We also got a representative from the highly criticized Elfwood Review Board (ERB) to answer a few questions.

Let's begin with a reasonably safe question. How many members are there in the ERB and what is it exactly that you do?

Enough members to be confusing, and not enough to clean up everything as quickly as we'd like. What do we do? Anything we can do to help Thomas, first of all. We're here to make his job easier. We consult each other and Thomas on interpreting the rules of Elfwood, read reports and decide what to do with them (valid rule breaking, misinterpretation of the rules, incomprehensible and needs clarification, complain that needs answering), queue pictures and deliver warnings.

Your own galleries must be completely spotless.

My own gallery wasn't 100% clean a while back, before I joined the ERB. I did, however, clean it out a bit before I joined, and when I became an ERB member I went through my gallery with a fine-toothed comb. We do make it a point to police ourselves though. After some of us joined, we ask other ERB members to scan through our galleries to make sure we are up to requirements.

Give us an estimate on how many hours in a day you put into ERB work.

That's a hard one because it differs so much depending on how many reports we get. Sometimes an hour or so, sometimes I can spend 4 or 5 hours. But as a volunteer any time I spend doing ERB work is time I have decided myself to donate - no one twists my arm and says "work harder!" At the same time I would feel that I was letting the rest of the team down if I took too much time off.


How about a rundown on a typical day in your work?

First I start off with catching up with the reports that have come in. The lovely thing about the internet is that it's 24/7, which means reports keep coming in whether I'm asleep or gallivanting somewhere else. After that, each case is investigated and cross-referenced to ensure that they have been reported for the right reasons. Emails are then sent out to the artists/writers who have a week to reply or remove the artwork/writing in question. In cases of extreme breaches, the pictures/articles are removed straight away and the artists/writers are notified afterwards. After all this, we catch up on the complaints and follow up letters, as well as return to galleries which have been previously notified to see if the requested changes or removals have been made.

What kind of qualities does a person need to be in the ERB team? Other then a very thick skin, that is ...

They must know how to adequately separate themselves from and deal with conflict. They must know how to work well in a team setting. It is a big and delicate responsibility. It would help to have a concrete knowledge of Elfwood's rules, a concise and tactful writing style, and, most importantly, a great deal of patience. And being able to keep a secret! It is very hard when people tell you that you don't know what you are talking about. You can't very well say, "Actually I do!" Other then that you need to be able to stand the tedium of doing the same thing over and over again - with no thanks and lots of criticism!

I'm sure you've received some unflattering comments about your actions before. Anything you care to share?

We do receive a good amount of criticism as well as praise. It is important to realize, however, that some individuals will react with anger when told that what they are doing is wrong, however polite the communication is. We forgive and are patient with such outbursts to a point, but we certainly do not look forward to receiving such mail. We are here to help the members of Elfwood just as much as we are here to enforce the rules. It is disheartening when people view us as a collection of cold-hearted oppressors, and that stereotype shows a certain lack of trust. We have and always will be open to inquisitive emails, which ask instead of accuse.

(Editor's Note: The following is an email received by the ERB and included with this interview as an example. We decided to go ahead and publish it to show exactly what kind of things the ERB has to deal with regularly.)

Report #1384; 4.Complaint about ERB decisions Sun May 27 23:56 2001

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HEY ERB HOW ABOUT YOU QUIT F****** WITH MY PAGE JUST CAUSE YOU CAN'T HANDLE MY ARTISTIC EXPRESSION!

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OKAY YOUR RULES ARE EXTREMELY F****** RIDICULAO

US THESE ARE NOT NORMAL FIGURES YOU F****** MORONS THEY ARE COMPUTER GENERATED IMAGES AND IT IS VERY FANTASY LIKE...I DUNNO WHAT THE HELL YOUR BIAS TOWARDS ME IS BUT YOU BETTER F*** OFF CAUSE YOUR IDIOTIC S*** IS STARTING TO PISS ME OFF AND I'M NOT SOMEONE YOU REALLY WANT TO MESS WITH AND THATS NOT A THREAT ITS A WARNING

What is your reaction to public accusations that you remove artwork without justification or because you are jealous of the artist?

