When to use deviations, journals, sta.sh, or polls

There are many ways to share content on dA. It's important to understand the best ways of sharing.

Deviations vs. Stash

When you're planning on sharing content a deviation isn't always the best way to share it.

Things that shouldn't be deviations:
Memes like "comment saying what you think of me" that were done MS paint in 2 seconds
Art you don't want in your gallery, but want to share
Art that wasn't created by you, gifts included

These types of images should be uploaded to your stash. It's dA's other image hosting service.

When you post it to your stash instead of your gallery, the images aren't mistaken as your art. They don't say "by username" next to them.

Stash images are easy to share in journals. If you copy and paste the link to the image in a journal, then the image will automatically appear. You can change their size by dragging the corners.

If an image has nothing to do with dA (movies gifs are an example), it's best to use a 3rd party image host. Photobucket and Imgur provide premade codes perfect for sharing images on your profile/journals.

Status updates vs. Journals

Status updates should be used when the message is short and casual. Journals should be used when the message is important and on the longer side.

Status updates can be posted here.

Status updates vs. Polls

Only core members can post polls.

If you're asking a question, use a poll. Voting for art is good for polls too.

You should not use polls for short casual messages. These are best posted as status updates. If you're sharing images (not for voting or asking people), post them in a status update using the "add media" button.

Some people tend to use polls as status updates because they are more easily seen in watcher's inboxes. I think deviants should only use polls for the most important status updates to reduce the spam watchers have to sort through.