A Leg to Stand On

Hello,

RenderPretender here with the latest and greatest news from the front lines of our battle with the People's Fascist Army of Censorship.  News with no left or right leaning spin, just the truth.

You know how I know we're winning this war?  Can you say 4 year deviant, closing in on 600,000 pageviews?  I bet that just triggered these no talent do-gooders.

I have some good news and some bad news.  You want the bad news first right?  Right.  Well, a lawyer (yes, a real one) on our side of this issue drafted a great letter to the admins of the website asking them to take some action on our behalf against groups that solely exist to harass artists while contributing nothing to the community aside from TOS violation reports, which may or may not be valid.  

The bad news is that the admins will not remove such groups from dA because they do not consider reporting artwork as harassment.  

Is there any good news there?  Yes, there actually is.  When an image is reported an actual live admin reviews the image.  I did a little digging and found out, from an anonymous but highly respected source, that one of two things happens when your image is reported.

If the image is immediately removed the admin judged your image to violate TOS.  You do get a chance to fight this removal and you actually have a chance to win.  I did.  Today in fact.  If you were asked to review your deviation and perhaps apply a heftier filter the admin did not judge the image itself to violate the TOS but found the image / story could contain 'something' that other people might find offensive.  Essentially, this is a warning to mark UP your image appropriately with the correct tags / warnings / disclaimers.  If anyone has information to the contrary, please let me know, but as I understand it (according to an employee of dA) the website is not deploying admin-bots to handle violation reports.  Fake news?  I don't know, I wouldn't admit to having bots either but I only have the word of one source at the moment.

RP... is there ANY other good news?  Well yes, of course there is!  Our forward observer and lead researcher, call sign Mallard One better known as , did a great job last night and today helping us all out.  Artists, writers, and fans.  I have some new ammunition we can use in our fight against censorship and it relates to a lot of different communities, not just ours.  Take a look at this amazing article (be sure to read it and click on the artist's instruction manual), written by the admin team here, and their ruling (back in 2012) regarding sex toys as depicted in artwork and literature:

CEA Discussions: Sex Toys



Alright, alright, settle down. While this isn't crazy serious, it's still an update worth note!
Throughout history, art and artists have challenged preconceived notions, pushed boundaries and taken on subjects often considered taboo. Art is alive and constantly changing, much like the community at deviantART is. The CEA Team believes that deviantART policy must grow, adapt and change, to allow artists to push boundaries and express themselves whenever legally and morally possible. Policy must remain flexible in order for something, which was initially ruled as an absolute, to bend and change in order to allow for artists and quality to shine through.

One example of this kind of challenge to policy is with FindChaos's Lesbians 101 series-- a quirky and o

So, these things can be depicted if you follow the guide written by the admins themselves.  You now have "something" in writing to link back to an overzealous SJW or admin that decides to hand out a ban.  Use this information responsibly as it is not a Get Out of Jail free card.  There are still many restrictions we'd like to see changed in how these objects are put to use but this is a start and something I "thought" was allowed but wasn't 100% sure of, especially given recent events.

Also, some of you believed that adding someone to your BLOCKED list still allowed them to view your artwork and gallery.  Again, delivers the real news baby!  That is NOT true. Feel free to read this, there is a section that deals with how blocking someone actually works:

New Notifications and Reporting UpdatesOne of our most frequently requested features is to do more with optimizing one's browsing experience, blocking deviants one would rather not interact with, and better catching the types of content that go against DeviantArt policy.
We have been working on five new systems to streamline your DeviantArt experience that will be rolling out to all deviants over the coming days. If you don't see the changes described below, you will very soon.
I just don't want to see this
You may have seen this change already. If you find a deviation that doesn't necessarily go against DeviantArt policy but still isn't quite your style, you will find the option to select "I just don't want to see this" upon hitting the Report button. This will not send a report to our Moderation Desk, but will rather hide that deviation from wherever you might come across it on DeviantArt, including galleries and browse pages! The owner of the deviation will not be notified that you did this. From there,

One last thing, and on a personal note:  I am 100% against child pornography.  If you disagree with my stance, I don't give a shit, fuck off.  Yes, I absolutely believe that type of thing should be censored, banned, and peddlers of it should be lined up and dealt with, North Korea style.  I could give two shits if you've been a watcher for 4 years and left me 5,000 comments.  I'll never advocate on your behalf if you're into that type of thing.  Don't hitch your wagon to this movement.  We are not the same.  Period.  There is no argument, no debate, simple as that.  I didn't spend years in the Middle East watching fucking perverts marry and rape children so I could deal with that bullshit back in the United States.  Got it?

Otherwise, carry on.  I had a draft email / form letter typed up for us all to send to the Help Desk here to try and get the discussion of the TOS changes going with the admins but the above CEA Discussion regarding sex toys basically answered many of my issues with the ruleset as I understood it.  I need a little time to speak with others about what changes they'd like to see to the TOS instead, within reason.  Feel free to leave suggestions though.  I'm a good listener, promise!