The Final Crank Of The Broken Record

[teddy_radiator]

Grr. I've just received my final appeal request back from deviantArt. For those of you who'd like to read the whole sordid story, it can be found here:
 
ME: Hello, I just received notice that my account has been permanently banned. I am respectfully requesting a second chance, as I did not realise these art pieces were considered ban-able material. I will, of course, remove them permanently and immediately from my page.
Please reconsider. As you can see, I have just purchased a two-year premium membership and have a huge amount of favourites I have amassed. I had no intention of ever posting anything that I would consider improper, and all of my work did carry mature content warnings.
I have made many friends and contacts on this page, and I would be heartbroken to lose them for something I truly didn't realise was wrong. Those art pieces have been on my page for almost three months now and I had no idea they were considered graphic pornography.
I respectfully ask that I be allowed to resume my page. This is a very important forum for me, and I would hate to lose all my friends and favourites.
Rest assured I will do whatever is necessary to comply with your regulations. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank you for your consideration, and I must plead with you to reconsider. I did also wish to mention that the drawing that was banned as depicting someone underage was drawn as a companion piece to a story called For Someone Special, by Lady of the Masque. In that fanfic, it is stated at the beginning of the story that, at the time of the story, Hermione Granger (the woman in the drawing) is over eighteen. Technically, the picture is depicting a sexual encounter between consenting adults. I appreciate that this may seem a bit redundant, but I did want you to know that I did not post this drawing to depict underage sex, nor would I ever do so.
I have posted these art pieces only after looking through various different bits of art and photography on the site, and I did not think it was in any way any more inflammatory than some of the photos I saw in the, say, fetish photography section, where there are quite shocking and pornographicly depicted photos.
I say all this to tell you I truly did not think any of the Marquise drawings I posted would be remotely considered inappropriate. I listed them all as under the Mature Content warnings as well, and even had someone complain to me that they couldn't view one of them because they were underage and, when that person asked to lift the mature content restrictions, I refused.
I am sorry to harp on, but I will do whatever is deemed necessary to re-establish my account with deviantArt, especially since I still have a 23-month premium membership that I would like to use.
Thank you again for considering this appeal.
dA's Reply I've left out the dreary policy quote::
Thank you for contacting deviantART, I will be assisting you with your support ticket.
I have checked the records for this action and it appears that your account was banned due to the submission of content which was considered to be pornographic under the official definition outlined in deviantART policy.
Specifically the work in question featured a depiction of explicit sexual intercourse between an adult character and a character in an established series and in that series they are primarily portrayed as being under the age of eighteen(18).
Since you committed a severe violation of our terms of service the penalty for this was the banning of your deviantART account and your removal from the deviantART community since we cannot tolerate this sort of content being submitted to our galleries.

ME Again: Does this mean that my 23 month premium membership has been forfeit? As I said, I did not and was not aware that this was considered child pornography, but I think if you are banning me permanently, after I have shown every effort to make this right, you could at least refund all or part of this membership. I did NOT willfully flaunt the regulations of this site.

I think I have shown every possible effort in rectifying this situation, and I think you are being a bit inflexible, especially since I have seen other, much more graphic pornography on this site.
I do think an explanation is in order if I am to lose 23 months of premium membership, not to mention the gallery I worked so hard to collect.

dA's Reply, in its entirety:

My apologies, but a refund is not possible:

(This is the FAQ that was attached to the above explanation:)  I've changed my mind about my purchase and would like a refund, can I have one?

In accordance with our refund policy, non shippable items (AdCast, Print Subscriptions and Community Subscriptions) are non refundable.

So, I've written back:

I am sorry, but that is not an acceptable answer. That is like going to a shop and giving money for a product and having the product taken away from you before you can leave the shop. That is akin to stealing. I think I am owed a better explanation than "My apologies but a refund is not possible." I have read your FAQ on this, and no where on that policy does it say that a subscription that has been cancelled by deviantArt and not the subscriber can be refunded.

 I am incensed at this whole situation. If you wish to ban me, so be it. But you have in effect stolen my money. I didn't ask for my subscription to be cancelled. You cancelled it, and that is NOT part of your policy. You will have to no doubt write a brand new policy for the people like me who subscribe to what they believe to be a site which celebrates freedom of expression, takes money, then doesn't even adhere to their own policies.

I hate hypocrisy big time, and they are the kings of it. Well, onwards and upwards, I say.
 

