http://browse.deviantart.com/journals/?order=5&q=by%3Arealitysquared deviantART RSS for in:journals sort:time by:realitysquared en-us Copyright 2013, deviantART.com Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:48:03 PDT deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://st.deviantart.net/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Cyberbullying-and-Your-Deviations-309619223 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Cyberbullying-and-Your-Deviations-309619223 Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:42:02 PDT Cyberbullying and Your Deviations nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2012-2013 $realitysquared
While the actions which make up cyberbullying can vary depending on who you are talking with or what website you are on at the time, as far as we here at deviantART are concerned the act of cyberbullying involves a range of behavior from hostile and aggressive communications, to threats, sexual remarks, hate speech, ganging up on victims by making them the sub ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/How-And-Where-To-Report-Deviations-293035452 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/How-And-Where-To-Report-Deviations-293035452 Thu, 29 Mar 2012 19:49:31 PDT How (And Where) To Report Deviations nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2012-2013 $realitysquared
Because of the various ways that a deviation might be a problem we'll focus on only one specific issue in this blog, that issue bein ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Unexpected-Login-Check-Your-URL-256013811 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Unexpected-Login-Check-Your-URL-256013811 Wed, 31 Aug 2011 08:16:12 PDT Unexpected Login? Check Your URL! nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2011-2013 $realitysquared
Being an extreme large community composed of a good number younger people deviantART unfortunately becomes the target of spammers and phishers.

Currently we have an individual or Group of individuals using a fake deviantART login page and they are using hijacked accounts in order to spread the URL to this fake page.

Please spread the work that if you click on a link which directs you through the deviantART "There Be Monsters Out There" outgoing link page and you unexpectedly appear to wind up back on deviantART while logged out  then you should please check the URL of where you are before you enter any of your de ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Rumor-Control-219818954 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Rumor-Control-219818954 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 08:12:38 PDT Rumor Control nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2011-2013 $realitysquared
So the general purpose of this journal is twofold; for one I really need to get the old journal from September put away since it's truly out of date now that it is nearly April and the second reason is that there is a lot of misinformation floating about and being spread about what you can or can't do and this misinformation is sometimes causing tickets to be sent into our customer support center which amounts to a waste of staff time and resources.

Some of the information is old and based on the way things used to work and what we used to advise or allow and some of it is just downright wrong and based on stuff peop ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Project-Educate-Mature-Content-Questions-223602386 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Project-Educate-Mature-Content-Questions-223602386 Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:51:09 PDT Project Educate Mature Content Questions nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2010-2013 $realitysquared :devcommunityrelations: is preparing to launch another round of :devprojecteducate: and Artistic Nude and Fetish Gallery Moderator :devquietchildae: needs your input.

If you have questions, concerns, or want any sort of clarification about either of those galleries and what is or is not acceptable or any other issue which has you wondering then you should head right over to Her Journal and make yourself heard.

. ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/deviantART-v-The-Inkers-Wait-What-223630433 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/deviantART-v-The-Inkers-Wait-What-223630433 Tue, 28 Sep 2010 10:42:50 PDT deviantART v. The Inkers ... Wait- What? nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2010-2013 $realitysquared So this journal is in response to an issue which came up back in August; the actual situation broke after I had begun an extended vacation and by the time I returned to work it appeared to have resolved itself so I concerned myself with things which appeared to be ongoing still.

However it appears that :devy2jenn: is being quizzed in private as to when the matter will be officially addressed and there are still a couple of journals still posted about it so I'm going to address the issue now since some people are obviously still concerned.

A Little Background
The thing which sparked the actual issue which got a bunch ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Obscenity-and-Art-214235339 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Obscenity-and-Art-214235339 Thu, 23 Sep 2010 10:58:19 PDT Obscenity and Art nonadult journals/deviantart/policy realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2010-2013 $realitysquared It was about a year ago that I posted a news article which attempted to clarify why and how official policy and community viewpoint can differ so greatly in regards to what can be considered to be obscene or pornographic and I even spoke about it a bit in my journal.

Much of what was written in that previous article holds true today so I will only briefly outline the basics of what was written there in this article and I would urge any who haven’t yet read it to do so.

Recently there has been a lot of dissatisfaction being voiced concerning types of content which is allowed in the deviantART galleries and ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Porn-in-My-deviantART-223712505 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Porn-in-My-deviantART-223712505 Thu, 23 Sep 2010 10:19:15 PDT Porn in My deviantART? nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2010-2013 $realitysquared deviantART does not allow the submission of pornographic content, however portions of the community have traditionally had a tendency to be confused on the exact definition and what is or is not allowed and why, leading many to continue to report things which fit their own personal viewpoints; today I will again attempt to clarify things.

