I know I've been sort of inactive as of late, but I swear I've been around! xD And while lurking dA, I've noticed the new point craze.
And it's been getting under my skin for awhile now.
Let me explain why:

What are Points?
Points are essentially, reeeaaaally tiny deviantART gift cards. You can buy 80 of them for one US dollar (source), meaning each point is worth about 1.25 cents. You can give anywhere from 1 point to 1 million to any other dA member, for any reason. Sounds pretty sweet right?

Not so much.

As with all gift cards, once you have converted your money to points, there is NO WAY to redeem them for real cash. And the only thing you can spend them on is stuff from the dA store.

Why is this a problem?
I'm sure all of you, at one point or another, have gotten a gift card to somewhere you never go. To you, that gift card is worthless. If you never go to that store and don't want anything in that store, you'll never get to use that money. The best you can do is regift the card to someone else. Which is pretty lame.

And believe it or not, not everyone is dying to buy something from the dA store. No, not even subscriptions. For these people, points are those gift cards that will never get spent.

Well so what? Some people want points, what's the big deal?
Here's the big deal: Points are REAL MONEY. The only way to generate points is SOMEONE had to BUY them.
These aren't Neopoints or Gaia gold that you can generate by playing games or being active. DeviantART points are only created by spending REAL MONEY.

So when you beg for points to buy that t-shirt or subscription you really want, you are begging for REAL MONEY. Which I personally find pretty shameful but hey, whatever floats your boat.

Here's my real problem.
Some of you really need to consider those of us who want NO PART of points.

I know some artists have been asked if they can be paid in POINTS instead of REAL MONEY. That's like asking if you can pay for your movie ticket with a gift card to Chili's.
Chances are, that artist needs that money for something OTHER than dA merchandise. Remember, cash is good EVERYWHERE, points are only good on this site.

And to those of you who want to make point adoptables: if you are using someone else's line art, you NEED TO ASK THE ARTIST.
Many artists (myself included) are NOT okay with you using their line art for point adoptables, because you are basically selling their art for REAL MONEY. Which is not cool.
Unless the artist EXPRESSLY MENTIONS points in the artist's comment, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ask! A lot of line art is much older than points are, so many artists haven't gone back and edited their descriptions (which I really need to do, haha).

Something else to think about for those artists selling commissions for points: remember to convert points to dollars (80 points= $1 US ). For example, if you're selling a completed picture for 30 points, that's 37.5 cents. Would you be happy receiving a quarter, a dime and a few pennies as payment? Because that's basically what you're doing.
Personally, I think you're selling yourself WAY short, but if you're okay with that, knock yourself out...




In case it isn't obvious, I am one of those people who want no part of points! I think it was an incredibly sleazy move on deviantART's part, and watching everyone go crazy for them is aggravating (plus, I don't want anything from the dA store).
I've also been asked numerous times (and also caught a few people who DIDN'T ask) if people can use my art for point adoptables. The answer will always be NO, but I'm getting tired of telling people individually. So HOPEFULLY at least those who are on my watch list will see it!



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In other news, summer! Things have have been pretty boring around here, since I've got no job 8D;
Otakon is at the end of the month (hooray!), and a week before that I'm getting all 4 wisdom teeth removed (boooo).

Aaand of course, Mobster Anubis is still open for preorders here!


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