You may have noticed some big changes in my gallery. This journal wants to be an explanation for those changes, mostly for all my friends here who maybe are wondering what happened.

After the implementation of the "Share Buttons" imposed by deviantART, I felt I had to take two lines of action if I wanted to stay here - and I want to stay here, because I just can't think to loose all the friends I made on this site, friends whose works, comments and criticism have been for me a great inspiration and encouragement in these two years.

The first line of action is practical. After the introduction of the "Share Buttons", I just have to protect my work. I already gave reasons for that in this journal, so I won't bother you repeating them here: if you're interested, go there and read.

(Additional information on why you should really protect your artworks can be found in the comments of this deviation (the part in italics), advice given kindly to me by ~Weasels-Revenge. They are up now as a News Article too, Question about Sharelinks. You can also refer to his journals on the matter to have a thorough treatment of the subject in a much more professional way than I could ever think to offer.)

The second line of action is driven by protest. Something that won't be so much effective, I know, because I'm only a micron of this enormous website. But... it's like when you go to the supermarket and don't buy Jaffa grapes, or Coca-Cola, or Nestlé products: you know that they won't ever even notice the lack of your two euros, but when you go home you feel a damn lot better.

Ok, enough blabbing. Shortly, this is what I did (I'm still in the process of doing it, and it's so slooow it'll take me days to complete):



I'm really sorry for this. I know this will mostly affects my watchers and friends, reducing the quality of their browsing in my gallery, and this enrages me... but please understand me: this wasn't meant to protect my works from YOU, my watchers and friends, but from others. As one administrator of this site declared [link] , "[The Share Buttons Feature] isn't for the convenience of the artist; it's for the convenience of the user--the user who comes to the site and wants to show the world one of the images. Why would we let the artist control the user experience for other people using deviantART?"

I won't give any further comment on this. I already did it in this journal. So, sorry, my friends - and I really mean it - but I'm not here for the convenience of the [insert social network's name here]'s average user who now can share my art everywhere he wants without my permission so it can be grabbed and ripped with a simple right-click by all the others [insert social network's name here]'s users.

Plus, the watermark offered by deviantART sometimes is ineffective, so I used a personalized one.




The reasons are the same as the above, and my apologies too. No need to repeat them. Now all^(*) the deviations in my gallery have a maximum resolution of 800 px.

^(*) - For obvious reasons, the only deviations I didn't change are the wallpaper packs and all the artworks I posted as absolutely free for use in the first place.




No way I'm letting deviantART make money on my works after they decided to open them up without my permission to the whole world. Well, I've never been a big print seller in the first place, but I hope you'll understand that this is not the point. I'd rather loose three dollars then let deviantART make ten. If you want something mine to print, I will be honored: just note me with your email and, if you are one of my friends here on deviantART, I will be very happy to send you the hi-res file. I'd rather give my works for free to my friends than contribute to enhance the income of people who showed so little respect for the artists.




Sorry again. As I stated in my stock account's journal, those works were there for use inside deviantART. Now this is no more granted, so they are no more. You fuck up with the whole concept of "community", then you have to expect the "community spirit" to decrease dramatically. (The following is mostly for my fellow 3D'ers: I will let you know as soon as I find a place to put my free models and textures in.)


Ok. That's all about the changes, more or less. I'm really sorry for that, but the only other option was to leave, and I never wanted to. I really hope you will understand.




Now, if you like, please go on reading. The following are some advice I was often asked for in the last weeks.








Use the watermark function deviantART provides you or, better, make a new one which fits you better. This, sadly, is impossible with literary works.




No matter what dA is saying or implying with those buttons under your works, YOU STILL HAVE THE RIGHT TO CLAIM OTHERWISE. Also notice that, by simply doing this, anyone who links your art, for example, on Facebook will break Facebook's own Terms of Service as explained (again) by ~Weasels-Revenge in his journals and, more precisely, in his "How the TOS of DA and FB Actually Protect You".




It's sad, but it's time to grow up. This is business - and by all means dA has all the rights in the world to be business, being a privately-owned entity, so no fuss on that. Just stop believing that this is about art. This is a commercial website that has artistic content. You and only you (the content providers) are the artists here.




If you are doing this because you don't feel anymore at ease with deviantART, that's right of course, it's your choice and your feelings. But if you're thinking to do that as a form of protest, or to "draw attention" to the issue at hand in hope your move will change dA's attitude, forget it. dA doens't give a dAmn about this: in business the really important thing is numbers, not content. For any gallery that goes down, there is an average of 8-10 new deviants per minute (go to the TODAY link above your page and see by yourself), and this is all that really counts. If protest is your only motivation to take down your gallery and go elsewhere, please stay here, protect your works and keep on enjoying the art and the comments of all the friends you have here.




This is business, so hone your protest. Target money, not art. Stop giving away subs, buying prints, devwear and such. I'd say also "don't renew your subscription", but this is pointless: no matter what the wonderfully elegant "Needs Premium Membership" captions say, Subscribers pay to not see the ads, Non-Subscribers pay via the ads put on their page when they are here: if you sub or not sub, the only thing it will change will be the quality of your browsing.



_____




<sub>NOTE: These above are only advice and reflect my point of view, so of course do what you want. I'm so fine about this that if you seriously like your works to be shared anywhere, let me know and I might even help you in the limits of my time and possibilities.



I will be less active for a couple of days because I want to go thru my gallery and fix all the above, but I'll be back fulltime in a blink.</sub>



Love,
Stefano