Realitysquared
From Encyclopedia Dramatica
Realitysquared is commonly known as the most incompetent fuckup of a moderator ever to grace the internets. And boy does he grace it! He's made it all the way to being one of the top members of the administrative team over at DevianTART, where he lives up to the meme of being within the top 10%.
Realitysquared's powerword is Daniel Sowers, his official title is Director of Copyright and Policy Enforcement." More like "Director of Babyfur Yiffing" AMIRITE?!?!
[edit] What Realitysquared Thinks of This Article
Oh, the hypocrisy!
[edit] I LERNT ME SUM COPY-RAGHT LAW ALL BY MUHSAYLF
Realitysquared is infamous for two things among his failure of moderation work - the first is being incredibly lazy, and the second is for being absolutely clueless about copyright law. I guess you could say he's infamous for three things though, if you count his absolute fucktardery to be a cornerstone of his moderating (it is). If this wasn't A+ enough, realitysquared has the magical ability to combine all of these things into one great catchall for dealing with any problem.
As he said in the featured chat of 20th January, 2007;
| —Realitysquared |
Ah, like any true foundation of a community, realitysquared is strongly opposed to anything that involves work, regardless of how illegal the alternative is. It will be a lulzy, lulzy day when DevianTART gets pwned by the man. He also has an excellent understanding of how copyright laws work - which is just fabulous for somebody in such a high moderating postition. GG, DevianTART. GG.
Well, what can you expect from somebody who "self-educated [himself] in copyright law about 5 years ago" and "[owns] several research books on the subject"? Why, he practically has enough skillz to become an e-lawyer! Hm, might be overqualified though. In all honesty though, how does anybody go through life on the interwebs without picking up at least enough copyright law to know that if you allow traced artwork on a site that makes you money, YOU IS BREAKING THE LAW, let alone after allegedly studying this law?? The mind boggles.
What's REALLY un-funny about RealitySquared is that a long time ago, with much lulz, he got arrested for art theft himself (WTF?????), and this very event was reported in deviantTART News. Why he's still an admin, nobody knows.
[edit] Enforcement Does Not Equal Understanding or Competence, But He Doesn't Want You to Know That
Most users never even realize that realitysquared is no longer allowed to create or change the copyright and community policies on DevianTart. He can edit or change the wording in the FAQ pages and explain them in his own words as he tries to enforce them, but in nearly each and every instance he only manages to fuck everything up. He used to have a degree of authority over these with some input from Artist Relations and Spyed, but with his usual dumbfuckery he created so much controversy and anger within the community that most of the staff got fed up and tired with his bullshit along with the clusterfucks he creates. Helpdesk staff think of him as "that guy, you know.. the one you invite to a party after its over when you want everyone to leave.. you know, that obnoxious loser who everyone wants to avoid." That's quite an accomplishment when you consider that most of the users on DevianTART are harmless sheeple all too willing to be treated like shit and whose anger is usually about as expressive as a sad-faced emote.
Realitysquared soon fucked things up to the extent that his subordinates were later placed under Community Relations and told to report to someone else, but that didn't really matter since they were just as incompetent as him and later got the shaft. One of Daniel's biggest fuck-ups was placing a complete sociopath named subversive-imaginati as a member of the policy enforcement staff. After going on a psychotic rampage and banning over a dozen artists for trivial or non-existent reasons, she was eventually removed from her position along with her co-worker (who were the only two people left serving under RealitySquared). Afterwards it was revealed she had a history of abuse and was seeking professional medical help and psychological counseling. Go figure. Unfortunately, due to Daniel’s insecurity and a fragile eggshell ego, he never admitted the possible existence of any sort of problem despite the fact that every single ban the batshit-crazy bitch had issued was later overturned (the nutjob psychopath herself banned after harassing the pardoned users and being a general pain in the ass to the staff, even to spyed.), all his staff had been removed from their positions, and the privilege/responsibility of establishing policy had been taken away from him.