Comments

[mimimanderly.livejournal.com]

Ya live, ya learn.... For what it's worth, your experience has been an object lesson for me as well. It is probably a bad idea to EVER subscribe to ANY site, magazine, newspaper, club, or other institution for anything other than the minimum amount of time. It's better to have to write out a check every few months than to have things suddenly go sour and THEY have your money. Possession is nine tenths of the law, so it's THEIR money now.

I think that you are much better off here, anyway. Look at all the friends you've made so quickly! And none of those silly children hanging about, being perverted by our influence.

Ah, but I do love the feel of artistic freedom!

[beffeysue.livejournal.com]

I, too, have always wondered how the "powers-that-be" (read "I've got your money now!") make their decisions when they clearly don't apply the same standard to everyone. It SUX!

We love having you here.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

It is closure, sweets. I just wanted everyone to see the farce of it all. I'm really feeling pretty okay about it. I'm just so happy here...

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Beth. I love being here. I am really enjoying myself. As I told Sempra, I just wanted everyone to see the bullshit they call justification.

I've been much happier here from day one! I love it here.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Amen, Mimi darling. Wait, wait, do you hear that? That's the sound of my wings stretching...finally got room to fly... the sound of all my great friends here cheering me on...sweetest music on earth.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Has to get her RDA of Sempra hugs....helps the flourish-ment....don't know about grace, though...Teddy's got two left feet - er - paws...

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

THe proper point to make to them is that the faq refers to a situation where the parties are agreeing to end the contract ! And you're in a position where they have repudiated for breach. In that case they can't keep the money as you do not have that which you contracted for.

Twats.

I'd leave that last word out.

[sylvanawood.livejournal.com]

Why doesn't anyone sue them? They will be doing this kind of thing as long as no one complains. Sigh.
We should all post old-age-sex SSHG pictures there and label them child pornography.

[talesofsnape.livejournal.com]

Squishes! And points to the lawyer talking two comments up (assuming nothing else posts while I'm typing).

Honestly, I think the issue is one of dA being too afraid that the trolls will start in on them and get them investigated/shut down. Nevertheless, that's no reason why they shouldn't cough up the cash, unless there was something in the small print to say that in the case of a breach of terms no refund would be given.

Something seems to be going on in general because Duniazade had a birthday post image pulled by imageshack. Karelia's birthday graphic was pulled from my Photobucket account, and those are both instances since the weekend. Of course, Photobucket pulled the image not the account which was free anyway.

[ayerf.livejournal.com]

Words fail me. I just don't get how the SSHG art could have been against their rules, as it makes them sound incredibly narrow minded to disregard the time in canon that Hermione was older than 18 - most of DH. But then I find that rule incredibly stupid, as people don't stay children forever even if they're children in canon.

I hope they will see sense somehow and refund that money.

[mimimanderly.livejournal.com]

OMG! I can see it now! Hermione with wrinkles, grey hair, and tits sagging down to her waist straddling Snape, equally grey and wrinkled, with a paunch and man-tits! My eyes!

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Mimi, you are trip to the MOON! Man-tits, indeed!

Although, Severus with man-tits....something to really grab onto... hmmm.

Stop that, Teddy!!!!

Did you get snowed in?

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

I think the 'twats' is the best part.

I did mention that in my rebuttal, but, as someone said, possession is 9/10s, so they can tell me to naff off and there's nothing I can really do about it, but learn from the experience and let this serve as a warning to others.

[sylvanawood.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah? And what's wrong with that, hm? You'll get to that age, too, deary. Life and lust don't stop at fourty. :p

[mimimanderly.livejournal.com]

We got about four inches, so it was much ado over nothing. Still, I'm glad I got all my errands out of the way earlier in the week, so I can just stay inside today instead of dealing with all the crazy drivers.

[mimimanderly.livejournal.com]

Nothing at all... but I just want to see them label THAT as child porn! It is to laugh!

[sylvanawood.livejournal.com]

Good for you!
Huffs, throws own tits over her shouler, spins, and stalk off haughtily. - - - or tries to, because her back hurts. Oo

(Yeah, they'd probably label that, too. LOL)

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

I do know that someone actually reported one of them. They had been in my gallery for over six months, so some outraged citizen must have seen it. Too bad they didn't look in the fetish photos - they'd have shit teacups.

I put it down to a learning experience. I had mature content warnings up the wazoo, but apparently that wasn't enough. Pah.

