It should never have had to be like this

Going on three weeks and DA is still a sorry mess of dysfunction. Endless streams of anti-Eclipse comments, some of which are vile and offer nothing to the argument, whilst other try to explain   that it’s not a case of being anti-change it’s a case of wanting at least the functionality that we had before. In many cases its bewilderment that a community can be so poorly catered for and seemingly despised for wanting functionally and the maintenance of continuity of use that should have been the foundations of any new code base.

The biggest shock of all was the state of the site as a whole upon its release. In all honesty how does a professional development team release something so unpolished, so seemingly “beta version” after over 18 months of development? Many of us out there have professional connections with web development and so it would be wise not to bullshit us in this area.

There is n very vocal pro Eclipse comment maker that does their very best to help people and fight the good fight so to speak. The problem is that this commenter fails to notice that with nearly every comment they make the start by saying … "they are fixing this…” and the problem is that there was, and still  is, much to much to fix for what was to be the rollout of a major upgrade to the biggest art community website on the Internet.

The site design is worse than the functionality and to be honest I would not have expected to have remained in employment myself it this had been my responsibility. Much is a lesson on not want to do and for the love of all that is holy, people must stop comparing it with Artstation. I realise that its to show that they are trying to emulate a modern design but the irony is that Artstation shows just how amateur Eclipse is. The only similarity the two sites have is the use of a black background.

I used to log in to DA every morning to check on the people I watch and so on and stay logged in for the rest of the day. Now I look in on odd occasions because more often than not those that I watch have not posted anything or have gone away. Searching for anything is doable if you put a lot of effort into it but its like going to the local shops via another county rather than being direct. The site is so slow and buggy its just an effort for little reward and having Core is a waste of time now so I have cancelled the subscription renewal. Then there are the stats … well lets not go there.

All you had to do was release a working DA Plus version of what was there already, taking nothing away from the original functionality and paving the way for more and build on that. Logic dictates that that was the only way forward with perhaps a basic theme or themes that a new member or those not bothered with customisation could use. For the others, give customisation tools,  the community is and was crying out for this. This way no one could bitch about the site colour or home layout as they could make it their own if they wanted.

In trying to rejuvenate the old site you have lost what made the old site so great. Old DA had become refreshingly individual, perfect for the legion of creative members it had.  We came to show our digital art, our traditional art, our stories and photography and crafts etc on a vanilla platform because we are creative and want our art to be easy to share, find and discuss. We wanted to maintain a community but alas you have spoilt all that now and it will never be the same again if you continue to follow this path and perhaps it is already too late.

Of course, team DA might have their hands tied and if that is the case then I would suggest that those with any integrity should give a months’ notice and save their souls.

What a sad and sorry mess this has become.