Well as I'm sure many of you have noticed, I submitted a news article about the obvious issues here in dA that I hope can be resolved. I'm glad people have given their thoughts on it and begun a discussion about it, I think that's a key aspect of developing new ideas for improvement.

I did not finish my NaNovel within November, but I hope those of you who did participate in NaNoWriMo this year were able to achieve your goals. I'm not giving up, though. I'll just be writing my novel outside of November this year. Things are not exactly slowing down for me right now so I'm not sure I'll be able to write even now, but it will be written before next NaNo. I'll work much harder at conquering NaNo next year, certainly shouldn't be nearly this hectic next year.

I'm back in Alabama and finishing my last week of school next week. As of now it's looking like I'll have an A in all of my courses this semester. That's English 101, Fundamentals of Public Speaking, Master Student (elective), and Basic Mathematics (remedial course). My English instructor actually called me impressive one day and said he does not give out A's easily, so I'm especially excited about that. Considering that he's critiqued my final essay twice now and said it looks good, I think I'll pull it off. Everything about his class and his encouragement of my writing ability has affirmed my hopes of being a writer professionally.

I've progressed into a positive way of thinking too. Some of you may have noticed a new stamp of mine:



The Secret is about making your own reality with the power of thoughts. How you create your own situations in life. Pretty amazing stuff and I've been exercising it as much as possible. If you haven't checked it out, I'd certainly encourage it.

Lastly, but certainly not least, a fabulous dA digital artist (=bokuman) and a few others have established a Webcomic at Misionet that will be open to the public on Dec 7, 2009. Check him out! Read the journal entry about it and/or click the image below for the misionet link.

Well, I've been saying I didn't want to get sick while I'm in school and my request was promptly answered with a head-cold during the holidays. It's so funny how that works. If you haven't seen The Secret, check it out.

For the holidays I'm at my parents house in Louisiana and my husband is driving to New Jersey. He left yesterday and I spoke to him a few minutes ago, apparently he's already in New Jersey! The man didn't sleep. Meanwhile I've been drugged up on NyQuil and sleeping non-stop. haha After the holidays I'll be back in Alabama for a couple weeks to finish college and I'll have to make the trip up to Jersey myself. I'm not looking forward to it.

Today I brought Mollie to the vet and they're going to cut out her baby teeth that didn't fall out like they should have and her woman-hood. I feel terrible, but it's better that she doesn't have any puppies, she's too little. Besides that, I don't know what I did with her registration papers so I couldn't profit from puppies. She'll be with us for a good 15 years though. Oh and she's being kennel trained! Doing awesome.

Well that's about it. I'm continuously sniffling so I'm done typing. I need to attempt to push out my NaNovel, but I'm thinking I need to accept defeat with that. We'll see.

[edit] Why didn't anyone tell me I put the wrong FAQ up in this journal? [/edit]
I have officially had it with seeing the vast amount of celebrity manipulations, comic book rips, pixel rips, art rips, rips, rips, RIPS! I've tried to send a casual note to various CEA team members, urging them to consider my revision proposal for policy violations and still this obviously ineffective system remains.

Something has to be done. I cannot stand to look at another crappy shrine-like manipulation of a celebrity or ridiculous speech bubbles added to respectable comics when I'm searching for artwork to feature each week. I stopped looking for feature-worthy works today because every page of submissions I looked at had this smut strewn all over it. My time was getting wasted reporting the crap. All the while, I couldn't help but think, "I'm sure this person has more crap like this in their gallery, but I don't have time to look right now. I know deviantART won't bother with it if it's not reported. This is a waste of my time." That thought pattern creeps into my mind every time I come across these policy violations and especially during my feature searches.

Now, I know there was this big thing about how a link to various copies of an image (i.e. TinEye) really doesn't prove that the image did not come from the deviant. So those violations fall into this whole "Interested Third Party" worm-hole. I understand the logic behind it, but it does still irk me slightly. There are just some things that it's so obvious the person stole it. Their comments indicate that they stole it and yet logic holds no grounds. But yea, sure. Whatever. All those celebrity manipulations still violate dA policy according to FAQ8, though (FAQ #8: What does deviantART consider to be Art Theft?). So why is nothing being done?

Would it be so difficult for the reviewing staff to look at the entire gallery and delete all of the crap out of it? Especially when the reporting person takes the time to mention that the gallery has more of the same violations. Why are they just leaving it there until someone takes the time out to report each one? Is it because proof is legally required? Do they not have time to search google for a celebrity name? Are they not allowed to search google for proof on their own? I just don't get it. I'm considering to start up a petition, so maybe the CEA team will actually take a moment to listen and either give more clarification to the legalities involved or consider a more effective revision. I love dA, but this is just getting ridiculous.

All of that crap doesn't belong here and I think my proposal is pretty fair. Give people a chance to learn, but don't just let the wrong-doers remain wrong. Actually, it would even benefit policy violators! I had someone talk to me about how deviantART banned them on their first offense, while others had policy violations in their galleries as well; some which seemed even more severe than the person who was banned. (The reason for the ban was due to explicit content in a piece of literature.) That testimonial in itself proves that the system is flawed. Deviants need an opportunity to learn from their mistakes and have follow-through on penalties if they choose not to.