It’s All in the Details
It was about a year ago that I posted a news article which attempted to clarify why and how official policy and community viewpoint can differ so greatly in regards to what can be considered to be obscene or pornographic and I even spoke about it a bit in my ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Mature-Content-223875883 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Mature-Content-223875883 Mon, 13 Sep 2010 10:07:17 PDT Mature Content nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2010-2013 $realitysquared As I'm certain most long time watchers of this space are aware, deviantART policy is not completely static and unchanging. While there are certain tenants of it which must remain, such as the bits concerning certain restrictions involving copyright, pornography, and other such severe matters, there are several policies which we have in place which we have some discretion in how they are worded and how they are enforced when necessary and we usually try to take a good hard look at them once every year or so.

This is part of the delicate balancing act we try to strike between artistic freedom and censorship; like it or not we s ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Concerns-and-Discussion-amp-a-bit-of-news-at-the-223968016 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Concerns-and-Discussion-amp-a-bit-of-news-at-the-223968016 Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:41:44 PDT Concerns and Discussion; &a bit of news at the nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2010-2013 $realitysquared
Today's discussion isn't about policy, at least not directly, but it is about something which I feel strongly about and that I know many others feel strongly about and I started thinking about the issue based on a few things which crossed my desk earlier today.

The topic I want to discuss today concerns the realm of traditional art - sketching mainly - and how access to digital tools and the mathematical algorithms and procedures known as "filters" have had an impa ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Copying-vs-Plagiarism-vs-Copyright-Infringement-226320077 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Copying-vs-Plagiarism-vs-Copyright-Infringement-226320077 Mon, 03 May 2010 15:02:59 PDT Copying vs. Plagiarism vs. Copyright Infringement nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2010-2013 $realitysquared
If you have not somehow bumped into this issue over the weekend it involves The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards which is a judged contest which received well over 150,000 entries this year and which handed out Gold and Silver Medals to 1300+ entrants with a lucky and talented fifteen of the Gold Medalists receiving a $10,000 scholarship.

The Awards themselves aren't what I am addressing but rather the fact that (at least) one entry this year was a direct copy of a work originally created by one of our very own devia ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Current-Topics-227342701 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Current-Topics-227342701 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:47:36 PST Current Topics nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2010-2013 $realitysquared At least a couple of times a year we get reports of someone impersonating deviantART staff.

Sometimes its a fake profile like :devdeviantartversion7: or :devdeviantartpolice:; you can always tell real staff members from the special symbol in front of their name ($) and actual volunteers by the symbol in front of their name (^).

Sometime we get people just claiming that they are "staff using an alternate account" to explain why their profile doesn't look like a staff account in any way. While some of us do maintain alternate accounts we don't parade around in them claiming to be staff while trying to get you t ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Your-Personal-Stock-Terms-228394366 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Your-Personal-Stock-Terms-228394366 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:58:52 PST Your Personal Stock Terms nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2010-2013 $realitysquared deviantART has a large and devoted stock resource community and we really do appreciate their presence and their generosity with the community.

I do have something very important I'd like to mention for everyone who offers some sort of stock resource so hopefully those who read my journal will help to disseminate the information and spread it around to those who might not otherwise read it.

The concern that I have is Terms of Use.

Officially deviantART maintains only one "automatic" restriction and that is "No Commercial Use" and that particular restriction can easily be overridden by the actual stoc ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Demands-for-IP-bans-228395352 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Demands-for-IP-bans-228395352 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 09:01:31 PST Demands for IP bans nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2010-2013 $realitysquared I'd like to take some time out of my day to briefly talk about certain demands which appear regularly on my desk from various members of the community for various somewhat-related reasons.

A few times each week one of you out there appear in our Support desk and explain a situation, harassment, dArama, abuse, ban evasion, or something along those lines and you end your missive with the same demand;

IP BAN THEM!

It's happened often enough that I really need to say something in public on the issue; I know it won't necessarily get around to everyone but writing a journal on the subject at least makes me fe ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Help-Shape-Policy-For-Favorites-Cheating-230470228 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Help-Shape-Policy-For-Favorites-Cheating-230470228 Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:36:09 PDT Help Shape Policy For Favorites Cheating nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2009-2013 $realitysquared Help Shape Policy
It was quite a number of years ago that deviantART introduced :+fav: Favorites and then of course recently that was augmented with Collections.

Now as long as Favorites have been around there have been people trying to exploit them, cheat their way onto the Most Popular listing and make a quick grab at prestige and the easy road to collecting more of those pageviews so many of you treat as the most important reason for being here.

