"We didn't start the fire. It was always burning, since the world's been turning."
We Didn't Start The Fire by Billy Joel.



I know what it's like to be an outcast and to rely solely on the internet to find people like you. People who have no friends, people who have serious social issues and people who have no self-esteem. That's what I went to DeviantArt to find. Friends. And people who would care about me.
I signed up for my first account in October of 2003. My best friend had just commited suicide and two months down the road two more loved ones of mine would pass away.
I never submitted anything under that alias, as I just chatted with people on DA and off DA on AIM and MSN. But for one of the first times in my life, I felt like someone loved me and cared for me and actually gave a damn about something that had to do with me. My friends here helped me cope with the deaths and I was always online.
Soon after December, after Edward commit suicide, I lost all care of everything. I even left DeviantArt. Things got really hard and I wanted nothing more than to find that sense of community again, in the 'real world'.
Around about February of last year, I realized that just wasn't going to happen for a teenage girl living in Maine. I found that I'd always be an outcast, no matter how hard I tried to fit in. I could change my clothes, my music, my hair, my weight, but I could never change my whole self. I rejoined as ~Taylor42 that month.
Shortly after, I came clean with my Mother of everything that had happened to me, my cutting, my smoking, my drinking, and even suicide attempts.
The more I browsed through all of the art, the more I became interested in photography. I had experimented before then, and had even established a company, teneighteen Photography in January. Now, I found that on this site, I could get positive and constructive feedback from complete strangers. And that I want to follow the "art path" in life.
This place means something to every single one of us. Whether you care to admit it or not. I can identify with `liquify's journal. And I know you can in some way, shape, or form.
We know we can't force them to rehire jark, but we can at least keep the community still alive. The community that I wouldn't be here without.
All of my time has been spent at DeviantArt recently, since I heard the news.
Maybe I've cried one too many tears over this, but I love and belong to this online community. And I will do everything I can to keep that community feeling.

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August seventh deviantArt will come together moreso than it has already with the many avatars and icons made in protest of the firing of jark.

People of deviantArt have decided to post nothing but yellow deviations on the DA's fifth year anniversary.
Please, do this if you feel you want to.

There are many places to get updates.
TheArmyOfJarkness is a chat room, and the top of my list.

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PLEASE REMEMBER
[link]
"Remain civil while asking questions. Rioting solves nothing. Diplomacy is necessary. Whether you submit art or write comments, it must remain well-mannered. Trust me when I say that; the administration favors, and listens, to those who can frame their arguments in an intelligent and courteous manner. People who lash out are summarily dismissed by the staff." "Remember one thing: the community comes before anything and everything. It is why I had devoted the last 5 years of my life to deviantART; it is why I sacrificed so much."