The preamble

To anyone who may be reading this, I hope that you can be mature. Although the assumption of this journal is that deviant art users are not. Regardless, I hope that if you have nothing intelligent or respectful to say, that you will not say anything at all.

Writing my first entry ... was never something I thought I would actually do. I may stop before I finish and this may never even be posted, but I'm still trying to gather my thoughts so I'll play it by ear for now. I apologize if any of this journal is rambling, but please try to understand the mindset you are dealing with.

It is sad, I think, that my first entry had to be motivated by a deep sense of disgust. In an ideal world I would have liked to talk about something which moved me or gave me hope for the future. A child being born, an epiphany, maybe something as simple as a movie which touched me personally. Anything but this.

How this article came to be

Tonight, after an enjoyable evening out with friends, I came to deviant art for a casual browse before bed. At some point during this casual event I came upon WhiteDog1's deviant art page. A user I like to think of as a casual artist, with an extremely large and unpredictable fan base. For those who don't know, her art is controversial in that it predominantly relates to unusual sexual themes such as homosexuality, "furries" (a term I hate as it basically means cartoon, people never complained when Mickey Mouse was driving a Steam Boat, but if he has an adult relationship its too much of a deviation from reality), and partial or total nudity.

Obviously these themes are acquired tastes, I certainly wouldn't recommend them to children, I wouldn't even have recommended them to myself several years ago when I first created a deviant art account. For me, her recent works are far beyond what I originally started watching her for that she seems like a different artist. Yet if you were to ask me at what point I noticed a palpable difference in her art I wouldn't be able to tell you. In short I am a casual fan of her work, I read what is uploaded, but I rarely if ever comment or fave. It's a couple of minutes spent relaxing.

The Issue

For the last few months Whitedog1 has been away from deviant art, something I have no problem with. The great advantage of being casual is that you can quit at any point, you aren't being paid, you have no obligations. That's right fans, she has no obligation to you in any way shape or form, as hard as it is to accept. Unless you were paying her money on a regular basis to entertain you, you must accept that fact. In response, her most devoted fans have posted on her account with various hopes for her return, theories on her disappearance, as well as a large amount of inane blather.

I'm now coming to the meat of my topic. One theory as to her disappearance was an article written about her on 'encyclopedia dramatica' a website I had been blissfully unaware of up until now. The theory was in essence that whitedog1 had left after reading the article. The first thing I want to say is do not read this article. Don't Google it, don't look for it, do not give the person who wrote it the satisfaction of another page view. I read it fully, and at no point did the article properly express anything which could be called a coherent thought. I read it line by line as it filthily and remorselessly destroyed the reputation of a human being and those associated with such. If I were to describe the article to you without curse words all that could really be said is that the person who wrote it does not like Whitedog1.

This person is 'NOTHALYCON' or 'GrabTheTanookiSuit' who I can only assume is a passionate troll. Meaning that they enjoy controversy and generating reactions out of people enough to write a long article about it. A poorly written one, but an article nonetheless. I can only say that they have been totally successful considering that I am now writing an article in reaction to this. The website 'encyclopedia dramatica' seems to be based upon this system of supplying controversy. I hate this website. That is how good they are at what they do. They have made me hate what they do within barely half an hour. And what is even more frustrating is that I can see no way to comment or retaliate without joining the website further proving that their system works.

The reason I have such a problem with this is that I see what it represents. The desecration of freedom of speech and the cowardice of those who sit at their computers. Freedom of speech is apparently something taken for granted on the internet. It should allow for people to express a true opinion that they honestly believe in. It should not be used as a part of a smear campaign against an innocent person for the purpose of satisfying ones own desire for attention. I do not for one second believe that the writer of that article believes word for word what he has written or any troll for that matter. Trolling is usually the product of a desire for attention or conflict, or the result of a personal vendetta. None of which I can see as beneficial or healthy.

Cowardice should be obvious. The appeal of trolling comes from being anonymous and able to write anything just for fun regardless of matters such as honesty, or potential harm. The bravery of persons who troll is questionable, and as such they deserve pity. The name 'Troll' is no coincidence, they are lonely, miserable people, who act out to make others just as forlorn as they are. Evidence? Reminisce about times when you were happy or content, at what point during those times did you desire to make another person miserable?

The Solution

My only advice would be to avoid 'encyclopedia dramatica' and anything associated with trolling completely. It would bring me no greater pleasure than to see the site shut down due to a lack of page views. BUT, I am sinking into hypocrisy by even telling you about this website. A clever scheme I have to admit, make people hate everything about you so much that they tell other people how much they hate you, and then have those people visit the site out of curiosity and repeat the process. It's a con to say the least. There are trolls on deviant art who do the same thing to a lesser scale with equally satisfying results.

Troll's will be trolls however, and people are generally stupid. Even after telling you not to go to this website, I am fairly sure you will, or perhaps already have, perhaps you yourself are a troll and may be retaliating already.

I place the blame on several people in the whitedog situation.

The Fans

You are the prime cause of this issue. (When I refer to fans please do not assume that you are one just because whitedog is on your watch list, the 'fans' know who they are.) Continuing to spam her account and retaliate to trolls en masse. The article mentioned above actually had some relevant points in relation to you, putting aside the obvious filth. Fans can be very powerful things, but they can also be harmful and lest we forget annoying. Although whitedog's status is still up in the air, the fan base could honestly be the most likely cause.

The Others

These people are not trolls, exactly. These are people who have to express a negative opinion with little or no value to the artist. My only advice to such people is that if they don't like certain topics refrain from searching for them. A constant complaint I heard was that whitedog was so frequently on the front page that people who wouldn't usually visit her comics would find their way there accidentally and feel compelled to express their disgust in her chosen theme. To me, this is another display of cowardice. Is it too much to turn away and leave without expressing yourself so harshly?

Whitedog1

To say that blame goes to whitedog is debatable. The issues here could easily be associated with deviant art users in general for causing the problems. Whitedog1's account is popular, unnaturally so to some people. For some, it is unacceptable that a person who uploads self described stick figures, based off of an already established fandom, on a daily basis could be more popular than another who spends months meticulously drawing an original creation. Whether that's fair or not, isn't something that can be solved with petty annoyed comments. On the other hand were fans who religiously commenting on ever uploaded comic and added them to their favorites list, gushing in comments whatever came to mind regardless of if it was related to the subject matter. To my understanding, Whitedog1's reaction to these two problems were a set of rules which if broken would result in the user being blocked. Heavy-handed? Yes. And probably a strong precursor to the hatred which followed. But was it wrong? As stated above, as a free entertainer, whitedog1 has no responsibility to her audience and as such can do as she wishes. In response however, the audience are also capable of doing what they wish, i.e. troll, complain, etc.

The final word...

In my opinion, if whitedog1's disappearance was optional, it was probably the best decision she could have made for the situation. Not that I am grateful for her departure, far from it. Had she said goodbye, the fan base and the troll community would erupt. Had she deleted all of her work, again there would be an eruption. By simply 'not turning up' she has removed herself from the equation. She is allowing casual viewers the ability to review her work at their leisure and the fans and the trolls can still play their games without harm to anyone but themselves. Hopefully, everyone can take a step back after this and learn to leave things alone.