From YouTube content creators to citation in legal briefs, and now to headlines in mainstream journals, it's an ill omen indeed when your buffoonery has reached such heights that it's now cropping up on the Firefox front page. In addition to reiterating the timeline of monetization and copyright lawsuits, the Slate piece spotlights an element I hadn't realized: fraudulent marketing and money laundering [EDIT: Mirror link] within the Exclusives marketplace itself, if not directly abetted then certainly tolerated by dA administration.

I had recently resolved to a soft boycott of future uploads similar to my protest on Buzzly.art, but continued to waffle on whether to sunset my existing gallery. This is the nudge I needed. For the sake of posterity I will not delete the pages outright in order to preserve comment histories, but I'll be replacing the files once I figure out exactly how "loud" I want my dissent.

Long Live Side 7, the Last Good Art Site.

The last one? Wow people were quick to not give DomoTown, Cara, or NewGrounds much credit.

I've been half-banned on DA (no judgment or ill feelings towards anyone for that, I actually felt quite fulfilled by the time it happened) so one can consider me in the boycott even if I didn't want to.

By the way, if you have the timestamp links to comments, the last time I checked, they don't disappear if you remove a work.

Newgrounds runs on popularity. Cara and DomoTown are basically InkBlot debugged; fine for the people conditioned to Mobile UIs, but I much prefer the "old school" web design. Plus it was arguably spyed's determination to copy other platforms' social media gimmicks that drove DeviantArt into the Wix buyout, so I treat his involvement with Cara as just a tad suspect.

Spyed is involved with Cara? Well sh*t, so that was him then...

Maybe they should investigate Cara next.

It's true, though. Side7 was one of the first "good" art sites, it managed to survive in a death-like stasis for years while everyone abandoned it, and it's bounced back to become the only stable, sane art platform I can think of. I've tried to get comfortable in other places, but before long, they always turn into a subscription service, hiding basic quality of life features behind a pay wall, while also doing nothing about the goblin army posting untagged fetish "art" (AI and photomanips, using stolen photos of course) 24/7. I can't even look at some of those other sites any more, because the front page is plastered with Simpsons blueberry inflation and "kidsonas" in 18+ scenarios. I might be an embittered grouch, always on the verge of disappearing from here, but "here" is the last place that it's even worthwhile to be at. (So, you're stuck with me. Nyeah.)

Not just debugged but deprivatized, since Inkblot doesn't let anyone who isn't logged in see any art, making showcasing impossible in hopes those who see it will sign up. Cue the classic EA meme.

That's a bit extreme. No public face definitely hobbles InkBlot's marketability, but based on its mission statement and given principles, I interpret it as a means of providing membership protection from casual trolling. I've certainly seen nothing that indicates the administration is rent-seeking.

Compare and contrast with Twitter, with $8 Blue Checks and where the virtual whiteout to guest browsing post-Elon is almost certainly a ploy to obfuscate the bad actors by throttling public access.

Actually, Spyed isn't even involved in Cara, he just runs deviantart, whoever developed Cara did become one of plaintiffs that sued both deviantart and Midjourney, among other defendants

I look forward Artspacious most, to be another stable and sane art platform outside side7

as I wait for Artspacious, I become more active here in side7

I'm gonna be honest I was using DA for a few years now before and after it was bought by Wix in 2016 or 2017.. I left it because I had a lot of drama going on there, but I had no idea it was gonna get this bad. I didn't even knew about side7 until someone mentioned this site. I guess I came at the best time. But yeah the site has gotten a lot worse since I vanished.

I started my deviantart residence since 2008(before that, I use Deviantart without having any online accounts) where as I become better person, Deviantart ironically become worse website

I joined Side7 as I wait for Artspacious to goes even open beta, after Buzzly Drama destroyed Buzzlyart for even me, even when Side7 aren't only Deviantart's replacements that I tried in response of Buzzly Drama

I even sunsetting my 15-years old Deviantart account

That's good.. i left behind my bad experiences there even though i made friends there and good memories, but i had to leave it all behind. i wish it wasn't bought out by Wix and it would've remained the same. I was growing a reputation on there as well but too bad that died off as well. sighs well i can start on a clean slate over here.

I kept the contacts of (most of) my deviantart friends when I deactivate my deviantart so this won't cost any of my friends as well I salvage (almost) everything I posted in deviantart into bunch of websites including here

Ah, I misread it as him being a co-founder.

