Daily Deviations: Awards or Features?

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Daily Deviations Week

The Daily Deviations surely represent one of the most important traits of DeviantArt, for which the site itself is recognized widely. They've been here since the very beginning of DeviantArt and have become more and more established over the years. Today they're probably the most coveted "award" that DeviantArt can offer to its members.


Typical reaction of a Community Volunteer who hears the words "DD" and "award" used at the same time.


Exactly. This might be confusing, but many people think that the Daily Deviation represents an award. It's not that uncommon to find deviants writing things like "I've been awarded a DD!" or "Glad to have received the DD award!". To make everything a little bit clearer, let's read the entry in the DA faq:

FAQ #61: What is a Daily Deviation?

The Daily Deviation is a daily feature chosen from the galleries here on DeviantArtT.


Butbutbut...what's the difference?!


The difference is easily understood by reading the definitions of the two words from an English dictionary (for this purpose, I used the Oxford Dictionary).

An award is a prize or other mark of recognition given in honour of an achievement.

Two notable examples we can refer to are the Nobel Prize (given in recognition of cultural and/or scientific advances) and the Academy Awards (given for cinematic achievements in the film industry).

A feature is a newspaper or magazine article or a broadcast programme devoted to the treatment of a particular topic, typically at length.

We can extend this definition to websites and blog articles, so that we can include the regular features deviants hold throughout the site and the Daily Deviations, or to the including of some artist's work in an art book or media.

Let's now apply this definition to the Daily Deviations and how they appear to us. We can imagine they are little daily articles concerning various topics (in our case, the different galleries on DeviantArt). The "article" is displayed in a fancy little golden box and made up of at least three parts: the title of the deviation, the username of the artist, and the username of the article's "author" (the CV who featured the deviation). In some cases, the Community Volunteer writes a brief description of the piece they selected, stating why it is an incredible piece of art. In other cases, the CVs choose other "articles" that members of the community sent them via note (the process of suggesting a DD). The Daily Deviation page, which includes every DD, can be seen as the index of the features (like an index on a magazine or book). Every day, a new issue of this magazine called "DDs" is out, ready to showcase some gems from all around our community.



I'm still confused...why can't I call it an award?


There is no contesting that Daily Deviations are special. Still, they're special features and not special prizes. If you receive a Daily Deviation, it's not because the CV is giving you an award for your artistic skills, it's more that they are recognizing the quality of your piece, and choosing to feature it for the entire community to see. Today it might be your turn, tomorrow it can happen to somebody else. :D The process of choosing a Daily Deviation is not so different from the one with which people build features on their personal journals. :) The only difference is that Daily Deviations get a nice plaque on their page (which still doesn't make them an award) and are specifically displayed on DeviantArt's "Daily Deviations" and "Today" page. :D
A small assortment of submissions are chosen each day by a select group of staff/volunteer members who wish to showcase an image which they found impressive or otherwise interesting enough to deserve being brought to the attention of the community-at-large.
Getting a Daily Deviation doesn't make the artist automatically the best among their group, as well as having none doesn't mean the artist isn't skilled enough...maybe they haven't been discovered yet! The choice of a DD is led by many factors and, most of all, is about the artwork.





I'd like to end this article with a question to the readers! :la:
Given that Daily Deviations are strictly features (it's been stated several times!), I guess if many people think it's some sort of award, there should be a reason. :giggle:

What are your thoughts about Award VS Feature? Do you think the DD looks more like an award? If yes, why do you think so?



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R-R-Eco's avatar
Is an acknowledgment. Like the Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation of Emmy Awards. That are awards XP