Welcome aboard!

You know that I've had issues with dA for a long time: the images and buttons on pages won't load 90% of the time and I can't browse galleries and such. Enough is enough, I was quite patient but after a year and a half of not being able to use dA properly I'm fed up with this unhelpful crap. After contacting the help desk twice without getting any help whatsoever or any clear answer what the issue is, I'm close to bursting – especially after being a loyal member for 5 years, and paying with real hard-earned money for subscriptions!

After all these long months of frustration to simply get told to "clear the cache of your browser" feels like a slap in the face. Especially since I was told in my first help desk ticket that the issue seems to be related to one of the ISPs that dA is using. Now I'm being told that it's a problem with my internet connection.

  Now what it's going to be, dA? A problem with a server in the United States that was previously identified as a dA server, or a problem with my connection? I have no influence on my connection after the signal leaves Europe, do I? Techies out there, please, enlighten me! Please prove me wrong.

The bottom line is this: No more subscriptions, I won't spend one more cent on this site. In the past, kind-hearted people have gifted me subscriptions and I'm still grateful for this. But I must ask you, anyone who toys with the idea, please don't donate subscriptions! I have no benefit whatsoever from it. If you feel the unstoppable urge to do me good, please commission me instead – this way we can both profit.

I will stay on dA as a regular member and I will post art here – as far as the systems and the failing buttons allow. There are far too many people I don't want to lose contact with and the community is wonderful, even if the customer service is not.

For all the techies who want to know more about the issue:
- pages take ages to load, most times the images and buttons don't load
- at rare times it works properly
- it's not browser related but it's a connection problem, that much is true
- running several traceroutes brought forth a disruption at a specific server - always the same IP address
- dA confirmed in my first help desk ticket (number 404267) that the IP address belongs to a server from one of their providers
- I was asked to perform a ping which worked normally
- I was told the tech department would look into it (Yay! )
- after my first help desk ticket in November 2012, I created a follow-up ticket in April 2013 stating the issue remained
- after receiving no answer for more than ten days, I was told to clear the cache of my browser  
- being a persistent pain in the bum, I insisted that even though I cleared the cache of my browser *grinding teeth* this had no effect whatsoever
- the last reply I got was "I'm sorry but according to your traceroute log it's an issue with your internet connection."

A small request: If any of you have a similar problem with dA – pages/images not loading and such – even if it's only temporarily, please perform a traceroute (it's very easy to do, even if you're no expert – just google it and you'll get lots of helpful tutorials). If the traceroute produces only asterisk after a certain amount of steps, it *might* be because of the same IP address that causes my problems. If you go to the dA help desk feel free to link back to this journal. I'm willing to do everything I can to help and solve this issue once and for all. Though it's been constant pain in the ass for the last year and a half, I still love this site and loathe to be left outside.
 
If there are news on this, I'll keep you posted.
Thanks for taking the time to read my rant, that's all for now!

Take care,
DS