I don't think he's still professionally affiliated with dA: he was still CEO in 2019 and oversaw Eclipse's planning, but was subsequently downgraded to "Advisor" and is no longer named in the staff roster.

Seeing your name crossed out on a thread in the DA forums was sad to see. You'll be missed.

one of the reason I deactivate my deviantart was: my parents urged me to get rid of my deviantart account over deviantart's deteriorations

In regards to the talk about up and coming artsites, SheezyArt recently made a return and seems quite promising. I understand the whole deal with the developer suddenly shutting down the first attempt out of nowhere but it's not in the same league as what happened with Buzzly and considering they seem to making another earnest go at it with a team, I'm willing to give them another chance. Especially since they retained everybody's old accounts and uploads from before the site shut down, which I found to be pretty decent of them.

Especially since they seem to have everything a lot more organised and in hand than other sites so that it increases longevity and doesn't get too much for the current team (i.e. upload limit, keeping things in beta to make sure everything is in check) because I've seen other sites just rush ahead into being "open for all" way too quickly and then there's things to worry about like higher server costs and what-not. Sheezy and its team seem open to learn from their experience with their first run and kudos to them for that. Even if I did give them a few months before returning to see how things would pan out. lol

Artfol is another site that I use every now and again too and also disallows AI art just like Sheezy and Side 7 do. SheezyArt just wins out for because of the more customisation options and an UI that I prefer but it's nice that it's there as a Twitter/Instagram alternative for those who want that sort of thing. The team behind it has also been consistently nice and professional from the times I've interacted with them.

yeah on there.. but i'm gonna be here.. idk for how long but as long as i'm here i'm still gonna keep making things. Also i feel like you were one of my watchers in the past. idk why but i'm getting Deja Vu from your post..

Here's my thoughts on these:

-Sheezy's dev doesn't like me -Artfol will got a new facelift

additionally, I looks forward Artspacious most

Well, I don't know what went down between you and Sheezy's dev and it's quite honestly none of my business.

However, the only things I can find on Artspacious is that its socials seem pretty dead and... it has a koi fish mascot. There's no UI previews or any real information on the site itself from what I can find outside of a Discord server. So, I only wanted to offer some sites that are actually up and running for folks that may be interested, 'tis all. My bad if I offended you or brought up some bad memories.

Unless people are being legitimately terrible and borderline criminal (had to literally cancel my debit card over Buzzly refusing to cancel my subscription), I think any artsite that isn't literally DeviantART is entitled to have a go at things. Especially if any of them opts to ban AI art. Because that's funny as well as being pretty based. lol

I may not necessarily vibe with all of them for my own reasons (some of which have been covered here already) but that's just how I roll personally.

all that I can say when it comes to whatever went down between me and Sheezy's revival dev was: one of links in my Linktree(which I use to keep track of websites that I use) was compromised from belonging to dead website that I used to use which prompts both suspension of my Linktree and Rytoonist bans me from Sheezy

last update before Artspacious went into Holdup that even myself finds that overdue was: Artspacious' backend is almost finished while devs are working on it's Frontend

here's his cara

4 years has passed since everyone that use deviantart did got forced into Eclipse

I'm originally a colorslive artist when I first started posting art on the internet in 2012, then I went to DeviantArt in 2014, and I ended abandoning my DA for Side7 for a few years after the site's forums and other stuff ruined it for me.
Then I just post to a bunch of other art sites. DeviantArt really fell from grace, but it's for the better that I check out other places to post art like artfol, vk and a few others, I mainly like posting here because it's nice and quiet, compared to instagram, but that site doesn't treat artists well at all either, I wish I could move away from that site, alongside with my family, friends and fans, I'm thinking of moving my insta stuff to cohost, or some other place.

I first heard deviantart when I was looking for Kingdom Hearts fanart of Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy(when former 3 takes their KH2 forms) in 2005-2006

when I started my deviantart account in 2008, Deviantart isn't the first website I joined(this honor goes to now-defunct Friendster, which I joined in late 2007), I tried side7 as one of artsites I tried in response of Buzzly Drama ruined Buzzlyart for even me

I got banned from Cohost for posting something that epitomizes "We can't have nice things" there(and too political/controversial to discussed here further), I moving my fill-in memes to Instagram once(later to even Pillowfort)

I deactivated my deviantart not only my parents did urged me to leave that hellsite