Favorites cheating isn't as common, or as easy, as it used to be.

In the old days "Popuarity" was simply a matter of counting how many Favorites a deviation had so it was a ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Update-Invalid-quot-Art-Theft-Reports-quot-214204595 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Update-Invalid-quot-Art-Theft-Reports-quot-214204595 Tue, 25 Aug 2009 06:22:58 PDT CEA Update; Invalid "Art Theft Reports"- nonadult journals/deviantart/policy realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2009-2013 $realitysquared
The Moderation reporting system which was launched nearly two years ago, which replaced the older outdated system, contains two categories which allow the reporting of “Art Theft”.

“Art Theft” is a wonderfully vague term which can be u ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Dare-to-Deviate-Contest-Winners-214203311 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Dare-to-Deviate-Contest-Winners-214203311 Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:33:31 PDT Dare to Deviate Contest Winners nonadult journals/culture/contests realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2009-2013 $realitysquared
If anyone appreciates unique and original works it’s all of us here in CEA, so for deviantART’s ninth birthday celebration we in CEA invited artists to help us send a reminder of that original mission to the community and the world with the Dare to Deviate contest.

Contest entrants needed to combine the slogan Dare to Deviate into an original visual work as creatively and uniquely as possible. We wanted artworks w ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/deviantART-Allowing-Porn-231052049 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/deviantART-Allowing-Porn-231052049 Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:50:21 PDT deviantART Allowing Porn? nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2009-2013 $realitysquared The official definition of “ pornography ” has been modified at several points over the lifetime of deviantART, I know this because I'm the guy who does it each time, and it is done in an attempt to bring greater clarity in the wording used. The publicly posted definition needs to get the point across without delving into a lot of excessive detail, it's a FAQ entry which needs to be simple and easy to read and not a set of stereo instructions but in being somewhat easy in its language portions of the community not only have had a tendency to be confused on the exact definition but also expand upon what's written to include ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-UPDATE-Clarifying-the-Definition-of-Porn-214201979 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-UPDATE-Clarifying-the-Definition-of-Porn-214201979 Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:07:06 PDT CEA UPDATE: Clarifying the Definition of Porn nonadult journals/deviantart/policy realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2009-2013 $realitysquared
Overview
The official policy for deviantART prohibits the submission of pornographic works. While the community as a whole, with few exceptions, agrees that this policy is required there are many who demonstrate a marked misunderstanding of exactly what is and is not d ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/A-Discussion-About-Statistics-amp-Other-Stuff-231246038 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/A-Discussion-About-Statistics-amp-Other-Stuff-231246038 Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:07:26 PDT A Discussion About Statistics & Other Stuff nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2009-2013 $realitysquared Okay, so I've noticed for awhile that the last time I wrote anything in this space was February. That's a bit too long between informational entries, especially if you compare with my track record for last year.

The truth of the matter is that a good journal entry typically takes me a couple of hours to put together and the first half of 2009 had me and my entire department pretty much nose-to-the-grindstone and while I really do enjoy writing these entries after an eight or ten hour workday I rarely want to sit in front of the computer for another couple of hours to write about whatever issues are crossing my desk.

I'm go ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/The-Policy-on-Copying-tl-dr-warning-233481949 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/The-Policy-on-Copying-tl-dr-warning-233481949 Fri, 06 Feb 2009 04:44:30 PST The Policy on Copying (tl;dr warning) nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2009-2013 $realitysquared
I'm writing a new journal prompted by a reaction to a policy, which is a semi-regular feature here and which is the main reason I think so many people actually watch my account (since I'm fairly inactive with the Art as of late). I'd like to thank those people who actually watch my journal space and who actually read my news and updates because I do try to disseminate very important bits of information and provide some sort of view about why CEA functions the way it does.

Those of you who take the time to be educated and informed make it all worthwhile, not to mention the fact that you provide a stunning contrast to those who ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-UPDATE-20090130-Issues-Involving-Copying-214186526 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-UPDATE-20090130-Issues-Involving-Copying-214186526 Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:49:11 PST CEA UPDATE 20090130; Issues Involving Copying nonadult journals/deviantart/policy realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2009-2013 $realitysquared
The Copyright & Etiquette Administration here at deviantART is often presented with challenges, one of the most basic and important of which involves helping artists enforce their rights over their own original work. While this may seem to be a very clear and easy to understand directive it is complicated almost daily by the simple fact that artists copy one another.

