Today there were a few bannings that happened of some somewhat well known deviants and a big known group. A lot of people who followed the group/deviants are wondering why they got banned etc. Just as an educational bit I want to show people the dA etiquette Policy that you were supposed to have agreed to when you joined the site (yet surprisingly so many people don't read it.) It can be found here:
I'll go by selected sections that pertain to the behavior that's been going on and add some notes of my own:
Introduction
All members of the deviantART community are expected to be familiar with these rules of etiquette and they will be enforced evenly and without bias in every situation which is brought to the attention of the administration regardless of the membership status of the user in question. You are EXPECTED to be familiar with these rules of etiquette, wow guys I wonder how many of us are? ---
Prohibited Commentary
Prohibited commentary is typically considered to be inherently disrespectful, aggressive, or otherwise abusive.We must insist that you refrain from comments which are racist, bigoted, or which otherwise offensively target a philosophy or religion. In addition we ask that our members avoid making offensive remarks based on gender or sexual preference and that you do not make any remark, comment or critique which is intended to be a direct insult to an individual, group, or genre of artwork. Hate propaganda is met with zero tolerance. Comments which are overly aggressive, personally insulting or needlessly abusive are also prohibited.
If you feel that you have been the target of harassment, personal insults or other severe behavior please notify the staff by using the official deviantART helpdesk. Please be aware that the staff will only directly intervene in cases which are considered severe; minor situations may be dealt with using tools made available to all registered members.
This means you cannot go and attack people for 'fun' or 'lolz'. Attacking some one because of a claim in military status they made, because they support something, because they're an art thief (although it feels good to get them), because they're Christian, because they like attention, because they're a beginner artist etc is simply not allowed. This includes comments, journals, deviations, blogs etc.
Also as the end states, if you are targeted for this sort of ill behavior DO REPORT IT, don't fight fire with fire. That behavior is not allowed and you don't have to put up with it. ---
Discouraged Commentary
Discouraged commentary is typically considered to have the potential to escalate into an aggressive or abusive situation.While not strictly prohibited we must insist that all personal arguments, disagreements, and other volatile "personal" issues within be confined to private communications such as Notes, emails, or Instant Messaging programs. Likewise we discourage public accusations and other similar situations; please bring all issues of this nature to the attention of the staff by notifying the official deviantART helpdesk.
Posting a journal letting people know you're being attacked behind your back is fine if the other person is attacking you non-privately and all over dA on your deviations, in blogs/journals and getting others to come attack you. Just don't send people after them back on accident or purpose, that makes it worse. ---
This part here is from the Terms of Service, found here: about.deviantart.com/policy/se… that YOU clicked 'agree' to and promised to withhold when you joined dA. If you can comment here, your promised this.8. ConductYou agree that you shall not interfere with or disrupt (or attempt to interfere with or disrupt) this Service or servers or networks connected to this Service, or to disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to this Service; or provide any information to deviantART that is false or misleading, that attempts to hide your identity or that you do not have the right to disclose. deviantART does not endorse any content placed on the Service by third parties or any opinions or advice contained in such content. You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless deviantART, its officers, directors, employees and agents, from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable legal and expert fees, arising out of or in any way connected with your access to or use of the Services, or your violation of these Terms.
This means you may not EVER post some one's real full name, address, phone number, email or anything identifying like that at all EVER on dA. Let alone dig up this info yourself and find a way to call and harass a person, send them spam emails, hack their accounts, change their passwords etc or anything of that nature. Private information is just that, private and is not to be shared or divulged against the other person's will. ---
19. ConductYou agree to be subject to and to conduct yourself in accordance with the deviantART Etiquette Policy.You are responsible for all of Your Content you upload, download, and otherwise copy, distribute and display using the Service. You must have the legal right to copy, distribute and display all parts of any content that you upload, download and otherwise copy, distribute and display. Content provided to you by others, or made available through websites, magazines, books and other sources, are protected by copyright and should not be uploaded, downloaded, or otherwise copied, distributed or displayed without the consent of the copyright owner or as otherwise permitted by law. Please refer to deviantART's Copyright Policy for further details.
You agree not to use the Service:
*To upload, post, or otherwise transmit any material that is obscene, offensive, blasphemous, pornographic, unlawful, threatening, menacing, abusive, harmful, an invasion of privacy or publicity rights, defamatory, libelous, vulgar, illegal or otherwise objectionable;
(cut out some of it, just kept the line about behavior): Right here means by a few words:
Menacing: anything mean or scary against another person/group/religion/etc.
Abusive: Anything saying mean things, calling names or otherwise hurting another person/group/religion/etc's reputation in any way.
Harmful: Anything mean, derogatory or otherwise hurting another person/group/region/etc's reputation, self-esteem or health in any way.
An invasion of privacy or publicity rights: As listed above about posting other's info without their permission or using it to harass them off dA.
Defamatory: This means slandering, lying about or otherwise hurting a person/group/religion/etc's reputation whether true or not.
Vulgar: this means SWEARING, CUSSING, ill mannered, rude, dirty mouthed or otherwise using derogatory or racial terms at or about a person/group/religion/etc.
Otherwise objectionable: If you wouldn't want it said to/about you then don't say it to/about some one else. If you hate getting made fun of even in little ways... why on earth would you do that to some one else?---
On a side note, what a lot of this describes is
bullying. So many people seem to not understand this anymore. If you say or do anything to harm a person physically, mentally, destroy their reputation, make them feel intimidated, harm their property etc you are bullying them no matter how lightly.
Bullying can be considered a mental disease by some and it diagnosed by those with something called low self-esteem. These individuals think the only way to feel good about themselves is to bring others down, gain attention for themselves and make sure other people are more miserable than they are.
Bullying, harassment and like behavior is a serious issue and it cannot be allowed to happen on this site or any other. This is why the Etiquette Policy and the Terms and Conditions are here on dA to tell you what it is and why it's not allowed and that behaving as such will get you banned.
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That's all I have to show you guys and hopefully this helps some confused people understand why some people got banned, why a certain big group just got banned and what you can do to avoid being banned. The people and group in question violated one or all of these terms, conditions or parts of the etiquette policy. Even if you post disclaimers on a blog that's attacking some one, it doesn't make it ok. You just can't break these rules.
My personal comments are in no way endorsed or approved by dA they are just my explanations and understanding of these rules as written. Some links for you to read on etiquette, terms, conditions, dArama and today's happenings:
about.deviantart.com/policy/et…about.deviantart.com/policy/se…spyed.deviantart.com/art/dAram…fav.me/d4xkaggfav.me/d4w71mhHope this helps some people understand what's going on, some terms and what they can do about it to keep participating in this community.
AJ
P.S. yes, I am one of those people that reads the policy before joining a site, reads the users manual to every thing I own and surrounds myself with rules, regulations, definitions and wanting to know what I'm talking about.
