[URGENT] dA Staff Member: Company Going Broke

READ CAREFULLY PLEASE. THIS IS NOT A DOOM AND GLOOM MESSAGE. KEEP THINGS IN THE CONTEXT I AM ACTUALLY PRESENTING IT IN. THANKS!

To those of you who have been trapped in this fantasy of "oh well, deviantART isn't being tyrannical, times are just hard and they need money" bullshit false narrative -- I'm pleased to be able to present to you, a journal from FORMER STAFF MEMBER dxd.

In his journal titled "To all my friends left on DA staff", he explains how economic times are not the reason things are going down hill, but rather the top heads of the company milking the lifes blood out of this website until its a dead corpse. To those of you who used to think me nutty for saying this exact same thing. I forgive you.

"Please begin looking for new jobs if you aren't already, this site is not going to last, they've cut the jobs of most of your friends, the top level is still there, still earning far more than you ever will, while everyone else on much lower income is losing their job with barely a moments notice." warns dxd -- as he details how tons of money has been spent on garbage it doesn't need, while things the site actually needs, never get implemented.

dxd explains "This website is being mismanaged, it's being run in to the ground and soon it will be broken up and sold off. The only people that will come out of this with anything other than a bitter taste are the owners who will get a lump of cash and move on to something else that their rich friends can shoehorn them in to."

A deviantARTist, Spudfuzz suggests "This is probably way to impractical of an idea and would never happen, but I wanted to put it out there anyway. Why not everyone who was laid off come together and work on a better alternative site to DA? Literally all you have to do to compete with DA at this point is not be DA. (And yanno, care about the community and all.) You're the people who have the technical skill, the only thing the guys at the top really know how to do is siphon the exorbitant profits from the skilled workforce their reign over. There have been some other alternatives made but they don't work because they're too gallery focused and do not have the same sort of means for community support, like forums even." ---

To which I responded with "I've had this same idea, too. Unfortunately, in the society we lives in these days being extremely totalitarian -- we have all been put through various levels of emotional and psychological abuse, collectively. The news is 24-7 fear. The economy sucks. The list goes on. People are rather stressed out these days. Add to that, the heartbreak and disappointment that these staff members endured when they got laid off.

It takes more than professional and technical know-how to create a competing site. It takes having a strong enough will that your desire to do the greater good exceeds the pain we feel from the collective Stockholm Syndrome of a society that we've become these days.

So yes, I am sure those 60 staff members that got laid off most likely could come together and create a competing site, quite easily. But seeing as humans aren't robots and they have emotions and such -- sometimes it is just not that easy to do something that other wise uses very simple basic sound logic.

I'm currently using a site called TSU. Its not an art site, but it is a bastion for freedom so far, and artists, activists and all peoples of open and creative mind are quite welcomed on there. There is this one deviantARTist on there who said that on deviantART, he had tens of thousands of views. But then he put his art on TSU, and got millions of views.

So, it may not be an art site and it might not be the most sophisticated thing out there. But its rock solid and the people are awesome. And their mobile app isn't a complete piece of shit."

If you decide you wish to create a TSU account, just goto the link I specified. The invite code should already be filled in, but in case its not, it is "paradigmshiftdocs4u". Please make sure you notify me once you have done so, because I have been creating a list of deviantARTists who are also on TSU, as a helpful reference. You will be added to it. Once you have created a TSU account, you can find many cool deviantARTists to follow, by checking out the listing here:  paradigm-shifting.deviantart.c…

deviantART may yet survive this. Once things hit rock bottom, deviantART will be put up for sale. A wise buyer will see the true potential of this community and begin to do right for this site and get even more filthy rich in the process. So, all we can do is hope that the wise buyer option ends up being the reality of the situation.

But for those of you who watch me and don't want to lose track of me in case this place does go belly up -- you now know exactly how to do so.

I hope you all decide to fave and share this journal entry. After all, sucks to be anyone who didn't see this coming and then POOF their shit is all gone. At least some warning would be nice. deviantART won't warn you worth a shit, so don't expect them to. Its up to us to spread the word. the deviantAPATHY staff is fucked and can not be depended upon.

HewyToonmore has also pointed me to dxd's newest journal, which I think needs your attention as well:  dxd.deviantart.com/journal/To-…

That journal was posted to reduce the "fear factor" as this reaction was not his intention, NOR WAS IT MINE, EITHER!

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AN IMPORTANT THING TO KEEP IN MIND:

---

When companies go broke, it can mean their death or their rebirth. I'm not going to assume which will happen. But just as having a fire extinguisher does not mean we absolutely 100% expect a nasty fire in our home -- this journal is not mean to imply that deviantART won't have a process of rebirth. I'm not trying to be "negative" I'm just sharing data and proposing my own fire extinguisher.

For the few over reacting negative comments I've gotten, I'm just sitting here like ...



IN CLOSING:

In my opinion, it won't die. In my opinion, its death is highly improbable and unlikely. And I feel strongly that I am correct.
But I also understand that my opinion doesn't determine the Universe or fate or any of that.

Therefore, my "just in case" measure with TSU is not for people to "backup their art to another site".
If you wanna back up your art, do it to a DVD, flash drive and another hard drive all at the same time.

My concern is the humans that make up the community.

As long as the humans remain connected with each other, then it doesn't matter which website url they remain connected on.

To me, the people of a site is what make a site great and it is the community itself I am looking to make sure is preserved.

TSU is the only site other than deviantART that I've ever seen that has an equally strong sense of community as deviantART.
I wouldn't be suggesting it otherwise.

So that is the method to my madness. My journal is not doom and gloom. It is a respect for the community.

But -- people will read this journal and see whatever they wanna see, which won't necessarily be what I'm actually saying.


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