[sylvanawood.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this reminds me of one of the LJ strike-outs, wipe-outs from two or three years ago. Back then it was slash, mostly Snarry that was reported. It's the morality police once again. And archives, sites and the like have to be very careful about child pornography, for obvious reasons. I don't blame them for that, but for the way they handle these things.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

I can't see it happening, ayerf, but I will just serve as a warning to others. *Sigh* I had such a lovely gallery of favourites. That's what I will miss. I'll never find them all again, but I downloaded quite a few after Sempra had them shut her off for awhile.

[sylvanawood.livejournal.com]

Snicker. Now you had me spitting my coffee. My poor screen.

[sylvanawood.livejournal.com]

You know, stuff like that bothers me big time, and I can't let it go. How many favourites did you have? I found 60. I have them in a yahoo pipe, and google rss feed. You can try this: http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed/http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run%3F_id%3D2793a22edafd3f984168b9d1c8db1e0a%26_render%3Drss%26deviant%3Dteddyradiator?source=ignitionfork

I think what you'll get is an invitation to subscribe to the feed, because you will probably only get the first page. If you have a google mail account, you can add it to your google reader, and voila, they are there. I tried to find a way to save the page, but didn't succeed yet.
Alternately you can follow the link to the pipe and type in teddyradiator where it says username, click on 'run pipe' and wait for a bit. Then they show up in a slide show, but you can also display them in a list. that way you can quickly bookmark them all and make a new collection on lj.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

This is fascinating! Unfortunately, when I click onto the link you provided, I get an error message from Google. What can I do to set it up properly to use this. This is amazing! I don't know anything about pipes, but I'm willing to learn!

[sylvanawood.livejournal.com]

If you have an email account, give it me. I'll send you the stuff, that way they can't take them away again. You'll be spammed with 60 emails, but then you have them.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

That's just...awesome! I downloaded all 60! I've never seen the likes of it. Just amazing. Those 60 appear to be the last ones I favorite-ed.

I do have loads more. I had several folders on dA. One called Favourites (that's where those 60 came from), and the bulk of stuff went in one of my Favourites folders called My Muse. Is there any way to access it?

You are truly magical! That was just incredible. Just goes to show you what brains and magic can produce.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

I couldn't get it to work from Hotmail, but it worked like a charm when I clicked on it here in LJ. Groovy deluxe!!!

[sylvanawood.livejournal.com]

Ah. I managed to see your subfolders on a cached page, but there are no cached pages for these subfolders. If I can find something, I'll try tomorrow. Not promising anything, I'm not really a hacker. :)

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

No problem. I just appreciate what you did so much. That was awesome. I didn't know that could be done. As the great Sempraseverus says, there are doors and then there are doors. Thank you for showing me a way to get it. I'm very grateful.

[talesofsnape.livejournal.com]

As you say, it's the way they go about things. The fact that dA just wipe out paid accounts with no comeback contrasts rather poorly for them as compared with the other sites who may pull an image and that's it.

[talesofsnape.livejournal.com]

I put it down to a learning experience.

That's probably about the best thing you can do. They aren't worth any more of your time, emotion or effort.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Thank you, sweetie. I will go and have a look. I feel a little like a fugitive, sneaking in and stealing from everyone else's favs, but I bet we have a lot of common ones.

[dickgloucester.livejournal.com]

Clearly, they suck.

*hugs*

[shellsnapeluver.livejournal.com]

What I don't understand, and I know I am opening that can of worms again... is that there are a TON of things on there that depict those characters and yet no one else is banned...

I don't think you will see your money... But! I do like the way you twisted that to word that they are stealing from you because it is so damn true!

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

I agree, I won't see that money, but I can at least live with myself. It was a very naughty pic, but I cannot understand why they couldn't just let me delete it and give me a second chance. This one-strike attitude is just so self-defeating in this case. Oh well, above and beyond, I always say.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

I agree, but it always helps when other people agree with you.

[sylvanawood.livejournal.com]

Here you go: http://www.google.com/reader/bundle/user%2F03409490815615174428%2Fbundle%2Fteddyradiator

I don't need the yahoo pipes, I learned how to do it with the google reader. This one is public, you should be able to see them all. A bit less than 420, does that sound right?

When you're done with safekeeping, please tell me, so I can make them private again.

I think I'll write a tutorial about how to do this. Looks like other people could need that information as well.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

This is amazing! I have downloaded them all. I'm all done, thanks to you. I think others would be thrilled to have this information.

What a treasure you've been. Thank you, more than I can say.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

This is just amazing! I downloaded them all. I can't thank you enough. I would love a tutorial on how to do this. Wow, that was incredible. There they all were, and I just downloaded like mad!

Thank you so very much. This was a great gift.

[sylvanawood.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it worked. :) I'll set it to private again, now.