It's been quite a week-and-a-half here in dA; lots of activity centering on °jark and his sacking. `justthorne has written several journals analyzing the situation in his level-headed style, so read them if you need information.

I've done practically nothing here since April. There's a reason for that - it was the subject of my previous journal. I still haven't accepted the revised submission agreement; I still haven't received any acceptable answers for my questions back then.

In April I spoke quite a lot with °dygel. He worked full hours in interacting with the community, assuring people that even though the agreement gave dA lots of rights, they were good guys and wouldn't abuse those rights. My quarrel was with the agreement and not the administration - I could believe that they actually are good guys, but that doesn't change the wording of the agreement.

Fast-forward to present day: during the last week more than a dozen people in the staff has left; °dygel himself left in April. The remaining co-founder, °jark, was kicked out. Add here leaked private e-mails that paint quite a grim picture of, if nothing more, the relations inside the company.

My question is: is the administration still the same that °dygel promoted? The figurehead of dA is gone, taking some people with him, and even the rest is divided. And topping it all is the ominous silence of the other side of the debacle.

"The first casuality in war is the truth."

Once again, the Company PR has been fabulously rotten: there was no mention of "letting °jark go" in the news, people had to find out about it by themselves. The response by $spyed just sidesteps the issue without giving any information.

On the other hand, you have to remember, it's been PR on the side of °jark as well - =simba called it aptly "rallying the troops". There's nothing wrong with it, even if it has caused some turmoil in the site. Just remember, that we've mostly seen °jark's side of things - even the leaked e-mails were written by °jark.

Setting the two main figures aside, some former staffers have spoken their minds about this. From what I gather, without exception they've sided with °jark. Even some current staffers have voiced their unhappiness about the culture of the company. Legal issues may prevent $spyed addressing at least some facets of the issue in public, but it seems that people are kept in the dark inside the company as well.

Thing is, the discussion surrounding the submission agreement was quite a lot like the current discussion regarding °jark. Change without a notice, lots of heated conversation, a calming journal/newsitem from $spyed filled with suspicious lack of information regarding the issue at hand, and then silence.

In two weeks' time nobody bothered with the agreement anymore - dA lost a couple of artists, but otherwise everything returned back to normal. $spyed can count on the fact that the community as a whole has the attention span of a hyperactive two-year old.

Community

It's great to be a part of a community. Even if there's a slight, nagging doubt about how things are developing, it's tempting to let it slide. I'm tempted, and I've been mostly an outsider here.

°jark was visible in many ways. Being a co-founder, his opinion had weight - seeing him care meant that the whole company cared. Even if $lolly is a worthy successor for °jark, there's lots of weight to gain. For now, it seems that the community and company side of dA are in even greater imbalance than before.

Returning to normal means accepting the changes, the lack of communication, the alarming rate of people leaving the administration. It means accepting the fact, that dA still has lots of rights to your art, and the current profile of the company really doesn't seem that trustworthy. Yes, community is a great thing, but is it really great enough to just brush these things aside?

PS. I suggested, among other thins, a change in the agreement to make its termination easier. °dygel liked it. However, so far there's been no change.