DeviantART Drama: my POV on a actual case

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Nyrn-Aeh's avatar
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Warning; this journal entry is mentioning suicide threats several times so if you are insecure about this topic, feel free not to read.

So first, I would like you to understand I am not writing this journal entry to raise hatred towards this person, but I am taking this very case as an example of what I was explaining in my previous journal entry.

in a very short nutshell, this person was "called out" on the DA forums for having posted multiple fake suicide threats, posting uncredited edited artwork and having an offensive behavior towards other members when they wouldn't share her opinions.
While all these reasons are perfectly legitimate and would logically result in her being banned, the reaction that followed illustrated very well what the DevianART community has become. Since she was publicly "called out" on DA forums and even outside DA, people kept going to her page and posted multiple comments, reminding her of copyright laws, asking her to take her artworks down or, for the worst, outright insulting her.

I have to say I am always surprised to see that people apparently think that the best way to deal with such cases is to add more fuel to the fire by insulting people back and constantly harassing them.

This is in my opinion not the right way to react and I'll explain why:
- If this person was manipulative enough it would be easy for her to take things out of context and say the trolls and whiteknights attacked and harassed her, resulting in her gaining the "pity" of the mods;
- The reason this person posted multiple suicide threats is obviously that she wants to get more attention which she gets (and she obviously didn't actually suicide since she keeps posting stuff).

The best way to think about it is to consider the person is an actor performing on a stage. My reasoning can be summed up this way:
She is acting dramatic to get attention
-> She gets insulted and is the center of the attention
--> By being the center of all this drama, it reinforces the idea she is right to act like she does, because 1/ people are "mean" to her and 2/ she is getting attention
---> She keeps acting dramatic to get attention.
In my opinion it appears as if it was a vicious circle: constantly posting comments would not result in her stopping to shove down random people's throat or posting fake suicide threats, but more in the opposite.

As I mentioned in a conversation with a deviant who made a journal entry about this person, the best --or at least what my common sense and my personal experience made me think-- is to not give her that stage and audience she is being provided by being the center of the attention, may it be negative, but to simply ignore her when she is acting histrionic and show some interest when she is not acting all dramatic. It may seem loose considering she is using suicide as a threat and suicide is not something to be taken lightly, but even suicide threats shouldn't be taken as a way to manipulate people by involving them emotionally in the drama.

This shouldn't prevent people from reporting her though, but the best would be in my opinion to keep reporting her to mods, providing evidence so that the staff does something, and not to get involved in the drama by interacting with her, because she would not get as much attention... and maybe it wouldn't deteriorate the atmosphere of the DA community this much.
© 2013 - 2024 Nyrn-Aeh
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RevenNiaga's avatar
Je suis bien d'accord avec toi ^^.
Il me semble en plus que c'est vraiment…heu…logique en plus ?


(en plus que ça empêche de gaspiller du temps à laisser un commentaire et s'impliquer dans une dispute superflue).