Attached Link: http://www.soulhuntre.com

This will be a long post. You know, I am working to try and not make enemies here. I like this place, I like the community and I like the help I have gotten. I have tried to help others in turn. I don't mind the 50% commission to the website on sales because I understand that they need to make money. All well and good. I make a living with this stuff, and I want to keep my ties to this community for that reason as well. I have tried to be polite, I have tried to be fair. But I will speak my mind, because a community where I am too afraid to comment on what I see for fear of being frozen out or reprimanded in some fashion is not one worth working to stay a part of. I'll take this piece by piece. **By Mehndi to me:** *"Soulhuntre, believe it or not, we all have a life, those of us on staff ;) I realize that must be hard for you to quite grasp"* Well, after a quick double check I am sure that wasn't meant to be as bad as it sounded. Let's just look at the core issue. I know you folks are busy. I know you dont make a living being admins of this site. Hell, from what I understand the staff isn't even part of the ownership of this place - you guys are volunteers. I am sure that causes complications as well as tying your hands. However, life or no, you have to see that from the "outside" things are going much differently for the "respected" and "almost feared" Dmentia than they would for - say, me. **Mehndi to me again:** *"This latest slugfest began whilst most of the staff were out celebrating a Holiday. We are aware of it now, and are doing our best to look into the matter."* Yeah, I can see how that might be a factor :) The proof in the pudding will be what happens and how this is handled now that you folks are aware. This will tell us in the 'rank and file' a lot about how things work here. **Mehndi to me again:** *"Wrong. The hair made by Neftis was never pulled from sale once released, and has stayed on sale from the second it was released. A very fast check for copyright was done when the hair was submitted, which took only a very short time, less than a day, to compare both meshes, was performed."* Thank you. My memory obviously was flawed about that sequence of events. I appreciate the correction and withdraw any implied evil-doing in that fashion :) **Mehndi not to me:** *"Wrong. Dmentia, is one of you all. She is just one of MANY vendors. You are ALL served by the staff here, equally. Even when it costs us staff more than you can ever know, to maintain that level of courtesy and compassion and professionalism for each of you."* OK. Let's be honest here. You know and I know that the "official" reality of human interaction and the "real" reality of that interaction is rarely the same thing. "On paper" the treatment is equal, you might even work hard to make it so - but it probably isn't. Let's skip Dmentia for a moment. Let's just speak in generalities. It is simply not going to fly that all vendors are absolutely equal in the eyes of the staff. As you yourself pointed out, you are human. And even if the staff is completely fair, the money factor will always mean that the websites policy will favor those artists who bring in the most money. **Mehndi not to me:** *"One other matter that concerns me, is the flaunting of innacurate "medical" evidence right now as facts. Palm prints actually are VERY similar compared to the much more truly identifying "fingerprints" on the hand. Right now, holding my hand up to compare to this, other than one tiny line, my own palm comes incredibly close to matching. If I scan my palm, and place it upon Vicki, due to her own "palm striations", will it look an awful lot like both Staals and Dmentia's? probably."* If we were only looking at human hands, that would be valid. But what we have here are digital image files and they can be checked for matches far more accurately than human hands. In other words, if they match substantially on a pixel by pixel level then they ARE the same - they dont just "look alike" This is much more analogous to DNA than palm prints. **Mehndi not to me:** *"though I WILL grant you, there was a public hanging frontier style."* Yes, there was. Thank you for acknowledging it :) **Mehndi not to me:** *"Actual file changes of what is for sale are a whole new ball of wax entirely, requiring reupload, new testing even, deciding if it is a "new submission" or just an old one that has a minor update, all that stuff. There has been no change in files."* Thank you - that is pretty crucial information. **Elusion:** *"Having SEEN D~Mentia's working Photoshop and PZ3 files, I can confidently state that her originality and work are uniquely her own."* No offense, but I dont know you and your reputation isn't one I am familiar with. Your word isn't going to change my mind if the digital images match. If they dont match, then there is no problem. **Elusion:** *"Think about this lynch mob you are invoking. Think about the motives, be it control or revenge, that fuel the most vocal participants in this witch hunt."* If only you were here to give this advice to others when some folks (including your friend) launched an inaccurate lynching previously. Perhaps neftis wouldn't have been attacked the way she was. I did think about motives then, and I am thinking about them now. **Elusion:** *"Think about the track record and originality of D~Mentia."* She has no long track record with me. With me her record is about even so far. She was polite and helpful when I had questions with Bobby Sue, and she has been a helpful vendor with my questions after the sale. I like Bobby sue (though I can't use her much for the work we do) and I was pretty happy with Dmentia's help. A plus. She was very fast with the accusations about neftis's hair and made many statements that indicated an agenda of personal animosity rather than any objective concern of wrong doing. Thats a pretty hefty "minus". If it turns out that those images match to my satisfaction and I am convinced she used a texture she had no rights to - then her "track record" wont count for a hill of beans. Especially without an apology. **Elusion:** *"I have seen dozens of original PSD files D~Mentia has made for paintings and textures. She has created every last pixel on them, down to each tiny dragon scale and hair."* That doesn't help your credibility much when Dmentia herself seems to have said that those hands came from a variety of sources. So either you dont really know what is in those pixels as well as you think you do or you aren't being honest. Either way, you're not coming across as a very reliable witness. Some of us are willing to accept that this may simply be a mistake on Dmentia's part if the texture was indeed copied - but even a mistake would mean you aren't correct when you personally vouch for "every last pixel". **PJF:** *"Whatever neftis has done has no bearing on what Dmentia may or may not have done. At least in this case the accuser has offered something in the way of evidence. I certainly hope that Staale follows through with the formal procedure; otherwise this situation will probably remain unpleasantly unresolved."* I agree. Staale should file an official complaint. But then again, does he have to be the one? I wonder if any one of us couldn't file a copyright complaint. **Poppi:** *"Be honest...How many of y'all even look at the palms AT ALL?"* I do now. Besides, what difference would it make? Stealing would be stealing. **InBlack:** *"Buyer cannot return an item once purchased. Like all electronic media, there is no way to give a refund just because you don't like something, there simply is no way to return it. If you aren't sure about an item, don't buy it!"* Normally, I agree with this. I have gotten several unusable or substandard items here at the Marketplace, and I simply make sure not to trust those artists again. Not that they meant ill, but they simply dont have the same quality standards I do. In a case of a copyright violation, I DO think we should be offered our money back if proven. Thats all for now :)