aurae

Spurred by curiosity, I set out to do a bit of research to find out just how incredibly fast deviantART is growing. This should help our newer members understand just what a wild ride it has been, and how important it is to keep the community alive. It’s also a rather nostalgic trip for any deviant who has been around for a while.

[Most of my research is based on the news posts. I simply did a search for ‘deviantART’ under the news section. The articles, although unevenly spaced, do provide the numbers and dates necessary to calculate the rate of expansion.]

8/15/2000: This was the oldest news post I could find. We’ll assume this is the zero date, the date that DA had no submissions. Jark, you should be able to verify this, or provide us with the actual zero date.

10/13/2000: deviantART hits 2000 deviations - In the two months (59 days) since the day DA started, there have been 2000 submissions. This averages out to roughly 34 deviations submitted per day.

1/18/2001: deviantART hits 10,000 deviations - In the three months (97 days) since the last milestone, deviantART grew five sizes larger. Approximately 82 deviations submitted per day during this time period.

5/15/2001: deviantART hits 30,000 deviations - In almost four months (117 days) since the 10k mark, DA has tripled in size. During this time, roughly 171 deviations were submitted per day.

6/16/2001: deviantART hits 40,000 deviations - In just over a month (32 days) since the last celebration, DA added another ten thousand deviations. Compare this accomplishment to the first 10k, which took more than five months to get to! During this time, deviantART leaped up to approximately 313 deviations per day!

7/16/2001: deviantART hits 50,000 deviations - Exactly a month later (31 days), deviantART added on yet another ten thousand. Average daily submissions crept up to approximately 325.

10/17/2001: deviantART hits 70,000 deviations - Three months, (93 days) deviantART reaches 70k. More importantly, DA is now on the new servers, with a 100 megabit dedicated connection, and some serious HD space! - The average daily submissions during this time period, 323, was less than last time. This was caused by an extreme bandwidth issue, which caused transfers to be made at less than 1kb/s!

12/18/2001: deviantART breaks the 100,000 barrier - Two months, (62 days) a major milestone has been reached, the sixth digit. To think that DA was only 16 months old at the time. Submissions now up to an average of 484 daily.

5/28/2002: deviantART hops up to 300,000 deviations - A little more than five months, (161 days). Quite the gap since the last post, but I’m sure the admins were a bit preoccupied with keeping the whole site together.  Average daily submissions at a whopping 1,242!

8/20/2002: deviantART reaches another major milestone, the half millionth deviation - Three months later (84 days) DA has added another 200k in half the time! That calculates out to an average of 2380 submissions per day! At this rate, the whole first five months of DA could have been submitted in two days!!!

11/24/2002: Time of writing, deviantART is currently at 723,000 - It has been three months, (96 days) since the last milestone. We’re at a current average of  2417 submissions per day. How much longer before we reach the legendary seventh digit?

Quite the trip! I joined DA in April 2001 as rhow, just before the 30k milestone. I never imagined that this site would have grown so quickly. I’m sure the administrators are well aware of this exponential growth rate, however, I’m not sure that all the deviants do. I hate to be pessimistic and ruin the celebratory mood, but there are some serious questions to be asked.

Will deviantART die? It could, and very easily. One of the most likely scenarios is that we simply run out of financial resources. Many deviants just assume that because there are banner ads and pop-ups, that deviantART can pay its bills. This isn’t true. I can’t speak for certain about the finances, but I’m sure we’re just scraping by with DA Prints and the subscribers. Nothing angers me like hearing people accuse deviantART of being an ‘evil corporation out to steal artists’ art and money’. Don’t say that! Go buy subscriptions and prints!

DA could also face its demise through physical limitations. Although unlikely, we could end up submitting so many deviations that we run out of room to store them. A few extra massive HDs would only be a temporary solution. Could our growth rate transcend current technology? If this happens, there would be one hell of a mess trying to delete files to make room.

As a community, DA could die as well. We’re a small city right now. Within a few years, we might actually be able to apply for a seat at the UN. A problem we’re facing right now is an online version of urban decay. Let’s face it; it is impossible to know every single deviant here. The small, tight knit town that we used to be has been overrun with thousands of immigrants. Will the elite of this city isolate themselves in high-rise cliques, leaving the rest in the ghetto of the ignored? Or will this city split into several different towns and intersections, creating organized sub-communities within sub-communities? As deviants we must carefully consider our actions, as they are our future as a community. Let’s look beyond people on our devwatch, look beyond the Daily Top Favorites, and Daily Deviations. I’ve heard stories that people are getting their friends to create accounts just to rig the DTFs. Please, let’s consider our actions before we think we’re clever.

As an art haven, DA could vanish. It’s no new discovery that a large amount of our members are not here for the art. I can perfectly understand how someone who has had Photoshop for a week thinks his or her first filter fest is art; I used to do the same exact thing. However, using deviantART as a ‘free host’ for our family reunion pictures isn’t acceptable, it’s a waste of space. I know quite a few excellent artists that used to submit regularly left because of the pages of endless non-artistic crap continuously submitted. Whether we notice it or not, we are deeply hurt by every single artist who leaves. Two of my biggest inspirations, mantik and hypertron left for similar reasons. The well known nerdishdad has also left because we are ‘no longer a community’. If we need to put non-art crap online, let’s get a geocities page.

On a lighter note, we might just create every single piece of art. Its hard to imagine, but we might just create and submit every single possible artwork out there. I’ve been a deviant here for almost two years now. DA has helped shape my future. I’m pursuing my dreams, enjoying every bit of it. If deviantART never existed, I don’t know where I’d be. I love this place!

Long Live DA!