They're the usual reasons people think of about other artists critiquing. My reaction would be that they don't understand how Elfwood is a private site and rights of individuals are limited, but fair. We justify our actions by Thomas' standards, not our own. Otherwise, you might see all the truly bad art eradicated. It would be awfully silly of Thomas to choose and keep people THAT petty and foolish. We have to tread a very fine line when enforcing rules. Not everyone is going to agree with our judgment, and being human, we do make mistakes.

?and that you ignore attempts of a private communicate to resolve differences?

'Resolving differences' is an awkward way to describe individuals who do not want to take down their artwork. No amount of explanation on our part will help convey the importance and meaning of the rules any better than the rules itself. We handle a lot of emails each working day. It is difficult to try to 'resolve' differences with individuals who email with an accusative and defensive stance; therefore we try to keep our communication simple and concise.

Honestly, have you ever willfully ignored any email for any reason at all?

With the volume of work we have to do, some emails inevitably get missed. For the most part, unfounded complaints and emails from people uninvolved in the situation (friends of the artist, for example), and emails full of swearing do not get replies. Anything that is totally incomprehensible and that does not have a valid email gets ignored, as do people using the ERB form for non-ERB matters.

What is the strangest email that has ever landed in your box?

First prize:
Report #1540; 5.General message to the ERB crew Fri Jun 8 03:18 2001
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Hey guy's, I need some help in starting my own porn site. But it is so hard to make or design a home page. Let me know if you can help me.
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Runner-up:
Report #1549; 5.General message to the ERB crew Sat Jun 9 02:36 2001
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Is there a place on elfwood where i can find anime art that HASN'T been removed? All the good pictures are gone.
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Are the rule-breakers usually random individuals or repeated offenders?

Most are random, one-time offenders. However, we've had several cases of people blatantly re-uploading images we have removed before, in the assumption that we won't notice. Some even brazenly stated on their page, "The ERB deleted this but I'm putting it up again! Hah!" Ignorance is one thing; deliberately breaking the same rules AFTER being officially reprimanded is outrageous. ERB members always check back on previously reported-and-processed galleries. If not, a more civic-minded member is likely to report it. We usually do not tolerate people who continue to defy rules even after we've emailed them about it. Several people have already had their membership revoked and have been banned from rejoining or even commenting in Elfwood for this very issue.

Speaking of repeated offenders, I understand that there have been one or two major issues that resulted in the involved members being kicked out of Elfwood. Can you tell us more?

There were two or three cases, I believe. The most recent one was of a member getting repeatedly harassed on her guestbook by a number of people who apparently knew her from another gallery that she was kicked out of before she joined Elfwood. What happens to a member in another website is not really any of our business. But then she began to seriously abuse her privileges; we decided to remove her permanently. Thomas even wrote to the maintainer of the previous gallery to find out what happened and he told us his story. That ultimately sealed our decision.

What should people do if they come across cases like these?

First and foremost, do not get involved! We understand that sometimes, these people may be your friends and you want to support them or defend them. That is a noble thing to do but please keep an open mind as well; they can also be wrong. There was one incident where the person tricked her friend and biggest supporter into believing she was right when she was actually wrong and knew it, and both were giving us all sorts of problems until the truth came out. I was heartbroken for the friend and truly hope that such things won't happen again.

We also understand that the opposite is also true. You may feel a need to beat people down so that they'll go away, but that is just unethical. No matter how wrong they are, don't take it into your own hands. A harassment case is still a harassment case. If it gets out of hand, we issue ONE warning to cease and desist. Call it a reality check; people do get angry and act unreasonably. It is very difficult to investigate a case while people are busy hurling insults at each other. In the end, we may have to kick out everyone involved instead of just the original offender!

