The NEW Forum Newsletter!

Welcome to issue six of the NEW Forum Newsletter! Now written by =bohobella in `conorschild's footsteps, this newsletter is here at the start of every month for all forumers to keep up-to-date with the current happenings in our dearly beloved deviantART forums.

With deviantART's birthday having just passed and the summer closing up, this last month of teenagers off of school has been an eventful one. With n00blets rushing to get their post counts high before school's in session and Fella growing large with too much birthday cake digestion, the forum newsletter is here for you, as big as ever, with plenty to show and tell. Let's get this over with so we can get back to forum whoring.

The Forum News

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEVIANTART!

Guess who turned 8 years old this month?

Yup, our dear site is already old enough to talk back to us. With that, there was plenty of festivities around! Prizes galore and fun for all! Unfortunately, timing resulted in many on vacations at the time, but celebrations were still booming.

A lot was going on in the forums, but forumers such as =Insubordinance and staff members such as $Stykera made sure us forumers got some cake as well!

For more on the celebrations (and of course, aftermaths) of the big two-day blow out (yes! two! lolly, you party animal), see some of the staff-written news articles detailing the contests, featuring great features, the run down of the celebrations, etcetera: [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link]

lolly waves Fairwell

On August 20th, lolly made the announcement in his journal that Wednesday would his last day as Director of Community Development. We'll be seeing the clown king around, but we'll miss seeing that look that "$lolly" had, and definitely all that work he did that came with the huge responsibility. No longer at his old rank, lolly now goes without symbol. On a delightful note, this has resulted in seeing lolly more actively in the forums and more deviations will be showing up in the message center of anyone who watches him.

Be sure to be thankful for all he's done for us. A gallery section in his honor has been opened up for just that - Post any sort of thank you or tribute to our dear clown here, Community projects > Events > Tributes > Love for Lolly.

As we could never do it justice, in the event that you've been living under a rock, check out lolly's journal to hear his own words: [link]

The 'fall' of ED

Recently, Encyclopedia Dramatica had a bit of a falling, demanding donations and being useless to view, completely shut down except for the donations page that loaded regardless if you were there to see lolruses or lolcats. This sparked MANY annoying threads, including: [link] [link] [link] and [link] .

However, ED eventually opened up again, though not without a banner stating that they needed a lot of money and once more, asking for donations.

It would appear enough people had money to blow and that looming "IN NEED OF $$$! DONATE NOW!" banner is gone.

Complaints Hang Man

Good with words, or enjoy hanging people? Know tons of forumers, or just want to play grim reaper? *LocitatheSilent has made a game for you! Including the username of many wonderful deviants (hint: I'm one of them), there's over 30 forum regulars' usernames implanted in this game that decides the fate of over 30 men. Will they hang, or are you forum whore enough for the job?

Go to [link] to find out. Once there, click the Union Jack for English and go to enter a CODE. The code, you ask?

Enter: 6vlx61b6

Now, go hang some men play a game!

Cats

=CittensCollar made it her sworn duty to make threads completely and utterly related to cats. And she did. And it was good. Even irrelevant topics with nothing catty about them became somehow cat-ified.

A trend has yet to follow, we're waiting...

Necrosexphilia

A user went around necro'ing old treads from as old as 2005. Luckily, banned. Unfortunately, a ban-evader. Luckily, banned again.

We saw a lot of locks around, particularly in complaints, as a result.

Help With Life sharing the Spotlight

Any regular forumer knows (and probably avoids) Help With Life. Between being flooded with emo kids and trolls that want to "help" (by making many a kid an hero), it's not exactly pleasant while good for a few laughs.

#dAlife has been created recently, an unofficial Help with Life Chat. Since the chatroom rules state you should only accept advice from the chatroom's Founders, SeniorHelpers or Helpers, you won't see trolls telling you to go shit yourself to impress that new girl.

You can find #dAlife here: [link]

It's not actually such a bad idea for once, but we're stepping in on chatroom turf now-- BACK TO THE FORUMS, STAT!

The NEW Forum Newsletter gets a NEW look!

