A rather strange thing happened to me the other night. I mysteriously woke up at 1:30 in the morning and couldn't get myself to go back to sleep again. So I trudged to the computer and went to dA, hoping to relieve the boredom. I posted in the forums and looked at comments for a while, when suddenly, at 2:00 CST, dA was never the same again.

dA v5 was let loose.

I immediately noticed the change and posted a topic in one of the forums. Similar ones were already there; people were joyously celebrating. An abundance of journals were being posted that morning.

And then, the mood started to change.

People everywhere, myself included, found bugs and problems with the new interface. I still did like it, however. But on and on the journal polls came - "do you like v5 or not?" And the masses said "no."

My question is: why all the commotion? Sure, there are problems, but nothing that can't be fixed. I wanted to post this article because the events of the last few days have demonstrated how attached we can sometimes become to the look of a web page, something that is - when all is said and done - pretty insignificant compared to the content of the site.

So when it comes down to it, what exactly is deviantART? I remember first joining this site when two of my friends encouraged me to do so several months ago. One noticed my love for blogging and photography and thought this would be a perfect way to merge the two interests. And the other urged me to join because he knew that I could seriously use some critiquing and suggestions for my photography. He was definitely right. Over the last month and a half, I have been able to improve my work, meet hundreds of deviants on this site, and discover what it's really all about: the community. The sense of support. The significance of contribution.

Folks, it's not about how this site looks. Sure, the colors may be different, the interface may have changed, the bugs may be there, but does that take away what this site was originally meant to be - a community? Sure, the thumbnails on the forums might not work right now, but does that stop us from evaluating each other's work?

And you know what? As a new look remains on the site throughout the year, it begins to look cool and elegant anyway. Maybe now we think it looks stupid, but when we look at how this site has developed, the big changes become a part of the rest of dA's history. As we step back and take a look, each change on this site becomes less of a question and transforms into a statement, a sentence with a period at the end.

Of course, the suggestions from deviants are vital to the shaping of deviantART. But may I merely suggest to all of us that maybe we should all take a step back and allow the site itself to take shape while we focus on what truly matters: the work we post on here?

deviantART was intended to be a place where people can learn from one another, to improve the art they compose. As the site administrators work on the v5 bugs, let's focus on more important things. Let's take a step back and follow behind. Let's still enjoy the site and tone down our judgments at the same time. dA is what we make it to be, so let's make it the best we can by posting quality work and giving quality comments to each other.