Mood: community spirit
Listening to: save tonight - eagle eye cherry
Reading: wi-f00
Watching: hackers

*new*
Evening fellow deviants, i'm writing right now to say a few things--one i'm soo sorry i haven't been able to completely keep up with all the comments, notes, and +favs, bear with me; i'm not particularly used to having this many messages!
Also, i just had a notion, something that's been tickiling the edge of my conciousness since friday night and just now made it's appearance: i'm angry, this i knew, but why am i this angry? i asked myself this question and i realized something significant. We live in a troubled world, a world full of war, deceitful politics and terror. we live in a world of rigidly controlled boundaries and endless regulations. deviantART was an escape the best escape i've ever found. I'm an anthropologist, or will be when i complete my PhD, but i've had enough training in analysis to understand why i love it here so much. Because this was a world based on the virtues of trust and kindness. of sharing and laughter and a little bit of banter, a world of ART... it was a pure world to me, in the sense that an online community built of code and machines, built by love and devotion, built by trust can be, it was an instant hook-up to the pulse of art today, to writers and skinners, to coders and designers to people i would never meet in waking life if not for this dream Scott Jarkoff called deviantART.
This world has changed me, it has at times saved me, by providing an outlet for my emotions and by showing me that i am not alone as i strugle through this life. It has bettered me. I thought about all this late last night and slept uneasily as i struggled with this situation, i awoke this morning feeling strange, feeling more than betrayed. deviantART, to me, was pure, it was clean, it was beautiful. It was an ideal, a wonderful utopian dream that was ripped from me by reality. It was this, violation that has me so disturbed, i had always clung to this place, this one place, untouched by the horros of every-day life, the caring and nurturing place that offered aid to tsunami victims, that gave s a place to find shoulders to cry on, to give that shoulder in return for those who needed them. This place, my sanctuary, has been invaded by the real world's worst traits. Greed. Avarice. Envy. Lies. Deception. Treachery. It is simply put, criminal. It hurts to know that our home away from home, this place of support and friendship has been torn away from us like a dream in the night. It's been stolen from us and this makes me want to scream with the frustration.
I've felt betrayed before, in this life, who hasn't? but it hurts so much this time i think, because it was something i didn't expect. We'd all heard the rumors, starting in late 2003, early 2004, when deviantART made the move toward incorporation, we'd heard the rumors of bad-blood, of differing opinions and of some kind of deception. But it passed, we didn't listen hard enough, long enough, or true enough to figure it out. The staff says they are largely kept in the dark, i believe them, we are too. Now the truth is slowly making it's ways onto personal sites, blogs and is mirrored in many, many journals we are slowly awakening to the fact that the things we hate most about modern societies have invaded our sanctuary. We are realizing, that perhaps our escape is no more, and we are wondering what it is we can do:
we can support °jark that is the obvious choice, but we are all different, and we all have specilized skills, what i propose we do is this: whatever your talent, your muse, your particular poison may be, use it and use it to help jark, find ways to use your special skills to protect the place we love. Some of you will not do this, this is your choice, some of you will decide to ride the storm out in relative silence and tranquilty, this is your choice, i'm not here to change your mind. I'm only here to tell you why I changed mine.
=neo-tek




new stuff!
check this is out...it's enlightening to say the least:
a deleted deviation about angelo/spyed

and these:

deviot's journal read it, it's interesting
blackzer0's very well written journal
euphoria's resignation
twosilverstar's resignation










hello deviants, i'm currently working on an image, it's probably one of the hardest things i've done, i'm not much of a digital artist (mainly i write things), but this situation has given me inspiration sufficient to really try, and so at some point tomorrow i'll be unveiling what i hope will be my best piece yet. period. *edit* i may save it for yellow day...i'm having some trouble with it so i'm going to go read a tutorial ~_^


**EDIT 08/02/05 go to this website and read the entire thing, the entire thing right now, it may possibly be the most important thing you read all day

go here right now READ ME NOW


**EDIT** please guys read °jark 's journal before the response by $spyed it gives you some perspective.
links:

jark's answer to the decieving words of spyed

the decieving words of spyed

take alook at this, realize it's only one analysis of many but it has a certain viability:

an analysis of deviant scaling

clear your gallery with deviation storage:

deviation storage

this is the comment i left on $spyed 's response:
$spyed

it's a very nice story, nice to know about the guys behind the scenes, it does not however actually address the concerns raised by the community, it's "a response" but it's not the right one, we need to know what happened, we love this place, more than you do, you get paid to run this site....we PAY to use it...i've put over 3 years of my time and love and blood and sweat and tears into this site (meaning my friends and personal page)...not to mention my money...when you're a broke college student a subscription to a website is something you can't usually afford and i pay it gladly because i love deviantART, because i love the community and you are treating us like children sitting at the parents' table...just go away the adults will handle this... well we're not going away until you actually answer the questions, this is a serious situation, with serious consequences and ramifications and if you continue to dance around in the hedges with this you're going to lose a sizable portion of the community. It's about trust, integrity and community, we know it costs money, but right now nobody trusts you, whether or not the actions leading up to this lack of trust are your fault or not are immaterial, the perception is that you cannot be trusted and in a community, or a corporation, someone who can't be trusted becomes a liability, please, restore our trust in you, tell us the truth. the whole truth, don't dress it up pretty and spin a tale about hard work and sacrifice, we know how much you guys have done for us, we understand the things involved in operating a website; what we want is the plain truth, just tell us exactly what happened, why it happened, how it happened and everyone's, and i do mean everyone's part in what happened. that is the only thing that is going to help this situation, it's gone too far too fast. we want the truth,
thank you,
=neo-tek


something i just read that was so sad and so altruistic:
brazensix's resignation

go to °jark's journal the symbol in front of his name should tell you much already
here:

jark's suspiciously intuitive piece

now if you'd like some more info go here:


Deleted Thread

that's right a deleted thread on devART where nothing is deleted where if you say it then you own up to it.

also go to these journals:

`bookdiva's journal entry

`justthorne's journal entry

and this deviation:

Lelia Thomas' informative work

and this item from onestar's journal:

Bring Back The Community

petition for jark:

sign this petition if you support jark

you need to see this right now:

Click this link right now it's crazy...

a couple of very inspiring journals:

liquify's journal

coolcatluna2's journal

a couple of new links here:

[link]" founders of DA!

a response to spyed

for some lighthearted jark-art thumb sharing go here, it helps keep the spirits up:

ihochisuru-shi's forum thread


phr3ak000000000's forum thread


SOME THOUGHTS OF MY OWN
**i'd like to thank all the people commenting and fav'ing the pieces about jark, not just mine, but everyone's; it's truly a community effort and it's beautiful to behold, i'm so proud to be a part of it... to those of you sending me hate messages, know this: i will not take up your call to "hate mail" or "flame wars" i refuse to be drawn into an energy wasting confrontation that does nothing to reach our goals, please feel free to voice your thoughts, it's your perogative and i respect you for your opinion, that said, i respect those who have reasoned arguments much more than those who simply say i'm full of S*** and i will not argue with you in any heated manner,but i digress, thank all of you for what you are doing and for the kind words and deeds i see floating around deviant art these days, it's sad that it takes something like this to bring out the best in many deviants and sadder still that it brings out the worst in others.
**

make your own decision.

jark has been the heart and soul of this community for almost 5 years now...
he's the reason many of us stick around, it's his vision, his generosity, his caring nature and nurturing spirit that make this community amazing and draw the amazing people here to it...
think about the direction we're going now.
and ask yourself if that's where you want to be.