Art Contests Rules and Guidelines: Please Read!

[Noraboo]

Welcome to the Art Contests Forum!

In this forum, users can pit their artistic talents against one another for prizes by competing in user created art contests. Contests may ask for any combination of art, for example visual arts like avatar art, art of original characters or of breedables, concept art or layout design, or even original writing or musical compositions, and in return will promise Gaia gold, items, or services to the winners.

Remember, if you want to have a contest that is only for writing, please make your contest in the Writing Contests Forum.

Rules and Guidelines:

For guidelines and helpful hints on how to make the best of your experience in the art contests forum, please read the So you want to host/enter an art contest? READ THIS FIRST!! sticky.

• ToS & Forum Rules:
  
  Please familiarize yourself with the Gaia Terms of Service and Rules & Guidelines if you have not already done so.
  
  
• Art Contests are Contracts:
  
  Contests are contracts between holders and entrants, and as such there are expectations for both. Failure to meet these may be treated as scamming, a bannable offense, so please read carefully.
  
  Should you have any questions, please contact an art contests moderator. A list of moderators for the forum can be found here.
  
  
  • Expectations for Contest Holders:
    
    
    • Prizes: All promised prizes must be given out so long as there are eligible entries that meet the contest criteria. Please set up your contest entry requirements so as to avoid being put in the situation of feeling you have received insufficient or inappropriate entries. Your critera can include receiving a minimum number of entries in order to give the prize, but please remember that this may discourage entrants and actually reduce the number of submissions you receive.
      
      Please do not remove or decrease prizes after you have received submissions eligible for them. For example, if you have a catagory for best picture of you and your friend, you cannot remove this catagory after you have received submissions for it. And as users may have already started work on entries for that category, it is generally best to not remove any catagories even before you receive entries, unless you absolutely must.
      
      
    • Disqualifications: Contest holders have the right to disqualify entries that do not meet their criteria or that are shown to be copied or stolen or otherwise in violation of the ToS. Should you find a copied or stolen entry, please also report it to a moderator.
      
      However, you cannot disqualify entries based on any other reason that you have not clearly stated in your contest guidelines.
      
      
    • Time frame: Please be clear about the time frame of your contest. If you must extend the end date, please keep the extension reasonable for the length of the time the contest was originally supposed to run for, and do not extend many, many times unless absolutely unavoidable. Please do not extend contests frivilously, as this is unfair to entrants.
      
      
    • Judging: Once you have ended your contest, judging should occur promptly. Set a date for when you will announce winners, and please do not postpone this unless absolutely necessary.
      
      Please remember that repeatedly extending a contest with no end in sight or otherwise failing to conclude it will be treated as scamming. All contest holders have an obligation to their entrants to award promised prizes in a timely fashion.
    
    
    
  • Expectations for Contest Entrants:
    
    
    • Submission Originality: All art contest entries are expected to be original and the work of the user submitting the entry. Submissions of stolen or copied art are considered scamming.
      
      
    • Submission Content: Additionally, art entries must meet Gaia's standards for content. For further information on what content is and is not acceptable, please read PG-13 rules and art commissioning.
    
    
    
  • Expectations for All:
    
    
    • Civility: Please be polite and respectful. We understand that sometimes tempers can flare, that disagreements may arise over rule interpertations, or that users may be very disappointed if they do not win a contest, however please remember that flaming and harassment are not acceptable behaviors on Gaia.
      
      
    • Honesty: This Rules & Guidelines cannot encompass all the ways in which either a contest holder or contest entrant might attempt to be dishonest or to defraud another user. However, attempts to trick or defraud a user on Gaia are often considered scamming, and at the very least may result in your contest being closed or your art being disqualified. If you are going to engage in behavior that is contrary to the spirit of these rules or the rules of a contest holder or that you feel, if it were to be found out, would be negatively received by the contest holder or entrants (or both) please be aware that there may be consequences.
      
      These might include but are not limited to the use of multiple mule accounts or low quality entry flooding to enter a contest with a entry minimum that has not been met, the changing of guidelines or removal of prizes during the contest in a way that cheats artists, and engaging in harassment in any form, especially through the use of mule accounts.
      
      

Should any problem with a contest occur, please report it to a moderator using the report system or via PM or scam report, as appropriate. The report should include a clear and concise description of the complaint and any relevant links, including links to the contest and to any art submitted, if an entry is in dispute.

The staff will work with the contest holder and entrants to arbitrate any disputes that are not clear ToS violations.

[Noraboo]

PG-13 rules and art commissioning:

Please remember that Gaia's PG-13 rules apply when commissioning art on the forums or when creating art contests.

Excessive violence or gore exceeds this limit, so please do not request graphic images such as those with excessive blood or graphic, detailed violence.

Artistic nudity is acceptable. Anything too revealing, however (frontal nudity, etc.) users must link to and provide a cautionary note, and of course it cannot be used in sigs or otherwise posted directly on the forums.

However, artistic nudity does not cover hentai or other pornography. If the image you want to request is highly sexualized or pornographic, you may not request it on Gaia.

Users found to be requesting pg-13+ art will be warned for pg-13 violations. Please take this as a preliminary warning, and adjust your request threads or contests if you are currently soliciting mature content.

This applies equally to artists, who should not offer to do hentai or other sexually explicit material in their store or auction threads, nor submit it as entries to art contests.

Thank you.