I have now tried three times to write this fucking journal and I swear this will be the final version, even if I have to kill someone to make it make sense. After the latest events with the “banned deviant issue” that I’m sure you’ve heard about, and after numerous conversations at home, I am so fucking infuriated and upset that I could spit fire. Two of my best friends around here have addressed certain issues with dA and I will do the same, albeit in a much wordier fashion. I make no apologies for anger, swearing, or length. I fucking have something to say and god damn me if I compromise myself for anyone here.

For those that don’t know, and those that think they do but actually don’t, let me explain something about myself. Art is, without a doubt, my religion. I live and breathe it. I discuss it with anyone willing to listen on a daily basis and I surf through it every single day. Long time ago I started studying the classics and since discovering photography I constantly scour the net looking at artists and learning about them and the genre. I have looked at more art than you will ever know. I believe that in this day and age, art is the only true magic we have left and anyone that is willing to devote their lives to creating it is living for a higher purpose. To me, there is nothing more sacred than the art we create and, laugh if you will, but I believe that a very strict “artist’s code” exists. I am willing to do whatever I find necessary in order to defend the very nature of art. That is why I get incensed and fucking go ape-shit on people that have the fucking audacity to disrespect another artist, especially if it is one I admire. That is the exact reason why I think that dA is committing one atrocious sin after another right now. Let me put it bluntly and concisely: if you are an artist, dA has given you a huge “Fuck you!” and has rudely asked you to bend over and grab your ankles.

I will explain. This is not “dA hater flame”, I have specific reasons for thinking so and I will give you proof.

When this site was founded, it was originally a skin sharing site. This site was not founded with an artistic community in mind and certainly without the aforementioned artist’s code in mind. The very foundations of this site are flawed. dA is a business first, community waaay second, and last and least of all: artistic.

Here are the EXACT reasons why I know dA does not respect artists. Here are the things they do to continually use us to their advantage:

Submission Agreement
I do not need to say much here. You have all heard the arguments from people much more intelligent than I am. Read `justthorne and you will be scared. The thing is, dA is now revising yet again, and in truth they should have fixed the issues LAST YEAR. This controversy really started in the early part of last year. Too many revisions and not enough progress. I’m not stupid enough to hold out time and time again after not being shown results. Essentially, by submitting on this site you give dA the right to do with your work whatever they wish. That will NEVER change, under any agreement. EXAMPLE: the holiday season before last, one of my pieces (and a very personal one at that) was used in an advertising banner posted all around dA. No one paid me the common courtesy of at least asking me if I want to demean a thoughtful work of mine into a “Smooth” ad with my ass all over dA. The ad didn’t even credit me. Why can they do this? It’s in the agreement.. and has been for more than 2 years. It ain’t getting better.


deviantMobile
Oh no.. I still have not forgotten, not when I hit op-out every time I submit. Not when sometimes pieces get “activated” without your knowledge. This seems like such a cool feature, you can now have your favorite art on your phone! Yippee! And dA admins say that it is just ridiculous to think they can profit off this.

First of all, I resent having to OP-OUT of having my art downloaded when I don’t want it to be. I own the work, I should not have to make that extra click and if dA cared about your rights as an artist –again, it’s in that code- they would not make you make that extra click.

Second, if you live in America, you damn well know how cell phone companies work and how they make money off of every byte of information you send and receive. Do you honestly believe that dA does not get some sort of royalties for allowing our work to be downloaded? You think that they wouldn’t pay dA at least a couple pennies for letting them use our work? What I find most offensive is that legitimate claims like this are dismissed as “paranoid”. If you’re making money off my ass, at least have the fucking balls to tell me so.

