With @elhnrt (Lena) opening her Patreon I would like to inform those who might not have seen my original call-out post (which you can find here) of the current situation going on between her and me, so that they may be more informed of her professionalism before giving her their money.
I do recommend for those who haven't seen the original post to go read it now, but the short story version is that I paid Lena for a commission back on August 4th, 2022, and she has since cut all communication with me since trying to contact her about it on October 24th, 2022.
WARNING: Just like with the original post, this post wasn't made to have people harass her, (and I discourage anyone from doing so) but simply to inform those who plan on doing business with her of her unprofessional behavior.
Click "Keep Reading" to see what has happened since.
As of today, June 3rd of 2023, I still haven't heard from her, despite my many attempts to get a response. Since creating the original post linked above I have tried 3 more times to contact her through DMs or Tumblr asks before I ultimately decided to block her Tumblr and Twitter for my own mental health, leaving my discord open to her for communication should she finally decide to reach out to me.
And right up until just over week ago I had been doing pretty well with trying to forget about this whole thing and moving on. But then someone who was aware of the situation between Lena and I contacted me. They told me that Lena was opening her Patreon and asked if I had heard back from her about my commission, of which I had not.
With advice from some friends I decided to try to contact Lena once more, in a more public way. I unblocked her and left a comment on her post that announced her Patreon, asking her once more about the commission. It has been 9 days since then and I still have not heard from her, despite her heavy activity on Twitter and her Patreon since my posting of that comment.
But, since she has not been active yet on Tumblr I decided to try one more time to have her reply to me. This was an option I had not wanted to try previously due to how public this attempt was, but I did not want to leave any chances for people to claim that maybe she never saw my messages. So I went to her Twitter and unblocked her before tagging her in a tweet asking about the commission again, and just over 24 hours later, and despite her active on Twitter, she still hasn't responded to me.
With this I have now been left with no more options in which to try and get her to respond to me in any way. So I, once again, am making a post to inform others so that something like this doesn't happen to them, as she clearly doesn't care about those who try to support her.
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[ Image Description: A screenshot of a Tumblr notification shows user @elhnrt reblogged a post. The tags on the reblog read, "#horrible ugly fucking demonic entity. and I mean this #q". End quote. End image description. ]
// ooc: just so we're clear, in case anyone didn't see the tags: the above is a roleplay response, aka my version of Madara replying to those tags — not an irl response or expression my (the blog writer/mun's) feelings or opinions. Let me know if you're uncomfy or want this deleted/stopped/etc.; I'm definitely not here to make anyone uncomfortable! Just letting the muse do his thing.
It is irresponsible to nearly ruin an artist's reputation instead of privately or legally seeking repayment for an unreceived service. Artists are individual people, with flaws. They are not seeking to screw you over specifically, they are not inherently bad, unprofessional, or rude people for not being fulfilling or communicating on one order. You deserve to share your bad experience and be upset with that absolutely. But the reaction to that has gone so far as if she has robbed you of hundreds of dollars. Its really weird to see the community split like this over two artists we all love.
I completely understand where you are coming from, but I have to politely disagree with some of your points.
You say I am "ruining an artist's reputation instead of privately or legally seeking repayment for an unreceived service" and to that I have to point to my post where I explain my MANY attempts to contact her as privately as possible over the course of almost 8 months. I did everything I could, short of knocking on her door, to get a response from her.
And yes, I did try getting a refund from my bank, but all they said was that I need to get it through Paypal. So I tried getting it through Paypal, but because I used the "Friends and Family" option when sending it (something I had no problem doing for the other three commissions I had gotten from her, as I had trusted her) Paypal's refund options are limited. Not only that, but by the time I had given up on getting a response, the time window to file a dispute had passed. Without her sending me the money back herself, there was no other option (that I am aware of) to get my money back.
You also said "They are not seeking to screw you over specifically, they are not inherently bad, unprofessional, or rude people for not being fulfilling or communicating on one order" and I would have agreed with that, if not for the fact that I had already been made aware of her being in regular contact with someone I knew during the time she was purposefully ignoring my dms.
I know she was going through a tough time for a while, but I feel like I had been more than fair when I gave her the option to simply tell me she didn't feel like drawing and needed some time (of which I would have waited forever if she just kept me up to date every other month or so) or to just give me what she started (since I saw her start the commission the day after I sent the money) and I would have considered the transaction over. I made sure to reiterate these points many time in my many dms. Both options would have required little to no effort on her part. She is the one who continued to make the conscious choice to keep ignoring me.
