Deviants Deviously Deny New Features 1: [link]

Three cheers for the community!

So many of you have sent me such kind comments and so many have thanked me for combining multiple opinions into one large article. Hundreds of deviants faved the last article. Hundreds voted in my poll and many more even commented on my angry journal and took the time to respond to the poll as well. The responses were, honestly, unexpected in numbers. I was so shocked. I'm not joking. XD But really, thank yourselves, I only reported it and I was glad to voice the public opinion! And don't give me any crap about "You're just saying that!" No... I am certainly NOT that type of person. Otherwise, I wouldn't have spent my two hours typing the last article.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------


I've been out of town for the last two days, so I reviewed some recent responses to my article, *Cyantre's article and my poll. I originally meant for the article to be a "Hey, any time spent fixing these changes we're unhappy with won't be a waste of time." message to the admins. But I'm slooowly being pulled to the darkside where they have cookies and say things like "Listen to me or face the wrath of my army of llamas!!!"

There was something I've wanted to write another article about for a while but before I get irritated and start ranting I want to announce that, according to someone who commented on *Cyantre's article ([link]), a staff member said that they have taken notice of our concerns in forum posts and such and will be posting an article about it soon. Also, another staff member said that they'll be changing the gift options a bit to respect givers' anonymity. < I saw this comment in the forums myself. I really hope it's true because a lot of us look like this right now:





Especially for the few that were irritated by the last response about news articles not being considered "feedback." There were some some furious comments there 0_o It was kinda scary. Lol I guess you'd sort of expect deviants to clam down after reading something like "It's pretty common to launch things in stages and test community feedback."

Well... not exactly. I was mad too, so I can understand the reaction. I personally believe that news is definitely feedback, a direct reaction to the staff's actions. And I believe they need to step up and take responsibility instead of saying what they have been. I've totally supported the staff before and I enjoy reading stuff from hq, but this is insane.

Maybe they expected us to go "Oh great! Then it's not final!! So, our feedback will be valued and taken into consideration! Mission accomplished!"

Ohhhh no. It was war. I remained calm and tried to ask nicely for some sort of an FAQ or a news article to be posted soon to stop the panic but I did not get a reply. I mean, I didn't want to intrude on the conversation (and I admit that I was) but after reading on, something set me off and made me speak up. I'm not sure what it was at the time. One thing is for sure, deviants were VERY unhappy. It was more "I'm pissed off, now I'm gonna keel j00!"
<--Which is actually what I was going to rant about but I will refrain from doing so and leave it at that. I fear it will cause unnecessary dA llama drama and flaming of the staff.

And, oddly enough, I just found out that the response about an article was days ago. As much as I would like to say "Sure staff, take your time." I feel that too many people are panicking about this to waste time. After posting the last article I ran into more and more new deviants such as ~vampirexbloodxroses, who had no idea what was going on. In her journal she posted:

"I am so confused and am almost panicking! Do I really need a premium membership to continue posting and being on deviantart? I really can't afford paying for the premium membership. My parents don't even have enough money for my college years following the first year of college! Somebody please tell me I am not required to get a premium membership?!?!?!"

She's only been here 3 months.

I assured her that that wasn't the case, as far as I knew. But why should anyone have to? I don't think that any deviant should be scared into thinking that they MUST purchase a membership if that isn't the case. Unless that is where dA is planning to go in the future? If that is the case I can guarantee my leaving and thousands of others. Maybe millions.

As I stated in my journal, dA's most recent public poll ([link]) currently says that the majority of dA members (46%) are high school or middle school students. Their parents are the ones using credit cards for the most part. They don't give a crap about pretty profiles and no-ad searching. They need to feel like we are getting something out of it. Another 26% are college students and their parents probably own their credit cards as well. Constant linking and advertisement of the checkout page is a big turnoff.

Either you simply don't have the money or think it's not worth it. After so many deviants have complained that the value of having a "Premium Membership" has deteriorated a lot, I find it hard to believe that portfolios are now open to everyone. Don't get me wrong, I faved the article myself and I'm excited that I'll have access when my sub runs out. (Though, I'm not sure I'll actually ever use it.) I think it's great! But, again, the value of subs plummets.

What about the BETA testers? Why didn't they know about these changes?

Honestly, I guess it wasn't something that would be effectively "tested" by them. They decided to infect us all with the virus before thinking about a constant variable to add to the equation. I agree with the method to an extent, but there should have been news about this just like the new profile layouts and the new portfolio feature.

I got a sub as a gift last summer and I thought the commenting system was the coolest and very efficient for deviants with a lot of comments. And as soon as my sub ran out, it was released to everyone. Again, I was ecstatic but I know that I was outnumbered by the people who were furious because they felt like they wasted their money.

I sent you a message about some possible technical issues I noticed. Why haven't you posted them here for all the world to see?

I think the most popular question about this was whether or not a gift giver was meant to be displayed as the one who collectively bought all of that user's sub time.

<img src="http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f312/TohruATW/My%20Sites/GivenBy-1.jpg"/img>

If you haven't already, please send those concerns to the staff members. (For new members, those are people with $ in front instead of the other symbols such as ~,*,and =. Check out hq's page here: [link]) Since "feedback" is not a news article or support for a news article, go ahead and do what they want. Send your complains straight to them if you feel you must. I'm not because I'll just feel like a broken record, what's the point..?

So, there it is and I hope I didn't forget to add anything that was brought to my attention recently.

Anyway, here are some deviations that were sent to me in support of "anti-dAgregation" and some others I found randomly.






My Poll: [link]

And if you haven't been keeping up with the current news and have no idea what I'm talking about: [link]
^There are also forum topic links and links to other related things. More like an angrier version of my first article.

< Back to first article: [link]