Or it's deviants I should say more precisely. It's gotten to the point that I am infuriated and sickened by the crap that I am seeing on here that the more I see of it, the more I truly want to leave this place. In the past five to six months (more so than the past couple years), I have seen so much fighting on DA here it is absolutely ridiculous. I'm beginning to think that DA shouldn't stand for Deviant Art anymore, but rather Devious Assholes from all the shit that I see on here.
I have seen those that will pop onto people's pages and purposely start fights by harassing someone, whether it be because of a simple comment made somewhere, or an artwork they don't like, or just for the hell of it.
I have seen shipping wars, where people will get downright fucking rude and stupid over "this is the better pairing!" and "this is the better fandom!" and "this character sucks!" and shit like this.
I have seen what I call "the warheads being sent out", where friends of person 1 (someone being harassed) begin to start harassing person 2(the person who initiated the problems)
I have seen things go bad between deviants and suddenly things like "I can't believe you're friends with them" and "you talk to this person so I'm not going to talk to you" being said and then not let these problems go but instead cling onto these disagreements (whether they be old or new) like its' their lifeline.
Folks, I apologize for some of the language here, but I am just that pissed after the past year that I need to vent some things before my head explodes and I end up snapping at the wrong person on the wrong day at the wrong time.
QUIT. FUCKING. FIGHTING!!!
This is a goddamned art site! This is where we come to share artwork and share our love of art, promote our work as well as others, meet new people and possibly make new friends, to learn more about honing our art skills and helping others who are trying to learn, and to have fun. It is NOT a place to have fucking petty arguments over menial shit!! It's one thing to talk about what you like in a civilized manner, but why get overly enraged over crap? Honestly, are you're going to sit down at your dinner table at night and think, "This chicken taste horrible because that bastard online doesn't like Call Of Duty like I do!" or "This episode of Supernatural sucks because of that asshole online," or "I knew it was going to rain today because that dickhead likes this pairing instead of that one!" Well are you? I should hope not, because if so, you need help. Serious. Fucking. Help. So instead of starting a shipping war, instead of using your energy to fight those who don't like your fandom/pairing/etc, take that destructive energy and make it CONSTRUCTIVE! Make a drawing or a painting or a story, or whatever you want, of your favourite fandom/pairing instead. Guaranteed for every second that you waste making comments online about how this is better and that isn't, you can create one hell of an artwork.
Another thing; I have said to numerous people in several situations that I am Switzerland. I do not pick side unless it's truly a bad situation happening and I will make a stand when needed. I have had people harass me and others on the art site in the past (thankfully, not much I will say) and when that happens, I may put up a journal saying that I am upset with how things happened and not mention names (because this DOES make things worse) and I will report them to DA. And also, a note to the numerous amounts of people I have talked to in the past months as well as those that I have heard of, there is a HUGE difference between a troll (someone who maliciously and purposely causes trouble to hurt others or pit others against one person) and someone of whom you simply do not get along with. I have had this happen where I have found people I simply do not mesh with but I'm not going to ignore all the people that are friends with that person if we legitimately get along. I will say that I have had experiences with both of these kinds of people, and each of them was dealt with in as proper of a manner as possible.
That being said I also want to add this; It's one thing if there is actual harassment going on and a stand has to be made rather than letting someone get treated like garbage. This is when action has to be made. But you know what you do in these situations? REPORT THEM! Don't send friends out to help fight for you and leave trash mail on their pages (because as much as you may not realize, this is harassment as well. If you want to civilly talk to this person and discuss what is going on, SEND THEM A NOTE! Because you can still take screencaps and it does not look as childish that way). Take screen caps and send them to the admins. And hey, if this doesn't work and the admins say that you can't do anything about it, do you know what else works? BLOCKING PEOPLE!!! This IS a thing! By blocking someone, they will not be able to contact you and therefore you do not have to put up with their shit! And maybe, just maybe, you can leave these bad events behind you and not talk about them like they fucking happened yesterday and keep going on the rant, then maybe you can get back to enjoying the things on here like you normally do.
And now I am about to get all geeky on you and quote a line from Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, his last words to Sephiroth: "Stay where you belong. In my memories."
This is something I wish people would do more often. Yes, it sucks that someone is being malicious enough to pick a fight, cause problems, create havoc and what not in a place where we are supposed to be here to have fun and make friends. Is it a sad and horrible thing. But you have to remember this; it is perfectly fine to remember the lesson you learned from what happened (whether it be that you shouldn't be so trusting, or how to go about how you approach someone, what ever it was) but you have to let the old anger go. Why do we call "the past" the past? Because it's done with. It's over. Yesterday. History. How can one move forwards if they're constantly looking back at what happened? You can't. Because while you're looking behind you and what did happened, you miss the both the good things in life and the good opportunities and you keep running into walls or falling into holes you didn't know were there.
So please, for the love of all things (the love for art being number one in all this), leave behind your hatred for people you had for people, don't pit your friends against other people, don't bother creating shipping wars, and just let things be.
And so this is the end of my rant. I do apologize for it's length but there this is something that has gotten to me for the past couple of years but has grown tremendously worse in the past half year. I would also like to clarify that I am not directing this at one or two or three or more people, but a VAST mount of people that I (and others) have encountered throughout the YEARS. This is merely a message to EVERYONE that comes across this journal to remind people of why we are really here. That we are here to share our love of art, to help mentor others to become better artists, and to become better artists ourselves and be lucky enough to make friends along the way.
I would also like to request that IF ANYONE WISHES TO RESPOND TO THIS, DO SO THROUGH NOTES! DO NOT LEAVE COMMENTS BELOW! Because if there is one thing that I have seen throughout the course of history, it's people looking in the comments, reading something they don't like and the war is on. I have had enough of those, thank you very much, so if you wish to civilly discuss things, please do so through notes, but I will NOT tolerate hate messages or enraged ones. Any comments made below I will simply hide because I do not want to risk fights breaking out.
Thank you everyone for putting up with this rant. And now if you will excuse me, I think I am going to get a drink and let my blood pressure lower.
