Do not trade with: Imutani

[theredwolf.livejournal.com]

I don't know if warnings about trading with others is allowed on here, but this person seems to have burned a lot of people and I'd like to forward anyone else before anyone else does free artwork with nothing to show for it.

Who: Imutani (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/imutani/)
When: June 15th - August 12th, no contact, given up.

What:

Imutani contacted me on June 15th asking for a trade. I told her I didn't have time for anything other then a sketch trade, but then ended up inking it and uploading on June 24th (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5994530/) I heard from her long enough for her to tell me she liked the image, and upload it into her gallery. Her last activity is on June 29th on her profile.

However, I did send her a note on July 4th, asking for an update, or even contact regarding the trade, which she read, and then I sent another one July 13th, warning her that if she did not respond to the notes she has read, that I would post here, or involve Admins. I told her I didn't care if she needed more time, but she needed to communicate with me, be it that something has come up and she cannot complete her end, or that shes having a hard time completing her end.

July 30th I sent one last note, which has not been read. I did contact the FA admins, and they basically blew me off and said there was nothing they could do about it.

So its now August 12th, and I've given up, and at least want to warn other people that this person seems to really enjoy going out and getting art trades with other people, and just not completing her end of the deal. There were three of us total posting shouts on her page, one of them was deleted it looks like now there are just two (Two from me, one from another person).

Some of you may feel I am being too aggressive about this, and maybe I am to a point, but heres my deal: I don't care if it takes you a year or more to complete a trade, as long as when I send you a note, and you read it, that you respond. Or at least communicate in some manner with me so I know you haven't just scammed me into free art. Be that as it may, I understand if people get a bit touchy about this.

Thanks :)

Comments

[growly.livejournal.com]

No, I agree that shirking a trade is just as bad as ignoring work paid for with money.
It seems like this person may intentionally be starting trades with no intention of finishing in order to get free art, which is definitely something people should be aware of.

[mrst4nkr.livejournal.com]

I agree. If the other artist wants to touch base with you, you should certainly respond-- even if you have nothing to show but just to say you're not avoiding them.

I am of the same opinion as you are. If they just communicate, I can wait for years.

[shiftergoddess.livejournal.com]

Yeah, i'm going to agree with you and others here.
Money may not have changed hands but it should still be treated with the same professionalism as a commission.

I'm wary of people who flake on trades because if they'll flake on payment through trade, how will they act for a commission? :|

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

This is my thought exactly.

[amocin.livejournal.com]

Looking through her art, or at least the last ten pictures, only 2 of them are done by her. Thats a major red flag. In the future I would suggest taking a look at who you are trading with to make sure it looks like they have a good track record.

Either way, its always sad to see this, more so if the admins can do nothing about it as I guess they dont see this as theft of services. Even if she cant do it right away, communication is key, most people are understanding if you say "hey, cant get to it right now, will try to do it on X date, I will keep you updated." They are most likely going to understand and not cause grief. Why they think ignoring the situation is going to make it go away is beyond me.

[theredwolf.livejournal.com]

Yea, I guess I was a little naieve and was always giving people the benifit of the doubt with trades. This has made me much more leary of doing trades without investigating first.

But yea, I wouldn't have cared if she needed more time, if she had communicated. I felt the Admins response was rude, honestly.

[ljmydayaway.livejournal.com]

As far as I can see on her account, she hasn't been active for about a month. Maybe something happened with her, or she can't access FA for some reason.

Hopefully she'll come around and finish their trades soon. :P

[theredwolf.livejournal.com]

The only reason I know shes been active on the account pas the june 29th date, is she has read my notes sent in late july. She just ignored them.

I agree, hopefully she'll do something soon, be it finish, or even just talk to people.

[dinobutt.livejournal.com]

What's there for people to get touchy about? A trade still involves an exchange of services, and if one person doesn't hold up to their end of the bargain, it's a scam. Barter is business too!

I'm sorry this happened to you :(

[theredwolf.livejournal.com]

As Kayla_la posted below, people used to get a little touchy about Trade posts :)

No worries, it was a learning experiance, atleast from now on I have a few tips and hints from people here to avoid bad trades :3

[bailzzararco.livejournal.com]

Maaaan, I hate it when that happens. I've had it occur at least twice. Folks wanting to do a trade and then they just....don't do their end. I just figured it wasn't worth the bother, and just dropped it. I think they KNOW they're being scammers and will one day feel really bad about it. Or at least that's what I am counting on.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Reading the comments here, I'm really happy to see people's opinion on trades seems to have shifted. I remember a few years ago, anytime anyone mentioned making a beware about a trade, they usually had the vast majority telling them trades 'weren't a big deal' and that making a beware about it would be dumb, and how much I disagreed with that perspective at the time. It was kind of hypocritical to have people going on about theft of time/services in commissions gone bad just to have them turn around and say stiffing someone on a trade isn't a big deal 'because it's just for fun' or whatever.

Hopefully more people will consider making bewares about trades, 'cause I'd love to know who to avoid trading with! Trades gone wrong actually feels more personal to me than bad commissioners, for some reason.

A way to do trades with accountability

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I remember that sort of attitude from people...

I would like to take a moment to shamelessly plug the community Kayla moderates conbadges which is way to do trades and hold accountability for the people participating. Sure at times you may not get your art, but usually someone will adopt you and it is a more structured way with deadlines to give and receive art from your fellow artists.

[taasla.livejournal.com]

It's good to see people's attitudes have changed. For me, a trade is giving my time to someone and my time is worth money. :)

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Yep! It's even fine for individuals to not care much about trades, but it really bothered me to see them trying to force that point of view on others, and I'm just really glad that that seems to have changed.

