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Recently we've been seeing a lot of concerns raised by users when staff take official actions with users, and of course with some recent bans the worries have resurfaced and have reached us. First and foremost I would like to stress that we only ever take steps such as these when there is ample onsite evidence that actions that breech our Terms of Service have occurred.
In this instance it has regarded the "USD Sales of Designs By Artists" section of the ToS, which reads as follows:
"This section governs the sale of derivative works (artworks incorporating official Aywas pet bases, SCC pets that have been submitted already, and HA avatar artwork). Players may only accept USD for their derivative artworks through the Commissions Platform or through the use of Artist Paintbrushes. Players are forbidden from negotiating or selling derivative artworks through any other means, or in any other location. This means that players may only receive USD direct to their PayPal account when in connection with a Commissions Platform official request, or when an administrator redeems a Paintbrush for them."
This was written into the ToS in June of last year when the feature was released, and a news post was made to make everyone aware. There is also a knowledgebase article which was linked in the news post and is linked on the Commissions Panel page, to ensure that the knowledge of this was clearly and easily accessible.
Previous to this all USD sales of derivative works were disallowed by the ToS, except through Paintbrushes when they were initialised. As such any purposeful circumvention is a permanently bannable offence.
The fee that the commissions platform takes is not to punish the artist, but a licence for them to profit from the use of our copyrighted materials. These fees also allow us to continue building and repairing the site, as well as support the many artists that work as contractors for us in the breeding and custom ticket systems.
No one on staff takes banning a user lightly, and none of us take any joy from it - it is simply a necessary part of the work we do to continue maintaining the website. As always, as long as you have read and abide by the ToS then you are not in any danger - and if you are ever in doubt about something you want to do, or something someone has asked you to do for them, then please contact a member of staff. We are here to help you and always happy to do so =)
Posted by Eve
(#2775) on Mon Apr 4, 2016 4:49pm
- REUBEN & sortajester
(#585)
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Posted on: Tue Apr 5, 2016 10:44am
The "shoot first and ask questions later" thing honestly reminds me of my neopets-days-- and look at how that once-mighty titan is doing these days thanks to its' policies. I can hardly believe what this site has become these days. This community is NOT big enough for staff to be opaque and vague, or handle this like a faceless corporation. This is not McDonalds where some faulty judgement can be absorbed into the massive wall of money and trust it's built around its' brand without that much adverse effect. This is a small community, and between the unprofessional conduct of staff (tumblr fights about work-related matters; really?) and how artists are jumping this site like a capsizing ship, well. I'm not sure how much longer it'll last.
I'll continue sitting in my corner and trying to make content. I'm just saddened and displeased by everything that has happened lately.
-R
- caveSalamander
(#64257)
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Posted on: Tue Apr 5, 2016 1:12pm
I'm really unclear on why the user can't be given a warning prior to being hit with a permaban. this seems to be where a lot of the heat is coming from, and I know a mod earlier said something about having issues with a potentially banned member offloading all their items/pets... Wouldn't it be better to put an account lock to prevent that from happening? Something more temporary while the appeal process is worked through. Especially if it's over something that may have been unclear which this seems to have been...
- Answrs
(#13751)
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Posted on: Tue Apr 5, 2016 2:45pm
Gwennafran (#22320) (hope that's the way to do it) just a question, if the bans weren't meant to be permanent like you're saying, then they wouldn't be permabans like they're saying. they'd just be bans, no? not trying to start anything here, does aywas just use a different definition or something?
- Kayu 💕 Pai
(#70951)
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Posted on: Tue Apr 5, 2016 3:31pm
I'm sorry but I am VERY upset by this....we lost amazing contributors to this website. They should have gotten a warning. I'm pretty sure some of those users had monthly pets for GP and I'm pretty sure those bring in a lot of money to the website.....a lot more than $4.... Idk the details but I think they should have been warned because myself was unclear about the rules so I just avoided anything except the commission panel. Just my output, I don't want to start any argument nor get replies back.
- Gene
(#73076)
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Posted on: Tue Apr 5, 2016 3:40pm
oh boy, I just joined here lately and already some pretty angry drama happened. While I think the staff should take action for something as skeevy as taking commissions for work that is consider their copyrighted material rather than owned by the artist I do seem to get the impression most people did not know this particular type of art feel into that. That said according to an earlier made answer by staff appealing the ban should result in an unban assuming members really were confused and make that clarification so assuming the staff aren't lying this is more an inconvenience than anything. Heck you know what usually happens on a site with unclear rules in which members get banned? Cover ups! Sometimes members don't even break the rules but get banned just because the staff doesn't like their attitude (Fur Affinity is super notorious for the following). So honestly even if I don't agree that the staff is 100% in the right for their behavior I appreciate their transparency because most sites lack this and it makes things significantly worse.
So yeah just my 2 cents
- Gwennafran
(#22320)
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Posted on: Tue Apr 5, 2016 3:54pm
Answrs (#13751)
Staff has repeatedly stated earlier in this thread, that banned users could write them to dispute their bans, strongly suggesting that the permaban could be changed.
So yeah, permaban means it permanent unless something is changed about the status. But apparently you can talk to admins to have the ban-status changed to something not permanent (and from what I hear from other users it has happened before, so this is not a new thing).
My guess is admins rather will give out a permaban, and change it to a temporary one, than they'd give a temporary ban that's then changed to a permaban if they can't get what they need from the user.
Posted on: Tue Apr 5, 2016 10:29am
Oh was it FINISHING a sketch not creating a sketch? I think that’s where I and possibly many other people) are confused. Creating a sketch pet is an SCC no matter how you look at it, finishing a sketch is much more grey