Harrassment of another user? What.The. FUCK?????

As I write this, I am banned from deviantART effected yesterday, for something as trivial as:


Reason: Continued efforts at contact after being blocked. This behavior is defined as harassment.



Was I angry when I saw this? You bet. Thing is, I had accidentally talked to `sodalicious ON SOMEONE ELSE'S userpage even though I was blocked. I will say this about it: The block system only covers an individual's userpage/shoutbox/personal forum, etc so basically, those are the prohibited commenting areas. The block system might seem perfect on the surface, but in all honesty, there's LOTS of holes.





1. As I said before, the block system only applies to a certain individual's userpage, so if I were to talk to someone on another person's userpage, there's really no grounds for harrassment at all

2. The block system is NOT a completely binding restraining order that prohibits someone from making comments towards another on someone else's userpage,



Basically, Staff had NO reason to ban me like they did, and quite frankly, I'm ready to stop supporting deviantART monetarily



From my experiences with `sodalicious, she is an EXTREMELY abusive individual who has a history of treating new deviants like crap (As other people have told me), and an incident in #help comes to my mind: I went in there, asked a question regarding posting my own WAV files on deviantART. I get my first question answered to my satisfaction, so I then ask where I can post my WAV files hoping I get an answer to that.



WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


`sodalicious did NOT answer said question the first time, so I asked it again, in bold font, hoping that she would see it. Instead, she kicked me out for supposed "harrassment"

So deviantART was never truly an art site?

Apparently not, according to a journal entry by the Director of Artist Relations.....




To quote a part of it,


"We were a social network before Myspace started, we're not becoming anything "different", we're still an art site. Just because you're just now noticing web cam shots and glorified self-portraits does not change the fact that they were here years ago as well."



The last part is enough evidence that she's COMPLETELY out of touch with reality, if you ask me. None of us members are noticing web cam shots, etc "just now", like she's claiming. This kind of thing has been a problem way before now, and it seems as if nothing is being done about it.



I'm seriously wondering if I should renew my subscription when it runs out, or not.

deviantART Policy Changes - A Thought

Recently, there were several key changes in dA policy as it relates to video game screenshots, doll-generators, character generators, etc. deviantART Staff have made quite a few bad decisions in the past, but what awaited me was shocking, to say the least, and to be honest, I felt that deviantART would surely die out in time (Say, 2010 or so).


This is the part of the news article that got me, as well as other deviants up in arms over the recent changes:



"iv. We will now allow images made from “doll generators” or “character creators” to be submitted; however these will only be allowed in Scraps due to the fact that they involve no artistic effort at all. In the future a special section may be added to segregate them from the actual artwork on the site.
v. Our prohibition against the use of screenshots of movies or television programs is unchanged.
vi. We will now allow the submission of video game screenshots providing they feature actual in-game play with the associated controls/HUD/lifebar/health/etc displayed. These particular screenshots will only be allowed in Scraps due to the fact that they are not actual artworks. In the future a special screenshots area may be created to house them away from the actual artworks on the site."



Move over PhotoBucket, deviantSTUFF is here. *sigh*


First the Help Forum closure, and now this? deviantART wasn't like this at all when I joined up back in November of 2004. Hell, I still remember seeing artwork from so many awesome artists whenever I browsed deviantART, and there wasn't the problem of having to sift through so much crap art in the first place like there is now. Sure, the idea of there being a submission limit has been suggested a few times (which I fully support), and it was shot down all those times. Both Eyefetch and Side 7 have a submission limit in place, so why not dA?. If deviantART wants to keep operating costs down, etc, then they WILL need to implement one. Otherwise, deviantART WILL die out, or become very obscure. Why do the admins not see it?


Honesfly, I think that the administrators are happy with the way things are now, and they don't really give a shit if dA's the new Myspace at all. The coming of video uploads, while a different issue, says pretty much the same thing, in my opinion.



Think about it for a minute: Would you WANT video on a site that is meant for art?


I can already predict that there will be Policy Violations/Myspace-style videos galore when the ability to upload videos is added, which won't be for some time until the speed issues are rectified (which is a good thing out of the many faults that deviantART has).


Just have to wait and see what transpires, I guess

Colorado vacation, etc

Wow,

I honestly never thought I would be able to experience life in Colorado like I did a while ago. My sister had wanted to get married in Colorado after she and her (now husband) had taken a vacation there, and honestly, she could not have picked a better place. The wedding location was at Sprague Lake, which is a VERY beautiful spot to be at (You have the Rocky Mountains right in front of you, and sometimes, you can see clouds in the sky, which makes Sprague Lake a spot worthy of a photo or two)

So anyways, on the day of the wedding, I had my digital Canon PowerShot, model A540 with me, which was a very good call since I got some pretty good pictures, as well as some video (although not a whole lot, since my camera batteries ran out right in the middle of the ceremony :( ).


In all honesty though, if there's anything I wish I would've had while I was in Colorado for a few days, it would have to be the wide-angle lens I now have for my camera (It would have been damn useful for then). Leastways, I got quite a few good shots (HDR photos included), such as the one above, that I have up in my online galleries over at deviantART, Storm-Artists.net and Eyefetch.


Speaking of deviantART, I've become rather dis-illusioned with the way some things are handled by the deviantART administration. Site time-outs have been occuring much too often for me to even be able to browse for artwork that might pique my interest, but that's a rather small issue compared to what I am about to discuss.


The real big issue I have with Staff there is honesty, integrity, and the fact that admins can pretty much get away with ToS/Etiquette Policy violations, while normal deviants are banned for these things. Not too long ago, a member of deviantART, who was a Senior Member for a long time, had his Seniorship taken away from him for calling the selection of Senior Members into question. I myself have seen the screenshots of the posts made in the Senior Members forum. OK, there may have been some "semi-personal, semi-attacks", and it may have been poorly worded, but as I see it, there was some validity as to what the guy said. Unfortunately, there is such a thing as taking things too personally/blowing things out of proportion, and that's what happened after this member posted that thread.


What REALLY got at me, though, is this: Apparently, even though he was no longer a Senior Member. he was still able to reply to comments to him in that forum, which he was later banned for a day for doing. IMO, that was way out of line, as I don't think that would even qualify as a site exploit (But you know those admins. They have their own way of thinking).



I don't see myself becoming a Senior Member anytime soon, or at all for that matter, and I could honestly care less about being one. Seems like it doesn't really mean anything to have the little ` beside your name anymore