Salutations all,

I am writing this as a relatively quiet, albeit long, announcement, since I feel it is my duty to let all of my watchers know what is happening with me. The short story is that I have decided to retire from deviantART. This is not a decision made lightly or without due consideration. The events of the past week or so are what finally gave me reason to re-consider my position, and considerable reason they gave. After all, how can one attempt to help the admins enforce the rules when they will not actually enforce them properly? I speak in particular of a trend I have noticed, most accutely this past week, where certain actions are not even punished despite the fact that they explicitly and severely break the rules. Why is not certain, although in some cases it seems fair to speculate that popularity actually has provided a shield against punishment. What ever the reasoning, it seems that the admins have decided that they will not allow punishment of users who post links to pornographic websites, despite the fact that it is explicitly prohibited to do so in the FAQ. Four users, all guilty of such things to some degree or another, were reported by myself over this last week and all were initially banned. However, by today all four have been unbanned and one even was allowed to keep the policy violating link on their profile. This despite the fact that two of them even attempted to ban evade during their brief bans, an action that should have resulted in permanent banning as happens with everyone else. I ask you, what kind of example is this? To let such things slide without even a slap on the wrist? It is hypocrisy, nothing but shameful, disgusting hypocrisy.

In addition to that, the attitudes of the many fans of these people served only to further highlight just how depraved this community has become. I had nearly a thousand page views over a five day period, mostly from people who decided I was a horrible person for reporting a breach of policy and then informing people of the matter. It seems that openly and honestly supporting the rules makes me everything from an ass to a monster, at least according to a group of people who seem to gratify themselves by looking at pictures of tentacles raping women or similar such things. They will also assure you that my decision to let my aesthetic taste be guided by my conscience and sense of morality makes me backwards and medieval in my way of thinking. This kind of attitude makes me sick, and just goes to show how perverse this community has become. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any way of changing that fact since the rules here are so liberal and ambiguous and this manner of thinking has become so deeply ingrained. This, more than anything else, is what has killed the quality of deviantART. Ironic, is it not?

On a slightly nicer note, when I founded the Sentinels a few months ago, I had imagined that I would be gathering together an army. In the end, it turned out to be a mere handful. But for what it is worth, they have proven themselves to be better than the army that they have fought, and continue to fight, against. Since I have decided to retire, I have appointed a new admin to take over the role of leader. She has my full support, and I hope the full support of everyone else. I hope things go better for her and the group in the future than they have in the past.

Finally, for those who wish to keep in touch, send me a note and I will let you know where I am going and how to stay in contact. I will still be active for a few days, but after that it will be a rare occasion that I sign in at all and even then I will probably not be responding to communications.


Peace be upon you,

Ardent-Crusader