In response to a news article posted by Ryan Ford. Click here to read: Maintaining Relevance in the Web2.0 Space


Ryan,

I really appreciate you taking the time to share this perspective.

In the past year or so I would say that we've undergone a complete revamp of deviantARTs internal operations. And we hope that so far this challenging transition has already begun to shine through in a positive way. But the transition is not complete.

This year of 2007 is particularly important to the future of deviantART. The way we handle the issues you raised, plus the many issues that I also see with the company from a more 3 dimensional perspective in my seat are going to have a big impact, good or bad.

deviantART in years past has been plagued by many constraints that have been very difficult to overcome. Some of them are self-imposed by the approach to building the company itself. (Cash constrained). But we've felt very strongly that big cash and fast pace would be counter to the need of our audience.

It is my belief that the deviantART community is unmatched on the web as a whole. Our members, and the meaningful way in which they interact is I think something very special.

The approach which has created these flaws you speak of (slow project releases, staff interaction with the community *for better or for worse*, loading issues, etc.) have actually helped in a big way to create this atmosphere. Allowing the community to feel the pain of the staff and the company I think has been critical to the atmosphere we now have. It's a tangible relationship, a love affair with its hateful bits between our team and our most devious deviants. It's public discussions exactly like this one, which in your words "come from a place of love and caring" that set us apart and help us to define our atmosphere here as very different from other places.

... but that was then. And 2007 is now. And in 2007, you make very solid points my friend. Points which one after another, I'm in complete agreement with. So I will address each of these points as best I can, I've thought most of them out on my own time in the past, some of them quite recently and one or two you've really punctuated for me so they've been delightful exercises.


1) Is deviantART still relevant?

I think deviantART is at its highest point, with unprecedented growth rates and at least 10x room to grow before seeing a few very natural problems to solve and realize. Example: How big is the concept of art on the Internet?

Today deviantART's footprint of individual visitors on a yearly basis outranks by a multiple that of all major art galleries in the top 10 major cities of the world combined.

We need to invest $1,000,000 in the next two months in hardware to seriously alleviate browsing hurdles, but we're in the process of doing so. And we need to release a suite of features that will refine browsing. Doing so will bring to the forefront the breathtaking art work that is submitted daily, and kill these silly rumors that strike at the quality of work submitted here.

Frankly I think the validity of the question is in question. I prefer to think of how deviantART plans to not only remain relevant but also the dominant player. There's a lot more meat to that discussion.


2) Rooms, ie. Parties, ie. Groups & Chat

The system you'd seen in years passed was thrown together quickly quite a long time ago. It won't ever see the light of day.

The newer system is well digested as a project and is being deployed in the coming months along with Chat 1.0 by one of our engineering teams led by Andrew. Of course the point is, we've said that for years. On the other hand, we said the same about Prints II, and the last time I said it would launch in months, it did. Same with version 5 before it.

Things are different at deviantART, in a very good way.


3) Slow Releases, Lagged Response

The answer to this question in general is good people and money. We have good people, in fact we have great people, but we need more. And we move at a speed these days that is unfortunately directly related to how much cash we have to solve problems with.

All things considered, we've done a very good job at this. But you'd have to know a lot of things you probably couldn't know in order to be able to consider it all. And you shouldn't have to.

The criticism is entirely valid. We've been bad at this from the perspective of the community. The good news is that this has already changed. Month after month we've felt this reality internally and it is only a matter of time before it is entirely self evident to the community. We just need to get past just a couple more big hurdles that are unavoidable and very much the product of a considerably more constrained past.

Once we are two steps ahead, we'll never let a slump happen again. This concept has been the exact focus of the past year and a half. We are very close and we feel very good about it.


4) Pasties & Sharing

Pasties are great, but embed tags are right on the deviations since the launch of v5. The share system launched only days ago, so it would have been hard for you to notice it before that.

As for sharing with others, we have provided specific myspace, digg and livejournal linking mechanisms. But I think what you're asking for is specifically email. And we intend to extend the Sharing feature set to include email soon and eventually Mobile in expanded countries as well. But these days, email is a little tricky with all the spam issues!