And though I did call her unprofessional (because that's what her actions are) I never called her bad or rude. I have been very conscious of not trying to bad mouth her throughout this whole process. I have tried my best to only state facts and events as they happened. I am not trying at all to bash her as a person.
And finally, to your last statement of "the reaction to that has gone so far as if she has robbed you of hundreds of dollars" I only say, how dare you? Just because she didn't steal $1000 dollars from me doesn't mean that it wasn't theft. $500, $50, or $20, theft is theft. She may have only taken $50 from me, but how much must she take from the next person for them to be allowed to say something? You tell people to stay silent and let her take even $10 from them and she would end up stealing hundreds from just a few dozen victims. And nobody would know to be cautious of her because everyone she stole from was told not to say anything because "it wasn't like she took hundreds from you."
Now, I'm not saying she will go out and steal from everyone. Perhaps I am the only person she ends up stealing from, in which case I would be happy that nobody else looses their money. But I couldn't take that risk. If she does end up stealing from someone again (intentional or not) then I would feel partially responsible for not saying anything to warn others of the possibility.
I do find it a bit weird that the community is split on this. I would have thought that stealing, even if from a big name in a community, would be something not worth supporting. Despite what some people might think, I have tried doing anything and everything in my power to handle this in a civil and private manner. But there is just a point at which you need to throw in the towel and realize that it's not working and you need to change tactics.
That callout post was that tactic. If she won't send me the commission, give me my money back, or even respond to me, then I am done being nice enough to keep my silence.
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As of yesterday (February 4th) It has been exactly 6 months since I commissioned @elhnrt (Lena). And it has been over 3 months since she started ignoring all of my DMs asking about the commission.
Warning: This post was made as a way for me to vent my frustrations, and yes, to call Lena out. But, while this is a public post, I would appreciate it if no one starts harassing Lena about this on my behalf.
Click "keep reading" to see what has happened from my end
I had first tried contacting her about the commission on October 24th through Discord, as that was our normal form of communication at the time. Despite the fact that she had not replied to my last non-commission related dm on the 25th of August I figured she was simply busy or felt the dm wasn't something that needed a reply, as she was still talking and interacting with me normally in our shared discord server.
Originally I was only reaching out to ask about the status of the commission, since I was aware at the time of the message that she was going through a bit of a rough time with her health. In the message I had sent her I had offered her some options on what to do for my commission to help alleviate some of the stress she was going through. These ranged from simply telling me she hadn't forgotten the commission, but she would need me to wait a couple of months (in which I would), or to just give me what she had already had completed at that point in time (as she had started working on the commission during a live stream the day after I commissioned her) and I would consider the transaction over.
When two weeks had gone by with no answer I decided to send a message through her main Tumblr account (the Tumblr DMs with the black background in the screenshot images below), which was the account she had sent prior finished commissions through to me in the past. I, again offered, the same deal as before. I had assumed, with the prior ignored discord dm, that she might have turned her discord notifications off. And, as she was no longer active on the shared discord server, I felt that Tumblr might have been the best way to contact her.
When another two weeks passed with no reply I tried again with her Naruto art Tumblr account (the Tumblr DMs with the yellow background in the screenshot images below). Again, nothing. Every 2 weeks I would send a message to either of these Tumblr accounts in the hopes that I would get some form of reply.
Sometimes I would send a message right after an emotional breakdown, wondering what it was that I did or said that could have made her start ghosting me. Unfortunately, those messages are quite clear to see in the screenshots below, as they sound pathetic from my near begging for literally any reply.
I tried to make myself feel less guilt by convincing myself that she really had just not seen any of my DMs. That she was writing, posting art, and answering anon asks, but she just wasn't looking at her DMs.
After 2 months of periodic DMing and crying had gone by with nothing to show for it Lena made a post to her Tumblr where she mentioned leaving for a vacation soon, and would be unavailable for contact for the 2 weeks she'd be gone.
At this point in time I had nobody to talk to about this, online or in real life, so I had turned to a content creating discord server, mentioning the situation with my mystery commissioner, and asking them what I should do to get the commissioner's attention without making it public. Out of all the suggestions I got I had decided to go with sending more messages to each of her Tumblr accounts in the time before her departure, hoping the brief increase in messages would get her attention before she left. I also sent two Tumblr asks (off anon) to her Naruto art account, each basically asked her to please look at her DMs, as I was trying to contact her about the commission.
The day she left for her vacation came and went, and I still had no reply. But I told myself that at least there's a chance she will see my asks the next time she goes to answer some of her anons, and maybe that will finally get her attention.
