First off, the orange is just terrible. dA always had good staff artists responsible for making the site look good, and the core thing simply doesn't jive with the rest of the site's green color scheme. If you want a new logo, that's one thing, but this is both new and ugly.
Second, the name "Core" is very poor branding. "Premium" had a much better sound to it. I have to wonder if dA ran any of this by a focus group, or did any A/B testing to see what the reaction would be. My guess says no.
Third, there's the lack of communication, which many others have noted across the site: Suddenly, one day, everything was orange, and prices were doubled. No advance notices, no "By the way, here's what's coming β " We all just logged in one day, and everything was uglier and more expensive.
Fourth, to that point, everything is more expensive. Check the pricing page if you don't believe me; this is what it used to look like.
Yes, monthly fees only went up a bit, but I buy annual subscriptions, and those went through the roof. They're not impossibly expensive, but they've now crossed into the range where I have to decide if it's worth it. $30 was a steal, a no-brainer: Of course I wanted to keep my premium subscription for a couple bucks a month, and sometimes I even gave subscriptions as gifts. For $50? β meh. $50 will get my wife and me dinner at a restaurant, or take us to a movie (with food), or buy us a new video game. I don't use enough of the "
I recognize the site has to make money, that running servers isn't free, and neither is paying developers. I am a high-end software developer, so I know what's needed better than most people reading this journal. But the way that they're going about it doesn't sell me. I have a day job that earns me money; I just choose not to spend more than $30 of it here per year.
And so that is all to say that I'll likely let my