MatiasSoto

For more than 8 years I've been a user on Deviantart, I've met great fellow artists , seen amazing and inspiring works, took part on many cool groups and contests, improved my craft and progressed in my career. 8 years is a long time, Deviantart has been around longer, but we all know that from that time until today the site isn't what it used to be anymore. Lots of fellow artists have left, lots of fans have left, I stayed because I think I owed it to the people that followed my work here over the years and to whom I am forever grateful. But, it is a fact that this site isn't a good place for an artist anymore, to me at least. With the growth of other social sites like Facebook,Instagram, Pixiv,Tumblr, etc. the appeal of deviantart isn't what it used to be. And the site overall has worsen the experience for the users.
   Today I got a note to inform me that one of my deviations had been removed on Copyright infringement concerns. An illustration based on Dragonball Online, but mind you the characters weren't actually characters from the game but rather my own designs based on the game style. Now, I'm guessing most of people reading this are aware that I am a great DB fan, a life long fan. And this made me really thinK: it has come down to this? Deviantart is chasing after fanart now? Fanart done and shared only as a love letter to a story and characters I love, and bare in mind that I never sold anything regarding that image, I made zero dollars. So that strikes me as total dick move. And what puzzles me the most is the underlying argument: will deviantart chase around every fanart piece on their site? Because even if it only was just DB fanart that would be a pretty sizeable amount of images I suspect. If indeed it has come to deviantart taking down fanart they are pretty much shooting themselves on the foot. The site will be dead in a matter of months.
  Also, it wasn't the first time something similar happened to me here: I got another deviation deleted some time ago on also rather asinine claims. And all this has worn me down, I had little reason to continue to use deviantart and they seem to increase their efforts towards making this site more and more hostile and dry for it's users. So I am sorry to announce that I won't be updating this no more. I am tempted to just close the account altoghether, but I would like to keep stuff like my favourites gallery. But I am letting you guys know that it's very likely I won't be adding more to the gallery , nor answering comments or notes because I won't be around, so if you'd like to keep in touch just like my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/MatiasSotoLop… or my Tumblr: matiassotolopez.tumblr.com/ . I'll probably will add another like Instagram pretty soon. Probably a personal site . But in any shape or form , I'll still be lurking around the internet so it shouldn't be that hard to find me.

Thank you all you people for sharing your thoughts and kindness and support and friendship all these years here, but it's time to abandon ship. Always it get a little sad and also a little exciting at the same time when bold decisions are made. Farewell Deviantart.