As usual, comment and link if you think this is important. And I wouldn't be sharing it if it wasn't.

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Okay, dust seems to be settling, and many are settling into their own points-of-view. And we've learned a lot since the total confusion of last week.

If you don't like what's happened in the context as you now understand it, please keep in mind that we didn't have that context when this whole mess started.

So now here's my basic attitude: yes, unity is very important. That's why we need to stand together and fight what's going on. I remain opposed to "business as usual."

This message isn't about talking you into doing anything, but at least hoping you'll care. And then do something if you want to. But at least respecting us if you don't.

If not for your own sake, or your own art's sake, then at least for art's sake, and your favorite higher-profile artists' sake.

Now, quickly, let's challenge some reasoning for those remaining neutral or indifferent. Because indifference is easier, but it's exactly what the regime is counting on.

He never could have gotten away with this when there were 10,000 deviants on this site, no one would dispute that.

But he's counting on the inertia of enough people to get him through it, so we need to get inertia moving in the other direction.

So, if you're "sitting out," why are you sitting out?

I can't make a difference.

Well, we've proven otherwise, haven't we? We've turned the site upside-down, virtually shamed the regime into hiding, and raised the consciousness of 95% of this site that might never have noticed what happened last week in the middle of the night.

I don't know what's going on, really.

Well, a huge amount of documentation and reports have been compiled within one excellent resource. It's quite the damning paper trail. If you're not convinced, you will be.

Notice, incidentally, the complete lack of a comparable paper trail for the opposing argument. (I've found one important journal of opposing clarification: $MikeyLove responds to *brihana25's historical research. Don't flame him for doing his best to share a point-of-view.)

But the most telling documents aren't verifiable.

Yes, but they haven't been denied by ANY of the parties involved. There is NO legal issue in the world that would prevent someone from publicly denying forgeries. That's enough reason to take them very seriously. And they paint an important picture that rationally does explain this entire mess.

Plus, almost every other statement on record is backed up by someone who DOES vouch for its veracity.

But (the regime) can't talk for legal reasons.

Hogwash. There's no legal restriction in the world that wouldn't have allowed a press release last week, combed over by lawyers to ensure its propriety.

As is, there's been not even a cursory explanation of what happened last week, barely even an acknowledgement.

"Can't talk for legal reasons" = "No comment" = =

Worth noting: there's also no standard of corporate practice that wouldn't have insisted on a press release last week, immediately upon Scott's termination. It flies in the face not only of logic, but standard corporate conduct.

But this is gonna be a legal battle, and we can't affect that.

It's true that we could wait through three years of court battles for "salvation from on high," but I think we've got more muster than that. This is our site, and we should be taking it back.

What, we wanna wait for years?

But surely the guys at the top know what they're doing.

There is no recent evidence of professionalism, integrity, or good judgement on record at this time.

(Find me some, I'd be glad to review it.)

(Maybe that's not fair, but in this recent debacle, have you seen any reason to be impressed?)

But it's not our place to question this company's interior politics.

Crazy talk. We might not be a democracy, but this is our country. They may not be elected, but administration are our representatives.

We have a right to tell them when we're unhappy, we have a right to demand explanations when one of us is screwed over, and we have a right to ensure that administration is representing the people that make our community what it is.

(Incidentally, we do NOT have a right to demand admins break their non-disclosure agreements. But we have a right to tackle their thinking and opinions, as will be discussed at more length below.)

But all this chaos is destroying deviantART.

It's true that it's destructive and often ugly. But we didn't start this. (And we didn't stonewall for days afterward either.) We've stood up for one of our own as best we could, against the direct preference of the regime, and that's of course caused unrest.

No one wants DA to be united more than me. (Maybe as much as me, mind you.) That's why we want to be united on the side of concern rather than indifference. Because we DO care about deviantART. Because DA itself is more important to us than simple fun, convenience, or business-as-usual.

But what's wrong with "business as usual?"

Okay, now we're going to slow down a bit.

Here's the danger:

Everything about this situation feels safe, when we go on about our business.

It looks like home, it acts like home (on a bad day), it has all our friends in it and it responds to all our familiar habits. Compacency is easy because it feels like everything could go back to normal, if only we'd let it.

