Sta.sh
The day is Saturday, December 11th, and !DameGreyWulf's, MY account, was taken from me, and deactivated, like many, many others have been, in relation to !Draconis-Wyrm's hijack.
I filed a ticket in the same day, requesting aide and support. Lacking response and shenanigans seen elsewhere spurred me to note +spyed on Monday. As of December 23rd, I've sent ~10 notes to +spyed in regards to this matter, and begged for response in my support ticket.
No response received.
Though, at the risk of giving myself unwarranted self-importance, soon after some of my notes +spyed added $fourteenthstar to his watch and $fourteenthstar made that official announcement regarding the change of the Deactivation system.
Things to read initially: [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link]
Who else has been a victim of this?
!Draconis-Wyrm, !Sahuri, !Sciarpa, !Koari-chan, ~monstermaster13 (new account), !pwned4free, !Chaos21, !Pr0stSh0cKeR, !FlashFire44, !IsaiahS, !Hatsune-Yuna, and countless others.
I bring them up because there have been claims about this being "a recent issue" and a "small issue," but considering everything I've found out and been told, this is, in fact, neither of those. In fact, the user !IsaiahS was chased off of deviantART by the staff, because (s)he received the crap that the staff has tried to feed Draconis and myself. And the staff has the audacity to regard this issue as an unpleasant surprise!
The reasons? They vary per victim, of course. In the case of Draconis and myself, it was because we were administrators of the former #butthurtbrigade.
I was a staff member for merely about a week and a half, and was hit. Like they have with these other people, they managed to snag both my email and deviantART account.
From my ticket:
"I did not give out my passwords, EVER.
My passwords were not the same.
No, my passwords were not weak or easily guessed. They had numbers, words, and were entirely irrelevant. In fact, I had JUST changed them ~2:00 am (Central) on the 10th.
[edited in note: [link] ]
No, my security questions didn't suck. I never remember the answers to my questions, if you want to know how well they were.
No security holes on my end; I have used my virus programs and scanned for malicious items. None found.
[edited in note: I use Gmail. Gmail does not allow you to utilize your security question to recover your password if you have logged into the account within the past 24 hours (allowances supposedly made for new accounts).]
I didn't deactivate on purpose. I JUST bought a sub, bought an icon from *vaporotem, opened commissions, was busy posting a story, I JUST posted something last night, I had open inquiry tickets... why the hell would I deactivate on purpose?
I am not some freaking idiot, nor trying to make trouble, do not treat me like I am.
What I AM is a paying customer on deviantART, who HAS been a member for six years, who has reported various users and deviations and gotten them removed, who (as of the implementation of groups) administrated and helped members of groups, who created stamps to encourage users to purchase subs, who gave llamas and points, doodled on Muro, spoken with staff, and all sorts of shenanigans like that.
I am 20 years old, I have been using computers since I was 3, I have been using the Internet since I was 11, and I have been on deviantART since I was 13. Even that young I knew about how to protect myself. My security problems on my computer have probably been a grand total of three or four.
I would appreciate being treated like an adult customer/member of deviantART, not like a child who doesn't know anything about Internet safety.
Six years. Six years and I don't even warrant a response from the staff. From my brief dealings with $fourteenthstar, I get the impression she doesn't even realize I am also a victim.
I have been here since I the age of 13, I am 20 now... I grew up with deviantART, yet apparently I am worthless to the staff.
The staff refuses sympathy and help on the grounds that we're all simply idiots who can't protect themselves.
My notes and support ticket contained several links in regards to being contacted by the perpetrator, and yet nothing was done about any accounts brought up (one of them even still being an active, open account). No bans, no punishments, nothing.
That is, except for !Iamnotrealitysquared, who just happened to also "dox" (post personal information of) $realitysquared, as well as two others (~foxliek that I know of). Of course it's important for the staff to be protected, but apparently it's plain not important at all to protect the members!
