Graphics forum rules.

These rules were written by midnightsunrise and edited, with permission, by tishalook and other staff members. If ever you need the rules, please refer to my blog post for the latest updates.

GRAPHICS FORUM RULES

What follows are the official rules for the Graphics Forum. Please either copy/paste this topic or keep a link to it so that you can post it for anyone who might not be aware. These are not for debate at this time but if you have any urgent questions you are welcome to mail me.

1. STEALING

A stolen graphic pertains only to those stolen from Marapets members. A graphic stolen from a site outside of Marapets should be reported to that site. We will only be dealing with member to member theft. Please remember ideas cannot be stolen.

If someone has stolen your graphic then send in a support ticket. If there is someone regularly stealing and/or repeatedly buying graphics to sell on please mail me and I will deal with it.

PUNISHMENT FOR STEALING
1. Minimum-graphic removed, fine and profits removed
2. Minimum-graphic removed, larger fine and profits removed, forum ban over a few hours
3. Minimum-graphic removed and profits removed, one day underaged
4. Minimum-graphic removed and profits removed, 1 week underaged
5. Minimum-graphic removed and profits removed, underaged indefinitely

2. KEEPING YOUR WORK SAFE

We need evidence before we can stop graphics theft. Times and dates are important. Please use one of the following to protect your work:

* Watermark it
* Upload it to another site and send the link to yourself in mail at the end of sale
* Mail yourself daily with a list of who you have sold to and describe the graphic

There will be NO paid protection teams of any sort from this point onwards to chase after stealers or to defend you if you are being harassed. Report to staff instead as that's what we are here for. The report button is there for a reason.

3. RATING/CRITICISM OF OTHERS WORK

If someone is asking for a rating and/or critiques:

Please be polite when offering opinons on others' work. There are people behind these monitors! Whenever possible, try to offer something positive as well. People are more likely to pay attention to someone who makes them feel like they have a chance. A good example is something along the lines of "Good effort but..." A bad example is someone who only says, "You suck." We will NOT tolerate members being persistently spiteful to others about their work.

If you are asking for a rating and/or critiques:

If someone gives you constructive criticism and you don't agree with it, that is not a reason to report them. If you do not wish to have comments then please state it in your first post.

We ask that members make only one rating topic per day. You can edit the topic to add a new graphic if you need to. If people post more than one please politely remind them of the limit.If they create a third then report the second and third posts.

4. BUYING AND SELLING

When buying a graphic from someone, be sure to agree on the graphic being sold and the price you are going to pay beforehand. This should be done BEFORE every graphics sale to make sure nobody is getting ripped off. If you are unsure about the artist's work, be sure to ask for examples BEFORE you commit to a sale.

When selling a graphic, please include at least one example of your work so people know what to expect before they commit to a sale. If you're offering something that requires a form, please provide that form in your first post as well.

When auctioning a graphic, please make sure to make the minimum bid a price that you're willing to sell for. If you won't sell for less than 20K MPs, make your minimum bid 20K MPs. Auctions may no longer use IRTRNTS [I reserve the right not to sell]. Please stay with your auction forum for the duration of your auction! Nobody likes to bid on something only to have to wait for days to see if they won.

5. WORKING TOGETHER

We have a lot of newcomers to the Graphics forum who are being ignored because they aren't well-known. We ask that while browsing the forum you add a post to someone's topic that might be near the bottom or doesn't have many replies. Even if you just give them a boost or tell them "Good luck" it will help. Everyone appreciates a little acknowledgment. If you believe someone's topic has been ignored because their work isn't very good, a passing comment to encourage and tell them how they could improve would be a friendly gesture. [The only exception to this is a topic where the person specifically asked for no feedback.]

We are not asking people to do this constantly, just when you have the time while browsing.

No groups or Queens/Gods/Rulers of the Graphics Forum are allowed. We want the forum to be one big community for everyone that posts. We are aware some people have felt the need to take it upon themselves to try to improve the forum but with these guidelines and a bigger staff presence that should hopefully be unnecessary now.

6. AWARDS

From this point forward there will be no more Graphics Awards topics. These include topics like "Graphics Awards 2009". Any topic asking for nominations for awards will be deleted.

7. LAYOUTS AND CODING

When making layouts, if you sell the coding to another player it no longer belongs to you. It is the property of the player who bought it. When a player pays for coding it is theirs to do what they want with it. You have no rights to the coding that you sold.

If you sell a code to someone they can then change it anyway they wish. However, they aren't allowed to sell it to someone else.

What we won't deal with are mails saying someone stole their code when, in reality, only a few lines are similar. Yes, they may have taken it and altered it apart from those few lines but we can't prove they did or didn't.

Here's what we suggest:

* Always tag your work WITHIN the coding as well as on the actual graphic.

* Leave a particular word we can recognise [for example: chicken] hidden within it. It WILL give you some protection.

Be very careful that when you report stolen codes that they are, in fact, your work. If you just slapped something together based on code snippets you picked up around the internet, please don't send us a report as anyone can do that.

If you buy a layout and then alter it and offer it for free that's acceptable. What isn't OK is for others' work to be SOLD.

If you have your own code that's never been sold or given away to anyone and someone steals it from you, by all means please let a staff member know and we'll take care of it.

8. THE FUTURE

We have heard your requests for sub-forums and are considering the possibilities. What happens in the future is largely dependent on how things work out with these guidelines.

Last updated: October 15, 2009