I'm afraid it's been so long, that even I can't remember the exact date the rule was added, only that it was in 2011. As it is, you were misinformed about that rule, and your CAMs have been refunded to you, Ras. :}

I'm also for putting quality control in effect for CAMs. I just need to talk to the coders and the admin team about it. I wouldn't mind having the art team as a whole being in charge of approving custom material. I'll bring it up to the admins, as said, because from the beginning I wanted there to be some control over CAMs, but when Robyn owned the site she insisted it should be a free-for-all. That's why they've been unmoderated up to this point. But I think it's time that changed. :}

And no, no one's content would be turned away for not being top-notch quality. It would just need to align with our site rules.

If you can tell me when the rule changed it would help. I have reason to believe that my CA was created mid January, 2011. If the rule changed January 1rst, the fine. When I created those wastes of money, they were legal. I asked staff members before so doing.

Yeah the rule has been in place for a lonngg time. There is nothing new about this news post. It is only reiterating.

I was actually surprised when I first joined and saw that it took almost nothing to get CAs on the site. I would be fine with staff looking over CAs before they can be confirmed and put on the site (as long as people weren't rejected for the CA not being a top quality drawing). I think using the argument "they already have so much to do" is weak. Either more staff can be added and/or there can be a new group of staff created that solely deal with CA copies and approvals. Maybe even a special testing group of staff that don't really have powers but test and find the bugs of new items etc. =)

I'm getting side tracked! xD

TL;DR: Nothing new here, just a reminder. I would be for having an approval process for new CAs.

I've actually supported staff-approval of CAs. As it stands, anybody can very easily create an extremely inappropriate CA and have it slip right under the staff's noses, this is exactly how so many rule-breaking CAs go unnoticed.

That would be overburdensome on the staff. They already have too much to do.

I saw a ca a while back where someone took ala dog art and altered it and turned it into a ca I thought that was wrong I would love to see ca's require a staff aproval to help keep things In line staff has to send out extra copies anyway so why not just get them to check it out first

I agree, we'll probably date any changes to the rules, and give notification from now on, to avoid this sort of issue repeating.

I think that to avoid the appearance of changing rules perhaps they should be dated.

I do believe this has been a rule for a long time, and it is merely a reminder newspost. So much better to bring up reminders from time to time, than to just fine and remove things without warning. So few really read all of the rules.

It hasn't changed, though, I remember last year I contacted an admin about giving a CAM back to a CA rulebreaker and was told no, and sure enough, the rules stated no giving back CAMs for rulebreaking. This is not a switcheroo pulled under the users noses, it's been there since Kittybot said, 2011. It's been there for like 2 years.

I find it reprehensible that this site is punishing members for following a rule that has since changed. The point of grandfathering is to be just, not appear fair. Since that will not be done, the least the site could do is refund those of us who were not psychic for the bones wasted when the rule was different. Do I expect this? No, I do not. I expect to be punished for double checking that the photos I was going to make into CAs followed the rules as they existed at the time - and I have.

Thank you for the clarification, Kit! :)

Please read the clarification I posted earlier and the clarifying addition to the text of the news post.

I was told that as long as it was a photograph that I had taken and could provide the original if required, that it was permitted.

Either the rules changed or I was misinformed by a staff member.

Sorry, early 2011.

i wrote the rules (or at least the first draft of the rules) for Robyn for the CAs. They were first put in in late 2011, if i recall correctly.

Point of clarification, my friends. the 'tracing' portion of this post refers exclusively to photos to which you do not have the full rights. If you take a photo and then use it as a reference or go so far as to trace it for the creation of a CA, that's perfectly fine. We would prefer for you to use the photos you own as reference rather than tracing outright, but this post is more about not uploading your photos or edited versions of them. It must be a drawing. We are terribly sorry for the confusion. We did not intend for anyone to feel their art was not welcome here on Alacrity. :)

"Photography, even your own, and that of free stock is NOT allowed to be submitted as custom accessory material, for quality control purposes. Alacrity is centered around hand drawn, original art, and custom content should follow with this. "

[...]

" Custom Accessories found to be using copyrighted images or trademarked characters will be deleted from the site and their creators will be fined. No refunds for the use of the Custom Accessory Maker item will be issued."

Bottom in the Custom Accessory section.

Problem being that there was no rule change - "Photography, even your own, and that of free stock is NOT allowed to be submitted as custom accessory material, for quality control purposes. Alacrity is centered around hand drawn, original art, and custom content should follow with this." - this has always been in the rules as far as I remember, and I even remember there being an issue long before where people got CAs removed because they used photos.

CAs that are in violation but predate the rule change should either be grandfathered in or the cost of the CAM should be refunded.

Hm. I think this rule is a little.....overdone >.>

I mean, not everybody's good at freehand, and some people just want to trace something they took and color it, because they just don't have the skill to draw it themselves. I think this is making Ala seem like CA's are only for talented artists. T^T

"It doesn't matter if you took the photo [...] look to be made or traced from photographs" I assume that means that no, you can't trace from photos. Would make sense because the art uploaded to Alacrity should be quality and tracing from photos is cheating.

Just so I'm clear about what this means... If I took a photo of a dog, traced the photo to get lineart, then colored it in so it looks like...art, I couldn't actually use that as a CA even though technically I own all the rights and everything and it doesn't look like a "photo"? Cause this is the only way I'm able to "draw" anything... I have almost zero art skills unless it's a quick simple doodle and can't afford to commission anything.

Was wondering when this was going to be tackled! Glad to see it's in effect now. <3