I'm done ranting about this for now, but I foresee a petition in the future. I cannot continue to sit by idly on this. This community loses it's swagger because of all the garbage within the submissions.

Alright ladies--and some gentlemen--tomorrow is the absolute final day for the October Opportunity promotion with Mary Kay. I attempted to contact a few select ladies to see if they would be interested in joining my Mary Kay team, a couple have, but I still need more members to have a full team. Why do I want a full team? It makes me eligible to win the Mary Kay career car. Who wouldn't want to win a car? I know I do.

Anyway, here's the deal. For October only Mary Kay is allowing new consultants to begin their MK business for only $50. Along with that, new consultants get their MK personal website free for the first 6mo's, 50 free business cards, and a starter kit. Typically becoming a consultant costs $100 and the site costs $25, so becoming a consultant now saves you $75. If you've ever considered being a part of Mary Kay, now is certainly the time to embrace this opportunity. For more details, take a look at my MK personal site: [link] (There are a few video testimonials and other details at the link.)

Now, because I am announcing this at--literally--the last minute, I'm offering to pay for your enrollment. I consider this to be an investment and I do not expect you to concern yourself with repaying me. However, if you feel uncomfortable about me paying we can certainly arrange a means of reimbursement later down the line. I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable about this. It's an opportunity, not an enlistment.

The choice is completely up to you. If you are interested, get in touch with me! Send me a note, leave me a comment, or give me a call: 201-417-1704. There won't be another promotion like this for a long time. I was told the last promotion of this caliber was nine years ago. Do you really want to wait nine years?

The Fella Zombie King needs your help! He needs to grow an army of monsters in the Zombie Kingdom in preparation for Halloween Night. Mummies, Zombies, Vampires, Demons, and WereWolves will all form their own Armies and build up their numbers by biting and infecting human victims and turning them into Monsters!

Find out how to join the Kingdom <- click



NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) will kick off in 3 days! So if you're a writer and you're not already salivating about rocking the NaNo this year, hop to it! This is your chance to write that novel-you've-been-thinking-about-starting-but-haven't-quite-gotten-around-to-it-yet. Yea, you know what I'm talking about. Really, NaNo is awesome. I had a blast last year and this year will be epic!

Need some support? Check out #NaNoWriMo on dAmn. I'll be there every single day.

Did anyone else notice the little drop-down menu in our message center on every submission, journal, and activity message a few days ago that allowed you to remove someone from your watch list, stop watching their journals, etc.? It's gone now, what happened to it? I thought it was pretty cool. Wonder if I happened to look in my message center at just the right time and get access to something I wasn't supposed to.



I have 0 Day Premium Membership. I was going to buy a new subscription, but I'm supposed to get a 3mo one from deviantART from The Nines competition they had for their birthday. I was one of the last ones to win the sub, but I still haven't received it.



Either way, I don't want to spend the money right now on a sub, to be honest. Especially when I'm supposed to have one for free, just feels wrong for me to spend my money on it at this point. I'll have to note someone about this.



In other news, something I suggested actually got a DD! This was the photographer's first DD in 4 years and the first time someone accepted my suggestion. So it was all around awesome-sauce.



The DD was awarded October 22, 2009 and I've been too preoccupied to glorify it. Figured I should mention it quickly before my nifty journal-sex goes bye bye.

Alright, that's it. Have a good one!

Well, I usually don't do meme's because I think they're kind of silly, to be honest. This one is for dA though, so it's awesome.

Why did you join this site?
I discovered it through a game called Furcadia and thought it would be interesting to hear what people outside of my circle thought of my poetry. So, I made an account and started posting poems.

What does your username have to do with you? Is it a combination of your favorite things, or a character of yours?
I actually came up with this name when I was 13 because I wanted a new name for a game I was playing (The Realm Online) and one of my cat's lost kittens came meowing at my feet. Then, the name was born and it stuck..

What is your current icon of?
Uhm.. a depiction of me with purple cat ears and a tail? I made it after seeing the ton of cute nudey icons from ^snowmask around dA.
I'm not brave enough to ask her to make me one, so I made one for myself. Oh and I referenced one of my photos for the outfit:

How many watchers do you have and how many people are you currently watching?
I watch 482 people, while 210 people watch me.

Do you have more than one account?
I do, but this is the only one I use now. I have ~LensKitten and ~SalleyAshley and I guess my plz account counts as another account?

Name 3 of your favorite artists on DA.
Ohh.. three.. hm.. here comes a mini-feature.


Obviously from the amount of people I watch there are more artist's that I appreciate on dA, but these three were the most favorited in my collections. So, by default that would make them my favorite artists. *Ironshod is a digital artist, *garybonner is a traditional artist, and =freaky665 is a manip artist.

What deviant do you admire because of their personality?
This question is a jealousy/resentment encourager. There's no one deviant I can choose that I admire because of their personality. I do have a section in my friends for people who I may not look at their gallery right away, but their personalities draw me to them. However, I'm choosing not to list it because I'm liable to miss someone and that's really a sort of shit feeling to be left off of a "list" that you think you belong on. So yea.. not doing this.

