_{Please contribute to the poll with a thoughtful response, thank you.}

Background Check:

My story of how I found out about deviantART is sort of unique. I learned of deviantART a day or two before it launched to the public and those were exciting times.

Back in 1999 and 2000, I knew of both °jark and °matteo from different websites that they were running at the time. Matt was running his WastedYouth website which was the greatest resource at the time for aspiring digital artists because of the tutorials he hosted. I credit his site with giving a lot of kids at the time a reason to do something creative and constructive with the idle time in their lives. Jark, I believe at the time, was involved with DMusic (Angelo Sotira's digital music website) as well as Cybertropix (a digital media news site, or aggregator of news stories, correct me if I'm wrong Scott) and screenphuck (a rudimentary application skin and wallpaper website). I connected with Matteo and he invited me to join an IRC network (irc.dmusic.net) because he was getting ready to launch something "very cool." I took him up on the offer and watched deviantART launch. Seeing how excited everyone was, I knew I wanted to be a part of it because at the time it was the answer to what I was looking for: An online community, art and design wise, as well as unique involvement with other people from all over the world. Noteworthy at this time is that I was away from AOL's underground scene for a couple of years and was getting away from the turmoils of the IRC network, EFnet (shout outs!! #amw, #chat, #panties).

Since stumbling onto deviantART, I have found myself involved with it in a number of different ways. First, I was a staunch member and supporter of deviantART during its infancy. Second, I was tasked with managing a feature on deviantART called the Daily DMusic within the sites first year. Months later, I was working alongside °jark as deviantART's Software Database admin as well as doing assorted website administraiton tasks (this was before the now populous "Volunteer" Staff. At one time, it only consisted of °arc, °tack, °matteo, °jark, $MikeyLove and myself and WE DID EVERYTHING!). Then, in late 2002-2003, I became interested in Marketing and was studying business so it was only right that I work with $spyed as the "Assistant Marketing Director". There you have it, I guess you can thank °matteo and °jark for getting me involved or whatever your perceptions of me dictate.

Editorial 1 - Divisiveness in the Community:

As deviantART enters its 6th year, the debate that goes on over who was a founder of deviantART when, is a moot one as far as the Community goes. The people I listed above, $spyed, °jark, °matteo, myself, °arc, °tack, $spot, °jier, $MikeyLove, ~Boltsky and a few others others are all collectively responsible for reviving the heart of deviantART throughout the past years. Without the selfless acts of these people and the sacrifices they made in their personal and professional lives, I would bet that deviantART would NOT exist today.

We all paid excruciating detail to the future and direction of deviantART (back when deviantART was just a child compared to the other art and skin sites out at the time) and I don't think we were justly acknowledged and compensated for it. So, to those of you who do things such as quibble over who joined deviantART on what daite, or the next time you think about spamming Spyed or Jarks' userpage because of some "turmoil in the community," rethink that strategy. deviantART wasn't brainstormed, built and managed by a single person. Only a weak minded individual would give credit to someone for creating a thing, when the fruition of the thing is the result of so many people, who, to this day haven't received the credit they deserve.

Editorial 2 - The Ideal Online Community:

A recent deviantART poll asked "Is deviantART moving towards the ideal online community?" The first thing that struck me the wrong way about this Poll is the inclusion of a 'silly' and unnecessary response "Snakes on a Plane" This cowardly act by the person who thought it would be a good idea, knowingly, threw away (to date) over 6,000 important responses to this IMPORTANT question. That's point number one, point number two is my response.

I don't want an Online Community, I want to be part of an Artistic Community, online. I thought that was the direction deviantART was moving in during its early years, but we've been moving further away from art and more towards unrestrained pop-culture idolization and idol chit-chat. Senselessness and ignorance prevail in these types of "online communities" The cure? Some elitism and restraint on adding 'new COOL features' to bring back the essence of a once, proud, art, design and desktop modification Community. Unlike my previous attempts to be candid and honest, my response received a few comments of praise.

Brought up in one of the sub-comments, was the issue of "the prevalence of a cultural understanding on dA, that, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.' To which I replied;

I agree, and that culture that you elude to is bred by deviantART, Inc. From my own observation and witness, I've read, "If you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all" expressed by more than one core deviantART staff member. So, when something like this is propogated from the top, it only fuels idealized views of art and what critiquing art should be about. I know why they do it.. to make the place "cool" and "safe" for new people, but it's a false reality and it's hurting the Community and the art.

To conclude, I feel as though deviantART, for the past 2-3 years atleast, has not been making much progress towards an ideal ART community, but rather, has transgressed into a popular, marketable, demographic laden, super-community. This is harmful to the promotion of art because in the process of this transgression, the individual or groups interactivity becomes more important than the art they create and the views on art that they share with their neighbor.