°arc

Note the below is simply personal opinion and I don't guarantee for it to be factual. I never signed a NDA at deviantART so I'm not under any obligation to keep my thoughts private.

I've just read Spyed's journal in response to the furor associated with °jark being removed from staff.

The history is wonderful, except it neglects to mention how the community was nurtured and developed, and that's the primary reason why this site developed into the juggernaut it is today. I think there are a few falsifications that I've noticed in the verbatim that gets recycled every time Spyed's short history of deviantART is brought up:

1. The first year is glossed over, making it seem unimportant

The difference between deviantART and other well established sites of the time in August 2000 was minimal. deviantART's popularity was not due to a focus on art, especially considering deviantART was entirely geared towards desktop customization for the first several months.

The site was successful because of the huge amount of effort that was invested in the community by °jark, °matteo, myself, °tack and °attila. Every development in the community (both within deviantART and the desktop customization scene in general) was actively discussed by all the main staff members, and as a result we wound up with a large group of hardcore users that became our biggest advocates. We placed a large emphasis on establishing good relationships with active and influential people in the community so that they'd become involved with deviantART. So when Spyed mentions that he worked without pay because he had such a strong belief in the community, it should be acknowledged that the most major developments in this area took place in the first year when he had zero involvement with this area.

2. Spyed as the site's savior

Spyed saving the site is true to an extent, but the underlying reasons for his involvement should be examined. The staff members were not given a lot of information about it at the time so this may not be 100% accurate, but from what I've gathered deviantART was partly in trouble because the original venture capitalists (Michael Ovitz and such) that Spyed worked with dropped their support. So yes, it was awesome to be able to wrest control of the site from these VCs who wanted to pull the plug. But weren't these the same venture capitalists that Spyed allowed to become involved with deviantART in the first place? If things had been done right from the start, he wouldn't have allowed such a dangerous situation to occur. The business side of things was Spyed's domain for the first year, so while it's cute to say that he stepped in and saved the day, I can't help but wonder what might have happened had this area been properly managed from day one.

3. Spyed is not a co-founder of deviantART

It's interesting how Spyed being involved at the start now apparently equates to him being a co-founder. Using this logic, Chris, Mikeylove and myself are all co-founders too since we helped out in some respect at the beginning. Sounds ridiculous? That's because it is. Setting up a messy business deal doesn't make you a co-founder, nor does it make you a savior when you eventually fix the botched deal a year later. It's semantics to an extent, but we've always considered it to be Matteo / Jark as co-founders. The staff page had wording similar to this when we first created it, and the core administrators from the first year never considered Spyed as a co-founder. I don't see this being a variable that changes over time.



I felt pretty awful on a personal level when I heard that Jark had been removed without so much as a decent explanation. He doesn't deserve that, and above and beyond all others he was the driving force behind deviantART that stuck through it through thick and thin. That's exactly why his involvement and effort has been more significant than anyone else, and it's also why he didn't deserve to get fucked over. Spyed, drop the bullshit pretension that your work on this site is somehow a noble endeavor because you love the community. You've dedicated your life to the community because the community is your business. I'm sure most people here would love to earn a living from running a successful site like this, so I don't blame you for doing the same. But if you never saw potential in deviantART being hugely profitable, you would never have become involved.