| What are Groups and how do I make one? With Groups, every deviant can make or join a group of deviants that are bonded by a common interest or passion.
Whether you want to start your own group, or simply join a group, Groups will surely enhance your deviantART experience. When you make a group, you get the perks that a manager of any organization would have: you establish the group's mission and lead its charge by recruiting an administrative class and setting member privileges. When you join a group, you build friends and better your art with deviants that hold the same interests and passions as you.
Make a group now by visiting makeagroup. Please note that just like usernames, there cannot be two accounts using the same name. Please check to ensure the name you are trying to use for your group isn't already taken by another user, or group, or chat room. |
| Are Groups free? Groups are free to make, administrate and join. As with our Premium Membership program, we do offer a premium group called Super Group. |
| How many groups can I make at one time? You can only have one group creation or club conversion request in the queue at a time. |
| Why is there a limit on how many groups I can be an administrator of? Administrating a group is fun, but it requires a commitment. A group relies heavily on the function of the administrators to approve deviations, post blogs, invite and vote on new members, etc. and keep a group from going into decay. The community told us that given the large responsibility of administration, administrators will appreciate having a three-group limit so they don't over commit themselves. For those admins who have enough time and resources admin more than three groups, they have the option to admin up to ten groups if they have a Premium Membership. |
| What happens after I submit my application? First, check your Message Centre to make sure that your application has been received. When your group is live and ready for use, we will send another notification to your Message Centre.
You can check on your application via the MakeAGroup page. |
| What happens when my Premium Membership expires and and I am an administrator of more than three (3) groups? We’re sticking to the legacy rule on this one. If you are an administrator of, say, ten groups when your Premium Membership expires, you get to keep all of ten. However, if you wish to be an Administrator of another group, you will be asked to leave eight of the ten groups so that you can add the last one, which gives you a total of three.
Tricky tricky. |
| What is the "Admin Area"? Unlike anything you have ever seen on deviantART, all group administrators have their own area to post news, share conversation, and review group activity. It's the central management hub for Admins of your Group that is not viewable by anyone else on dA (other than the appropriate dA staffers that moderate all dA pages). |
| I created a group but users cannot join. How do I let them? In order to enable the 'join' feature, you must go into your "Manage Members" area via the button on the "About Us" and "Admin Area" tabs. Let me walk you through it:
- On your group home page, click the button titled 'Admin Area' (it has a red circle with a - sign)

- Click the section from the bar entitled 'Manage Members.' This will pull up a section that lists all of the different categories of members from Founders and down. You can set all of your settings for each one on this panel!
- Select 'Members'
- A menu will pull up with all of the settings for members as well as a link to invite members if you wish (you can invite specific people with this section.)
Ignore this for now and look to your right. It will say 'On Home, Members' on the right.
- The second selection down from this is 'Join Requests.'
You can change your setting now from 'Are Not Allowed' to either 'Are Automatically Approved' or 'Are Subject to Vote'
The first selection will open up your membership as well as automatically approve your members to join the group while the second will open up your membership and allow you to decide who can or cannot join.

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| I’m experiencing problems with my group, what can I do? If you are having issues with your groups permissions settings please visit the "Manage Members" section by clicking the button on the "About Us" and "Admin Area" of your group. Once there please locate and select the button in the lower right labeled “Reset Group Permissions”. This will clear all settings for the group and reset it back to the default settings. Once reset please try reinstating the settings and see if your troubles have resolved.
If you are still having issues after you have reset please contact the Help Desk as soon as possible with a detailed explanation of your issue. |
| I’m an admin in a group but cannot perform administrative actions, why? The beauty of the groups platform is that no two group has to be the same. Responsibilities and Roles can be changed at any time and updated to suit the group’s needs. The roles an admin plays in a group is left up to founder of the group. If you are not able to perform actions you believe you should have access to, please consult with the founder of your group and have them adjust the settings. For example; your inability to vote on incoming gallery items may be by design, not a bug. This goes for all settings in the group. Please check with your group's founder to confirm the actions you are supposed to be able to perform before contacting the Help Desk with a bug report.
