Etiquette Policy

deviantART is, in the greatest sense of the word, a community. We are made of a dynamic and international group of artists, from all ages, races, and backgrounds. There are two primary and often conflicting goals in the service we provide for you, the members of the community.

We rule.

1. Ensure that members are free to express themselves without restriction or undue censorship, and nurturing an environment of creativity, learning, and talent.
2. Protect the members of the community to the best of our abilities, concerning rips, discrimination, and prejudice.

We let people do as they like, as long as they don’t act like jackasses.

The following is an outline of standard etiquette that we expect all of our deviants to adhere to. The rules apply to all aspects of the site; submitted material, the forums, shoutbox, and IRC channel, and commenting systems.

Do these things if you don’t want to get banned.

Community Rules

The Rules.

• deviantART does not tolerate remarks that are in any form of bigotry. These include but are not limited to;
1. Racist Slurs
2. Anti-Semitic or other derogatory remarks about philosophies and religions.
3. Offensive remarks based on gender or sexual preference.

No being a dickwad to those who are in any way different from you.

• The use of emoticons for the sole intent of flaming, or insulting, another deviant is not tolerated.

The li’l emotes are for fun, not flames.

• Personal, or private, issues between two or more deviants are to remain private. The insistence on making such matters public may result in closed forum threads and policy warnings. If the nature of the problem involves deviantART itself, you may ask one of the Policy Violation Administrators to mediate the situation to an acceptable resolution.

If someone’s being an asshat, keep it between yourselves outside other people’s view. If someone’s just an ass, tell someone on the PVA.  

• Violations are defined as specific attacks on an individual deviant or group. Violation of community ettiquite policy will result in a warning, sent via the deviantART notes system. Administration will take further steps, including banning an account, as situation deems necessary.

Don't act like a fucking jackass or they'll kick you out. (Thanks to :devndifference: for that)

• Accusations of bannable offenses, questions or comments regarding specific administrative actions, and copyright violation reports are always to be addressed to the Policy Violation Administrators, and not directed at a particular deviant. Misplaced or false accusations may be considered violations of site policy. Reports regarding deviation miscategorization should be directed towards the appropriate Tier Administrator.

The PVA have got your back; don’t misuse that right.

Policies on Deviations containing Nudity

Pictures of naked people.

deviantART does not condone the uploading of pornographic materials to its database. However, we recognize that the human form is one of the oldest artistic expressions, and allow nudity if it is central to the statement of the artist. The following guidelines shall be used to determine whether a deviation containing nudity will remain in the deviantART gallery:

1. Is the submitter the original author of the piece, or does the work contain copy written material for which the deviant has not received permission, and has failed to manipulate to a necessary degree as to not infringe on copyright law?
2. Does the submission explicitly depict sexual acts?
3. Is the individual depicted over the age of 18?
4. Is the deviation done in good taste?
Should the staff deem the work to fail any of these rules, we reserve the right to remove the work without notifying the artist. Good taste, as with all art galleries, falls squarely within the views of the administrators of this site.

No Pr0n, and no naked people, unless you’re over 18, and the pic looks good.

Once a deviation is determined to violate policy, it is immediately removed from the gallery. Notification of its removal will be sent via the deviantART notes system. Submitting the same piece again or similar material will result in immediate removal and potentially banishment from the community.

Policy Regarding Forum Posting

How to make sure you don’t look like an asshole in the forums.

While deviantART does allow for all members to speak their minds freely there are certain rules that must be adhered to within the forums. Free-speech does not amount to the ability to post anything, and everything, that one would like to say but, rather, allows for a fair and interactive conversation to take place between deviants without fear of repercussion. In order to allow for this to happen the following rules apply specifically to the deviantART Forums, which are owned, in full, by deviantART Inc.:

1. All posts within a particular forum must stay on topic to the forum that they are being posted to. This means that if a post is being made in the "Flash Forum," for example, then all threads, and posts within each individual thread, must be related to "Flash" issues, concerns, help, etc...

Don’t spam the damn forums with your crap. No one cares.

