I've updated the rules after some internal discussion about how to handle moderation of NFT projects.
Old rule:
Rule 2: Do not rip artwork. Ever!
Always clearly state what your references were in making a piece. If you sketched in pencil, color-reduced to 1bit and then went to work on it, okay. Ways like this are completely accepted and nobody's going to shout at your for it, but it's good to know anyway. If you stole somebody else's artwork, 1bitted it and then submitted it for critique, not okay. If caught red-handed, by moderators or users, and the case is clear you ripped, you will be banned and forgotten forever. Other similar instances of fraudulent behaviour like posting other people's artwork without permission (regardless of them being edited or not) or jobs without delivering the promised payment will reap similar rewards.
New rule:
Rule 2: Art theft and fraud is prohibited.
- Do not post other peoples' artwork without proper permission or licensing. Note if the intent of the post is educational, it might be covered under fair use.
- Do not attempt take credit for another artist's work. However, it's okay to post studies as long as you have proper permission or licensing and the reference is clearly sourced in the post.
- Do not engage in any other instances of fraudulent behaviour, such as jobs without delivering the promised payment.
In cases where it's clear there is theft or fraudulent behavior, a permanent ban will be issued.
Rule 2.1: Advertising Web3, NFT, and blockchain projects and jobs is prohibited.
Due to the rampant fraud in the Web3/NFT/blockchain spaces, we cannot allow advertising of these projects nor job listings concerning these projects.
However, discussion of Web3/NFT/blockchain is acceptable as long as it does not endorse any projects and is topical to pixel art. It would be acceptable to have an informative thread about the shortcomings of Web3 or discussing ways the technology could be improved for artists.
I've also removed "Rule 3: Post only pixel art" since we have boards where it's appropriate to post non-pixel art and this is already covered by the "Stay on topic" rule.
Rule 3: Post only pixel art.
Now this is a bit of a controversial subject, but it hopefully can be cleared out at least so we can go on with our business here: Pixel Art, is art where there's specific attention paid to the fine manipulation of picture elements. It deals with the informative quality of specific, single pixels. If the art you're about to post has not been pixel-pushed on that level, don't bother. Automatic AA, soft brushes, filters, smudge tools, all are indicative of index-painting, or at least dirty-tooling, but do not always mean your art will not benefit from pixel-level critique. If you've made something using some of these tools and then you're able to reign the piece in by optimizing the palette into using the best possible amount of colors, went in and pushed single pixels until everything is right, then it's probable we'll be able to talk about your art and how it can be made better. Always be clear of how you made things, only post concept art when it's relative to a pixel-art piece you've made and never never try to decieve us. As above, workstages and process animations are optional, but always welcome.
And lastly, cleaned up a few typos and added a bit more information about properly posting sensitive/non-work safe content (ex. violence or artistic nudity) - that it may be posted underneath an appropriately descriptive tag. Previously the rule only referenced thread titles and did not cover spoiler tags.
