Sta.sh
This article is for those who would like some people to take them serious as an artist and to actively watch them.
they're invisible to non-beta testers.)
1. Encouraging people to comment
Groups
Hopefully these will help inspire you to help you discover what you could create to help the community 
Commenting 
:thumb257011131
This article was originally inspired by a discussion with ~Alavesa and posted in a journal here but people told me I should make it a news article
So here's a revised (hopefully improved) version. Any updates and additions will be posted there.
First, this is something I find many just don't realise... Did you know that you're way more likely to meet new friends and getting your work noticed if you interact with unknown artists, instead of only watching already popular ones? Unknown artists will appreciate any feedback you leave them a lot more (be it a critique, a fave etc.), and often will keep talking to you and return the favour, while to many popular artists, you may be just another drop in the sea.
Remember, the amounts of exposure you get doesn't just depend on the quality of your work – you'll have to get some people to look in the first place!
So, if you feel like being the first to discover great art, where do find them?
Well, you can use the random deviant or random deviation button, use discovery (hint: every time you load the page, you get 9 popular artists and 3 unknown ones... you can see their watcher count without having to leave the page so seek out those with few watchers!), lurk the Thumbshare +forum or the #Thumbsshare +chatroom, follow some +Groups, or – and this may be easiest – just set the front page - +www - to 'newest' instead of 'popular'
Other places to find art include +today, +channels, the portals such as ~literature and ~photography, critiquables, News Feature Articles and journal features, and ~collections.
What do you do when you find an unknown artist? Well, there is of course DDs, and =DailyLitDeviations for literature (besides normal lit DDs), that you can suggest them for – but there's also some initiatives that focus on unknown talent specifically.
More you can do to help them;
So here's a revised (hopefully improved) version. Any updates and additions will be posted there.Tip for unknown artists
First, this is something I find many just don't realise... Did you know that you're way more likely to meet new friends and getting your work noticed if you interact with unknown artists, instead of only watching already popular ones? Unknown artists will appreciate any feedback you leave them a lot more (be it a critique, a fave etc.), and often will keep talking to you and return the favour, while to many popular artists, you may be just another drop in the sea.
Remember, the amounts of exposure you get doesn't just depend on the quality of your work – you'll have to get some people to look in the first place!
Where to find them
So, if you feel like being the first to discover great art, where do find them?
Well, you can use the random deviant or random deviation button, use discovery (hint: every time you load the page, you get 9 popular artists and 3 unknown ones... you can see their watcher count without having to leave the page so seek out those with few watchers!), lurk the Thumbshare +forum or the #Thumbsshare +chatroom, follow some +Groups, or – and this may be easiest – just set the front page - +www - to 'newest' instead of 'popular' Other places to find art include +today, +channels, the portals such as ~literature and ~photography, critiquables, News Feature Articles and journal features, and ~collections.
How to help them
What do you do when you find an unknown artist? Well, there is of course DDs, and =DailyLitDeviations for literature (besides normal lit DDs), that you can suggest them for – but there's also some initiatives that focus on unknown talent specifically.
More you can do to help them;
- Suggest them to #helping-the-unknown - if chosen will get their own news feature from one of the (usually more known) admins! (they also have a chat event coming up, see: [link] )
- Suggest them to ^3wyl for her Make a Difference series: [link] which features 3 different artists in an article every week.
- If a deviation has received 0-5 comments (not counting replies), send it to #ProjectComment to be featured in a weekly article (example: [link] )
- =Christianonfire7 has a weekly feature and likes to feature unknown artists too – note her with your suggestions.
- =hiddendelights has a series called deviants discovered focussing on underappreciated artists, for which she takes suggestions too.
- Or... maybe you could feature them yourself? As a premium member, you can for example feature them in custom boxes (like `phoenixleo does on his page!) or journals (like =Christianonfire7 and `petrova and many many others do)... if you don't have a premium membership, you can feature them by displaying your 'faves' widget on your page, and you can feature them in news articles too (see the guide to dA news I also recommend you check out #NonPremiumStyle
- At least as useful, comment on their work. Tell them what you like about it, maybe even critique if you can! Many are on dA to improve as artist, but don't usually get constructive feedback and will be happy to receive some.
When I see that I feel fucked up becuase I have so much awesomness (espacially literature) to offer and no-one sees it! That guy over there with 0 uploads and joined a week ago is already having 5+ watchers etc. Why? I feel very underestimated and underrated.
I don't see any literature in your gallery though, are you still going to submit that?
Good luck!
It can be found in the Journal tab.
[link]
-Must find a way to fix it-
Many people do join groups to find people of similar interests, it's true. However, the deviation flow is crazy and requires hours to take care of. If one crosses all of them out, they feel as if they're missing out on an opportunity to meet more people. Do you have any ideas on how to solve this issue?
Thanks for the article, by the way.
Then, I think the best thing to do is to find a smaller group. They have more opportunity for you to form a sort of community, you keep meeting the same people and such which means you're much more likely to make good friends, or just to have them visit your page or something