But then, earlier this week, my hopes were dashed when she replied to two of her anons, and still, I had no correspondence from her. This basically confirmed to me that she was intentionally ignoring me, as she had to have seen my asks when she had replied to the other ones, and elected to ignore what they said.
Again, I went to the content creating discord server and asked them what I should do about this mystery commissioner. Unsurprisingly, most of them told me that I should finally make a call out post, if for no other reason than to make sure that what happened to me doesn't happen to someone else who commissions this artist.
So, with a heavy heart, I sent Lena one last message to her Elhnrt account on Tuesday (January 31st), telling her of the ultimatum should she not reply to me by Sunday (February 4th). This would give her 5 days to respond, and it would have been exactly 6 months since my commission was first accepted and paid for.
Throughout this entire ordeal I had been following her on Twitter. Now, I don't know if she knew I was following her Twitter account or not, and unfortunately her Twitter account DMs are closed, so at no point could I have messaged her on there without making that message public. On February 2nd she had posted to her Twitter account a new picture (last image below), which looked eerily like the commission she had started for me in the art stream back on August 4th. I say this because I had asked for a commission of a "bdsm Tobirama with a gag", and in the art stream she had drawn Tobirama with his arms tied, exactly like in that picture, and with a gag, which was one of the bamboo ones (like a smaller version of what's on Nezuko from Demon Slayer).
Deciding to give this one more chance, I made a public reply to that picture that mentioned that the "picture looked a lot like the commission she started for me back in August, and is there more?" This was intended to slightly point out that she had started a commission for me, but hadn't finished it. This was also a way to try and get her attention in a more public setting, without making others aware of what was going on behind the scenes.
As you can guess, that didn't work. I still have not gotten a DM, reply, or even a reaction of any kind. Surprisingly, I haven't even been blocked.
I don't know what happened. I don't know if it's something I did or said or if it's something she's going through. For all I know, she really has not seen a single one of my DMs, asks, or Twitter comments that I have sent her. But as of right now, as I'm posting this, I haven't heard from her since August 21st.
Below are the screenshots of our (admittedly one-sided DMs) as not only proof, but to show that I tried not to come off as harassing her. Also added was the Twitter image mentioned above.
(Usernames have been censored simply because I don't want people going out of their way to harass her. The only account name I have mentioned is her main Naruto Art account, which most people already know about.)
Also Im sorry if the last ask was aggressive. I just hate to see an artist's livelihood be ruined over one bad instance while they are going through a rough time. You can not want to give a single penny to them and thats fine! I just am worried how this will impact a real person's life. Please feel free to not answer that last ask. Best of luck to you
Unfortunately I have already responded to it.
I get not wanting to mess with someone's livelihood based on "one bad instance" and as I stated in my other answer, I knew she was going through a tough time, which is why I initially gave her those two options in the first place. They were meant to make things easier for her. Either option would have cost little to no energy or participation on her part. She was given many chances over the last 8 months (the ghosting period) to make things right. I would have dropped the matter at any point if she only responded to me. And near the end that's literally all I was begging for. I BEGGED for any response, even a "Fuck off" and I would have left her alone. And I couldn't even get that.
Any impact on her "livelihood" wont be because of me. It'll be because of her actions, or lack thereof. I am only sharing my experience to make others aware of it.
Those rude ask are cowards for hiding behind the anon to share their thoughts. I'd love to see them burn a $50.
They got one thing right; it is disgusting the community is split over this. Theft is theft. I'm sorry you dealt with this alone so long, only to be met with backlash from the community for simply warning people. You weren't rude. You were much more patient and nice than I would have been, to be completely honest. I respect the way you handled this and the way you've dealt with the backlash. You have people on your side and I am one of them.
The founders community needs to do better.
I don't mind people staying on anon to share their thoughts. It's when those thoughts are borderline victim blaming that I have an issue with. You can say what you want about me, it's whatever. But when you say things like "you have blown this out to be like she stole hundreds of dollars from you" or "why would you post that now, when she's going through a hard time" it sets up other victims into thinking that they can't share their bad experiences UNLESS they were robbed of hundreds of dollars or if the person who stole from them is in a better situation.
There shouldn't be a condition on when or if you should be able to tell people about being stolen from or taken advantage of. Otherwise victims might never get the chance to talk about it or share their experience with others who might also end up in their situation.
And thank you, I am doing my best in this situation. Despite everything, I will stay true to myself and strive to keep things civil. I don't want to hurt any feelings or get others in trouble for their views. In the end, if you still want to support Lena, that's your decision to make. I don't need you to come at me to try and explain or justify yourself. What you do is your choice.
