So I'm going to spend a little more time on dA to finish up the OCT I've entered, mostly for the experience and because I try not to back out on commitments I make like that.  Gonna play at least a few rounds.

OCT aside, I'm getting sick of deviantArt.  It used to be a respectable place to upload a digital portfolio.  It used to be a place where comments contained constructive criticism and I improved as an artist due to the feedback of my followers.  Now, it's anonymous, troll-laden, uninterested in me or my art.  dA keeps rolling out new, useless features that I don't use let alone even know what they do.  The interface is clunky, and as I'm gaining programming knowledge, I'm starting to become more and more dissatisfied with the way it looks, behaves, stores my information, and even stores my art.  I want my intellectual property to be treated like a true gallery, not just random uploaded shit from my childhood art days that no one ever sees again.

Also, there's a reason that many people I know refer to it as deviantPorn.  The Artistic Nude category is the most abused category, with Spontaneous Portraits coming in a close second, in my opinion.  Clearly posed pictures of a girl with knockers the size of her head do not belong in any category I consider worthy of art, with the exception of a very small amount of shots that do actually contain artistic value.  If I'm viewing Artistic Nudes, I want to feel like I'm learning about anatomy, proportions, and the structure of the human body under the skin in a way that furthers my own art and abilities to draw people and other creatures.  I don't want to feel dirty and embarrassed.

Examples:
- true artistic nude that is actually artistic: a silhouette shot of a nude man that I saw many years ago.  While his genitalia were clearly visible, the artistic statement was the focal point of the shot and not big wang.
- bad artistic nude that violates the definition of artistic: women posed in erotic ways, where the sexiness and desirability of their bodies overshadows and sometimes eliminates the artistic points of the piece, if any were present to begin with.

Before you ask, yes, I do have the mature content filter in place.  No, people don't filter their art properly; I've seen displayed shots of women sucking each other's nipples on the main page, with the strongest filter settings.  Quite frankly, it's disgusting.

And don't even get me started on the trolls and stupid people that don't know the difference between a herpderp and help.

Thank you, dA, for teaching me that the Internet is where awful people exist.