When I was randomly browsing art here on deviantART, I came across a cool looking photographic deviation. I investigated further and was surprised to see that it was actually a contest of sorts. The deviation stated "+fav this and get the chance to win a 1 year subscription"

I was appalled to see this type of contest. Just as the community was uniting against "fav-whoring," this popular contest comes along. What is worse is that it was created by none other than ^manicho, the gallery director for the Skins & Themes gallery.

Sure, it's a nice gesture to donate to others, but who is really winning here? In the one day that this deviation has been up, ^manicho aquired 7,787 favs, 1,085 comments, 25,494 views, and a feature on the front page under the Popular gallery. Just as well, the deviation is now on the 5th page of the most popular Devious Fun deviations of all time. It competes with some of the old deviantART promo ads. He also gained a total of about 114 new deviant watchers today alone, overwhelmingly beating his average of 8.8 watchers a day for the past 5 days out of the water. All of these numbers are increasing every minute.

Why is this happening? You tell me. I havn't fav'd it because I fav things based on their artistic quality, their achievement based on the deviant's ability, and overall artistic merit. I don't fav things to get a 1 year subscription that I probably won't win because 8 thousand other people are competing for it as well. I don't mean to blame this completely on ^manicho but also on the community, because only we can define the value of our fav's.