There has been alot of ranting journals out there, and you've probably already read them all. I'm sorry to say that this isn't one of them, while I don't agree with what they are doing, I think we've all read enough "this is bullshit" journals, and alot of people don't really understand what's going on, just that they're pissed off about it. This is how it looks from where I'm standing.


Ok so, you where probably wondering why last night you could only find photography on the front page (two of which where in the EXACT same category) and thought to yourself "WTF". Reading up on the comments (and responses) on $mccann's journal, DA is going out of its way to not tell you how it's deciding the DTFs ([link]) I wouldn't recommend looking for any response on their journal, $mccann is only responding to comments that agree with what they've done.

But here's how we've got it figured so far (in the simplest way to explain it):

Popular categories (popular because people like them, and have MANY posts in them, lets take "Anime" for an example, as this is a very popular category). Because so many people post in Anime it will now be less 'important' and have a harder time to make the front page.

Unpopular categories (unpopular because so few people post in them or come to this site to view them, let's use Text Art for example). Because this category is so unpopular it will now be 'more important' than other, more popular categories. It will only need a few number of faces to qualify to make the front page.

So while an "Anime" picture will now need more thousands of faves to get to the front page, a text art picture will only need say, 100. Only REALLY popular people from popular categories will make the front page, if you are unpopular from a popular category, this system has now sucker punched you in the face.


So in the end, this system is actually hurting the people it's trying to help, more than it was before. Alot of the unknown artists out there are posting their art in popular categories (the correct categories for their art), before they where just being beat out by more popular artists, now they are being beat out by more popular artists AND the system. So even if none of the artists they would be competing with for exposure on the front page posted that day, where they would normally get their day in the sun with the old system, they no longer will, because the category they where posting in is popular, therefor too far down on the list to be listed on the front page. This system caters to obscure sub categories (alot of which you will find in photography, which has roughly five million sub categories).

So if you are an illustrator, draw anime, fantasy, paint and otherwise create art with your hand and some colour, you will no longer have the chance to be featured on the front page, or even the ' popular' page anymore (where I have found many great artists who aren't popular enough to make front page, I will miss finding them there).


Not only is this hurting the little guy, it's opening up a whole new world for art theft. A lot of art thieves post in obscure categories, so their stolen images are more likely to make the front page than a non-stolen image (this has actually already happened... twice), they no longer need to have any kind of reputation, just post in an obscure catagory.

Not only that, DA is now inviting more miscategorization issues than it was before. With the many many MANY unnecessary subcategories in any given category, people will now (and already have) start posting their art in obscure places with little to no relevancy to exploit the system.

In the end, you won't get noticed if you don't categorize your art as something obscure.


While I agree with what DA is TRYING to do, I don't agree with how they're doing it, this system is simply already failing. While I'm sure they will try to tweak it to make it better (all systems have bugs to begin with), time will tell if it actually GETS better, (over 5 years of experience on DA says it won't). There are so many different ways DA could be fixing the 'fairness on the front page issue' that have been recommended by other people on DA, though they've already made it painfully clear no one is willing to listen. Things like circulating the images that appear on the front page in any given category like they do with DTFs.

It is very unlikely DA will abandon this project, no matter how much of a let down it is to the community, *HatakeKelley has already made a great suggestion for a compromise "There are better ways to make this "fair". I propose that dA either feature two rows of popular on the front page, create a separate row for this "Fair Exposure" under the popular section, or do both. Personally, I prefer the third option of having two rows of popular and one row of "Fair Exposure"

There is also a petition circulating in an attempt to counter this development: [link] if it interests you.


When I logged in last night, (I can view 7 DTFs on the front page at my resolution) 6 of the 7 being photography, two of the 6 in the EXACT same category (Photography > Still Life > Dolls and Figures), the only non-photography deviation being what later proved to be a stolen icon.

People keep saying 'well popularity isn't important', I would like to finally state for the record, that this statement is bullshit. ' Popular' is just an ugly word for 'Exposed' in a community like this. It doesn't work the way popularity does in high school. Everyone knows the goth emo kid, but he's not ' popular'. If here on DA you are popular, it means you have received exposure. So now if you trade the word ' popular' for 'exposure' the statement 'well exposure isn't important' now looks like a really retarded statement. Artists don't come to DA to not be found and not to find other artists, they come to DA to get exposure for their work and to be exposed to other great art. Many great artists arn't ' popular' because they don't have the exposure, on the flip side, many shitty artists are ' popular' because they DO have the exposure. If exposure wasn't such a big deal DA wouldn't go out of its way to change it and no one would give a damn that theres so much shit going on with the old and new DTF system.

The road to stupidity is paved with good intentions, and I am interested to see how this develops. While it might be nice to finally get some recognition for my writing, I don't want it at the expense of the lesser known and talented artists this system is screwing over.

And so we have another joyous reunion and shit and fan. I expect to see alot of drama over this in the future, and truth be told I'll probably enjoy watching it happen. I wouldn't hold your breaths on seeing the situation improve or be resolved in a way that will please the majority of DA.

But that's just how I see it, and the world would be a miserable place if it truly where as told by one so pessimistic as I.