I think that's a good idea. One of the reasons why I don't often visit DeviantArt aside from sharing art via PostyBirb+ is because of them doing away with stacking notifications. I never even bother to look at my watch section, because I know it's going to be a huge, cluttered mess.

The notifications were updated to stack in a similar way as described above in the v5.19 update. Notifications should be much less cluttered.

-- BK

Kind of sad this account is inactive, so the user suggesting this probably won't see it, but this could also be useful for comics shared here that are set in real life locations, so you can add a tiny bit of interactivity by tagging the exact places in the world the story takes place in, that way readers can click on it, and see for themselves.

That's an interesting idea. Hm. I'll have to give that one some thought on how it could be implemented.

-- BK

It depends if you want to host a map in-house for cross-referencing with other users' content, but one potential scheme is to run the location input through a redirect to an external site like OpenStreetMap.

Okay, that sounds like a great idea

I was thinking more along the lines of Bing Maps or Mapillary, but that could probably work if they have a street view feature. I had an idea in mind that real-life places shown in fictional stories could have the option to click on the mentioned location, and then take the reader to a street view map to show them how it looks in real life.
For example, one of my recent pictures is set in Curry Ridge Trail, and I was able to tag that exact location on IG to send people to the actual trend showing photos of what it looks like IRL, it would be neat to have that for map viewing apps.

Another question

At the moment... suppose there was someone who broke rules and was removed. Do their posts stay on the site? Asking because a lot of people say it's a sign something can be taken advantage of if the answer is a negative.

According to the Big Red Button, gallery and user ID are wiped, but I've seen forum posts from since-deactivated accounts, and I'm assuming comments on other users' work persist. So it's probably similar to deactivated accounts on dA, where the main gallery is scrapped but correspondence remains.

I don't know if B*zzly's scorched-earth policy is due to poor design or intentional obfuscation, but as soon as I realized it worked that way I got very alarmed. In a perverse way I'm glad my account was suspended rather than deleted outright, because at least I still have attribution. :^)

When an account is removed voluntarily by the user, all of their content is removed from the site. If an account is administratively deactivated, their content is retained for administrative purposes, but is no longer available to the public. In both situations, in order to prevent continuity problems, forums posts and comments are retained and available to the public. That being said, if any of those comments or forums posts are part of the reason an account was administratively deactivated, they will be manually removed as well.

-- BK

On DA though, a gallery stays (though the reason differs depending on why someone was poofed). Take this friend of mine for example. He once made a, well, alarming statement if going by a mod's words, accidentally bringing the curse upon himself (no judgment on him, it was just unfortunate and he is always a huge friend). His wonderful content is still accessible though. Buzzly, if it ever was different, is now the same (though I relate to trust issues... I may seem as if I don't due to a completely unrelated issue, people complained I was too judgmentally predictable for a lack of a better way to say it concisely), which they say also has a protective effect on artists' art claims. That's the reason I asked.

My experience was different. When my original account on DA got banned after it was mass-reported, my entire gallery was wiped, and all of that art was lost permanently. Thankfully I downloaded most of it before it was erased, but the rest is gone forever, and I can't even find copies on the Wayback Machine.
I'll be back, just need a moment of silence to mourn the loss of my first dress-up game...

I don't think dA describes it anywhere (no surprise), but there are two tracks to user bans: suspension and outright deletion. If you can still see the avatar, the user is only suspended and the gallery survives, but is essentially delisted—besides administrative action, this appears to be a discretionary option by users "retiring" from the site who either don't want to wipe, or may choose to resume activity down the line (I've seen both). Complete deactivation scrubs the avatar, and the account presumably can't be recovered.

B*zzly seems to operate on three tiers, because whereas links to my old uploads lead to 404s, I know at least one banned account whose gallery is still technically accessible. That news post didn't suggest anything changed procedurally, just that banned users that weren't deleted outright have to Permanently Opt-Out themselves.

Ah the wayback machine. You're not missing much there, the wayback machine won't show images whose URL has been deleted. For example, if you post a comment with a stash image and archive it on the wayback machine and you remove the stash image from your stash gallery, it will appear as an empty, transparent frame on the wayback machine archive.

And sorry you got mass-reported. What did you get mass-reported for, if I may ask? Asking only as I can relate to that in an indirect way and am wondering if they differentiate how they treat mass-reports the same way they differentiate between how they treat regular reports.

Also, you can also find the work sometimes lingering around Google Images if you search your username on there or the work's title.

That isn't 100% accurate.

So... you probably will never witness this yourself (of course not saying that as a bad thing), but when a conventional suspension occurs, you cannot log into your account. When you do, it will say "forbidden" (rather than "deactivated") and they prescribe you a certain amount of time before this expires, written down in a message somewhere. Someone who is suspended also won't have their name crossed out.

This is in contrast to what you're referring to in a few ways when you refer to a suspension, being you (and again noting the irony) can log into your account in some cases (but you can't do anything, it's like being in ghost mode) and can choose to log in and deactivate conventionally and remove all your content or remove individual things (if you deactivate, the account becomes closed and cannot be reopened for another two days, and after twenty days of it not being reopened, it will remove all your content).

You can also be banned from certain functions of the website but not the other functions. You can be banned from the forums but not the main site or the shop or chat, from the shop but not the forums or the main site or chat, or from chat but not the fprums or the main site or the shop. However, if you're banned from the main site, you're banned from all the site.

