Why Is DeviantArt So Weird?

DeviantArt is one of the most popular artists and art communities on the Internet today. You can submit your own artwork, look through millions of other artworks uploaded by others, or become part of an immense community to share your creativity with.

With a massive collection of artwork, you can spend hours browsing through different styles and techniques. DeviantArt can be the place to be if you’re looking for inspiration or to relax.

When you look at DeviantArt, it’s one thing to look at their art and notice how unique and amazing it is, but if you go to the forums and look around and see the posts, people are pretty much just making memes every single day. Thus, there’s bound to be some weird and/or funny stuff from time to time.

In this article, we will talk about the things that make DeviantArt one of the weirdest places on the internet.

Find out more sites like DeviantArt in this post.

Why Is DeviantArt So Weird?

1. Inflation Fanart

Image Source: DeviantArt

Inflation fanart is a type of fanart where the character has been inflated. The most common inflation fanart would be when they are inflated with air or water.

What makes this art style so weird is that it’s not just any normal character, but rather a cartoon or anime-like character that has been inflated like a balloon. So, why do people make inflation fanart?

It could be because they have an interest in balloons, or maybe they just like seeing the different kinds of reactions other characters get when they inflate them such as screaming in fear or excitement.

This type of art has become increasingly popular on DeviantArt and while it has a large audience, it is also somewhat of a concern to the community because of how sexualized it can get.

Inflation fanart has been used as a fetish for many years and while this doesn’t mean that all artists who create inflation art are into fetishes, it is still something to be aware of when you’re browsing through different pages.

For example, when you search for art about a favorite female video game character, you will find many different types of inflation art when you look through the results.

While some are NSFW, others aren’t and it can be difficult for someone who isn’t familiar with this type of content to know what’s okay to view and what isn’t.

Check Out: Fresh DeviantArt Illustrations

2. You Cannot Delete Comments

One thing that can be frustrating about the DeviantArt websites is that it’s not always easy to delete comments from your page. If someone leaves a comment that is offensive or breaks the rules, you won’t be able to remove it unless the administrator removes it for you.

This can make it difficult for artists who want to keep their pages as clean as possible and avoid any negativity that might be posted by people who don’t like their work.

It would have been nice to be able to delete comments from your own page, but that isn’t an option.

What is even more frustrating is that you cannot delete your own comments that you make on other people’s pages. This means that if you post a comment on someone’s page and then change your mind about what you said, there is no way to remove it.

It was not always this way. A few years ago, you could delete your own comments from other people’s pages and even delete comments that were posted by others on your page. But now, the only option is to report inappropriate content and hope that someone else does so as well.

Also Read: Best Sites Like Behance

3. Getting Picture Results That Don’t Match Your Search

Image Source: DeviantArt

When you search for a picture on Google, you expect to see results that are relevant to your search. If someone searched for “big green monster,” they wouldn’t want to see pictures of green apples or green peppers.

However, this does not always happen on DeviantArt. It’s common to see pictures that have nothing to do with your search results, even when you’re searching for specific things like characters or creators.

This can be frustrating if you’re looking for a specific image and don’t want to click through dozens of irrelevant ones just to find it.

How does this happen? When someone searches for something on DeviantArt, the website will look at the most popular searches within its own database and try to match them with what users are typing in their browsers.

This is most common when you search for underrated and obscure characters or for things like “fandom” or “fan art.” Sometimes, it means that you’ll need to scroll through pages and pages of pictures just to find what you’re looking for, and even then it might not be there.

The site’s search function is also notoriously bad, which can make it hard to find exactly what you’re looking for and often leads people to use Google instead.

Even if you do find what you’re looking for, it might not be the best version of that thing. DeviantArt has a lot of art, but much of it is low quality or just plain bad.

The site also doesn’t have a way to filter content based on quality or popularity, so there’s no way to tell which pictures are better than others unless an artist adds tags or comments explaining why they made their work.

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4. Unable to Disable Comments

As if not being able to delete comments wasn’t bad enough, DeviantArt also doesn’t let users disable them.

This is especially annoying because of how many people use the site for pre-teens and teens who are just starting out in art.

Comments can be used as a way to give constructive criticism or advice, but they’re often used by trolls or people with an agenda to harass other users.

Implementing this feature would help in sanitizing the platform to some extent as not every artist wants to see comments on their works.

This feature has resulted in a lot of DeviantArt users leaving notices alongside their art asking people not to comment, which is pretty weird and not very effective.

Also Read: Ways To Make Money As An Artist

5. Fetish Artwork

Even though there’s an audience for fetish artwork, most people hate to see them on platforms like DeviantArt, but unfortunately, you will find them almost everywhere you look on the platform which is creepy considering that the side is also frequented by kids.

Image Source: DeviantArt

The worst part is that it doesn’t seem like DeviantArt is doing anything about this type of content because the posters are left to roam freely on the site, creating more of them without any consequence.

As long as you choose to explore content on the site without searching for a specific artwork, you will likely come across a couple of ‘unpleasant’ pieces of content.

Also Read: Best AI Art Generators

Conclusion

While we have discussed some of the ills that have made DeviantArt a weird site to be on, it is not a bad art site as it is still a great platform to view nice artwork and gain some inspiration.

What it needs is some moderation and implementation of specific features that can make it more habitable for its intended audience. 

About Author

Tom loves to write on technology, e-commerce & internet marketing. I started my first e-commerce company in college, designing and selling t-shirts for my campus bar crawl using print-on-demand. Having successfully established multiple 6 & 7-figure e-commerce businesses (in women’s fashion and hiking gear), I think I can share a tip or 2 to help you succeed.