So, you want to be popular?

The name of this community is "deviantART: Where art meets application", not: "deviantART: Where people meet popularity".

If all you want is personal popularity, gtfo, stay the hell out.

But, if you actually want your WORK to be popular, (I know, I know, scandalous!), here are some things I've learned. These things will work for everyone. Astonishing, isn't it?

Be yourself, act like you always would no matter where you were. You might be an ass, but at least we will respect you for being an honest ass.

APPLY yourself to whatever form of art you profess to create. If you do, people will take you seriously, even if they don't like you personally. If you don't we will ignore you into oblivion. If all you can do is stick figures, make them the best damn stick figures that you can. TRY, not everyone is Van Gogh or Da Vinci. That's life, suck it up.

Be part of the community, active. Don't watch people just to get them to watch you in return. We do figure it out after  while, and it really pisses us off, and you'll make it even worse when you lie about it, because it's PAINFULLY obvious that you are A)Doing it, and B) Lying about it. Watch people because you actually like what they create! (Again, I know, scandalous!) Read or view what we create, it's the easiest way to get noticed in return. We do notice when people aren't watching, and that pisses us off too.

Don't be a drama queen. We all have our problems, both here and in our everyday lives, there is no need to blow it all up and wage a war of words and actions against us, most of us will never even know who you are, nor will we care. It's okay to vent, we all do it, we all need it, but there comes a point when ya really need to stop, generally when that's all you hear from us. Ya kinda went to far, know what I mean? I know a couple myself that do nothing but attack and cause drama for popular deviants and rising stars, simply to slow them down and increase their own "popularity" at that, or those, deviants expense.

Don't flame other deviants just because someone else did, or because you can, cause it comes back to you, tenfold, and faster than you would ever believe. Speed of light baby, knife in the back. And we are all artists, so we get real creative about our revenge. You have been warned.

Seriously, you've been warned, I'd hate for you to find it out the hard way.

Don't whine about your work not getting noticed. Unless you are a nude photographer, (and it even takes time for some of them), it takes a while. We want to see if you have real talent, we want to see how you fit in. There are roughly 7.5-9.5 MILLION actual users here, (there's a ton of duplicate and "plz" accounts), time is both your enemy and your friend.

Don't concern yourself with gallery stats, those goofy things change every single day, and you'll get dizzy and go insane if you keep watching them.

Don't concern yourself with page views, they too are only an illusion. They don't mean someone is popular, in fact, a disturbingly large percentage of the time, the deviant in question is actually detested by the community at large. And for those that DON'T know, "detested" is a BAD thing.

If you dedicate yourself to your art, and to the community, you will in time gain the popularity you seek, and it will actually MEAN something, both to you and to us. The sooner you accept this and apply it, the sooner you can enjoy your time spent here.
And you will also help us maintain deviantART, and make it even better, and help it grow.

Those that are only out for themselves only HURT deviantART, they drive away talent, and they drive away business, which in turn drives away more talent. Sadly, the majority of those who would do this HAVE no REAL talent of their own, unless you count hurting others for personal gain as an art form.

I don't, and no-one should.

I am here for the ART, and the PEOPLE behind the art.

jlp April 30, 2009-Revised August 25, 2009