Edit

The collaborations folder was just the easiest way I can think to sort them at the time. It'd be great if there was a checkbox option instead of a full-out folder for collaborations; if you click the check box, the contributors box would pop out.

Idea behind the Collaborations Folder

I think there should be a new gallery folder added to dA for collaborations. I've always thought it was unfair that if the same image was uploaded by multiple deviants who worked on the piece together that some people might get more attention than others; I think this will fix the problem.
Keep in mind, this is just an IDEA to improve the site. It is in no way something that's definitely going to or not going to be implanted (it probably won't), but I thought I'd share because I've been thinking about it for a long while.

New Folder

The new folder would be put either near Frequently used and My Scrapbook or in the other group with the rest of the folders. When clicked, it should display all the options as the first screen, so you can still put it in its appropriate folder. Once sorted within this folder, it should be searchable on the homepage either by collaborations or by the folder it was put in (IE: If it was put into Collaborations > DeviantART Related > Devious Fun > Memes, you should be able to either search for it through Collaborations > or Deviant Related >.)

Submitting Your Collaboration

When you are ready to submit your finished work, one of the contributing artists goes to the submit page and submits it to the collaborations folder. Once it's properly sorted into collaborations, a text area should pop up for Contributors, where you put the name(s) of anyone else who worked on this with you.

In this example, I'm posting an old collab I did with `stuck-in-suburbia, so in the contributors box, I put her username.

All other options, including what groups it's submitted to, filesize, description, keywords, critique options, et cetera, will be the same on the joint deviation once it's been submitted.

Waiting for Approval

To actually submit the finished piece to deviantART, you must wait for all contributing artists to accept the finished deviation. If one person does not accept, you may try to resubmit the collaboration correspondence item, but the image will not go onto the site before all artists have accepted that they contributed to the collaboration.

Contributors may also comment on the settings and ask for one to be changed at this stage.

Finished Collaboration

The finished collaboration will be submitted once all contributors have accepted. All of their names will be displayed on the finished deviation. The deviation will be displayed on the homepage/searched for on deviantART as ONE JOINT DEVIATION. It will be displayed in each of the contributor's galleries, but if you click on the deviation, it will take you to the joint deviation page.

Any comments, critiques, or favs on this deviation will show up in all artists' inboxes (illiminating the problem of one half of the collaboration getting more favs, comments, or critiques than the other half). If a daily deviation is awarded to a collaboration, it will show up in the footer as one deviation with multiple artists.

Artwork Shown

I'd feel bad for `stuck-in-suburbia if I didn't show the actual deviation she and I collabed on here.