All the various copyright policies he tried to take credit for were thrown out and re-written. The person who eventually took it over decided to adopt the Creative Commons approach after a user’s suggestion. Of course, several others had also suggested it to Daniel in the past, but in his infinite wisdom he thought his understanding was better than a bunch of people who actually studied and practiced copyright issues.
R^2 was also placed in charge of the Etiquette Policy and its enforcement in the hopes of improving people's on-line behavior. Everything he wrote and tried to instate was dismissed after users laughed in his face while pointing out just how ignorant he was. Even the two literature gallery directors were brought in to make the clusterfuck manifesto readable when Daniel tried to type up something half-way decent, but the good directors decided to scrap it and start fresh. Good thing too, because every time he tries to tweak policy on something like banning or deleting comments, higher-ups usually have to either reverse his decisions or make up new policies to fix the messes he creates.
One initiative that Realitysquared tried to take was making DevianTART a socially acceptable and squeaky-clean fascistic environment that would be acceptable to even the youngest of little tots, born out of the belief (or is it knowledge?) that most of the community is made up of whiny bitches who can’t handle the slightest bit of nudity or violence in the works of others without calling the artists psychotic perverts. What ultimately resulted was an interbutts version of a Sesame Street artistic community. Such examples of policy enforcement include, but are by no means limited to: erotic material being deemed pornographic (fuck the Renaissance, amirite?), material including drug use being inappropriate (because people who have been affected negatively by drug use don’t deserve art as a possible medium to express their own emotions), and violent or graphic material no longer being allowed (because all depictions of violence are bad, even when its condemning the use of it).
Walk into any art museum and you can see just how shittily DevianTart represents any respectable art community. Probably a third of the showcased art would not be accepted at a place like dA. Definitely not anything by Michelangelo with all his fag nudes. When this issue drew the attention of senior staff members, one of the typical drawbacks of crybaby administrators such as Realitysquared manifested itself – bitching long and hard with bullshit self-justifications while ignoring what anyone else has to say, often having the last word simply because most sane people will eventually tire of hitting their heads against a brick wall. I mean, fuck, even little kids have better sense in knowing when to shut their mouths when fighting a losing battle, but the torrent of bullshit that flows out of can’t be plugged up by anything except for nigra deepthroats. You can thank Realitysquared for building an artistic community that only represents small children and their refrigerator drawings.
This is why we can’t have nice things, faggots.
[edit] Epic Failure: Artistic Creativity vs. Authority, it's all about execution
Like television, mass media is a push oriented medium, so for the interests of everyone a very wide range of material is broadcast. This doesn't mean everyone will like or wish to consume everything so the emphasis is on the receiver to pick and choose what to consume and how. But there are still rules, there is the MPAA and FCC that says certain material is not acceptable for various reasons, pornographic material is a good example. If you want to watch people fucking their brains out you usually have to subscribe to a premium service that includes safeguards against the consumption by minors. Fortunately that makes up a very small percentage of material and even the federal organizations realize the most practical and right route to take has more to do with labeling things so others can make those distinctions rather than removing it from people's lawful right to observe and create.
A naturally emergent problem is the sensitivities of a few that wish to impose restrictions on others, which goes against the open freedom of choice for all people and their rights. The emphasis should always be on others to choose what to see rather than keeping others from seeing it, so its always important to protect the freedoms of all from unbalanced authority that imposes restrictions.
Artistic expression is even more important to this influence because creativity is rather fragile to censorship and doesn't work well in the presence of solid rules or opinions. Once you start limiting art you naturally start to limit its expression and diversity, then its quality quickly follows down that same road.
So how do you balance these somewhat conflicting needs? In the absence of clearly defined rules and differing opinions on such wide ranging material, this means not everything is going to be easy to make a decision on what to accept and why. Thats why execution of authority is so important and with a site like deviantArt, they still have to protect themselves legally.
