This article is about whether dA needs to create a club system quickly. A club system is already in development by dA, however, a finishing date could not be given by the admins, showing that dA does not consider developing a club system to be a very high priority. (Please note that I can't make the news topic "deviantART inc." because it says I do not have enough permissions -you'd probably have to be an admin for that-, so this is my editorial about the culture of deviantART)

Why is it needed?

Club mods spend a lot of time having to upload art submissions (checking permission is given) and welcome members. That's when everything goes right, and it still takes a lot of time.

When things go wrong, for example, members faving club gallery pieces instead of following the link to the original piece, it takes a lot of time to individually note each one to remove the fave and fave the original. Mods do this for ethical reasons - so the original artist gets the glory. Even if a watermark is added, in my experience pictures still gets faved. This really does take a LOT of time.

Members must remember to fave the original piece (in established club systems in other sites, the thumbnail that appears in the inbox leads directly to the original piece - either the art is automatically added to the club or the mod must approve the submission - either way, it's so much faster)

Clubs add to the community feel - many clubs have been abandoned because it takes so much time to run. Something which would otherwise be fun becomes a chore.

dA admins must check that the original artist gave permission for the art to be displayed, so having a club system removes a source of improperly-submitted material. Since this mistake is mostly innocent (because the artist really does want their art displayed), it would allow staff to focus on other things where the breaking of rules is intended.

All of this would be unnecessary with a club system.


So why isn't dA immediately creating a club system?

(This is from discussion with dA mods in the forum, as well as club mods.)

Since most revenue is from subscriptions, dA's highest priority is to enhance the message centre for subscribers given dA version 6's recent release. (which is fair enough, but I would be very willing to buy a subscription for an account if it meant I could turn it into a club account.)

Many things are being developed at once, and they would like to focus on improvements that would affect the greatest number of users. (Therefore, we need to know how many deviants either belong to clubs or run clubs, and how their experience would improve with a club system.) On the other hand, if you don't think that having a club system would affect you or the majority of deviants, then you would be opposed to making the development of a club system a priority.

Even though other art sites have club systems, dA doesn't consider the lack of a club system to be a significant set-back to dA.


Is there a demand for a club system? If you want it, say it!

Sign this petition [link] (apparently we'd need 3 million signatures for an impact - that's approximately half the population - but the number of banned, inactive, plz accounts or multiple accounts owned by one person, is debatable.)

Note the help desk, mentioning you'd be willing to pay for a subscription if it meant turning the account into a club or asking when it would be completed. (but I'm sure they don't want to be unnecessarily inundated with letters)

Fave/comment this news article.

Post a journal.

or some other way.


Doing any of these things will hopefully allow the dA admins to gauge the public demand and hopefully adjust their development plan accordingly. While a specific date for completion cannot be given by dA, letting them know the public demand would hopefully affect their flexible development schedule. If dA actually gave a completion date in the near future, that would change everything. ^^


Why am I not sitting back and waiting for a club system to eventually appear?

Because, being an admin, it would save a lot of time. I NEED it. Just knowing that it's available on other sites makes me salivate (yes, I am exaggerating, but you get the picture). For me, the most appealing aspect of deviantART is the sense of community, and a big part of the way the members of the community promote their art and interact with each other is through clubs. I think it would make a huge positive difference to dA to have a club system. So much so, that I am willing to have my inbox fill up with, er... not-so-helpful comments (yes, I got those in the forum too ^^) just to prove a point.


Thank you! ^^