ewm

Hey Everyone,
For almost 10 years I've been here for the Community to help make deviantART's Help Desk service the best possible Customer Service across the web. While my team was small consisting of myself, Ikue and MidnightExigent we kicked some serious ass keeping up with the General Help and Bug Report section ensuring everyone was helped to the best of our abilities and that all buggies were investigated, reproduced, and filed with deviousTechnology to be fixed. Most websites have very substantial teams maintaining these sorts of tickets but the three of us made the most awesome team having the vast majority of tickets responded to within a 48 hour period. When I first took on my role here I was under the impression it was going to be volunteer and I was totally ok with that because I loved the Community and wanted to give back what I could but it ended up being an actual job that helped me through college, helped me find love, helped me be able to move across the country while still being able to work, and made it easier for me to go back and visit my family.

After being let go on Tuesday I'm having a hard time, not knowing what I'm going to do because this is the only job I've ever done and loved doing it because I had the most amazing team I consider family and was able to help out all you wonderful artists on here. I'm truly going to miss all of it. I ask you all to please have patience with the remaining members of the Community Operations team and with your Help Desk tickets because I know they are trying ask hard as they can to make up for everyone that was lost.

I'll likely be quite illusive here so if you'd like to keep more in touch with me please follow me on Instagram and/or Ravelry

 

- EWM

HEARTBLEED HOAX

Hiya Everyone!
There has been a lot of stir lately concerning HeartBleed and accounts becoming "hacked". I'd like to clarify that "Heartbleed" was never an issue for DeviantArt or DeviantArt profiles and that it never functioned in the way these journals are stating. It appears what is happening is that "Heartbleed" is being merged in with the popular "Hacker" hoax to make a new, completely fake, scare tactic. The actual Heartbleed situation occurred almost a year ago and you can find more information about it on this Wikipedia page.

I'd highly recommend reading over the following two blogs and that you watch the hq group as any important information about actual security issues will always be announced there directly.

Account Security - An UpdateRecently, there has been some rumours spreading throughout the community about a hacker going around taking over accounts and deactivating them. We'd like to  reassure you on this matter, and to also provide you some useful pointers in order to keep your account secure.
Upon hearing these "hacker" claims, we put our supersleuth dT Team to the task of making sure that nothing untoward was going on, and to verifythat there was no exploits within the deactivation process. We have been assured that there's no exploit that is being used to access accounts and deactivate them. There is a far simpler and less sinister answer, however and it's something that every one of us can take a proactive stance towards -- passwords. You need them for just about everything these days. What's the point of having them if you're only going to make them something really simple?  The use of strong passwords is one of the most basic aspects of internet security.
Take a look at the image bel

Site Update: Mobile Deviations, Verold IntegrationIn our continuous effort to improve the deviantART experience, we're publishing weekly Site Updates to keep members informed and to gather feedback. Below is a list of recent changes to the site, bug fixes, and feedback that was brought up by members in the last Site Update.
What's New
The New Mobile Deviation Page
The deviation page on the mobile website has just gotten a huge uplift!
In uplifting the mobile deviation page, we re-evaluated what the most important functions and information on the deviation page were, and altered the page to present them in the most easily accessible way. From there, the deviation page was given a visual refresh for ease, clarity, and simplicity.
Read more »

The best way to ensure that your account is secure is by not giving out your password, not sharing your password, not selecting easy to guess passwords as described in the account security article, and making sure to logout of your accounts when leaving a publicly accessible computer. I hope this helps alleviate some of the worry that is going around.

Have a great day!

E!

As of MAY 21ST HOAX

There has been a secondary rumor that has been going on for almost a year now concerning MAY 21ST and the deletion of fake accounts. THIS IS A HOAX.

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deviantART is my home no matter where I am. It's hard to imagine it's turning 14!



For over 11 years deviantART has been there for me though high school and university as a source of artistic inspiration and for learning as well as a place to show off my artwork as I progressed through the various art classes I took.

