The Attributes System allows users to tag submissions based on their features instead of limiting them to a specific gallery. The attributes system would allow users to check boxes if the image has certain elements.

dA outgrew its category system years ago. Even in 2005 many denizens of the internet complained that deviantART had too many categories.

Currently deviantART creates a new category or subcategory when there is enough demand for it: when enough people create the same kind of thing. The problem is that many subcategories limit the artistic expression of the piece. Many users here create for the category or genre they have locked themselves in instead of creating for the true expression of themselves.

Recent additions have been the anthropomorphic categories and the Game Development art categories.

The photography category has seen many arguments on whether the latest application of evolving tools still allows the final piece to be considered a photograph. In 2006 it was more likely that a group of people and ultimately the gallery managers would consider an HDR “not photography” resulting in a case of a misplaced deviation. In 2009 on this site it is more accepted that an HDR would belong “more” in the photography category than the photomanipulation category. Composite photographs are more accepted as ‘geniune’ photography because the actual photomanipulation category has evolved into a predominantly emo-fantasy genre.

---

Hurray you just finished your gloomy picture of a girl sitting on the rocks looking in an arbitrary direction that uses elements from 6 different photographs to achieve the desired image, there was a lot of airbrushing to make everything work together, it sort of looks painted.

Is it a photomanipulation? Yes.
But Is it Conceptual or Emotional or Dark or People?

Wait, you painted a bit.

Is it Painting & Airbrushing? Could be.

Maybe it would more appropriately be Mixed Media.
But wait. Mixed Media does not have a “Dark” subcategory.


---

The current situation is that if enough people make these kind of images and then complain to the mods: a dark subcategory will be added to the Mixed Media category. That is not a solution to the problem, it makes it bigger.

The attributes system is most akin to the mature content tag.

Currently users are asked to check if their deviations have mature content or not. In the future there will be more attributes to confirm or ignore underneath that tag. The existing category system could go away completely or be drastically simplified, the Gallery Managers would still exist in a similar way they do now but would be able to better appreciate the aesthetic nature of images than worry about it they are featuring an image in the right category.

The Wallpapers category has a plethora of beautiful High Definition fractal images that will never be featured by the fractal gallery managers due to jurisdiction. The Wallpapers Gallery Manager may not have the taste of fractal art to see the qualities that the fractal community would like to see or that the artist intended.

---

With the expanded attributes system a user would be able to specify that their deviation is
- Fractal (uses fractal algorithms and formulas to create imagery)
- Sized for Wallpaper (specially formatted to fit certain screens)
>Aspect Ratio: 16:9
>Resolution: 1920x1080

Where even specific resolutions would be attributes already coded in instead of the need for a "HDTV" category.


---

Users would be able to search for images that fit certain criteria better than the current keyword system offers. The category system and the keyword system work well together to narrow search results down, the attributes system could work alone to do this.

The extended attributes system is what deviantART needs to graduate to.