While the guidelines differentiating erotic imagery from pornographic imagery have been refined and are as clear as possible the same cannot be said in regards to literature submissions. Today we attempt to rectify this situation.
deviantART has made a minor addition to its Privacy policy for the inclusion of our working with Lotame Solutions LLC which helps us better monitor traffic and statistical data. Please refer to the section "How we use the information we collect" for more details.
This week I'd like to present a list of commonsense privacy and safety measures that everyone should bear in mind during their daily interaction here on deviantART or elsewhere.
As mentioned last week in Policy News we announced some clarifications in our rules governing child and teenage photography which came about primarily due to concerns about online predators and other undesirable persons. This week we announce some other clarifications stemming from these same concerns.
Here at deviantART we try to provide as much artistic freedom as possible and we strive for this by providing galleries to showcase a wide range of Art and by not forcing any strict quality standards or minimum level of skill or talent.
However while we do not moderate for Quality (keep your opinions to yourself) we do have certain restrictions and rules in place for a variety of legal and ethical reasons. But this article is not going to deal directly with official submission policy but about how you can utilize the tools available to bring things which you think are violations to the attention of the staff.
For submission violations we have provided a handy link on each deviation page to quickly and easily send a report of any deviation which you think breaks the rules or which you think the staff should seriously review.
Beneath every Deviation or Scrapbook submission you will find the Artist's description area. At the very bottom right of this boxed area you will find the Report Policy Violation link.
Upon clicking the Report Violation link you will be offered a standard form where you should enter your information and your explanations.
Your report will be kept completely anonymous. Only a small number of staff with the proper set of privileges will have access to the report and the person that you report will not receive your name or any information with which to identify you. We never give out this information to anyone so you do not need to fear any reprisals from those people who you report.
Before I continue Id like to simply mention one thing;
Despite this easy to use anonymous system which is designed to protect you from the possible drama resulting from reporting something many of you choose to make yourself targets by trying to educate rule-breaking artists while others quote FAQs at them advising them to remove the unacceptable submission and a small minority run around creating drama by writing journals, screaming THIEF or PORN or something else entirely different but no less dramatic.
What tends to happen is that by drawing attention to yourself by doing these things you can wind up catching The Blame when the unacceptable submission is removed by staff. I have personally seen dozens and dozens of fights, personal dramas, abuse, harassment and even flat out threats of physical violence erupt because a kind soul wanted to help educate a rule breaker instead of just using the anonymous reporting system to get the attention of the staff.
Please just use the official system and help yourself to avoid a potentially abusive situation
Now to continue;
When the Report page appears your first task will be to classify what type of violation you are reporting. This is important because the different categories which you see will send the report to different areas. Weve simplified the selections recently so please try to put a little effort into getting the category as close as possible to your issue.
Ill now give a brief explanation of the various options;
Other:
This is the default selection which is supposed to be used for those oddball situations which are not covered by the other categories. Please try to pick one of the other selections since this will help the appropriate staff receive your report in a shorter period of time.
Hate Propaganda:
Use this category to report racist or bigoted artworks or writings or any submission which you believe needs to come to the attention of the staff. The official definition of 'Hate propaganda' is provided in the FAQ and please bear in mind that just because you personally find it offensive doesnt mean its automatically Hate Propaganda.
Nudity Violation or Pornography:
Use this category to report a submission which features gratuitous displays of nudity, children (or fictional characters) under the age of 18 being shown nude or in inappropriate ways or things which are pornographic or overly sexual. Please remember that not every naked person is automatically porn and we do allow a certain level of erotica to be posted.
Misplacement:
Use this category to report a submission which has been placed into an incorrect or inappropriate section or gallery or which otherwise doesnt belong where you found it
Copyright Infringement:
Use this category to report any Deviation or Scrapbook submission which makes use of someone else's artwork, photography, screenshot, music, etc without the proper permission or license to do so. Also use this category if the submitter misrepresents the work of another author or artist as their own work ("art theft" or "ripping"). The FAQ deals with the official definitions of what is and is not allowed so I wont go into this here.
The next field is for a URL. This is not for the URL of the thing you are reporting. The report will automatically tell us this information. This field is there so that if the deviation you are reporting contains artwork or photography which was directly stolen or which was otherwise used without permission you can provide a link to an original example for comparison.. Please paste in the URL from your browser address bar (the http line at the top) and link directly to the page containing the example of the original artists work for comparison with the infringing ("stolen" or "ripped") work.
