Sta.sh
Basically, as CVs, when we are giving a DD, we are doing so because we think the image is interesting and well-done and deserves your attention. It may be technically exquisite. It may be technically quite good but exceptionally thought-provoking. It may be exceedingly creative. It may be all of these things! Above all else, it should stand out in some way from others in that medium or gallery.
Pinup & Glamour Photography
A DD is not an award but an art feature.
There. I said it. A DD is not a prestigious award that will change your life drastically, it's just a 24h feature.
But why is it so important to make this distinction?
It's just a way of naming something and therefore should not be of great importance, yet it makes all the difference in how people perceive a DD.
On the importance of terminology
As mentioned in the intro, the biggest problem when it comes to Daily Deviations arises with the choice of words used to describe what a Daily Deviaton is. When you call it an award, people will automatically assume that the Daily Deviation is the cream of the crop of every deviation posted ever on this site and that no art featured after it should be able to be perceived as "worse". However, when you call it a feature, most people are fine with the picked deviations and don't even hold them to the high standards of living up and / or overshadowing the previously featured deviations. And yet, behind the terminology the deviations that are featured are still the same.
award [əˈwɔːd]
n
1. something awarded, such as a prize or medal an award for bravery
An award, in most cases, is something given at the end of a competition to the winner. Like the gold medals at the Olympics, or trophies at the end of Wimbledon. What an award is not, however, is something that's given daily to people who aren't even competing in something. To get your art featured site-wide may feel like winning a prize, but it's still just a feature. A daily deviation is nothing more than the name itself implies: it's not a Daily Award or a Daily Prize, it's just a deviation featured for a day.
fea·ture (f
ch
r)
chr)tr.v. fea·tured, fea·tur·ing, fea·tures
1. To give special attention to; display, publicize, or make prominent.
So why is a daily deviation a feature then? When your art is picked to be featured, that's pretty much all you get: a day-long feature on the DD-page and in the footer. While it reaches more people than say, being featured in a journal, the idea behind it is pretty much the same. Your art was suggested to someone who thought it looked amazing and who then decided to share it with others. That being said, getting a daily deviation still is something to be proud of, since of all the works on the site, yours was picked to be featured! It still is an achievement that follows up hard work and creativity. To pick up on the analogy with a journal-feature: where a journal-feature is a bit like a deviant saying "I like this piece, you should check it out!", a DD is a CV's way of saying that a piece is worth looking at.
So now: questions to you, the reader.
1. What do you think the qualities of a good DD are or should be?
2. If you were a CV, how would you choose what to feature and what not?
However, I think that everyone who gets featured (or anyone else for that matter) find it some kind of a prize or an award. So do I. Perhaps it's wrong, perhaps it's shallow - but getting featured on an art site which hosts millions of people thriving to share their art and get exposure for what they do, is most certainly an award in a sense of personal satisfaction if nothing else. Not to mention that the standards are really high so once you do get featured it means you've exceeded yourself in sense of creativity and technical skill. Means you ARE that good. It's a milestone. Of course, that shouldn't suggest that some other brilliant artworks which didn't get featured aren't as good or even better. But for those artists there's always a chance of being featured with some other artwork then, perhaps.
Also, if someone does get featured, it will bring them thousands of views in that single day and not to mention a lot of feedback and new followers. It isn't about numbers in the sense of popularity, it's about getting a wider audience of appreciators for what you do. If you get a DD, getting more appreciators IS your award, your prize.
There's a ton of majestic art all over dA which is seriously underappreciated. Getting exposure, a feature among all of those artworks even for a single day, truly is rewarding. And once you get featured there's a widget decorating your deviation for eternity
A DD is a reward/award. It is one of only a handful of things that can be accomplished on dA (E.G. Senior status, Devious Award, Bolt Award and a DD) and it get's a trophy becoming of such an award. You get a special section in your gallery dedicated to your DDs and the pictures that receive the DD get a shiny box below the artists description setting it apart from all the other art on the site.
It also isn't just a feature. I'm not really a fan of DDs being diminished to "just a feature". It is so much more than that. Like I already said, it's one of a only a handful of accolades that can be accomplished and to be called "just a feature" is just plain wrong. A picture I put in my journal/news is "just a feature"; a DD is a trophy.
Just my 2 cents
I do agree with the arguments you use, but I still feel like calling it an award is more likely to evoke negative reaction since a reward implies it has to be the top of it's class, cream of the crop and the best of all things ever featured as a DD. Given that it's a daily feature, it's a bit surreal to keep every piece to this standard when in reality we look for interesting pieces that are of an outstanding quality. They do not necessarily need to surpass all DD's featured before it, if that makes sense?
For instance, when I was in the Army I got my share of awards and medals for the work that I did. I wasn't competing with my fellow soldiers, I just happened to do a good enough job to be awarded the, for instance, Army Commendation Medal. I wasn't any better than anyone else but I still was awarded the medal on my own merits. This is just like a DD. It is being awarded on the piece's own merits and has nothing to do with who was DD'd before or after it.
Am I making any sense?
As for the negative reaction, well, let's be honest, they get a negative reaction regardless of what we call it
It's a shame people tend to look at DDs as "Must be better than all the previous", though.
And it's noticeable from comments such as "DDs are getting worse" or "DDs used to be so much better".
And I honestly don't get why people feel the need to ruin a DD for someone.
I mean, it's a feature that only lasts a day. It's not like it's a life-changing experience like winning the lottery or something like that.
Just a general example but that is why I think these comments exist. The other thing is that they are not CVs. If they were to ever become one they would quickly realise that the god-like level that they expect in a DD doesn't exist unless you want to DD the same 20 (arbitrary number) artists over and over and over again
Of course, the people complaining likely have no desire to be a CV anyways