If you are the founder of a group and your admins are not able to perform actions you have given them the proper permissions to achieve please refer to FAQ #401: I’m experiencing problems with my group, what can I do? |
| How will others know that I’m part of a group? How do I know what groups I'm in?
How will others know that I’m part of a group? Your group associations will be proudly displayed on your Profile Page and on the pages of deviations that you have submitted to groups. For those groups you are an administrator of (Founder, Co-founder, Contributor, or Moderator) they will automatically be listed in a special section in your Profile Bar. For a complete listing of all groups you are an administrator or normal member of, you can click the Edit Page button on your profile and add the Groups Widget to your profile.
How do I know what groups I'm in? If you visit your userpage you can install the groups module the same way you install any other widget to see a list of all the groups you are in. You can also visit the following URL to see which groups you are a part of.
http://USERNAME.deviantart.com/mygroups/ (be sure to replace "username" with your actual username)
Please note that the groups menu in the profile bar will only display groups you are an admin of. If you are a member they will only appear in the groups module. |
| How do I upload an avatar for my group and what are the limitations? To upload an avatar for a group you will need to be an admin in the group. While hovering over the group avatar on the main page of the group you will notice an outline with a pencil icon will appear, this means you have the ability to edit it. If you are an admin once you click it a modal will appear that will let you upload a new avatar. If you do not see this outline, clicking the icon will only refresh the page.
Please be aware that the new avatar must be 100 pixels by 50 pixels and no larger than 30kb. If your file does not meet these requirements it will be rejected. |
| How do I leave a group I no longer wish to be a part of? If you go to the groups page you will see your name and avatar along the top bar next to the group’s avatar and name. When you hover over it, it will say "member" clicking this will give you a drop down, and the very last option will be "leave this group". Selecting this option will remove you from the group.
Please note that if you leave the group, the group will still remain on your watch list. If you no longer wish to receive messages from the group you will need to go to your manage watchers page and remove the group. |
| How do I remove a user’s deviation from my groups gallery/favs? If you are a group administrator with the necessary permissions you simply need to go to the groups gallery or favourites tab and click the edit pencil icon that appears next to each deviation when you hover over it. There will be an option to remove from the folder. If you remove all instances of the deviation from every folder it is displayed in the image will be completely removed from the groups gallery or favs. |
| How do I remove my deviations from a group? Please visit your deviations page and in the sidebar to the right there is a list of all groups that deviation appears in. If you hover over the group avatars an edit pencil icon will appear. Please click this edit pencil icon for the group you wish to remove your deviation from and select the option to remove it from that group. |
| Can I delete my group? If you are the founder of the group you only need to visit the groups page. Once there click on the button where your icon and name are displayed. At the very bottom of that list you will see "close the group", please click this option. You will be taken to a request form page asking you to supply some information as to why you no longer want the group. This will send a request for deactivation of that group and once a member of staff has looked over the application it will be their decision as to whether or not the account should be closed. Should further information be required from the admin handling your case, you will be contacted via your message centre on the close request form.
There is no set timeframe for a group to be removed. Your patience in the matter is appreciated. |
| As the founder can I appoint someone to replace me? It is possible for the current founder of a group to demote themselves to a different spot in the group and promote a new founder. If you no longer wish to be the founder of a group and wish to pass it along to another deviant here’s how:
- Please visit the group page and select the member menu. This menu lists your name and avatar along the top bar next to the group’s avatar and name. When you hover over it will say "member" clicking this will give you a drop down menu.
- In this menu please select the “leave the group” option.
- A dialogue box will appear and ask if you are certain you wish to leave. Fear not, you can always join again if you wish to be a member.
- After you accept to leave another dialogue box will pop up that will say:
"Select Successor. You are the founder of this group. To step down, please nominate one of the group's administrators to take over the founder role. New Founder's Name:"
Simply enter the username of the person you wish to make a founder, and click confirm!
