The most repeating complaints, suggestions and questions we gathered from the community and that we later   presented to the dA's $taff were connected with the dA's content and the reporting system.
From what we've seen people are sick and tired of pornography, "art theft" and with how slow everything is dealt with.

In the first part of this journal I'm going to try and explain some things about art, nudity and pornography and then, in a separate section, answer the questions we asked the $taff about the reporting system.  I highly recommend you to read the both parts (even though it might be a bit long) as my reasoning might make you think more about the topic and maybe lead to an interesting discussion afterwards.

If you'd like to skip directly to the questions anyway, scroll down to a strip made of this icon and continue reading.

"Art theft" is going to be a separate topic I will describe in another journal as the subject is way too complicated to try and stick it somewhere together with the already long enough part about pornography.

A big percent of the community doesn't want to see any pornography in their search results and are enraged when they see it on the "most popular" page.  We were literally flooded with complaints about it. Personally I was a bit surprised by the fact but I've thought "oh well, maybe I don't browse as much as other people do or simply am lucky enough not to come across any porn on the site".

I couldn't be more wrong.

When we were shown the reporting system and the "explicit pornography" reports in particular we were shocked.

Almost all of them were simply pictures of breasts and penises.
Just. Only. Nothing more. Just pictures of body parts - no erections, no fondling, no sexual context, no nothing.
Yet people considered it "explicit pornography".



There is our problem. It appears that people simply don't want to see some pictures depending on their content.

Many people say that a picture of a penis, no matter how well executed is not art. I think that it's a very wrong approach someone can have in an artistic community. Genitalia in general no matter whether they're male or female, were always a very strong symbol and in many cultures even to this day still dwell in the taboo zone. No wonder that every time a symbol like that appears it raises very strong emotions.

"If genitalia is art then what is pornography?" one can ask.
The point is that genitalia (like anything else in the world) CAN be art but not always is. And here comes another problem - when a simple picture turns into porn? It's a very hard question to answer.

Some say it's the quality that matters - an ugly picture is porn, a pretty one is art.
What about other subjects then? A horse drawn by a novice isn't worth posting on dA when there are pictures drawn by experts around? It's hard to judge if a person who took a badly executed nude picture is a beginner in the field of photography or just a simple, so called on the Internet, "attention whore" wanting to, for some twisted reason, show random people their body. And even if it's the latter, if the picture doesn't break any rules, then why someone should delete it?
I, personally, am enraged seeing fat hairy people (hi there all fluffy chubbies! I can't stand looking at you!).
Simple as that. I'd rather see a field of penises rather than one picture of a happy man with an afro on his back. I don't like to see it, but there is absolutely no rule against being fat and hairy at the same time, thus I have to deal with it. I won't say a bad word to such a person and I won't most certainly report any deviation of a fat hairy woman (or man... or whatever) just because I don't like it. The same rule applies here - whether you like that poor wonky penis with bad lightning or not, as long as it isn't against the rules, you shouldn't report it.



"Pornography or porn is the portrayal of explicit sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual excitement and erotic satisfaction" the wiki tells us.

But things that excite one don't excite the other. Everything also depends on the cultural context.
For example: In the country I live in - Poland, even though it's not prohibited by the law, sunbathing topless isn't welcomed almost anywhere. In many countries of the Middle East it's completely prohibited... And in Switzerland there is a topless beach in the very middle of the city Geneva.
And those are only breasts. Different rules also apply to other parts of the body, sometimes even as innocent as calves.

DeviantART is a community of people from all around the world, so each user, belonging to a different culture and being raised in a different way, has different opinion on what is pornography and what is not.

There is no way to satisfy everyone.

There will always be someone who is going to be insulted by a barely showing nipple or even a naked ankle.
I do not say that everything should be allowed - of course not. But that's why dA has rules about what is and what is not considered pornography. Not all agree that they are good laws, but even outside the internet - in real life - some might consider the laws of their country as 'bad' or 'stupid'. Remember that they are not here  to fit your taste, or mine, or anyone else - they are here to keep everything working and in a relative order.

What are the dA's rules concerning pornography?
Everything is in the FAQ. Here are all separate topics concerning adult themed and sexual content:

FAQ #23: What are DeviantArt policies on nudity?
FAQ #60: Do you allow "Adult," explicit sexual or pornographic content on DeviantArt? How about linking off site?
FAQ #165: Do you allow images or literature depicting bodily wastes or fluids?
FAQ #220: What is Mature Content?
FAQ #248: Are there restrictions on art using children or teenagers (fictional or otherwise)?
FAQ #249: Are there restrictions on photographs of teenagers or children?
FAQ #250: The laws of my country differ from those of the United States- which ones apply?
FAQ #251: You prohibit the submission of 'pornographic literature'; what do you consider this to be?
FAQ #305: Is posting 'Adult' oriented artwork alright if I censor it first?
FAQ #565: You prohibit the submission of 'pornographic imagery'; what do you consider this to be?


SCREW YOU TANATHE AND YOUR OPINION! WE WANT CHANGES ANYWAY!
There are going to be some changes with the introduction of dA v.8.
The new system will make people who do not wish to see some categories (in the context of this journal - the nudes) simply not see them.
'How' you ask?
We were told that the system is going to gather a lot of information about each user preferences according to the galleries they browse the most, art they fav the most, the tags connected with those works and many, many other different data. The result will be simple: people who like everything will see everything, people who like only digital art will see a lot of digital art, people who like everything BESIDE nudes will not see nudes.
We didn't actually have the chance to test the newest system - just seen it work, so it's a very simplified explanation and we will have to wait for the actual release of the newest version and test it ourselves.