How many people on here do you actually know in reality? Post their avatars.
(My husband) I dragged him into dA, he doesn't really log on anymore though.

There's only one other person I actually know in reality (like, physically been in their presence before), but I'm not posting their avatar because I've made a point to detach myself from them as much as humanly possible.

is someone else who I technically don't "know in reality" but she and I have been friends for 10years and talk on the phone all the time. She's like the sister I never had.

Do you comment, fave, or both?
I'm mostly a fave + run kind of person, but I do leave comments when I feel a comment is necessary. Or I'll critique pieces that people are asking opinions on. If I take the time to type, I usually try to make it worth while.

What do you typically post on deviantart?
Stamps. and poetry..

Do you participate in clubs or contests here on DA?
Uhm.. I've joined clubs, but not really a great participator. I try to join in on the activities around the community here and there, but I'm not really devoted to any of it. Too much going on in my own life usually.

What is your most popular deviation?

I guess people like bluntness..

What's your favorite submission in your favorites gallery?
Well to look in my actual favorite gallery and not all my folders, my favorite submission is:

Of my collections, my favorite is my Found Kittens collection.

What are the things you wish you could draw better?
Giraffes. For the 1million giraffe project. No really, I fail at drawing. I've accepted that.

Are you a subscriber?
Always have been, always will be.

How many hours a day do you spend on DA?
Too many.. 6-8 hours easily. It does depend on the day though. I have gone days without logging on to my computer at all because I'm so busy with school. It happens.

Are you a fast, slow, or medium typer?
Fast.. I can type 60wpm without a problem and typically average around 90wpm, especially if I'm excited about something. I've got long fingers and I'm a computer nerd.

What is your favorite emoticon?
I really don't have one favorite. I always try to avoid repeat use of emotes. I guess is my favorite, I use it a lot. Maybe ..



What is the most annoying thing people ask you?
I guess my popularity here isn't to that level.. there's nothing coming to mind right now.

What is the most annoying comment you get?
Goes with the above one.. can't think of anything.

What inspires you?
Emotions. All of my best poetic pieces have come about due to emotional highs or lows. It's what I feel that encourages me to create.

Do you use any traditional media?
My brain. It's pretty traditional.

Do you associate people online with their icons?
Absolutely. It confuses me for about a week when people change their icons.

Everyone has considered leaving DA once or twice. Have you? Why?
Ah yea.. I guess I did for a while when I was in Korea, but it wasn't really a "I hate dA I'm leaving" situation, it was much more of a "I'm underage and getting wasted in another country" situation. I didn't have time for deviantART and booze, so deviantART got neglected.

There was another instance fairly recent that I wanted to leave because I felt like I was wasting my time on dA. I aspire to be a moderator for dA on some level, I won't deny that. After pouring so much time into this community, it gets discouraging sometimes when efforts don't feel they're being recognized. Instead of sulking I just keep doing what I do and trust in karma.


--
This took me over 2 hours to finish! Perfectionism is a disease I tell you.. a disease!

This is pretty cool. Someone from Norway is trying to get one million traditional forms of a giraffe by 2011 to prove a point to their friend. There's origami, side-walk art, drawings, paintings; all sorts of traditional forms being used.

The purpose behind it? It's mostly a fun project that encourages participants to log off their computers, turn off their TVs, and just be human for a while to create a giraffe with their hands.

I've put this project on my To Do List and encourage you to do the same. This is something I find extremely interesting and as of right now, this second, the count is 313,628. I think that's pretty awesome.

Anyway, join in on the fun and draw a giraffe!

Go to OneMillionGiraffes.com for submitted giraffe pictures and more information on the project.

Ok, ladies (and men if you're interested ): For the month of October ONLY Mary Kay is offering new consultants entry into the business for only $50 (normally $100). Plus, new consultants (for October only) will receive 6mo's absolutely free for their personal website, 50 free business cards, and their starter kit to help them get their business rolling.

So after reading that blurb you're now thinking "Wow, Mary Kay totally warped Salley's mind. She's their drone, there's no hope. " It's OK, I don't blame you. There's incentive behind me posting this, of course. I need team members to win more goodies! I've already earned a set of pearl earrings and I want more!



However, I really don't want anyone to get in on this if it's not something you think would work for you. This is a wonderful opportunity for some of our starving artist's to put a little extra in their pockets. But it's not going to be for everyone. You don't have to be a salesperson, you don't have to trick people into buying this stuff. It really does sell itself. You just need to make people aware that you have it to share. So all you really need is to be a straight-forward, outgoing kind of person. I'll help you develop ways to advertise.

If you're interested at all, send me a note. I don't want to keep going on about this, but I do hope those of you who think you could do something like this will at least give it a chance. None of it is going to hurt you. If it's not for you MK will buy it all back at 90% whether it's used or not. It really is awesome.. and if you know me at all you should know I don't preach on things I don't believe in.



Apparently my journal is near or exceeding 60KB so it was at risk of being too massive So, I've moved things around a little. Really nothing drastic, but thought I should mention it in case anyone's wondering what happened.

I've got a few things to talk about today. I'm sure you're wondering what the heck the three things in my topic have to do with one another. In fact, they have nothing at all to do with one another, they just all happen to be on my mind at the moment.

