Proactive Deviation Moderation

DeviantArt is announcing a more proactive approach to moderation. For more information, read below.

Fostering a community where artists are able to share their work, express themselves, and grow and learn has always been a cornerstone of DeviantArt. Our Terms of Service and Etiquette Policy were crafted with protecting artists first and foremost, and that remains the case. That said, we want to improve the way we enact and take action with regard to these policies, which is why we’re announcing a change to how we intend to handle deviation moderation.

Proactive Moderation

DeviantArt has historically used a reactive moderation system for deviations. This means that on many occasions, action against a deviation in violation of our policies would only take place after receiving a report from the community.

For many years, this process served the community’s needs, but as the Internet has evolved and as our community has grown, we’ve come to realize this process isn’t enough. Internally, we have discussed for some time ways that we can improve this moderation process, and a more proactive process is one we agree will benefit the community as a whole.

The plan for the new moderation system is a proactive one. Our team is aiming to remove deviations that violate site policies before they are reported to us, while still allowing deviants to report deviations that we will review. We’re able to move to this approach thanks to new technology that will help us to better identify deviations in violation of our policies. This technology will aid the moderation team work through deviations more rapidly and efficiently—the moderation team itself is not being replaced, nor will deviations have actions automatically taken by Artificial Intelligence. The new technology will serve to help the moderation team take a more proactive approach to reviewing deviations, and they will still handle all moderation decisions.

Looking Forward

While this journal is primarily to inform the community of the internal shift in how we handle deviation moderation, it is by no means the only step we intend to take. We will continue to evaluate how all moderation is handled as we make this change, and we also aim to provide better reporting tools to the community in the future. We hope you’ll see the positive impact of these measures as we progress into the future, and as we continue to improve the DeviantArt experience.