I have decided to gradually remove my deviations as I do not trust deviantART anymore. The website's integrity has been plagued by the aggressive ads, viruses and other security issues. I cannot let my art, as humble as it is, be on a website like this. The owners have shown that they care more about profit than for its userbase as they spit on those who do not purchase an account. I have come to understand that those who are running DA have lost their way throughout the years, searching for popularity instead of quality.

I don't know if it has something to do with Matthew Stephens leaving DA a bunch of years ago and Scott Jarkoff's removal of the staff ( if you don't know who they are, it's better that you don't argue with me!... ), because since then ( since 2005 ), I've seen deviantART's reputation taking blows after blows after blows... It's just too much. I've had enough. There have been lots of security related issues, too many for an important website like DA. And DA became more and more money oriented and I know money is needed to run such a gigantic website, but I just feel like they are ready to do anything for profit and this is why they made business with weird advertising companies that come from places well known for harvesting fraudulent enterprises, and these guys always come up with third party partners to cover themselves in case something like the recent virus infestation occurs. I've simply had enough of this bullshit. Seriously. deviantART simply isn't a serious website. They act like they are, but they have no idea of what they are doing at the moment. They're losing it.

DA has always been there for people who were in search of a way to improve their art, but unfortunately this open door led many, MANY unwanted people who dared to call themselves artists, and they corrupted the community. I mean, when you end up browsing the newest deviations and what you get is crap like gay Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles foot fetish, bathroom suicides, mirror self-shots, blurry macro shots of an eye and naruto characters quickly doodled in a school book, all in one page, it's enough to tell yourself that this place isn't for you anymore. Maybe I'm getting old, but when I was a teenager and I came to DA, the submitted content was better, and that's a fact older users cannot deny.

And nowadays you can barely give constructive criticism, only those who don't need it anymore are willing to receive instructions. It should be the contrary. When you publish art and what you do has obvious weaknesses, you have to expect people to comment on it constructively! It's like this that you evolve as an artist.

And to be honest I'm sick and tired of photoshop manipulations on EVERYTHING. It's like people can't do something good at first and they try to cover it up with this computer program afterwards. Sure, it's alright to add color to your black and white drawings, but at least have the decency to remove the label " traditional art " afterwards.

It's not only about drawings either. I'd say 90% of the photographers here digitaly modify their shots with computer programs, and another 90% among them do not tell others. It simply pisses me off to see a gigantic, unnatural moon in a background, with the guy saying nothing about photoshop. Sometimes it's obvious, and sometimes it's not. In both cases people should label their art to digital and/or photo manip categories as it puts the normal, real photographers in shadows. I'm not against photoshoppers but, come on, admit it in your description and don't act ( example ) as if all this heavy fog in your pic is real.

Even National Geographic Magazine ( which delivers stunning photos every month ), is having a hard time figuring out if what they get for their One Shot contest is real or not. They had to apologize to their readers a few months ago because some guy actually won and was later unmasked for using photoshop!...

For those who ignore it, I have been a DA user for many many years. This account is new, but I had an older one ( Ex-Abrupto ) that was created near the very beginnings of DA. I don't want to sound like I'm a founding member, because I wasn't. I never came close to being admitted in the community, as I never liked the idea of being part of the community itself ( especially on the forum where I had some very bad encounters ). I just write this and I don't expect anybody to support me. I also don't expect people to read this either. But I had to explain myself anyways.

That is all.