it is closed for some time now I think

It closed eight days ago, on the 12th.

'Know the cause?

This is the explanation I found on Livejournal: http://artspots.livejournal.com/161.....d=56595#t56595

But in reality, it's only part of the story; there was an exceptional of activity or overall interest in the site. I mean. Artspots didn't really offer much that other sites didn't already have, and then some. There was a critique forum, sure, but you can pretty much go onto any site and ask for critique.

The conflicting expectations they're referring to, was whether or not make the site improvement oriented or a general art site for everyone to use- which was kind of silly, since ArtSpots used to be two sites; JaxPad, which was for everyone to submit to, and ArtSpots, which was application based. Uploads to the latter would still appear on JaxPad, but you could also visit ArtSpots to see 'quality' art.

There was a lot of criticism directed towards them for being elitist, but. If you're wanting to run an improvement oriented site, then you HAVE to be elitist- being able to eventually join some super-awesome-application-only-site and posting with all your art idols gives people something to work for and yet another reason to improve their work and be more open for constructive criticism. When they merged the two sites, they took that away and gave people nothing else to strive for than a fancy title under their FORUM names.

Noooot to mention that they were notoriously slow with fixing bugs and had a mod who had a less than stellar attitude towards others- as in, was driving people off with her harsh and abrasive personality.

Well, that's unfortunate.

I had an Artspots account (a 'proper' one no less!) but I can't even remember the login for it. It was a nice idea but like you said it fell into a few too many internet pitfalls.

Ah well, another furry site bites the dramas...

That really sucks for all of those that dumped so much time and effort into getting there and making their galleries solid :/

What was ArtSpot?

It was a clean anthro art gallery that at one point, was improvement oriented and application based. Then they removed most of the improvement aspects, save for a critique board, and made it open for everyone to join.

It was also an eyesore to navigate and an incredibly boring place to be.

And nothing of value was lost.

Indeedily.

My only lasting memory of Artspots was how much attitude was slathered over the forums. I remember, in particular, this one person riding people's asses for using (even mild) obscenities. LMAO... I mean GOLLYGEEWILLICKERS

Which was REALLY ironic.

The overall attitude was one of the reasons why I left; why should my work promote a site where the mods have very poor people skills and often resort to snapping at them over very, very minor things? One instance I can think of quite easily was when a friend reported an issue with the site and her gallery and had received NO information regarding her bug report and/or whether it was resolved. When she asked about it on the forum, one of the mods snapped and literally said; "It's resolved. What the hell do you expect me to respond with?"

I mean. It's not rocket science to say "Thank-you for your report, we will work on the issue as soon as possible/your issue has been resolved." There's absolutely no reason to react in that manner; your userbase has the right to know what is going on with their bug reports.

I am now aware that Artspots exists.

*existed.