Hey, hey -- how does the moon cut his hair?
...
Eclipse it.
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All jokes aside, I'm actually here to chat about a more important eclipse that's been
dawning on DeviantArt lately (ok, I'm kidding--everything is subject to puns now).
So, Beta Testers recently got access to DA's new site overhaul called Eclipse, that I'm sure everyone's aware of by now :> I stayed up (a little too late) the night it came out and played around with everything, and thought it'd be fun to show off some of the new stuff that's coming soon! SO let's get to it my dudes
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Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with DeviantArt or its staff, nor was I paid/compensated/influenced in any way to talk about this. The following are my own opinions & thoughts.(Also, I apologize if the GIFs are laggy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ If most of the images below are static or glitchy, just give the journal some time to load. Or, y'know ... just do without the moving images.
It's fine, it's not like I put all this extra time into them or anything :''))___________________________________________________________________
Things I Love: Profile Banner:
Idk about you, but I find this layout really appealing with a featured art piece being the first thing you see, along with the username, icon, and stats. It makes a great first impression, and it almost feels like having your own website.
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New gallery layout:
The updated Gallery look and feel is pretty reminiscent of ArtStation if you ask me, but tbh, as a part-time art director, I love ArtStation's layout--it's been my favorite for viewing artist's portfolios, and I like that DA is going with this kind of layout too. This portfolio style makes it really easy to view artwork all at once with good sized thumbnails. The carousel folders at the top are pretty neat too.
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View Who You & Others Are Watching:
Y'know how you can always see people's watchERS, but never who they're watchING? Well, the DA update is adding this little feature to your profile now (which you can remove if you don't care to show)! Not that it was an absolute necessity, but I do think it's cool to see all the peeps that users are watching, and not just their watchers now.
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Mouse-Over User Icons:
While we're looking at all these lovely icons, there's a SUPER cool new feature that I personally really dig, where you can mouse-over users to bring up a little preview window of their profile! (The teal gradient at the top of the window gets replaced with your profile banner once you upload one.)
Downside: so far, I've found that this lovely little mouse-over feature only occurs on profiles (doesn't seem to work on comments or other places yet--but I'm hoping it becomes a site-wide thing, cuz it's really cool to get this quick overview of someone's page).
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Status Updates LIIIVVVEEE (And Get To Reside W/ Your Journals & Polls:
I was actually really surprised to see this. Status updates no longer disappear into the void after they fall off your profile! With Eclipse, there's now a "Posts" tab on your profile where all your Journals, Statuses, and Polls live in harmony and keep each other company
Which, y'know, can either be a good or bad thing ... depending on how you use your Statuses. I feel like they were a bit comparable to Instagram stories on the old DA site--they're meant to be temporary. But now that Status Updates have a permanent home, I feel like they're gonna be treated more like Tweets or something 🤔
I personally don't mind it. It's kinda nice to see them again, haha.
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The "Shop" Tab On Your Profile:
Alright, my screenshot is a bad example cuz I obviously don't have commissions yet, but--this new designated shopfront for your comms and prints is looking really sweet. I personally can't wait to open up commissions just to try this new feature out xD
(LOL that's not the only reason, I promise :'))_________
Browse Commissions:
Since we're talking about commissions ... fam,
look at this. This is a stellar feature imo. You can actually browse new commissions like you can browse new deviations now--and it updates by the minutes! I admit, I'm not super involved in the commission world yet, but it always seemed like deviants struggled (unless you were super popular) to get word out about your comms. There's a whole Browse tab designated
just for commissions now, complete with price tags and everything! (Don't ask me how it all works yet, cuz I honestly don't know, haha, but it seems pretty promising.)
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Reach The Comments @ The Bottom Of Your Gallery:
I know it's not always the most active Comments place, but I really love giving and receiving comments at the bottom of the Gallery. But y'know, it's always so diddly darn hard to reach (unless your Gallery is SUPER short). DA's update gave us this snazzy little button at the top of the Gallery that jumps you down to the bottom of the page right where all those comments are ;D It's so nice not to have to scroll like a madman for days to try and find that (often mythical) end of a user's Gallery just to leave them a comment. Hopefully this new feature will cause more folks to start commenting there
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"Like" A Comment:
Okay -- I LOVE this one. I've actually been wanting this feature on DA for a long time, as small and unimportant as it probably seems. All the social medias do it--Instagram, FB, Twitter, Youtube, etc.--that thing where you can "like" or thumbs-up a comment to show your acknowledgement without having to actually reply. It's also a sweet way to show that you really appreciated / were amused / agree with a comment / etc.
