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There once was a man from Green Bay.
He sat in the park and drank guiness all day.
To be quite frank:
He has the power to spank.
So be careful what you say about Slim, k?



<h2>In All Seriousness</h2>

°jark isn't coming back.

He may at some point, and this is a may here, win a legal battle which forces deviantART to give him some money. If he loses, deviantART is out a whole lot of money in legal fees. Money which deviantART doesn't have. If we had this kind of money laying around, we'd have 10 more developers and the website would be so fast we might even have to wear neck protection because of all the whiplash.





$lolly is here for good. He's a badass mofo with an agenda to push.

That agenda involves getting these features you want, getting the contests you want, reading and considering your suggestions for the future. It's completely about you. And by you I mean every single artist on this website: staffer, senior, professional, newb or otherwise.


<h2>What's good for the goose is good for the gander. </h2>

It's no secret this is a corporation. That's really lawyer talk for the "small buisiness" that deviantART really is. This place isn't being choked by administrative costs because we've hired a bunch of extraneous fat cats that don't do any work and collect a hefty salary. It's being run by people who work their collective butts off for you for very little -or no- money at all.

The corporation spends money on upgrading the server infrastructure, paying customer service and managers, and paying developers to keep cranking out features and bug fixes.

This is GOOD for you.

This is GOOD for the company. It continues to exist. It continues to allow for growth. All of this immediately gets put back into the community which is GOOD for ...

you!

<h2>Biting the Hand that Feeds</h2>

When certain individuals feel the need to run around and stir people up with the intention of harming progress hurt ...

you.

When certain individuals feel that because the administration has turned a blind eye while the community has dealt with the impact of °jark's removal from staff so far, they can continue to break policy: they hurt ...

you.

<h2>The future?</h2>

The time has come for this destructive pattern to stop. It's doing the community absolutely no good. It's doing the administrators here no good.

The admins have repetitively had to stop what they are doing, at least once a week, to deal with some new "fiasco".





When does this stop? When this legal battle is over? I've got news for you guys, it's a long way from over. There won't be a community around if this cycle keeps up. It'll happen sooner than °jark can raise his 20 grand. To start his case. It'll certainly happen sooner than the case actually makes it into a court room.

<h2>On the one hand ...</h2>

You've got a great community, headed in a direction that benefits the artists here. You may not agree with every decision. You may not want to participate in every contest. You may not want to use every feature. The whole is bigger than the sum of it's parts, trust me, or none of you would be here right now.

<h2>On the other hand ...</h2>

You've got a community that is slowly dying from all the shit, piss, blood and hate being thrown around right now. You've got a whole lot of unknowns, a lot of confusion, and a lot of ignorance. People fighting to the death (read bannage) for a cause they can't begin to understand. You've got a whole lot of frustrated admins who can't get to the good stuff because they are on the frontlines getting the shit, piss, blood and hate getting thrown in their face on a regular basis.

<h2>Which do you want to see happen?</h2>



<h2>Mad Luff</h2>