Announcement: Picture Post: Rules and Guidelines

[The Admin]

Picture Post Forum Rules and Guidelines

Welcome to the Picture Post forum! The main Picture Post forum is for users to post their own finished artwork for comments and critiques. In addition, there is a Works in Progress sub-forum for help with pieces that you are currently working on and an Art Contests sub-forum for hosting art competitions in.

As a member, it is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with the forum's rules before posting. Posting in this forum implies that you read and understand the rules and guidelines and that you accept responsibility for the appropriateness of your thread or post.


Contents:

• Introduction
  
• General Posting Guidelines
  
• Picture Post Rules and Guidelines
  
• Commonly Misplaced Threads
  
• Image Posting Guide
  
• How to Report

[The Admin]

General Posting Rules

Please be sure to follow the Terms of Service and Rules and Guidelines here, as in all forums.

Common violations to avoid:

• Flaming & trolling: Posts directed at another member which are hateful, abusive, or intentionally inflammatory are considered flaming. Making intentionally inflammatory or provocative posts to incite responses from other members is considered trolling.
  
  
• Spam: Posts that are gibberish, off-topic, contain advertisements or begging, or have low or no content are considered spam. Please ensure that your posts are on topic and contain an appropriate amount of discussable content.
  
  
• Sexually explicit content: Posting, requesting, distributing, or offering sexually explicit material is not permitted anywhere on Gaia. Sexually explicit content includes explicit photographs, text, artwork, video, or cybersex conversations.
  Artistic nudity is allowed in Picture Post, but any images must be linked to and a nudity warning included in the topic title.
  
  
• Art theft: Claiming another persons work as your own or posting artwork that has been copied or traced from other people's artwork, or images created using other people's artwork without permission and credit is considered art theft. Art theft should be reported with a link to the original work.
  

Terms of Service violations may result in a warning or a ban on your account.

If you find Terms of Service violations, or threads that may need moved to a different forum, please use an appropriate report. The procedures for doing so can be found here.

You can find online moderators by following the [View Forum Moderators] link at the top of the forum.


Gaia Staff will NEVER ask for your password! If anyone asks you for your password, report it.

[The Admin]

Picture Post Rules and Guidelines
.
Guidelines for Image Posting

• All art must be 100% your own creation.
  Do not post other people's artwork, pictures that have been copied or traced from other people's artwork, or images created using other people's artwork. This is unfair to those members who are trying to get feedback on art that they have drawn from scratch.
  
  
• Post things that you actually want serious feedback on and have put effort into.
  Picture Post is a place for members to get serious comments and critiques on their artwork. Posting art that you don't care about is not fair to users who actually want help with their art and users who are providing critique. A ten-second MSPaint doodle is not considered acceptable to be posted in Picture Post. It's not funny, and can be considered spamming or trolling.
  
  
• Posting artwork implies that you want criticism.
  Not everyone will like your art, and many of them will say so bluntly. If you want your art and your posts to be taken seriously, try to understand the feedback that is given you rather than immediately dismissing any critique that you don't like.
  
  
• Artistic photography is allowed, casual snapshots are not.
  Artistic photography is welcome in Picture Post, as long as you are looking for comments on the artistic elements of the photo such as theme, lighting, composition, and etc. If you are only posting to have people look at your cute kid/cat/self/other, please use your journal or the Chatterbox.
  
  
• Artistic nudity is allowed in Picture Post.
  However, if you would like to post such art please include a nudity warning in the topic title and make sure to give a link to the image rather than embedding it in your post. Failure to include a warning or posting the image directly can result in a warning for inappropriate content.
  Images that contain graphic sexual content are not appropriate for posting at all.
  
  
• Do not make excessive amounts of art topics.
  This is unfair to other forum members, because it needlessly pushes their threads off the front page. The maximum number of topics that is considered acceptable to be posted in a day is 2, with different artwork in each.
  
  
• Do not post excessive amounts of artwork in your topics.
  Picture Post is not the place to set up a gallery for your art. Daily sketchbook threads should be posted in the Works in Progress forum, and gallery threads for showing off large amounts of finished artwork should be posted in Promotions.
  
  
• Do not post your art in other people's art topics.
  This is called "thread hijacking," and it is rude to the thread creator and detracts from the purpose of the thread. If you want to show your art off, please make your own topic for it.
  
  
• Do not post intentionally misleading thread titles in order to get more pageviews.
  In other words, do not post "Naruto pic!" if there is no picture of Naruto in your thread. Or "18+ Mature! NUDITY!" if the character you've drawn is fully clothed.
  
  
• Keep your art posts current.
  You should make new threads when posting new artwork, rather than recycling the same thread over and over for weeks or months. This allows old art to move off the board and makes room for new work to be posted, and makes sure that your art posts remain fresh and representative of your current work.
  
  
• Do not bump your old art topics by posting a reply to an old comment.
  Once a thread stops receiving replies and slips into the bowels of the forum, it's best to leave it there and start a new thread. If you really want to thank people for commenting in a dead thread, PM them and let them know you appreciate their words.

Guidelines for Commenting and General Posting

• Do not bump or spam.
  Bumping and spam are needlessly disruptive to people who are trying to get serious feedback and will be deleted.
  
  
• Stay on topic.
  Please keep off-topic banter to a minimum. If a topic keeps veering off the subject, namely discussion of the posted picture, it will be moved.
  
  
• Do not create "post your art here" threads.
  Since the entire forum is dedicated to this purpose, these kinds of topics are redundant and just spam up the forum.
  
