DISQUS

Mashable - The Social Media Guide: 2008/04/17/deviantart/

  • Guest · 1 year ago
    Did you by any change ask Mr Sotira the self styled co-founder of deviantArt why he fired the actual founder of the site Scott Jarkoff.
  • Tim · 1 year ago
    Even if it was asked, Angelo would not, legally, be able to respond. So it's moot point to really ask it.
  • Roleplay · 1 year ago
    Deviantart has been making huge leaps in social media, I can't believe they haven't gotten more coverage in the past couple years...
  • Angelo · 1 year ago
    Scott was one of our co-founders. It is simply not true that he was "the actual" founder. He was one of three co-founders. At the time that he programmed deviantART and was the public face I was still the CEO of the company and was responsible for its finances. It is true that the other two co-founders are no longer with us. It has been many years since deviantART was founded and things like this happen in many companies.

    Based on the way in which Scott departed the company in 2005 I understand why some still hold this perspective. But it is not factually accurate.
  • j74 · 1 year ago
    Yea if you actually knew Scott and the real story of DA, he was more than just the face of DA. He did come up with the concept and got things going. Angelo came in at a later point and took alot of credit he didn't deserve.

    The reason why DA gets no press, Angelo is a two-face car salesman, who would sell his own mother to make himself look better.
  • Spinato · 1 year ago
    Hi Angelo. “In 2000, there was no place for artists to put their artwork online.” That is what you said in an interview with Redefine Magazine. What a lie! www.artwanted.com was already around. A few art communities were. I like deviantART but you often re-rewites history in order to make yourself or the site look better. So if you can try to change the history of art sites online how do we know if your position on who founded what is true?
  • bunnyhero · 1 year ago
    is there any way for you to improve the audio quality in these interviews? i like the podcast but it's always kind of uncomfortable to listen to.
  • ChiQ Montes · 1 year ago
    really.. deviantart is a haven for the best artists nowadays..
  • spit · 1 year ago
    test
  • NotLolly · 1 year ago
    Anyone who has been with deviantART since the start knows the feud between Angelo Sotira, also known as Spyed, and Scott Jarkoff, also known as Jark. Sotira, using his Spyed handle, recently made changes to the Wikipedia entry about deviantART. It was confirmed that the account was indeed Spyed since the email he signed up with was his DA email account. Once he was caught by Wikipedia editors the DA article was stamped with an “individual covered by or significantly related to this article, DeviantART, has edited Wikipedia as Spyed” tag. Well it gets better. Spyed has now deleted his Wikipedia account because apparently he was caught again! Why did you make those changes Mr. Sotira? Enlighten us.

    How can anyone trust Angelo Sotira. How can anyone trust deviantART as a company when they can‘t even decide who their founders are or who credit should be given to. Do you think DA cares about our art when they don‘t even care about their founders? And yes Lolly a company that makes millions per year is a COMPANY. There are much better art sites on the net. Ones that are not littered with ads. Jark felt that the site was all about the community. Mr. Sotira, if devaintART is still about the community why don't you give something back to it instead of charging for certain features. Don't you make enough from those annoying ads?

    When Jark was around deviantART was ad free for the most part. Since Sotira has been charged every other page has an ad pop-up. The ads take away from the viewing experience and reveal deviantART to be the capitalists that they have always claimed not to be. If the site is truly for the members why not make things free? Instead of giving members, members who MADE deviantART what it is today a break, they instead poke fun at other art sites and brag about how they are “the best”. deviantART has the member base, mainly because shells of deleted accounts remain after accounts are deleted, but that does not mean that they rank as the “best” designed art site. They have been riding on hype for years now.

    If Sotira is the true founder, or even A founder, of deviantART why did he make no statement in 2000 when his resume was posted to Businessweek? Do a search for 'Sotira Businessweek' and you will find it if he does not have it removed first or click on my handle because it will take you there.

    Notice that he does not mentioned deviantART at all. 2000 was the first year for deviantART and Jarkoff had already made several statement about the site around that time. It seems that Sotira only made his claim known once it was obvious the site would be successful. The truth is in those words. Those few, and simple, words.

    I don't buy the "can't talk about it" claims either. Cases and pending lawsuits are spoken about all the time. Especially when the reputation of a company, yes COMPANY, is at stake.

    If Sotira has strived to be lowkey about press it is only because he wants to make sure that the history of deviantART is written with a different angle so that he is not hammered for the ill will he caused in the hearts of thousands of members. If you mention strong support for Jark on the site, if you are overly vocal, you get banned. Do some searches about that and you will find it happens often. Open community... yeah right.
  • bob · 1 year ago
    hi