Operation-Art-Saver

Yes this is kind of hard to swallow but it is time to face the fact that this group is not serving its purpose. Me and LDLAWRENCE made the decision and should be closing this thing any day in the next 2 weeks. This is one project by us that never really took shape. None of us admins have the time to run it. Also, most of the artist who post on our page are not alerting us about rail related art being stolen. This group was established to address the rising theft of railfan related deviations. It seems however most who come to us come here to inform us about stuff like anime. While all art theft is wrong this group was only here to address railfan related art that was stolen.

Now I want to encourage everybody to continue fighting art theft. Just because it is the end of this group does not mean we are surrendering. In hindsight this is just a new era. We have tried being the nice guys and first warning the thieves before we report and 80% of the time ended up with our comments marked as spam. Gee it really hurts them when someone has a point against them. Sadly that is what the "Mark as Spam" is normally used for on dA as a way to hide comments when a user can't stand that someone has a point against them. I have the feeling commenting anymore and getting marked as spam would eventually lead to a ban by dA's automated system which is not worth it. So no more Mr. Nice Guy. DeviantART administration has not made the process any easier ether. I understand they are swamped by reports in fact I have over 100 outstanding reports on railfan art theft alone that are more than two years old. However, if the thief screws up and steals from somebody I can contact and eventually every art thief will. When they do all my outstanding reports are answered when the owner files a first person report. However, this has proven difficult.

Another problem is because of lax administration we have a dozen thieves who are still at large after a few years on dA. TTL1990 is an example. He has been suspended twice for it but he is still at it. That is just one example.

Now I want to encourage everybody in this group that just because this is the end do not give up the fight. Just because this is the end of this group dose not mean we have lost the war! Keep fighting the good fight, and I shall continue to keep fighting as well.

Farewell,
Co-Founder
Joseph W. Johns