Drawponies Scandal Day 3 - The final word on #traceponies

Day 1 Coverage

Day 2 Coverage 

By now you're probably all aware that The Artist Formerly Known as DrawPonies was officially caught red-handed. Everyone who believed him to be faultless was proven wrong when he admitted in his "Message From Drawponies" that he traced artwork.

This has brought about 2 simultaneous waves - one of disgust and anger, and another of blind forgiveness.

Let's take a look, at where we stand now.
DeviantArt version of message
Facebook Version of Message

After over 24 hours of hiding, renaming Patreons, and quietly trying to sweep the situation under the rug, pressure finally forced Neil Wacaster to address the public, on the now-proven accusations that he traces artwork and presents it as his own.

In his statement he says "While I have done hundreds of original art pieces, it is true that some of my art has been traced from the show".

What follows is an apology that while many fans are accepting with blind abandon, others are seeing as a half-hearted "PR stunt" akin to that of a politician.

"He's not sorry he did it, he's sorry he got caught" says one Anonymous commenter.

A cursory look at both the Deviantart message and the Facebook message reveals two very different mindsets about the issue. Deviantart has shown itself to be more forgiving than Facebook, where the situation began in the first place. On Facebook, even some admins of the Drawponies group were outraged to the point of resignation.

Understandably too.

According to the original thread while Neil was caught tracing live on-screen, one of the rules of the Drawponies group itself, was that tracing is not allowed, and could result in being banned.

One user named Skylar says "I'm also quite positive all who are commenting are gonna be banned...just like the last thing that happened".

"Not so!" claims Drawponies in his "apology".

"Deleting negative comments and banning people for criticism - My volunteer moderator team and I did not delete negative comments made in the last few days. Claims that we did are false."

Drawponies asserts that the moderators did nothing to censor negative comments.

Which would be great, if not for the pile of screencaps we have in storage, sent to us from members who had their comments disappear, and even messages from former admins who took it upon themselves to UN-censor some comments.

Does this mean that Drawponies is lying, even in his own apology?

Well let's take a look at the clause that follows it.

"Adapting to Night as traced work - Adapting to Night is an example of work that is created completely from scratch. Many of the characters, objects, and backgrounds used in the series are referenced from the show, but not traced or copied."

Oh, and 2 for 2!

"None of the artwork that I will have at conventions will have show assets, and any work with traced assets will be discontinued entirely."

Gee TracePonies, after both of your claims were shot down in mere moments of you making them, we think that your followers are going to have a hard time swallowing THAT promise too.

So, a good number of the fans he let down, pissed off, and were made fools of (like the guy who went on EVERY social media outlet to claim that Drawponies has never traced) are still upset. How is the rest of the community faring.

Sethisto at EQD let him off with a slap-on-the-wrist because TracePonies promised to never do it again, and it's not EQD's place to hold anyone accountable (especially when EQD has been promoting his art for a long time). The commenters however were not as forgiving. Below, are the top comments on EQD.

Conventions also have been less forgiving, as they certainly have a lot to lose by being associated with a known fraud.

Everfree Northwest has officially dropped him as a guest and a vendor. Word on the street is they may not be the last to do so.

So what's the next step? Do we just accept his apology and go back like things never happened?

Not likely. Some followers are demanding refunds, others are reporting him. Still others plan on helping him improve on his drawing skills.

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Draw-My-Little-Pony/dp/0794428525

Will he change his bio?

And will he address the laundry list of other grievances that his fellow vendors and artists have with him? For instance, this account that was left on our comments section yesterday

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/260999/1/the-unnofficial-dirt-on-drawponies/chapter-1

Password: nix

It's hard to say what the future will hold for TracePonies. He's got more eyes watching him now than ever, and rightfully so. People continue to send us in examples of work he's traced, and new images making humor of the situation.

So.

Just to recap.

He lied about tracing.
He made money while lying.
His group punished others for tracing.

That group claims he lied about not censoring.
That would mean that Drawponies lied in an apology.

And now it's all out in the open.

What happens next is up to you.

And we think we'll let THIS guy have the last word.