First things first, I finished my novel yesterday and sent it off for editing. (In other words: I Emailed it to my ever-honest, ever-constructive father for grammatical and storyline review. ) I've also developed a list of 25 agencies I intend to query once we finish our pre-revisions. Of course, the novel is likely to go through more and more revisions, but we're making steps in the right direction.

Before anyone asks, no I will not be sharing excerpts of this book. For visual aid, I will show you the cover I designed last year when I began writing it for NaNoWriMo. However, because I am in active pursuit of publication it's in my best interest not to share any detailed aspects of this book with anyone outside of my circle for the time being.

Visualization: (+ mini-synopsis)


By the way, NaNoWriMo 2009 kicks off in less than a month! Hope all my writer watchers have their trusty pens ready. Or for those who are more technical (which I'm sure most of you are) your laptops and/or desktops ready for writing. If you participate this year: Good Luck!



Now for some dArama. No day is complete without a healthy dose of dArama. Today's over-sized pill that needs swallowing is interested third party reporting.

If you're watching me you should be aware by now that I'm constantly sending in policy violation reports. But alas these reports are not sent because of my awesome skillz as a visual artist and tons of people ripping me. I send reports in because I don't want deviantART to digress into photobucket. Which, coincidentally is not valid proof that someone is using artwork without proper permission even if the deviant links directly to a photobucket image from their Artist's Comments claiming said image to be their "reference" image.

Honestly, I don't know how I missed this news article. Had it not been for ~aibiki's stamp and acknowledgment of this situation I might still be completely clueless about what's going on in dA policy wise. For shame.

Stamp Plug for ~aibiki's awesomeness

What truly upsets me with this whole situation is that policy violations are now remaining in deviantART when evidence cannot be provided. I honestly feel that the proof of rights should be on the accused policy violator, not interested third parties. Typically the reason something is reported is because it is wide-spread through the internet and justified to be seen as a possible violation of dA policy, since most policy violations come from Google search.

What I think deviantART should do in a situation where they feel enough evidence is not provided is to go to the accused policy violator and ask them to present proof. The only potential problem I see with that suggestion is how does a no-name artist provide proof? The work I share on deviantART is not published, most of it was done for fun or some other reason other than profit, so I didn't invest the time and money into sending those sort of things off to library of congress. So, how can we prove our work is our own? I honestly don't know the answer to that, but I think an artist would do anything to prove their work is their own if it is being questioned. A thief would realize they could give no proof, since it's not theirs to begin with and (hopefully) admit their fault.

Either way, I definitely don't think policy violations should simply stay on deviantART for lack of so-called evidence. It confuses new members to the community and leads to more policy violations which drastically diminishes the quality and integrity of our community. I haven't gone about questioning the staff about this just yet. I wanted to bring everyone's attention to it, get some more feedback before I start grabbing theoretical pitch forks and torches.



Mary Kay And to my final point for the night. I've recently taken on the exciting role of being a Mary Kay Consultant. So, I'm selling cosmetics and beauty products. Everything from cleansers to foundations to anti-age creams. It's an oldy but goody kind of company. I've been trying a lot of the products lately too and that has a lot to do with my excitement about it. The name isn't the only reason this stuff sells so much.



If you know what Mary Kay is and you don't have a local consultant, feel free to place orders through my Mary Kay website and I'll get them out to you as soon as possible.

The only thing with the website, is that I don't have payment options set up just yet. Being an Army wife and all the frequent traveling gave the company a red flag when I tried to sign up for the payments package. So, it may be a better idea to hold off until I get that set up for you guys (should be taken care of by the end of the week, I'll make an announcement when it's fully up and running), I wanted to let you all know now so you can go take a look at what's available and see if there's anything you'd like. Or if there's something a female in your life might like.



Feel free to ask me questions about anything. I'm still learning, but I have more experienced consultants on speed dial so I can get you the answers.



Well, that's it folks. If you got this far thank you for taking the time to read all of that information. I know it was a lot and I usually try not to let my journal's run this long, but what can I say? A lot has been happening.

It's going to be short, but sweet. My sub runs out in 4 weeks, so this contest will last for four weeks. Let's go with... starting now until Oct. 23.

Contest purpose: Make =ScribeSanctuary a symbol/logo design.

Important Stuff: Needs to be based off of the idea I have displayed here: (the symbol on the temple, not the temple itself)


To elaborate, I want an ink jar with gold ink and two white feather quill pens propped on either side of it. All of which should be in the center of a perfect circle. The circle can be transparent, colored, whatever you feel works. This should be 400x400px because it will be used as our devID primarily and it has to be proportionate. Ideally I'd like this to be vectored, but do what you will. It is important that this piece be crisp if you intend to win this. Follow the guidelines and submit it to me via note. (Note Title: Contest Entry)

Prize: One year sub

Go.. create.

News Article: [link]

My day began with a graded Essay from my English Comp. 1 class, which included a very inspiring bit of commentary from my instructor:


Then, I logged on to dA this afternoon to discover that my latest poem Bisexual in America was featured in the DLD news article:


I can't begin to tell you how touched and inspired I am right now. For the past few month's I've all but given up on writing anything at all. Here and there I might scribble out a poem or share some other bit of assignment-type literature I completed. However, I haven't been writing for me.

