Online Communities allow people to connect with each other which they were previously unable to do due to the physical limitations in the real world. The internet allows users to cross the geographical boundary and their everyday identities to form new relationships with others who share common interests, sharing their knowledge and ideas with each other to help the community grow. Numerous communities are based upon similar interests; however this does not imply that the share the same community valves as one another. This can be seen in the art communities DeviantART and GFXartist, who while sharing a common interest of art with the community, have different purposes behind how their communities present their art pieces and working with one another.
DeviantART's main importance is holding the community together by involving them in acitivities, providing tools which users can use to communicate with one another and other means so that members can feel belonging within the online society. This is mainly done by allowing all users to contribute to areas of the website as they choose. DeviantART regularly holds competitions (both official and unofficial) for the community for prizes such as subscriptions or art prints, encouraging members to be creative and work with a particular theme. Users also have access to chat rooms and forums to communicate with one another about more specific interests and are allowed to submit information to the news section. Members are able to submit almost any type of artwork, even allowing a ‘Scraps’ for uncompleted or simple sketches that an artist may not find suitable for their gallery. Members are able to share their views on an artwork by commenting, which can be either simple encouragement or constructive criticism. DeviantART works with its users to create a strong community that helps one another and encourages continued creativity to form strong bonds with each other and artistic valves.
GFXartist is also an art community that permits artists to submit artworks and comment on other member’s work; however the goals that drive GFXartist differ greatly from those of DeviantART. The main valve behind this art community is having artwork exposed and voted on to become the best in your particular category. GFXartist limits its members to only six main areas of artistic expression which include 3D modelling, drawing, painting, photo manipulation, photography and design. In each of these galleries, the highest rated artwork is shown as well as the top ten, which are voted on by the community. There are two separate galleries in the community, those of the members and those of the elite. If members receive enough votes during the month, they are nominated for the elite status on the site, which is again voted on by the community. GFXartist also has a separate page called the ‘G-spot’, which presents the highest rated artworks in the entire community, noting that most of those on the list are elite members. GFXartist moderators particularly specify to new members that only the best of their artworks should be shared with the community and that artists who do otherwise will have their work removed. News and forums are provided for the community, though main categories are already selected for the users to submit serious queries or ask for advice on developmental works in the forums and news is rare and mostly submitted by moderators.
1 comment:
I found this entry to be a very interesting comparison between two different artistic online communities. In particular I like how you explain that DeviantArt is a community that encourages participation by all members and is more inviting that GFXartists, which has an emphasis on only the best works by an artist being submitted.
I agree with your statements that although the two communities have different values, they are both successful in encouraging users of different artistic specialties to collaborate and share their work.
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