oekaki thumbnails discussion {READ FIRST POST}

[Rinovo]

Edit* Please pm me if there’s any new info that should be added to this post!

I've been using this site for a very long time, and people have always been making thumbnails/covers for off oekaki works and posting them to the art boards. It's a very common practice. And now suddenly massive amounts of artwork on the boards are getting locked??? Like, what changed? Seriously, I'm super confused, what made the mods lock all of this art? I understand if maybe they have a problem with just an arrow pointing below, but a lot of these thumbnails were actual peices that could be stand-alone works?

What happened?

Don’t forget:
{Please keep in mind everyone that for a lot of these mods it is a holiday today and they’ve taken the time to deal with this stressful situation!! Be kind and show them love <3}
Be civil!


Important info:

Oekaki/art forums suggestions

There is now a thread for suggesting oekaki/art fourm changes! please bring all of your ideas here so staff can read them easily!

Okay, here's the clarification you've been waiting on. This has been discussed with oekaki mods, admin assistants, and Simon.

-snip-

The purpose of this rule first and foremost is to cut back on the Oekaki board being cluttered with walls of spam drawings that are just text or 1-second sketches. If a "cover " can also function as a stand-alone drawing that clearly took effort and time to draw, then that should always be fine.

Edit: To clarify further, if it's clear that a user just made a quick sketch for the sole purpose of being able to post art from a different program, that is still subject to being locked. Drawings like the one above that that clearly took a lot of time and effort and can be considered a separate art piece should not be locked.

This is how Oekaki moderators are going to be judging whether something should be locked.

Is the art.....

1. completed or does it have a finished look (we will look for things like neat lines, colored, shaded, a definitive sketchy style, etc)
2. relevant or related to the character in some way, so we know it's not there to get around the rule (example: a finished headshot of the character)
AND 3. Does it show time/effort, again, so we know it's not there to get around the rule (to clarify, an uncolored sketch does not fulfill this)

What is probably NOT okay:
- just text or mostly text with a tiny drawing or random drawings (example: smilies, very fast doodles, flowers, etc)
- random sketch/lineart
- sketch that may be relevant, but is still clearly done to get around the rule (see guideline 3)

What IS probably okay:
- a completed piece of art that is directly relevant to the character because it features the character or
- a completed piece of art that is directly relevant to the character because it is related in some way (example: the character is a fairy, so you draw a detailed depiction of a magic forest that takes sufficient time and effort)

Here are examples of drawings that we have unlocked, because it is a completed piece, features the character, and shows time and effort: x, x, x

It might help you to consider what the purpose of the cover is, other than being a cover. You might think of either the cover, or the art made elsewhere, as ADDITIONAL artwork.

Please let us know if there is anything that needs to be clarified further.

Official response on what and what is not acceptable as a cover written by the mods! tysm yall!


Popular suggestions made by the user ford!

[Guest]

You're not the only one bothered by it. People post sketches and such all the time, yet mine got locked. Smh.

[Lex.]

I agree, I think this should be changed.
I get that they display work done off oekaki, but it could be it's own piece on its own.

[Rinovo]

I agree, I think this should be changed.
I get that they display work done off oekaki, but it could be it's own piece on its own.

What mainly bothers me is it's been like this for years, and now suddenly, this happens? Like,,, I love to use oekaki for simple sketches/works, but it's hard for anything beyond it because of how rudimentary the system is,,, but I Adore the boards and love to browse through them. Could they at least make a board for offsite works that displays the art if they're suddenly not allowing it anymore? It's a nightmare looking at characters/art through the text-fourms.

I'm exhausted so I probably don't make any sense rn smh

[hypnowave]

yeah, i've been seeing a lot of character-for-character oekaki drawings get locked despite being sketches, but even colored and/or shaded pieces like wind mage's have gotten locked as well. the rule used to be as simple as "as long as there's a sketch on the oekaki canvas it's okay to use a cover," so personally, i'd really love to see a clarification from the site mods. the inconsistency is pretty bothersome to deal with.