It is inescapable that when you gather millions of artists together into a central location which is filled to the brim with their individual ideas and creativity several things are going to happen; separ ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Update-20090120-Moderation-System-Changes-214185418 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Update-20090120-Moderation-System-Changes-214185418 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:20:00 PST CEA Update 20090120: Moderation System Changes nonadult journals/deviantart/policy realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2009-2013 $realitysquared
We like to believe that our reporting system here at deviantART represents one of the best and easiest to use systems available to an artistic community and we are proud to see that the deviantART community demonstrates such awareness for artists rights that ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/The-Importance-of-Written-Agreements-233928754 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/The-Importance-of-Written-Agreements-233928754 Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:36:48 PST The Importance of Written Agreements nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2009-2013 $realitysquared
Part of what we do here in CEA is moderate disputes; not every little schoolyard drama mind you, just the ones which could be considered serious.

Now I've done this for something close to six or seven years or so, and among all those disputes there's one particular type that comes up decently often and over the holidays I found myself dealing with it yet again and quite frankly it makes for a good journal topic so I'll discuss it a bit here.

The Issue
What I'd like to talk about is the relationship between photographers and their models, and of course the relationship between models and their photographers.

Now we certa ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Update-20081119-Lewd-and-Sexual-Commentary-214180842 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Update-20081119-Lewd-and-Sexual-Commentary-214180842 Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:15:07 PST CEA Update 20081119: Lewd and Sexual Commentary nonadult journals/deviantart/policy realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
Today I'd like to address a closely related subject which most often affects those photographers who choose to submit artistic nudes, fetish, or other genres of erotic photography; namely comments directed at their models which are clearly sexual in nature and which show a complete lack of respect for both the model and ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Update-20080511-Clarifying-Mature-Content-I-214179771 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Update-20080511-Clarifying-Mature-Content-I-214179771 Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:52:34 PST CEA Update 20080511: Clarifying Mature Content : I nonadult journals/deviantart/policy realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
Over the years we have been functioning with a set of Mature Content guidelines which have been extremely general and open to a great amount of interpretation. With recent trends towards artworks featuring political and religious opinions which are often extremely negative or satirical and a community of artists who can be easily offended by such material I believe it is time that we published the more specific set of guidelines used by staff to determine whether or not an Ideologically Sensitive Mature Content tag is required on a particular work. This should allow the ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Position-Open-234808149 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Position-Open-234808149 Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:45:53 PDT CEA Position Open nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
The world's largest online art community is hiring! deviantART is looking to add a full-time Copyright & Etiquette Administrator to our team.  Please read on for additional job details. Comments, questions, or suggestions can be posted below, but if you wish to apply be sure to follow the directions provided. We appreciate your interest and enthusiasm in working with us at deviantART!

Job Title: Copyright & Etiquette Administrator

Objectives:

:bulletblue: Conduct investigations in a wide variety of complaints involving cases of alleged abuse and inappropriate behavior wit ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Permissions-Issues-235051804 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Permissions-Issues-235051804 Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:37:56 PDT Permissions Issues nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
So it's a new week and I've already noticed a trend in the new helpdesk inquiries so I'm going to address it here in my journal and perhaps later on this week in the news to help clarify things for those who need it.

The issue involves, once again, a type of fan art; not the fan art which is created from scratch mind you but rather the type in which official images are reused.

Now to be clear (and because someone will no doubt point this out), all fan art can be considered to be a type of copyright infringement due to the fact that if it's popular enough to have tens of thousands of people losing their minds o ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-UPDATE-20082409-Clarifying-Mature-Content-214177020 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-UPDATE-20082409-Clarifying-Mature-Content-214177020 Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:27:40 PDT CEA UPDATE 20082409: Clarifying Mature Content nonadult journals/deviantart/policy realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
Over the years we have been functioning with a set of Mature Content guidelines which have been extremely general and open to a great amount of interpretation. With recent reporting behaviors demonstrated by members of the community I believe it is time that we refined the general set of guidelines by publishing the more specific set of circumstances which are available to the staff members who review the reports. By making these more specific guidelines available we hope that the community in general will better understand what requires a Mature Content tag and which will also pro ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Child-Erotica-Followup-235219847 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Child-Erotica-Followup-235219847 Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:36:10 PDT Child Erotica Followup. nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared Readers of my journal of Friday, 19 September seem to have fallen into two groups.

The first group being those who actually read my journal and understood what it was about; that subject being the sexual portrayal of underage fictional characters.

The second group seems to have been composed of highly dramatic individuals who seem to be under the impression that the journal was some sort of indication that I or my staff were "targeting" certain specific artists or "attacking" fan art in general.