[roocodendron.livejournal.com]

This is why I don't do trades anymore, especially since I've been burned twice before with whom I thought were friends.
One of them the last time I talked to they told me that they'll "get to it when they get to it" a month or so after I finished my half in Jan. 2010 and she keeps jumping accounts/doesn't post anymore, while the other changed accounts/disappeared in 2006 (anyone know where "Azusasky" is? had a dragon named Naka whom I drew..).

So yeah, trades are just as important as commissions I think, only instead of money it's art. Shame this person is scamming artists like this :/

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

Seems like she is just looking to fill up her gallery with free art and then skimp out on her responsibility. I agree with the resounding chorus: Warning warranted.

[makealittlewish.livejournal.com]

That's not very cool. I really hope she gets that art to you soon.

[alex-dachshund.livejournal.com]

I hate it when I'm ripped off for trades too. But since it's free art and not paid for, I eventually give up and move on.

Personally, when I open for trades, I do not start my half until the other person has finished theirs, or has shown me a WIP. Maybe you could do that in the future?

Or, you could start sketching your half, show the person a very small and watermarked WIP preview, and if they want you to finish it, they need to finish their half first.

Just some advice for the future. :)

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

It's not 'free art' if you worked for it.

I do not start my half until the other person has finished theirs, or has shown me a WIP.

I've seen this before and I've always wondered, what happens when both artists have that policy?

[alex-dachshund.livejournal.com]

I meant free as in I didn't pay for it I probably worded that wrong.

Me too actually o.O But when people commission me, I accept payment up front before I start anything, and so I reflect that when I open for trades. I won't start my half until theirs is finished or until I am shown a WIP.

But if it's me asking another person for a trade, I start my half even if they haven't finished yet and don't demand that they finish theirs first. ^^

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Well, I like to imagine that they then have to fight to the death.

[theredwolf.livejournal.com]

Art Trades.

FIGHT! :O

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

Scott Pilgrim style.

[makealittlewish.livejournal.com]

I'm like that. I request payment/what they owe up front to show they are committing.

However, I know a lot of people have a problem with doing that (afraid of us dashing away), so I'm flexible. I tend to then request half, or offer to show them tiny versions or pixellated/blurred versions to show them it is, indeed made, now they just have to do as agreed.

And what Kayla said. Battle Royale.

[theredwolf.livejournal.com]

Personally I enjoy doing the art trade as another reason to draw or draw a fun character, not so much just to get the art out of it. Thats why I've always been pretty quick at completion because 1) Its a fun fun thing and 2) it does reflect on me as a person.

More then anything I guess I just need to be more careful of who I do trades with.

[houndofloki.livejournal.com]

I always think that the person who asked for the trade should finish their half first.

[snowyedges.livejournal.com]

<sub>I really hope you get your art though by the looks of it, she's basically just using the same base for all of her trade halves:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5933982/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5933964/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5933955/
(Not sure if that was already posted, I'm pretty groggy right now).

I'm not too great at getting trades done in a timely manner, but avoiding someone asking for updates is pretty wrong. :I</sub>

[theredwolf.livejournal.com]

OH wow. I knew her art wasn't spectacular, but thats never stopped me from letting someone do a trade, just because their not 'on par' with me or whatever dosn't mean I won't. I think its too discourageing to tell other artists no.

But for the love of god, shes not even trying..
As for the timely manner, Like I said, I don't care if it takes you a year, just communicate with me :)

[thaily.livejournal.com]

...

*headdesk*

[frazzled-niya.livejournal.com]

A service for a service as it were...:(...Shame they can't follow through, it'll ruin any chance to be taken seriously when and if they do decide to take up commissions.

[kikai-saigono.livejournal.com]

You can get her to take the art down now, I suppose... But that's all I can think of :(

[trentxandrew.livejournal.com]

Back when I used to do trades I would draw my half but not show the other person anything unless they had theirs to show. It's annoying if you ended up getting stiffed because you wasted your time but at least they never got free art.

[scamps.livejournal.com]

I almost stopped doing trades not to long ago because of people trading with me, me doing my half and just "whoops forgot about it!" from them forever, or the eternal "oh I'll get around to it soon" *uploads personal art and commisions they just took*.

I hope you get your half eventually.

[feather-dancer.livejournal.com]

Man I mean I'm -very- slow and ended up stupidly taking on trades/owed art right before I burned out but depsite it's taken a LOT longer than it should, I've made sure I've put in extra effort for the wait and always let them know when I'm up to something Oo There's just no excuse for that for pretending to fall off the face of the earth.

Good luck on getting soemthing out of them, I feel gulity enough over mine but least I'm cracking on with them.

[mdetector5.livejournal.com]

This is why I barely take trades nowadays. Not because that the other person trading takes too damn long... it's because I take too damn long in doing my end. A recent one I did with this guy (http://gavityhit.deviantart.com) was a really close call, in that I was able to talk him into completing a trade after I had taken too long in doing my end.

In all fairness, I do want to get better at my drawings, but... yeah, I think I'm done with trades and even commissions because it now takes so long for me to do them.

It's odd seeing that I barely take trades now, seeing how it used to be I would ask nearly *anyone* for one. That got me on the bad side of a lot of artists.

Didn't I post an entry here about that at one point?

[mikaufoxy.livejournal.com]

It's good that you did threaten to take it up with an admin though, but it sucks that you were blown off like that. Sadly, it's something they do nowadays... but at least they're not as ban happy as they used to be.

A shame this happened to you. Way I see it, business is business, even when drawn or exchanged money.