Some perspective on 'core membership'

I know this is probably gonna be a long journal, but if you manage to read all the way through the end you might perhaps even get to learn a few things. 
Furthermore I want to state that my opinion on the matter is pretty much neutral. I'm not with DeviantArt on the matter, nor am I against them. I just want to make people see things from the perspective of a 27 year old woman that has been in the web industry for the last decade.


The internet is not free
First of all, and most important thing to realize, is that the internet is not free. Everyone who lived through the early ages of web 1.0. (old people like me) knows that it costs money to run a website. Back in the day user content wasn't a thing. Whenever you wanted to put something on the internet, you needed to get a domain name and rent a piece of web hosting and that would cost you a monthly fee. Gradually web 2.0. came into fashion which enabled people to interact with each other on websites that weren't their own. This was seen as 'free' by most users, but they forgot that the owners of those websites still had to pay for the domain name, server and maintenance.

Most people online nowadays are unaware of these costs, mostly because they are too young to have lived through the early days of the internet, weren't involved in the web at that time, or simply don't know shit about technology (not blaming anyone here. We can't all be tech-heads). But the truth is... the costs of running a website, especially one that's big, is huge. You need a lot of hardware, you need software, you need a good and stable internet connection so your website is fast, and you need some tech guys to maintain that server, patch bugs, fix stuff when hardware breaks down or stuff gets hacked. These are monthly costs and the bigger a website gets, the higher these costs are. Now... these are costs for maintenance. I'm not even talking about upgrading a site, adding new features... etc. That's a whole other story.

Most websites nowadays found at least some way of dealing with these costs. Either from ads(YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Gmail), sponsors/investors (Youtube), targeted marketing (Facebook, Gmail) or premium memberships (DeviantArt, Dropbox, and many more). Ads are nowadays a hard way of making money alone, as more and more people use adblockers. So many sites are looking for other ways of money. Take Facebook for example. You thought your membership was free? Think again. That site is using all of your personal data to help advertisers target you specifically based on your location, gender, preferences... hell... even your relationship status. The price you're paying with Facebook isn't a physical one. You're paying with your privacy; data that is of great value for advertisement. It ain't free.


You don't have to be premium
Getting back to DeviantArt, the major source of income is [admitted by staff -- but cannot find back the reference unfortunately] premium memberships. Ad revenue is hard to gather with popup blockers, so premium memberships are the major source of income. Premium memberships literally help the site pushing forward and help dealing with the undoubtedly huge costs of running a website of that size, and also developing it.

Is that bad? I don't know. It's just another way of earning money.
If you compare DeviantArt with for example Dropbox or Photobucket, I don't think DeviantArt's way of dealing with regular members isn't inherently bad. Sites like Dropbox and many other photo sharing sites that have similar earning models (premium memberships) come with a limit for the amount of content you can upload. DeviantArt has, up until today, no limit when it comes to uploading content. You can upload as many pictures as you want, and you can update as many statuses as you want. The only thing that you'll get with premium membership is a bunch of extra features that have little to no extra value when it comes to promoting your work.

The thing is... if you want to market your work, you can do fine without the premium. Really! Every essential tool you need to market yourself (uploading art, placing comments, joining a group) is there for regular members. You don't have to be a premium member in order to be successful. Not at all.


DeviantArt is a company
What many people seem to forget is that DeviantArt, like all other social media websites, is in essence a company. The thorough involvement of the staff in journals, chat and forums makes people sometimes forget that, but it's still a company. DeviantArt has got bills to pay. For their servers, for the maintenance, for their developers, their helpdesk... and whatnot. Because people don't work for free. They have bills to pay themselves. 

The whole hypocrisy of this is that those same artists that complain about their art being undervalued and them not getting paid enough [which in itself is a very valid complaint] now complain about DeviantArt charging more money for their premium features. The people working for DeviantArt are in the same boat as any grown up artist. They don't want to be undervalued, they need money to pay their bills too. They are, in essence, the same as anyone here.


A perspective on the costs
The obvious question that comes to mind is how much money a core membership of DeviantArt truly costs.
It says $50 for a year, which would be under $5 a month. From the perspective of a grown up person that has monthly bills to pay, that isn't too much. Electricity is far more expensive, as is clean drinking water. Hell... even my internet connection is a lot more expensive than those $5 [Seriously. I wish it was that cheap here T__T]. From the perspective of a teenager, however, $50 can be quite a bunch. I've heard from a lot of people that got the premium subscription as a present from their parents, or just did a lot of commissions. And I can totally understand the frustration of having to do even more commissions to get that premium membership.