This will send that user a message asking them to confirm that they will be the new founder. If this person declines you will remain the founder and will have to repeat the process for another user. If they accept this user will become the new founder and you will be removed from the group.
Please be aware that only another admin of the group can take up the mantle of founder. You will not be able to select a member or a normal deviant to be the founder, on group admins can be considered for the founder role. If you try to invite a non-admin to the role of founder you will receive an error message and will have to restart the process.
If the founder of your group has deactivated their account or has been banned, please contact the Help Desk as soon as possible with the name of the Group and the missing Founders name. |
| What are the official deviantART groups? For information regarding the site please be sure to watch the following groups!





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| What’s the difference between a group administrator and a non-administrator? By design, each Group has administrative and non administrative levels.
A group administrator is part of the executive team that runs the group. Administrators are responsible for setting up the group, assigning member privileges, general management, and reviewing submitted content. The Administrators rule the roost, so to speak. Some of the additional Admin perks include accessing the Admin Area and receiving Groups activity within NEW Admin Message Centre folders. Within the administrator level, there are three sub-levels:
- 1. Founder: is in charge of the group. Each group has only one Founder.
- 2. Co-Founders: are the Founder's executive team.
- 3. Contributors: are the deviants that help run the group and contribute content like blogs, forum threads, gallery deviations, and faves.
- 4. (Moderators – Super Groups only)
A non-administrator can either be a Member or Watcher of that group. Groups can have unlimited Members and Watchers. A Member is a deviant that has the ability to contribute content, yet does not participate in the management of a group. A Watcher, identical to a deviant watcher, is a fan of the group and passively watches the activity of a group. A group can have an unlimited number of Members and Watchers. |
| How will I be notified when changes are made to my group? All group activities and updates will be sent to your Message Centre alongside your personal user account activity. |
| How do Founders or other administrators promote, or demote, their members? Click on the Manage Members button, located in both the "About Us" and "Admin Area" applications, to change member classes and privileges. If you want to demote an Administrator to a Member, or allow Members to contribute deviations and blogs, you do it here. |
| How many groups can I join? It depends on whether you join as a Member or Administrator. Every deviant can be a Member of an unlimited number of groups, but can be an administrator of only three of these groups. Premium Members can be an administrator of up to 10 groups.
But, keep in mind that making a group is considered the same as joining one as an administrator. (When you make a group, you join the group as a Founder, the highest administrator level). So, if you're already an admin of another group then you can make up to two more to reach your three limit. Got it? |
| Can any member of the group submit deviations to the group's gallery? This functionality can easily be enabled. We've given all Administrators the ability to give out specific privileges to each membership level. Privileges can be adjusted in the "Manage Members" button on the "About Us" and "Admin Area" applications.
- Please go to your Manage Members page then select the class of user you wish to edit. These are located along the far left of the manage members page and list the Admin classes and the Member class.
- Once selected please locate the gallery section in the area to the far right, then click the link that reads "show all folders" and ensure that each folder is set to allow users to submit to it.
If it is not then the users will only be able to submit to the featured gallery.
- Each Admin and Member class will need to be set individually.
Only the class name that is highlighted will have the settings changed when you edit them.
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| Can a group sell prints? If so, where do the profits go? Since a group is nothing more than a collection of deviants, deviations are still owned and submitted by group members, not the group, itself. Of course, groups can still display prints in its gallery and faves, but the group will not receive any royalty of its sale. The royalty still belongs to the original artist that submitted the work to the dA site. |
| Where will my Groups activity go in my Message Centre? Unless you are an administrator of a group, your Message Centre will look the same. All of your group communication will enter into your Message Centre in the same way your user profile currently receives communication.
If you are an administrator of a Group, you will get new group Admin folders underneath the current Message Centre folder to receive Administration-related messages like notices asking you to approve new members, accept new deviations into the faves or gallery, etc. All other non-admin related messages – deviation submissions, comments, critique requests, etc. – will be routed through your Message Centre Inbox. |
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