It is unfortunate that the members of the second group were predominate and that thei ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Erotica-Sourced-from-Children-s-Entertainment-235255266 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Erotica-Sourced-from-Children-s-Entertainment-235255266 Fri, 19 Sep 2008 08:08:44 PDT Erotica Sourced from Children's Entertainment nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared The journal entry below is written from long experience on the subject, is not intended to address any particular individual and will make broad generalizations and most likely make use of a sarcastic presentation at times.

In short, it's not specifically about you or anybody you may know so don't attempt to turn it into that.

Also if you are personally offended or feel singled out maybe you should take a good look at exactly what you are attempting to defend before you open your mouth.

Finally This entry refers to characters who have clearly been established as underage and not to cases of "looks like" ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Update-20080910-Proper-Harassment-Reporting-214176104 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Update-20080910-Proper-Harassment-Reporting-214176104 Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:07:47 PDT CEA Update 20080910 Proper Harassment Reporting nonadult journals/deviantart/policy realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
If you believe you are being harassed there are a few steps which you need to take prior to trying to acquire help, these steps will make the process of getting help a faster and hopefully more satisfying process.

The first step before seeking help is to actually, objectively look at the situation and ask yourself if you are truly being harassed or if you are merely being annoy ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/deviantMON-Round-Two-235618204 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/deviantMON-Round-Two-235618204 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:26:38 PDT deviantMON Round Two nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
So, most of the people reading this will probably remember the very recent deviantMON contest which we ran for deviantART's Eighth Birthday.

Well it seemed to be a lot of fun and I happen to still have a bunch of subscriptions I can give out because I was hard at work during the celebration instead of partying.

So here's the deal;

From now until September 1st anyone who would like a chance at a subscription should make a deviantMON card and leave a link here in this journal.

You can make deviantMON cards based on yourself and use them as a deviantID, you can lampoon your friends, or you can create cards based on genera ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/deviantMON-BIrthday-Contest-Winners-235729254 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/deviantMON-BIrthday-Contest-Winners-235729254 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:47:56 PDT deviantMON BIrthday Contest Winners! nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
In celebration of deviantART's 8th Birthday CEA sponsored a deviantMON contest.

For people who might still be in the dark, deviantMON are based on a goofy, foolish inside joke that a bunch of us staff members came up with which to lampoon and make fun of each other.

It was so much fun for us that I decided that we'd ask all of you out in the community to try your hand at it and we had a very good response with lots of really amusing entries.

It took a bit of debating but we've settled on the winners;

First Prize
$100 devCASH

:thumb94130058:
Crownapusmon
by :devStormyHotWolf88:

A p ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/deviantMON-8th-Birthday-Contest-235785955 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/deviantMON-8th-Birthday-Contest-235785955 Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:11:35 PDT deviantMON 8th Birthday Contest nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
In celebration of deviantART’s eighth birthday CEA is sponsoring a deviantMON contest.

The contest is obviously based upon the wondrously odd AdminMON  inside joke which was launched weeks back in order to deliberately goof on our fellow staff members.

If you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about you can find the current AdminMON here:

:thumb82464861::thumb82778386:
:thumb84607372::thumb84741492:

Since we need to standardize the inside joke we're not asking you to lampoon specific staff members or deviants.

Everyone knows about the Deviant Type selection on your settings page where you can ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Update-20080730-Spam-Update-214173187 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Update-20080730-Spam-Update-214173187 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:03:32 PDT CEA Update 20080730: Spam Update nonadult journals/deviantart/policy realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
About one year ago, in late 2007 the deviantART community grew large enough and popular enough for it to come to the attention of the lowest form of Internet life; the spammer.

During that time we had few controls in place to handle such abusive activity and those who were with us during that time may have been subjected to some of the massive amounts of spam which flooded into our community. Since that time however our Devious Technology department has been working hard to create systems to control spam and we have actively combated it with IP bans and reports to v ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Defining-Pornography-in-Literature-236342004 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Defining-Pornography-in-Literature-236342004 Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:56:36 PDT Defining Pornography in Literature nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared But then again pornography is one of our primary concerns.

For one, we are not a restricted access website so people of all ages are welcomed to browse here. I suspect that enough people out there are concerned with the level of nudity, violence and erotic content that we do allow without opening the door to outright pornography.