But we are in an entirely different landscape now, and all those habits we trust lull us into not paying attention.

Let me say, personally and frankly, that I think the "I'm in it for the long haul" campaign is a VERY bad idea.

Don't get me wrong, I'm in it for the long haul too, but that theme and graphic represent a different dangerous stubbornism to me. And also a terribly counter-productive promise to the regime.

It says to me, "No matter how much worse it gets," you're in it for the long haul.

It says, "No matter who gets screwed over or silenced," you're in it for the long haul.

It says, "No matter how stunningly this new regime runs our favorite web site into the ground," you're in it for the long haul.

It says, "No matter how many good artists leave for credible moral reasons," you're in it for the long haul.

It says, in effect, that you're steeling yourself to stay here no matter how atrocious it gets.

That is not the message we want the regime to hear!

So I'm all for community - why the hell else would I be writing this?!? - but we should be a community that's united, proud, and willing to take a stand when something has gone horribly wrong.

We should be a community that can check our DA addiction at the door, when exactly that addiction is the regime's greatest asset.

We should be a community that is resisting occupation rather than shopping in our suburban shopping malls.

And most of all, we should be a community that's paying close attention to this treacherous new landscape we're in.

But what's changed so much, really?

Okay, now we get to the point. Trying to be quick, but this is critical to understand why nothing is the same anymore. And why "business as usual" is not only convenient, but dangerous.

The danger is that the new regime has inherited the benefit-of-the-doubt from the previous standard. We've all got so many habits and behaviors that we never second-guess, because we've been doing them so long. And the regime can count on that, if we let him.

Let's illustrate with an example.

If something changed around here, in the past, we could respond with moderate calmness. Because the administration, then, deserved the benefit of the doubt.

For instance, there was a big flap over the licensing agreement a few months ago, and lot of people got wound up and very paranoid about changes, and also about unchanged wording that they'd never noticed before.

BUT, cooler heads could approach that concern calmly, because of two things:

1. The historic administration had a solid track record of listening to, responding to, and even adapting to community concerns.

2. The historic administration had never significantly called its own judgement into question before. I.e., there was no reason not to trust them.

It's worth noting that I got into the middle of that fracas, and I was right there on $spyed's side, expressing my concerns but eager to see his point of view, and helping him articulate it to the community. There was no reason (for me) not to trust him then, I was glad to do it, and try to calm things down.

(It's also worth noting that there were a couple of days of inexcusable vacuum then that did NOT help the matter, which made it an interesting precursor to our current uproar. Someone seemed to feel that sitewide concerns would just blow over if one kept quiet long enough. Someone might be right, if we let him be.)

So now, things are different, regarding those two points above:

1. The regime has demonstrated a stubborn unwillingness to listen to, respond to, and even adapt to community concerns.

2. The regime has significantly called its own judgement into question with a profound moral transgression, a pronounced stonewalling against chaos threatening to destroy this site, and reliance upon merely waiting for problems to go away on their own, rather than solve them with credible leadership.

So, you see, we can't give them the benefit of the doubt any longer, and that means every habit we trust is potentially treacherous to ourselves, and to our community.

At this point, inconveniently, we have to break our narrative into two threads, because they're each so important but very different.

First, what can we do that will help?

Well, we're all agreed that this last week hasn't been much fun (though not without merits), so let's try a new strategy.

Let's make friends with people who can make a difference, and make sure they're on our side, or at least thinking about it. Let's make friends in an attempt to unite this site on the side of self-preservation.

For instance, if an adminstrator is telling you that "business as usual" is the best way to go, engage him, with respect, as to why he thinks that's the case? It's a good question, really. "Why is ignoring critical events at our site good?" Why is "playing along" so damn important?

Share your own concerns, make your best arguments, listen to what he says back and see if he should second-guess something. End your comments with smiles, to keep things lighter in tone, but reinforce your own position, and see if you can get him to understand it. (Beating over the head doesn't help. If he doesn't understand, ask him what's not to understand. Reach for agreement and understanding of differences rather than coersion.)

You see my point here, making friends will be the key to success. Don't be an irritant because you're hostile or annoying, be an irritant only by the standard of caring so much.