Luckily, the information posted was outdated and/or slightly off, from what I've heard so far, so nobody's true personal information was dug up. However, the active perpetrator claims to have the information of various other users of deviantART (specifically the former memberbase of #butthurtbrigade). A threat to post members' personal information (names, phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, schools, places of work, IPs!) was issued... and not a thing has been done by staff.
deviantART does not care about its users' safety.
deviantART claims to be a business, and gladly so will it take your money, but when it comes to your account and personal security, they could give a shit less and would like you to stop pestering them about lost money or any problems or issues you have with the site as a whole, or implement changes that are hardly what you can call good money spent (llamas, anyone? or how extremely easy it is to be deactivated? the vast understaffing?). [link]
According to the staff, it's your fault and you don't deserve help if your information is taken from you and posted on their website. Despite the fact that it even happens to their own staff, we are all clearly of inferior intelligence.
They will not assist you, they won't even help find the violators to keep them from further causing trouble.
Who has confessed to the attacks?
!sheezyartistheway, !Iamnotrealitysquared, and !frenchmanhacker are among them, and postings were made by them using our accounts as well as obviously deactivating them (therefore, an IP imprint). Also, !cute-moogles is a suspect due to the information posted of ~foxliek being the same as information he had attempted to spread about her before.
I am withholding some information for the public so as I do not "startle the rabbits."
Yes, there are proxies out there that make these folks difficult to catch, however some reassurance that something will be done or tried, or really any acknowledgment that this information was processed at all, would be appreciated, don't you think? They also have their emails on file, and can at least ban what they do find.
But no, not even do we have the banning of the active, open account that is issuing threats of further attacks.
"But they are listening, they do love you, they are changing the system!"
They are only thinking about changing the system to merely give a seven-day grace period before an account is deactivated.
Here are the problems with that, which have been pointed out but not answered:
1. That still doesn't change how easy it is for someone to simply get into your account, change your email, and never allow you back in again.
2. It's been nearly two weeks since I've sent my support ticket. That's more than seven days, so it seems their system has failed already, since they are not prompt enough to assist users.
3. If an account is hijacked while the user is away, then this does not help them. A week is too short.
4. If the staff continues to act as they are, then its a useless implementation as the staff will merely tell you that it's your fault and you need to leave them alone.
5. On top of this, they are thinking of making it impossible for you to log into your deactivated account, which would make it impossible to be helped at all.
On top of that, the journal in question is riddled with victim-blaming and giving the overall impression that it's "such a bothersome annoyance" to have to actually put effort into an idea (that is constantly being referred to with "GOSH WE JUST DID WHAT YOU WANTED").
Comments to read:
[link] [link] [link] -- a valid and worrisome point
[link] [link] [link] -- regarding the backwards logic put forth, and the last link suggests a reactivation fee. Hey, dA, look, you could have money! That makes you pay attention more, right?
[link] [link] [link] -- in regards to the journal tone and overall conduct of staff.
[link] [link] -- in regards to the "logic" behind why deactivation exists and why it's irreversible (tip: supposedly it was implemented to stop people from saying they were leaving and then not leaving... how does deactivation do this, again?).
[link] [link]
There are other comments and deviations making suggestions of how to change deviantART to help user security that are going ignored. [link] [link] [link] (additionally, other websites have official documentation you must fill out to deactivate or delete accounts).
An excerpt worth noting:
"Now, there has been claims by some in the community that these particular deviants had it coming, or that they deserved it because of their own conduct towards others."
First of all, this who paragraph is unprofessional and irrelevant.
Secondly, when you make a claim, it'd do well to back it up. Who is saying this, exactly? I browsed through the threads that I know of, the comments on this journal, the comments on the article, the comments on this stamp, and the comments sent to ~Nannairb and myself, and only see this claim maybe twice, both of which are trolling/not serious.
HOWEVER, it is fairly well-known that $fourteenthstar and her buddy $realitysquared BOTH had issues with #butthurtbrigade ([link] [link] [link] ) So, is it "some users" saying it, or is it some administrators?
