The Forums and the Chatrooms, collectively known as the dAmn (deviantART Message Network), are home to many kinds of discussion. In this article we'll briefly go over the different forums and chatrooms there are, with some specific attention to those that are helpful for you as deviant who wants to contribute to the community. 
First, the forum are not the place to go ask for help or report a problem with deviantART - but they do have the handy Need HELP? thread which tells you exactly where to go with your question.
So if not that, then what are the forums for? Let's break it down down down 
to the subcategories!
to the subcategories!
Tip: before making a thread, always have a look not only at the Forum Posting Guidelines to the top, but also at other recent threads to see what the forum is for and what response you can expect.- Devart. In particular the Welcome forum is a great place to meet other people and help them, many of these people are new either to the entire site or to the forum. In the Suggestions forum propose your ideas for deviantART and discuss those of others.
- Senior Members & Premium Members forum are not accessible to everyone so I won't discuss them here.
- The Community forums are a particularly varied bunch! Of particular interest:
- Deviant Meets because deviants are awesome people that you'd love to meet!
- Projects is not for discussion but for any projects & contests that are related to deviantART or to art in general. Also see PE: Organizing Projects and Contests!
- Help With Life is all about help & advice for those who need it.
- Art Related is where people ask for critique (often in dedicated sticky threads), help and advice, but also general questions about their art form.
- Showcase for promoting your groups, chatrooms and events, but also your art. It's also a good place to look for art when you're putting together a feature or want to comment or critique some art.
- Entertainment and Technology are subcategories for specific themes of discussion.
- And lastly Employment Opportunities is for freelancers and other artists-for-hire, and employers of artists to find each other.
Forum Challenge
Post a comment on this blog to claim a certain forum - for example, the Welcome forum. Then go to it and post as many friendly helpful comments as you can The winner will be announced during the chat event later today!
The winner will be announced during the chat event later today!No more than 3 people can claim a certain forum.
The chat Rooms
The Chat rooms are a little different in their structure from the forums. There are a few official chatrooms, but the majority of the rooms are made by users just like you! There is a large variety of chatrooms out there. When you explore the chatrooms it is important to realise that rooms may have very different rules, as it is up to the creator and the mods he or she appoints how they want to run the room.
The featured rooms at this time are:
- #devart - the general discussion chatroom.
- :#help: is mentioned in the Need HELP? thread - here you can get immediate help from Community Volunteers and other appointed helpers if present. If you're wondering if a specific feature exists, how to use it or what you can do if it stops working - stop by and check if someone's present before going to the Help Desk.
- #seniors is the room run by senior members. You don't need to be a senior member to enter, everyone is welcome!
- communityrelations is the official room for the official Community Relations team. Many chat events take place here - as will ours! - but it's also open during
Some examples of types of unofficial chatrooms you can find on the chat page:
- Many rooms are aimed at artists of a specific theme or medium, such as CRLiterature or :#iamanthro:.
- Others focus on other themes, such as :#gaybiworlds: and ShareZone. Most of these rooms allow a lot of general discussion too.
- Many :devgroups: also have their own chatrooms where the mods and active members hang out, where the group holds (open or closed) meetings and/or where other events for the group take place.
- Role play is another popular use of the chatrooms.
Join some chatroomsChat Event
Is over! Thanks for everyone that stopped by 
We had an awesome night!
We had an awesome night!
