Two Years of Art-Defense: Time To Rest
On July 19, 2017, the Art-Defense Project was born. We were going to tilt at some windmills like modern day Don Quixotes.
Two years later, we are going on indefinite hiatus.
We have not won. We went into this knowing it was not a matter that can be “won”. But we’ve had some good jousts, we have inspired artists to speak up for themselves, and we have convinced a few people to rethink their ways.
Why are we stopping now? We have not had as much to do of late, and that is a good thing: more artists are taking advantage of new tools to police content, and some of the more persistent offenders have gone to fish in other waters or just stopped. When we have done Incident Reports, we have gotten fewer responses than in the past: many people have left Tumblr and DeviantArt, and we cannot always contact them on other platforms. That part is not a good thing, but it is unavoidable.
Too? We’re tired. Volunteer enthusiasm has not been as high. People have lives, jobs, school, other interests. This was never intended to go on forever, just long enough to make a point and do some good.
We do feel that we have made a difference. We logged 255 Incidents, and the majority of those saw some manner of positive outcome for the artists.
Before anyone asks: no, it is not possible for us to hand it over to a new group. This blog, all the other accounts, the Discord Server: they are legally the responsibility of one person, and that person cannot hand them over to someone else—the liability would still fall on him. Too, we made certain promises, such as saying that our Do-Not-Tag list would never be shared. We can’t compel some other group to keep those promises. If someone feels it needs to go forward, they have to start from scratch without using our name, reputation, database, or symbols.
What we will NOT be doing:
Incident Reports. We will not be doing public or private notification of artists for the foreseeable future.
What we will continue to do:
Post How To Report guides.
Answer queries from artists who seek our advice on how to deal with others using their content.
Keep our Discord server open as an occasional hangout so our Volunteers can keep in touch.
Keep our accounts open, unless doing so is going to create a problem of some sort. Policies change, some require a certain level of activity, etc.
From beginning to end, we have used “We”, because this has been the expression of the will of a community and the work of a number of volunteers. To all our Volunteers, the regulars and the occasionally-seen, and the ones who had to move on: Thank You. You made a difference.
Thank you to the team at @miraculousblackout on Tumblr for inspiring this. They were among the first ones to organize and stand up against this problem.
Thank you, as always, to @jenniferbrincho for the generous donation of our icon and banner art.
And thank you to all the Artists and Authors who continue to grace us with your wonderful fan-works. We love having you around, and this project was our small way to show that you are appreciated and not taken for granted.
