I realise not often enough are my reasons for DD'ing what I do expressed or explained properly therefore there leaves room for several misconceptions and unnecessary complications (and occasionally resentment) between community and Community Relations *making our title quite the ironic name*.

So here's a little serious article that says a few things about what draws me to a picture to give it a Daily Deviation, and what guidelines I'm also given to follow that determine whether it gets a daily dev or not. Hopefully after reading this you'll understand a little about me and my fellow GM's, and hopefully as well when you suggest a daily deviation your chances of getting it selected increase.

Firstly: the rules we MUST follow.

There are a few guides we are given as GM's that a lot of the community is not aware of.

Contest entries: Our rules say not to give them Daily Deviations. At least not until the contest is long over.
This is because a Daily Deviation is a feature that has a lot of influence on how the community views a piece of art and if even not the intention, it puts an automatic bias on the judge's ruling of it. It makes this unfair for other contestants, even if it's a mini contest or a community contest.

Images from deviants that got a Daily Deviation within the past three months: This is a definite 100% no-no for us. And think about it too, it makes sense. We want it to be fair for everyone yes? If this rule was not in place then it'd be a-ok for one person to get a daily deviation every day. Which is really not right. We know that some deviants pump out nothing but daily deviation material however we must establish that they are not the only amazing people on the site. Out of 9 million + people I'm sure we could find someone new at least every 3 months.

Images that use stock resources: Things like Photo manipulations for example may absolutely NOT be given a DD unless every single stock resource is credited. This is pretty self-explanatory.

Personal Guidelines that vary from GM to GM

Of course every GM and other member of dA that has Daily Deviation privileges, employs personal guidelines that vary among us. I can't speak for everyone so I will mention the ones that I employ myself. If you are ever unsure of these factors then feel free to note us before you suggest! It's easy!

Popularity and DD's:Pageviews, faves, watchers and their status on dA 100% does-not-matter for me at all. Either way. If they have 30 million pageviews and I can DD their work, I will. If they have 12 pageviews and I can DD their work, I will. Because I don't feature pageviews, I don't feature faves or watches, or status. I feature art. And if the art is deserving and falls within the guidelines we are given, then it will receive the recognition it deserves.

Traced works: No, I will not DD anything I recognize to be a trace. To me that's not 100% theirs or a collaboration work.

Genuine collab work i.e. the artist coloured it only or drew it only: Once proper credit is given then yes indeed I will DD if I like it. I am a collab artist myself and I understand the importance of every part of assembled art.

Sexual themes/violence/gore: Once it lays within the policies on dA, I have no problem with DD'ing art like that. It has to be visually appealing and interesting though.

The type of members i.e. if I DD staff, fellow GM's, and members that have some kind of 'power' on this site: They are deviants too, and most of all artists. I won't DD them very often at all but I don't see a problem with occasionally featuring a fellow member of CR or a member of staff if they really did well.

DD'ing people who have a long history of drama/copyright violations/trolling/flaming, etc: This is dealt with a case-by-case-basis. if they are still at it, harming the community then likely not.

Self promotion i.e. Suggesting your own work to me and in some cases your entire gallery:

Edit::: Remember this is my personal guideline, not all GM's share this opinion with me We're a colorful team filled with different people and even more different views!

My answer is a definite no. As far as I personally see it, it's not classy and not humble either. There are better ways to carry yourself than that I believe, and I do not and will never support or encourage people to root for themselves. I've learned that sacrifice and service to others must always come before that of your own. :]

But I remind you, that not every GM feels the same way I do! Some of us welcome self promotion too, so to make sure you can note us before you make a move to suggest ^__^

Finally the aesthetics: the great question, what makes ME DD?

How can I count the ways. So much to express so little space.

look here >> [link]

and here >> [link]

This should give you an idea of the kind of art I enjoy.

In words put short here is what I'm looking for:

• The technical skill should be greater than my own (by far) because I am not easily impressed. Use my own gallery and my DD collection folders as a measure of the things you would want to beat.


