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Major upheaval on DeviantArt!
Published on July 29, 2005 By CerebroJD In WinCustomize News
There is much speculation as to exactly what has occurred at DeviantArt in the last day or two.

No one seems to be able to talk about it very much, but its clear that there has been a shift in who exactly runs what on DeviantArt. Jark, the co-founder of DA, appears to have been demoted and/or fired from that position. There are many indications of this, the foremost being his member symbol prefix, no longer the $ of the past. Could this be happening to such a honest and driven individual? Jark has given so much to the community of both DeviantArt and many other art communities around the internet.

Several critical policies on DeviantArt were broken in this restructure, including the near-sacred rule of never removing comments. This freedom of speach and action formed one of the core foundations of DeviantArt: The ability to speak up in all situations and have your opinions heard. Deviations were removed, comments edited, and people banned in order to keep something quiet. No rock-solid details are available, but Jark himself seems supportive of the measures taken by fans to lend their shoulders to his cause.

Updating as info and sources are found.

Onestar's DeviantArt page. Onestar proposes a one-day hiatus on the uploading of all files to DA.

Jark's DeviantArt page. Some interesting reading here, but not much detail. Check his deviations.

Deviation/article by leliathomas. Speculation and theories and many facts pertaining to the event.

Jark's other page, off of DeviantArt. Snoop around... some VERY interesting stuff there.

Bookdiva's personal crusade! She's adding everyone who supports Jark to a massive list in her DA Journal.

Important! Actual semi-official statement from higher-ups. Jark responds too! (Caution, huge image file)



Comments (Page 4)
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on Aug 02, 2005
Well i deleted all of our skins off of there and won't be renewing my subscription come december.
on Aug 02, 2005
I wondered why my 'deviation watch' suddenly got smaller....
on Aug 02, 2005

The problem with DA is it's full of kids who were still in nappies when the community was born. Here's one sad comment from the messageboard:

"...who is jark? I never heard of him till four days ago..."

Sigh

on Aug 02, 2005
If that e-mail prooves to be authentic, things become very clear : http://www.t52.org/
on Aug 02, 2005
...
on Aug 02, 2005
Carl...that email speaks volumes....
on Aug 02, 2005
I think a "see, I knew it" is in order.
on Aug 02, 2005
It sounds to me as if there's a conflict between typical business practice of treating "customers" as a commodity and the more altruistic thoughts of treating "customers" like people and friends.

There are few sites out there that balance the needs of the business with the strength that a sense of community creates. It's a difficult balancing act. Mostly because the people with the power forget what it's like to be a customer. They start focusing on the bottom line, reducing services, focusing more on new customers than old, and suddenly their community is gone.

So many businesses wonder why their customers are so fickle. They wonder why their customers are always jumping off to other businesses, or switching back and forth. It's a problem that they've created by not listening to their customer community.

So there are two strategies for profit.
1. Work hard to build a community around a good product.
2. Create a mediocre product and work hard to constantly bring in new customers and up-sell, up-sell, up-sell.

Hmmmm... Which is Stardock's model?
on Aug 02, 2005
Spyed said WHAT? He was in the team of people that started Deviant Art? I want to know what the old school people think about that... Jafo, Bakerstreet, Frogboy, craeonics, DavidK, and so many other that I have known since Dec 2001 that have been on the scene way before me.

Did Spyed help start and create Deviant Art?

?????

Anw why, for almost 4 or 5 days, was the about page on Deviant Art missing almost everything I was USED to seeing?
http://about.devaintart.com

< spam >esourcemagazine won;t be like DA cause its going to be non-for profit. Jark and others are welcome to join once its open for mass consumption...
on Aug 02, 2005
In reply to michael havard:

It is funny how some businesses do what you say even though most of the money of a business comes from repeat customers. Getting new customers is a very hard task.

As another said in this thread, many of the people who started DA or are on it now tend to be kids. If Spyed really did what he did as a business move, it was a poor choice that doesn't seem to represent someone who knows much about business.

It can be cut throat, indeed, but you don't make moves to alienate your core customer. Those are risks that end businesses.

DA survival will depend not olny on good business practicies, but on the ability to clean up mistakes (mistakes happen, its your ability to recover that makes or breaks you).



If this whole thing isn't just a marketing ploy for DA birthday and to get community involvment to increase (and it still would be a bad risky idea but at least that type of risk can be quantified as a recoverable bet) then it just a real bad business move, period.
on Aug 02, 2005

One word answer to #53....'1'.

One word answer to #54....'no'.

One word answer to meaning of life....'42'.....

on Aug 02, 2005
Quite a revealing e-mail c242.

If that e-mail is true, and I have no reason to doubt it,
it seems indeed that deviantArt is now the victim
of a "hostile takeover" by a couple of persons who
are hell-bent on destroying the site and in the process
rob it of all the money the members have provided.
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