DeviantArt Dilemma

[nendil]

So I was wanting a place to get comments & publicity post & link my new ...upcoming... fanarts and I was thinking of finally sticking stuff up on the DeviantArt account that I've been using to browse smut had sitting around for apparently 2 years now. But I have some reserves about it (which is why I haven't bothered using it till now) so I'd just like to ramble for a bit about things that bother me and maybe some of you can help me with some insights.

* Organization. Browsing DA always feels like a pain in the ass to me because I'm kind of anal about browsing in chronological order, and DA's default gallery seems to display things in more-or-less random order? (I'm probably wrong about that?) Is there a way to control the sorting when you manage your gallery? I'm guessing not? Also, is there any more to the organization system than just putting each pic in one specific categorical folder?

* Any time I venture into DA I always get depressed by the quality and productivity of the many artists there. As you know I am a jealousCOMPETITIVE person who is also BAD AT PRODUCTIVITY. Normally good art (or writing for that matter) that impresses me tends to be an inspiration, but for some reason when I'm presented with such a flood of good art it becomes a wistful downer even as I splurge on all the prettiness. Of course this is my problem, not yours, but I just have to mention it because it's always been a weird DA issue to me, for whatever reason.

* And overall I guess I just want to know if it's worthwhile. I don't feel much like posting on AFC anymore because it's so old and obsolete plus I have that server problem to deal with, ctrl_a ;), and I could just go all-LJ-all-the-time for my fanarts, but even with the tag system it's not exactly a good way to browse. Just tell me what you like or don't like about DA please! Or even suggest other alternatives!

* Finally, I have my own compiled list of what's good enough to get displayed in my potential gallery, but you have a chance here to nominate pic(s) you think I should put up ;) especially those that you think might not make the cut ;) I make no promise to comply though!

Comments

[torkell]

1) dA I think lets you sort art either by upload date or by popularity (I don't have access to dA itself right now, so I'm not certain about this). As well as the category you can also put art in user-defined folders.

2) I've not had this problem myself. There's several photos in my gallery which are probably "meh" to everyone, but I've uploaded either because I rather like them or because they have some special meaning to me.

3) Nowadays I just use dA for watching people, and I use my own gallery on my own server for uploading stuff as that way I get more control over the rights in my photos. The dA terms certainly used to give away large chunks of rights to dA along with a promise that they weren't going to be evil, which kinda fell apart when the drama with jark and spyed happened.

That said I've not heard of anything bad that's resulted from uploading stuff to dA, so I'm probably just being paranoid. I keep meaning to upload reduced-size versions to dA as one downside to running your own gallery is there's much less interaction (with links to my gallery server for larger versions - since the larger ones are not hosted by dA they're not subject to the dA terms).

4) Upload everything, even the random scribbles :)

[nendil.livejournal.com]

1) Can you categorize a pic into more than one folder? Or is there any tag system?

2) I just gotta be the very best! Like no one ever was!

3) Heh, at one point I would've gone with your server-side solution, but one reason I'm considering DA now in the first place is because I don't feel like bothering with creating something sufficiently isolated on my web space that wouldn't be easily linked with my professional stuff. Plus I wanted just one easy url to link for fanart alone. Since it's fanart, I don't have much rights to claim about them anyway... just in it for the ego boosts publicity!

4) Nuuu not gonna happen :P

[torkell]

1) No idea, I've never used the folders myself and can't currently access deviantArt (Vodafone considers it to be an 18+ site and I've not gotten round to getting the filter disabled).

3) Fair enough. Being a photographer my stuff tends to be originals rather than fanart, and so it's all mine as far as copyright goes.

[om-nom-berries.livejournal.com]

"Can you categorize a pic into more than one folder?"

Yep! I do it all the time.

[nendil.livejournal.com]

Well, it's no tags, but it does the job. Thanks!

[summercomfort]

Last time I really considered dA, it was 3 years ago, and I really hated the clunky sorting system and thumbnailing, plus I felt a bit intimidated, like people on there took things to be Serious Business, which was why I opted for LJ sketchblog with tagging. ::shrug::

[nendil.livejournal.com]

I agree with your points, hence the waffling. Nonetheless I wanted to have an easily-linked gallery with easily-browsed thumbnails, so I will most likely go for it once I sort out the details. I'll still crosspost everything on LJ for maximum ego-stroking those of you who don't want to venture into the depths of deviancy!

[summercomfort]

Haha. You can always put it on facebook. :X

[nendil.livejournal.com]

NO NOT PROFESSIONAL. :<

[warendfeld.livejournal.com]

I've got a DA account, but I think you've gotten far better advice on the topic already.

If you go ahead and use it, please post a link - I'd be eager to see your DA account, and would no doubt watch it. :-)

[nendil.livejournal.com]

I certainly will, but you probably won't see anything different on there that you won't see on this LJ. :)

[warendfeld.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, but it won't hurt to see stuff on both places.