deviantART Policy Changes - A Thought

Recently, there were several key changes in dA policy as it relates to video game screenshots, doll-generators, character generators, etc. deviantART Staff have made quite a few bad decisions in the past, but what awaited me was shocking, to say the least, and to be honest, I felt that deviantART would surely die out in time (Say, 2010 or so).


This is the part of the news article that got me, as well as other deviants up in arms over the recent changes:



"iv. We will now allow images made from “doll generators” or “character creators” to be submitted; however these will only be allowed in Scraps due to the fact that they involve no artistic effort at all. In the future a special section may be added to segregate them from the actual artwork on the site.
v. Our prohibition against the use of screenshots of movies or television programs is unchanged.
vi. We will now allow the submission of video game screenshots providing they feature actual in-game play with the associated controls/HUD/lifebar/health/etc displayed. These particular screenshots will only be allowed in Scraps due to the fact that they are not actual artworks. In the future a special screenshots area may be created to house them away from the actual artworks on the site."



Move over PhotoBucket, deviantSTUFF is here. *sigh*


First the Help Forum closure, and now this? deviantART wasn't like this at all when I joined up back in November of 2004. Hell, I still remember seeing artwork from so many awesome artists whenever I browsed deviantART, and there wasn't the problem of having to sift through so much crap art in the first place like there is now. Sure, the idea of there being a submission limit has been suggested a few times (which I fully support), and it was shot down all those times. Both Eyefetch and Side 7 have a submission limit in place, so why not dA?. If deviantART wants to keep operating costs down, etc, then they WILL need to implement one. Otherwise, deviantART WILL die out, or become very obscure. Why do the admins not see it?


Honesfly, I think that the administrators are happy with the way things are now, and they don't really give a shit if dA's the new Myspace at all. The coming of video uploads, while a different issue, says pretty much the same thing, in my opinion.



Think about it for a minute: Would you WANT video on a site that is meant for art?


I can already predict that there will be Policy Violations/Myspace-style videos galore when the ability to upload videos is added, which won't be for some time until the speed issues are rectified (which is a good thing out of the many faults that deviantART has).


Just have to wait and see what transpires, I guess