“Historical Purposes” Convenient Only When the Corporation’s Image is Not at Stake
dA allows hate to be left all over artwork for “historical purposes” but decides to make banned deviants’ pages un-viewable when it threatens the public image of the site. Why do you think this new policy is in place? Simply because, as a business, dA does not want any of those hateful pages to be viewed by press/media/outsiders because it affects their image, their marketability. A user page with hateful art and journals is SO much easier to stumble upon than a hurtful, evil comment embedded into an obscure deviation. Think about all the bad press dA has gotten after several tragic and violent events in the past couple of years. Do you really think that they want guests to see the hateful vile that is often spread through this site by both uneducated teenagers and perverts? No they don’t… so they are now erasing the surface evidence of such abuse but leaving us out to dry and force us to view the vandalisms of our work on a daily basis and hope that the perpetrator does not open a new account. This is just another example of dA fucking over every artist they can… not because they are truly malicious, but simply because they DO NOT CARE. They do not care about you or me.. we are expendable.

The Business Side of Things
Put aside the “art factor” for a moment, dA is not even fucking able to provide satisfactory customer service to us. Why? Read ahead.

1) The site is more down than up and I fear that even extra strength Viagra would not be able to help it. I pay to use the site, if it’s down every other day, I can’t use it.

2) I swear if I have to fucking surf one more time and not be able to see 70% of the thumbs because they are not loading… someone’s gonna get hurt I swear. I buy a subscription so that I can view 120 big thumbs at once. You’re not delivering your fucking service if I can’t see them. It’s like ordering a pizza and then two hours later some pimply ass kid delivers you something half-eaten and stale.

3) If there is any sort of glitch on the site, I double dog dare you to find information about in the status forum right then. You won’t. Thumbs hadn’t shown up in more than a week and only on Feb 15th did anyone post anything in the status forum about it.

4) We are customers. Do not forget that. Do not for one second believe their whole “deviantART is a privately run website and will not ever give in to the demands of those who are incapable of acting in a responsible manner” bullshit. First, tons of intelligent, responsible, and respectful deviants had spoken out about their concerns with deviantMobile and what happened? Yea.. that’s right.. you and I still hit the op-out button EVERY time we submit something. Second, I reiterate: WE ARE CUSTOMERS. We are fucking PAYING customers and we have the right to demand the sort of service that is advertised and promised to us. If Google ran their business like this, I guara-motherfucking-tee you that they would never have gone public and they would not be the giants they are today. If you have customers, your job first and foremost is to SERVE them.

5) Believe me, I’m a business major, I know how shit works, and the first thing you learn is that you can fuck any client behind their back but you will, under all circumstance, show them respect. At the VERY least, you show your customers respect. dA does not even have the human decency do this. We get no respect. Need proof? Who the fuck do you think coined “tinfoil hat wearing deviants”? Was it the administration perhaps? Mmm I think so! And I have a link to a journal to prove it.

The Result
What does this all result in? Let me put it fucking brutally bluntly as I can. The talented veteran artists that had something to offer to the site, took down all their shit, gave dA the big ole finger, and left us. Now we are left with masses of new teenage deviants that know NOTHING about art but like to pretend they do just because they can link their friends to [link] THAT’s the fucking problem and it exists because the administration has exerted no efforts in preserving the customer base that is productive and contributes to the site. They have made no efforts to keep them here, but instead gave them every reason to leave and never look back. What is the resounding phrase that you hear when someone speaks out against the bullshit here? “If you don’t like it, leave!!” yea, way to make everyone feel appreciated. For those that are sensitive and need a disclaimer: yes I am over-generalizing the population here… there are obviously exceptions (I watch and communicate with many of them) but I am more right than you might think.

The quality of work has been plummeting for countless months and comments are at an all time quantity and quality low. This makes me not want to post.. worst, this makes me not want to comment and those that know me, know I take commenting very seriously. I am not the only one of this opinion. That is actually all I have heard from people lately. People are leaving left and right. GOOD artists are abandoning the site because their personal, artistic rights are being violated. There is a lot of unrest and unhappiness here. People have legitimate concerns and I would like to see them addressed. dA is flawed, it has issues, and no one with any authority is willing to do anything about it. dA doesn’t care about nurturing a safe environment where you are free to create truly Deviant Art. It cares about itself.