I'm not sure yet if users get notified when you "like" their comment (like how you do on social media), but I'm hoping that's part of the feature, since y'know ... why does it matter if you like someone's comment or not if they don't ever get to know that you did? For now though, good job on this one, DA
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Glance @ Who Commented & Faved A Deviation:
At the top of each deviation there's now these little comment and fave icons above the title, and if you mouse over them, you get this cute little preview window of the most recent users that interacted with the post. Pretty neat!
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Different View Modes On Deviations:
Another new thing on Deviation pages is the option for different view modes. There's the good old "Full Screen" (shown first), and then a "Theater Mode" (shown second). Both options, along with the regular view, have "next" and "previous" arrows on the sides so you could scroll through someone's entire gallery like this.
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Notifications Preview Window:
Now, when you click your Notifications, this snazzy preview window comes up (I believe this is replacing live notifications for those that have Core--except everybody gets this). Kinda convenient; I like it.
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Save Notifications & View Removed Ones:
As you can see on the right side of the above image, there's a place to view all the notifications you've saved, along with a tab for your removed notifications (kinda like your recycle bin). With so many notifications flooding our inboxes, the ability to save certain ones and put them aside seems really convenient, especially if you wanna hold on to a sweet comment, mention, or other important thing. This'll let you seclude it to the side and easily find that special notification again without having to dig through everything. The only real reason I see using the Removed tab, is if I accidentally remove one of those Group submission notifications that's still awaiting approval
(we've all done that at least once, RIGHT?! _(:3 」∠)_ )__________
Additional Features That I'm Too Tired To Get Pics For: Add YouTube Videos To Comments
Heart Meter On Deviations (tells DA that you want to see more like this)
Change Background On Deviations (you can swap out the basic black/white bg behind your deviation for a basic pattern)
Dark/Light Mode Options For Website (loving the dark mode!)
Currently, You Can Still Switch Back & Forth Between Old DA & Eclipse (not sure if that will change or not)
No Third-Party Ads (there'll apparently still be DeviantArt related promotions though)
[Will Add To This List As Needed. Also, Feel Free To Request Images/GIFs For Any Of Them.] Last Updated: 11-22-18_____________________________________________________________
*WHEW* that was a lot! Bear with me though, cuz I still have a little more to cover ... but don't worry--it won't be as long :')
Take a quick breather though --
ALRIGHT.____________________________________________________________
Things I Don't Like: I definitely feel like I'm in the minority of people who overall really like the Eclipse update. Nothing is perfect though, and of course, DA is still working out lots of bugs and snags, and I don't blame them. Honestly, who can expect that this thing was gonna turn out flawless for everybody as soon as it released? Anyway, here's a few of the dislikes on my list:
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HTML On Profile Looks Wack:
( On Profile "Home")( On Profile "About")Tbh, I half-expected this. Custom-coding / HTML on your Profile is such a headache on the old DA site, and it still doesn't match on every browser and monitor size. It seemed like a long-shot that all that laborious coding would transition perfectly to a new site layout where everything is oriented and displayed differently. It's a real bummer for sure, but fortunately, the "Edit" button on your About widget on the Eclipse site is labeled "Coming Soon", which means that there's hope still for customizing your profile and devID again! For the time being though, any HTML is just gonna look like crud 'til the Edit feature rolls in.
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Numerous Profile Widgets Missing:
[No Picture For This One ]No matter what widgets you have on the old DA site, by default, your Eclipse profile will only show your "About", "Gallery", "Comments", "Watchers" and "Watching". You do have the ability to remove and add sections (like "Groups", "Grid Gallery", "Posts" [aka. Status Updates/Journals/Polls], and "Donations"), but not all of the widgets we're used to are available on Eclipse yet. So far, only the widgets mentioned above are available (from what I've seen). I don't think this means that DA is permanently doing away with all other widgets--but rather, these are the only ones they've transitioned to the new site
so far. I'm sure the other ones will be coming in time.
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Badges Missing:
(
Badges)
(
No Badges ;Oc )
I think this one might just be a bug, because I've seen them on a few profiles, but not on others, and not on my own. Is anyone else with Eclipse able to view Profile badges? Or are they missing on some users, like how I'm seeing?