Side note: "So over the past few months, we've been monitoring how deactivation has been going. 207,463 deviants have deactivated their accounts. The bulk of these (27%) are due to people wanting a new username. I haven't pulled statistics on this yet, but I am confident that the majority of these deviants already had registered a new account prior to deactivating."
What relevance is this? When a user asks about just making it to where you can change your name, $fourteenthstar blows them off with "that's not the issue," when she's the one who brought it up.
When has deviantART failed its users before?
Oh, dA loves to fail its users.
!Pr0stSh0cKeR, who I mentioned before, was a popular deviant who was suddenly banned for "promoting /b/ activities," despite the gratuitous usage of 4chan memes on deviantART. He was brushed off in his protests, and it took him years to finally regain his account.
!Duh-Sa, a user banned for posting on someone's profile just before he/she was spammed. She received the blame, due to having past issues with the user, and has had no response from the staff in her ban appeal.
!cutechong, who spammed many users across multiple accounts, issued threats, and posted art theft. It took several people with hundreds of links for examples over the course of months for the staff to finally deem her actions as ban worthy. [link] this comment was left unanswered because it's clearly not enough. I've reported multiple users for these things and always get a "who cares just block them" as a response. `PainInTheAssimilated had a couple someones spamming his profile. [link] His issue was not properly read (something which has also happened to me) and was blown off.
A user was posting anti-Arabic/Persian and anti-Muslim spam on a deviation, yet when I reported it for hate speech, and I was told to block them (I wasn't even involved in the flame-war). !prosaix's homophobia stamp is still allowed. [link] Yet, ~Valgaror's anti-Semite stamp was removed for hate art. [link]
!mowbutt was banned for "being a troll" despite the staff being given evidence that whoever reported her fabricated evidence, spammed her, encouraged people to spam her and block her (even by going to random pages and deviations), and then report her despite not even knowing who she is, and acting trollish as well. They merely gave her a copy-paste response without reading her report, as well.
#Yaoi-Centre was targeting users for harassment and made a statement about "not caring about the porn rules." When reported, I got a copy-paste response.
Groups that are clearly rule-breaking or intending to be rule-breaking (ex: #Theifs-hood and #Disney-porn) are not removed because it isn't "explicitly stated" on the page that they are doing so, however #butthurtbrigade was targeted without such expectations.
!emolover63 was sending out creepy and sexual messages to users. [link] When reported, the staff said that the notes must be reported as spam in order for them to be legitimate evidence, and then nothing was done when this happened. The "worthless members" were the ones who did something to protect users here; they chased him off.
!Mr-King2010 was stealing photos of children and leaving comments on other photos such as "I would like to fuck her pussy." Once again, the "worthless members" of deviantART got to him before the staff ever did anything.
Members have been banned from reporting and/or using the Help Desk for being "too pesky" about their issues.
[link]
A deviant has also admitted to me that he/she hijacked ~BeyBlader-Mariah once and spammed $realitysquared's page (along with other places) and the staff refused to help her; she had to help herself out of the hijacking.
The allowance of tracing, and the whole issue of not being allowed to report stolen work unless you own it.
The DD a few weeks that was traced from another work, and, despite hundreds of reports, the staff never acted on; the deviant had to remove it because of all the complaints in the comments.
And do you all recall an issue around 2004 or 2005 that gave leniency to thieves, even going so far as to threaten bans on people who complained about their art being stolen? Caused a mass migration to SheezyArt.
This is all on top of the lack of doing anything about the threats of posting personal information and the account hijacking, even going so far as to refuse help.
Now I bring back to you my own issue.
I want my account unfrozen.
I can log in. Everything I want is right there.
1. My page views are still counting,
2. My notes are still stored, I can even receive notes apparently,
3. I'm still an admin of my groups,
4. I still receive replies, I WAS receiving group notifications,
5. My watchers have yet to unwatch me,
6. My Stats are there,
7. My Settings are there,
8. My sub is there,
9. My llamas are there, my points are there,
10. My name is there....
The only things gone are the "fat" - the deviations, the journals, the favourites, and how I had my profile page looking. That's fine that they're gone; they're NOT what I want.