Secondly, we simply do not want to welcome that sort of content because doing so actually closes off many potential avenues which we might want to pursue in the future, not to mention that I don't think that it would be particularly healthy for the community in genera ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Update-Defining-pornography-in-Literature-214170654 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Update-Defining-pornography-in-Literature-214170654 Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:07:37 PDT CEA Update : Defining pornography in Literature nonadult journals/deviantart/policy realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
To this end we will attempt to first clarify the perceived differences between allowed erotic literature and the type of literature which should be deemed pornographic and therefore prohibited. I would like to specifically point out that the explanations and guidelines th ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Update-040608-Protection-amp-Safety-Tips-214169501 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-Update-040608-Protection-amp-Safety-Tips-214169501 Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:57:36 PDT CEA Update 040608: Protection & Safety Tips nonadult journals/deviantart/policy realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
This week I'd like to present a list of commonsense privacy and safety measures that everyone should bear in mind during their daily interaction here on deviantART or elsewhere.

PREVENTION AND SAFETY TIPS

Privacy tips

Remember that your deviantART account is always publicly viewable so everything that you say or do on ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Moderation-236804752 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Moderation-236804752 Fri, 16 May 2008 07:47:59 PDT Moderation nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared Well the new Moderation system has been active for twenty-nine days so far and we are already creeping up to 42,000 cases having been filed; that's a little over 1400 cases filed every single day since the launch.

So far it appears that reports of misplaced deviations is about the same, reports of art theft have probably increased and reports of things in need of a mature content tag or which contain prohibited content have remained about the same.

But what I actually want to bring up for this journal concerns one of the types of prohibited content; namely "pornography".

Now it seems that prior to the new system launch peopl ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Orphan-Works-Act-of-2008-part-2-236879378 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Orphan-Works-Act-of-2008-part-2-236879378 Fri, 09 May 2008 11:45:50 PDT Orphan Works Act of 2008 (part 2) nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
The House Intellectual Property Subcommittee held a meeting on H.R. 5889 on Wednesday. If you don't recognize the title you may know it as The Orphan Works Act of 2008.

If you don't quite know what I'm talking about you can go to The Journal I Wrote Yesterday. If you manage to read through the entire thing then you deserve some sort of merit badge or something.

Today I tracked down the Video Webcast (Realplayer) of the hearing and sat through the entire 47 minutes and 35 seconds to get a good idea of where the lawmakers stand on the issue, because quite frankly the opposition to this bill is painting them as a bunch of hideous ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/The-Orphan-Works-Act-of-2008-tl-dr-236887924 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/The-Orphan-Works-Act-of-2008-tl-dr-236887924 Thu, 08 May 2008 14:15:54 PDT The Orphan Works Act of 2008 (tl;dr) nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared A couple of weeks ago we observed something of a panic over the Orphan Works Act of 2006; despite the fact that the bill had been dead since September of 2006 there has been a lot of scare tactic fear-mongering being disseminated in an attempt to panic people into supporting a massive campaign against any possible future bill which might be introduced again.

Well, on 24 April the Orphan Works Act of 2008 was introduced to both the U.S. House and Senate. Since the same alarmist articles are starting up again I’d like to take the opportunity to write a journal with the facts on the matter; no exaggeration, no spin doctoring, n ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Online-Predators-236888629 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Online-Predators-236888629 Thu, 08 May 2008 13:43:34 PDT Online Predators nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared So as I said in my last journal I've carried concerns about online predators and pedophiles and such around with me for awhile, you can't help but see it occasionally in the news as various social networking websites get crucified in the press for being "havens for child molesters" and such.

Earlier this year I sat down and started doing actual research into how these individuals operate.

I dug around and managed to find some good scientific research on the subject, not just the hyped up and alarmist news pieces you can find on a casual web search. If all you've ever read is news stories you'd probably be surprised at the a ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Discouraging-Online-Predators-214168028 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Discouraging-Online-Predators-214168028 Thu, 08 May 2008 12:33:25 PDT Discouraging Online Predators nonadult journals/deviantart/policy realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
In our efforts to continue to make deviantART an undesirable destination for online predators we looked into research regarding the behavior of these types of people in an effort to identify the greatest risk factors associated with actually encountering them.

Research into actual case studies on the subject show that what puts children at ri ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Clarifying-Child-Nudity-236962966 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Clarifying-Child-Nudity-236962966 Thu, 01 May 2008 15:58:47 PDT Clarifying Child Nudity nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared So I posted a News Article today concerning a change in policy towards the more strict end of the spectrum.

The policy is pretty much the culmination of some difficult decisions and some very real concerns over the years, but before I talk about where we are now and why I want to discuss a little bit about where we have been.

