Morncreek

12-10-2014 edit:  the new dA logo is crap and whomever designed it should go back to the drawing board.  that is all.  o/

Warning: long depressive train of thought ahead.

So it's been more than a year since the last journal. I haven't been keeping up with this account at all (not to imply that I have an account elsewhere which I do keep up - I don't) and it's because of a couple reasons.

1) My heart just isn't in photography and hasn't for a long time. I just feel so... tired, overall, from a lot of my normal activities.

2) deviantART has change. A lot. Part of it's that I am not as young as I was when I first picked up the web site, so I've definitely changed over the years. A greater part is the dA community. There are great people here, and I love seeing how they express their creativity across different artistic mediums. But I look at the proliferation of groups & accounts like OhMyPink,* I look at the coarseness that is celebrated as elevating artistic speech, I see and experience the lack of tolerance for conservative and/or religious members from a political philosophy that preaches tolerance, the lack of uniform rule enforcement - if any enforcement at all - from site admins and moderators...

I'm pretty much done with this web site.

I've had it with the back-patting, self-aggrandizing culture that now permeates every layer of dA.

I have never considered myself an artist. My photography is semi-okay and so are my drawing and literary skills. I've never expected an award or to have any kind of prominence on dA, and that's okay. I figured that, as long as I was working to improve, as long as I was trying to convey something, then I was positively contributing to dA.

Not anymore. My voice and beliefs feel completely drowned out. I feel excluded where once I felt welcomed. I'm in a crowd that's not right for me.

I don't think I'll close my account. I still visit on occasion, and sometimes leave a comment.



* I don't normally "name & shame," but in this case it is warranted. This account is causing other users - who do not know better - to copyright infringe and to violate dA's rules. Also, to the imbecile Shiro-Takamura who left this gem for me: You agreed to deviantArt's Terms of Service when you registered an account. It is YOUR responsibility to act in accordance with those terms, and the consequences are YOURS should you fail to do so. The action of using another person's work without their consent or without abiding by the stock work's rules hurts all of the community. Those are the people, as you so flippantly insulted, who care.

So my last journal entry was Dec 2011. Yikes. I was never very active in posting submissions, but the last year or even longer has seen pretty much zilch. I haven't been taking nearly as many photographs as I used to, but that fact is only an extremely small part of why I haven't updated.

My strategy, my modus operandi was to give full, detailed descriptions of my photographs to help viewers understand why I had selected this or what feelings that evoked in me. I just can't do that any more. It was very time intensive, and it came to the point that I avoided even downloading pictures from my digital camera so I wouldn't be "working." This is why I am introducing a new posting strategy/guideline.

It was not easy to make this decision because once I take this road, it will be hard to return to my old way of doing things. I cannot keep avoiding it, though, and it has really affected my mental health to be fully honest. I wish I was able to come up with something better, but...

From now on, in order to encourage myself and force myself to step back up to the plate (so to speak), I will not be giving my submissions summaries except in rare cases. I appreciate your understanding.

Happy (belated) New Year's, by the way!

Sincerely,
Morncreek

!!! EDIT: DeviantArt updated its spammer report ticket interface. Will add deviations to explain new version !!!

(WTB=want to buy)

Chances are, you have seen the complete cluster explosion of ickiness on several deviations - particularly the popular ones featured on the front page.

Being targeted and being used feels horrible. It is also infuriating to pour work into something, be brave enough to upload it for anyone to view, and then have some programmed spambot or live person hijack it and say LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME!

I love this community. I love the art. I loathed the feeling of powerlessness. I'm used to forums and comment systems that have a "Report post" or "Flag" option so users can quickly bring moderator attention to address the issue. dA doesn't have this. Only the uploader of the deviation can flag comments as spam, which only removes the content from being seen by non-admins. It is still ugly to see "Flagged as spam" six times in a row before you can read the next legitimate comment. It is also a serious waste of time to have to keep flagging individual comments. Some artists have given up altogether because they cannot keep up.

Here is my short, hopefully-understandable guide for reporting spammers' accounts.

How to Report a Spammer using dA Help Desk morncreek.deviantart.com/art/H…

Please leave me feedback on the deviation page and not here. Thank you for your time. *deep bow*

Just a small update as to what I am doing, now that summer is close to its end for the year. I'm still looking for employment. Economy really sucks right now for anyone trying to locate an entry-level profession, even in IT.

I'm not taking as photographs as I used to. The camera I bought to replace my stolen camera has more megapixels but not exactly the same features. It's tough figuring out how to take a shot the way I used to do.

So, instead, it seems I have taken up the new hobby of finding screenshots to take in World of Warcraft and upload to Wowhead.com's database. My Wowhead account - www.wowhead.com/user=Aliok.

I just recently finished my courses at college and graduated as Network & Microcomputer Specialist certificate (1-yr). Microcomputer = PC, if you weren't sure. (As a side note: the Computer Science department director once noted to me that she's trying to get the college to update the title. The term microcomputer is very dated.) I even managed to maintain a 4.0 GPA for all three terms! ^.^  What's even better is the certificate doubles as the freshman year of Network & Microcomputer Specialist bachelor degree. My goal is to get a job and work for a couple years, then come back and finish the bachelor degree - maybe the employer will be willing to help pay, too. >.>

Anyhow, seeing as the month is drawing to a close and I probably won't post a journal for a long while...


HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY, AMERICA!*


*Please be safe, responsible, and legal with your festivities.