A few days ago, I noticed my “7 Day Premium Membership” changed to “3 Month Premium Membership.” Wow, a sub donation! I rushed to open my email to find out who the donor was…only to find:
"Someone has given you the Joy of a deviantArt subscription
Hi roseonthegrey,
A deviant has bought you a 3 month Subscription to deviantART.
…"And it goes on. So who donated this subscription? I still have no idea. Why? Because apparently deviantArt now offers anonymous sub-donation as an alternative to the new non-anonymous sub-donation feature.
I believe that donors should be recognized for their donation. For those who have kindly donated a sub, I have offered in return my gratitude and a little note at the bottom of my journal; it’s the least I can do. But does that mean donors should be automatically guaranteed such recognition? Well, now with deviantArt’s non-anonymous sub-donating, donors are guaranteed a space under “X Month Premium Member” noting their donation.
At first glance, I really liked this change. They donated a sub. They deserve recognition. However, as I started reading some complaints on this matter, I realized the degree of social scrutiny that would surely ensue.
One deviant claimed that “[w]hoever buys you the subscription [non-anonymously] is essentially buying ad-space on your page.” Another complained how “[s]omeone will eventually use this to get page views by donating to a very popular artist."
So is this really what people are going to think about non-anonymous sub-donors?
I suppose it does raise a little suspicion as to the motive of the donor: are they really donating out of humble generosity or for less noble motives such as self-promotion? And if they are donating anonymously, is it because they truly wish to remain anonymous from the recipient or because they fear potential criticism?
I find it sad that such suspicions would even arise.
I’m still not sure what I think of this new non-anonymous sub-donation feature. But I do wonder:
What has happened and what’s going to happen to sub-donating? This once simple gesture, meant to do little more than bring a smile to someone’s day, everyday.
What do you think?And to whoever donated me this subscription, if you are reading this: while I realize some may not want such public recognition as what I typically offer, I hope to be able to at least thank you in private.
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`anmari has been spreading her infectious positivity throughout our community for over 6 years. Throughout this time Ana has been at the core of all things devious, passionately developing an eclectic gallery, helping organise devmeets, participating in chat events and also recently completed dedicating her time as a Community Volunteer. We are absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for May 2013 to `anmari, congratulations! Read More
Sta.sh
Theme
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this journal 
Total prizes reach 1000 
But of course there are always the rules......
Please please please fave the journal!
Make another journal about this giveaway and provide a link of that journal in the comments (this will help spread the word about this giveaway)
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Apprehensive 
i say you enjoy it. and do a feature of your watchers of something, to thank the whole world
Even though I don't fully understand about sub donations, those people who always criticized without even thinking are those people who are sometimes without moral ground or doesn't have the whole idea of whats happening. There are a lot of them at youtube...
And I love you, but I didn't send it.
wtf?
i'm not here for the page views, its more like a hosting for images for me
and most of my pics are you know, Sh$t @ss F#*& normal pictures, so, i got page views fron the people ho come to say "thanks for the fav", not because i got the "oh my god coolest pictures in the planet", so, at some point, yea, its better (at least for my opinion) the anonymous way.
It would be great to say thanks! directly to the person who give you the donation, but, maybe its timid.. like me..
so.. will .. you.. marry ... me? xD!!!
Hehe
hahahahaha just joking
But anyways! I like the idea of having the sub givers name under the premium membership, but like you, I have thought about it as advertising space. If one day, you just get a random deviant who gives you a sub, when you don't know them, or maybe they don't even watch you, doesn't that seem a bit odd? It defiantly does seem like buying add space, especially when it is given to a popular deviant. But not all people have these kinds of motives. Maybe they just want to see their favourite deviant happy and whatnot.
I don't think people should get too excited over this anyways. It's giving the site money in someway, thus helping everyone, and someone is going to get another subscription. If you don't like it, you can complain, but it's what the admins here want to do I guess.
to prevent the criticism, there will still
be bashing either way. I mean, that's
just how our society is. People these days
find it amusing to try and condescend
to other people & shoot them down
for anything suspicious they do. ya know?
But, i understand what they mean about
those deviants just wanting to 1UP their
page views. In all honesty, however. I don't
think it's about the page views, i think it's
more about being recognized by the artist.
As one of those lower deviants myself,
when i leave a reflective comment
on =ProdigyBombay's work for example,
& she responds, it makes me happy just
because i know she appreciated my comment
enough to reply. So, rather than being
an act of selfishness, i think that all the
donator wants is for you/(any other deviant
blessed with a donated subscription) to be
conscious of their presence in your work.
Or...something like that anyway xD
Actually, as i'm typing, it's starting to
sound like a better solution to make it so
all the donating is anonymous and the subscriber
is not posted on the deviants page. However,
when the artist receives that email, the deviants username
(i think) should be in the email
just to notify you, ya know? && then the artist
can choose whether or not to thank the person in private.
that's the only solution i can see. Because, like i said,
they shouldn't care if anyone else sees that they
gave you a subscription. it should only matter
that you, the artist, are aware of it.