One of the classes I'm taking this semester is called Master Student. The class is intended to teach student's how to manage their time, set goals, and achieve those goals. As a part of the class I had to actually set future goals. Instinctively I thought of my novels and how much I'd love to be published. I set the goal of publication by 25 (next year) and never did anything to actually achieve that goal.

With all of the positive support I've received today alone I've decided to finish up my latest novel and start querying agencies for it. I've been through this process before with my first novella, but I don't think that book is meant to ever hit shelves. It was my practice book, my beginning. The second novel I wrote is something I feel much more confident about and I'm going to start pursuing the publication it so desperately deserves.

Thank you so much to everyone who's shared their thoughts with me on my latest poem. I'm deeply touched and honored that so many have enjoyed it. You've all had a part in inspiring me to create again.

I do want to thank =dreamsinstatic once again for suggesting my poem to DLD. This is the type of motivation I needed to get back to my writings.

• dArama - yes, it totally amuses me. People will make an uproar about anything just to make an uproar. Then, if they're proven wrong in some way or another, they'll try to argue from a different angle rather than accepting the truth. If you're wrong, you're wrong.

• Bandwagon's - hand in hand with the dArama is how quickly everyone chooses a wagon and hops on. No thought, no consideration to facts. Just, x person is doing it. I'll do it too!

• Trolls/Flamers - these same people who seek out (or even dream up) reasons to mess with someone else are the first ones to block you if you have the gull to stand up against them. (I'm a new addition to a few block lists.)

• Spammers - after flooding a chatroom and getting kicked out, they'll come right back in and go "what was that for?"

• Playground insulters - you know what I'm talking about. Those people who have no more points to argue so they say something like "That's why your mom's dumb!" or some other ridiculous completely unrelated retort.



I think I'm growing up. At one point I did partially find a few of these things entertaining, in the more malicious sense. Now the amusement comes solely from the idiocy of it and it's really more pity than amusement in retrospect. I'm going to wind up being that old lady swearing at young punks.

Damn you young'uns!




_{This message brought to you by the future angry insulting ladies (FAIL) foundation.}

To keep with my concept of never naming names, I won't mention who demonstrated this point to me. They've been reported and it's irrelevant to the story anyhow.

So, as many arguments for me have began lately someone was whining about not wanting the new share feature. I'd all but put the topic behind me, but felt compelled to address this person as they were comparing completely unrelated things to what the share feature provides. They spat a few not-so-smug remarks my way as some means of offending me, didn't work in the least. Then I came across their final commentary in my message center.

i just shared your "coke zero" photo of your husband on my facebook....
although, my facebook can only be read by people i've got friended on FB.... so, you'll never know what i said about him...

it was good too....
ignore any homoerotic/gay bashing comments people who see the share may post if they follow the link back to your gallery...
a lot of people just aren't as open minded about their sexuality as i said HE was....

That is a direct copy/paste. So you see, if people like that have the share feature in their face it is potentially harmful to deviants. I felt this should be shared to prove the point. Doubting it was the intention of the lewd commenter, but point still taken..

This is essentially my mini-announcement of =Petarie, a group specifically for all of our devious pets. It's not only for pet owner's, but pet lover's too! My hope is to have a place where deviants can come together to share pet-inspired art, get/give advice, and offer tips centered completely around our special companions.

This group is currently inactive, I'm waiting until the group update is released to get this place fully functioning. The excitement of it was just too much for me to contain, I wanted to let you guys know about it!

If you have a pet, love pets, or want pets in the future: go check it out! Just and you're a member. I started a few forum threads on the front page and you can feel free to interact on them. I've posted the information about all my furbabies already. That much I can handle checking out without needing the official group updates put in place. I just can't keep up with the groups right now.

It's a little selfish of me, I'll admit. The buzz around the official group updates pulled me away from =ScribeSanctuary too. I want to enjoy my time on deviantART and anyone who's dealt with the current system for a group knows it gets extremely tedious. Definitely not the most enjoyable thing in the world. I love my groups, I just can't devote the amount of time required for them. Or rather, I can't will myself to. I could manage it, but I wouldn't be happy about it.



Anyhoo.. the point was to introduce =Petarie to my watchers. I'll post an official news article and what-not when I actually have the Grand Opening.

Some of you may have noticed my newest deviation. To determine just how effective this concept could be (and whether or not I should actually develop the coding for it) I thought I'd turn to all of you, my watchers. Just in case you're completely clueless as to what I'm talking about, here's the deviation I'm referring to:What I'm suggesting is that deviant's have tutorials available to them at each major point of deviantART, much like a video game. So when you go to submit your artwork, the above tutorial would start up. When you go to the forums another tutorial geared for the forums would pop up, etc. This way new members to the community have something interactive and in their face to "learn the ropes" from.

Of course, there would need to be some kind of way to determine if the new deviant is in fact new or a returning deviant creating a new account. That's a fairly simple solution with a couple radio boxes and two questions "Returning deviant?" or "New deviant?" an even better solution would be deviantART implementing name-changes. That's a whole other ball-game though.

