Community guidelines

These guidelines govern use of the site whenever you are posting content, be it written, graphic or otherwise, that can be seen by others.

Please also be familiar with the overall terms & conditions.

Behave in a legal and civil manner

You may not use the site to post or transmit illegal content, to advertise, to spread chain letters, or to spam. Please keep all content that you share PG13.

You may not harass or mistreat other users. Disagreements must be conducted in a civil fashion. Flame wars and non-constructive feedback will be deleted.

Our community is global, and comes from many different walks of life. Intolerant speech will be removed, and action may be taken against the member who posted it.

Remember that this is a community, and the majority of the content comes straight from other users. If you see anything mean or nasty on the site, or anyone sends you anything that makes you uncomfortable, asks for your password or personal information (such as your name, address or phone number), please let us know immediately. The most effective way to do this is by pressing the "report" button found on most user-posted content varieties on the site.

Treat the subject of nudity with respect

Part of training as an artist often means seeing a lot of nudity. It is every student's responsibility - and your responsibility as a community member - to treat this as a learning opportunity and to behave respectfully around the subject of nudity.

Community members are expected not to sexualize nudity, or to voice ANY judgements about how attractive a particular model is (positive or negative.) We are here to learn, not pass judgements. Avoid making broad generalizations like "the average joe loves drawing nude women" that imply that you or others may find the experience of studying sexual.

Although there's no shame in an individual having feelings of attraction, this does not mean that those feelings need to be voiced or acted on in any way. Respect the models and your fellow students by not sexualizing the study experience.

The official language of these forums is English

So that the site moderators can read, understand and approve every post as being appropriate, we ask that you make posts only in English.

We also ask that you try your best to use correct English grammar and spelling. It makes you easier to understand, especially for those for whom English may be a second language. Please do not make use of l33t or txt speak on our forums (such as replacing the word you with the letter u).

While we acknowledge that not everybody is a native speaker of the English language, it is very easy to distinguish those people from those who are merely lazy.

Stay on topic

Every forum has a description. Before you post, please read the descriptions carefully and try to create topics in the section that most closely matches what your post is about.

Replies to topics should have something to do with the conversation occurring in that thread. If you want to change the topic entirely, by all means, make a new topic in the appropriate forum. Making sure that you post in the correct areas will make it much easier for everyone to find the subjects and conversations they are looking for.

Title your posts appropriately

When you start a topic, try to give it a title that will give people some idea of what’s inside. For example, titling a post in the advice forum “Advice” doesn’t really help anyone, because ALL the topics in the advice forum are going to be advice. A better title might be “How to hold your pencil for maximum control over gradients”

Respect mods and admins

If a moderator or staff person asks you to stop doing something, stop.

If a post or topic gets deleted, do not simply recreate the same one. If you disagree with a decision that was made, please contact a mod or a staff person and discuss it civilly. Politeness will get you lots of places. Attacking or flaming the mods won’t get you anything.

Keep it civil, keep it clean

Abusive language and profanity will not be tolerated. No personal attacks. No messages intended solely to upset people, spread false rumors or otherwise drag down the atmosphere of the community.

Although we obviously allow for posting drawings and links to your drawings of nude sketches, we would prefer that you not post or link to images or drawings of people engaged in sexual or extremely violent acts. Please refrain from posting links to inappropriate material. These forums are used by people of all ages.

Usernames and account display names must not contain vulgar language, slurs or degrading language. If your display name is found to violate this standard or to be questionable, your display name will be set to something generic such as “Forum Participant”

If you want to start an in-depth discussion of (real world) politics and religion, or anything else likely to instantaneously start flame wars, you should find a site dedicated to discussing politics and religion instead. The topic of this site is improving in artistic skills.

Don’t bump threads

“Bumping” is when someone makes a meaningless post in a thread in order to move it back to the top of a forum, such as simply saying the word “bump” or “up” without adding anything else to the conversation. Do not bump threads that are still on the first page of a forum. Bumping threads that have fallen off the front page is allowed, but frowned upon. If you want to revive a conversation, say something interesting and relevant.

Don’t spam

“Spam” is defined as any pointless, disruptive, annoying message. That could be posting Shakespeare quotes a thousand times so no one else can get a word in edgewise, and it might mean posting a single message of jumbled letters. It can also refer to posts made solely to advertise.

Other guidelines may apply on a per-forum or per-thread basis

Before posting in a forum, check to see if there are any “sticky” posts at the top that contain rules of guidelines specific to that forum.

Violating our rating guidelines can get you suspended or deleted

We reserve the right to suspend or delete your account, or ban you from accessing the site should you cause trouble on the forums.

PLEASE don’t make us do this. We hate doing it.

Updates

We may update these policies at any time.

Last updated 9/7/2018