I understand that a Premium Membership is all cool and such, they're amazingly useful when you want to have a piece really critiqued but to me, that's about all it's good for. Sure, having fancy borders on your journals is fine and dandy, being able to view more deviations per page when browsing... But come on, who needs that fancy bullcrap?

No ads, yes, that's the main reason for most people to get a PM, but you want to spend money on being able to browse ad free? I really don't see the issue if you can get an ad-block program for your browser like I have. "But it takes money away from the site!!" Actually, no. It doesn't. It's an insignificant amount that the site receives for every view on an ad from a company. The company pays the site to host their advertisements and the site queues them up specifically so that the company that paid the highest amount to them gets their ad shown the most; with which there's a smaller amount paid every time it shows up. Say a company asked me to host their advertisement for a month, and paid me $1,000 to do so. Along with that $1,000, I would also receive 10 cents per view on the advertisement. In one month, I would be getting $1,000 minimum, and that's plenty enough for me! If I got 100 views on something, I'd have an extra $10 added. 1,000 views, another $100. Sure, that extra little bit is awesome, but that's based on the fact that I'm also a poor college student.

Take a site like deviantART now; not only are they more known, but they have a LOT of people bumping around on the site, allowing for more advertisements to be shown at a time. Companies would pay them probably $10,000 a year to host their advertisements. Yes, that's less than the $1,000 for "my" site, but it was one company, and one month. If you've never noticed, deviantART has probably about 10 different companies being advertised in a given day. The frequency in which you see these companies depends on who paid the highest dollar.

Anyways... dA gets that whole $10k by the end of the year from this company, and the other 9 companies they're hosting. On top of that, they're getting dividends of 5 cents to 15 cents per view, and if you haven't taken a look at how many deviants there are here, that ends up being BIG BUCKS for the site. But you know what? Should there be one, five, ten, or even a hundred people who block the ads from showing on their screens as they browse, dA is still getting a ton of money from the others who either don't care about the ads or don't know there's a way to block them.

As for the PMs, in the long run, dA is probably losing money on them. Unless I really have a piece I want to have critiqued, or I get good enough to want to have my crappy stuff critiqued (or if I start getting cocky about my art, which pfffffff I'm reminded daily that my art sucks in comparison to many other people's stuff so FFFFFF that'll never happen....) I won't be getting a PM for myself for a long time.

I like the idea of them, I really do, but a Premium Membership is honestly just a load of bull that gives you the right to brag about how "good" your art is. I mean, really... Just because you have money to spend on a PM doesn't mean your art is good. Unless that money was spent hiring an art tutor and the person actually spent the time and effort in creating their style and having it be very consistent and whatnot, but come on.... In any case, money just means power.

Now, there are a BUNCH of artists who are AMAZINGLY GOOD and DON'T brag about their art. I feel I came off as saying all Premium Members are bitches and such, but no, that's far from it. There are plenty of amazing artists who deserve to be recognized, and they're amazing and wonderful.... I'm just pointing out that there are some people who get a PM to say "OH, look at my stuff, I'm a Premium Member so my stuff is SO TOTALLY AWESOME SUCK MY DICK" kind of thing... pisses me off.... Moving on.... I just don't like how some people get once they have a PM.

Yes, I realize something. I had a PM a long time ago, but that was a contest prize or something... I didn't buy it. I did some of that fancy stuff you're allowed to do when you have one, and it was fun. I was sad when I lost it, but looking back, why did I even bother doing the fancy crap? Because I thought I would be cool? Because it would make my art seem like it was a lot better? Yeah. But it wasn't. I see that and I realize just how much it actually meant to me to have a PM; nothing at all. It meant nothing. I didn't magically gain art skills just because my journal could look like the ocean. I didn't become an eloquent author because I could post thumbnails in my journal or ask for a critique on my art. I didn't lose anything when my subscription ran out other than the membership. So why did I feel I needed to pay money to get a membership?

Oh well. Just to see what happens, I'm saying that this is how I'm celebrating today's "Premium Membership Day" festivities; by not doing anything different with my journal, by not asking for critiques on my art, and by not even checking out the super secret club of the Premium Members.

Yeah, I read the little flag up at the top of the screen. I read that you can get a 1-year membership if you tell them how you're celebrating. I really want to see how this 'entry' pans out. Wouldn't it be ironic if I got that membership? Yes, eventually, I'd do something fun with the journal, but it wouldn't be flashy.

Is this a rant? This feels like a rant, but I always thought rants happened when one was mad?