Because they might not have been "elected," but those administrators represent us, or at least they should. Speak to them with respect, and you may be listened to with respect, and that would be better for everybody.

BUT, after this last week, many admins may have been talked to death already, and you might think there's no point in it. That's fine. Go next to your favorite artists who are not yet united for this site's self-preservation.

I've been disappointed to see some "big names" around here starting to sit this out, as if there's nothing further to be done.

That's crazy!

If this site can unite around one goal (and I don't have to tell you what that goal is, because it's plain as day), then there will be no stopping us from getting what we want. If we are united.

So the favorite artists are the next wave of conversion. But don't attack them - they're your favorite artists, right? Let them know that with their profile comes influence, and that you would really prefer to see them exercise all the good they can do.

Please heaven don't be hostile, because we want everyone to appreciate our point of view, not resent it. We want to make friends.

At the very least, let's build a consensus of opinion, in which every one of us knows exactly what would be in our community's best interests.

The answer is simple, really. There's really only one person behi-, I mean within this entire scenario who doesn't like that answer.

Most of us already know exactly what we want.



...

Now, as to that other thread, it's very important.

Some might say, but I just want to have fun and none of the changes really affect me.

Okay, maybe they don't, depending on how much you care about your art (and there's nothing wrong with feeling casual about it). But maybe these changes DO affect your favorite artists, and for that reason, you've got a stake in things even if you're pretty chill yourself.

All of us who submit copyrighted work here enter into a legal agreement with this site each and every time we upload art.

That agreement is very important, for two reasons:

1. It makes clear which rights belong to which parties, and under which conditions, and

2. It serves an important role merely by existing for its own sake.

That is, if there were any legal contest, simply having that agreement dramatically simplifies any court action or pursuit. Without it, each and every dispute becomes drastically more complicated, because there's no statement of principles at all.

Besides which, the rights in (1) above are very important to us, but also give deviantART a lot of power to display, and effectively use our art.

Now, remember, even if you don't care, your favorite artists should. So you should at least sort of care just out of respect for fairness to them, for those artists whose work has real value.

So if you give the license agreement a read, those statements were quite unobjectionable when the administration has never significantly called its judgement into question before.

But now, in the hands of a regime that refuses to listen, respond, or adapt to our concerns, or even appear interested in them, the license agreement becomes a very different kind of document.

It's one thing to give those rights to a party you trust, but another thing altogether to give to a vitually complete stranger, or worse, "the devil we know."

And that's even if it stays the same!

And my point is that our own "business as usual" habits might foul us right up, because we might scroll down and click "Accept" without even reading it. What if it's been changed?

In the middle of the night. With no announcement.

So, this is my best example of how the landscape looks the same and familiar, but is really very very different.

Furthermore, because this regime has evinced no moral character or forthrightness, we're gonna need to double check that each and every time we submit something, to make sure he's kept it on the up-and-up.

(Disregarding for the moment whether we like the old one now to begin with.)

(And, worse, disregarding for the moment that the regime has made frequent plain attempts to change the historical record ! )

We have to be suspicious, and that's why this is an entirely new landscape for all of us, that affects at the very least artists you like, if not yourself directly.

"Business as usual" is the enemy of "keeping our eyes open."

And something that we could have risked regard as "probably an innocent mistake" in the past takes on a completely different character now.

So, for instance, today I thought I'd better give that Agreement a looking over.

Despite my protest, I figured I'd upload a deviation (for quick deletion), and give it a fresh look.

I've tried all afternoon, actually, to examine that license agreement during the process of submission.

No sign of it there?

Vanished from the process?

Finally, someone else reminds me, it's there as a link, not how I remembered it. It's not in plain sight.

But my honest oversight illustrates the point.

We're in the habit of not looking at what we're doing.

We can't afford to do that anymore.




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If you wish to link anyone else to here, please use my generic Journal link so that they'll always come find the latest entries (and five in a row, of course).

Previously:

7/29: The Minimum Standard - the crime that was committed
8/01: A Plan for Action - first drafts of discontent
8/02: DA is Under PROBE-ation - further iteration to the action plan
8/03: The Open Letter to Administrators - naming the crime

The Shoutboard will get a big overhaul soon, lots of new links. If this shows up in your DevWatch again, it's cause I've made some significant update.