There were three changes here on dA which perturbed a lot of people:

1. If you have a subscription, on the left side you will find the entry "Premium Member". Till recently we all are labeled as deviants.

2. I you haven't a subscription, you will now find on the left side, right to your deviant-name, the entry "Needs Premium Membership".

3. If you have gifted a subscription to another deviant and this gifted subscription is still running, you will now find your deviant-name on the profile of this person! It was now published on the userpages, under the length of the subscription, who had given it to the person when it was a gift.

Now there is a big succeed in the 3. issue: People who gift a subscription have now the possibility to choose if the deviantname is published on the side of the person who gets the subscription. Although this doesn't help the people who's names were already published without their permissions - and some of them were really horrified about that! - I'm glad that in the future it will go on senseful in this point. Thanks to the dA-staff for their insight and for fast realization!

Still the other two changes are there and a lot of people see them as just as problematic as the one which is corrected now. I agree in principle, but who cares about advertisement slogans?

Of course to buy a subscription doesn't change what you are. It changes the features you can use, and I already thought about a subscription because of the possibility to have images in my journal and featuring other artists here. But at the moment I'm not ready with learning how to use the features I already have without subscription and there are some things I really "need" more! So in my opinion clear and neatly arranged information would be the best advertisement, and I would even appreciate it if the information about the advantages of a subscription were a bit obtrusive because there's so much going on here on dA and you really should know about the possibility and advantages of a subscription.

It's the "usual way" of advertisement to back not on information but on "feelings" and to give the consument the "feeling" of getting to be cut above the others by buying the product. For me this doesn't work, but I already found out that most people "think with their amygdala" and value things without other knowledge than the common reputation. I yet found out that even the most Aspies use this "method of thinking", although according to the professionals they all should stand marveling about it like I and Mr. Spock.

So perhaps you shouldn't laugh when they call you a "Premium Member" or tell the world that you "Need a Premium Membership". It's really true that it's a trial to "enhance the product" by "selling reputation with it".

On a place for artists that's very inappropriate. If you think the reputation of an artist could be measured by the money he or she has, well, forget about Van Gogh! He has to write beggar letters to his brother with regularity to survive...

So this campaign will go on.

Today the letter to the admins [link] will go out, and we will make a club for having a central place to meet.

Till the club is ready I will continue to collect links to the scattered informations here. If you have a link for this collection, please send me a *note* because comments and replies are overflowing my message box at the moment and it will took a awhile to go through them all.

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Links to information and discussion about this subject:


* News-Article by =blessed-saen : "Beggar" Site Wide Launch! [link]

* News-Article by =blessed-saen : Beggar letter to the Admin2 Update [link]

* Information that there now is the possibility to choose anonymity when giving a subscription and a text about the changes by $chix0r : "A little clarification" [link]

(Remark: It sounds a bit as if it was a hallucination that subscription-givers were published here, but a lot of people had this "hallucination" of their names where they don't wanted to have them... )

* Beggar Letter To Admin [link]

* Beggar (edit) - updatet journal by *Spamkiller [link]

* Beggar - from ~Juniae 's journal (also in Spanish): [link]

* Poll: *janetino asks: "If someone gives you a subscription, do you want their name at the top listed as the giver?" [link]

* Poll: *janetino asks: "Do you like being called Premium Member when you have a supscription here?" [link]

* Article and discussion about the new "Beggar"-state in the journal of =blessed-saen : [link]

* Poll: "How do you feel about the gift subscriptions no longer being anonymous?" [link]
Also with discussion.

* A news article by *Cyantre with long discussion (more than 600 comments) and links to threads about the topic in the forum: [link]

* Newer journal article by =blessed-saen : [link]

* Poll about this topic by :devTohru-of-Marshmellow: : [link]

* Short and good introduction by *Spamkiller : [link]

* "Beggar"-Stamp: [link]

* "Premium Member your mother"-stamp: [link]

* "Beggar"-avatar for free use: [link]

* "Beggar"-plz-icon: [link]