Well... that's the first time I've ever been thanked. So, you're welcome. I think DeviantART worked pretty well because of the team that was charged with looking after it. We screened community leaders pretty heavily for being genuinely kind and good humans who, in very many cases, cared more about the community than the art. I think everyone who worked on community building really appreciated and loved art and (selfishly) realized that the way we could see the best art was to attract the best artist, and the best artists would only come to a safe place they could learn and grow without fear. Scott Jarkoff, Angelo Sotira and Eric Kolb are seriously some of the most gentle and loving people I've come across online. Happy to talk more - je@h4x.club
I think every gallery was different, but every gallery director was super attentive, people took the task of gallery directing super seriously as it was a pretty huge honour. For the years that I did it, I didn't have a life outside of IRC/deviantART period except to go to high school, and even then I would bring my laptop to the library at lunch + breaks and find an RJ45. I also slept for about 3 hours a night during those years as I was in the UK and much of the community was in the US.
It wasn't a policy, but it was definitely just part of the atmosphere. Wow, that's odd to think about now, isn't it? The internet seems so interactive now, but back then a user submitting something to a website was absolutely a new thing.
