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Celebrating Deviousness - March 2013

Deviousness Award





Congratulations to `
lintu47





Kusudama

lost child
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Seniority Announcements - January 2013

This article marks the latest additions to the dizzy height of Senior members in our community. With just over 1000 deviants holding the highly saught after ` -- it's clearly a moment that deserves recognition.
:faq29:
So what does it take to become a Senior? That's a question many have asked and have never really been able to get a straight answer on. Some have gained Seniority as a thank you for their time spent as a Volunteer, or to recognise their contribution to a particular project or collaborative action. Some have gained Seniority because of their community spirit, providing help and assistance to many other deviants and taking time out to promote the work of others in the community. 
Some people have received Seniority because of their artistic endevours, having a positive influence on their peers by sharing resources, providing constructive criticism and by being a voice that stands out above the many other

Gallery Makeover ProjectHello everyone

Recently my team and I worked tirelessly on a project to help improve the gallery descriptions and thumbnail examples. While that project was indeed tedious with almost 4,000 categories in our system, it was also educational. What I learned from sorting through thousands and thousands of categories was that we have a lot of redundancy and a lot of categories that seem to have been created on a whim that are now simply homes for junk.
Over the years, the desire to appease niche communities and people who just wanted a specific area has led to some categories that go up to 4 levels deep, and it's really no wonder it's so confusing for people to figure out where to submit their artwork.
The conclusion I've come to is simplicity. While I'm not about to rip apart everything and make 6 stand alone categories, I do believe that there is a lot we can do to simplify the category tree. That includes some of the following:
1. Merging categories that ma

Did You Know? - Tutorials in Writer, Wishlists

Seniority Announcement - June 2012

This article marks the latest announcements detailing the latest additions to the dizzy height of Senior members in our community. With just over 900 deviants holding the highly saught after ` -- it's clearly a moment that deserves recognition.
:faq29:
So what does it take to become a Senior? That's a question many have asked and have never really been able to get a straight answer on. Some have gained Seniority as a thank you for their time spent as a Volunteer, or to recognise their contribution to a particular project or collaborative action. Some have gained Seniority because of their community spirit, providing help and assistance to many other deviants and taking time out to promote the work of others in the community.
Some people have received Seniority because of their artistic endevours, having a positive influence on their peers by sharing resources, providing constructive criticism and by being a voice t

CR Newsletter January/February 2013 Director of Community Relations :iconmoonbeam13: :
Table of Contents
1. New Submission Process and Thumbnail Examples
2. New Galleries and Gallery Additions or Change Requests
3. Why Wasn't I Chosen?
4. Volunteer Openings in Community Relations
5. Community Projects
6. Official Contests
7. Project Educate 2013
8. Art History Project
9. News from the Chats and Forums
10. News from the Galleries
11. Vacation Notice
1. New Submission Process and Thumbnail Examples
In my opinion, one of the greatest advantages to the New Submission Process, are the thumbnail examples and descriptions that appear when you're selecting a category. It's no secret that we have misplaced deviations throughout the galleries and it's probably the most complained about topic I deal with on a daily basis. My team and I have been working hard to improve the descriptions and thumbnail examples for all of the galleries, and I'm happy

A Note on Daily Deviation FeaturesAt ten features into my tenure as Community Volunteer for Abstract & Surreal Photography I am noticing a certain trend in response to abstract and surreal Daily Deviations. I shall address some of the recurring themes here, and hopefully answer some questions along the way. At this point I would like to mention that I am talking about a small and vocal minority, and I sincerely thank the overwhelming majority for supporting the featured artists and their work. You're what makes this site such a great community.
With that said, let's get to the troublesome themes I am coming across.
The "This is crap!" Argument
As an observer and a critic, you're entitled to think that something isn't very good. However, exclaiming as such on the comments of a piece of work that an artist has spent time and energy creating is not only counter-productive, but rude and insulting, especially if it's not followed up with some advice about how you think they could make their

Dictionary Holiday 2012 EntryThis article will be dedicated to all things Holiday 2012 on deviantART. Keep an eye on this for contests, projects, events, giveaways, and deals associated with the Holidays. If you think we've missed something that you think should be included, send us a note and we'll update the article!
#dA-Dictionary
Official Articles
Holiday Headquarters
$Ikue would like to remind us of the Help Desk's Holiday ClosuresHappy Holidays from #hq
Projects
The official Holiday Card Project

PE: Want to be a `Senior or ^CV?»So you want to be a `Senior or ^Community Volunteer?«
Than follow your goal! Nobody will stop you.
Hello!

