What a great topic!
What happened to DA, anyway? I can't remember what year I joined, but a friend at the time opened an account for me, and I think I remember it still being pretty small and tight-knit back then. SnapeSnogger was the most popular thing there, and was still getting her ass kissed by just about everyone. It was a good year or maybe a little more before she'd started getting trolled. Seems like a lot of the artwork was still pretty good back then, but the Daily Deviations were...as if someone had just chosen anything at random. I wish I could find it now, but I remember one day it was a photo of a mouth around a cucumber...
I quit for a few years, and when I came back, it was nothing but autizm-werkz, horribly drawn anime porn and disturbing fetish art based on characters from old Nickelodeon cartoons. I realized that before, you could submit something original and get a few people to fav it. Now it seems like nobody who produces original work can get noticed (without a nod from another user with Bieber-level fame). I decided to test this out by submitting a few drawings of the Chipmunks and Chipettes in a few classic fetish poses (foot tickling, plunger-ass, etc), just to see how bad it had gotten, and I suddenly attracted every kind of creep, and a shit tonne of autistics (a lot of them had actually said they were). I wish I hadn't shut down my account since! This would be the perfect place to share some of the weird demands, suggestions and (oh GOD) requests made by demented people.
One thing that really stood out to me is that the people who wanted the weirdest things were often the ones who just expected you to give it over immediately, and for FREE. Sounds like the whole place has devolved into a worse cesspool than ever, now. I'll see if I can remember and find some of the weirder people I ran across, and post them here.