If you find something like this, report it to us right away. Leaving a comment on the affected pages may only prolong the problem. It's really stupid when people who have no idea what is going on drop into the gallery and start taking sides based on whose argument sounded better! Don't you people have anything more useful to do?

What are the pros and cons of being on the ERB? Do you guys get any perks?

We don't get any perks. Should start demanding for some? But seriously, we weren't offered any perks with the job and we don't expect any. We knew what the job demanded and we still said yes. Perhaps the only perk, if you can call it one, is taking the load off Thomas so he can work on other things. I can't think of any pros either, other than the satisfaction of knowing you've done your part in maintaining Elfwood's integrity. Just a lot of cons, a lot of things we have to deal with. Like not being able to enjoy gallery browsing when we're supposedly off-duty; when you find a really good artist, a question that inevitably comes to mind is, "Did he steal that? Did she trace that?" Of course we do run into artwork that is not supposed to be in Lothlorien or not supposed to be in Elfwood at all and end up going back to work. Sometimes, we have to write removal requests or warning to our own friends or to artists we admire, only to get an extremely rude reply from them. That hurts, and it does make you look at them in a different light. But to be fair, not all replies are all that bad. There are many times where we reach an amicable agreement where the artist will tell us, "I still don't like having to take the piece down but I will because you've explained why it doesn't belong." It's rewarding to be able to reach that understanding. At times we had to apologize for mistakenly queuing something that DOES belong in Elfwood. That's a little embarrassing but it happens.

Here's a question that should make you happy. How can the general public help the ERB?

First and foremost, they can help by following the rules. 99% of our problems would stop if people just followed the rules. Secondly, if they see a rule breach they can either a) inform us directly or b) inform the artist personally by leaving a friendly, tactful email. It does no good for non-ERB people (or ERB people, for that matter) to go flaunting around with the attitude of "Na na na na naaa, you're gonna get iiiit." This will just aggravate things and make the artist/writer defensive. Be informed! Keep track of the News and Announcements that Thomas makes. He always announces changes in ERB rules and we try to keep up to date as Elfwood changes

Be patient, respectful, and humble. ERB members are not only mere humans; we are members of Elfwood, too. We dedicate a lot of our time to help Thomas maintain Elfwood. Our roles might not be the most appreciated ones, and we might not always be able to handle them with extreme grace and perfection, but we certainly have an equal devotion to the Elfwood project as thousands of other members do. It hurts us to have to queue pictures for deletion, and it hurts us even more to read negative comments and assumptions on the discussion boards, in emails, and even worse, on people's galleries. Pulling down a piece of inappropriate artwork is inconsequential compared to facing the rampant negativity that breeds among people who asked to be a part of a special community like Elfwood.

People make mistakes; we realize that. People might not fully understand the rules or the weight of not following them; we acknowledge that, too. It is difficult, however, to accept that people will visibly and actively flaunt those mistakes and disrespect the gift that Thomas gave them when he created these galleries in 1996. The general public can help the ERB very simply: by taking care of themselves, their galleries, and appreciating what Elfwood is really there for - us.

Are there any myths or misconceptions about the ERB that you'd like to clear up?

I think a lot of answers given to the questions above have already cleared up most misconceptions. Most but one; people think that Thomas isn't in the ERB. He is. He is the first ERB member and he laid down the rules. Over time and experience, rules and improvements were added by other members, but NEVER without his approval. People have written to him complaining that the nasty ERB are trying to get them into trouble and asked him to intervene. The truth is there is no begging favor from him. We operate under the rules that he sanctioned and it's pointless to ask him to exempt you from it. He always forwards those emails to us anyway! So if you must complain, write to us. Don't clutter his mailbox.

And that wraps up this interview! Before we go, are you sure you can't tell us who you mysterious people are?

I prefer myself rare. Very rare. Definitely not well done or covered in gasoline and burned, thanks.