I will tell you a bit about the basics on how to become a Senior or Community Volunteer.
The fine finishings and last step to be a Senior or Community Volunteer you must accomplish by your own.
`

Seniors are chosen by $fourteenthstar. She reviews each Senior suggestion you send to her as a note and posts a Seniority Announcement Journal with a list of deviants she choosed who deserve a Seniority `tick.

There is no set schedule for when these announcements occur.
Seniority Announcements 2013
January 13, 2013
:iconcommunityops:
But how do you FINALLY get on this list?
The basic information in short is told in the :faq29:
Seniors are chosen for their.

A Smattering of Lit NewsFeatured Thingies (everything in this section is new, yes)
May CLiterature Update
Be A Critic vol. 14 - deadline May 28
CAKE VS PIE (you know which side you're on

) - deadline June 21
Dialogue Workshop - deadline June 20
LTdAB Poetry Slam submission folder now open - deadline May 31
Flash Fic Month!
Live-Love-Write's Synergy
FOTOFriday - Maastunnel Syndrome
Mea Culpa Contest Results

CR Newsletter - November/December 2012 Director of Community Relations :iconmoonbeam13: :
Table of Contents
1. Happy Holidays and Merry New Year
2. Volunteer Openings in Community Relations
3. Community Projects
4. Official Contests
5 Project Educate 2011/2012
6. Art History Project
7. News from the Chats and Forums
8. News from the Galleries
1. Happy Holidays and Merry New Year
As the old year begins to fade into the sunset, it is customary to reflect on the passing year and make plans for the upcoming one. Some do this in the form of resolutions, some people make action plans, some people just swing into the new year the same way they swung out of the old one

Whatever way you intend to welcome in 2013, I hope you're surrounded by love and that you do it safely!
I've been reflecting on the year and like many, with some focus on the unimaginable events of the last few weeks. Specifically, the shooting in Newtown. I know that it's "human nature" to want to find

Everyday we're CV'ingAs a Community Volunteer - I do as much or as little within the community that I feel comfortable doing. We're not pressured to do this and that, we don't even have to give a Daily Deviation every day, we choose how we promote our selected galleries/chats and forums and we're not fixed to any specific rule on how much or how little we do. But I do believe that it's important to share with you just what the community volunteers do and why we do it. More importantly it's so easy to get lost on this site full of many people - and miss out on the awesome that's going on. So I'm going to share with you exactly what the latest awesome is...
Project Educate
Almost every week since October last year the Community Volunteers have been working hard both independently and as part of small teams to bring You Project Educate.
Project Educate is about bringing forward art forms whether they are popular or overlooked and giving

Getting the Most out of dA: CommentingUsually, when you read something involving 'Commenting', you think of deviations and the commenting platform that allows other members of the community to voice their thoughts and opinions on the art shown. However, what is pretty evident, and something that most of us may forget, is that deviantART runs on the ability to give and get comments, be it on pieces of artwork, our profile pages, +forums, and everywhere else in between.
In a sense, without the ability to give and get comments, deviantART wouldn't be much of a website, much less #1 of online art communities around. Comments are not solely the cause of what makes deviantART what it is, but it has a huge impact on a lot of things. By giving and getting comments, not only do we interact with other members to really make this a community, we also have the ability to get our voices heard.
It's quite an odd concept with us all facing screens, typing out our thoughts and opinions, but one thing we shouldn't forget is that commen

