Recently I had an unfortunate interaction with a creator who's art I really like. It lead to that person blocking me. I respect their decision in this.

What lead to this interaction was a comment that I placed on one of their posts where I was trying to warn them that they might potentially be breaking the ToS of the site.

My aim was not to scare them, but to help them prevent possible future issues that could lead to their account getting in trouble, something that I didn't want to happen, because I like the artist. I would never report them for this myself.

I made 2 mistakes when I messaged them about my concern:
- first of all and most importantly, I didn't emphasize enough that I had no intention to report them. They explained that this lead to them feeling threatened, which is why they banned me. As said, I wholeheartedly respect their decision, however sad and unfortunate it may be
- secondly, I messaged them about this in a comment under their post, rather than through a private message. I see now that this can be seen as trying to cause drama, even though that wasn't my intention. I rarely use private messages on the site, but in hindsight I agree that this would probably be the best way to communicate such matters going forward.

To everyone who reads this after having gotten such a message from me, know this:

If an offense is clearly illegal by law, I report it without contacting the user. Think about scam posts, posts that spread viruses or posts with child porn. I don't even want to interact with those people.

If an offense conserns copyright of someone I know, I message the copyright holder and let them handle it, without contacting the one who violated the copyright. This only includes direct copies, not fan art or other derivative works.

Only if it concerns a new user, I give them the benefit of the doubt, assuming that they don't understand the difference between gallery and favorites yet. In that case, I will contact them about the issue (something I will do through private messages from now on).

If I message you under ANY other circumstances regarding possible rule violations, then I have ZERO intention to report you for the issue. It almost always means that I care enough about the artist or their art, that I don't want to see them get in trouble over this. It might be something to remind them or something to tell them that I'm disappointed in them, but I would NEVER mean it as a threat. The worst outcome of this conversation would be that I unsubscribe/unwatch them or in very rare cases, I would personally block them (which I now found out can go both ways). I will also do this through PM's from now on.

For anyone that ever felt uneasy after one of my messages, I am sorry and I hope that this post clarifies my intentions.