DA is up for sale

[Myr]

I posted this in my journal at DA and I'm going to repost it here. I'm just curious to get an idea of what people are thinking.This site just reeks of being put up for sale to be taken over by a larger company. Take a look at the big picture here:

1) Shake up in the management and control of DA. That Jark person gets kicked out by someone that's hungry for power and doesn't honor their contracts. He swoops in at the end when the site is already profitable rather than being a part of it the entire time. His takeover is quiet and effective.
2) Stupid new ideas come out and an emphasis is put on spending money on DA. We have that ugly shop icon, the "be generous" things on our pages, and now a "no more ads: subscribe..." thing under the google ads at the top and bottom of the page. Before this they were considering an artist rating system to tell the good ones apart from the bad ones in the eyes of DA.
3) A TOS (terms of service) agreement change about how the copyrights on images are handled. This appears to deal with what would happen if someone else took over the site that they could not claim the artworks of users as their own because they're on the site. What would happen if someone else took over....doesn't get much clearer than that about what the intentions of the DA management currently are.

Take a step back and really look at the big picture here. DA is for sale. The greedy corporate bastard at the head of this company is the same as every other greedy corporate bastard that's out there raping people and organizations for more and more money. This happened to my dad's work and to where I used to work at. Nearly my entire family has been affected by these corporate idiots taking control and then trying to sell it off ASAP and get as much money as possible for whatever they just got. The warning signs are perfectly clear here. DA is looking for someone to take over the site and buy it off of them so the guys at the top can fill their wallets with millions of dollars of cash.

The potential buyers right now could be:

1) Yahoo
2) Fox Interactive Media, Inc
3) Ziff Davis Media, Inc

There's probably others too, but those are some of the biggest who could potentially use a site like DA to promote their interests. DA is gone. The site you know of right now is the site the people at the top want to get rid of so some corporate monster can come in and take things over. Not that the current administration bothers to listen to anyone, but the taken over site would likey suffer from an identity crisis along with other various annoying problems kind of like what Gateway went through a few years ago when they tried to get away from the cow stuff only to wake up and go back to it recently.

Granted, sites competing with DA aren't exactly up to par, but this makes more more glad than ever I can go to a place like FA (Fur Affinity) where we don't have any of this corporate bullshit that plagues so many people in the world today.



Oh yeah, and I'm still drawing. New artwork coming soon...like this week.
-MyrWhile you might all not agree with my conclusion that the site is for sale or up for acquisition of some kind, I'm pretty much certain it's going to happen since my family has had to deal with this so many times in so many ways.

[Silver R. Wolfe]

If it happens it happens. The direction of DA doesn't concern me as long as I am still able to post my art there for free. In the end, for artists, that should be all that really matters. The whole political drama of the site doesn't affect me as long as it isn't chasing my friends away.

[Maverynthia]

I left dA a Loooong time ago when they blocked normal users from using the search feature. A feature I found vital to an art site. Making it from snobby premium users just tweaked me the wrong way. So I mostly just use my account to commont on other people's work. I do have 1 image up, and it's from a tutorial I did so if anyone takes it....no skin off my back...

I'd frankly like to see dA fail based on their policies and their overpriced printing shop. I already have a Greasemonkey script that removes the ad banner. I will state though that I hate ads, I refuse to click on them. If your going to advertise something make it small and out of the way and for something someone brwsing a furry site might want...like a large sized vibrating plush zebra toy.

[kitetsu]

i wonder what DA would be like in the hands of a corporate giant.

[Radric]

i wonder what DA would be like in the hands of a corporate giant.

Putty?

[yak]

Windows? :)

[Darkmark]

Like I care who owns it. Admin changes don't affect me, I just have a place to show off my stuff, get constructive critiscism, and find other artist with similar tastes.

All a buy-out will do is change the banners on the site. It's one of the biggest art server sites out there, and while there's way too much clutter on the pages, you get more exposure.

