Hello everyone! I am an Illustrator as well as a Web Developer and I have ideas of creating a new art platform for all artists, from Industry professionals to hobbyists to post and share their work. It is in the very early stages so I am here to ask for some opinions.

What would you all look for in an art site? What are some important features to include? Things like journals, a section for commission pricing etc...

What do you like and not like about current platforms such as Deviantart?

Do you like or dislike using universal (not specially art focused) platforms such as Instagram and Twitter? Do you find these to be sufficient?

What platforms are you using to post right now?

Would you be more interested in a website geared more towards established artists and professionals with an invite system or open to anybody?

What would you all look for in an art site? What are some important features to include? Things like journals, a section for commission pricing etc... The most important thing to me is that it's free. Lots of imagehosting sites that I used in the past transitioned to "paid members only" later on, which would be fine if they allowed my already submitted work to stay, but no. They locked my submitted art so not even I nor other people could see it, basically forcing me to either pay up or leave. I did the latter. This same thing happened to photobucket, and it just stinks because on pet sites I like to make pages with art for my pets, and now when I look at older pet sites all my pages are missing images and that's just a pity. :( I now use imgur, but I give it about 5-6 years before they turn corporate and become "paid members only" too.

What do you like and not like about current platforms such as Deviantart? Deviantart has a huuuuuge member-base, with very little methods of putting yourself out there, which is my biggest issue and keeps me from posting. I only post art there if I need assurance that I won't lose the art due to a provider going corporate like explained above. Basically despite my efforts of joining in group activities such as contest and submitting art to groups, I remain invisible.

Do you like or dislike using universal (not specially art focused) platforms such as Instagram and Twitter? Do you find these to be sufficient? I still find twitter very confusing. I still haven't figured out how to get to all my tweets or how to delete them. Instagram forces me to join if I want to see content, and that repulses me because I am already on plenty of sites and don't need more spam in my inbox. Basically, I don't like it when sites block their content from me unless I'm a member. So I think my answer is no. I don't really use these platforms or actively post art on them.

What platforms are you using to post right now? imgur, deviantart, rarely twitter.

Would you be more interested in a website geared more towards established artists and professionals with an invite system or open to anybody? Open to anybody. It would be nice if there was a more simplistic way of categorizing artwork. In devinatart there is so much to choose from that it's hard to pick a category. It would be easier if it was decided on with a hashtag or a compact list.