Please read this entire thing before you jump to conclusions

After spending many days writing in the suggestions forum asking that we be given the option to opt out or disable the new share function should we deem it ineffective or inappropriate for any or all of our gallery: I am incredibly upset to see the issue being misrepresented.

In a recent HQ blog post: [link] $spyed seems convinced that many of us with concerns have them about art theft and that they are unfounded. The popular blog entry which is now being featured as a news letter is catching like wildfire among staff journals and the idea that the concerns around this function are nothing but drama perpetuated by ignorance is spreading even faster.

I'd like to clear this up, you know as one of the main people who started the "drama" about this. (thanks for that awful label btw)

Our main concern is NOT art theft and never was. Art theft was more of an after thought- a distant concern, and occasionally a tool for those wanting to perpetuate of who there were few. (can't be helped on this site apparently)

Our main concern is that we have the ability to choose this sharing function. That we are sharing on our own terms. The majority of us do NOT think this is a bad function, in fact most of us agree that as a whole this will do wonders for this site but offer easier access to exposure we may not appreciate.

Now, of course we're not a bunch of people "born yesterday" who think that our work will not get easily hyperlinked. Duh. The answer that "it happens anyway" does not cut it for those of us who do not want to be involved. One of the issues of concern is that it makes it too easy to share. Takes the extra steps out and motivates people to share. Many people post their work only to deviantART because they prefer it to be kept within context on deviantART, maybe they prefer the anonymity, or maybe they just prefer our community over others. They don't want their work appearing in thumbnails on another site- even if it does link back to the original work. You may DISAGREE with this and not find it a valid reason, but art is PERSONAL and if a person does feel this way about it why should they not have the right to opt out? Why should they be forced and have no control? We know in putting our work on the internet that there's no way to have 100% control but as artists we'd like to maintain as much as possible. If it was so easy to do in the first place- why add the option? Even if you think this is 100% perfect for the community as a fellow artist you've got to at least respect if someone doesn't want to take part regardless of their reasons. It's THEIR art!

That is only ONE of the concerns which some of you will agree with and some of you wont. That's fine. What is comfortable for me as an artist may not be comfortable for you and vice versa. As artists we have to allow that we have different comfort zones and not throw it to the wind simply because this shit can happen anyway.

When it comes down to it what ever a person's reasons for not sharing art in this way are no ones business but their own.

I'm going to quote a few deviants who have posted in my forum thread on the suggestions forum which can be found here if you're interested in reading the thoughts of the community and seeing for yourself that it is mostly intellectual conversation and little drama: [link]
(though be conscious of posting time as many links etc were replied in order to keep people informed on the concern)

I am getting more and more frustrated with this "sharing is always good and you're a surly idiot for trying to have a modicum of say in where your work ends up!" mentality.

...I use different names, different profiles, to try to separate some aspects of my professional, artistic, and private life. That's my prerogative- and in the case of a nude photographer, there is also the more important issue of my MODELS' privacy! They don't want to be on FB at random. They don't want to be in collections titled "Pussy Close-Ups". They don't want to be in people's fucking Twitter updates. They want to have their images portrayed alongside my other work or in collections of suitable content on this site, with a mature content filter, with no connection to their real last names, their MySpace, Facebook, Twitter profiles, or anything of that sort. I won't provide DA with model releases for the same reason- that information is mine in trust, and not to be given out to anyone short of a police officer. I will not send my models' names, addresses, and birthdates to strangers.

...
As for me: I am very interested in sharing, on my own terms


...But I do not post work to dA to share with the larger community - I DO NOT want people hyperlinking to my images, with a preview, outside of dA. It is not why I am here...I have my own website for promotion. I am fine with them being an opt-in possibility, but why are they mandatory is my question.

I agree; there was a reason I disabled sharing before, and I don't see why these don't come under the existing option to disable.

Yes, I do see it can be useful. I'm not denying that either. However we have the option to deny downloading, mobile access, whatever. I don't understand like you why they wouldn't allow us to have a disable option. :/

I believe that it pretty much boils down to the degree of control one believes oneself to be able to exercise over one's artwork, and that this control appears to be eroded by this "feature".

Here is the bottom line for me - I want some semblance of control over where/how/why/when my images are used. Even though anyone can find another way to link, steal, use my images -- why oh why would we make it easier for them?

On the other hand, I understand and appreciate the marketing value presented to us as an artist's community. There are definitely times that the more marketing savvy of us will want to use these features and will probably derive great benefits.

There is so much to gain and nothing to lose by making this feature optional.

My problem with these types of arrangements is that there are sites I'm not particularly fond of and I see no reason why I should contibute to their overall success. I belong to facebook but if I want my DA pictures there, I'll post them there. I don't Twitter and I don't care if they succeed or not. I certainly don't need links of my art contributing to their success. It should be my choice to block it or not.

I think that all of us would agree that by joining DA we are agreeing to share our work with the DA community. That does not necessarily mean that we wish to relinquish complete artistic control, however. I don't believe that the work should be so easily distributed without the artist's consent. I don't think that DA should facilitate distribution without the option to disable this function.

You can read many more responses in the suggestions forum thread here: [link]

AND NOW FOR THE OFFICIAL SUMMARY YOU SHOULD PROBABLY READ IF YOU SKIPPED OR SKIMMED EVERYTHING ELSE!

We do not want the feature removed. The majority of us consider it a smart move that will benefit the community for the most part. We simply feel it will not benefit us and would like the ability to in whole or in part disable the function. Many of us are not fond of having the icons for twitter, facebook etc on our deviations but are willing to compromise they still they there so long as the function is disabled

The issue is not and has never been art theft. It was an after thought by many, a valid concern until they realized how the system actually worked, and not THAT huge of a stretch to understand why people would be concerned even after understanding. However it's not the main focus

There are MANY reasons why someone may want to disable this feature and whether you agree with them or not we're asking that you respect the artists' CHOICE

Just because "it happens" doesn't mean we can't take steps to limit it happening. Submitting to deviantART doesn't not mean we consent to a free for all over our images being linked though at times it's avoidable.

WE APPRECIATE THE STAFF!!! And despite a handful of comments that state otherwise or think this is all some conspiracy theory we KNOW you guys bust your butts to make new features for us and that no matter how hard you try you get backlash on everything because you can't please everyone. We're not out to promote staff bashing or ignorant behaviour- but we expect the same treatment! Just because you can't understand our concern does NOT mean we're drama starters or that our concerns are not valid.

our OFFICIAL request (aka suggestion) is that we have the option to disable this setting as we can with deviantMobile, download, comments, etc. We're not asking for the function to be removed.

Resources for and against this can be found here:
The official suggestion: [link]
$spyed's official statement on the "issue" via HQ: [link]
FAQ #270: What is the "Share This & Blog It" feature and how do I use it? Can I disable my deviations from this service? (related)
$spinegrinder's take on all of this with some info: [link]
$chix0r's official post about it where she mentions will be able to disable it soon but after all the other notices posted about it calling us dramatic and missing our point the community isn't convinced we're being taken seriously: [link]

PLEASE POST RELATED POSTS THAT AGREE OR DISAGREE OR WHATEVER IN THE COMMENTS FOR PEOPLE TO READ.

Ok that's it, peace out from =raine-angel your resident apparent drama starter who deserves whatever trouble the internet can dig up for her because she had the gall to post nude photos.