I keep checking in on this site every so often, but I haven't really been what you would call active lately. I've let some 10,000 devWatch messages and deviations pile up, and I haven't submitted anything for months. I think one reason is that I'm watching too many people -- over 500. I'm working to fix that; I've started trimming down my watch list, which is a sad process. There are so many dead accounts, and so many artists that I don't have an interest in watching anymore. It's weird to see how my taste in art has changed.

But there's a deeper reason. I used to be heavily involved in the modding community, way back when deviantART v3 was out. That was a very active community, and very relevant to my interests (I'm really a programmer first and foremost). I had a lot of fun working on plugins and scripts for the site, and I invested a lot of time and emotional stock. When the new version came out, most of my scripts broke. I said I'd fix them, and I started porting a few of them, but I never finished them. It was like starting over, and some of them weren't really relevant anymore. The modding community kept going, but I think it was a little shaken by the change.

Three or four versions later, I've completely lost track of it. I don't know if any of the old people are still scripting for the site. It's not just that our scripts broke. The site has become amazingly more complex and dynamic. And that's a good thing. Back when I was scripting, almost everything was static html with forms. A script to dynamically add deviations to a deviant's favourites was a daily deviation, because it was so awesome. Now the same functionality is built-in via drag-and-drop. deviantART has become a much better, much more usable site. But I have no idea how it works anymore, let alone how to modify its behavior.

I guess I feel like I'm not as invested in it anymore. I stood still while the site evolved around me.

I'm not going anywhere. I still check my messages every so often, and when I do make art I submit it. But I don't really feel like I'm a part of the community anymore. I was away for too long.

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