After all, here on FA, about three-quarters of the people who +Fav and +Watch my stuff have no art of their own and are just fave whores. Another ten percent or so have maybe a single picture in their gallery.

So, if DA changes hands, who cares? As long as they don't make it a paid-members-only site (since that would probably exile about 90% of their users) then it won't matter to most.

[Edge]

Yet another reason why I'm so glad I've ditched DA and discovered Fur Affinity. That, and I couldn't give a crap about 98% of the images, with 1% being mildy interesting and the last 1% being the ones I actually liked.

[Mr Cullen]

Windows? :)
Pure fuckin' genius that one!

[Vorotaev]

Like I care who owns it. Admin changes don't affect me, I just have a place to show off my stuff, get constructive critiscism, and find other artist with similar tastes.

All a buy-out will do is change the banners on the site. It's one of the biggest art server sites out there, and while there's way too much clutter on the pages, you get more exposure.

After all, here on FA, about three-quarters of the people who +Fav and +Watch my stuff have no art of their own and are just fave whores. Another ten percent or so have maybe a single picture in their gallery.

So, if DA changes hands, who cares? As long as they don't make it a paid-members-only site (since that would probably exile about 90% of their users) then it won't matter to most.
One of the biggest concerns with a change of administration is a change of policy. For example: a new, conservative adminstration takes over, and determines that violent pictures or pictures with nudity are no longer acceptable. That screws over a lot of artists, and results in the censorship of a lot of otherwise valid artwork.

Or, they change the Terms of Service to something even more anal than what they already have. And since you do sign away some of your rights to your art -- perpetually, at that, which to my knowledge extends even past you removing your art from their site -- you have to be concerned with how the people who have that investment in your art might opt to use (or abuse) it.

[Mr Cullen]

One of my biggest concerns over change of ownership for DA, is whos going to complain about it next. It always cracks me up to see a bunch of people who really have no idea whats going on, to complain and whine.

[Howitzer]

I agree Mr. Cullen. As long as the ads remain unoffensive and don't interfere with the sites usability, I'm find with it.

[Killy the Fox]

I find it just the more interesting how Spyed Keeps up that he's one of the original founders as.. why would he do that in the first place?

http://web.archive.org/web/20001018205350/www.deviantart.com/contact.php
I mean, all evidence is so badly against him you wonder to what the point is.

Why try to win the hearts of an community by imitating an co-founder wen your probably out to get ride of DA in the first place? The whole actually-no-TOS-revision revision does suggest DA wants to stay open to not lose it's appeal to be bought but it all doesn't fit together.

[NightfallGemini]

http://img306.imageshack.us/img306/1489/47379613en.gif

ATTENTION SHOPPERS

INTERNET FIGHT OUTSIDE

INTERNET FIGHT

[Dragoneer]

i wonder what DA would be like in the hands of a corporate giant.

Putty?
David Putty.

[kitetsu]

One of the biggest concerns with a change of administration is a change of policy. For example: a new, conservative adminstration takes over, and determines that violent pictures or pictures with nudity are no longer acceptable. That screws over a lot of artists, and results in the censorship of a lot of otherwise valid artwork.

Or, they change the Terms of Service to something even more anal than what they already have. And since you do sign away some of your rights to your art -- perpetually, at that, which to my knowledge extends even past you removing your art from their site -- you have to be concerned with how the people who have that investment in your art might opt to use (or abuse) it.

That's exactly what i'm concerned about. It's like having a new asshole principal in a shitty high school, armed with a new army of asshole teachers that enforce fucked up repercussions.

[dragonfan]

i may still be at DA since december 29th 2004 but i don't mind keepng my
stuff there i hate to see most of my stuff gone there even though it is a great art community to be at.but i don't want to see it go up for sale and stuff even all the members there would be gone and i would have no place
to submit my pixel art anywhere so that's one reason why i have to stay at DA without it i would be submitting less than what i have there now