• If this technical skill is at my level and below, there must be something AMAZING about it that makes up for that lack of skill, i.e. the story behind it or the idea/presentation.
  I don't often reward 'hard work', because let's face it, 90% of us work our butts off on this site. Working hard doesn't mean the art will automatically qualify for a DD, or everybody should get a DD right? it also makes DD's tons less special and important to me if they're a pity gift.


• The meaning behind the means: art impresses me especially if there is a story behind it. This isn't very common but still if the story inspires me it can be good enough for me to want to feature it, yes.

Lastly: frequent issues addressed or questions I may have the answer to.

I know things people say about people giving Daily Deviations reflect less than well on our part. Perhaps these statements may sound familiar:

I think only famous popular or amazing people get DD's or the GM's friends too.

. Yes, we DD our friends, I know I DD MY friends once or twice, but that's definitely not because they're my friends. o_o it's because they pwn me in art and I want to feature them. Their work impresses me, so I feature. Why should my friends have to suffer because of my position? it's fair game for them as well as it is for you. And just as I DD my friends, I DD complete strangers I've never spoken to before as well. Don't condemn someone just because of who they know. They have zero control over that.

Also we do not feature.. famous people? you don't have to be cool/popular/whatever to get a DD. Yes people will suggest your work more because you have more exposure, if you have a ton of watchers but by no way does it mean you'll get featured. there are tons of popular people I refuse to DD because their art simply does not make me say 'wow'. If your art is good, you're going to get featured. Yes often people are popular because good art gets fans. But it's not the other way around. At all.


How come people with @ and $ sometimes feature DD's? I thought that was the GM's job?
Senior message network operators (@) and some staff members ($) have DD'ing privileges. I'm not quite sure why but boy do they have good taste.

Speaking of, do you know what the symbols mean? If not look here! [link] that is great to know and learn


I don't suggest DD's anymore/don't want to /am afraid to/ because my notes never/will not/ may not/ get ignored and not replied to!

I understand your concern. You get excited and happy that the GM's love your taste in art and moreso you can make your friend/cousin/sister/whoever you suggested happy by suggesting their work.

It doesn't always get picked up, this I also understand.

There are a bit over 70 GM's, and a few others that have DD privileges.

There are over nine million people on this site.

I hope you understand what this means. Not always are we able to read every note right away and it's virtually impossible to reply to them all, especially with huge galleries like photography, digital art, anime art etc.

Also think about this: you are not the only person who suggests work to us. Don't be downhearted if we don't take up your suggestion right away or not at all, keep at it, KEEP suggesting. your taste for art will be refined and soon you'll be suggesting things we simply can't refuse to feature. Know that a lot of other members from the community are also trying to get our attention with their suggestions so keep trying, the key is NOT to give up and sulk. you have to keep going and if you really actually love the community and are not just suggesting DD's for attention then you'll not give up ^_^

Before I became GM I SPAMMED CR with my suggestions, 90% of them were turned down but one day a DD from my suggestion was taken up. I still remember what it was.


It will happen eventually, just don't surrender if you really love this art.

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SO, I hope this long.... long article helps clear up a bit (a lot!) about DD's and answers some of your questions about CR too :] any more questions and I'll answer to the best of my ability!


P.S: Things for easy suggesting you may want to use

suggest a DD v0.5a by Solitude12 - A GREAT tool that takes into account our 3 month rule and also prevents you from suggesting the same deviation twice! It also automatically finds the GM you have to suggest it to according to the category it's in. I use this extension myself for both suggesting AND checking DD's before I assign them.

How to manually check to see what DD's a person has already received:
Type http://username.deviantart.com/dds (where the username is the username of the deviant you want to suggest) to find their DD page that displays all the DD's they were given and on what date. If you see nothing, that means they've never received a DD before!

How to see the DD's that are given out today >> [link]

Take note of them, they're great!