Oddities...

[secondlina]

 Well damn.

I made this face a lot this week. And it's a face I keep for special occasions. First off, i'm annoyed with aspects of my job, mainly idiots calling. Second, I seem to be in a bit of a rut this week. I can't write a comic or an LJ post worth a damn. Third, holy flying macaroni Batman, what is the internet up to?

For starters, Namesake showed up on fandomsecrets. Of all the elements I was expecting readers to nitpick about (such as genders, Lewis Carroll's reputation as a pedophile, sexual orientations of characters, comparing to Disney, etc), someone seemed to have been bothered by the ethnicity of the Wendy character. Huh. That's... a little odd. From what I gathered, she had a very clear vision of what the Wendy of Peter Pan should be. and our version... din't really cover that. It's unfortunate for the reader that feels this way. I still think she should have given the story a bit more of a chance (since Wendy has yet to actually show up).

To continue.... Oh, Deviant art. More deviant art issues. For some, anyways. Deviant art technicians have eliminated the "Other" choice in their "gender" categories. As a person who works with software, I suspect that the technical team did it because the marketing team wishes to add gender-defined campaigns to the site (jewelry stores for isntance would be show on "girly" galleries). However, this has offended many people (including some of my friends). Basically, this has offended people who do not feel attached to a gender or another. Such as Transgendered or Queer folks. 

I admit, myself, I didn't get the issue right away. I'm pretty naive. So I still though LGBT people identified to a specific gender. My friends have explained to me that that wasn't the case. so I see more where this issue comes from. 

Also, To me, the change in itself is not insulting. As I said, it's probably marketing based. But the Deviant art tech support was very rude to many who complained. and I find that is the bad point. Not understanding there's an issue? That's an honest mistake. Being rude to people who report said issue and refusing to fix anything? That's bad public relations and just doesn't cut it.

I won't quit deviant art (since I use it for work, among other things).

However, yesterday, me and dqbunny  were considering advertising namesake on deviant art. Now? Not anymore. Not if we can avoid it.

So, if anyone knows good sites to advertise Namesake (either through project wonderful or not), please let us know! We appreciate all guidance and suggestions. 

Also, have cool namesake drawings I designed for the banners to make you feel better.



Sorry for not drawing comics this week guys. I am really void of joke ideas.

- Isa

Comments

Re: ran long 2/2

[elfgrove.livejournal.com]

Regarding the asshat/uninformed behavior by the staff. For one, the reaction to RS's uninformed and impolite reply was not well articulated to explain to an uniformed person why what they said was being rude and inconsiderate. It was rudeness right back, immediately calling RS a bigot rather than linking him to informative sites. I get that you're angry, but it won't help matters to immediately sink to slinging insults; it also just put RS on the defensive. For two, as a long-time DA member, I know RealitySquared is notorious on DA for being an asshat to the members, paid and not, so when he acts as an asshat, your best bet is to go further up the chain of command, not through the regular support ticket means unless you can articulate what was wrong extremely well. Because the support people usually answer to RS, and you might as well just be asking him the same question a second time.

As much as DA staff like RS frequently cheese me off, I will give a ton of credit to Spyed (devArt's CEO) for calmly listening, asking questions, and trying to find the right solution when he woke up to find an internet mob at his virtual door yesterday. He read a bit, talked to staff, and within hours, had "gender" changed to "sex" hoping that was an acceptable solution that still allowed catering to the advertisers that pay for the site to run. That didn't work for people. He listened gain, engaged in discourse, got informed, and at 4:15pm had his coders working to put "Other" back into the options--as he had been informed that "Unspecified" could be insulting. He also said that further mods would be done as he became aware of the need. That is an extremely quick turn around and reaction. [link]

Of course, people are still pissed because RS is still an asshat and has been for ages. What baffles me is the people that are pissed and screaming that DA has no business knowing at all. Because hey, DA is a business giving you unlimited space for a gallery and a community setup with tons of bells and whistles for free. The site is paid for by advertisers. If they can do better ads and make more money in order to pay for the equipment and staff that keep DA running and free, yes it is their "business" to know. They allow you to hide your choice from everyone else, they're cooperating and trying to fix the system once you get the concern far enough up the chain of command to someone that gives a shit about the user base as individuals. So I'm not leaving DA. Not over this. I'll keep ignoring admin like Hex and RS, and keep listening to Spyed, because he's reasonable and willing to compromise when stuff goes bad.

[End my $0.02]

Re: ran long 2/2

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

This is the best reaction to this entire kerfuffle I've read. Nice job!

I'm surprised no one has brought up the safety aspects of such things. A lot of folks don't declare gender or will pretend to be a different gender to prevent being stalked/harassed.

Re: ran long 2/2

[elfgrove.livejournal.com]

Thanks! (I still like saying "kerFLUFFle" better than "kerfuffle", even though I know it's wrong. ;D )

I think a lot of people missed the point that DA has (and never stopped) allowing you to hide your chosen gender on your profile regardless of what you picked. There were still gender-specific-pronouns on your stats pages as a part of the v7 upgrade (an overlooked aspect of the upgrades) which has since been rectified.

Re: ran long 2/2

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I appreciate your 2 cents. Thanks a ton, hon!

Re: ran long 2/2

[elfgrove.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Sorry for going off here. I'm so freaking opinionated about these things.

Mostly I agree until a fix is made and then the reaction isn't thanks, but OMG NOT GOOD ENOUGH, YOU AREN'T CATERING TO MY EXACT VIEW OF HOW THINGS SHOULD WORK. At which I facepalm and get angry at the unpleasable wanker.