So how do you measure success? Thats easy - just look at the result. Obviously a site like deviantArt has decided to create an environment where the art greatly lacks originality and quality because of its decisions, mostly due to Realitysquared's direction. There is no other proof needed of an epic failure, just have a look for yourself and compare it to just about any art collection in a museum, gallery, or book in the library.
[edit] Discovery of the child genius
R^2 was and still is notorious for his participation in the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney online diploma program. In a show of skill and grandeur Realitysquared snatched the 1994 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney World Championship. With this victory, he was granted absolute knowledge of copyright law -- guaranteed by his stylish dick shaped trophy.
With an infant dA facing the menace of extreme policy breaches and hacker stackers this gregarious, master blaster Realitysquared was desperately sought after by the devianTART Administration. He was found in 2002 CE, when war was beginning. His immaculate knowledge of the law, and charismatic personality helped turn the course of the war into today’s present impasse.
Early in 2004 though, the New York Times leaked a story involving Realitysquared, claiming he had beaten Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney in a mere two days. He was then made PC Gamer's Man Of The Year for 2005. Shortly after Gamespot.com revealed that Daniel Realitysquared (his birth name) was actually a hidden character in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney that could be unlocked by clearing all court cases without actually winning them.
[edit] Good moderation is something you should pay for
Realitysquared also has decided that it is probably a good idea to treat the popular TARTlets, the ones who have paid money to be "subscribed", differently than the lowly peons whose pageviews are not over nine thousand. In fact, he is so stuck on this, that he will drop the banhammer on newly registered people for such terrible things as having anonymous in their names, but will allow attention whores to post journals asking their legions of fantards to attack people, post copyrighted music on their artwork for download and generally harass people as much as they like with no punishment to speak of. If you message the helpdesk asking why the hell the moderation team is so incompetent and fucktarded, you'll get such lovely and helpful responses as READ THIS or READ THIS.
And whatever you do... don't comment on chasethehedgehog's or DivineAngel's pages or Realitysquared will ban you for life. srsly
[edit] Testimonials to Realitysquared's faggotry
- It also appears he can't read. My carefully researched, link filled, multi-paragraphed request to unban my account is met with a "banned for /b/ harassment" sign on my userpage. I'm not even a fucking /b/tard. WTF? -Cirrus
- "Friend: "That was the faggot admin I argued with when I was B&" Me: "he needs to be fired" " -Robocod
- DA, wtf r u doin. -schkyzm
- RealitySquared is a bitch. Nuff' said. -greatparakeet
- Reality Squared...more like...RETARDEDLY IMPAIRED! -catawampuskitty
- Reality Squared is a fucking asswipe. He banned me for 'participating in a raid against divineangel' and then said something about deserving it. He thinks he is so bloody brilliant when, truly, he is a complete moron. -skeletonxcrew
- Reality squared is so full of shit it's not funny. -surgat
- Around Squared, be prepared! - Malomeat
- "oh for fuck sake, get him removed" - Psyke, friend of Robocod
- WHAT IS THIS FAGGOT ADMIN? -Kumori
- He didn't even ban Firefag despite all the harm she did, LOOSER --Great justice BadFurDay
- He has a bias to paid and popular users. Even when presented with a questioning and insulting piece of art that called his methods into question, he left it be, because the user was a paid user and getting close to 20k pageviews.hm......just like Fdurduh -lougaraswifthrt
- See that image [above] about realityfailed's stance on copyright violations? That user he was talking about who was "twisting" established policy to further their personal agenda? That person who is trying to discredit him by publicizing his retarded comment on copyright violations? That was me. Fuck you, faggot. Fuck you hard. -kassichu
- I think I've gotten into more arguments with realitysquared than anyone else on the whole net, as far as art goes at least *sigh* I spent a month arguing DA's pornography rules with him/her and personally, I don't think he/she cares how inconsistent or badly enforced DA"s rules are. What ever is easiest to enforce seems to be the thought. -_- -ani_bester