2. The posting of both postive and negative comments is highly encouraged; however, these posts must remain constructive. Posting a response, or starting a thread without the intention of creating a constructively critical dialogue is strictly forbidden.

“Does your post have anything useful that will start people chatting? No? F-off.”

3. Attempts to "sidestep" any deviantART policy -- which is to be ascertained by the deviantART staff based on the context of the post or previous posts -- is strictly forbidden.

The policy is the rules. Break them and you pay.

It is important to remember to be as clear in your intent as possible while communicating on the internet. Our text communications do not afford a clear representation of sarcasm. Please use common sense when posting to avoid confusion.

Post the :sarcasm: :sarcasticclap: or :roll: emotes if you’re being sarcastic.

The failure to follow any of the aforementioned rules will result in the thread being closed and possible administrative actions concerning the deviant(s) involved, in accordance with the rules described to and agreed to by all deviants. It is up to the Policy Violation Team to interpret the intent of each post.

Don’t do the above, your thread gets closed, and any shitmongers get some attention from the PVA.

Policy on Category Deviations Are Submitted To

The place where you put your art.

deviantART does not condone the submission of deviations to categories that they do not belong in. This means that a deviation that is cleary designed to be a wallpaper should not be submitted to the Cell Art category, etc... Failure to properly store deviation(s) will result in the deviation(s) being removed. Constant disregard for the organization of the site will be viewed as Site Abuse.

Get it right or the PVA will give you a ‘nice’ little greeting.

Policy on Tutorial Submissions

Teaching others how to do stuff.

All tutorials must follow the deviantART Tutorial Submission Guidelines. Tutorials not following these guidelines will be unviewable by the community, and removed from the system.

Follow the rules on the link. (On the actual page)

Image Theft, Ripping, and Plagiarism

Stealing others’ work.

deviantART will not tolerate plagiarism or "rips" - taking another artists work and posting it as your own. Ripping is image plagiarism and theft against your peers. deviantART considers the following image theft and plagiarism:

We don’t want stuff that’s not officially yours.

1. Posting another artist's material found inside the community or outside the community with little or no modification and claiming it as your own.

That’s saying if its not really yours, keep it off the site.

2. Use of non-stock photography, poetry, or a portion of another deviation without the original authors written authorization (to be included in a zip file for download).

Unless they said you could use it, with some scribbles they wrote as proof, don’t even bother.

3. Posting another artist's material found inside or outside the community, not claiming ownership, but failing to seek the written authorization of the original author for its use.

See first point under stealing.

4. Posting another artist's lyrics, poetry, or other writing without their written authorization to do so.

See second point under stealing.

If an artist feels that they have been ripped, or is aware that another artist has been ripped, please notify staff via violations@deviantart.com with the following information:

If someone’s taken your stuff and said it was theirs, do this:

1. Link to the original work.
2. Link to the "ripped" work.
3. Whether this is a constant problem with the ripper.
4. Name of the ripper.
Ripping allegations are very serious, and handled on a case by case basis. As a general rule, should the offender receive a warning for their first infraction, any continued theft will result in a ban.

This is serious. Do it more than once and get caught, you shall be banned.

Exploits, Vulnerabilities, and Site Abuse

Hacking and other stuff.

deviantART will not tolerate attempts to exploit or disrupt the layout, navigability, or general use of the site. Artificial manipulation of the favorites system by means of extra accounts, facetious use, or other intentional misuse will be treated as an exploit. Such actions disrupt the ability of the community to access and review artwork, and are considered Site Abuse.

Don’t mess with dA, or anything on it, including technical stuff.

deviantART will issue no warnings for violations of this nature. Violators will be banned immediately upon the discovery of disruption or abuse.

You wont get a warning, you’ll be banned straight away.

All infractions are handled on a case-by-case basis. Warnings are sent via the deviantART notes system. Banishment may be removed upon staff review in such cases determined eligible by staff, and staff alone. Requests to be unbanned from the deviantART community will be ignored.

We’re tough, but fair. If you’ve been banned, contact the staff with the notes to plead your case. Don’t bother asking your mates for help, as they’ll be ignored. No one but the staff will be able to help you now.  


Thank you for reading the Idiot’s Version of the dA Policy!