It's my role as Director of Community Operations to ensure that things are running as smoothly as possible within the community. It's also my job to listen, and ensure that your voice is heard by all departments. This means that I work closely with other departments such as Community Relations, devious Technology, Creative and Advertising on a daily basis.

Based on community feedback, I made the decision to release these newsletters on a quarterly basis. In this Community Operations Newsletter, I hope to provide an overview of who we are, what we do and the ways which we do things for you -- the community -- in order to give you the very best of experiences here at deviantART.

What is Community Operations?

deviantART's Community Operations Department encompasses the Help Desk, Copyright & Etiquette Administration and Message Network Administration (MN@). These 3 teams are dedicated to providing a high standard of community development, encouraging innovative and creative opportunities within the community.

Our department drives an environment where deviants can come together and be empowered within, and by, the community. We believe that community development is not a department -- it's an approach which helps people to recognise and develop their ability to reach their potential. By providing this organised, motivated, accountable and effective department, we are leading the way for deviants to continue participating in a way which they feel listened to, valued and inspired.

You can read more about our core values here:
FAQ #84: What are the Core Values of the Community Relations and Operations Departments?

Interested in volunteering opportunities within the Community Relations and Community Operations teams? Find out more: FAQ #85: Can I be a volunteer on deviantART?

Copyright & Etiquette Administration

The Copyright & Etiquette Administration Team consist of $realitysquared, $damphyr, $y2jenn and $ShadowOrexia. If you ever contact us regarding stolen or inappropriate deviations, ban queries, harassment enquiries, or any other cases which involve the enforcement of policies -- these are the people who will handle your reports. They're a total powerhouse of awesome.

At the time of writing this newsletter, here's a little snapshot of the number of reports which have been handled this year so far.

Jan 1st 2009 to 30th April 2009:
Opened : 95,555
Closed : 145,853


Impressive, right?

Miscats

Following on from our Big Spring Clean Project, we've been taking some time out to review how we handle miscats, and I think everyone is in agreement that right now, we could do better. I'm happy to say that we are currently working through some ideas on how we can revolutionise the handling of miscats in the community. Watch this space, you guys are going to love it.

Collections

$realitysquared and I are currently working on developing a response to some of your concerns regarding inappropriately named collections. It does sadden me somewhat that we have to address this, however due to an increase in the number of people who are using such an awesome tool to cause distress to others, we feel that we have no option.


News

Thanks to everyone who took time to give feedback and comments on the need for a restriction on news article thumbnails. It's clear that there is a real need for this and you can expect to see further clarification on this in the coming weeks. Thanks again guys!

306!

$damphyr is heading a campaign to spread awareness about the importance of proper permissions, show your support of FAQ #306: Does "Crediting" let me use whatever I want? and get featured!



Create your own FAQ #306 stamp (make sure you either use original art or have proper permission to use the art!) and link to it here to be featured! Pick your favorite stamp and wear it proudly, help keep deviants educated about the importance of proper permission and help protect the rights of your fellow artists!

Help desk

The Help Desk Team Consist of $hexentanz, $ewm, $Stykera and $fangedfem, and are responsible for the handling of all community & retail customer service and support.

At the time of writing this article, Help Desk response times are:

335 tickets resolved in the last 24 hours.
1,247 tickets resolved in the last week.
6,584 tickets resolved in the last 30 days.
23h, 45m average response time.

Those of you who have prints for sale may have noticed that you now get print sale notifications directly into your message centre! How cool is that? Those of you who are about to say "I never sell anything!!" - well, I have proof that plenty of people do, and it involves pics of $spyed signing the latest round of print profit checks. More on that soon

MESSAGE NETWORK ADMINISTRATION

The Message Network Administration Team (MN@) is led by Project Manager $Tachy-on and a group of kickass volunteers spread out across the globe. The current volunteer team consists of:

Senior MN@

@anjules
@leaf-lover
@Narfmaster
@shuttermonkey
@sine-out
@Sting1

MN@

@ananasjihad
@Comrade-Kelly
@cypher-neo
@DaPineapple
@DreamingMyth
@diamond281
@FixMeKnow
@IaiaRose
@karyaazure
@lenawargo
@Little-Vampire
@martypunker
@OpalMist
@p-u-r-i-n
@quickdraw
@rapidograph
@Prince-Charles
@scarletwave
@summaro
@Trapiki
@Vayde
@Xerces
@XgAD
@yashachan

You can find the team in our chat network (dAmn) and in the forums. Our Official channel on dAmn is #devart which is where many people break their chat cherry on deviantART. We also provide assistance in #MNAdmin for chat related issues, as well as in #help which provides real time assistance with deviantART community related enquiries. You can often spot some of the Help Desk Team in there too, as well as a number of our volunteer community helpers.

If you've never been on dAmn before, why not check out some of our Featured chats for the month of April. Who knows, you may find that you end up starring in an edition of the LOL corner, which marked 1 year of weekly editions in March.

Keep your eyes peeled for news of an exciting featured chat which will take place on dAmn soon! You won't want to miss it.

COMMUNITY RECOGNITIONS AND UPCOMING EVENTS!

Incase you missed it, make sure you check out the latest additions to Seniority.

We've also celebrated the following Deviousness Winners:

February - ^cosfrog
March - `wroth
April - @Narfmaster

And tomorrow, we get to celebrate a new recipient!

Podcast!

$Moonbeam13 and I are currently developing a podcast project with @Narfmaster and ^orangefruits. We're aiming to make this a regular feature of community news and activities and hope to bring you the first edition very soon. Meantime, you can check out a podcast that I took part in recently where I was mediasnackered!