In honor of my discovering new HTML tags version SLEEK starting to settle in and our final adjustment to the new look, I'm proud to bring you yet ANOTHER look to get adjusted to: The NEW Forum Newsletter's HTML reformatting.

Now using <h2></h2> and <h3></h3> formatting, that's why you see BIG headers in replace of over-bolded and over-underlined titles. It's a good thing.

Changes to topics covered in the newsletter have been tweaked around as I play with different things. Feel free to give feedback, or simply bask in this glory some more.

Bans & Suspensions

SUSPENDED
Our dear *sixnight has been suspended and will be "returning shortly". We've been given word it's a one-weeker for linking to a website clouded with porn ads and such, in the words of `Prince-des-Sots himself: Posted a link to a picture of that pussyfoot item for foot fetishes. Was considered a link to a porn site.
BANNED
The exact date and reason for !heathinv's ban is unknown. In his activity, we can see !heathinv revived a thread from 2003 ironically complaining about people who don't let threads die ([link]). His last thread made was in complaints, [link] . According to his userpage, we can find him around in an alt account.
BANNED
Not a forum regular, !akari-the-ninja was recently in the spotlight posting very troll-like threads, such as [link] or [link] . She ultimately got her ban from saying she was 11 on the forums. Dreadfully, she could be back in two years' time.
BANNED
!KindergartenBASH was just another troll, down to a trollish name and obviously trollish nature. They only pulled off a mere 50 posts before getting hit with the hammer - !ShadowGamers would be ashamed. This particular troll posted miscat scribbles and scraps as deviations in categories such as Make Up and Body Paintings.

Forum Feature

=Francine1991!

=Francine1991 has quickly become a familiar face in the forums, frequently complaining about things in Complaints. Fairly new, she joined in February of 2008, but considering the short time period, she's been quite active in the community since.

She believes we must all praise cheap beer and over-repeated hilarity referred to as Dave. She enjoys putting things in her mouth as explained here. She wears industrial strength mascara, for those of you who are sitting there trying to visualize the wonder that is =Francine1991

Currently, she's rocking the monocle and top hat trend.

...and you can consider that the end of the matter.

Now, as any good feature goes, here's just a taste of what one can find in Francine's gallery - which, no doubt, any forumer should check out.

Featurette

A lot of forumers have taken it upon themselves to make forum-focused deviations, which lately, have been sent in madly. Got forum art? We want to see.

The Evolution of the Forum

How did the forums start? You've surely wanted to know, and ~Amberhawk will tell you as poetically as pie. And as we all know, pie is a poet.

Are YOU an emoticon?

'Cause I am.

Be sure to check out =Enzoguri's increasingly popular set of static Deviant Emoticons, capturing the likeness of many forum regulars, from =SylverKitsune to ~SapphireStorm.

Do YOU have a devCONDO?

The project is basically an idea based off of the Complaints thread "fakebook". In the thread, people came up with the idea of having all the Complaints regulars in a condo or apartment together.

=Insubordinance took that idea, and is trying to draw it out. The idea is drawing a view of the outside faces of each deviant's condominium, where you will be able to see each deviant's customized outside balconies, and a window to the inside.

If you want to be a part of the project, just note =Insubordinance back saying you're interested, as well as what you want on your condo and where you want to be (or who you want to be next to).

Memes

"Don't touch my Staryu!" is a meme struggling to get off the ground - Help it by saying it constantly at inappropriate moments.

=CapnGarrett started to spread the love to the subtext on packaged foods and other products that contain subscript ingredients, information and warnings. Pick up the nearest candy wrapper or viagra box and have some fun!

`Navagon's tesseract trend is still going strong, but not so talked about anymore. On the other hand, =ImaginationCubed's condom army is down to very few condoms.

Many forumers have been posting MySpace whore style shots as part of =SylverKitsune's just passing contest. It was all done in good fun, only a few people were blinded by all the lensflare.

And now, a word from our meme sponsor, The Monocle Revolution:

The Monocle Revolution is an organized attempt to add a touch of classiness to DA. The Revolution was started by ~hoodlumd and *Kizziesama.

