A vast majority of us have been in the same boat during our stay on deviantART – we log on one day and find a piece in our gallery removed and a note in our inbox. Some of us learn from it and move on; some of us write a heartfelt journal five thousands words long on why the admins had no right to remove their Sonic recolours; others would rather be a scaremonger and create totally unnecessary drama.

The latter is what this news article aims to abolish. For the past few days, people have been informed wrongly via a scaremongering club of who has reported them on deviantART. Needless to say, these people have been causing uproar on wrongly accused profiles, shouting the odds for looking like the criminal.

I, along with many, have had enough. The route of ignorance (which I see this to be) is a lack of education, therefore I will attempt to educate people on why deviations need to be reported and what would happen to deviantART if the report system did not exist.

To tidy the article up, different sections will be separated via subheadings. To jump to a specific section, press Ctrl + F and enter the specific number of the subheading. The specific numbering is:

1.1 – What is the report system?
1.2 – What sort of deviations get reported?
1.3 – How does the report system work?
1.4 – How does the report system affect my personal freedom? (Highly recommended)
1.5 – Why didn’t I get a warning before my deviation was removed?
1.6 – F.A.Q.s

I hope you find this article to be informative – please feel free to ask me any questions if you do not understand anything or if something was not covered in the article. Also, if you have something against the dA report system, I would prefer you to leave a comment and discuss the situation maturely instead of rejecting the article. If you do, it is simply proof of ignorance.

1.1 – What is the report system?

The report system is what keeps deviantART safe for users of all ages, not to mention lawsuit free. When a deviation is reported, it is directly being accused of breaking one or more rules of deviantART; the rules which each and every one of us promised to abide by when signing up.

1.2 – What sort of deviations get reported?

When deviations are reported, they can be reported under the following categories:

Prohibited content.
Misplaced Deviation.
Art Theft (General).
Mature Tag Needed.
Theft of MY work.

Prohibited Content
Official deviantART explanation: Deviations that break the rules or shouldn't be allowed.

My interpretation: Deviants that fall under the Prohibited Content are: Pornography (including penetration, erect penises, sex toys, porn literature/fanfiction etc), Underage Nudity (aka child porn), Hate Art (including/depicting racist language or hateful language towards another person) and Self Harm (such as the cutting of wrists, injection of needles etc). Once the report of your deviation has been confirmed for falling into one of these categories, it will be removed from your account. If you are caught re-uploading the deviation/deviations of similar nature, you will be suspended. Also, if the reported deviation/s are quite severe, they will be removed and you will be suspended.

Please note that putting a Mature Content tag on any deviations falling under these categories does not make you exempt; the deviation will still be removed and you will still suffer the consequences. A minor can very easily lie about their age, therefore they are still exposed to something which even adults may cringe at.

Important F.A.Q.s
FAQ #565: You prohibit the submission of 'pornographic imagery'; what do you consider this to be?
FAQ #23: What are deviantART's policies on nudity?
FAQ #249: Are there restrictions on photographs of teenagers or children?
FAQ #251: You prohibit the submission of 'pornographic literature'; what do you consider this to be? (Very important – people believe pornographic literature to be exempt to the pornography rules.)
FAQ #12: deviantART prohibits the submission of 'Hate Art' and 'Hate Propaganda', how is this defined?
FAQ #284: What is the policy for submissions concerning injury, self-harm and mutilation?
FAQ #60: Do you allow "Adult", explicit sexual or pornographic content on deviantART?
FAQ #165: Do you allow images depicting bodily wastes or fluids?

Misplaced Deviation
Official deviantART explanation: Deviations that don't belong where you found them.

My Interpretation: Misplaced Deviations aren’t a very big deal, but they can be quite frustrating. The most common movement of deviations are from one gallery to your Scrapbook. Images such as Gaia avatars, game screenshots (but not anime screenshots; they are removed) and photographs too small to belong to the Photography category belong in Scraps only.

Important F.A.Q.s
FAQ #578: What does deviantART consider to be a proper desktop screenshot?
FAQ #634: Why was my deviation relocated or moved?

Art Theft (General)
Official deviantART explanation: Deviations that use things without permission.

My Interpretation: Wow…I don’t know where to begin with art theft; so many things fall into the ‘Art Theft’ category. These include: art belonging to another person, your recolour of another person’s art, anime/game recolours, sprite recolours etc etc etc. Basically, if you have included something in your deviation that is not stock and not made by you, chances are that it’ll be removed.

Please note that art stolen/recoloured from another artist belongs in the ‘Art Theft’ box, while anime screenshots and recolours of anime/games belong in the ‘Other’ box.

Important F.A.Q.s
FAQ #572: What does deviantART consider "Fan Art" to be?
FAQ #8: What does deviantART consider to be Art Theft?
FAQ #306: Does "Crediting" let me use whatever I want?
FAQ #257: What sort of permission do I need to use someone else's work?
FAQ #818: My wallpaper was removed, can you tell me why?

FAQ #193: How do I prove that I had permission to use someone's work?
FAQ #157: Can I use things created by other people in my submissions?
FAQ #217: What are "Stock Photos" and can I use "Stock Photos" in my submissions?
My Guide on Recolours.

Mature Tag Needed
Official deviantART explanation: Deviations that need to be tagged as mature.

My Interpretation: Similar to ‘Misplaced Deviation’, if your deviation is reported as needing a Mature Tag, it will remain in your gallery. However, deviants under the age of eighteen/those who have chosen not to view Mature Tagged content will not be able to see your deviation. This may be harmful if your fanbase consists of young, giggly fangirls, so always beware of this.