- The funniest thing about the whole RS/tracing drama is that DevianTART's registrar is Go-Daddy. Go-Daddy is absolutely ANAL about copyright (god I love 'em) - if they get sent DMCA's they get straight to shutting down servers. -merlin_the_wise
- RealitySquared? Ah, yes. That's the modfag who wrongfully accused me of raiding, then perma-b& me for being the "leader of /b/", despite having over 9000 pageviews and a valid subscription. Leader of /b/, huh? I guess Anonymous really IS my personal army, after all. Sounds like someone should do a little research next time. Then it wouldn't have been necessary to show him how sadly mistaken he really was. - 2401PenitentTangent
- Prick banned me for being a 4channer. I resent this, since the incitement to join my raid, which led to my ban, was on 7chan. What a fag. DarbySniper
- A forum thread of mine got locked by him because it was a sexual topic of sorts. Yet I specifically remember seeing a different thread elsewhere, titled "What's the best way to give head?" that was never locked, and was in fact, a very popular thread. When arguing with R^2 over the "appropriateness" of sex-based discussions, it didn't take long to conclude that he was, and is, a virgin. Earl
- Ok, me showing that I hold the copyright for what I was drawing is harassment, but that faggot Primus is allowed to use pics from Hannibal Lector movies? What a hypocrite! Aria
[edit] See Also
[edit] The Fresh Prince of Bel-Squared
Now this is a story all about how my Site got flipped turned upside down And I'd like to take a minute just sit right there I'll tell you how I become the admin called Realitysquared In deviantART.com born and raised, The drawing gallery's where I spent most of my days, Commenting, submittin', favin', all cool And all b&in' some dAmn users for closin' my pool. When a couple of /b/ tards made their own little club, Started makin' trouble in my network hub. They got in one little raid and we all shat bricks And said, "OMFG B&! BUT THEY'RE POSTING MUDDY DICKS!" I whistled for a lawyer and when he got here His skills were epic fail and we started to fear. If anything I could say that this lawyer was strange, But I thought, "Nah, forget it. Yo policy change!" I changed a few rules, about 7 or 8, And I yelled to Jark, "Yo holmes, smell ya later!" Looked at my kingdom I was finally there To sit on my throne as Realitysquared.
[edit] Wow what the fuck is this shit?
his profile title.
Daniel (realitysquared)
Copyright & Etiquette Administration Director,
Community Development Division,
deviantART Inc.
- Now read his latest deviant retardt journal entry.
- WARNING TL;DR people will have a shit fit but who cares.
- Oh yeah see how many times you can spot the fucking ass kissing this fag gets, and the amount of Eliot Spitzer worthy blowjobs this fuckface will be offered for his Moses worthy speech.
Do You Invite It?
It's been slightly longer than I intended but I wanted to touch on the topic of Constructive Critique again.
My last journal focused more on the given and acceptance of critique but someone pointed out a very true statement;
Exactly how many people actually invite a good in depth critique? And there is more to it then just stating that you want one.
The vast majority of people are hesitant to give an in depth tear-down of your work in the first place, either because they feel out of place or they've done it before and have been viciously attacked by a thin-skinned unstable psycho of an artist who blew a fuse because they didn't know how to react to an actual critique, or even worse they were attacked by a mob of foaming friends determined to help assist their favorite artist in never-ever getting any better by chewing up any actual critics before they could do anybody any good.
Last week I mentioned that a deviation comment is a powerful thing which can be used to help guide a developing artist and that it was actually quite shameful that many people don't take greater advantage of that; even if it used for nothing else besides questions or suggestions 'for next time'.
But honestly critique is a two way street; there is the obvious part that the critic need to be verbose and clear in giving it without being insulting, and the equally obvious part that the artist needs to be confident enough and emotionally stable enough to take the critique and apply it to themselves in an honest fashion.