  
• Be considerate when posting comments and critique.
  You are not expected to like every piece you comment on or agree with everything that other members say to you. However, you are expected to keep your posts civil and your feedback constructive.
  
  • Formula for a successful critique:
    - One part praise: find something they did well and comment on it first.
    - One part pain: identify a few of the major flaws and briefly describe them--there is no need to extensively hammer on minor issues, especially if others have already made note of them.
    - One part prescription: give a suggestion or two for how to fix the flaws you pointed out, and/or ideas for future development
  
  
  
• Do not post in topics from the later forum pages.
  If a topic has not been posted in for quite a while, the person who has started it has most likely gotten all the comments they were going to get on that particular piece and moved on. Artists with active threads on the first few pages of the forum will appreciate your comments much more.
  
  
• Avoid posting in misplaced threads and attacking users who violate the forum rules.
  Multiple posts in a topic telling the creator that their thread is in the wrong place does not get the thread moved faster and can be considered spam. Please do not respond to trolling, abuse, or flaming at all. Report the offending thread or post, and the forum moderators will take the appropriate action and tell the user that what they are doing is a violation of the rules.
  

If you have a question about these rules or feel that there is something that needs to be addressed here that isn't, feel free to contact any Picture Post moderator regarding your question or suggestion.

[The Admin]

Commonly Misplaced Threads

These types of topics are sometimes placed in Picture Post, but should go elsewhere:

• I want to talk about certain artists, art techniques, graphic programs, or other art-related subjects.
  These topics belong in Art Discussion.
  
  
• I would like to post a link to my personal art site or gallery rather than a single piece, or I want to show off my Art Arena gallery.
  These topics belong in Promotions or the Chatterbox.
  
  
• I would like to sell artistic services, like making signature banners or custom pixel art, in exchange for Gaia Gold or items.
  These topics belong in Mini-Shops.
  
  
• I am taking commissions, or I would like to commission an artist in exchange for Gaia Gold or items.
  These topics belong in Art Shops and Requests.
  
  
• I am willing to draw for people, or I am looking for someone to draw for me for free.
  These topics belong in Art Freebies.
  
  
• I need help pricing my art.
  These topics belong in Art Shops and Requests.
  
  
• I would just like to chat to people about no topic in particular, or make posts solely for the gold.
  These topics belong in the Chatterbox.

[The Admin]

Image Posting Guide

Ready to post your artwork? Before you can show off your art to the other forum visitors, you have to make sure that it is hosted online. There are a number of sites that will do this for you for free, such as:

• PhotoBucket
  
• ImageShack
• TinyPic

Follow the instructions of your image host of choice to upload your artwork.

Once you have gotten your art hosted, you can display it in your post by using the BBCode IMG tags. Just click on the little IMG button in the row of buttons that appear right above the window where you type your post. Enter the link to your picture when prompted. The final code for displaying your picture should look something like this:

[img]http://www.thisismyimagehost.com/andthisismymasterpiece.jpg[/img]

You can also use gallery sites like DeviantArt, but keep in mind that these usually do not allow direct-linking, so if you use one of these you will have to post the link to your work rather than putting the actual image in a post.

Make sure that your picture is in a web-friendly format.
Due to the relatively small file-size that results from saving images in these formats, the most commonly used formats for posting images are .JPG , .GIF, and .PNG. Keep the images that you post in one of these formats to prevent people who try to look at your artwork from having to wait to download gigantic image files.

Make sure that your picture is a reasonable size.
Large pictures not only take needlessly long to load, but are also difficult to take in at once and cause horizontal forum scrolling. Please try to keep the width of the picture you are embedding in your post at around 500 pixels or less, and if you absolutely must post a large version, add a separate link to it.

The ideal format for a Picture Post art topic is one picture per topic, with a description/comments that you may have on it/list of picture elements that you especially want critiqued. It's not a hard-and-fast, set in stone rule, but it is the most convenient way to display your work.

[The Admin]

How to Report

Abuse of the report system will result in a warning or ban of your account.

Report a Post

Use the button when an individual post in a topic contains inappropriate content.

Reasons to Report a Post:


• The content of the post violates the Terms of Service or forum rules.
  
  
• The content of the post is off-topic.
  
  
• The member who made the post has a signature which violates the rules.

Report a Topic

Use the Report this Topic button at the bottom of the page when a topic is not appropriate for the forum.

Reasons to Report a Topic:


• The topic violates the Terms of Service or forum rules.
  
  
• The topic is in the wrong forum and should be moved to a more appropriate forum.

If you need to contact a moderator via Private Message, please use the "View Forum Moderator" link at the top of this forum to find a moderator.



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The Hacking, Scamming and Abuse or Harassment report forms can be found at the bottom of the forum index. When submitting a report, ensure that you fill out all fields and include as much relevant information as possible.

Report A Hacking
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Report A Scamming
Use this form to report a Scamming. Scamming is when another member of Gaia takes your gold or items, or tries to take your gold or items, by making false promises of giving you rare items, get-rich-quick schemes, or by any other deceptive means. Scamming generally involves a situation in which two members of Gaia make an arrangement to trade gold, items, or a Gaia approved service (e.g. avatar art commission) with each other and then one of the parties involved in the arrangement fails to live up to his or her promise of an exchange.

Report Abuse or Harassment
Use this form to report ongoing Abuse or Harassment. If you are reporting harassment or abuse that is occurring directly in a thread, please use the "Report This Post" button instead.