My thing is a lot more focused than what other people are saying but

the designs & interfaces > buttons category is kinda mess
half the people seem to see it as computer graphics buttons (which I believe is the true purpose) and the other half see it as being for buttons like the ones with pins in the back with cute sayings or pictures that you put on a bag.
I think it needs to be clarified that it's for computer/web application buttons and then maybe in the fashion section there could be a section for the ones with the cute sayings.

How about acting in a checks/balances sort of fashion when the rules/etiquette people delete art for "policy violations" that clearly isn't obscene? There should be some sort of coordination in these cases, because filing an appeal to the same people who pull the art and said appeal being summarily ignored by those same people doesn't work very well.

Yes, I'm bitter.

on Mar 21, 2007 i sent you a note expressing my concerns about some concepts regarding photography, photomanipulation and alike... i put a lot of effort and thought into it. what i expected from you? at least a reply, even if it's a single sentence.
but i never got it.

I've been meaning to write about this for a long time, and now that I'm between sessions at school I suppose that I can. I know that this situation's been mentioned before and I'll mention it again now:

-- Miscategorizations --

I think that this can and should be handled better by management and would like to make a suggestion from the view point of a simple member. I've not gotten many miscats, because I pay close attention to the gallery descriptions, but they do happen to me every once in a while. When they do happen, the image that I had placed in my gallery is suddenly removed from my gallery and put into my scraps as if it is not good enough to be in my gallery.

Now I understand that the gallery admins are in charge of makeing sure that their galleries are consistant with what is supposed to be in there, therefore the gallery director has the right and duty to remove it from their gallery. However, its very cold when you just get something slapped into your scraps and you don't know why that image was considered incorrect placement or inappropriate or what the determining factor for removal was. I'm one of those people who would like to know, so maybe I can fix/change/be part of the solution to get my art in my gallery if its a piece I am really pleased with or proud of.

I also understand that gallery directors have a ton of images to go through and so its faster and easier to simply put an item in scraps and not say what the problem was to the deviant -- some of them might want to fix or eliminate the problem (whatever that problem is) or learn what the proper galley might be. I've been thinking on this very issue quite a lot and, while ignorant of the feasibility of this idea (not knowing the inner workings/structure of DA), I'll suggest it anyway.

It would be best that with each miscat, the note that goes to the deviant mentions the specific reason that their piece was removed. Now I don't mean something generic like: wrong category placement.

I had a piece that I very strongly believed was in the right category because of how it was constructed, not because of how it ended up looking and all I got was a note saying: that my piece was moved to scraps. NO information as to why. Having no idea as to why, I have to assume that the director felt it did not belong in their gallery when -- after carefully reading the gallery discription -- I placed it there because of how it was made. I even mentioned its construction in my artist comments. It felt to me like the removal was done out of hand, by a simple look and a judgement of: Oh no... this will not do... into scraps you go.

If the gallery directors could be a bit more concientious about such things, helpful in making suggestions that would help the piece fit into their gallery or even suggest what gallery it should belong to -- then that would help deviants like me who want to be correct and appropriate when posting. It might also help people who simply make a mistake -- or those who just don't know any better. I had a deviant make a suggestion on one of my pieces that I should move it into a differnt gallery and I looked at the suggested gallery and agreed that it was a better fit -- I then moved the piece to the more appropriate gallery and I got to learn something new... and I felt good about that.

I think that this would be the best way for miscats to be handled. However, I hear all the time about how the gallery directors don't have enough time to do these things. Certainly I can undersand that -- so perhaps the gallery directors should have assistants -- the directors would flag deviations for gallery reassignment. The assistants would follow through with a well worded note to the deviant and either a move to scraps or better yet -- moved to another gallery category that is a catch all category like Misc. so that the piece is not removed from the deviant's gallery, but is removed from the director's gallery.

I hope you can see that I've given this a great deal of thought -- and I've tried to come up with a solution or two that would help deviants be better deviants and gallery directors be better managers. Some people of course will not learn from their mistakes and they will still make miscats -- but others will and they will make less miscats thereby in the long run educating deviants along the way and after a great deal of time (in theory) reducing the number of miscats in the future, as well as making the most people (managers and members alike) possible happy.

Thank you for your attention.

1. I like knowing what other areas of the site there are and who is involved with these. So I really appreciate reading the different sections in the Artist Relation newsletter. I would also like to know of other opportunities in my own "art" to developing it and gaining exposure - the exposure I'm sure everyone here is into. I think letting people know about who the admins are and they they do is helpful... not so you can be policed but because it might be helpful to the development of our art and community experience.

2. It would be cool to see regular gallery newsletters from gallery directors. Maybe this exists already and I haven't stumbled on it. There is so much on DA I'm still discovering. It might be cool to have a link on submissions for the gallery and director that would oversee that type of submission. This would be so a) they can see other work in that gallery and know if they posted correctly (I suppose that would be more category than gallery related though, huh) and b) they would have a link to someone they can ask questions of about this type of submission. And if there are help areas for developing this type of that link might show too. I know this would be a TON of work to code in but you asked, I answered. I guess this would be a way to feel like the gallery directors were more accessible without them having to go through the thousands of users in their gallery and touch base.

3. As I mentioned, I really like the newsletters and find them very helpful.

4. I think I've been spammy enough in my answers. Thanks for asking.

I'm not really sure what Artist Relations does now, but I tend to be rather insular around here.

I do wish there was a 3D gallery director.