News
Search Options ►Important Clarifications
Site Update
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
- Snuggles [ToT]
(#5560)
-
Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 8:10pm
The staff on this site are staff for a reason. Part of being staff to a site is enforcing the rules. I really don't see why everyone's putting up such a fuss. If the person was sent a thing explaining what steps they'd have to do to correct their mistakes and they didn't do those steps it is fully within the rights of the staff to do what needs to be done. I'm tired of seeing people 'debate' things with staff that really isn't their concern.
- 🍁TinselWolf
(#67857)
-
Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 8:11pm
Snuggle Bear (#5560) I agree with your point completely.
- Xanthe
(#73065)
-
Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 8:12pm
I... joined last year, during June, the Pride Event. Within days, I was disillusioned with Aywas due to the amount of hate directed towards anyone who was "cisgendered" and heterosexual. It made me feel sick. Allies were being told they shouldn't be appreciated because everyone OUGHT to be supportive. It was honestly horrifying. And yet, through everything, I stayed.
I have witnessed, in that year alone, extremely shady crap from Aywas staff. Including my own personal involvement with a ban, I've also seen directly how unprofessional staff can be. Staff, as far as I can tell, doesn't even provide the evidence to those they're banning. This strikes me as incredibly unprofessional. I've seen very passive-aggressive behavior from staff, including staff adding more and more conditions to things that did not exist prior, as well as refusing to give evidence. On top of this, several times staff took 2-3 WEEKS to respond to an email, and at times, the email inbox would be full.
What is the meaning of this? What is the meaning of taking so long to respond to support emails? Aywas is a business - that means, if you want to stay in business, you respond to emails and questions quickly. You do not take weeks. You do not be passive-aggressive. It should not take over a week PLUS another email poking at you in order to get you to respond (as what happened to me with that).
As a whole, I have been very disappointed in Aywas from the start. While the community is a part of it, the staff is too. I truly love the concept of this site and what it does for people, but I think that the way you're going about this is 100% the wrong way.
I can't say I was here when Aywas was amazing. But personally, I'd like to see that again.
Please - listen to your userbase.
- ☆Liya☆
(#323)
-
Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 8:13pm
Clarification should come before banning. Not after.
- New Management
(#47359)
-
Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 8:14pm
Haunter & Magikarp (#4353) I agree. Drama is never productive to site morale or promoting understanding between staff and users. I'm glad that you posted your suggestion and it's definitely a step in the right direction! And if your goal is just to calm the scared and panicking masses, then I'm right there with you, friend. But it isn't helping the current situation, which regards what happens after a ban has taken place and the reasoning behind it.
TinselWolf (#67857) I'm not mocking concern at all, and I'm a little hurt that you'd suggest it. I'm trying to be polite and understanding to everybody. If you had elaborated a bit on your thoughts regarding litwick's reply instead of leaving it at an insult, I would've had more to say. There's no harassment and no sarcasm here at all.
If you'd care to pursue this conversation, may we move it to a private chat? No need to clutter the comments section with unnecessary drama and bickering.
- litwick
(#7410)
-
Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 8:19pm
calm down tinselwolf lol this is literally the least inflammatory thing ive ever said to staff
i dont really think it's spoiled for users of a site to expect some level of staff decency and competency, especially when we havent been getting that, but if you think staff should just be free to run wild without any concern to whether or not users are actually enjoying the site then have fun not having fun i guess
otherwise if you just hopped onto the comments to tell me off, lemme tell ya - shoulda done it through pm, 'cuz if we're gonna throw down about immaturity i think calling out a single user in a newspost because they're being rude outranks calling out the staff that has a responsibility they're not meeting, lol
- Conium
(#39365)
-
Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 8:20pm
TinselWolf (#67857) first of all, freakin' stop, you're not making your point come across better, and frankly it just makes you look like you're trying to foster some sort of weird cult-of-personality thing with the staff. If you don't like people airing grievances with the game they've personally invested time and money towards, the door's also there for you buddy, feel free to leave and don't let it hit you on the way out.
Oh i'm sorry, but did getting it turned back 'round onto you not feel nice? Perhaps you won't do it again if you can't take it. Sorry if that was rude.
this isn't a case of people not liking rules (nice reduction there, really helps your case), but that the rules were unclear on multiple counts, information was not provided, staff took action that was disproportionate to the "crime", and refuse to apologize or change the way they go about these matters as to keep this from happening in the future.
PLUS they're saying they don't divulge details when they're broken that rule before. Remember last year when that one user slammed the site with chargebacks? STRANGELY, they were all too happy to talk about what happened! They've already broken their own rule, the only reason they're sticking to their guns now is because doing otherwise and admitting fault would make them look bad. sticking to their story is just them trying to sweep things under the rug, and it's not gonna work.
- Counter Serum
(#56235)
-
Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 8:30pm
While staff is in their right to ban users for breaking rules, it's been said and I will reiterate what others are saying: THE RULES ARE VAGUE AND NEED TO BE CLARIFIED. Some people were able to discern what was supposed to be run through the commissions panel. Good for you! As you can see, a lot of users were and are confused by the vague wording in this post and in the knowledge base, and that means the site should put everything down in no uncertain terms in order to avoid incidents like this.
- Issa
(#804)
-
Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 8:42pm
I'm a little confused. What about HA drawings, not the item, but basing an ha around an OC with little art and using it as part of a reference? If the produced art is not really the HA, but more specifically the character, that's still a commission panel thing or ok to do outside?
I'd never seek to break the panel rules or the site rules, but definitely have trouble understanding words sometimes, and want to make sure I fully understand. I usually seek out art of humanized pets based on characters, or an ha based on an OC...and want to know how to go about that the right way
Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 8:05pm
I think the problem is that people who were genuinely confused and not knowing what they did was wrong, got permabanned without warning. Something like that is bound to create mass hysteria, so at this point, I can't see myself continuing to enjoy Aywas. I don't think there will be an Aywas much longer with all the problems dredged up recently. ):