My journey with art and design on the internet started somewhat early. In 2001, I joined skinz.org, the then-bustling social network for designers. Needing more "room to breathe" on my non-digital works, I joined DeviantArt in January 2002, a small social network for artists and designers to showcase their traditional and digital works. During what I fondly nickname it's "renaissance age" in 2004, DeviantArt was home to thousands of the web's biggest and most talented names in design. This was back when the term "social network" hadn't yet been coined.

Sometime in 2005, the term "Web 2.0" started floating around the internet, and more young and upcoming artists sought the releases of the internet to promote their works. DeviantArt became huge, and it's "work submitted in the last day" page turned into "work submitted in the last minute".

And then came the influx of what I'd like to call "artrash". Thousands upon thousands of pieces flooding the site depicting badly-drawn fanart and various instances of copyright infringement turned finding art and design works on DeviantArt into the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack. I found myself logging in less throughout 2006. When I did, I found that the quality of feedback left on my work had dwindled into single-word comments. Their frequent server crashes had wiped a good portion of my downloadable works (photoshop brushes and icon packages) off their servers and with a recent hard drive crash of my own, I was unable to upload the works back onto the site.

At present in 2008, DeviantArt is the web's largest and most successful art and design-based social network. I have 579 unread messages on DeviantArt, a sign that I need to either increase my involvement with the site, or leave it altogether. I'm debating the latter.

Throughout the years, DeviantArt has played an important role in my development as an artist. The feedback I received early on has helped me find my "weak points" and put the effort into my work where it matters most. DeviantArt has also done wonders for my self esteem. To date, my works have had 321,968 pageviews and my most popular work on DeviantArt (which I had to re-upload several times due to DevianArt's server crashes) has been downloaded over 63,000 times.

All of this in mind, why would I want to leave the platform? It's time for me to move on. Part of my new year's resolutions for 2008 was to try and minimize my infatuation with beating dead horses, and this horse is so dead, that's it's been reincarnated into an emerald beetle and is living happily on the side of a tree in Brazilian rainforest.

I'm weighing my options, but it seems that I've comfortably settled myself at the Behance Network. I feel that the way Behance is built and it's portfolio/project-based display ensures that the bar stays high - something I wish DeviantArt would have done in one way or another. An extraordinary amount of designers, animators, artists and photographers showcasing their work at Behance are mind-blowingly talented. I find myself browsing member's portfolios on Behance for fun and inspiration, something I haven't done at DeviantArt in a long, long time.

You can find my profile and works on my Behance profile page.

To my friends who work or have worked at DeviantArt, please understand that this is not personal. I admire the dedication to the DeviantArt community throughout the years and wish you well in your future endeavors.