Hello fellow deviants. I hope you didn't miss me these three weeks I haven't been here.

However, as the journal title says, I am leaving dA.

Yes, that's a fact; it's not a joke, it's not an attention-whore fake threat to draw more viewers, it's what's happening. What's happened already. By the time I post this, I have already deleted all of my deviations (not put them in "storage"; I deleted them permanently), all of my journals, and everything I can delete in general.

This by no means implies that I will stop photography. I've always loved, and always will love, to take photographs, write poems or whatever. It's just that I've lost my interest in a corrupt community, in which's corruption I don't plan to contribute. dA enhanced my interest in photography, and this is the only thing that's left inside me on leaving dA, after 2 years of actively participating in the "community".

I don't care if you're sick of all these "I am leaving" journals. Some of them are just from attention whores who show how pathetic they are to attract attention. But some others have serious reasons behind them, and we should all consider these reasons before going on to browse some deviations in dA. I suggest you do take some minutes and read what I have written below. I didn't just write it because I had lots of free time. I wrote it so you can read it. Besides, thinking that this will be the last thing that you'll ever read from me on this site, I think it is worth the time.


You see, when I joined dA, I saw a great Art community growing and I wanted to be part of it. I saw artists from all over the world in one site, uploading and commenting other peoples' works. After a while, I understood that it's not like that. Well, mainly, people wanted to get pageviews, not comment; people wanted to get a daily-deviation because that would get them more favs and more comments, not because it will mean something like personal satisfaction to them, stuff like that. Of course, I was annoyed when I first came to realise that. However, I made a choice: I could be one of them, or I could be different. And I chose to be different.

Since then, I have been trying to do my best and help the community. I've written a guide on commenting properly (because the site really lacks proper comments), I've participated in many chatrooms giving as much help as I can asking for nothing in return, I've commented on endless forum threads giving help and discussing about various matters, I've redirected lots of deviants who posted wrong news articles to the appropriate FAQ entries so they won't do that again in the future, I've commented many many times in both deviant account and deviations giving help, tips, letting them know that someone is there for them, and in the end, it showed that people who actually needed help came back to me, and I gave them the help they needed quickly and effectively. In general, I was what all of us ought to be.

The first sign that made me think twice about myself was when I was banned for being helpful. I was suspended for one day because I left comments in new deviants' profiles giving them links to the forum, chatrooms, FAQ, and a link to note me if they have any questions or need any help. I was annoyed by that, and I chose to not bother too much; I just stopped leaving comments like that. If I was too good for the community, it's their problem, not mine.

What really irritated me, though, was something that happened two months ago.

The dA staff removed one of my deviations "as being a violation of copyright". Then, the note that I received (which was automated - how very cold) continued by accusing me of plagiarism, copyright infringement and ripping, and it said that if I continued this kind of behaviour, I'd have to get banned. I was shocked in the beginning, but I saw that the deviation they removed was an old deviation of mine, in which I had taken some photos I found on google of body-builders and put the face of a friend of mine on top to make it look funny. The reason I did this is because I had seen the exact same thing happening in three of $spyed's deviations - [link] , [link] and [link] .

So, I sent them a helpdesk report asking them the reasons for the removal of my deviation, and you can read the whole thing here:




So, after reading it, you can see I didn't get any replies since my last post for one week after my pre-last post, and for about three days after my last one. So, what's the logical thing to do? Send $damphyr a note, right? So, here's what I sent her:

<sub>To: $damphyr
Date: Apr 12, 2007, 1:51:09 PM

You've opened this note already, and I will know that you have opened it the next time I check my message center, so please do take the time to read through it, as this is what I will assume you have done if I see that my note has been read. Thank you.

-------------------------------------------------

Hello.

I am sending this note to inform you that I have replied to your comment on the helpdesk case #200010 ( [link] ) over a week ago. I replied again 2 days, but I haven't received any replies since then. Quoting the FAQ, (from FAQ #590: What are the hours of operation for the Help Desk? ):

Please be advised that Policy related inquiries (Account Closures, Ban Inquiries, Policy Inquiries and Report Harassment) may experience a delay of up to 48 hours in a response from the Copyright and Etiquette Team.

Thats obviously much less than the one week I've been waiting for a reply on my previous comment, and it is still less than the time passed since my second comment on your reply.

I have been wondering whether you have eventually received these comments or not, and if you have, what is the reason for the delay. As you understand, this is a matter of high importance, because it affects one of the main administrative members, $spyed, and whether his actions have been violating the dA policies.

I would appreciate your reply as soon as possible. If you are on an easter holiday and can't reply officially on the helpdesk case, then please do tell me about it so I won't wait for your reply in vain.

Thank you very much for your time, I am looking forward to seeing your reply. Take care.


~Nicolaos-Laonicos


P.S. Although I am almost sure you will have read my replies to the helpdesk report, but chose not to reply to them, I would be interested in the reason of your behaviour behind this. Be aware that ignoring someone is the same as insulting them, even worse, removing their right to freedom of speech. There's no point in one expressing themselves as they want if there's nobody to hear what they say, or nobody hears what they say.</sub>

And she replies:

<sub>From: $damphyr
Date: Apr 12, 2007, 8:14:12 PM

I have escilated it to other authorities. Please do not note administration about Help Desk cases.</sub>

Did you notice the irony on the last sentence? First, I get ignored in my own helpdesk report, in which I should be getting a reply in less than 48 hours, as the FAQ suggest, and I don't have reply for well over a week (about 10 days), and she tells me not to note her about helpdesk matters?! Woah...

Now, you see how I remained calm and polite throughout every single step of this discussion, and I never ever raged against them or ranted about the whole thing, although many other people would have. And I ask them questions which they can't answer.

When I paid for my first subscription, I paid because I wanted to help this community develop. Because I thought "A community like that deserves the 20 bucks a year I pay". But after all these years, is this what I paid for? Do I pay for being ignored? Do I pay for a community that doesn't respect its own members? This is something that saddens me, and which makes me leave. I am very sensitive in matters of morality, and especially in matters of honour: if you don't have the guts to stand up to your actions, don't have the nerve to ask me to do so.I simply won't accept being a member in a community whose administration breaks the rules and nobody does anything about it, and people who do are being ignored.

What saddens me even more, though, is that I am not the first person to leave dA for the more-or-less same reasons. Many many people leave dA, but the dA administration doesn't seem to care about that. Let me tell you why: because more members join in every day than they leave. So, their income increases in the long run, it doesn't decrease. This is why they don't care. Also, the reason they care so little about the deviants themselves is because they earn more money from advertisements than they do from subscriptions. It started as an Art community, but now it is a money-driven company. Just like the verse from a song of F.F.C (Fortified Concept - a greek hiphop crew):

"it's because Art has become money, and money has become Art"

And the one thing in the world that I hate the most is ingratitude. Ingratitude is also the requirement for greed, which is also something I despise of a lot. Ingratitude is an attribute I'd give to the dA administration. Being ingrateful for having achieved something utterly amazing, yet looking at the profit side of it. It's simply that places like deviantART as they have become now do not deserve to have people like me as their members.

Farewell, my friends. I don't know how many of you read until these very lines, but I hope you did nevertheless. Those of you who want to stay in contact with me, feel free to ask ~ordie or =crazynloveless for my msn or e-mail, but I won't just give it to everyone freely, mind that.

I hope you have learned something from my story. I don't know if you've seen that side of the administration yet, and I don't really care about that. I saw it and that's enough for me.

That's all I had to say.

I won't be reading the responses to this journal, not any time soon anyway.

Over and out.



~Nicolaos-Laonicos Psimicakis-Chalcocondylis