KatieHofgard

I am utterly disgusted with DeviantArt's pro ai stance, propping up blatant art laundering and bragging publicly about how much money they make ripping human artists off. Despite this, I am extremely hesitant to leave a community I've been a part of for so SO many years, especially since it's integral to my business to continue posting here. I have, however, started deleting items from my gallery for the first time ever. I wanted to warn followers in case you want to save anything, as this is my most extensive gallery online.

In case you all are outta here, you can follow me here:

Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/eskiworks.bsky.social Tumblr - https://eskiworks.tumblr.com/ FurAffinity - https://www.furaffinity.net/user/wolf-nymph/

Website (new and slowly building) - https://www.eskiworks.art/

If I do decide to deactivate my account, I will definitely give ya'll a heads up. <3

I am really having a hard time coming up with anything to say about this that won't get me banned. I still rely on platforms like DA to make money, what little of it is still going to actual artists. This isn't just a slap in the face, this is metaphorically being kicked down and spat on after taking your wallet and shoes.

They brag about enabling people who sit around and enter little keywords over and over again, using the work of thousands and thousands of people who actually worked hard to create something real. Devianart and every single person who makes money off ai imagery owes royalties. I would go as far as saying companies who use data sets with stolen artwork owe damages as well. Our careers are being negatively effected while shit-heel thieves pocket easy money off our hard work.

I literally can't afford to leave DA, I still get commissions through here (despite the drastically lowered traffic from my community in the last few years). If any staff responsible for making decisions that lead to this are reading this, I hope you get your socks wet every day and you get a persistent itchy fungal infection.

I noticed since DA's shitty AI stunt, my deviations feed has slowed to a veritable trickle. So many artists have left this site, and honestly.... power to them! DA flirted with NFTs, and willingly allowed our work to be used as AI fodder without our permission. In fact they are included in a class action lawsuit along with some other companies specifically for this.

https://www.saverilawfirm.com/ai-art-generators-copyright-litigation

I'm still sticking around, if only just to keep it as an archive. But I also still love your comments and favs, and I know lots of you aren't moving to other websites. It really has changed around here though.

Looks like they did it. I'm too tired to say much else, other than I am going to start putting a ton of my work in storage to start. I don't want to abandon my longest maintained gallery online, and all of the kind watchers and all the wonderful comments I've gotten... This is so disappointing and angering.

Deviantart's team posted this journal yesterday about Web3, which reads as their way of softly breaking into blockchain for this website.

Despite no official announcement, several of my peers and friends have deleted their galleries of works that are 15+ years old because of this. And honestly, I'm not far behind if DA ever officially shifts to Web3.

Why? So far "web3" has been fraught with fraud, theft, abuse, and used to fund harmful extremist movements. It is absolutely NOT the direction I want to see DeviantArt go. It would be a massive disappointment to see this platform do anything with blockchain, other than protect it's users from it's dangers. I wouldn't feel safe posting my work here, and would no longer want to support DA.

I want to stay here very badly. I haven't minded the many awkward updates, and even stayed after DA abolished the category system, which used to be extremely helpful. Thus I'm currently I'm on the fence since DA hasn't made any official announcement of shifting to Web3/blockchain. But man, it sounds like they're softening us up to the idea which is really REALLY disappointing.

I thought it was worth posting on my own page so ya'll can see where my head's at with this one. As always, I do post my work in other places, which you can find linked in my profile. But DA remains my most updated, most thorough archive of work.