain permitted deviations as the wallpapers of their mobile phones. Currently, the service is available only within the continental US; deviantART intends to expand to cover Europe and then, presumably, the rest of the world. However, many members have complained about this service on two accounts.

First, that, contrary to the initial pitching by devaintART administrators, it is an opt-out rather than opt-in service. This essentially means that from the time of deviantMOBILE's inception, all new and existing deviations were considered subject to the service, and thus dispensible as mobile phone wallpapers, unless the copyright holder of the image expressly withdrew from the service (a true opt-in service would allow users to submit to the service, rather than requiring them to withdraw). In effect, this led to many members of the deviantART community being entered into the service without their knowledge or consent - though deviantART reportedly sent e-mails detailing the new service to all its members. However, some members complained that they did not receive these e-mails.

Second, that all revenue generated by the service went to deviantART without any renumeration whatsoever to the various members whose work was being used. Many members of the community were upset, especially taking into account the concerns already raised about the prints service and the changes to the site's user submission license, and some of the more concerned deviants left the site as a consequence.

It may be noted that the former complaint by some fails to take into account the terms of service agreed upon signing up at deviantART. Included in the terms is a stipulation that you hold the copyright to all of your work, but give deviantART permission to display them through digital media. The administration states that, as the site evolves, art on mobile phones is merely a natural extention of displaying art through digital media, and that no copyright agreements have been broken.

Such a rebuttal, however, does not in any way address any of the specific protests concerning the scheme, but merely provides a legal validation for the site administration's course of action. Amongst such continuing protests is the inescapable notion that, despite recent and continuing advances in mobile phone technology, mobile phone screens are far from the best medium to display and promote art. As such, some have raised the concern that, far from being a method of allowing deviantART members to advertise their art to a wide audience, it is a way for deviantART to garner profits, especially since, as above noted, no renumeration is forthcoming for the artists' whose work is used. Others still might say that such a scheme does nothing to promote art, or indeed deviantART.com, but merely popularises it.

References

• Deviants Descend on Tinseltown, Wired news article by David Cohn. (June 21, 2005)

Note: The summit was held Friday and Saturday, contrary to how the second paragraph of the Wired article reads.

External links

• deviantART website
• deviantART prints
• deviantART Summit website
• deviantMAG. (defunct)
• History of deviantART, Inc. written by Angelo Sotira (CEO). The validity of this entry is refuted by Matthew Stephens and Scott Jarkoff (who insist themselves to be the two sole co-founders of deviantART).
• Interview with Angelo Sotira (CEO) (restricted)
• irc://irc.deviantart.com deviantART, Inc. IRC server. Official channel is #devart
• deviantART Messaging Network (dAmn). Official channel is #devart.
• deviantART groups deviant group system is under construction. See : http://groups.deviantart.com/staff/ for an example.

• Current events
• Digital Art
• Art exhibitions
• Websites
• Virtual communities