DevianTart

I'm not sure I like the new Deviant Art anymore.

dA launched V6 a few days ago. I'd been using the beta version for some time now, so the transition wasn't all that severe. I was already comfortable with the message bar being relocated to the top of the page, the new front page (which had new search and browse functions, instead of channels), and the annoying-but-you-can-turn-it-off Sears Tower-high footer, with everything they could jam in it from Deviousness awards to polls. On the other hand, there were a bunch of new features, some of which I didn't like (like the message centre set to display snippets of everything until you filtred it), and some of which I did like (like how they've put filtres for different message types, and the customisable toolbars). On the whole, though, I thought I liked the new version, and everything else I didn't like I could get accustomed to.

Or at least, I thought I did.

V6 worked like a dream on the first morning. No lag; everything worked fast and the way it should. By evening, however, the site was barely crawling. By the second evening, I was spending five minutes trying to load pages, and previewing the new journal layout I was working on was torture.

And then yesterday, dA quit working for me. I couldn't get in. Simple as that. Oh, I managed to get in at something like 12 midnight, but -

This morning I failed to get in again.

Nice.

In the meantime, I have one ongoing commission, and no way of getting in touch with my client unless I can somehow get back in for two minutes and send her my email address.

A friend of mine recently commented that, in terms of functionality, the new version pretty much broadcasted the message, "Fuck off and die." I'm starting to think that's pretty sound advice.