Deviantart - Behind the smoke

The huge drama and anger about the price change is understandable.

But, had they bothered to communicate to the general membership a reason and need to increase revenue, as well as implemented a smaller change, alittle bit of warning would have saved everyone a LOT of trouble.

Yes they could have easily hosted a donations fund, fundraiser or something of that sort, bot by making somewhat affordable things now unaffordable for most. But if you take a closer look it is a impossible thing to do.. I guess?

Also, if the website is in danger of failing financially , making higher prices and changing the way you pay for them won't save anything. Local businesses has proven that. People go elsewhere then.


Thoughts and Concerns on the Core MembershipdA is a site made up of many differnt kinds of artists with many different kinds of goals. A "one-size-fits-all" premium membership is not going to work, especially when considering a good sized amount of artists on this site are teens with limited incomes. There needs to be a happy medium between dA making money and the users being able to afford to keep paying dA. Many users had a hard time as it was paying for memberships, but to raise the price all the way across the board only insures that the memebrs who were struggling to pay will now drop the idea of buying a membership altogether. As it stands, there is too high a price for too few incentives for what is appearing to be a large portion of users. 
To remedy this, I propose that dA have 3 levels of premuim memberships. 
~ 1st level, about $20 or $15 a year
 * ability to use custom boxes
 * ability to use journal skins
The target audiance for this membership is teens and hobbyists who want their profiles to lo < Neat idea.


<da:thumb id="550990578"/>  < Former staff member talks about it.


Some perspective on 'core membership'I know this is probably gonna be a long journal, but if you manage to read all the way through the end you might perhaps even get to learn a few things. 
Furthermore I want to state that my opinion on the matter is pretty much neutral. I'm not with DeviantArt on the matter, nor am I against them. I just want to make people see things from the perspective of a 27 year old woman that has been in the web industry for the last decade.
The internet is not free
First of all, and most important thing to realize, is that the internet is not free. Everyone who lived through the early ages of web 1.0. (old people like me) knows that it costs money to run a website. Back in the day user content wasn't a thing. Whenever you wanted to put something on the internet, you needed to get a domain name and rent a piece of web hosting and that would cost you a monthly fee. Gradually < She adds valid points , read it.

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