More and more often you hear that the groups are coming soon, so I hope it wont be long anymore (Groups 101: news you should know!).
Anyway the groups arent the only feature dA's staff is working on. A while ago the dA shop has changed quite a bit, just as the front page and now also the deviation pages.
After of the outbreak of complaints because of the share tools dA has now added three options concerning these share links to the deviation submission/edit page (Share Links: encourage, discourage, members only).

The new portfolios are now avaliable for everyone. They are dead-easy to create and have a good simple look. Really cool are the custom domains. Subscribers have a few more smaller features, but no biggies.

Check out the CR Team and its Core Values.
For more information drop by at $Moonbeam13 and the other staff members.


What the CR Team does?
Awarding Seniority and the Deviousness Award
To follow this best watch $chix0r
There will also be a new way to handle miscats, read it in this journal.
Latest news article: Community Operations Newsletter - November 2009


Featuring the Daily Deviations
For information on how to suggest a Daily Deviation check this news article or the Help Desk
So make someone happy by suggesting fantastic art as a DD.



You might have noticed, that some emoticons have a new look. There have been some nice changes to the Emoticon Legend.


There has been a change to the Link System. It is now possible to add thumbs in artists descriptions, allowing us to link to similar pictures, or to others of a series.
An example is here - photo by =Nameda.


With $chix0r's recent journal dA introduces a thumblimit of 50 thumbs for news articles.
And not to forget: News articles which contain thumbnail features go to the Culture > Art Features category and should contain some background text regarding the feature.


The Message Center got a small enhancement, check what changed here.

The critique feature is a subscribers feature.
For some more details check FAQ #95: What is the Critique Feature and how do I use it?, and a good tutorial on giving critique is here
An older tutorial is the one from *Photo--Assignment about how to critique a photo.

*deviantARTcommunity
Find artists of your favorite category, clubs and groups, resource accounts or staff members.
And of course, get sorted yourself, to be found by others.
The *deviantARTcommunity is a great database providing you a quick access to the dA community.


=TheKnowledge1
Still rather new, but rapidly growing, is the artist database of =TheKnowledge1
If you need any help with art or dA related matters, go to this database, and find the right mentors, who will gladly help you.
Any questions with macro photography? - then you can also note me, as I am one of the many macro mentors on =TheKnowledge1


More clubs
If you're looking for more clubs, go to the *deviantARTcommunity
There is no point for me to copy all information you find there already.

Anyway a few clubs I can recommend are at the bottom of my journal, those are the clubs I'm a member of and they're awesome.

Angel without wings
Another award, by non-staff-members, is the Angel without wings award.
Suggest fellow deviants who you think deserve such an award (check the news article for information).


Deviance
The webzine Deviance, originally by ~simoneyvette, is about deviantArt and its community and it's really awesome! Now there have been some changes to the Deviance Team, nevertheless there will be an issue every month. Always be up to date at =DEVIANCE-ZINE.
Issues:
May 09
June 09
July 09
August 09
October 09


IWADAS
You dont have a subscription, but would like one? Then you should check IWADAS by =HentaiNeko. Fill out the I Want A DeviantArt Subscription easy form and convince the judges why you should have a dA subscription for free.


Best Kept Secret
The Best Kept Secretis a great project from *SeaWhisper. It's a weekly feature of three selected talented photographers with under 5.000 pageviews.
Also check the journalof =Adi-Emus who is also this project.


Best of 2009 Competition
A real great competition is the the Best of 2009 competition run by =Kaz-D
Community Artist of 2009
A part of the Best of 2009 competition is the Community Artist of 2009. If you are part of the dA community (and you should, as it is a great community), you must have a look at the Nominations for Community Artist of 2009 in =Kaz-D's journal. Even better if you also nominate someone you think is worth it.


Contests
Contests are quite popular on dA and there are always so many fantastic contests going on. To know the current contests running check =TheContestClub or the contests around dA journal by `karemelancholia.


More Infos
Also check =Nameda's info journal for more information about projects and contests.

You can also find a lot of great tutorials here on dA. Actually these are not just tutorials but also interesting journals about various topics I find important.

dA Related
If you have just received a subscription and you're not familiar with CSS coding you might want to check some tutorials on CSS journals and have a look at some templates.
Another great tutorial is about the differences of the Old vs Gruze Journals and you should have a look at `nokari's template.

The new feature journal skins also seems to be a very interesting thing. You might want to try it.


Art Related
Stealing art has been discussed a lot lately. For Information on how to protect you're art, ~laceratedwrists has written a really good news article.

`Laurazee has a journal On Confidence, which is quite interesting. It is well written, funny and there's something to think about.

I myself didnt use Firefox for dA until a couple of days ago, when I saw the deviation notes by `electricnet. Its a real cool add to dA and dead-easy to install.
You might also want to check out other scripts and extensions from `electricnet, like the better gAteway.
Another cool script is the Thumber by =diado, giving you quick access to thumbcodes while browsing.
Firefox users should have a look at color management 0.4. You can find out more in this article. Sadly it needs an update (which will hopefully come soon) as it doesnt work with the newest Firefox version.
The Lazarus: form recovery also seems like a very useful add-on. It enables you to recover lost forms you typed into web forms.

If you know any more interesting or helpful scripts and extensions let me know so I can mention them here.

Stamps... stamps...
What do you support?