Reminder Please review DoA's Rules

can you please note any we should be 'extra' mindful of? *delete this when addressed ^^* yes i am aware this is not in ATM... i wanted it public is why

 

I reread the the rules as requested. Though it is still a riddle to me what you mean. It would be nice if you can clarify this a bit more.

One can't change anything if not told what to change.

 

@Ipledreamer

If it's in the rules, it's important to know. There are certain rules or sections that gets updated more regularly than other, but every rule is important. Bigger updates to the rules are usually announced in the Den of Angels News section.

It's not our responsibility to actively tell members to read the rules. I would suggest you make a change yourself and make sure you read the rules every now and then. That's really the best thing you can do to prevent rule breaking on your part

If you want to have a specific rule clarified, you're always free to post in Ask the Moderators and we will be happy to clarify it for you.

 

I think what Ipledreamer is attempting to say is: We're not sure whats going on. This sounds like a sort of PSA because people are breaking the rules pretty consistently but its not saying exactly what is being done wrong. Just saying " rules regarding recasts, account sharing, and advertising outside of the Marketplace" is a bit open to be honest.

Are people sneaking in recasts as Legit or is it merely that people are mentioning more along the lines of "I won't bully the hell out of you for having a recast" instead of stating clearly they are "pro artist". I mean, I myself have said before that I'm not going to go out of my way to make someone feel awful for their own decisions but I'm against them...does that make me neutral? No. I am very much pro artist, I just don't like being nasty all the time.

As for the marketplace, I find it hard to believe (Doesn't mean its not possible) that older members are willingly posting searches/inquiries for dolls outside of the marketplace/their signature...so is there a grey area we don't know about? For example: Is it that DoA sales are being posted across not only DoA but say IG, Facebook, etc? Is that something that is technically against the rules? Or is it something a little simpler like seeing someone's project journal, being in awe and merely saying "Do you take commissions?"

I would like to think that account sharing is pretty black and white, so I won't really touch on that one. Then again there could be hiccups where notes aren't made about people sharing IP addresses. My husband and I share the same IP, but there was never a direct "Hey we put in a note that you are not mulitple accounts". I just assume since neither of us have gotten the boot we're good to go. He stated I was on the forums when he joined, so I figured that was enough.

I'm not trying to be nasty/mean/rude about it, but a lot of the rules are direct yet not precise. They say what you can/cannot do but not to what degree you can/cannot do it. Vague is perhaps the word best used to describe them. Which is fine, vague rules provide more of a blanket statement for Moderators. It gives less room for those breaking the rules to argue "Well I didn't do "this part" of the rule so I'm not technically breaking it". Yet in a scenario like this, where clearly there are multiple people trying to figure out what rules they could be potentially breaking, its always nice to have a bit more detail so we can all read it and go "Dang, I didn't interpret that rule this way, now I know."

 

Thank, this is precisely what I wanted to say.

 

I do not think specific cases are being asked for. Since there has been a significant increase in rule-breaking, it should be possible to narrow it down better than "rules regarding recasts", without outing anyone.
For example - Is it a matter of discussing recasts? Owning recasts? Attitudes towards recasts?

I do not think people want to break the rules... So, of course, we would want to know what this increase is about. I do not know if I am reading it wrong, but it sounds like you think you are being asked for a cheat-sheet. Like, "these rules will be on the test, do not bother with the others - no teacher checks those" or something...
When rather, we would like more information related to this new information (which is an increase in rule-breaking) - more information on what instances of the rules to be extra observant of, related to this. And not overall, or to rank the rules in order of importance.

So could we perhaps have another thread specifying these?

If there has been a significant increase, then us members would probably want to help prevent further rule-breaking as much as possible, but as @errinreynolds said, the rules can be a bit vague.
So unless the rules that has been broken have been all over the place, a few pointers, or clarifications, is what we are after, to prevent accidentally breaking the same ones ourselves - especially if there is an underlying cause (- new tech, habits, and so on, that does not comply with the rules? Just a speculation).
I just think it would be easier for everyone.

But as mentioned as well, it could just be due to forgetfulness or the old-timers quitting the hobby and thus dismissing a lot of rules in the exiting process.

 

Personally, I have observed that certain "new" MP procedures are mostly violated by old timers rather than newbies: changing a sales thread title to "delete" or "on layaway" or "sold" without changing the prefix to "finished," deleting original title, price and all photos when finished (not very helpful when searching the "graveyard" for completed sales info), and that sort of thing.

 

I think this is the kind of clarification we're looking for. As @Yumeiro and others have said, we're not trying to find loopholes or incident reports, or looking to figure out which rules are "serious" and which are "flexible", just wondering if there are specific reoccurring problems that seem to be getting overlooked so we can avoid making those same mistakes (not because they're "more important," but just to be more conscious of bad habits). Of course I agree that everyone should familiarize themselves with all the rules, but there are quite a lot so it's easy to glance over like "oh yeah I've read these before, I know all this," and overlook updates or even just lines you may have misremembered (like trying to proofread an essay and missing the typos). So "just read everything and you'll be fine" doesn't clear anything up.

If it's just an overall increase in infractions, with no patterns to speak of, then that's fine to say too, but a lot of the mod responses seem to have a pointedly dodgy tone, like you think we're trying to trick you into giving away a hint for something or avoid taking personal responsibility ourselves.

I think all of us who have asked would just appreciate some concise clarification like "we've noticed more issues, especially regarding: talking about recasts in any capacity, offering or asking about commissions outside the marketplace, correctly labeling and updating your MP threads, and posting too much in non-gallery threads" or whatever.

Or, if there are no patterns like that to speak of, just a clear "there's no single issue that's been a dominant problem in need of specific review, we just want to remind everyone that rules we have rules and they're important" would be nice.

Maybe that's what you were saying anyway, but it kind of came across like
"There's been a problem lately."
"What's been the problem?"
"Not really a problem, but everything is a problem. Now no more hints, go read the rules."