Everything I want still there. So why can't I have it? Why can deviantART not give me what's already there? I have begged for someone to give me some explanation other than "we just can't."
I paid money for my sub. I've spent money on deviantART before. People paid money for me, for points and subs.
I can only consider it theft that I for some reason can't have this back.
On top of that, there are legalities to consider; deviantART usually judges theft from post date, and now I have incorrect post dates on my artwork, thus making it easier for my work to be stolen, not just on deviantART but also on other websites, because my timestamps have been changed.
I can't donate my points to this account, transfer my subscription, or my group administration. I am not even receiving anything that remotely looks like a compromise to at least help me with this. The staff is slow and unhelpful, going around and commenting/replying to people, holding interviews, and not addressing their tickets.
I can't possibly be asking for much if all I want is what's already still there and clearly still functioning.
Side note: Whenever it is pointed out that images and other things from deactivated accounts are still available, soon after they are mysteriously deleted, even though they have been up for months to years.
I would also like to state that I would definitely be willing to pay for my account to be reactivated, as would others; I fully support reactivation fees for deviantART's troubles. Many people do, it's a good idea!
I suggest the price to be anywhere between 3$ and 8$, only going higher if the account holds/has bought a subscription lasting beyond three months.
However, I am ignored. We are ignored, told to go away, blamed for our circumstances, insulted, censored, given poor excuses, and sniped at.
Additional reading:
[link] [link] [link]
[link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link]
[link] [link] [link] [link]
[link] [link] [link] [link]
And a sub for someone who didn't lose anything.
I filed a ticket in the same day, requesting aide and support. Lacking response and shenanigans seen elsewhere spurred me to note +spyed on Monday. As of December 23rd, I've sent ~10 notes to +spyed in regards to this matter, and begged for response in my support ticket.
No response received.
Though, at the risk of giving myself unwarranted self-importance, soon after some of my notes +spyed added $fourteenthstar to his watch and $fourteenthstar made that official announcement regarding the change of the Deactivation system.
Things to read initially: [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link]
Who else has been a victim of this?
!Draconis-Wyrm, !Sahuri, !Sciarpa, !Koari-chan, ~monstermaster13 (new account), !pwned4free, !Chaos21, !Pr0stSh0cKeR, !FlashFire44, !IsaiahS, !Hatsune-Yuna, and countless others.
I bring them up because there have been claims about this being "a recent issue" and a "small issue," but considering everything I've found out and been told, this is, in fact, neither of those. In fact, the user !IsaiahS was chased off of deviantART by the staff, because (s)he received the crap that the staff has tried to feed Draconis and myself. And the staff has the audacity to regard this issue as an unpleasant surprise!
The reasons? They vary per victim, of course. In the case of Draconis and myself, it was because we were administrators of the former #butthurtbrigade.
I was a staff member for merely about a week and a half, and was hit. Like they have with these other people, they managed to snag both my email and deviantART account.
From my ticket:
"I did not give out my passwords, EVER.
My passwords were not the same.
No, my passwords were not weak or easily guessed. They had numbers, words, and were entirely irrelevant. In fact, I had JUST changed them ~2:00 am (Central) on the 10th.
[edited in note: [link] ]
No, my security questions didn't suck. I never remember the answers to my questions, if you want to know how well they were.
No security holes on my end; I have used my virus programs and scanned for malicious items. None found.
[edited in note: I use Gmail. Gmail does not allow you to utilize your security question to recover your password if you have logged into the account within the past 24 hours (allowances supposedly made for new accounts).]
I didn't deactivate on purpose. I JUST bought a sub, bought an icon from *vaporotem, opened commissions, was busy posting a story, I JUST posted something last night, I had open inquiry tickets... why the hell would I deactivate on purpose?
