Curious what you can get as subscriber on deviantArt? this is a - hopefully pretty complete - summary of the features subscribers have, making browsing and commenting on deviantArt a lot more pleasant thing to do.

Subscribers can, in addition to the tags all deviants can use, also

• use the img tag in their journal to include pictures: for this to work, you have to upload the picture to a website you have, and write <img src="http://your.website.com/picture.jpg" alt="Alternative Text" /> in your journal. Of course you have to replace what is written in the src=".." parameter with the actual address of your picture. the text in alt=".." will be displayed, if for some reason the picture cannot be loaded. Also, don't forget the /> at the end of the img-tag, otherwise deviantArt will mess up your other tags. Look at the bottom for examples of what you can do with journals.
  
• use cut tags, similar to liveJournal's cut tag, to make your journal look more "clean". For example, you can write a long text, and then put it in <cut>-tags - don't forget to close the cut tag at the end of the long text again, by typing </cut>. Someone visiting your page, will only see a link "read more" instead of the text within the <cut> tag, and they can click it to get to the full story.
  
• use the strike-tag in their journals: <strike>text to strike through</strike>: this will make a text appear stricken through in your journal (like completed tasks, for example)
  
• use the :thumb123456: code in the journals, to include thumbnails of other deviations. :thumb5784659: would, for example, become a shaded thumbnail looking like this one:
  
  

Moreover they have

• access to the subscriber forum, which is generally more calm when the public forums, since .. well, let's say people in there take it more seriously with the site by paying to support it, and thus are usually more calm.
  
• much tidier message centres, including thumbnail previews like in this one (this is slightly outdated, the stats aren't shown - I'll bring this up to date soon):
  

• message previews in their message centre that allows us to see what a comment is about without clicking on them, like:
  
  (there is a feature being tested that enabled you to reply to them right in your message centre as well, you can get try it out by going to your Settings, and checking the "Beta Tester" box)

• the possibility to participate in the Beta-Tester program (see above), and get to try out upcoming (and helpful!) features before they go public
  
• bigger thumbnails (which make browsing indeed more pleasant to look at), as
  
  (the deviations seen here are 1 2 3 4)

• no ad banners or popups, that could slow down the site
  
• no random advertisments every once in a while when they sign on
  
• and can enable a friends box below their journal on their deviantPages, like that one here
  

• lots of journal features that make writing journals a lot easier, namely journal headers and footers (so we don't need to write them by ourselves everytime nor have to be careful to not "delete" too much)
  
• Polls, which they can create and other deviants can take (all friends watching their journal will be notified of them)
  
• Journal features like a calendar, where they can create events for everyone to see and share, as well as their own shoutbox and own forum:
  

• A shoutboard to put current information on, next to the journals:
  

• mood and song indicators for the journals
  
• access to a journal RSS feature, which can be used to export the deviantArt journal to other pages that have RSS aware scripts
  
• a little box on their deviantPages - if they want to - that shows who their five last visitors were (unless they're invisible), like
  
  They can choose in their User Page Display Settings to make that box visible to everyone, only to themselves or remove it completely.

• a star before their names
  
• see up to 60 to 120 thumbnails at once instead of only 24
  
• have their notes in their Inbox and Sent Box kept longer than just one month (they say they might remove them, though to my knowledge they have not enforced it yet).
  
• have more detailed statistics about their gallery, like these ones:
  

• and last but not least, as long as a non-subscribed user or not logged in user visits their gallery, their pictures or page, ads are removed from them as well, so there will be nothing distracting them from seeing your work, even though this feature will be removed soon, when they switch to a new advertising thingy.
  

Generally, if there are new features, subscribers get to check them out first. You can get a subscription by credit card, paypal, money order, deviantCash, winning contests or maybe a friend or someone who notices you are very helpful and constructive gives you a subscription.

(taken from firelite-photo, mangapunksai and me)