Clarification of the Objectives and Policies of The Anti-Club Club.

by Charles Kunkle Jr.
a.k.a. fraterchaos

The Anti-Club is a deviantArt group or community. We are dedicated

to correcting certain shortcomings in the current dA policies and

rules, to ease relations between users who join and support clubs

on dA, and those who either dislike joining clubs, or are

indifferent to clubs.

To that end, we support the ideas of creating special "club pages"

with features that will be of use and utility to both the clubs,

and the people who are not members of these clubs.

The reason we feel that there is a need for this action, is because

the present system does not actually provide any support for clubs,

nor does it prohibit clubs, so "clubs" as any sort of entity, exist

in a gray area, where the clubs seem to believe they can create

their own rules, and expect non-members to follow those rules;

while non-club members can occasionally feel a sense of unfairness

arise from the actions taken by some of these clubs.

The purpose then, of the Anti-Club, is draw awareness to this

situation, and hopefully provide some sort of forum for the adult,

mature, and above all, intelligent, discussion of methods to correct

these shortcomings.

We would first propose that clubs as they exist now, consider the

idea of trying to find ways of co-existing with the community that

would lessen the problems that are arising. We would like to

suggest that clubs STOP posting artwork on club pages, and rather

provide members with a "club link" they can place on their own

page, that would take interested users to the galleries of the

club. ( yes, we understand that posting to the club page gallery will cause the art to appear

as a new submission, and comments would appear on the club page, the answer to this is

simple, do not post to the gallery, mark member as club favs)

This would mean that no longer would users be able to (either

accidentally, or through spite) send favs or comments to club

pages. We do NOT ask that this become a permanent feature, as we

would hope that at some time in the future dA admins could be

convinced to institute policies and programming to allow a simpler

and better solution.

If the clubs find that our previous suggestion is beyond their

abilities or desires, we would ask that they at the very least,

make their messages concerning not posting favs or comments on club

pages more polite. It can be frustrating and even create anger and

bad feelings toward the clubs when a user views a piece of art,

only to met with rudely phrased demands about not faving or

commenting in that place. As a wise man once said, you catch more

flies with honey...

We would also ask that the policy of some clubs, to require new

members to submit a piece of art from their gallery upon joining be

abolished. Instead, we suggest that clubs ask their new members to

submit a previously unsubmitted work specifically for the club.

This way, member's art will not appear in the dA "Newest" gallery

twice (or if the person is a member of more than one club, and

submits the same piece to more than one club, their piece could,

conceivably, appear more than twice in the "Newest " gallery) We at

the Anti-Club feel that this practice is unfairly gaining exposure

for club members at the expense of all non-club members. (not to

mention that it uses dA storage space to store these works twice

(or more) in multiple galleries, although we at AC admit we do not

know how these "re-posts" are handled internally by dA, if they are

merely linked, then storage space is much less an issue, but if

these "re-posts" are stored twice, that could be a real issue. We

at AC hope to learn which situation reflects the true state of

affairs)

As for the long range goals of AC, we woud like to see dA institute

policies for "club pages", and set aside the "club pages" as

something different than standard user pages. We would like to see

the favs and comments totally disabled on these pages, to finally

eliminate the need for nasty mesaages about not faving or

commenting.

We would also like to see some method in place to stop work

submitted to clubs from appearing as any sort of new work, when it

has already appeared so.

We are also very interested in hearing ideas concerning other

features, policies, or rules concerning clubs and club pages, both

from the clubs and from the non-club members. We are sincerely

hoping to develop a plan to submit to the dA admins that will

satisfy everyone, or as close to everyone as possible.

Please, rest assured, we do NOT want to hurt the clubs. We are not

trying to have them abolished, and we hope to work together with

them to find policies and features that will assist them in gaining

exposure for their members, while not being unfair to artists who

would rather "go it alone".

And for those of you who are of the second type, we want your input

too. We hope to hear what you would like to see as concerns clubs

and club pages. We are open to ANY suggestions, so long as they are

given in a spirit of cooperation and maturity.

It is the ultimate goal of AC to improve dA for everyone, in any

way we can.

At the present time, the Anti-Club is something of a fictional

entity. We have no "club page", we do not ask for submissions of

art (and likely never will) and as far as the writer knows, has

only one actual member. Some of the ideas expressed herein have

been suggested by another user in a prolonged discussion with the

author of this article, and the author sincerely hopes that this

person will agree to join the AC, and the auther fully supports the

idea of this person being the only other "Founding Member", but at

present, we cannot reveal this person's identity as we have not

been given permission to do so. (You know who you are, and if you

want others to know, then please inform us of the fact.)

To become a member of the Anti-Club is simplicity itself. Simply

say that you are a member. We ask that you add a tagline, similar

to the authors own tagline (we mean, by tagline a small notice

after one's signature line). The author has supplied a few examples

in a journal entry, and plans to write a list of variations which

can be used, and submission for tags are always welcome.

Help the Anti-Club improve the dA experience, both for the clubs

and the users who don't join clubs. Show your support, and offer to

volunteer (if you have some spare time) We will accept any offer of

help that does not conflict with our purposes.