I am not some freaking idiot, nor trying to make trouble, do not treat me like I am.
What I AM is a paying customer on deviantART, who HAS been a member for six years, who has reported various users and deviations and gotten them removed, who (as of the implementation of groups) administrated and helped members of groups, who created stamps to encourage users to purchase subs, who gave llamas and points, doodled on Muro, spoken with staff, and all sorts of shenanigans like that.
I am 20 years old, I have been using computers since I was 3, I have been using the Internet since I was 11, and I have been on deviantART since I was 13. Even that young I knew about how to protect myself. My security problems on my computer have probably been a grand total of three or four.
I would appreciate being treated like an adult customer/member of deviantART, not like a child who doesn't know anything about Internet safety.
Six years. Six years and I don't even warrant a response from the staff. From my brief dealings with $fourteenthstar, I get the impression she doesn't even realize I am also a victim.
I have been here since I the age of 13, I am 20 now... I grew up with deviantART, yet apparently I am worthless to the staff.
The staff refuses sympathy and help on the grounds that we're all simply idiots who can't protect themselves.
My notes and support ticket contained several links in regards to being contacted by the perpetrator, and yet nothing was done about any accounts brought up (one of them even still being an active, open account). No bans, no punishments, nothing.
That is, except for !Iamnotrealitysquared, who just happened to also "dox" (post personal information of) $realitysquared, as well as two others (~foxliek that I know of). Of course it's important for the staff to be protected, but apparently it's plain not important at all to protect the members!
Luckily, the information posted was outdated and/or slightly off, from what I've heard so far, so nobody's true personal information was dug up. However, the active perpetrator claims to have the information of various other users of deviantART (specifically the former memberbase of #butthurtbrigade). A threat to post members' personal information (names, phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, schools, places of work, IPs!) was issued... and not a thing has been done by staff.
deviantART does not care about its users' safety.
deviantART claims to be a business, and gladly so will it take your money, but when it comes to your account and personal security, they could give a shit less and would like you to stop pestering them about lost money or any problems or issues you have with the site as a whole, or implement changes that are hardly what you can call good money spent (llamas, anyone? or how extremely easy it is to be deactivated? the vast understaffing?). [link]
According to the staff, it's your fault and you don't deserve help if your information is taken from you and posted on their website. Despite the fact that it even happens to their own staff, we are all clearly of inferior intelligence.
They will not assist you, they won't even help find the violators to keep them from further causing trouble.
Who has confessed to the attacks?
!sheezyartistheway, !Iamnotrealitysquared, and !frenchmanhacker are among them, and postings were made by them using our accounts as well as obviously deactivating them (therefore, an IP imprint). Also, !cute-moogles is a suspect due to the information posted of ~foxliek being the same as information he had attempted to spread about her before.
I am withholding some information for the public so as I do not "startle the rabbits."
Yes, there are proxies out there that make these folks difficult to catch, however some reassurance that something will be done or tried, or really any acknowledgment that this information was processed at all, would be appreciated, don't you think? They also have their emails on file, and can at least ban what they do find.
But no, not even do we have the banning of the active, open account that is issuing threats of further attacks.
"But they are listening, they do love you, they are changing the system!"
They are only thinking about changing the system to merely give a seven-day grace period before an account is deactivated.
Here are the problems with that, which have been pointed out but not answered:
1. That still doesn't change how easy it is for someone to simply get into your account, change your email, and never allow you back in again.
2. It's been nearly two weeks since I've sent my support ticket. That's more than seven days, so it seems their system has failed already, since they are not prompt enough to assist users.
3. If an account is hijacked while the user is away, then this does not help them. A week is too short.
4. If the staff continues to act as they are, then its a useless implementation as the staff will merely tell you that it's your fault and you need to leave them alone.
5. On top of this, they are thinking of making it impossible for you to log into your deactivated account, which would make it impossible to be helped at all.
