I used to be just like you. Pageviews were really important to me. The first thing I checked when I logged on to deviantART each day was the number of pageviews I had received that day. I analyzed my activity and the impact it had on pageviews. It was a significant part of my deviantART life – too significant.

Last summer I went on a trip and was gone from deviantART for more than a month. As you can probably guess, activity in my account was nonexistent and my daily pageview count consequently plummeted. When I returned from the trip, I logged on to deviantART and, as always, checked my pageviews. I expected a sense of dismay when I saw the extent to which my popularity had disappeared, but instead, I found that it really didn't matter to me. Because I had just had the time of my life and I was not about to let my pageview count diminish that, and I was much too eager to start posting my photography and catching up with friends and groups than to worry about something as inconsequential as pageviews.

So what changed? I really don't know. Maybe I grew up a bit. Maybe some sort of miraculous change occurred while I was on my trip.

In any case, I realized that although pageviews were an incentive to be active in the community, it was for the wrong reason. There's so much more to this website than gaining hits on your profile page. It wasn't a big dramatic, "That's it! I'm disabling pageviews!" – I just was no longer interested in keeping track of how many people viewed my profile.

So I unchecked that little box that said "See Pageviews" and became blind.

I've been blind to pageviews for about a year now, and I honestly feel that it was one of the best decisions I've ever made on deviantART. I no longer evaluate other deviants based on their pageview counts, or obsess about how to boost my popularity. I am able to interact more freely on deviantART – with no other reason than simply because I want to. I am now able to prioritize my life in a much more constructive fashion.

I strongly recommend anyone and everyone to make the switch. It's such a beneficial change. There seems to be a widespread feeling that pageviews equals popularity equals friends and admirers, et cetera. But really, there's no replacement for genuine, positive interaction with fellow deviants. If you turn off pageviews, all of the temptation to focus on your individual popularity will begin to disappear – and you probably have no idea how good that feels.

If you're hesitant, just try it! You can always switch back later. And by the way, you will still be able to view the number of hits on your deviations – and those are the pageviews that really matter anyway.

If less deviants were prone to attention whoring in order to get hits on their page, and more deviants were willing to contribute positively to the community, deviantART would be a much better place.


deviantART is only as good as we make it.
Give it a try. Go blind.