When we first started accepting nude photography we had some very real concerns about teenagers posting nudes of themselves, mainly because the legal penalties carry some incredibly stiff punishments and quite frankly we don't need those sorts of concerns. So from the very beginning if the person s ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Clarifying-the-Issue-of-Underage-Nudity-214167518 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Clarifying-the-Issue-of-Underage-Nudity-214167518 Thu, 01 May 2008 09:51:06 PDT Clarifying the Issue of Underage Nudity nonadult journals/deviantart/policy realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
However while the prohibition is very clear for teenagers there has always been a bit of grey area involved when the child was much younger, aged from infancy through five years old or so for example. It has been traditionally very difficult for us to set specific policy for these younger c ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Moderation-237071314 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Moderation-237071314 Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:22:04 PDT Moderation nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared Moderation; it's pretty much the word that defines how I live my personal life and it also, coincidentally enough, describes what I do for deviantART.

Now, deviantART is an artist's community. As :devspyed: is fond of saying, we're a society of artists and not just some social networking website; what we do here strikes a deeper chord than that and that's a rather important distinction.

Being an artistic society means that we really must keep several things in mind and we have to walk several very fine lines.

For one, and this is the foremost concern, we need to provide a platform which accepts the widest possible range or wo ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/New-Moderation-System-Launches-214166791 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/New-Moderation-System-Launches-214166791 Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:33:08 PDT New Moderation System Launches nonadult journals/deviantart/policy realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
In an effort to stay at the leading edge of this issue we at the Copyright & Etiquette Administration and at Devious Technologies have spend the last several weeks crafting a new deviation reporting feature  which we hope you will find even more clear and easy to use than the one many of you already know and love.

The new system which you will find in place is acce ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/The-Orphan-Works-Act-237174388 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/The-Orphan-Works-Act-237174388 Sun, 13 Apr 2008 08:38:21 PDT The Orphan Works Act nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared I've become aware of some dArama spreading through the community regarding something called "Orphan Works". In typical fashion many people are panicking and freaking out without first bothering to become truly informed and that's fairly easy to do because any search engine  will produce a couple dozen websites from people in the creative industry who have concerns about it and the actual government article doesn't show up very readily.

Let's start at the beginning; the actual Report on Orphan Works produced in January 2006 by the United States Copyright Office.

You can also read a recent statement here http://www.copyright.gov/ ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Constructive-Critique-II-237229793 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Constructive-Critique-II-237229793 Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:17:09 PDT Constructive Critique II nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared It's been slightly longer than I intended but I wanted to touch on the topic of Constructive Critique again.

My last journal focused more on the given and acceptance of critique but someone pointed out a very true statement;

Exactly how many people actually invite a good in depth critique? And there is more to it then just stating that you want one.

The vast majority of people are hesitant to give an in depth tear-down of your work in the first place, either because they feel out of place or they've done it before and have been viciously attacked by a thin-skinned unstable psycho of an artist who blew a fuse because they ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Constructive-Critique-237374243 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Constructive-Critique-237374243 Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:23:18 PDT Constructive Critique nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
I don't actually know if I've ever spoken about my opinion on the state of the constructive critique around here within recent memory, or indeed if I have ever spoken about it at all publicly.

I'm in a position here to see a lot of reaction from people, both in giving and receiving what is commonly labeled "critique"

Sadly, a vast bulk of it amounts to little more than vapid congratulatory comments plastered over everything from crudely drawn scribbles to jaw-dropping professional artwork and the mind numbing sameness of it seems to have an affect on some people.

I actually saw an image the other day which simultaneousl ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Artist-Focus-nuvem-237454022 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Artist-Focus-nuvem-237454022 Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:16:13 PDT Artist Focus: nuvem nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared Given the nature of the world and especially the nature of humanity's online behavior it is rather rare to see an account here on deviantART which is active over a really long term.

Typically accounts which are around for a long while aren't very active artistically, and when they are it's all too often that you find that the artist has stagnated and continues to offer the same tired routine as they go through the motions of serving up more of what is popular and easy to do.

So it is a real breath of fresh air when you can watch an artist who has both been around since the birth of deviantART and who has continued to experiment ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/New-CSS-Time-for-New-Avatar-or-deviantID-237503747 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/New-CSS-Time-for-New-Avatar-or-deviantID-237503747 Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:37:28 PDT New CSS; Time for New Avatar or deviantID? nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared If you are a regular reader of this journal you most likely couldn't help but notice the switch in my journal CSS  this week, or at least I hope you would have =p

I'm normally not somebody who tinkers around too much with things which I feel 'represent' me; My journal CSS is one of those things but over the last week or so I had that feeling that it was time for a little change.

Granted it has several elements in common with my last CSS including a skull, a stellar background with nebula and the traditional deviantART green overtones, but I sort of like the new look.