Administration Bias
All we get is spin.

1) When I left (and I openly admit this) a personal criticism on one artist’s journal, she attacked me, PUBLICLY called me out in her journal (which let me remind you, is a policy violation), and had her followers attack my work and myself. She ran to her PV admin friend and personally asked him to deal with me. Because she is popular and was friends with this admin, she didn’t have to go to the helpdesk and wait days like we do. The admin then had the fucking audacity to get on my ass when I called him on it. They take their job seriously, but if your friend is in “trouble” and cannot handle criticism, she doesn’t need to use the system like the rest of us. She’ll get special treatment.

2) So many deviants get screwed over on this site it’s not even funny. Be it incompetence or a lack of respect, there is no doubt that specific artists get fucked. I can give you a list of names, but if you need a concrete example, read `arachnid15’s journal. His is not the only case of such behavior. Read the comments, you will find more.

3) It is no secret amongst us that very often we have to deal with arbitrary deletions. A flaccid penis is dangerous and shots of that will be taken down. A naked baby is all of a sudden a danger too. If this is DEVIANT art, why is it that anything even slightly controversial is repressed and attacked? Why does the administration not believe in us as thoughtful artists? I do not argue that certain work SHOULD be deleted, but have a fucking clear cut system instead of making exceptions time after time. The left hand does not know what the right is doing and one admin can DD a pic and another will take it down. Arbitrary. Unorganized. Biased.

4) Comment deletions – when someone left some incredibly heinous comments on a piece of mine, I reported them to the helpdesk. The deviant was banned and HALF of the comments he left on my work were deleted. Only half… but wait.. half were deleted. What happened to “historical purposes” then? Why is the same privilege not granted to other artists? There is no fucking consistency.

My Personal Opinions
I am so absolutely heartbroken and furious to see how art is just brutally raped on this site. It absolutely kills me to see the artists disrespected, thrown aside. I hate that tits and ass are glorified. I hate how communication is not facilitated. I can seriously tell you that I find what dA is doing to be purely sacrilegious.

Here is the TRULY heart wrenching truth: dA is never going to get better; the current systems run too deep to ever be changed. It will only get worse. So why do *I* not leave? Because if you wade through thoughsands of tits, ass, teenage angst, and bullshit, you will find some amazingly talented people (I surf daily, I am not exaggerating when I say that there is one thoughtful piece of art per 500 ‘deviations’). If you are dedicated enough, you can find good art. dA makes that harder to do on a daily fucking basis, but it’s possible. I do not leave because there are people here that inspire me and I want to share my thoughts with them. I have resigned to stay in my little corner because that is the only thing left to do. Like many, I stay because there is no other place to go. I plan on getting a website up and when that happens, I will probably leave. That is a plan that many artists on here also have.

I will always fucking regret so deeply that the administration could not make this site what they claim it is. It fucking hurts more than I can tell you that art suffers because of politics, business, legal bullshit, and ego. This site could be the greatest resource available to artists all over the world (no exaggeration there), but instead, you have to wade through 300 feet of shit and politics and disrespect to ever get there.

No, I do not apologize for rambling and for being angry.. all this has been on my mind for such a long time.. and in true artistic and activist habit, I will say exactly what’s on my mind. I have an absolute right to express my extreme displeasure at how we, and our work, is treated here. We are artists, there is NOTHING more personal and sacred to us than our work. We have a right to defend it. As always, I have a million other things to say, but I need to stop somewhere so this is a good place as any.


GENERAL REFERENCES

Murder and Art

GallerySkip 0.1
goNEXT 0.25
DeviantLink for Firefox
deviantMessage
DOF Tutorial from the wonderful *photo-class
Glossary of Common Photography Terms - Quick reference quide
Model/Property Release Forms - Some very generic (but really detailed) model forms. Worth a look.

BROWSING RESOURCES
Focus On Male Nudes
Focus On Male Nudes#2
Focus On Male Nudes#3
Focus On Male Nudes#4