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Description

At the beginning of the ECLIPSE controversy, I didn't care too much. I'm the kind of person who only uses the basic functions of the DA: I look at what I like (and 'fave' them); I publish my rather amateurish pictures, and I try to get decent visibility by sharing them with the relevant groups. I naively believed that the main problem was that people don't like the changes, out of pure misoneism. When ECLIPSE was definitely enforced and the old system was removed, I realized how wrong I was. ECLIPSE is a total mess and a great leap backwards. ECLIPSE is very difficult to manage, very user-unfriendly, counter-intuitive. It was obviously created by mediocre computer specialists, working hastily, disconnected from practical reality but who were rather intelligent, just like dodos. Yes, in spite of their grotesque physical appearance, the dodos were probably very intelligent birds, because they had a huge cranial cavity. But they became extinct precisely because of their dysfunctional physical appearance. In my opinion, the worst problem with ECLIPSE (at least at the time of writing) is that it is no longer possible to browse the most recent pictures by category. You can only browse through the most recent pictures with all categories pulled together. So, for a person like me, who is mostly interested in photography and not at all in manga and unicorns, it has become absolutely impossible to browse the most recent pictures relevant for me. I'm certainly not the only one who encounters this problem (whatever his/her artistic taste may be). It creates a vicious circle: what is already popular (whatever its quality) becomes even more popular, and what is less popular (even if it is of the highest quality) becomes even less popular. You see the "kid art" receiving more than 1000 favorites and brilliant professional works less than 50 favorites. This makes it even harder for new artists to get decent visibility. The consequence is likely to be an increasing loss of quality on DA. That would be really tragic. A few days ago, I was quickly browsing through my own favorites, carefully compiled in almost 3 years. I thought to myself: there are truly major and brilliant works of art on DA (despite all the junk stuffs). It would be a shame if DA became a platform exclusively dedicated to mediocrity (as other blog platforms have become). This is a serious warning, because after the rise of ECLIPSE, some good artists have already left or dropped out (others stop their core membership). Others will probably follow, especially if alternative platforms develop, and only the fittest will survive and/or prosper. There are of course commercial aspects that cannot be ignored, but art cannot be reduced to a single commercial dimension. DA staff kindly reminded us somewhere that the DA is a private company and not a democracy, and that there is no way we can go back to the old "green" system. That is a fact, but a private company must avoid taking financial risks. If the many problems and bugs of ECLIPSE are not quickly resolved, if the DA staff do not listen to the warning of its members, if DA does not move in the right direction again, it could well become an evolutionary dead end, just like the dodo. Time will tell...

Written on May 30, 2020.

Source of the dodo picture: Plate 24 from Rothschild's Extinct birds (1907).
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia…
Copyright:
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or fewer.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1925.

The composition is mine.

Description

At the beginning of the ECLIPSE controversy, I didn't care too much. I'm the kind of person who only uses the basic functions of the DA: I look at what I like (and 'fave' them); I publish my rather amateurish pictures, and I try to get decent visibility by sharing them with the relevant groups. I naively believed that the main problem was that people don't like the changes, out of pure misoneism. When ECLIPSE was definitely enforced and the old system was removed, I realized how wrong I was. ECLIPSE is a total mess and a great leap backwards. ECLIPSE is very difficult to manage, very user-unfriendly, counter-intuitive. It was obviously created by mediocre computer specialists, working hastily, disconnected from practical reality but who were rather intelligent, just like dodos. Yes, in spite of their grotesque physical appearance, the dodos were probably very intelligent birds, because they had a huge cranial cavity. But they became extinct precisely because of their dysfunctional physical appearance. In my opinion, the worst problem with ECLIPSE (at least at the time of writing) is that it is no longer possible to browse the most recent pictures by category. You can only browse through the most recent pictures with all categories pulled together. So, for a person like me, who is mostly interested in photography and not at all in manga and unicorns, it has become absolutely impossible to browse the most recent pictures relevant for me. I'm certainly not the only one who encounters this problem (whatever his/her artistic taste may be). It creates a vicious circle: what is already popular (whatever its quality) becomes even more popular, and what is less popular (even if it is of the highest quality) becomes even less popular. You see the "kid art" receiving more than 1000 favorites and brilliant professional works less than 50 favorites. This makes it even harder for new artists to get decent visibility. The consequence is likely to be an increasing loss of quality on DA. That would be really tragic. A few days ago, I was quickly browsing through my own favorites, carefully compiled in almost 3 years. I thought to myself: there are truly major and brilliant works of art on DA (despite all the junk stuffs). It would be a shame if DA became a platform exclusively dedicated to mediocrity (as other blog platforms have become). This is a serious warning, because after the rise of ECLIPSE, some good artists have already left or dropped out (others stop their core membership). Others will probably follow, especially if alternative platforms develop, and only the fittest will survive and/or prosper. There are of course commercial aspects that cannot be ignored, but art cannot be reduced to a single commercial dimension. DA staff kindly reminded us somewhere that the DA is a private company and not a democracy, and that there is no way we can go back to the old "green" system. That is a fact, but a private company must avoid taking financial risks. If the many problems and bugs of ECLIPSE are not quickly resolved, if the DA staff do not listen to the warning of its members, if DA does not move in the right direction again, it could well become an evolutionary dead end, just like the dodo. Time will tell...

Written on May 30, 2020.

Source of the dodo picture: Plate 24 from Rothschild's Extinct birds (1907).
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia…
Copyright:
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or fewer.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1925.

The composition is mine.