This brings me back to one of the previous points; you don't have to be a premium member to enjoy the site.


Whether DeviantArt does or does not care
One of the things I hear most is that DeviantArt doesn't care about it's members. I cannot answer whether that's true or false. I'm not part of their marketing team so I don't know their motives.
I can however answer from the perspective of a webdeveloper that has worked at various web company's that there are often mixed feeling when it comes to things like those. Of course any huge site wants to offer an experience that people enjoy and people tell others about, but there's also that aspect of being a company and having to pay your bills. These are very contradicting matters, because it means you cannot please every single user. Most company's 'solve' this problem by determining a target group, and pleasing primarily that target group. After all; why should a site cater to the wishes of people that cost money but don't generate it? That would be utterly self defeating.

One of the more recent and notorious examples is the 'Beach body ready' campaign by Protein World. On first sight this campaign managed to piss off a lot of people. The thing is, however, that it worked tremendously well. Why? Because it's a company that sells protein for people that lift weights. They don't care about a bunch of women getting mad at them, because the people that got mad weren't the type of people that lift. The people that got angry weren't their target group.


What went wrong
Does this mean DeviantArt did it right?
Nah... I think the lack of communication is part of the reason why people got so pissed off about it in the first place. There were subtle signs of the prices changing (the premium page saying the $30 a year was a 'discount', the prices going up the weekend before the announcement already). But for most people it was a huge surprise and they were unaware of it until they changed the name to 'core' and splashed the site with a shitload of bright orange icons that are hard to miss in DeviantArt's green layout. And as it always goes; most people don't like change... and don't like negative surprises at all.

A global site announcement would've saved a lot of confusion and people getting angry. Especially if they made it in such a way that they clearly explained the prices going up and their plans with the new money. Because they did list a few things;

• Translate the site into 10 or more languages, exploding traffic for every artist
• Supercharge search for Notes and deviant names, and produce data-driven browse results, guided by deviant collections and specific user preferences
• Start a comprehensive Deviant Meet program with top staff attending events all over the world
• Make a private dashboard for each deviant to manage, at a glance, all of their commercial activity on DeviantArt, Etsy, Ebay, or Shutterstock
• Still more Stats on accounts, breaking out watchers, viewers, preferences, traffic patterns, and even color preferences
• Build a Visual Art Registry with partners to track work throughout the Web and establish clear proof of authorship and ownership
• Advanced tools for commissions
• Integrate into our community huge collections of art from all of the major museums in the world

It's just that they're really hard to find (For those interested; top menu -> extend core membership -> learn more)


A final word
Last but not least... I wrote this journal primarily to offer people a different perspective on this whole matter.
I'm neutral, I don't defend either party, and I'm not planning to go into a full blown debate about this with anyone. If you have questions about DeviantArt's motives and ideas, I'll gladly redirect you to any of DA's staff members and have them answer the questions I cannot answer for you.

Good luck


Edit:
After a while the staff has come up with a few journals explaining the how and why about core membership
Core Is...Core is an announcement of material commitment to the future of DeviantArt. Core is the supporting sustaining the momentum that leads us forward in building a stable, strong future with the innovations necessary for the community to survive and to thrive.
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Core Is...
Core is an announcement of material commitment to the future of DeviantArt. Core is the fuel supporting the momentum that leads us forward in building a stable, strong future with the innovations necessary for the community to survive and to thrive.
Core Members receive special privileges in return for their commitment — and the greatest of these are the thanks and gratitude of the community. We call it Core because Core Members sustain us at the core.
Million What is Core Membership?
Earlier today, DeviantArt released an announcement explaining what "Core Membership Is..."  To complement that announcement, I've penned a few of my own thoughts about what Core Membership means to me.
DeviantArt owes its existence to its community. The inspiring, pulsating life force that began 15 years ago with a small group of artists and art appreciators has grown more than anyone could have ever imagined. A true force of motivation and support on the Web, our community is one-of-a-kind in its service to the artistic greater good. And it always has been.
Whether you take the extra moment to answer a Note from a student of art hoping to learn from you, leave a thought-provoking comment on a moving piece of art, or simply watch a deviant, you are invested in your fellow artistic man, and that has all happened naturally from day one. The fact that you're here