So many people mess this step up and leave out the crucial evidence we need to confirm that something was stolen or used without permission. While Ive personally been doing this for about 5 years now and I can recognize many things on sight I dont carry around a catalog of every artwork ever made in my head, so please help me and my department out by providing evidence, otherwise we cant do much of anything.
The comment field is so that you can tell us a little bit about why you are reporting the deviation. Clearly state why you are reporting the submission and please dont write an entire novel about it- in the case of stolen or misused works just take the time to identify the source of the work whether by naming the original artist, professional supermodel, celebrity, or by providing additional links and information in order to assist in the identification process.
The more information you can provide the more helpful it will be to us during the review process.
All reported deviations are logged in a special administrative area where they will be reviewed typically within a maximum of 48 hours from the time of submission by a member of staff. Gallery Directors typically screen reports of misplaced items while CEA handle all other reports.
If the submission remains after the passing of 48 hours then we may have had a very high instances of reported violations which caused a longer delay period or you have either failed to provide sufficient evidence for us to make an accurate judgment or the deviation was judged not to be a violation of official deviantART policy.
wow, this is really informative and quite useful. i would suggest that maybe having the description of each thing pop-up somewhere on the screen so that the person knows what they mean. i think that it would be cool if you could have the report policy link open up a pop-up box itself much like the submission process is. i know that you have just re-did the whole page, but to me that would be more reasonable as you could have things pop-up within that and have all the things necessary that is needed when reporting a deviation to staff through the link.
i think that this is a crucial part of the site and helps keep an important balance so hopefully this article will help keep things in the proper order. thank you for taking the time to explain this - i'm sure it was needed.
what i meant by the submission page is where you get the pop-up to choose the category to submit it to, the pop-up for the add a file button, etc. sorry if i wasn't clear on that part.
If we make a slight mistake, will get get completely disregarded?
For example, twice today when I was reporting some deviations I forgot to change the option from Other to Copyright Infringment.
Little mistakes like those aren't a problem, as long as they don't happen too much right?
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"V8 is like some shit the doctor tells your grandfather he needs to drink to stay fit, and he bitches about it all the time and dumps most of it out" -=MMF7734
I'm curious, what's your preference when it comes to reporting multiple deviations from the same deviant's gallery? I don't recall seeing an official response to that, but some people have said to report each one individually, some say to link to others within one's report (if they violate the same rule), some say to make a note to "check the user's gallery" (which is probably the worst of the three).
-- I'm rude and obnoxious. Someone needs to sue me already!
I'd like to second Tyrin's question.. what's the best thing to do if many things in the person's gallery are breaking rules in a similar way? Is it fine to just mention it in one report, or link to the other images in that report, or should a report be made for every single one?
Extra Large Feature of weekly favorites found by me as well as treasures from my thumbshare! [link] Share your digital art thumbs! Visit this forum thread now and please help by passing on this link in your own journals! [link]
The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four, seven, eight, ten, and twelve string guitars also exist.
`karemelancholia is one of the most genuine deviants you could ever met. Always active and a true deviantART cheerleader and supporter in every aspect. You can always count on her to lend a hand or get involved, and you usually will find her doing large amounts of both at any given moment. She's consistently reports on contests around dA, showcases the efforts of her fellow artists and shows her charitable side through various activities. Besides all of this, she's a truly talented artist which is why she's an obvious choice for deviousness this month. Read More
Devious Comments
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Ollie
Lead Apostle of Real-Time Logic Enhancement
deviantART, Inc. - We iterate transparent paradigms!
i think that this is a crucial part of the site and helps keep an important balance so hopefully this article will help keep things in the proper order. thank you for taking the time to explain this - i'm sure it was needed.
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=DailyDeviants
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support.the.community
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=DailyDeviants
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support.the.community
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I suck!
For example, twice today when I was reporting some deviations I forgot to change the option from Other to Copyright Infringment.
Little mistakes like those aren't a problem, as long as they don't happen too much right?
--
"V8 is like some shit the doctor tells your grandfather he needs to drink to stay fit, and he bitches about it all the time and dumps most of it out" -=MMF7734
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The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
I'm curious, what's your preference when it comes to reporting multiple deviations from the same deviant's gallery? I don't recall seeing an official response to that, but some people have said to report each one individually, some say to link to others within one's report (if they violate the same rule), some say to make a note to "check the user's gallery" (which is probably the worst of the three).
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I'm rude and obnoxious. Someone needs to sue me already!
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Homicidal mental patient with a crayon«*´`*·..·*: | ~NIN-on-DA | :*¨*·..·*´`*»
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