Introduction

Hello and welcome to the newly revised Help Desk Guide entitled "How to: Submit a Harassment Report". A lot has changed since the last time this guide was released and rather then refresh the old guide via an edit we have decided it's best to deliver this and each and every other already covered 'How to' guide as a new guide.

What is a Harassment Report?

Being harassed or witnessing someone else being harassed can be downright frustrating. Where to report it? How to report it? Not knowing how to handle it can make such a situation more stressful.

If you are being harassed on site Harassment Report is the category you will want to select when contacting the Help Desk for assistance.

The 'Report Harassment' section is for severe situations only. Debates, rudeness, personal drama, and most 'hurtful' commentary can be handled at the user level by utilizing the Hide and Block features.

For more information as to what constitutes as Harassment Report, please click here.

Please note; If you are filing a Harassment Report we ask that you only file reports of recent activity and not on situations that happened weeks to months ago.

What should not be submitted as a Harassment Report?

1.) Inquiries concerning a ban you have received on the dAMN Messaging Network. These types of inquiries should instead be submitted under the contact category "Chat Inquiry".

2.) You would like to inquire about a site wide ban you have received. Inquiries of this nature should be filed under the contact category "Ban Inquiry".

3.) This section should not be used to request your account be closed. Please instead refer to FAQ #113: How can I close my deviantART account?.

4.) Please do not report submission violations here, this has a separate reporting method outlined in FAQ #155: How do I report a submission which I think breaks the rules?.

5.) Mob attacks at getting a site Policy changed or an action against a user changed. These do not belong in the Help Desk period.

Information we will need

When you're submitting a harassment report we will need proof of the harassing behavior to back up your claim. Please try and keep this as detailed as possible but also as short as possible. In other words We do not require a novel, just proof to investigate your claim.

Most always the form of proof we like to see supplied is in the form of links to comments left by the individual you believe to be harassing you. Please supply specific links to the comments and not pages of comments burying the actual ones you wish to report.

(Please note we do not accept quotes or screenshots as proof of harassment.)

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Examples of how to word your report:

1.) $hexentanz is harassing me. The comments can be found at [link] and [link] .

2.) $hexentanz is saying bad things about me, examples can be found at [link] and [link] .

Such reports contain a brief explanation and provide links for investigation and will be considered complete and sent up for investigation right away.

(Please be advised, these are in no way real harassing comments, but more used as an example for what we're looking for link wise. For examples of what constitutes as harassment, please click here)

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Examples of incorrect reports:

1.) comment (#221980898) comment (#221847318)

2.) hexentanz is harassing me, do something now or else!!!!!

The information in these reports is incomplete and will slow down the process of you being helped because the staff will be forced to request the missing information

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How do I make links?

For the name of the user: FAQ #81: How can I make links to other deviants, deviations, or websites? (Follow the section entitled 'Username Linking'

For the comments: Next to each comment, located next to the name of the user who made the comment is a timestamp such as "Feb 13, 2006, 9:56:16 AM", simply right click on this timestamp and select "Copy Link" (or similar) and then paste the content into the Help Desk contact form, by right clicking on the form and selecting paste. Repeat these steps for each harassing comment you want to include.

Disclaimer

There are some situations, such as overblown personal dramas, spamming sprees, and the occasional internet troll, which can result in dozens and dozens of people filing reports about the same situation. Depending on the circumstances, this can result in well over 100 reports concerning the problem which can create a bit of a bottleneck in the Help Desk.

In order to be as efficient as possible the Policy Team will respond only to the earlier reports. Once the problem has been resolved, often quite quickly in the case of spammers and trolls, the remaining duplicate reports on the issue will be quickly cleared from the Help Desk, so please do not mistake a lack of a response with your report being ignored.

Contacting the Help Desk

Assuming you already know how to contact the Help Desk, this next step will be easy. Once on the Help Desk contact page you will need to select "Harassment Report" from the 'Category' drop down menu. After you have selected the category for your inquiry, proceed by typing up your inquiry.

After you have typed up your inquiry, you may wish to review your message to make sure you have included everything and that any links you have included are intact. Do this by clicking on the button entitled "Preview Help Request". Once satisfied with your message you will next need to click on "Submit Help Request". If your message has been sent to us successfully you will next be presented with a message of thanks.


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That's it, you're done! You should now receive a response to your request from the Policy Team within 72 hours or less, during the normal Help Desk hours.


Pstttt Hexe! This Guide is great and all but I have one problem! I cannot login to the Help Desk to contact the Policy Team because the site will not let me login at this time. Can I still contact the Policy Team? Yes you can, you may do so by emailing them @ violations@deviantart.com.

We hope you have found the above information helpful.


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Much ,
The Help Desk Team
$hexentanz , $ewm and $y2jenn