deviant ART

I've often wondered what deviantART would be like if it lost any of its leaders. those people who took deviantART from an idea to a reality, the few that take their personal time and resources and continue to bring deviantART from vision into the reality of the digital world. where would i personally be without their influence? where would you be if they hadn't given of themselves to this site like they did? like they do?

deviantART began as a vision; it was to be an art site that allowed for artistic freedom; a place for people to obtain constructive criticism of their art; a place for people to grow from merely being interested in art all the way to full-fledged artists.

in the beginning... deviantART was designed to blow away deskmod and skinz because they didn't offer what was needed: a place for pure artists, as opposed to mere skinners, to call home. there was a void and it was filled. $ jark coded the site, `matteo rounded up some of our oldest and most loyal deviants who've been here from the beginning; this combination began the process that has filled that void for the past 1590 days.

we all know that deviantART has become more corporate. how can it not? the site is growing rapidly; 1.1 million users at last report. but are we following that original vision; is deviantART still a lifeline for artistic freedom and constructive criticism? or is the necessary evil of commerce that is piggybacking that vision and moving along with it finally outgrowing that vision that it was a part of? is it taking over, pushing out deviantART's purpose? i am saying what everyone is thinking:

is deviantART becoming too corporate and too greedy?

i spend hours a day on deviantART; taking care of my admin responsibilities, helping out where i can, browsing forums and userpages, commenting on deviations, idly chatting with some of you even. a lot of you reading this journal know me in one form or another. deviantART is a part of my life, more so now than it was even a year ago, or the year before that, or the one before that. have any of us really taken the time to stop and consider how different our lives would be without the people that led this site from vision to creation? even recently, have we been carrying the torch of their leadership, looking back at those original ideals and working to keep them?

what if we lost a leader like $jark? i would like to say that i fully appreciate all that scott does for deviantART, but the truth is i can't; i can't even guess the extent of his work for the site. yes, he is a co-founder, he was a major code-monkey (meant with ), now scott manages the community and its active developement. he has led innovation and he has been highly critical when necessary. what if we lost a sounding board like that for our community? what if deviantART had to do without a leader and mascot like $ jark? what would we do? is it even possible?

this isn't just playful conjecture or theory; i am not joking. this is harsh reality. what would we do if $jark were gone?