So, what I need from all of you. Think back to when you first came to deviantART. Ask yourself honestly if having a pop up like this would have grabbed your interest or get ignored like many ignore the ToS and policies. Then go over to here: [link] and tell me! If this is something that enough people feel could be beneficial to the community, I'll press forward with the idea.

I have to admit, this is exciting for me. I've been looking for an excuse to play with some new programming.

A good argument I read in a comment on a Gallery Moderator's journal mentioned the thumbnail feature on Facebook enticing art thieves to go to the full-view image and steal from the artist. The reason I'm referring to this as a good argument, is because it actually has logic behind it. That deviant completely has a point. Seeing some text won't tempt an art thief the same way a thumbnail will.

However, a thumbnail can be created on most websites by anyone using some basic html coding. There are tutorial sites out there that will show you how to add an image to your site using html and/or BB code. Something else that was mentioned to this deviant is that browsers (Mozilla, Opera, IE) are actually coming with the same share option embedded in their programming. Or there are add-on's that make these options available to internet users. So it's really not possible to completely disable this feature. Even if it's removed from deviantART.

The reason I wanted to mention this is to share with those who may have this same thought-process. If you're worried about potential art thieves going to your full-view and stealing your work, you need to take preventative measures. Create a copyright tag to add to your image. It's best to have this tag go across the main focus of your work. That way it ruins the image for potential thieves. It won't be a guaranteed deterrent for all art thieves, but it would reduce the chances of your work being stolen.

Some arguments people have against the copyright tag is that it ruins the image for viewers as well. The copyright tag doesn't have to be black or white, it can be a color that blends better with the art. Ideally it should be transparent to help guests view the piece without being distracted by the copyright tag. If you don't have a program that allows you to create a transparent layer, deviantART does have a copyright tag available to all members of the community. It may not be the most appealing thing to have over your image, but it will help protect your work from art theft.

Read below for original entry

OK. If you've been watching me a while you should be aware that I tend to voice my opinion on controversial topics. There are a few journals around the community (in particular by our dA staff) asking what it is that's stirred up so much dArama around the new share option. A lot of deviants are screaming "Art Theft made easy" (in a nut shell) and that's just amazing to me. It makes me think that people aren't able to consider what causes art theft in the first place. So, instead of continuously repeating myself, I'm writing this journal.

Why Art thieves steal:
1. They're inconsiderate assholes and don't care about who put work into making a piece. They'll steal art and try to make a profit from it, fully aware of the potential legal consequences. [Some of these jerks gained fame, which further confuses people.(i.e. Andy Warhol)]

2. They're clueless about anything copyright and stole the art because they liked it. Posting it to photobucket or some other image host site allows them quick and easy access to it so it can be shared on myspace, facebook, etc.

Ok, those two are not likely to be the only reasons art thieves steal, but it is two major ones. Now, let's think about this. With deviantART having a click and share option those who are stealing because they like a deviation will now be able to share the things they like with a link back to the original piece. Which in turn brings more traffic to your work. How is this a bad thing?

Sometimes I think people create drama just to cause a stir. Like there's nothing better for you to do than create an uproar out of nothing. Please, people: Think before you start huffing and puffing over nonsense. There are so much more serious things in the world than causing undo drama. And this is completely undo, the idea that it's promoting art theft is just dumb. This should help reduce the art theft mentioned (#2) above. Those who really want to steal from you are going to do it regardless.

Alright, I'm done. Input?

I had every intention of doing this much earlier today. I really couldn't think of anything for this list, though. Then suddenly, I was inspired. So here it is:

1. I'm blunt to the point of being rude sometimes. Especially online.

Positive - I'm an honest person. I never try to lie or twist things intentionally. Anyone who knows me knows I'll tell them exactly what I think. It's not something that everyone can appreciate, but I think honesty is a noble trait.

2. Procrastinating. All too often I put things off, put things off and nothing ever seems to get done. I'll wait until the very last minute and stress myself out trying to get it all finished.

Positive - I've learned how to work well under pressure. No matter how intense the situation I can produce quality work. There's many times that I proved this to myself in the real world. Even in projects I've done online, I'll pump out something awesome in half the time.

3. Lazy. This goes with the procrastinating, but expands to a much higher level. I'm actually risking health problems because I'd rather sit on the couch than go to the Gym or even get up for something to drink.

For four years I worked out every single day as a soldier and in the last two I've avoided physical labor at all costs. In place of exercise I've fallen back into an anorexic mind frame. I'd rather starve than gain weight. On average I eat one meal a day, dinner. So two years after the military I actually weigh less than I did when I was in and I haven't worked out more than a month (sporadically) throughout that entire time.

Positive - I spend a lot of time on deviantART, working on my website, and other projects online. All of these make me have a sense of accomplishment now and again. It makes me happy inside.

4. Short tempered. It's not uncommon for me to fly off the handle. Not only in the online world, but in the real world too. I've yelled at my husband over stupid things. I've attacked complete strangers through text because of the way I perceived their statements.

Positive - I'm a sensitive person. I attack because I feel threatened. I've at least got the will to defend myself. Now I just need to learn how to take it down a notch.