Important F.A.Q.s
FAQ #554: Is my deviation Mature Content?
FAQ #220: What is Mature Content?

Theft of MY Work
Official deviantART explanation: YOUR work used without permission.

My Interpretation: Pretty straightforward – if someone is stealing your art, report them with a link to the original deviation in your gallery and it will be removed.

Important F.A.Q.s
See ‘Art Theft (General)’

1.3 – How does the report system work?

This is, I believe, where all the drama started. It’s good that I’m here, right?

deviantART is run by several directors, moderators, administrators etc. As you can imagine, they have all the power on this site and say how it is run, what changes are made etc. However, each director, each moderator and each admin each have different roles (for example. $chix0r is the Director of Community Relations, ^ctJemm is the Gallery Moderator for Anime/Manga and $realitysquared is responsible for the Copyright & Etiquette Administration).

Speaking of the Copyright & Etiquette Administration (CEA for short), that is the group of people we will be talking about. The CEA team are responsible for receiving notices of and removing rule-breaking deviations, suspending/banning harassers among others – that is their job, and they do it.

Now, here is the part which people cannot comprehend. Read the above paragraph once more and a particular word may pop out at you.

Do you not recognise it? Well, here it is.

Receiving notices of and removing rule-breaking deviations.

The CEA team are not responsible for finding rule-breaking deviations; we are. If the CEA team were forced to find rule-breaking deviations, deviantART would be renamed deviantPLACEFOR13YEAROLDSWITHKAWAIINARUTORECOLOURS.

There are millions of deviantART users online everyday who upload God knows what. Are you really that selfish to suggest that a small team of people should have that burden on their shoulders? I hope not, I really do.

Which brings me to my next point: I have seen people flamed, harassed and bullied over reporting deviations, often with messages such as “I H8 U U MORON U REMOVED MAI FRENDS SUGOI PIKTUR1!11!11!!!1!!!1!one"

Newsflash, princess, the target of your inaccurate typing did not, I repeat, did not remove your friend’s deviation.

Here is how the report system works:
A deviantART user finds a rule-breaking deviation and reports it.
The report is then sent to the CEA team to be processed.
A member of the CEA team investigates the report and deems whether or not it is appropriate for dA or breaking the rules. If they deem it to be so, it will be removed; if not, the deviation will be untouched and the case will be closed.
The person who reported the deviation then receives a note via deviantART’s automatic bot stating whether or not the deviation was removed.

Do you see what the problem is now? The reporter is not the person who removed the deviation; it was a well-trained, well-educated member of deviantART staff. If you want to find a member of the CEA team and flame them, be my guest, but you may be surprised by how quickly you’re suspended.

If you are reading this and still blame the reporter, I leave you with this little food for thought: you are probably angry at your/one of your friend’s deviations being removed, therefore you are looking for a scapegoat and will not accept that you/they were wrong. Do you know who also used scapegoats?

Hitler.

1.4 – How does the report system affect my personal freedom? (Highly recommended).

deviantART is a private business – it has the right to create its own personal rules and regulations. Before you join the website, you are prompted to read these rules and regulations and tick a pretty white box stating that you agree with them.

If you do not agree with them, why bother ticking the box?

This is the internet – there are thousands of sites for everything you can think of, why are you getting so upset because one thing isn’t allowed on one website when there are thousands of websites to cater for your desires?

I have seen some campaigns for ‘freedom’, and their campaign is somewhat embarrassing. It is evident that the members are clearly wanting a scapegoat because they are not mature enough to accept the consequences of their actions.

You are free to leave deviantART at any time, always remember that.

1.5 – Why didn’t I get a warning before my deviation was removed?

To keep this short and sweet, it is illegal. To quote the Copyright Policy:

When we become aware that a deviantART submission infringes upon the copyrights of another artist, creative person or company, we will immediately delete it. This is a legal requirement which we fulfill immediately; you will not receive an advanced warning and you will not be given an opportunity to 'fix it'.

However, there are several members of deviantART dedicated to educating people on what they are doing wrong. These people often become the subject of ridicule despite their helpful nature, which reflects on the further ignorance of rule-breakers.

1.6 – F.A.Q.s

How do I report something?
Simple! Read FAQ #155: How do I report a submission which I think breaks the rules?

I wish deviantART had no rules!
Are…are you kidding me? Okay, let’s have some roleplay:

While you are getting changed, a paedophile sneaks up to your bedroom window and takes some photographs of you naked. He then puts them on deviantART, where everyone is free to look at you. You protest to the admins to take it down, but they do not care because there are no rules. Then, someone from your school accidentally comes across the photo and decides that it is delicious cake. The person then saves the photo and emails it to everyone attending the school; you become a laughing stock. Deeply upset, you become housebound and refuse to leave the house ever again.

Now how does that sound? Rules are completely necessary, so you should never wish for an environment without rules.

You only report people because you have no life!
You write yaoi because no man will touch you with a bargepole; you upload pornography because it’s the only action you’ll ever get; you recolour because you have no artistic talent. See how hurtful insults can be? I suggest you deal with any disputes you have in a mature manner.

Why should people report?
Naturally, people should report as it is a way of cleaning up the website. Also, if you are a non-subscriber, then you are taking from deviantART without giving back. By reporting deviations and having them removed, you are saving deviantART money on webspace and, basically, earning your keep.

How do I report users? Someone is harassing me!
For harassment, you will need to go to the Help Desk and report the user under 'Report Harassment'. Also, please read FAQ #238: How do I report people for abuse, harassment, or another issue I may think is a violation?.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or note me.

Thank you for reading.