Mod Post.

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

This is a reminder that if someone is posted here, that is not your cue to harass them nor should you be contacting them in any way unless you yourself have pending business with them. Doing so will lead to at minimum a warning, maximum a ban.
Our community exists to give advice, seek resolution with regards to bad transactions and warn other potential consumers when resolution is not possible.
We are not here to give you a target to mob, so if you are not one of their current customers it would be much appreciated if our members could refrain from contacting people featured here. This also includes offering to 'get in touch with the person' on OP's behalf. Keep any mention of this out of the community.

Regarding Bazeel, A_B's contact on the FA mod team, I'd like to clarify that users are not to take A_B issues to him unless instructed by a moderator or Bazeel himself. FurAffinity staff only respond to problems sent in via Trouble Ticket, with the exception of Bazeel, who moderators may contact. Sending a note or a message to Bazeel without the okay of a moderator will do nothing, as he doesn't respond to private messages about either site.

Comments offering to "finish up" another person's owed art will be screened. While the gesture is made with good intentions, it is a violation of the original artist's copyright to their work. If a customer wishes to go this route, they should get written permission from the artist first, and after receiving that permission, look outside the community for an artist to finish the piece.
Related is offering to pay off the debt left from a scammer, or offer free art. Again, while done with good intentions, it is not the point of the community. Community members are free to politely contact the OP in private and offer their services, but not on the Artists_Beware post itself.

Linking to your own gallery/business is considered "self promotion", and inappropriate for the mission of Artists_Beware. There are plenty of communities, forums and other venues to advertise yourself on. Any self promoting comments will be screened. The only exceptions to this are pricing posts and in an advice post that asks for a business/person who does a specific thing, like specialty printing.

Asking for names or speculating on identities in advice posts is inappropriate and such comments will be frozen or screened. It is fine to encourage the person to post a beware, but names are to be kept out of advice posts as they do not require the same evidence that bewares do.

Private information like real names or email addresses in a beware is also off-limits unless the person does business under this identity or the email can be found publicly. It is not acceptable to have these in a beware otherwise, or to request them in comments.

Things that do not belong on Artists_Beware:
- Tracing posts, unless the person is doing traced commissions for money. General tracing posts should be made to the Art-Theft community.
- Similar to the above, art theft that is not for profit does not belong on A_B and should be reported to Art-Theft.
- Character theft except for impersonation, as in cases where someone plays/impersonates an artist's character in order to scam people or when there are other transaction-related issues.
- Individuals who lie in order to receive gift art.
- Personal drama or disputes with no business-related aspect.
- Artists who politely decline taking your commission.

Comments

[kasune.livejournal.com]

- Artists who politely decline taking your commission.

Oh my goodness, thank you. Seriously.
And thank you for this entire post.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

"- Character theft except for impersonation, as in cases where someone plays/impersonates an artist's character in order to scam people or when there are other transaction-related issues."

I'm assuming this includes people who get (porn) art of characters they don't own and don't have permission from the owners to include in said art?

"- Artists who politely decline taking your commission."

Or rudely declines a commission.
Not to say I approve of rudeness, I just don't think it's at all relevant to this community unless the artist is actually scamming people. I'd hate to see posts being made about artists being rude outside of a business transaction.

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

"I'm assuming this includes people who get (porn) art of characters they don't own and don't have permission from the owners to include in said art?"

That would be transaction-related so yes. :)

"Or rudely declines a commission."

I don't think we've had this sort of post arise often, but potentially there are circumstances where an artist could be abusive/insulting enough to a would-be customer that may warrant a beware so I'd prefer not to rule it out.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

I dunno, artists are just people too. It seems unreasonable to punish them business-wise because they do things people do; be rude at times for any number of reasons, regardless of whether people consider the reason valid or not.

"So and so who hasn't taken my money and hasn't broken any promises and hasn't negatively affected me in any way except for hurting my feelings, was rude so don't do business with them."-posts seem more appropriate for drama comms.

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

Part of the entire umbrella of being "professional" is how someone communicates. If an artist is unnecessarily rude regarding a transaction, it's just as valid to post about then as when a customer is rude. Theres no reason for rudeness on either side of it and both can be subject to negative reviews.

This is of course case by case basis, as Shuki said, this hasn't come up often if at all. We mods do a lot of extensive research and discussion to make sure the posts aren't drama-related, and have legitimate concerns.

[timelapsedecay.livejournal.com]

thisthisthis
I'm one of those who believe artists should be held responsible for their rude behavior. (Note: Speaking from the standpoint of a professional artist). Won't fly at a real job, shouldn't fly for this job.

[ocelotish]

I definitely concur. Artists can certainly be blunt about saying no where it may come across as a little rude, but I have no doubt there are people out there who go on a whole tirade about how someone could even DARE ask them for something. Those people definitely deserve a beware.

[sigilgoat.livejournal.com]

This isn't a rule that's up for debate. We're not willing to compromise someone's privacy AND possibly get shut down so people can link PayPal emails and accounts.

[sigilgoat.livejournal.com]

As I just stated, it's a rule that's not up for discussion. I'm freezing this thread, as it's not something we're going to change.

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

I've unfrozen the thread, because discussion like this is allowed in mod posts.

That said, the email thing is something we really can't change. LJ considers that private info, so if it's not made publicly available by the person themselves, we can't allow it.

It's an unfortunate downside to using LiveJournal, but we have to abide by their rules.

[kaputotter.livejournal.com]

I use two different email addresses for business. One address is for correspondence, and one is for PayPal transactions. There are several reasons I do this. One is to keep them separate, so that I have an easier time keeping up with things, it's just the way I work. The other reason, far more importantly, is to keep people from sending unsolicited payments. I want to make sure the person I'm dealing with gets all my information down before making a mistake with a payment (which is now why I've switched to invoices). This PayPal email address is only given to people who have committed to being clients. Anyone else has a chance of abusing my PayPal address. I cannot even personally abide by the use of 'tip jars' like some people have. It is a serious and tangible privacy issue.

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

"- Individuals who lie in order to receive gift art."

Does this mean cases where a scammer has tried to get free art by not paying after work is done, asking for a lot of re-draws or pulling paypal disputes to get money back after work has been finished/received?

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

No because in all of those cases, there is either the assurance of payment or payment that was wrongfully taken back.

We mean individuals who for example... pretend they have X-disorder which includes life threatening surgery and due to that everyone needs to give them freebs.

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the clarification!

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

No it doesn't, because that's not gift art. That's scamming.

It means we don't take posts from someone who draws a request and then feels 'cheated', because there was no transaction and they did it voluntarily.

[pandadally.livejournal.com]

Question-- I have recently had what I consider to be a very crappy experience with an artist, but the item has been shipped, and is apparently in transit. If I receive the item, may I still make a post warning other potential commissioners?

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

Short answer, Yes, you can submit a beware on a situation like this.

Whether it is approved depends on how severe the situation is and if we mods agree the behavior or transaction was bad enough. There have been plenty of posts where the transaction was completed, but one party's behavior still warranted a beware.

[pandadally.livejournal.com]

Alright. Another question-- I sent in a different submission a few days ago and it hasn't been published. Could you tell me if it went through or if there were problems with it?

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

We've been a little behind due to the holidays; I've been out of town for a week, myself.

I see your post in the queue and will try to go through it (along with the rest of the posts) this weekend. Sorry for the delay.