On top of that, the journal in question is riddled with victim-blaming and giving the overall impression that it's "such a bothersome annoyance" to have to actually put effort into an idea (that is constantly being referred to with "GOSH WE JUST DID WHAT YOU WANTED").
Comments to read:
[link] [link] [link] -- a valid and worrisome point
[link] [link] [link] -- regarding the backwards logic put forth, and the last link suggests a reactivation fee. Hey, dA, look, you could have money! That makes you pay attention more, right?
[link] [link] [link] -- in regards to the journal tone and overall conduct of staff.
[link] [link] -- in regards to the "logic" behind why deactivation exists and why it's irreversible (tip: supposedly it was implemented to stop people from saying they were leaving and then not leaving... how does deactivation do this, again?).
[link] [link]
There are other comments and deviations making suggestions of how to change deviantART to help user security that are going ignored. [link] [link] [link] (additionally, other websites have official documentation you must fill out to deactivate or delete accounts).
An excerpt worth noting:
"Now, there has been claims by some in the community that these particular deviants had it coming, or that they deserved it because of their own conduct towards others."
First of all, this who paragraph is unprofessional and irrelevant.
Secondly, when you make a claim, it'd do well to back it up. Who is saying this, exactly? I browsed through the threads that I know of, the comments on this journal, the comments on the article, the comments on this stamp, and the comments sent to ~Nannairb and myself, and only see this claim maybe twice, both of which are trolling/not serious.
HOWEVER, it is fairly well-known that $fourteenthstar and her buddy $realitysquared BOTH had issues with #butthurtbrigade ([link] [link] [link] ) So, is it "some users" saying it, or is it some administrators?
Side note: "So over the past few months, we've been monitoring how deactivation has been going. 207,463 deviants have deactivated their accounts. The bulk of these (27%) are due to people wanting a new username. I haven't pulled statistics on this yet, but I am confident that the majority of these deviants already had registered a new account prior to deactivating."
What relevance is this? When a user asks about just making it to where you can change your name, $fourteenthstar blows them off with "that's not the issue," when she's the one who brought it up.
When has deviantART failed its users before?
Oh, dA loves to fail its users.
!Pr0stSh0cKeR, who I mentioned before, was a popular deviant who was suddenly banned for "promoting /b/ activities," despite the gratuitous usage of 4chan memes on deviantART. He was brushed off in his protests, and it took him years to finally regain his account.
!Duh-Sa, a user banned for posting on someone's profile just before he/she was spammed. She received the blame, due to having past issues with the user, and has had no response from the staff in her ban appeal.
!cutechong, who spammed many users across multiple accounts, issued threats, and posted art theft. It took several people with hundreds of links for examples over the course of months for the staff to finally deem her actions as ban worthy. [link] this comment was left unanswered because it's clearly not enough. I've reported multiple users for these things and always get a "who cares just block them" as a response. `PainInTheAssimilated had a couple someones spamming his profile. [link] His issue was not properly read (something which has also happened to me) and was blown off.
A user was posting anti-Arabic/Persian and anti-Muslim spam on a deviation, yet when I reported it for hate speech, and I was told to block them (I wasn't even involved in the flame-war). !prosaix's homophobia stamp is still allowed. [link] Yet, ~Valgaror's anti-Semite stamp was removed for hate art. [link]
!mowbutt was banned for "being a troll" despite the staff being given evidence that whoever reported her fabricated evidence, spammed her, encouraged people to spam her and block her (even by going to random pages and deviations), and then report her despite not even knowing who she is, and acting trollish as well. They merely gave her a copy-paste response without reading her report, as well.
#Yaoi-Centre was targeting users for harassment and made a statement about "not caring about the porn rules." When reported, I got a copy-paste response.
Groups that are clearly rule-breaking or intending to be rule-breaking (ex: #Theifs-hood and #Disney-porn) are not removed because it isn't "explicitly stated" on the page that they are doing so, however #butthurtbrigade was targeted without such expectations.
