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Before you say I am stoling this art, let me explain you a thing

Last posted Mar 06, 2013 at 11:50PM EST. Added Feb 28, 2013 at 10:20PM EST
34 posts from 23 users

This phrase has been slowly yet steadily growing and growing. It's the subject of many parody.
Here's what I have so far:

  • Several images relating to this meme

  • How it relates to OC culture

  • It's connection to deviantART subculture

  • Several tumblr and even a few twitter posts related to the phrase

What I need:


  • Link to the original deviantART post along with the screencap.

  • How it spread to tumblr

That is all.

Tumblr in general has a thing for seeing itself as superior to deviantART (hereby referred to as dA). While much of their reasoning for it is their supposed superiority at sourcing (which… isn't always true…), a large portion of it has to do with ridiculing the relative immaturity of dA. This is apparent in other mockeries of dA, such as screencaps of dA comments:


This account recently had a small tumblr-based meme around it of taking various comments he wrote and reblogging them, the account has since been suspended.

I bring this example up because I feel that it helps to show Tumblr's attitude towards dA as a whole – full of preteen kids that don't understand how the world works and what plagiarism is. This is likely related to why the phrase appeared on tumblr and is now used to ridicule dA.

It's important to note that searching Google for "before you say i am stoling this art let me explain you a thing" site:deviantart.com brings up no results. While it could be a deleted comment, or perhaps Google does not look at dA comments, I have to wonder whether a tumblr user captioned a dA user's defense of their plagiarism with the phrase, which then went viral. However, if someone does have an OP that would be great.

Yeah, the original screenshotted post would be great. I saw it once, long ago, during a more mystical time, but alas, I did not think to like or bookmark the event.

And yeah, you don't have to tell me about tumblrites thinking themselves to be more superior to deviantART. That shit is crazy

Last edited Feb 28, 2013 at 11:55PM EST

The quote from the screenshot has existed for months now and has been used to ridicule art theft and dA here and there, but I BELIEVE the origin of its spread came from this post:

http://yoshika420.tumblr.com/post/43987541335/breaking-news-all-paintings-held-in-the-louvre

"Breaking news: All paintings held in the Louvre have mysteriously disappeared! The only evidence of the theft is a slip of paper that reads “before you say i am stoling this art let me explain you a thing”"

I didn't see any of the images or any other uses until after this one, and I'm pretty sure it has the most notes out of all of the 'stoling' posts right now.

The actual deviantART source image is unknown, however, it spread to Tumblr by way of the text-only deviantART twitter account on November 16th. <img src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/63467940/Img/thing.PNG"
Edit: Beat me to it.

Last edited Mar 01, 2013 at 04:04PM EST

Twilitlord wrote:

Tumblr in general has a thing for seeing itself as superior to deviantART (hereby referred to as dA). While much of their reasoning for it is their supposed superiority at sourcing (which… isn't always true…), a large portion of it has to do with ridiculing the relative immaturity of dA. This is apparent in other mockeries of dA, such as screencaps of dA comments:


This account recently had a small tumblr-based meme around it of taking various comments he wrote and reblogging them, the account has since been suspended.

I bring this example up because I feel that it helps to show Tumblr's attitude towards dA as a whole – full of preteen kids that don't understand how the world works and what plagiarism is. This is likely related to why the phrase appeared on tumblr and is now used to ridicule dA.

It's important to note that searching Google for "before you say i am stoling this art let me explain you a thing" site:deviantart.com brings up no results. While it could be a deleted comment, or perhaps Google does not look at dA comments, I have to wonder whether a tumblr user captioned a dA user's defense of their plagiarism with the phrase, which then went viral. However, if someone does have an OP that would be great.

That screencap makes me extremely uncomfortable. Why would you have this conversation in the comment section, anyway? I never understood stuff like this, that's why there's a private message option.

Just, NO.

I don't quite understand where the whole tumblr superiority angle is coming from. I mean heck, a lot of tumblr users have deviantART accounts themselves, myself included. It seems like there are people to make fun of on dA, sure, but that's true for almost any website. Even tumblr isn't exempt.

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Twilitlord wrote:

Tumblr in general has a thing for seeing itself as superior to deviantART (hereby referred to as dA). While much of their reasoning for it is their supposed superiority at sourcing (which… isn't always true…), a large portion of it has to do with ridiculing the relative immaturity of dA. This is apparent in other mockeries of dA, such as screencaps of dA comments:


This account recently had a small tumblr-based meme around it of taking various comments he wrote and reblogging them, the account has since been suspended.

I bring this example up because I feel that it helps to show Tumblr's attitude towards dA as a whole – full of preteen kids that don't understand how the world works and what plagiarism is. This is likely related to why the phrase appeared on tumblr and is now used to ridicule dA.

It's important to note that searching Google for "before you say i am stoling this art let me explain you a thing" site:deviantart.com brings up no results. While it could be a deleted comment, or perhaps Google does not look at dA comments, I have to wonder whether a tumblr user captioned a dA user's defense of their plagiarism with the phrase, which then went viral. However, if someone does have an OP that would be great.

>mfw that comment chain

Also, I think this meme has potential. Look into it more.

Can it possibly start to become a snowclone?

Like "Before you say I am X, let me explain you a thing" or something along the lines of that.
Just saying, since amanda b. kind of demonstrated that point a bit.

Either or you can just ignore what I said there and we should just start an article about this phrase, maybe?

(If someone starts an article, may I be granted editorship?)

Lone K. (Echoid) wrote:

Can it possibly start to become a snowclone?

Like "Before you say I am X, let me explain you a thing" or something along the lines of that.
Just saying, since amanda b. kind of demonstrated that point a bit.

Either or you can just ignore what I said there and we should just start an article about this phrase, maybe?

(If someone starts an article, may I be granted editorship?)

Definitely a snowclone

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/stoling

EDIT: yoshika420 reblogs plenty of examples that aren't tagged

Last edited Mar 02, 2013 at 08:27AM EST

Loreweaver wrote:

Ladies and gents, I present to you the original Tumblr post that made it famous there:
http://wtfstuck.tumblr.com/post/35850685773

I'm assuming you're the same guy that's on top of the "Stoling" tag on Tumblr giving a shout-out to us.

RandomMan wrote:

I'm assuming you're the same guy that's on top of the "Stoling" tag on Tumblr giving a shout-out to us.

I'm assuming we're getting death threats as well.

Lone K. (Echoid) wrote:

Can it possibly start to become a snowclone?

Like "Before you say I am X, let me explain you a thing" or something along the lines of that.
Just saying, since amanda b. kind of demonstrated that point a bit.

Either or you can just ignore what I said there and we should just start an article about this phrase, maybe?

(If someone starts an article, may I be granted editorship?)

It is becoming a snowclone.


This partially reminds me of the "has anyone really been far even as decided" meme, which I thoroughly enjoy, so that's one reason I think this might have some potential.
I'm not precognitive, of course, so this may end up burning to the ground in the next week, but if it does gain some momentum, I won't mind.

Considering the weird crap that Tumblr goes nuts over (like the Once-Ler fandom, or "Ah, Yes the Scalene Triangle") I don't think Tumblr has a lot of room to speak about DeviantArt's "weirdness."
Okay, that one screenshot that "Twilitlord is Alicorn Princess" posted is pretty disturbing. I'll give you that.

Skeletor-sm

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