Why did Godscapes leave deviantART?

That seems to be the question on everyone's lips and up until this point I have stayed relatively quiet, but I have decided to break that silence in the hope that it will convince people to let this thing die an honourable death and leave me alone once and for all.

How did it get started?

I was in a bad mood after having a bad week and described such mood in my journal as being "shitty". From memory I used the word three times.

A self-righteous Christian who had been watching my work for a reasonable length of time and no doubt if he had bothered to read any of my other journals would certainly have read worse things, decided to take it upon himself to tell me just how sinful I was. I told him politely (and yes I do mean politely, I never ONCE swore at him or anyone!) to worry about his sin and I would worry about mine. To which he replied by dumping loads of scripture on my page again accusing me of being less of a Christian because I said the word "shitty" to describe my mood (gee I don't drink, don't smoke, don't screw around, I guess a girl has to be perfect?!). I gave him some scripture back about being judgmental and casting stones at me when he was in fact just as bad himself as proven through his judgment of me by my imperfections. This is all taking place on MY JOURNAL and MY PROFILE! I never once went to his page or his site to have a go at him, he was the antagonist, not me.

From here he again plastered scripture on my profile indicating me as the filthy sinner that I am, so this time I got pissed off and I told him to stop harassing me or I would have him banned from my account. I blocked him anyway, because I just couldn't be bothered wasting any energy on him. I then found that he went around the block through a second account (a direct violation according to dA policy) so I had to block that account also, but not only that he called me out in his journal, telling everyone that I was against God and against Christ (which is the biggest insult any Christian can lay on another) and was justifying my sin using bible verses and then he encouraged his little Christian minions to go to my page and set me straight. I was pissed even more and I wrote a heated vent in my journal, but I never ONCE called him out or went to his page. I basically just told people in my own journal how pissed off arrogant self-righteous Christian hypocrites make me feel by giving the rest of us a bad name and how a small trivial incident like this can trigger my illness unnecessarily. To which most of my watchers replied, nah it would have angered us the same way.

I have bipolar, a fact of which my watchers knew as I wrote about it in my journals on the odd occasion, but at the same time it was not broadcast news across the dA community and nor had I given it permission to be either. Anyway after blocking several of the little Christian "followers" this person sent to my page and after defaming me in his journal, he decided it wasn't good enough just to attack me about my faith, but he attacked me about my illness also. He reported me to admin, actually had the nerve to contact Spyed on his profile and broadcast my illness. But still that wasn't enough, he wrote a journal about how I was evil and in a dark place, continued to defame my name and my reputation (anyone who followed my work can tell you what a decent, honest person and bloody good photographer I am, in fact prior to this incident this person never had any complaint against me and thought I was lovely!!). Anyway all this is happening and I still have not called him out on my page, not once. I was pissed and I was hurt, really hurt that someone who calls himself a Christian could be so cruel.

Anyway a lot of my watchers were not happy with how I was being treated and they began to tell this person what they thought of the treatment he was giving me. They presented him with well articulated comments trying to reveal to him, the very nature of his callous attack and he saw fit to hide every comment and then delete the offending journal before admin could read it (yes I finally was driven to the point of having to report him for my own sanity). He then replaced this journal with a fake "prayer" journal, again calling me out and telling everyone that I was "bipolar raging" and making me out to sound like a complete retarded maniac. He tried to make it sound sincere but it was obvious that he was mocking me and trying to cover his tracks (coward). I reported him a second time.

I then found out that he had contacted admin and basically told them to forget about the harassment allegation by me as it had been sorted out. It was far from sorted out, this guy actually also wrote a deviation about me, telling everyone that it was inspired by his "fight" with Godscapes. What fight?????? I never once went to this guys site and had a go at him, I stayed well away from him, I didn't even encourage anyone to "get him" on my behalf. In fact as I remember quite rightly I told people to let it die and leave him be, that God would see to sorting him out. Anyway when I saw this deviation and what he was continuing to say about me I reported him a third time and I told admin I wanted him gone from dA as it was obvious to anyone that he was not going to leave me alone. He had obviously broken the rules by harassing me and then getting to me through another account, not only that but sending others to my page to harass me further. Not only that but I was a decent "paying" member of dA, I had just bought a print account and sold a couple of prints making them money, I was a subscriber and I was being treated like... well SHIT!

So what did admin do??? They politely told me that the situation had been "addressed" and if he continued to contact me to let them know. They blocked the second account that he come at me through (which he hardly ever used) but they left his main account standing and he continues to have full "righteous" privileges as far as I am aware. They asked me if there was anything else they could do and I said yes, I would like all of his journals making reference to me and my illness deleted. Not an unreasonable request I don't think. What did admin say? Basically that people can write what ever they like in their own journals about who ever they want, if you don't want to be offended don't go and read them.

I was totally dumbfounded!!!!! This whole thing started because he didn't like the fact that I used the word "shitty" in my journal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So that was it, the final straw for me and I left. 5 days after receiving my first Daily Deviation, I closed down my gallery and I left dA for good. I had returned to this site after leaving it once before because I had my photographs stolen and now I was once again facing the decision of whether to stay or go. It was not an easy decision and it was not a "heat in the moment" decision as most people seem to think, in the end I decided that this site was not worthy of displaying my work, or of my patronage (or my money!!!) if that was their attitude and their way of dealing with a blatant harassment situation.

Since I have left dA I have been continually harassed on my profile page and on other sites. I even went over to RedBubble to display my work and people followed me over there just to tell me how "weak" I was for leaving and how I would be a disappointment to them if I did not continue to stay and help them with their art. How selfish can people be?! Honestly, after what I had been through and here people were still trying to manipulate me emotionally to stay at dA, all it did was reinforce the fact that I had made the right decision to leave. My loyal followers (and you know who you are) never questioned my decision to leave, you just supported it and for that I am truly humbled and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Since I have left I have been much happier. I miss my friends, but I no longer worry about having to spend hours and hours on the computer keeping up with messages and the like. I feel like I have my real life back again and I am spending much more time doing the things I love. I am back at the gym, back out regularly taking photos and back at work. In fact this person I think actually did me a huge favour, so if you are reading this, I thank you for motivating me to leave this site and gain a life.

Now I implore you to please have the decency to put this whole incident to rest once and for all. I have forgiven the person in question who caused it all, whether he deserves to be forgiven or not is beside the point, I have forgiven him and have moved on for my own peace, but that being said, still has not encouraged me to re-open my gallery. Others who have voiced their opinion or accused me of this or that on my profile page without knowing the full facts of my leaving have taken care of that. My reasons for leaving still stand and will not change.

As I say, I have made my choice, moved on and I am happy. In the end, that is all that really matters! Still, I want to thank all of you who have stood by me and still continue to do so. You are what made this community a decent place to hang out while I was here.

Much love to you all!

Goodbye.