Hello there,

Just a brief intro: My name is Liz and I started my S7 account way back in the day when I was in high school. Almost 9 years later, I've recently had a renewed urge to reach out to the S7 community again.

You see, a few years ago, I decided to switch to DeviantArt and basically left S7. My account is still here, but inactive. By some fluke, my request to terminate my account never went through. But now, I'm glad.

What I wanted to discuss and maybe hear others' opinions on was why they choose S7 as their artistic forum.

What sets S7 apart?

I realized recently that I never really thought about my decision to switch from S7 to DA. I just did it for something new and different, and for sometime, I kept both accounts active. But then, I felt like I should focus more on only one. Honestly, I chose DA because there were more artists there.

But at DA, I also feel totally disconnected from any kind of community. It's so big, I find it daunting to even know where to begin. I rely on a very small network of artists that I know - a lot of them originally from S7.

I remember the amazing community I experienced at S7 when I first started here. I grew so much as an artist because of the support I found here. Is a community still alive here? How is S7 doing?

What are your thoughts?

so far, S7 is the only art gallery I am in (and those are a lot) that I donated money once in the past what I love about this place is how it really fels like a community. the members are friendly, and the admin is always taking part of the conversations. I too have a gallery in DA, and in vcl, and furaffiniy etc etc and so on and so forth, I dont see why you have to abandon one gallery if you also sign up in another. You get different comments form different people in each gallery

I remember the good old days with fun in the forum. I hope those days will come back with the new side7

I'm with Poseidon, personally, in that I have galleries all over place, and Side 7 is also the only one I ever donate money to. Each gallery, I find, has it uses, its advantages and disadvantages, but it is the community that I really love about Side 7. There's no flaming or trolling here and everyone is so nice and friendly. And most of the comments I receive are very specific and helpful, rather than the one-word 'cool' comments or unrelated drivel I get on some other galleries.

Anyway, glad to have you back. You have an interesting and eye-catching style to your art.

Like Poseidon and Jinx said, S7 feels more like a community than DA. The members are friendly and I feel like you get to know them more. I also find that people leave more thoughtful comments and critiques here than on DA. I also love the fact that the admins are actively involved with the community! It really makes this place feel like home.

Hopefully we'll see more activity once the new site launches!

I didn't know about DeviantArt when I was looking for an online gallery to hang my art in.

I'm not on DeviantArt and not likely to get on. It seems too unfocused when it comes to art, like it's trying to do too much at once. Side 7 avoids this problem by keeping to a narrower focus.

I moved here from DA for precisely the same reason: because I wanted to be part of a community rather than a huge corporate database. The thing that pushed me over the edge was that whole fiasco with jark getting fired from DA's staff so many years ago, and the way spyed treated him and the site afterward. Sure, I can understand making a good business decision, but I also understand treating people like people rather than objects to be thrown away when no longer useful, and treating art like a form of expression rather than a commodity with which to turn a profit. My boyfriend mentioned S7 to me, having browsed here quite a bit but never having actually joined, and I decided to check it out. I found here exactly what I wanted that DA could no longer give me: a small but active community of reasonably intelligent people who treat each other with respect.

I boycotted DA entirely for a long time, but I've been back now and again recently. I don't upload there anymore; I only use it as a database for pretty wallpapers and reference pics that, for the most part, have no special meaning to me, and occasionally to comment on friends' pics and prose. That's all DA's good for, IMO. But my art goes here because I don't want it being drowned out in a torrential sea that belongs to people who would rather turn a profit than care for their community. And that's why I moved from DA.

By the way, if you want to see some really old art of mine, my DA gallery was never dismantled. I'm a0iNeko.

Wow, you guys really know how to make a guy feel good. And I know you didn't have this thread to kiss tail or anything, either.

Thanks a lot you all. I really hope the new site lives up to expectations, and that it's worth your time.

-- BK

Hey, what a coincidence! My name's also Liz and I also started my Side7 account while in high school.

The reason for my recent return was that wonderful e-mail I received yesterday informing me that the site had be re-vamped. I decided to have a look around for curiosity's sake and must say, I love what they've done with the place. It's smoother, cleaner and hey! The search engine works! Search engines have always been a big deal to me...

I've also been on DA the whole time I've been on Side7, and they each have their ups and downs.

DA is very busy and I have a lot of friends there, but at the same time it's crowded and can get a bit over-whelming. Not to mention the trolls and all-around rude people that stream through regularly. And let's not forget the drama!

Side7 is small, yes, and not nearly as busy activity-wise, but it's also more comfy as a result. Plus I have a certain nostalgic fondness here, as one of my favorite artists on the internet (Bri-chan) had her gallery here once upon a time. It's gone now, but I have a lot of fond memories of it.

Anyway, it's good to be back.

DA vs S7..... As Kat stated. It's small, and not nearly as busy with activity, but, it's so much more comfortable here. I really liked what I read in the rules section about them not tolerating any sort of harassment.

It makes you feel like you can have a "Safe" spot to post your artwork and not get attacked by the DArama. I had an older account on here, that I deleted, but I rejoined now to start over "new". I prefer this websites view of what is "art" over that of DA's. Since DA now views "tracing" as "art".

I have to agree with everyone here, Side7 is a very good, safe, and fun place to post your artwork. I like it because everyone here is friendly, when one comments on your art, it is very useful, sometimes you get the "cool and great art" but still all is very good. I find it a very good place to learn from, and have a good time doing it too.

I have went to DeviantArt long ago, because I discovered Nack The Weasel art there. I never joined there, all though I was about to at one point, but I got talked out of that by my mom (she didn't approve of DA). I don't like how the website is named "Deviant" it kinda bugs me, I suggest looking up the word in your dictionary. Plus, if people are so rude there, that's another reason to not join there.

Daisy Hunt (Luckyladybug) was one of reasons to get into doing art and posting it here, her artwork inspired me to draw. Which I draw a lot Nack The Weasel art (from Sonic The Hedgehog) here.

Welcome back to Side7 KatWarrior! Feel free to visit my art gallery! -Miss D. (Debra) aka - Weasel_Silver24

I have accounts at both S7 and DA. While DA is more active, I get more helpful comments regarding on how to improve my work here at S7. That's one thing that I like a lot about S7.

Something else I've noticed recently. I finally finished going through all of the art on S7 (okay, all of the items I wanted to look at anyway . Only took about four months.

What I found really helpful was the ability to browse art by artist. Not everyone has a style that I like, and, while it's nice to see examples from everyone, only a small percentage intrigues me enough to want to see the rest of what that artist has.

DA doesn't have browsing by artist as an option.

Now while I can see the security needs of that (it protects everyone's privacy a bit), I don't want to have to browse through a million drawings that I don't really care for, just to find one that I like. I'd rather see a select few from each artist and browse by "style", so to speak.

Just out of curiosity, by the way, I tried to find the "end" of the listings for the category I was browsing there the other day. In the Anime -> Traditional (media) -> Drawings category, there were roughly 276 million pieces of art, and growing by probably a few thousand per day.

Quality is another matter, though... here on S7, out of a page of 25 artists, I found myself looking through the art of between 2 and 8 of them (you! us! on each page. On DA, I skimmed through the first 500 drawings before I found one that interested me enough to look further.

Again, the community on S7 is much greater and the quality much, much higher! But then, we all have to learn somewhere, and if it wasn't for the volume of "practice" material there was everywhere else, we wouldn't know how good we have it here!