[Baylin]

im not a consistent oekaki user but this is definitely concerning and I agree with reyligion, i think staff need to clarify because right now it looks pretty unsafe to post an oekaki with any writing whatsoever even if its a finished piece. if they dont clarify/unlock topics i would atleast like to see those large lock icons removed that way artwork like windmage's isnt totally obscured

[Dia.]

Hey there,

The Oekaki boards are not for sharing art made in other programs, so covers made to share art done elsewhere are considered spam. This isn't a new rule or an update, and we have been enforcing this rule since at least around the time I became a moderator in 2015 (especially in the adoptable boards).

You can see this rule written on our Oekaki Rules post.

Don't create Oekaki topics just to share art you've created elsewhere. Art drawn in another program should be posted in the appropriate board (example: non-Oekaki adoptable characters go in User-made Adoptables).

We have noticed an increase in these sorts of threads in certain boards resulting in the uptick in locked threads. For example, character for character trades are becoming very popular, and these are commonly completed in another program and posted under a cover. In these instances it is clear that the focus of the thread is on the completed character, not the drawing in the cover. That's why are they are considered spam.

We have other forum boards dedicated for sharing art made in other programs (ex. Art Galleries & Discussion), so please utilize those if you'd like to share art you've made elsewhere!

---

You're not the only one bothered by it. People post sketches and such all the time, yet mine got locked. Smh.

It can be hard for a small team to keep up with a busy forum, and we sometimes miss things. If you find a thread that you believe breaks our rules, please report it!

the rule used to be as simple as "as long as there's a sketch on the oekaki canvas it's okay to use a cover," so personally, i'd really love to see a clarification from the site mods.

To clarify, the rule has always been that the focus needs to be on the Oekaki canvas (with the exception of adoptable milestones, so long as it is not abused).

[Lex.]

What about this one?
They had art clearly in the oekaki, and stated that there was art below, but it was just a stick bug. So why was this one locked?

[shortstop]

We have noticed an increase in these sorts of threads in certain boards resulting in the uptick in locked threads. For example, character for character trades are becoming very popular, and these are commonly completed in another program and posted under a cover. In these instances it is clear that the focus of the thread is on the completed character, not the drawing in the cover. That's why are they are considered spam.

Genuinely curious, would a solution to the problem then be that all "character 4 character" threads be banned from Oekaki and instead only allowed in the forums? This seems like it may be a reasonable compromise if the concern is that these threads are increasing the amount of spam.
Additionally, should things like egg or gatcha adopts also be exclusive to the forums? This would give the freedom for people to draw adopts in whichever program they choose, but still have everything contained to one thread. Maybe there needs to be some official clarification that these types of threads are only allowed in the forums and not in the Oekaki boards.

edit to add additional question;; Would "character 4 character" threads that provide a base to draw the character on be excluded from the rule, since you need access to the Oekaki to draw on the base? And are threads that disallow off-Oekaki characters allowed to stay on the Oekaki board?

[axelandria]

We have noticed an increase in these sorts of threads in certain boards resulting in the uptick in locked threads. For example, character for character trades are becoming very popular, and these are commonly completed in another program and posted under a cover. In these instances it is clear that the focus of the thread is on the completed character, not the drawing in the cover. That's why are they are considered spam.

Genuinely curious, would a solution to the problem then be that all "character 4 character" threads be banned from Oekaki and instead only allowed in the forums? This seems like it may be a reasonable compromise if the concern is that these threads are increasing the amount of spam.
Additionally, should things like egg or gatcha adopts also be exclusive to the forums? This would give the freedom for people to draw adopts in whichever program they choose, but still have everything contained to one thread. Maybe there needs to be some official clarification that these types of threads are only allowed in the forums and not in the Oekaki boards.

i disagree with that, since i use character for character threads frequently, but i use oekaki as my primary art program.