As some of you are probably already aware, my main account on Deviant Art was deactivated on Thursday, April 18th, 2024. This was not by my choice. It was terminated by Deviant Art Staff.
Here's what happened.
UPDATE: Italicized text is just speculation of the possibility of one event playing into another, and given the second update bracket, is likely inconsequential. While the timing is certainly suspicious, "suspect" is not a synonym for "guilty."
On April 11th, I got into an argument with another user named iamtheladyoflight, a fundamentally untalented "artist" whose work all screams "mid-to-late thirties spinster with baby rabies" and whose existence I only mildly tolerated, over, of all things, her pro abortion beliefs. (Stew on that divine comedy irony for a minute.) I didn't have the foresight to save the whole argument before she hid it, which lasted only a total of six comments, but I was keen enough to screenshot the first half, linked:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56334959/?upload-successful
Afterwords, we blocked each other and went our separate ways... or so I thought.
On April 16th, I had four of my pictures -- Massive Maternal May, Persona Permaberry - Ann Takamaki, Carmine, the Indigo Blueberry, and Happy Birthday from Hilda -- removed by Deviant Art on the claims that they contained "sexualization of underage characters," despite the fact that I made an effort to both show and explain that all the characters within them were meant to be depicted as eighteen years old or older. But others were targeted as well, such as Not To See, But To Feel: Part 3 (I'll be honest, that one doesn't surprise me), but so was "Nice Blue Balls, Bro." deleted for "violation of sexual policy," despite the fact that there isn't even any nudity in that one.
I was only on the site as TheHungryLurker since Christmas of 2021, but I've been lurking Deviant Art since some of my watchers were still in diapers, so I know that the NKVDeviant Art staff don't typically remove something unless somebody reports it, and Lady herself once said to me "never underestimate what I can do with enough spite." I'll admit this is speculation on my part, but there is at least a suspect and motive.
Either way, after those first four pictures were deleted, I attempted to reupload them in a heavily edited state, where almost everything but their heads were obscured. This just resulted in more take downs, and a permanent ban.
I've filed an appeal, but for all I know that's just going to amount to piss in the wind. Even if my original account is reinstated, I'm going to direct people more towards and increasing my standing on my accounts outside of Deviant Art, such as this one. And if I do make a new DA account several months from now when the heat has died down, I'm going to do the same thing. For now, none of my current plans involve Deviant Art. Time will tell if my future plans don't involve it, either.
[sighs] Rimou was right.
UPDATE: A user claiming to be iamtheladyoflight has contacted me and stated that she had nothing to do with my pictures being reported, only that she blocked me after our argument and moved on and offered their condolences for the situation. I personally cannot independently confirm or disprove if this user is Lady, or if she is, that she is indeed telling the truth on the matter. Then again, I have also stated from the start that my speculation of her involvement is exactly that: speculation, and that I also cannot confirm or disprove her involvement. So don't go doing anything rash like mass report her profile without irrefutable evidence of her involvement. We must abide by the precept that people are innocent unless they can be immutably and objectively proven guilty.
I did something rash, and my Deviant Art account got deleted for it.