5. Push-over. I may come off as this incredibly strong-willed person to those who don't know me, but the truth is: I'm a total push-over. When sales people come at me with their crazy products, I'm almost always buying into them. (I bought this detailing kit for my car a couple weeks ago that will likely never be used.) My husband has to keep an eye on me when I get to watching infomercials at night. I think everything could be useful! And it's only $20!

Positive - I have an open mind and willingness to try new things. I trust people even without knowing them and believe what they have to say to me. Especially when they have something shiny.

After-thought
I threw in some humorous bits, not because I think this is a joke. I'm sharing truly intimate details about my personality and it's not an easy thing for me to do. I don't know many who really want to admit their flaws.

I hope everyone who takes the time to read this will participate. It's liberating. If you do participate, I'd love to see what you have to share.

All the best!

Well, I'm not the reason for the spit flying, but I'm a little frustrated by it. There's an established artist who referenced another deviant's photograph a year ago for a digital painting. Recently the photographer reported this artist's painting as a policy violation, Art Theft. Considering that no official documentation was exchanged deviantART hid the painting until valid proof of permission could be provided. The established artist did get permission from the photographer via a comment, after the painting was already finished, and the photographer said it was alright. The painting was even featured in the photographers journal at one point

Now a year later the artist has had this painting for sell in their gallery and the photographer reported it, having it promptly hidden from the artist's gallery. In an attempt to resolve the matter the artist tried to contact the photographer about signing proper documents so the painting wouldn't be deleted completely. As well as contacting the Help Desk to resolve the matter.

You may expect that I'm upset with the photographer for going back on their word sort of thing, but I'm actually disappointed in the artist. They pointed this photographer out and publicized this whole situation. Resulting in the photographer deleting their gallery and walking away from deviantART after being harassed by the artist's watchers.

The reason I'm bringing this to all of you is to implore that you use discretion in your journals. Especially for those of you who have an extensive fan-base. What you say and who you blame in your journal has an affect. Understand that behind each gallery is a human being with real feelings that can be hurt. Not to say you shouldn't be honest with people, but spear-heading a witch hunt is just childish.

You're responsible for what you post in your journal and pointing someone out for "doing you wrong" is releasing the hounds, especially if you're a popular artist. Don't mistake your popularity for superiority, you're just as human and imperfect as anyone else in the world. An ego doesn't look good on anyone.

So I was reading over some comments on the latest deviantART poll and had a fleeting moment of irritation for the stupidity and dArama involved with this community. Having such elements makes keeping up with what's going on difficult since I'd like to keep out of the dArama.

I don't know about the rest of you, but my life has enough drama in it, I don't need to be exposed to more when I'm trying to relax. Which is my point of logging in to dA on average. Of course the things I'm involved with, like =ScribeSanctuary, put me to work often when I log on, but it's still something I enjoy.

The logic behind whining about how "s/he has better, cooler things than me" is beyond my understanding. If you want something, go for it. Don't whine and complain about your jealousy of someone else. It's petty and extremely pointless. Seriously people, we should all be here for art and we should all be helping each other when and if possible. The world has enough hate and jealousy, this is supposed to be an escape from that. This should be your artistic sanctuary. Cherish it, protect it, and keep the drama out!

/end ranting.

And now that I've got that out of my system, I'm sure a few of you have noticed I've been a bit absent lately. We're settling into our new house in Alabama and it's all moving along wonderfully. I'll get some pictures of my garden and things up when I have the time to do so. Everything is going to get moved to my scraps, because although I posted my latest personal images to my gallery I do believe that things from every day life belong in scraps. It's great to share, but not artwork.

Also--if you're not already keeping track of it--I update my blog as much as possible, there's a link at the top of this journal and all over my other journal layouts so I'm not going to add a link, just go to it. Read it. You may learn something about me you didn't know before. And if you're reading this you must have some level of interest in what I have to say.

Hope everyone is doing well and life should balance out for me eventually and when that happens I'll be able to adjust my time to be able to keep up with dA again. All the best guys and gals!

Well it was actually yesterday, but I totally spaced on it. And I even told myself that it was coming up! So I've been here for 5 years now. That's 5 years of my life devoted to the greatest art community in the world! This is a great reason for me to get off my bum and do a lovely feature-reature. It's been forever since I've done a feature. I'm gradually getting dA back up to date, been looking through my message center and all. Everything's just a little hectic with ~KombatMario away for his training. Everything is up to me now. He'll be home Friday though!

Alright, so time for that feature! Keep an eye out for the feature journal update! I'm thinking to search for all the things that make me love dA.

Considering the new critique feature available on deviantART I'm now thinking about re-merging my accounts. I'm torn between this decision because I'm rather fond of having everything organized and organization is a tedious thing. On the other hand, making my works available for critique is a plus and spending $60 to keep all three accounts subscribed is out of the question.

The other issue of sorts is that my ~SalleyAshley account keeps all of my literature synced throughout the web. So if someone Googles 'Salley Ashley' they get my website, my dA account, among other things that are directly associated with me.

A somewhat solution I'm considering is to design a CSS layout for my gallery that allows me to organize everything a little more and establish links on my secondary accounts to come here, so if joe search-boy comes across my ~SalleyAshley account then he can still find my works with another click.

