Mainly just crossposting a rant here: Basically, DeviantArt is revamping their groups to match their new "Eclipse" style. Eclipse has gradually gotten more usable over the years so I was tentatively hopeful, until I found out that group Favorite galleries are no longer a thing in the new group pages. This is very annoying because the whole reason I made my Quark-x-Odo dA group this year and have been maintaining it so diligently is because Tumblr was pissing me off with the inability to find older art on the site through tag searches.

DeviantArt kept on looking like a better and better alternative because of the neutral group spaces that allow you to feature art with artist permission in the group Galleries, and to feature art even without artist permission in the group Favorites. Getting rid of group Favorites means I no longer have any ability to highlight the art of artists who are inactive on the website.

So basically, with this one change, dA has managed to (1) partly nullify months of my work, and (2) turn one of the few things that made them a preferable art site over Tumblr back into a non-advantage. Great job. Getting real tired of this social media bullshit. At this point I am wondering if I should just shutter the dA group, and try to create an art archive using a more conventional personal website like Neocities.

That's the main thing I had to say. I hope everyone is having a good holiday! Merry Christmas to those who celebrate. I'm currently, like, furiously trying to finish up a fic and some media reviews, plus my annual writing round up post, before the new year comes around. Wish me luck!

So I've been using DeviantArt a lot recently for a personal project. This combined with my Snowflake Challenge musings (where I pondered what is now the best site for posting adult art in the wake of Twitter's struggles) inspired me to write up a long comparison of how DeviantArt and Tumblr compare as sites for posting fanart. n = 4546 words.

( Table of contents and preliminary notes )
( Pages vs. posts )
( Post creation )
( Site performance and loading times )
( Creating an art gallery )
( Userbase activity )
( Browsing experience )
( Summary diagram )

Challenge #13 - In your own space, rec three fanworks that you did not create.

Some random recs (all art) that are NOT Quodo (I might post a Quodo recs round-up in quodo later if I have time):

• I found this series of Disney princesses wearing furisode by Sunnypoppy -- I like the way the original colors have been incorporated in the kimono and how heavy/winter-appropriate the getup looks. The Elsa and Anna ones look great, and I'm also a fan of the short skirt and long sleeves on the Tinker Bell one, and the Pocahontas design just looks really nice/classy.

• This series of (watercolor + color pencil + digital, I'm guessing?) pieces featuring Star Trek characters as mermaids by Mackoonzie (mostly Enterprise characters but some DS9 and TOS as well) -- I really like the coloring and sea lighting, and the various designs/choices of sea creatures to use as the tails are great!

• Some belated Multifandom Doodle recs?? There was so much good stuff in the last round's collection, but in particular, I loved these ink portraits of Spock and Lando Calrissian by cherryontop, and the fantastic (animated!) pixel art by ElAurianBarkeep, especially Gotham at night and Trucy and Phoenix Wright on a bridge at sunset.


Challenge #14 - In your own space, do the Fandom Wrap Challenge.

( Top 5 lists )

Challenge #15 - In your own space, opine on the future of fandom.

The prompt here focused on the Twitter explosion, so I guess I'll talk about platforms in a kind of rambling, disorganized sort of way.

( What platforms to use for fandom in the future )