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Blurry User Icon On Profile Header:
Ehh, I know this is a little nitpicky, but I couldn't help but immediately notice how horribly low-res my icon looks on my Profile header. Ik icons are already pretty pixelated on DA, but this REALLY highlights it. I'm getting used to it now, but initially, I just found it distracting upon entering my page, especially next to the nice, high-res banner.
I was hoping that if I re-uploaded my icon on Eclipse, the blurriness would correct itself, but that definitely didn't happen, lol.
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Lack Of Organization In Notifications:
[Sorry, I can't capture the whole Notifications page--even with a GIF (it'd be too long LOL), so you get this generic pic of the very top of the Notifications page :'))Alright, this is the big one for me. You know how on the old DA site, all your notifications for new deviations are at the top, the Journal notifications are in their own section, Polls have their own spot, and so on and so forth with Statuses, Comments, Faves, Badges, Mentions, Group Submissions, etc. ? Yeah, well ... I hate to say, but all that blissful organization has changed on Eclipse. It's not the end of the world, and I can get used to it--but it's definitely been the biggest and most confusing change for me.
So, all the Faves, Comments, Badges, Watches, and Group Submissions are now displayed in a literally
endless vertical column of notifications. Idk about yours, but my Notifications page now feels like an eternal Pinterest board that just keeps expanding no matter how far you scroll.
The new Deviation notifications from both people and Groups that you watch, along with Journals, Polls, and Status Updates are all in their own tab now that's labeled "Watch". I guess this is pretty good organization, but I honestly didn't even find it 'til *cough*
just a few min ago, hah, but y'know it's there, and I know about it now (lol), so we're gonna leave it at that x')
Notes are still in their own tab, like usual, so we're all good there.
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Extra Step To Remove Notifications:
*sigh* This one feels so petty, but it's also kinda important for some reasons. That wonderful one-click "X" button we had on the old DA site for removing notifications has been swapped out for these three dots, followed by a drop-down menu. Lol, it's such a first-world problem (especially the more I think about it xD), but it's still a noticeable change on the new site.
Here's why it's such a big deal that you now have to do TWO clicks instead of just ONE to remove a notification …
So far, there's no way to mass-remove notifications. There's no "select all" > "delete all", or anything of the sort (unless I'm totally missing it). Which ... okay--that sucks, but I'm at least used to individually deleting Group Submission notifications after they've been accepted. It's actually kinda fun to spam that "X" button and see like 50 notifications zoom by and erase themselves from existence before your eyes. But I can't spam anymore. I can't mass delete via "select all" OR by rapid-clicking it all away.
*deep breath* We'll live though.
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Additional Minuses That I'm Too Tired To Get Pics For: No "Preview" Button When Writing Comments
The "Watches You" Bubble On Other Users' Profiles Is Gone (i.e., There's no immediate way to tell on someone's page if they're watching you or not)
New Maximum Of 15 Tags Per Deviation (if you Edit an old deviation on Eclipse, the number of tags will automatically fall down to 15 after you update, if you originally had more than 15)
[Will Add To This List As Needed. Also, Feel Free To Request Images/GIFs For Any Of Them.] Last Updated: 11-22-18___________________________________________________________
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Look at that, we made it to the end!
Really hope you guys enjoyed this look at DeviantArt's Eclipse update! I know there's a lot of mixed feelings about it (and seemingly more negative than positive). I'm definitely not here to try and sway anybody's opinions, but rather just show some of the stuff that's coming, and at the very least, just give you a better idea at what this update involves and hopefully get'cha better prepared for it. If it's still not your thing, hey, that's alright. DA isn't gonna please everybody, and ik a lot of people just straight up don't like change. If you like what's coming, awesome! If you're indifferent, then cool.
Whatever you're feeling and thinking about Eclipse, feel free to share. I'm open :>
Is there a favorite feature of yours that you've seen (either in this journal or somewhere else)?
Least favorite feature/change?
Also, feel free to share anything that I missed! I know I didn't cover everything there is.
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Finally, hugs and affection for all. We're all going through this same change (maybe at slightly different times), but we're all in it together *cue High School Musical choreography*. Updates are good and healthy for websites and communities--especially for large ones like this. It may be uncomfortable to adjust to, but the globe is gonna keep spinning, and I'm personally excited to see how DA evolves through Eclipse. We got this, gang.
Have a great week, guys!
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