Every now and then, I go through ALL of my favorites and re-evaluate them. It's a lot like going through Facebook friends list and seeing if you can even remember why you friended a person (or if you even know them). What I do is clean things out - I delete favorites (or friends) that I might have liked for a moment but no longer care for, or can now see too many flaws that my changing eyes can notice. I actually like doing this - seeing which pieces of art still make the cut, still make me smile, still take my breath away. It's theraputic and reminds me of the art I've encountered during my time on dA.

But I feel like I might be the only one who does this...

When I go to a dA member's page, after the initial view of their gallery, I usually look at how many favorites they have - sometimes it's a few hundred (like myself), but mostof the time it is in the thousands... even tens of thousands. That number astounds me.

How can someone appreciate the art if it is muddled up with an overwhelming amount of other pieces - seen for a second and probably forgotten in the next? And then my mind always questions: did the person really like the piece, or was it just to get another pageview of their own?

Personally, I feel less appreciative when I receive a favorite on a photograph of mine if the person obviously just clicked Favorite on every deviation on the New Submissions home page.

I don't try and make statements with my art, and I don't always strive for something new... but I do make a conscious effort to show every day things from different angles - I am very proud of my work and I am constantly trying to improve. I'd rather have less favorites and pageviews if I knew that each of those giving people actually mean it and aren't just hoping to get a view of their own.

Anyone else ever feel the same way? I'd love to hear people's opinions on favorites: how often do you favorite a deviation, and why?