5) Help button inaccessible

I discussed this feature with a deviant at a BT show in Philadelphia a few months back, he made some suggestions which we followed. The Help & FAQ button is available on the front page on the main control panel. On the dA button drop down in the menu (which, could probably be more obvious as a button!), and also remains in the footer on every page.

We should consider additional placements as well as contextual help around the site, but I don't think it should be considered a main section of the website like News & Today or Browse as it was in v4. Hmm, we'll take another look at this.


6) At some point in the future user interest may dwindle and users may upload less, etc.

The scope and scale of the situation is considerably larger than this which is why it is hard to properly evaluate a statement or question like this. There are many reasons why people are likely to move on from deviantART. For example a major change in their life like getting married or getting a new job. Perhaps taking a break from art, or the computer. Perhaps losing internet connectivity due to unpaid bills, or simply deciding they've had enough of their friends and interactions here and they don't want to start fresh with a new identity.

One or many of these things may be true in your life (Ryan). Recently married, new job. But as a designer, deviantART is still relevant to you. Perhaps for the purpose of getting feedback and attention for a new font. Somewhere along the way you may have already or may in the future decide to depart for a while or permanently.

Meanwhile I believe that deviantART inspires ordinary people to become artists. Exposure to the site gets the creative juices flowing and there's a platform right in front of you to do something about it. Whereas originally we had artists and fans, somewhere the lines are blurring and art itself is a little more trendy. Also the interest in art is getting bigger due to a growing platform of screens that need wallpapers and of course this is reflected in our increasing membership numbers.

I think people will move on from deviantART, but at a rate that is considerably lower than that of new artists who join. I also think that those who do move on won't by and large be moving on to a comparable site but rather will be interested in a break from the concept.


7) Brand.

My favorite of all your points. We've discussed this many times. But as you remember we haven't been all that interested in either brand or mainstream press in the past. We've done very little in these areas, considerably less than we could have.

Word of mouth has powered deviantART through the ages. All the way to a top 100 web property. Today we're 91.

This year of 2007 it is time to make some new history. Because like it or not, the world is suddenly ready for the concept of deviantART in a way it couldn't have been in 2001-2006.

It's a matter of the size of the platform for deviantART. Microsoft Vista and Apple's iTV, the Apple iPhone and millions of high resolution screens are making their way in to every crevice of our society. And on every screen, there will be deviantART.

Unlike years past, suddenly deviantART really does need consider its brand and how it expands in to considerably wider arenas. We must take these steps without hurting the basic requirements necessary to keep an emotive society of artists focused on art. (Things like watching active population growth, and providing technologies to keep the core community focused.)

By mid-2007 we will have gotten very close to a fully operational and "complete" deviantART. Collecting, sharing, discussing, selling, printing, buying, distributing ART. At some point this year, that feature set will be ready. Tested and complete. And we will be a far superior outlet for each of these functions than any other online entity. Through the years we'll do this better than any other entity worldwide online and off.

Our brand will need considerable revamping in order to properly move forward. And frankly you're probably our first choice as the designer we'd like to have work on such a project. (Assuming of course it's not that screen with the dA logo on it tilted sideways, we hated that!)


8) Support of non-web-based artwork

I think on this point we're in slight disagreement but only on the timing. 2007 for deviantART is about properly supporting the arts online. Offline we will leave for other years. And while we may have outreach programs that extend offline, they won't be particularly formal this year. Same goes with Summits. We are likely to do a tour or two, that was a success last year and a whole lot of fun.


9) Transparency of the company in the community space

This was an absolutely awesome point. I need to digest it and discuss it internally, but this advice has never been offered to me in quite this way before and I really need to think about it.


Ultimately I'm not worried, I think that this year we've got our ducks in a row. And we aren't prepared to disappoint.

Thank you for taking the time to draft this news item for the community and for us. It's great insight and it feels right on to me.

Best always,
-- A