Project Educate: Haiku, Senryu, Tanka, and RengaAs part of Poetry Forms week at #projecteducate, we wanted to go into a bit of detail regarding some of the more well-known Eastern forms of writing. The same way there are many forms of Western poetry, there are many forms of Eastern poetry, and ultimately this article will barely begin to scrape the surface of even the forms that it actually touches on, but within this article, there are links to resources that delve further into the subject matter, and all are worth reading if the subject interests you.
Haiku & Senryu

Haiku, in the classical Japanese sense, is a small poem comprised of 17 characters known as on (sometimes onji). These characters each represent one unit of sound, and each unit of sound has its own meaning which then contributes to the overall haiku. The 17 on are split into phrases of 5, 7, and 5, which is where the most commonly know

Did You Know? - Llama Trading, dA on Twitter

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Want to Become an Alpha Tester? Now's Your Chance!

Sat Feb 23, 2013, 11:19 AM

Update: A massive thank you to everyone who sent in a application to be an alpha tester! Applications are now closed. Due to the volume of applications it will take a few more days to finish going through them. Users will be contacted if they are successful in getting a place, so keep an eye out! - $DEVlANT

Calling all beta testers, bug lovers and feature loving deviants.

I have exciting news! #devBUG is looking for some new deviants to be Alpha Tester!

But what is an alpha tester?

An Alpha tester is a bit like a Beta tester only they get to test out new features before Beta testers do.

So, what do alpha testers get to do?

As an alpha tester you'll have the chance to talk to staff and developers about new and upcoming features, and help find and report any bugs that there may be, before it goes to beta testers or the general public.

On top of that, you'll be able to see the #devBUG issue tracker containing bug reports submitted by other users during beta testing, helping to prioritise tickets and answer questions, giving the best possible experience to beta testers and users when they see the final product.

What do I need to become an alpha tester?

There is only one requirement for being an alpha tester, and that is that you must currently be an official beta tester - if you're not, you can find out how to become one here.

There are however a few qualities that are useful, but not essential for becoming an alpha tester

Love for bugs - Nothing is ever perfect first time and things do occasionally break. If you enjoy fiddling with features and picking things apart, alpha testing would be the perfect way of doing that, and in the process you'll make deviantART a better place for everyone.

HTML - It may be useful (but not essential) to know the very basics of html and how to debug to help get useful info to the developers so they can squish bugs faster. (anything beyond is a plus )

Talkative - Being an alpha tester gives you the chance to talk to staff and give your feedback on features, so if you have an idea or think something could be improved let us know!

Helpful - It's always nice to help out other deviants.

Enthusiastic -

Do I get anything for being an alpha tester?

Yes!

You get this cookie.

And a bug squishing alpha tester badge to make your friends jelly.

And the chance to make it even easier to get your opinions and feedback heard by staff.

And this gummy bear.

And the chance to play with features that may never even be released.

And that warm fuzzy feeling inside for knowing you're making deviantART a better place.

_{_{_{And maybe a few other things along the way.}}}

I'm in, where's the button to apply?

Applications are now closed

Stay devious,
$DEVlANT

#devBUG blog

318 Comments

Want to Become an Alpha Tester? Now's Your Chance!by $DEVlANT

Journals / deviantART, Inc. / Tech & Features

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$namenotrequired Mar 18, 2013 Student Interface Designer

No it's ok ^^

(1 Reply)

~Lifeisstillsweet Mar 11, 2013 Hobbyist Photographer

No, I applied about a week ago.

$namenotrequired Mar 11, 2013 Student Interface Designer

ah OK just making sure

~Lifeisstillsweet Mar 11, 2013 Hobbyist Photographer

Why does it not say I applied. Because I have this strange feeling I typed my username in wrong when I was applying for this...

$namenotrequired Mar 11, 2013 Student Interface Designer

Oh no I was just checking the most recent ones because your comment was from a few hours ago. So if you applied a week ago you won't be in there, that's normal

You don't have to worry.