... As I was saying, the policies on pornographic content in DeviantART are utterly incoherent. It's all there. I will grant the administration that, but it is dotted over several different articles that the submitter has to hunt to find. The terms that are agreed, upon uploading literature, state merely that any depiction of the sexual act must be in a context which has 'redeeming literary qualities'. Do I judge my stories to have literary worth? Yes, I do. DeviantART, by removing random chapters within this context, has stated that it does not share that view. Here we have a stalemate.

The submission policy lays the onus upon me not to:

to upload, post, or otherwise transmit any material that is obscene, offensive, blasphemous, pornographic, unlawful, threatening, menacing, abusive, harmful, an invasion of privacy or publicity rights, defamatory, libelous, vulgar, illegal or otherwise objectionable

Such vague terms to describe the range of human perception. What some may find perfectly acceptable, others shrink from in abject horror. However, there is guidance. The terms direct us to the Etiquette Guidance, which is again crouched in language that is highly subjective in its interpretation:

When we discuss mature content we are specifically referring to deviations which contain images, subject matter, or other themes which some viewers may find offensive, distasteful, or otherwise undesirable to view or to read. The most common ‘undesired’ viewing material may include, but is not limited to, images containing artistic nudity (see details below), large amounts of simulated blood and gore, or generally violent themes.

DeviantART strictly prohibits the submission of materials classified as pornographic or obscene. There is no exception to this prohibition.

Certain content may be deemed obscene by the administration and as such the staff reserves the right to remove such content immediately upon discovery. The administration reserves the sole right to review and classify questionable material as obscene or not obscene.

There is nothing else, in the terms agreed upon when submitting artwork to clarify such matters. We are furthermore told that:

As new situations come to our attention we may find it necessary to alter or expand upon the policies stated here with little or no notification and any such changes may be enforced in full against previously existing submissions or behavior.... Petitions and other forms of public outcry are discouraged and will have no affect on Managerial Reviews of staff actions and may in fact be detrimental to the case in question.

So policies may be subjectively applied, at the whim of a moderator, with no fear of retribution. This moderator then grand-daddy the change in policy, resulting in the banning or suspension of individuals, who were breaking no rules at the time of submission. Anyone protesting this action will be in exile indefinitely. Right. I think that the last time I read something similar to that, it was in an Amnesty International casefile. However, this is DeviantART's website, not a totalitarian state, so that's perhaps peevish of me to bring it up.

It does however mean that Anda-Chan's fiction, portraying two men in a club bathroom, initiating a relationship as much psychological as it is physical, is pornography. However, 'Shame, Shame + a Lousy Nickname', describing a woman masturbating in a public toilet, whilst vowing to pay a gigolo to 'stab me with ink to the tune of cumslut', is not only art, but was a Daily Deviation on October 18th, 2008.



My own fiction may not have a young man begging to be hurt, because it's the only way he knows how to feel. It may not explore the issues surrounding this of exploitation versus mutual consent, S&M versus domestic violence nor even the on-going psychological trauma of child soldiers now grown. This is pornography. On the other hand, a bare-breasted woman receiving a blast of red hot metal against her, despite the comments recording misgivings on her part, is art. It was a Daily Deviation on November 12th, 2008.



Similarly, my own writing of two men embracing under religious icons, finally having wrestled their demons enough for tenderness to be created between them, is pornography. 'Like Children We Make Believe', evocating the same themes in photography between a heterosexual couple, is art. It was a Daily Deviation on November 14th, 2008.



I still claim inconsistency with the execution of DeviantART policies.

I was banned. A huge outcry did erupt. In honesty, I was its catalyst but not its ringleader and I am inordinately proud of those who did orchestrate this. My penalty was transmuted to a two week suspension (it was longer in actuality, because it was applied at the time when the transmution occurred, not the original ruling). For those who wrote journals, beseiged the administration with e-mails, signed the petition and posted protest artwork, thank you. You succeeded and you should all be really proud of the fact that you will stand up and be heard. The world needs people just like you. Dictatorships rise on apathy, but its the heroes who listen say 'no' who collapse them again.

I was banned, then suspended, because of prohibited content. In this case, it was pornography. Random chapters in my series were shot down under the ruling,

'Literature which contains the following themes will be considered unacceptable for submission if the reviewing staff determines that the work possesses no redeeming literary qualities. Any work deemed unacceptable will be removed by staff without prior warning.'

The ultimate irony, of course, is that someone, somewhere, did actually read my series in its entirety before reporting those chapters in which intimacy was described. I find it hard to believe that it was a member of DeviantART staff. I'm judging this on the fact that it takes hours to read my stories, just to find the paragraphs which are arguably pornographic under DeviantART's policies. If moderators were reading them, then they would be doing nothing else with their working day and would get the sack. Instead, I subscribe to the view that there is a 'sniper' in our midst. There is a lot of evidence for this, not least that the individual does not know that galleries are still accessible once a person has been suspended. What happened to Anda-Chan and, I suspect, will happen to me tonight proves that. One round of reports equates a suspension; two equates a banning. Nice strategy, cariad fi.

To the person reporting yaoi, on the basis that DeviantART staff possibly do not investigate context before removing it, I have this to say to you. I know that you're young and I know that you have been having feelings towards people of the same sex as yourself. It must be highly confusing to find yourself drawn time and time again to the artwork and literature showing the very thing that is repulsing you in yourself. I examined with interest the chapters that you found particularly offensive in my series and in the work of others. They did follow a pattern, that you wouldn't need to be L to draw conclusions from. It's Mello, isn't it, my love? So many themes that confuse Mello resonate for you too. He's got under your skin, hasn't he? In truth, we all had a shock, while reading the manga, when it dawned on us he was actually male. The hair-do and eyeliner threw us all. The shock you had is still throwing you though, isn't it? You hit more people in the Mello specific clubs than you did in Mattgasm. Yes, I do know that it's not just Death Note. Kingdom Hearts is another of your favourites.

May I suggest a close reading of the Book of Samuel? David and Jonathan's relationship may be described as a close friendship, even through the part where David states that his love for Jonathan surpasses that which he has felt for any woman. They are loyal friends who would die for one another. It's all good. But then there's one line which leaps out at us. 1 Samuel 20 - 'to the shame of thy mother's nakedness', Saul accuses Jonathan, and we've heard that before. The euphemism is all over Genesis. Merch Gwyar, over on Sal's Realm of Runescape, argued this one. Her words might have relevance for you now: Homosexuality. I wish you all the luck in the world, because all of this sniping isn't going to make your feelings go away. You are a teenager and this is a very fraught time for you right now. It gets better, I promise, but first you are going to have to accept it. You are gay. Mello, when depicted so realistically in artwork and literature, does move you differently. It's ok. He does that.

Am I going to beg you to stop sniping while you come to terms with your homosexuality? Nope. Most of us have migrated to MangaBullet anyway. The policy there is far more coherent and consistently applied than here on DeviantART and therefore not so easy to exploit. We've settled in very nicely and all starting to upload our portfolios. I'm halfway through uploading 'My Own Way', which you liked. While I thoroughly appreciate the work undertaken by those who wanted me back here, I still refuse to proclaim my own work without the 'literary qualities' that would place it foul of DA's subjective view of pornography. I still refuse to enact my Bonfire of the Vanities. I'll be away this weekend, so I won't be here to have the deletion race that Anda-Chan fought. If I'm not permanently banned by the time I return, then I commend your courage in finally facing your own inner demons. If I am, then fair enough. But I still wish you well on your journey. You angered and dented us, but didn't erase us. Us, and your own libido, are not so easily removed.



These clubs have permission to use my st00f: