I haven't been on dA for very long, I am not a professional artist, and I have no intention to ever pay for premium membership. According to the site staff, that means I'm entitled to even less than what meagre rations I already have.

This week's site update reveals that the Webcam widget, that little box you use to spotlight amusement from elsewhere along the information superhighway, is being phased out. According to beta testers it's already cut. The logic presented by staff is that it's a redundant feature that can be replicated through the Custom widget.

But for one crucial qualification: Custom boxes are premium features.

Now, what few apologists exist that try to justify the move (and believe me, they are few), say the effect can be replicated through the description fields to other widgets, the Profile box, &c. So yes, there are mechanical workarounds. But my complaint, and that of most of my fellows, has less to do with the widget itself than what the move says about the responsibility of staff and their vision for this site.

People have been complaining for years now that site updates have forced through unnecessary changes and ignored the most persistent member requests and complaints, the backlash against the new logo introduced last month one of the most vicious and polarizing in recent memory. Worse, many of their so-called improvements broke functionality for days, sometimes weeks: changes to the basic submission process not only led to widespread confusion, for many users it became utterly unworkable. This might not be such a problem if, like any responsible leadership, the staff shared with us their long-term vision, so we might at least understand how such seemingly counterproductive means lead to the productive ends. But they virtually never do, and we're left with a track record of what look like piecemeal whims and that ever-present fallacious trap of progress for the sake of progress.

But what adds insult to injury is the incessant "community" rhetoric they use to justify what at the end of the day remains an arbitrary executive decision. Staff says it's acting for the "community", yet anyone that reads feedback to this or any of the past update journals quickly receives the impression that said community feels it has no voice unto the ivory tower. As several beta testers have complained, there was no consultation nor even prior notification that Webcams were intended to be cut.

The official explanation is that the widget "has lost its original value". The real reason is, staff wants you to buy a premium membership, and cutting features is a convenient way of goading you to do so. From what I've heard, this is not the first time formerly-public services have been privatized on this site, but the fact that such an innocuous and long-lived little toy is on the chopping block for literally no good reason is rightly raising the ire of veterans and newcomers alike, with several members threatening to quit the site out of protest.

Yes, this is partly about the functionality of a single widget, but it is also a flashpoint in a broader 'class war' between us the users and an insular, unaccountable ruling clique. Given staff's contempt for its supposedly cherished community, what we can actually do short of a general strike is not readily clear to me—although a premium boycott might just get their attention. Either way, identifying the problem is the first step to finding a solution.


, BittyKitty1 said it best:

GIVE US BACK THE STUFF WE NEVER REQUESTED BE REMOVED. REMOVE THE STUFF WE REQUESTED TO BE REMOVED.

THANKS FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION. <3

www.change.org/p/www-deviantart-com-http-wreckling-deviantart-com-journal-site-update-the-new-mobile-header-508641398-bring-back-the-webcam-feature-do-not-remove-the-web-cam-widget

www.change.org/p/deviantart-to-bring-back-our-webcams

#savethewebcams