I feel I have to put a widely held assumption in the DoA-going section of the BJD hobby community to bed. I am a moderator on DoA. It's never been a secret and I wouldn't hide it from anyone. I'm quite approachable if someone has a problem on the forum or off and I can answer most queries straight away.

One of the most frustrating things about being a moderator on DoA is not being a moderator, it is being a target for someone else's frustrations. 

I have a number of dolls that are off-topic for Den of Angels. I don't campaign for them to be on-topic, I don't get upset about it and spit my dummy out, I just go somewhere else to share the off-topic dolls. I don't enjoy them any less than dolls that are on-topic for Den of Angels and when I'm at home my dolls aren't strictly segregated along on-topic/off-topic lines.

It makes me laugh and pull my hair out when I read, time and time again, the misplaced assumption that the moderators of DoA make on-topic decisions based on what we like/dislike. This is completely untrue. There are dolls currently on-topic for DoA that I think are absolutely ugly, but it didn't stop me voting them on-topic. There are dolls currently off-topic for DoA that I think are beautiful, but they weren't right for DoA, so I voted them off-topic. If a doll is 'aesthetically off-topic' that isn't a euphemism for 'that doll is ugly', it means that compared to other dolls on-topic on the forum it doesn't fit in. There is a myth going around that the 'Asian aesthetic' was made up to describe Volks dolls and anything that doesn't look like a Volks will be off-topic. Myth. False. Untrue.

The other myth about the 'Asian aesthetic' is that it's regarding ethnically Asian-looking dolls. Again untrue. The 'Asian aesthetic' has nothing to do with the perceived ethnicity of the doll and more to do with the artistic trends that influenced the creation of the doll. ABJDs are an Asian artform - not only because modern BJDs originated in Asia, but because the dolls are sculpted in styles and observing trends that occur in modern Asian art.

So, less of the DoA mod-bashing please, BJD hobby. If you don't like DoA or the forum mods, you don't have to visit DoA or have anything to do with the mods. If you don't like the rules on DoA, you're certainly more than capable of starting your own forum with rules that you do like. Once you are a mod of a forum with over 10,000 active members and have to be concerned with the security of a huge Marketplace with countless transactions taking place every 24-hours, you might have more of an idea of what you're talking about. Until then, please appreciate we're all volunteers doing this for a hobby we enjoy. It certainly makes the hobby far less enjoyable to be the target of so many snidey attacks.