Joining the legion of monocled crusaders is quite simple. All you have to do is include a monocle in your DA avatar and post in ~hoodlumd's journal here [link] A top hat is optional, but it adds even more pizazz.

Stay classy DA.

Interview!

bohobella's interview with ^StJoan

I'm sitting across the table from ^StJoan in a little coffee shop. She's got a birthday hat on her head. She wouldn't take it off. I have one as well - Not by choice.

"So... How many years have you been celebrating deviantART's birthday?" I ask her. ^StJoan lights up.

"Four! 2005, 06, 07, 08. I missed out on the 5th by 11 days. My dAnniversary is the 18th of August."

I started to poke at the cake we'd gotten in celebration. I couldn't deny it's deliciousness. "What are your treasured memories of birthdays passed?"

"'07 I had a sticky thread for word association, which is something that i have really really loved doing in the past and present. Other than that, various things like dAmn contests and giveaways, crazy forum antics, spam contests, and of course this year and last I focused on Lit activities for AR."

^StJoan has nearly finished her cake by now, and we're barely into the interview. "So, ^StJoan, what did YOU do to share your spirit for the day?"

"For the forums, I decided to return to my favorite activity: Word Association. It'd been a while since I've been highly active in the forums (due to AR devotion) and I wanted to fix that, get a feel of the new blood and give the oldies a bit of a giggle or facepalm depending. Outside of the forums, I'm hosting the AR Lit contest The Dawn of Your Eighth Year."

"What's your favorite part part about deviantART's birthday?" I asked. Of course I meant aside from the cake.

"The goofing off. I know that's not one specific thing but I think sometimes we take ourselves too seriously both online and IRL. dA's birthday is the perfect time to sit back and goof off, release some stress and have some fun. On your birthday, you don't have to be the responsible one, the role model. You get to be the clown."

"Did you give away any goodies this year in celebration, ala hobbit birthday style?" I questioned. It was known that many of the staff members were giving out prizes and presents at random and with contests.

"My goodies will be given away soon when my lit contest is over. Though the amount of prizes and fella plushies in particular that were given out by AR is probably absolutely insane. The giveaways in dAmn were almost constant."

"Did you buy anything special for Fella this year?"

"I got fella a huge post count...in fact it's still growing and any help to make it bigger is absolutely appreciated. Cut loose! Be silly!"

I look to her again. No more cake. I've still got most of mine, savoring it slowly. "Did you like the cake?"

"Oman...caaaaaake. it was as delicious as you've always imagined. "

Best of the Forums!

Threads

MistyeyesxX by ~weirdalseesyoutoo
The 21 Rules of Complaints by *LocitatheSilent
Sexual Education: Fairy Spooge by ~A-S-m-i-t-h
Your cat/dog balls are not sexy by =ThePinkBunneh
Word Association 08 by ^StJoan
"Ask me a question" thread - REVERSED!!! by ~ILoveKnives
D: ZOMBIE FLY? by ~mangachu
"Have you been saved?" by ~DA-Medic
I hate inter-racial relationships by ~WatermelonBread