I somewhat wonder if I shouldn't make another couple to keep in ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Non-Existant-Problems-237528400 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Non-Existant-Problems-237528400 Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:17:02 PDT Non-Existant Problems nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared ...simply does not exist among the staff members.

It's really quite amazing though that I constantly see people who have somehow bought into the idea that I or my staff have some sort of built in bias against male homosexuality.

The argument goes that the CEA staff supposedly removes any and all instances of an image featuring male homosexuality, even innocent kissing or embracing, instantly and automatically while completely ignoring anything involving females or female nudity.

Now I can assure you that nothing is further from the truth.

Essentially I've literally spent years reassuring people who have heard this rumor a ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Common-Misconceptions-237539382 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Common-Misconceptions-237539382 Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:12:33 PDT Common Misconceptions nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared ...questions and requests which I have to occasionally deal with seem to expect a lot out of deviantART on certain fronts.

I mean, lets face it; deviantART is probably the art community to be a part of right now. We're nearly eight years old, and while we've evolved over that time we're still the same website with the same mission that was adopted back in 2000.

Not too many sites can say that they've held on to their founding principles as long as that. As a matter of fact I think we're the first. I mean, while there are certainly other art community sites which have been around longer than we have, they don't resembl ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-UPdate-for-06-March-2008-214164385 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/CEA-UPdate-for-06-March-2008-214164385 Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:50:02 PST CEA UPdate for 06 March 2008 nonadult journals/deviantart/policy realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
:iconrealitysquared:
UPDATES FROM :devrealitysquared: : Spamming Accounts

As some deviants may remember late in 2007 we experienced a rash of spamming account which concentrated on flooding many of our members with notes or comments containing blatant advertising, phishing scams and just plain garbage. To combat this disturbing trend we introduced various types of spam controls to our Notes system including the ability to report any particular note as spam.

This year we have concentrated on extending some of those same controls to comments due to a milder trend of those same spammers switching their tactics from targeting ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Art-theft-237613714 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Art-theft-237613714 Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:16:00 PST Art theft. nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared I've stated for years that the internet teaches, promotes, and indoctrinates people into the belief that if you can find it it's yours yo use.
Credit,disclaimers, changing it by 10% makes it yours, the Internet is public domain, the list of excuses and justifications is nearly as long as my arm.
To make matters worse it's not just the Internet any more; this attitude of Free For The Takings starting to spread into areas as we see that more and more often some lazy ass pillages your work for a book cover or an advertisement or a magazine layout; all situations where there is probably enough profit happening to justify a copy ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Artist-Focus-fb101-237674329 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Artist-Focus-fb101-237674329 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:15:09 PST Artist Focus: fb101 nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared I've made it no secret that I am a demanding critic, an art snob, and someone who can have incredibly high standards.

I horde my Favorites where others spend them like candy on All Hallows Eve.

This is especially true when it comes to various types of nude works.

Regular readers of my journal are probably familiar with the fact that I, in general, have a particularly low opinion of the more common type of nude works which are submitted here.

It is my opinion that too many photographers or would-be photographers simply have the model strip down and shove their camera in the general direction of the naughty bits and call it "Ar ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Erotic-Art-vs-Obscene-Art-237733382 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Erotic-Art-vs-Obscene-Art-237733382 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:38:40 PST Erotic Art vs Obscene Art nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared
A few days ago I wrote a journal addressing cartoon erotica which involved characters taken from various types of children's entertainment, so let's keep the discussion focused on Erotic artwork in general.

Now, we see a minimum of a hundred reports a day just concerning submissions which people believe are "pornography".

In some cases we agree and take action, in some cases we disagree and do nothing and in a very small amount of cases we not only disagree, we label you some sort of prudish lunatic and talk about you behind your back.

But really many of the people reporting works as being obscene or pornographic have insane ]]> http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Revisiting-a-very-twisted-subject-237776449 http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/Revisiting-a-very-twisted-subject-237776449 Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:07:50 PST Revisiting a very twisted subject nonadult journals/personal realitysquared http://a.deviantart.net/avatars/r/e/realitysquared.gif Copyright 2008-2013 $realitysquared The phrase "Children's Television" and the word "Erotica" should not be used in the same sentence.

Now it doesn't surprise me that I have to talk about this sort of thing again, after all the last time I discussed it was July of 2007 and it usually takes about six months for such a situation to calm down enough for certain people to return to their blissfully ignorant state of forgetting every single rules that we have here and piece together an attitude of entitlement and a Master's degree in spin control.

Now to be clear, we do allow a certain level of erotica to be posted here so certain mild sexual themes are find pro ]]>