But both of these parts make the assumption that the critique will happen in the first place, but in many cases it doesn't.
So, exactly who is "responsible" for starting the process?
The default assumption that many people, critics and artists alike, make is that the simply fact that you've submitted something is invitation enough. But as we've seen too often too many artists say they want an advanced and in-depth critique only to have a complete and utter emotional meltdown when somebody actually gives one. This in turn makes critics very wary about giving them without a giant invitation strung with glowing neon repeated in triplicate.
It is sort of a sad situation really because it only promotes more of the same vapid cookie-cutter useless praise comments that most serious artists despise and most amateurs can't possibly function without.
So last week I harangued you commenter's for not doing enough with your privilege of being able to actually say something worthwhile.
This week I'm going to berate you artists for wasting an equally valuable resource and privilege; your deviation description area.
Every week I see someone remark about how they do not receive "good comments". The implied 'blame' here is on the commenter for their reliance on giving only useless comments that a zombie with a rubber stamp and a plate of brains to keep him from tearing the pace up could manage.
Maybe the focus should be more on what measures the artist could do to actually invite good comments, questions or suggestions rather than simply expecting them to happen?
I can't speak for anyone else but I do two things in pretty much the same order every time; the first being to view the deviation and the second being that I read the description.
Know what I see as a description a lot of times?
Junk.
"Photoshop, 345.7 hours of work", "Model; Judy", "Comments plz", and the most useless of them all the dreaded "...".
Is it really any wonder that people don't leave you any sort of comment of any worth?
The deviation description is your ability to interact with your viewers remotely. It's the equivalent of being able to stand next to your work in a gallery while people stroll up to it and look at it. It's your chance to set up the scene, tell about the creation of the work, what drove you, how you did it and most of all to provide a basis for feedback.
This isn't the real world, you can't react face-to-face with your viewers like you could if you were physically present there in the gallery. The best chance you have to engage your viewer and get them talking and OMFG critiquing is to take advantage of the deviation description area.
Neglecting this area is the equivalent of leaving your canvases in a cardboard box by the gallery door next to a stack of Postit notes and a pen while you slip out for a burger hoping that there'll be something useful written down on the box when you get back....whenever that will be.
Really- what the hell kind of discussion does a description of "..." promote? If you said "garbage" then you're right on the money. Nobody will feel comfortable engaging you with a critique if you can't be bothered to engage them first with a description which is at least as detailed as the comment you'd like to get in return.
If you're a photographer use the space to talk about your model, make-up concerns, your race against the sunset for the landscape shot, struggles with lighting, what you wanted to convey with the shadows, the emotional impact you wanted to achieve.
If you are a traditional artist then talk about your choice of paper, your pencils, or markers or paints. Talk about your references, dump your trial sketches into Scraps and talk about why you chose one over the other. Talk about what the scene is supposed to convey to the viewer.
Digital artists can talk about similar things; the program you used, why you like it, what tools you used, references, techniques and trial and error. Talk about your search for stock photographs, how you meshed everything together whether or not the final product was exactly how you envisioned it and why or how it differed.
In short engage your viewers. Involve them after the fact in the creative process. Hell even if you're just rambling a bit about what you wanted to achieve in some fashion you'll wind up engaging your viewers a hell of a lot more than chucking "20 hours photoshop" into the description.
If the viewer has the power to help guide your refinement as an artist with their comment then you have the power to guide the focus of that comment with your description.
Don't disrespect that ability to invite and guide feedback by slapping down "..." as your deviation description; you aren't enabling your viewers and in turn they are much less likely to return anything of use to you.
Give them garbage and what you'll receive is garbage.
"Nice Pic." "Good job"
Don't think about it as why you don't get good comments or critique, think about it more as how you can make people more comfortable doing it. Take what responsibility you can in inviting and guiding the type of comments you want and if you still don't get them then you can blame your "Good Job" stamp wielding zombie commenters.
[edit] External Links
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