DA is a commercial site. It just isn't too vocal about it. The print section generates a lot of money as does the mobile phone images. It has been an issue ever since Angelo pirated the site from Jark et al. At one point if you uploaded a wallpaper it automatically was duplicated in the mobile phone image section and sold without knowledge of the author and the author recieved no royalties. It was stopped and made a visible choice upon uploading thereafter. Since Angelo took over there have been several heated debates regarding exploitation of members works and protection of members copyright ownership. Sure there are rippers etc here but they do not last as long as they do over there. Look how long it took Jafo to get a response from them a little while back. Then the fact that Angelo did what he did to gain ownership...for me that was the biggest most blatant rip that the community netwide has ever seen and he has never fully explained himself instead he spreads distorted facts about DevArt history. I have been a member there since 2001 and in those days he was unheard of and unseen. He made his entrance when he spammed everyones pages with the blue pill red pill speil and got his butt kicked for spamming. He has never been tactful or diplomatic and his treachery muddied DA's respected standing. This site is one of the few if not only stable,consistent,well run and tasteful sites left.Renderosity is well run too and art wise would challenge DA in size and quality. Renderosity has no skins or scraps or sketches. The resource section though would leave DA for dead.  

Oh, I don't think it's such an obscure desire, to share artwork. Many artists keep sketchbooks that they not only use for archival purposes, but also to share with others (whether that be as a portfolio for a potential employer, or as a plain-old sketchbook to show to friends and family). The digital age just makes it easier to do so.

DeviantArt is interesting because it is so well-designed as a site. It's so easy to browse and to use. Contrast that with, for example, sites like conceptart.org. ConceptArt is a great site for artists, but the organization is atrocious. It's hard enough to see what's new on that site, let alone search for something you saw last week. Photo.net, arguably the largest photography-sharing/critiquing site, is better, but still not that great.

What DeviantArt did right was to combine the best elements of static pages, personal galleries, forums, wikis, and "social computing."

I know people like to bag on DA a lot, but 50 million submissions is an impressive feat that can't be scoffed at, I don't care who you are. 

Like others have said, DA has its roots in skinning, still has a fairly active skinning section and has been generally supportive of community events in the past.  They were a key sponsor and contributor to the 2006 GUI Champs for example.  For all of that, they should be celebrated.  Sure there are some ugly elements in their community, but with one so large you're bound to have some bad apples.  For every ripper you see, there are literally hundreds of artists who do quality, original work.

And remember, when one skinning/customization site does well, we all benefit.  So I tip my hat to the folks over at DA for turning a small site that grew from the ashes of Skinz.org into something massive and truely special.

My feelings on DeviantArt are well known. I don't need to go into them again. I left there some time ago. I used to drop in to visit with old friends I made there, and I made more than a few, but today? I don't go back.

It's listed at 50 Million, but I'm wondering if they are including items that have been deleted (in as much as anything's ever truly deleted from their servers).

I'd rather just congratulate Jark and Matteo for having the vision to create DA. I'm just sorry they can't be there to see how well their "child" has done for itself.

A rising tide lifts all ships. 
dA's success is good for the community.

I'm glad for them. I've seen some pretty good walls just skimming through. But my place is WinCustomize.This is the first thing I check every morning when I get up. We have all I need right here, and I think the people are tops!! Let's go for breaking their record.
Jymmy

gets his 59,000 (exactly the same except one icon moved all over) screen shots ready.. we can catch them...

DA became a big nude photo site in my opinion (too sad)
check the daily Deviantions in a week, there's AWAYS nude photos and skins?.....hard to see there.

2 min ago
I wonder who the lucky Deviant is

Congratulations DA!





Me too, actually since it launched and I've never gotten anything packaged with the content.



Here, there and every other skinning site.

There's still good stuff to be found at DA, it just takes ALOT longer to find the gems from the junk these days.