$realitysquared

Mood: On a deadline
Reading: The Mirror Crack'd by Agatha Christie
Watching: Schindler's List




Many of you are aware of the Report Violation tool which we have provided for your use in eliminating deviations which violate our etiquette and/or submission policy, but unfortunately some of you are failing to fill out the form in a helpful manner or are otherwise using it incorrectly.

Allow me to start with the basics;

WHAT IS A VIOLATION OF POLICY?

Here at deviantART we have several policies in effect regarding what is considered an acceptable submission- every single user is expected to be familiar with these policies.

Image Theft, ‘Ripping’, and Plagiarism
The most outstanding rule is that prohibiting the use of works which were not created entirely through your own efforts; also known as Copyright Infringement or Ripping and if this is somehow news to you I suggest that this time you actually read the Submission Agreement which each and every one of you agreed to before you were allowed to submit works to us. If the legal terminology which you find there is a bit too intense then I would suggest reading Question #157 from our FAQ page for a simpler explanation.

Inappropriate Nudity
For a more detailed explanation of what this entails please read Mature Content, Nudity, and you

Improper Section Placement
This includes, but is not limited to, things such as placing a wallpaper into the Cell Phone Art category, placing a screenshot into the Wallpaper category, or placing a pencil sketch into the Photography category.

General Violations of Site Etiquette
This concerns, among other things, deviations which could be considered direct personal attacks, which contain direct racist or bigoted statements or images, and other attempts to be deliberately and directly offensive in some manner.


HOW DO I REPORT A DEVIATION FOR VIOLATION OF POLICY?

Beneath every deviation you will find a toolbar containing several buttons. You will observe the symbol adorning the third button from the right; this will take you to the Report Violation page.

HOW SHOULD I FILL OUT THE REPORT VIOLATION PAGE?

This is a brief breakdown of what information you should provide;

Nature of Violation
Simply choose the category which you believe to be the most appropriate reason for your report.

URL (optional)
If the deviation you are reporting contains artwork which was directly stolen and used without permission you need to provide a link to an original example for comparison. In addition please link directly to the page containing the image for comparison; this means if a work was taken from Boris Vallejo do not link to the front page of his official website, but instead link to the page upon which we may find the work itself such as this one: At Dusk
In cases involving motion pictures, TV shows, celebrities, and other well known subjects you may omit this information, but in doing so you run the risk of not providing us with sufficient information to make an accurate judgment which will result in no action being taken.
Do not place the URL of the deviation you are reporting here the system properly takes note of that.

Comments
Please take the time to include the reason you are reporting the deviation. If the image contains artwork stolen from Jim Warren, Vladimir Kush, or Daniel Oullette then please state it here. Likewise identify any professional supermodel, celebrity, or rock band by name in order to assist in the identification process.
The more information you can provide the more helpful it will be to us during the review process.


THINGS NOT TO REPORT

Do not report vague suspicions
We do not act on unfounded suspicions or on unsupported assumptions of theft. Failure to provide any supporting evidence will result in no action being taken; if you can give us a starting point we may take it upon ourselves to search out the specific evidence we need, but if you can’t provide us with anything don’t count on us wandering through the entire internet without any idea for what we are searching.

Please become familiar with Question #157 from our FAQ page
Please do not report recreations, redrawings, reinterpretations, or other “similar looking” or “heavily inspired works”. They will not be considered violations of policy and will not be removed. For more information you may read my personal journal entry entitled Character ‘Theft’

”Junk” Submissions
Do not report submissions based only on the fact that you believe them to be ‘low quality’ or ‘junk’ submissions.
While we encourage self-moderation and the submission of top quality works, we do not place minimum quality standards on any deviantART submission and they will not be removed simply because they are amateurish doodles, webcam shots, pet photos or family photos.

Not tagged ‘Mature Content’
Please do not report deviations simply because you believe they should have been tagged as Mature Content. Currently the use of this tagging feature is voluntary and not required by policy.
I understand your desire to browse a ‘work-safe’ deviantART but realistically when you are at work you should be working.

Non-deviation related reports
Do not use the deviation reporting system to report something not related to the deviation such as user harassment, stolen avatars, and other such issues.
Please use the HelpDesk for these issues.


WHAT HAPPENS TO THE REPORTS?

All reported deviations are logged on the administrative Report Desk where they will be reviewed within a maximum of 48 hours from the time of submission by a member of the policy enforcement team.
If the submission remains after the passing of 48 hours then you either failed to provide sufficient evidence for us to make an accurate judgment or the deviation was judged not to be a violation of official deviantART policy.