Termination of Scott Jarkoff
On July 29, 2005, (co-founder) Scott Jarkoff (AKA "Jark" or "Yellow Alien") was terminated from deviantART staff, causing an uproar within the community. Various statements by deviantART regarding the issue have portrayed his termination as necessary, but most of the user base rejects this assertion. With Matthew Stephens' resignation in 2003, supporters of Scott Jarkoff assert that now neither of the founders remain in deviantART's administration. In contrast, Sotira insists he was a founder, and also the first full time working staff member of the deviantART administration. The deviantART administration has been generally tight-lipped throughout the incident citing legal restraints.

Various campaigns have sprung up in support of Scott Jarkoff, including the "Bring Back The Community" campaign, Save The Alien, and "Yellow Day" (because Jarkoff was sometimes known as the "Yellow Alien"), which was carried out by many of Scott Jarkoff's supporters on deviantART's fifth anniversary, August 7, 2005, and the lesser publicised "Grey Day" (in honor of Matthew Stephens).

On July 31, 2005, Sotira posted an official response to explain the situation. The response to this entry was mixed.