Comments

That's Latino-Americano's mental functions for you. Gah! Abortion, socialists, Obama is a Muslim! [...] Oooooh, titties! by :devwadolchimonji:
It's not gods fault, its his fan clubs... by ~Rasec-Wizzlbang
Excitable Plz Mosaic by =WarthogDemon
Delicious Copy Pasta by =Broken-Demoness
Mohammed Bomb by `Prince-des-Sots
[...]Sure, you can have a girl spread her xbox wife open, and it's considered art, but one erect wii[...] by ~A-S-m-i-t-h
Ladies and gentlemen, John Williams and the Notacomplaint Symphony Orchestra! [...] by ~HisnameisDaveyoufool
My bologna has a first name, it's S-Y-P-H-I-L-I-S [...] by =BlauerAuss
Jesus saves when he shops at WalMart. by *video-massacre
It'll become a fad to have, "I knew martypunker," carved on tombstones. Tombstones manufacturers will have trouble meeting the demand of martypunker tombstones and will soon shut down[...] by `martypunker
You're not called a bitch/cunt/dyke/whore/idiot because of that. You're being called a bitch/cunt/dyke/whore/idiot because you are one. by ~ScorpionOuSauterelle
[...] She keeps running! She's out of the hospital!... Wait, fuck, that nurse is stealing the baby! by ~Art-of-Hilt
[...] I am the cultivator of the Penis Garden. [...] by =SylverKitsune
[...] look at winny the pooh, he walks around butt naked but wears a T-shirt. He may aswell run around shouting " I didn't mean to show them my willy!! "[...] by *steph1254
[...] I'm going to go to the top of the Sears Tower in the eye of the storm, take of my pants, and make repeated angry thrusting movements, thus raping Hurricane Gustav into submission by ~HisnameisDaveyoufool

Plz Account

Off-Site Link

Instant Rimshot

Suggestion

Thread rating in this forum by `electricjonny

And finally...

The WORST

YouTube Anime Haters!!! DX by ~TreeOfMemories
Complaints in My account by ~Community-Network
sorry... by ~bragoloverforever
Why would he think starving himself makes us happy?? by ~Teko-chi
Alcohol by ~Emcee069
boy broke my heart and gave my secret away by ~00couture0rocks00

Timmy's Pick of the Month:^{Powered by `timmy64} Cutting pubic hair by ~Roy-Tirann

Odds & Ends

Past Forum Newsletters

A sticky created by lolly and updated by various staff members can be found here in the Deviants forum for all your past forum newsletter needs! Relive the memories you had of a time when `conorschild was still the master behind the news, and thank the staff for being so kind as to post them!

Forum Clubs!

Horribly enough, we've never included these delightful clubs in the newsletter - But they're certainly worth a mention. There are multiple forum-related clubs circulating deviantART, some of which like *DAPoliticalForum and *DAComplaintsforum offer WEEKLY lulzy forum quotes that'll put this newsletter out of business, and others such as *DAReligiousForum that, while an official forum with the same name doesn't exist yet, they're hoping for it and in the mean while, the subscribed account's forum makes for a great place for religious debate.

If you want to keep up-to-date with some of deviantART's most popular forums, these clubs are a great place to start.

Submit comments & threads to the Newsletter!

Spot a hilarious thread or comment?
Think it deserves spotlight?
Heard about a ban, big or small?
How about nominating a fellow forumer for the monthly feature?
Send a note to =bohobella and she'll see to it! Please include links to all threads and comments if possible.

When submitting threads, ban reports, features or comments try to include which it is: thread, ban, comment or other, in the title of the note!

In the next issue...

Bad threads will be seen dying down dramatically now that school's in session for North American kiddies. However, trolling will ALWAYS be rampant.

THE FORUM AWARDS GALA

2 Months remaining until nominations for the 1st Annual Forum Awards Gala will be taken in!

Keep in mind that in NOVEMBER 2008, it'll be time to nominate users for awards similar to The Forum Newsletter Awards of 2007, with awards such as Best Thread and Comment of the Year, best avatar, best plz, and Forumer of the Year!

And in DECEMBER 2008... That's when the pressure is on and all you forumers will be called upon to CAST YOUR VOTES out of the nominations!

Brought to you by...

The letter B, the number four (4!) and yours truly.

This month's word is bitch, as in bitch this ain't my baby!
The letter B is for bitch!

Until next time, happy foruming.

_{Shout outs to this month's Forum Newsletter contributors
~Agent-Sarah | ^StJoan | ~Amberhawk | ~Shadow-whisper | ~hoodlumd | @VernonX9000 | =Remrose | ~weirdalseesyoutoo | =ThePinkBunneh | ~mangachu | ~spugmeister | `martypunker | ~SANE-INTOLERANT | =SylverKitsune | =adavesseth | ~ImmortalEcstasyDream | =CittensCollar
And our top contributors:
=cassiedj | `timmy64 | =Assailant17}