There's something amiss on dA. And it's been like this for a long time. Sure, we've tried to fix the problem, with a few thank-yous, a couple of pats on the back and emote spam galore. But it doesn't seem to go away. It's been a problem since this community started, and probably will be until the end.

I'm here today to try and sell you the admins and gallery directors, the message operators and prints control staff, the creative staff and volunteers that help make deviantART what it is every day. Day after day, they slave away, to help bring you what they believe you deserve: the best.

The truth is, deviantART wasn't built in a day, and either was Rome. It took hours of sweat, blood and tears (maybe not blood?) to make this place into what it is today. Around the world, millions of deviants log in every day, hoping to see what they came to see, hoping in the back of their mind, that things are working as they should.

Each one of us, including you, the very person who is reading this, probably don't really understand quite how much work it takes to make a place like this. To manage 4.5 million users is quite a task, and to try to keep everybody happy, and everything working is draining, both emotionally, physically, and mentally. We truly take for granted so much about this place. We blindly place a false hope that day after day, we'll wake up, and everything will be normal.

Thanks to an amazing group of people, this hope can go on, uninterrupted, providing us with a nurturing community of friends, and artists alike, sharing something more than amazing: spirit. It truly takes somebody amazing to do something like that, and really, we can't and don't ever thank the people who make it possible, quite enough.

So I'm here to try to get the ball rolling. All it takes is a thank you, an emote, a gift? Depends how generous you are feeling. But there are people who here, who have slaved away for years, molding and shaping this place into what it is. And we never say thanks. We never pass by and really show them how much we love them, for giving us a little or a lot of purpose in life.

Many may accuse me of being a suck up. And quite frankly, that doesn't bother me one bit, since that would imply I get something in return for saying this. But the truth is, all I get is a website, which I sit at, day after day, slaving away, trying to make a name, friends and something to die close to. And if that's all I get, something impersonal, something so silly, that seems to preposterous to sane people, then so be it. Because I know the real deviantART.

I know the people. I know the work that goes into every single one of the 38,000,000+ deviations and counting. And most importantly, I can vouch for the hard work that goes into making everything work the way it should.

We are a community, an absolutely amazing community. And, as amazing as it is, we wouldn't be here without the following people, who have slaved away to make everything just 'work':

$lolly
$chix0r
@darklylit
@sapphiretiger
@shutdown
@Narfmaster
@kyza
@Nenimo
@tmpst24myst
@rapidograph
@blackice
@kamizu
@Tachy-on
@whoatherechief
@karyaazure
@madnessism
@electricjonny
@quickdraw
@Rendarin
@ananasjihad
@mykel
@limetastic
@youthculture
$realitysquared
$damphyr
$hexentanz
$ewm
+cweeks
+ekud
%fangedfem
$spinegrinder
%godofodd
%achfoo
$Moonbeam13
^pinguino
^PurpelBlur
^skifi
^cooley
^dedredhed
^GH-MoNGo
^misskittyoooo
^shell4art
^livius
^manicho
^zilla774
^FallenRox
^yathosho
^depthskins
^maxwell-heza
^nighty
^cosmosue
^jgfeller
^MistressWit
^lyastri
^kuschelirmel
^ShoneGold
^patgroove
^Einion
^animator
^Age2003
^StJoan
^GunShyMartyr
^PoeticWar
^Karma021
^azarath
^RockGirl1582
^equivoque
^hellfirediva
^Staged
^KevLewis
^arachnid15
^MissShyly
^Davenit
^opioid
^Ghouldaddy
^bleedsopretty
^thespook
^radioPooh
^oibyrd
^LawrenceDeDark
^zeruch
^guruubii
^stigmatattoo
^JesusIV
^truemarmalade

I salute these people, and from the depths of my heart, I thank you all, every single one of you. For each they, they come to serve. And serve they do. I hope you feel the same way, and I really hope you do drop by and say hi, get to know them, or just say thanks, either way. It'll make their day, I promise.

It's the least we can do.