In March 2004, one of the critical problems that runs rampant throughout the writers’ community on this website was satirically portrayed in The Unofficial Guide to DeviantART Popularity as follows:

Day 58

Visit DA’s front page and find a poem that has been recently submitted.  Comment, "I hate this, your rhyming sucks, and it’s just absolutely horrible."  When the author becomes offended, mock them and tell them that they don’t know how to handle an honest critique.  Tell that person to leave you alone.  If there were more good writers like you, there wouldn’t be these problems.

Repeat cycle, then rinse.  After several iterations, people will notice you and jump onto your steadily growing bandwagon; everyone will hail you as a great critic.

It is one thing to poke fun at such occurrences transpiring, but it is no joking matter to actually witness it.  Unfortunately, this is not a rare happenstance – to see what I am referring to, just peruse through the comments underneath submission such as Deceit, by a 14-year old girl from Australia.  We should not mince words - the comments this young teenager received from other deviants are no short of despicable and this sort of spiteful behavior should not be tolerated.  Because we permit fully-grown adults to act in such a juvenile manner, this sort of behavior has become socially accepted on DA.  Therefore, it is long overdue to consider some of the issues plaguing the writer’s community, why it’s occurring, and what can be possibly done to correct it.

It’s all about attitude

"Why do the poetry and prose DTFs suck?"

"How come writers don’t get the same attention as everyone else?"

"How can we improve the quality of the writing on DA?"

It seems that the overwhelming majority of threads in the poetry and prose forums are based on these three basic quereies.  You might wonder what harassing a 14-year old has to do with any of the above questions; while these issues may not seem closely related, they are inextricably connected with the same underlying rotting root – that the general DA writing community is in need of a severe attitude adjustment.

This attitude problem isn’t isolated within the writer’s community on DeviantART – it happens everywhere on this website.  However, the other creative communities have several advantages over writers: they are visually oriented, have larger populations, and are more easily accessible to the public due to the infrastructure of this website.  The photography community, for example, is so large that most members have learned to ignore or drown out such condescending idiocy.  Because its populace is so small, DA writers do not enjoy the same luxury as other creative disciplines.  Therefore, the annoying blabbermouths not only take up an unhealthy portion of posts in writers’ forums and make moronic comments as those shown in “Deceit”, but they’re allowed to get away with it.  In terms of exposure, the writing community already has a lot going against it because of the general decline in reading and the visual nature of the internet.  However, the prevailing, "I’m the shit and know more than you do and if you don’t listen to the fact I think you suck, then you suck even more," mentality is smothering the vast potential this small group possesses.

Writers have – and will continue to do so, no matter HOW many forum threads concerning the overall quality of writing on DeviantART manifests themselves - will twist meaningful intent into an excuse for pretentious action and condescending attitudes.  Let’s face it – 99.9% of the writers' community will never in their life be published be a separate, credible source.  To play devil’s advocate, what’s to say the writing on DA is any better than poetry.com?  Anyone can easily point to thousands of nameless English majors who perform at the same level that even the best writers on this site can accomplish.  This is not to serve as a put-down, but instead a healthy reality check.  In a broader perspective, the writing DA "community" is a small collection of people from a very large pool of aspiring writers.  Many of the prevalent attitudes displayed form this particular group is a major reason that the best writers in poetry and prose do not receive the attention on DeviantART that they unquestionably deserve.

If writers were genuinely interested in helping others out, then they would treat ALL deviations – no matter if the creative work was a DTF or had three pageviews – with the same regard, and more importantly, with the same intent behind such crits.  Such actions benefit the person making the constructive criticism, as much – if not more, than the artist whom it is intended for.  If your critiques are truly made in the right spirit, you will not be overly concerned with how an artist responds to your opinion.  In fact, if you are worried about being “flamed”, one thing that you can look at besides the meaningless internet hoopla being flung back in your direction is fine-tuning your critique to be not only constructive, but crafted in a way to retard such flaming.  "Do you need to rhyme?" is no way helpful. Therefore, if we choose to critique all sorts of writing at all types, levels, and exposures, then perhaps we will start seeing some gradual and real qualitative changes in the writing on DeviantART.  The REAL issue isn’t the existing quality of work, but how we respond to it to raise the level of quality.

In addition, the elimination of such condescending attitudes will encourage the other members of DeviantART to take a fresh look at the group of people who compose the writers’ community.  Nobody likes a jackass. The forums and comments underneath poetry/prose submissions are full of ridiculing statements with the intent of putting others "in their place".  What is further irritating is that the people who feel the need to expose such poetry 'that sucks' aren’t publishing anything worthwhile now  - if ever.  If THIS is what the writers community is all about, it is no wonder people have no desire to look at your efforts.  

The biggest crime, however – isn’t against DeviantART – it’s against the young people themselves.  As the trite saying goes, If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say it at all. Whether you like it or not, 11-15 year olds are becoming members of this website at faster rate than most other age groups.  If adults who should know better aren’t ashamed that they would rather bash a 14-year old girl like a group of condescending vultures than genuinely trying to help her out - they damn well should be.  What kind of example is that setting for this girl and will she be more inclined to treat someone else in the same manner now?

And so the cycle continues.

Conclusion

It’s a shame that a few loudmouths have to ruin the perception of an entire group of deviants – but this seems to happen quite often.  Perhaps these morons would act in a more mature manner if the other members of the writing community didn’t let them get away with it.  Some of the best writers I’ve seen on DeviantART really don't say much at all – they’re published, writing newspaper columns, and working on their doctorate degrees.  Simply stated, they kick some serious ass, but you’d never know because they don’t feel the need to brag about it.  I wish these people would speak out more in this arena, but after seeing all the shit the writing community posts for the sole purpose of degrading each another, who could blame them?

We have people on DeviantART who are so insecure in their own talent, ability, and self-worth as a human being that they feel the need to lash out at a 14-year old.  There has to be something seriously wrong with these people to act the way that they do.  And nobody questions these people or informs them that this behavior is errant at best.  Until writers take it upon themselves to institute some sort of 'checks and balances' and make some real efforts to stamp out the idiotic condescending comments that fly back and forth among them, then the DA writing community seems to be pretty content with shooting itself in the foot.

Actions speak louder than words, and many people who claim “they’re just trying to help” – aren’t – they’re just using it as an excuse to put someone else down.  I took the time to write this, not to berate the idiots who harassed that little girl – but for people like the fourteen year old who had to go through what she did because she chose to share her rhyming poetry.  I could really care less on the fate of the writers community, but this problem seems to affect you guys more than anyone else on DeviantART.  I will not stand idly by while adults actively berate someone much younger than themselves because these spineless cowards feel protected by the anonymity of the internet.

And neither should you.