joe randel's art dump

So how does one get art in the popular section of deviant art?

I’m not asking because I’m looking to have my art there.  I’m asking because I really can’t figure it out.  I see the “popular” pieces there and I’ll check them out, but I can’t figure out why they’re popular exactly.  Is it the artist that’s popular and not the piece it’s self?  Or is it the art regardless of the artist?  I try and check the page views and the number of times a popular piece has been viewed or faved and some times the number is high and sometimes it’s not very high at all.

I’m dumb founded.  If the point is to showcase art of all the artists and give more exposure to them then I’m not sure it’s working because I constantly see the same artists in the popular in the top slots.  How is this supposed to help the lower end of the fave scale?  I seems like it turns the whole site in to a popularity contest and that’s not right.

Now FA doesn’t have a popular section and I kind of like it that way.  Everyone gets the same exposure this way, and I think it works.  Again, I’m not complaining, I just can’t figure out the formula the site is using.

Sorry for the rambling…  I was just wondering is all.