 

During my Sophomore year of University I was asked by hexentanz to work along side her on the deviantART Help Desk which was amazing and at that time completely unheard. I was only part time back then along with part time for the University's Computer Lab Help Desk. Being able to work from any location on my favorite website was absolutely perfect and still is! The position became a great learning experience and helped me be more involved in this community I love. During my Senior year I was asked to go full time and I remember when I had my Senior Interview the professors asked me what sort of jobs I was looking for now that I was almost done. I said are you kidding? I already have the perfect job with deviantART I couldn't ask for anything better than working with people I consider family, helping out artists across the world, and being able to work anywhere! They had the most dumbfounded faces not realizing that my job was an actual REAL job. I can't believe it's been almost 9 years since I started at the Help Desk... time sure flies.



deviantART helped me find my love, on the #photography chat. We've been together now for almost 8 and a half years.



Four years ago I wanted to move across country all in the name of love. It was a big moment in my life. deviantART helped make moving across country easier with so much of my family being members so we could keep up to date with each others' artwork. Packing up and moving somewhere new is always difficult no matter how short or long a distance but no matter the distance deviantART was my constant to tie my old home with my new.



No matter the changes I experienced over the years my home here on deviantART was a constant. A place where I could learn, grow, and meet many wonderful people.



I've befriended many people through deviantART who have inspired me to become better, not only as an artist but as a whole.



I've even become friends with some artists that early on I was a huge fan of theirs never knowing that we would later become friends and inspire each other.






Many of the friends I've made I consider to be more like family no matter how crazy some are hehe!



It's hard to imagine that over 40% of my life I've been on deviantART. Whether it was to learn and grow as an artist, making new friends, admiring artwork and artists, and working to help all you deviants on site it has all been a remarkable experience. I always think about how deviantART is Art History in the making. Never in the history of Art has there been a collection of artists on this scale. It's remarkable to think of it in that light and I'm so glad that I'm able to be part of it!



Stay devious!

Check out heidi.deviantart.com/journal/C…

Hiya Everyone!
Just catching up from the madness that was a truly epic Birthday Road trip. I wanted to make sure I thanked everyone for all the Birthday Wishes you guys left on my page. you all are the best! I had a wonderful Birthday. I celebrated it with some of my fiber arts friends. We took a road trip over to the Black Sheep Gathering the largest fiber festival I've attended over here on the West Coast.

It was gorgeous the whole time except for a wee bit of rain on the morning of the first day but other than that blue skies.





Of course the first booth I went to visit is the Jenkins booth to talk to Ed and Wanda Jenkins and look at all their beautiful spindles!



I ended up picking out these two aren't they just gorgeous!!!!



I saw lots of adorable sheepies













I wanted to take this light gray/brown one home with me. Her name is Athena and she's a Shetland lamb. Isn't she adorable! She came over when I called her name and let me pet her. Extremely sweet.



I spent a lot of time watching Judith MacKenziem judge hundreds of gorgeous fleeces. Her knowledge about the history of sheep, their breeds, characteristics, what sheeps are good for what sort of projects etc is amazing. She is incredible to listen to.



I saw a little Holiday wheel the same kind of wheel I just got recently after being on a 3 year waiting list. Isn't this wheel as cute as a button?! This one is the one I saw not mine. Mine is solid Walnut.



I attended two Jenkins spindle meetups where I met lots of lovely Jenkins owners that I talk to on the forums but finally got to meet in person. Everyone was wonderful. Out of all the projects being spun this one was my favorite. It is simply gorgeous!



Loot, yes sweet loot and I came home with lots of it. Some of these were gifts others I purchased. I'm extremely happy with everything I got.



Out of everything I'm super excited about my upcoming project that will be involving the fiber braids that are all lined up. The 10 braids will be spun one on each of my 7 spindles and 3 wheels so that each finished yarn will be the same weight(fingering weight yarn for lace knitting). Each skein will be knitted in a certain order to create a shawl that will have been made by all my spindles and wheels. It's going to be an awesome project can't wait

Here's the braids close up in the order the yarns would be knitted in along with my Jenkins Turkish Spindles.



Lastly here they are all together my 7 spindles, three wheels, and the 10 braids of fiber.



I'll be spinning this project during Tour de Fleece coming up July 5th. Tour de Fleece is a major spinning event that takes place during the Tour de France. Spinners can join teams(can be based on particular vendors of fiber or spinning tools, location, etc) and they set goals for themselves to achieve during the event. It's super fun to see all the projects being worked on.

EWM