!emolover63 was sending out creepy and sexual messages to users. [link] When reported, the staff said that the notes must be reported as spam in order for them to be legitimate evidence, and then nothing was done when this happened. The "worthless members" were the ones who did something to protect users here; they chased him off.
!Mr-King2010 was stealing photos of children and leaving comments on other photos such as "I would like to fuck her pussy." Once again, the "worthless members" of deviantART got to him before the staff ever did anything.
Members have been banned from reporting and/or using the Help Desk for being "too pesky" about their issues.
[link]
A deviant has also admitted to me that he/she hijacked ~BeyBlader-Mariah once and spammed $realitysquared's page (along with other places) and the staff refused to help her; she had to help herself out of the hijacking.
The allowance of tracing, and the whole issue of not being allowed to report stolen work unless you own it.
The DD a few weeks that was traced from another work, and, despite hundreds of reports, the staff never acted on; the deviant had to remove it because of all the complaints in the comments.
And do you all recall an issue around 2004 or 2005 that gave leniency to thieves, even going so far as to threaten bans on people who complained about their art being stolen? Caused a mass migration to SheezyArt.
This is all on top of the lack of doing anything about the threats of posting personal information and the account hijacking, even going so far as to refuse help.
Now I bring back to you my own issue.
I want my account unfrozen.
I can log in. Everything I want is right there.
1. My page views are still counting,
2. My notes are still stored, I can even receive notes apparently,
3. I'm still an admin of my groups,
4. I still receive replies, I WAS receiving group notifications,
5. My watchers have yet to unwatch me,
6. My Stats are there,
7. My Settings are there,
8. My sub is there,
9. My llamas are there, my points are there,
10. My name is there....
The only things gone are the "fat" - the deviations, the journals, the favourites, and how I had my profile page looking. That's fine that they're gone; they're NOT what I want.
Everything I want still there. So why can't I have it? Why can deviantART not give me what's already there? I have begged for someone to give me some explanation other than "we just can't."
I paid money for my sub. I've spent money on deviantART before. People paid money for me, for points and subs.
I can only consider it theft that I for some reason can't have this back.
On top of that, there are legalities to consider; deviantART usually judges theft from post date, and now I have incorrect post dates on my artwork, thus making it easier for my work to be stolen, not just on deviantART but also on other websites, because my timestamps have been changed.
I can't donate my points to this account, transfer my subscription, or my group administration. I am not even receiving anything that remotely looks like a compromise to at least help me with this. The staff is slow and unhelpful, going around and commenting/replying to people, holding interviews, and not addressing their tickets.
I can't possibly be asking for much if all I want is what's already still there and clearly still functioning.
Side note: Whenever it is pointed out that images and other things from deactivated accounts are still available, soon after they are mysteriously deleted, even though they have been up for months to years.
I would also like to state that I would definitely be willing to pay for my account to be reactivated, as would others; I fully support reactivation fees for deviantART's troubles. Many people do, it's a good idea!
I suggest the price to be anywhere between 3$ and 8$, only going higher if the account holds/has bought a subscription lasting beyond three months.
However, I am ignored. We are ignored, told to go away, blamed for our circumstances, insulted, censored, given poor excuses, and sniped at.
Additional reading:
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And a sub for someone who didn't lose anything.
But I can't talk about them because it was hinted at that I'd be banned if I did.
Though, when you have an issue with a particular staff person, why is it that the ONLY one the let you contact (ie the only one to answer help desk questions, none of the other ones will respond to notes, etc) is the one you have an issue with?
Just because the fans would Beg the staff.
The staff need to stop being such babies and change from diapers to their big girl panties and deal with this. NOW.
I've had issues with hackers in other sites, but they help me out any day. So why can't DA?
Listen to Obama, 'cos he says "YES, WE CAN!"
Only whimps say that they can't do things!
Also thanks for posting this. I'm going to change some profile settings right away!
However I saw this news [link] and I felt my disappointment return.