Re-merging would reduce the watch-list for those of you who do keep track of all I do as well. Perhaps even expose those of you who aren't aware of my additional galleries to all of my attempts at artistic expression.

Either way it goes, I'm going to post a poll for those of you who aren't big fans of commenting. Would really appreciate some input on this. Thanks so much!



[edit] The poll: [link] [/edit]

Today I felt an overwhelming sense that I've been wasting my time on dA so I'm going to take a little Hiatus until we get settled back in to the United States. Maybe during my time away from here I'll be able to actually do something resembling artistry that I can share when I return.

For those who don't know ~KombatMario and I live in Germany now and will be back in the U.S. in March. Then there's moving in, setting everything up, etc. etc. so I'll be busy anyhow. The stress level in our home has been pretty high lately too, so I think it's important that I turn my focus on us and off of dA.

Now, before I get into this whole emotional bit about how things are not so peachy-keen I'm going to scamper off to clear out my message center. I'd rather not have thousands of things to sort through when I do come back.

Of course, I'll try to pop in periodically to clear my message center out, but I'm not devoting the bulk of my time to dA anymore. This could change in the future, but for now I feel I've wasted valuable time infront of this computer screen.

Take care all and I'll see you on the flip side.

Copyright
Well after the dust has settled from all of the tracing policy dArama I felt writing a news article about some of the key points of copyright was certainly needed. If you don't have a great understanding of copyright's I'd urge you to read it. There are useful links to the sources I cited in the news article so you can read up on it even more than what I talk about. Also, be sure to spread the word about it if you agree with what you read.

News Article: Copyright Clarification

New CSS
As if you can't tell by coming to the journal in the first place, I've switched over to a new CSS with some personal touches added to it. You'll also notice that I've organized all of my other CSS too so it's all sleek and fancy looking. I'm planning to work on this a little more, but it'll all do for now. Do let me know your thoughts on all of it.

Road Trip
~KombatMario and I are heading out this morning for a little road trip. We're taking our laptops so I'm sure I'll still be around now and again. My hope is to come back with some amazing writings. Ah anywho, it's 6am at the moment and I haven't slept. Mario's in the shower and I'll be hopping in when he's done. Once we've got that all out of the way we're hitting the road. So, I'll see you all on the other side!

Have a wonderful day, everyone.

I'm coming up on 25k, so keep an eye out! If you catch the kiriban I'll do something for you. But no really, I'll make a little something special for you if you catch it.

I was going to wait until tomorrow to do this because I have to get to bed soon, but I noticed I'm fast approaching the 25k mark so I wanted to give a heads up and I might as well knock out this tag while I'm at it.

tagged me. I've seen this one circling around the community and since she's a pretty cool chick I'll go ahead and play along.

---begin tag---

Post these rules.
Each tagged person must post 8 things about themselves on their journal.
At the end, you have to choose and tag 8 people and post their icons on the same journal.
No tag-backs


1. I'm a natural blond. (dyed my hair dark red once.. came out maroon.. never again.)
2. My eyes change color depending on my mood. (dark-gray when angry, sea-green when sad, blue-gray when happy)
3. Even as an adult, I'm still afraid of the dark.
4. My imagination is stuck on over-drive. (this is probably why I come up with crazy story lines and actually imagine I live them.)
5. The time I served in the military had a huge impact on my life. Not because of the rigorous training, but because I escaped the judging eyes of my small hometown. I was able to start over and discover myself.
6. Before I met my husband, I had decided I wanted to live my life on my terms and not allow anyone else determine how I felt from day to day. Then I met this most amazing man when I wasn't looking at all. It amazes me how life plays out.
7. When I was younger, I'd never consider voicing my opinion to people I didn't feel safe around. Now, I'll tell you exactly what I think whether or not you want to hear it. More people need to speak up and share the truth!
8. I found deviantART through an animated chat room called 'Furcadia'. (And I still visit it on occassion.)

TAG:


---end tag---

In other news--for those who don't keep track of my day-to-day life via LiveJournal--my desktop crapped out so I am a bit limited. I have another laptop with most of the same programs on it so I'll be able to make any requests using that for the time being. For now I'm using my lit-laptop so I'll probably turn my focus on writing again for a while. If you want all the gooey gossip involved with day-to-day stuff pop over to my LJ and friend me to see my entries.

I'm not going to call anyone out, but one of the so-called dA administrative volunteers submitted something that I'm pretty sure violates dA policy. When I left a comment asking about it I got a reply of "to be honest, I am not sure." and comments were promptly disabled on said deviation before I could offer up my evidence to show that their submission was in fact in violation of dA policy.

What is going on with dA that even the admins are violating policy? Do we now fully disregard that artists outside of our small community have any legal rights to their art? If they're not a part of dA does that make them fake artists or incapable of owning their intellectual copyright?

Honestly, I'm disappointed. If those who are leading the way aren't following the rules, how can anyone else be expected to? Let's all whip out our camera phone's, take a few pictures in front of a mirror, and start initiating meaningless time-consuming applications to pass our time while we chat with all of our cool friends. Don't bother worrying about creating original art or respecting the work of others. It's all about friends and status, that's what makes the world go 'round.