There are also different types of bans; in some they remove your posts, in some they remove your forum threads, in some they remove everything, and in some they remove nothing. This largely depends on the perceived offense, but as I mention here, it's becoming more ambiguous.

One way you used to be able to find out if someone is banned (though I don't know if it still applies because they remodeled the groups feature) is to invite a person whose name is crossed out. If they were deactivated, a message would popup and say "cannot invite a deactivated member", but if it was a ban, it would say "cannot invite a banned member".

If this method still works, even the people who have their work still up but who have been issued an order to leave and have their name crossed out will trigger the response saying they were banned. Many such people also get messages in their emails saying "we are removing you indefinitely and this means the ban will never expire" (not verbatim), which means it's not temporary like one would think of a suspension.

It should also be noted sometimes protocol is twisted. Some banned people are treated as if they got banned for reasons other than what they were banned for, and some don't get a message in their inbox about their ban. There has been a surge in this recently and the DeviantArt subreddit has been filled up with complaints that would indicate something at the moment is awry.

Well, it tends to archive flash games, so I don't know why mine wasn't there, I would have saved it on the Wayback Machine myself had I known it existed back then.
As for what I got mass reported for, I got caught up in drama, and one of the people involved sent their followers to aid them in reporting me, and got my account banned too. Funny thing is, the reason given was "Spammer", but the DeviantArt staff refused to tell me what exactly I did that was considered spam, considering I completely abandoned that account after I left, meaning there was no activity on that account from then on.
I might try searching the file name on Google, but I don't think I'll search with my username, not only because I'm pretty sure it's unlikely to be there under any recent usernames I went by back then, but also because I disowned my old username which I'm sad about having to do, but it's for the best. The last thing I want is to look myself up on Google and get a face full of hate art, which is exactly what happened the last time I did. Although, I'm still digging around for resources to tell my story, so I might not have a choice. Maybe finally getting the closure I need will finally put an end to all of the nightmares I keep having every other night that force me to constantly relive those past 9 years over and over again.

I'm pointing this out in the event that it's a bug, but I noticed that if you make a thread, go to post, and while proofreading you decide you want to edit the title before the thread goes public, you end up with two thread titles, such as with this thread I posted a few hours ago.

Thanks for the head's up. I will look into this and if it's a bug, have it fixed in the next update.

-- BK

i apologize if this was already a suggestion, or even an already existing feature i just havent found yet but: emotes for posts. i think easily bein able to add some "flair" to posts with little icons and such would be more incentive to interact with one another.

id also like to ask if we could have a dropdown menu on tagging art for recent/most used tags by that user bc i find myself retypin "originalcharacter" and "original character" everytime lmao. i guess this is more just a convenience suggestion tho.

loving the site so far, i was rlly wanting another community driven art site like this so thanks!!

i have an idea, what if every user who has a s7 account goes online, then comment and post atleast once a day if possible

I'm not 100% sure I know what you mean by emotes for posts. Can you explain it more for me?

I will add this to my list of feature requests!

Thank you!

-- BK

Can you imagine how the site would be if they did that?

-- BK

im a dummy we have them :o)

but maybe we could have unique side7 smilies kinda like how DA has its own set of them. tho thats easier said than done rlly.
either way we still have the bbcode smilies as is

AveryLostheart:

im a dummy we have them :o)

but maybe we could have unique side7 smilies kinda like how DA has its own set of them. tho thats easier said than done rlly.
either way we still have the bbcode smilies as is

Unique Side 7 smilies would rock. But, I don't think I'm the person to do the job. I'd have to get someone to do them for me. I'd want them to be Oni (the site mascot) smilies.
-- BK

i can also recommend, if you can, do some advertising for the site in general. the fact you dont allow AI generated items OR immoral NSFW works is highly commendable.

deviant art embraces AI and pixiv allows AI and also l*licon and sh*tacon works on their platform, i have left both for those reasons.
tumblr is a decent website but theres no real sense of community to me. twitter is twitter. furaffinity is kinda strictly furries, and lastly toyhouse is STRICTLY ocs. (you cant post non-oc works)

i think your website has a good niche to it. it allows fanart and ocs, it doesnt allow AI or immoral shit, its got a sense of community with forums, and its entirely artwork based.
if somehow word can get out there about this site, i have a good feeling it could bring a lot more folk in. funnily enough i found this site through a reddit post saying the only reason why
they didn't stick around was bc there wasnt many ppl on here. which i guess is fair but with everything i mentioned, its only gonna go up.

not really sure what a good way to advertise would be, but ive been mentioning it on discord and stuff. maybe if you include a referral system, like if someone says who referred them to sign up, that user can get a bonus of some sorts. not sure what tho.

EDIT: ive turned off my adblocker for the site, but i dont think i saw any kind of advertising. are you funded purely by donations and out-of-pocket?

Yeah, my goal is to be as welcoming to as many people as possible, and keep things family friendly.

As far as advertising the site, I'm not sure what the best method would be. Certainly, word-of-mouth helps out a lot. I know many people have come and joined because of comments about Side 7 posted on Youtube of all places. So, word-of-mouth really helps.

And yeah, Side 7 is 100% funded by donations and out-of-pocket. I refuse to put advertising on the site because they're annoying, and many advertising networks have questionable ethics when it comes to sharing user data and such. I don't want to share user data from the site; that's no one's business.

-- BK