Preamble

I have finally received an official response from the administration here, courtesy of Angelo Sotira, or $spyed. His responses are now included below each point, denoted by the emoticon.

This whole thing was about getting answers, and this will continue until we see the things again promised below actually materialize on-site. I want to thank Angelo profusely, though, for responding (and in such great detail!) to this cause. He is a great man.

What are your thoughts on the responses given?

What has been forgotten?

Since v2, we've lost many small things from the site. We were told they would return in time, but that time has now become 1+ years. When will we see these things again?

_{If you know of something I forgot, let me know via comment.}

1. Our own choice of header image [usable with v1, v2, v3 (djd) skin] -- look

The header image choices were a nice feature in earlier versions of deviantART. But with the launch of version 3 featuring the "minimal" skin, we moved away from a more graphical interface to a more text based interface. We do intend to stick with the minimal skin approach, so it is unlikely that the headers will return.

2. devPacks [Collections]

Collections are currently in our development "lab." That is to say, Collections (devpacks) are being designed, they're not yet at the implementaiton stage.

3. "last host: ____" info on user pages (I found this to be quite cool.)
_{I was told this was removed due to privacy/security issues, thus I've removed it from this list.}

...

4. "DA Prints: __" link/stat on user pages (no current link to our prints pages)

A prints button will soon be added to the user page interface.

5. Skins [v1 (Classic), v2, v3 (by `dj-designs), v3 (Minimal), xenka]

Skins are a long way off if they do return. Given the sheer size of deviantART these days a skin technology is an impractical solution for a number of reasons. For one it is very costly to our IT department to maintain multiple interfaces, no matter how good our skinning engine gets. What you'll likely see is the ability to customize the colors of the deviantART interface.

6. Subscriber Content (with regular additions)

Subscriber content was a bad idea so early in deviantART's life. We will bring it back when we can afford to do it right.

7. Software -- updates ceased in mid 2003

deviantART is an art community. There are many wonderful Software sites on the web, and while we may feature a small software suite area in the future, I think it's silly for us to try and compete with the quality of other software sites.
Especially because energy that goes in to software is not energy that goes in to making deviantART the best art community on the web. I'm happy to hear that you were a fan of our Software section though, I know that °jark put a lot of work in to it.

_{I agree with this judgment, and thus I believe the software page should be purged entirely, as it is essentially pointless.}

8. Fix the message center: reinstall the "clear all" links, and fix the deviation info stats.

We intend to re-add "Select-All" links to each sub-section of the message center, not just at the bottom. But Clear All links, which came to be due to a bug that was hard to fix in our old message center, should not need to exist. We intend to take a closer look at the message center code in the near future so that "mark as read" works properly in all instances. At that point "Clear All" links should be a completely obsolete concept.

9. Policy Violation lists and the number of policy violations should be shown on the page.
_{I was told this was removed so as to maintain user integrity to the general public, and thus is purged from this list.}

...

10. +fav suggestions. _{(After you favorited a piece, it would take you to a page suggesting more art you might like.)}

This feature was disabled due to the heavy load it caused on our servers. Later this year we are going to investigate an "art everywhere" type initiative where we feature art in a lot more places on dA; when you log in, when you log out, 404 pages, when you add favorites, etc. But we're with you on this one!

11. The next/previous buttons on each deviation
_{(Allowed a systematically perusal of deviations submitted, one after another in order of submission.)}

[I] can't remember why this was disabled. It shouldn't have been, when we can we will bring those back but probably as part of a larger effort to improve navigation.

12. The search function for non subscribers
_{If this is unfeasible, then simply make it a subscriber-only feature.}

A non-subscriber search engine is planned for 2005. An even better subscriber serach engine is also in the works.

13. The forum thread "Report" button (thanks `mp3chuck)

This is a question for °dygel or °jark.

14. Comment Previews (thanks `mp3chuck)

One of our new features will include this functionality. It should be released in the very near future, it is called EasyReply.

15. The "Jump To" [another sub-forum] menu in the forums (thanks `mp3chuck)

Jump-To was nice. Perhaps it will return one day.

16. Mosaics (suggested by =ivyc)
_{"A long loved and mighty popular type of colab art that allowed each user their own tile in a large image. This has been gone for quite some time and I miss it." - =ivyc}

If you want to see these features back before the next version change, link to this journal in your signatures, journals, etc like below:

^{BRING BACK OUR MISSING DEVIANTART FEATURES!}

Support classic deviantART!

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