dusts off the old account wooo ok y'all, i'm an old geezer in terms of account age, so:
i would like to weigh in on the rp image mention as somebody who has been roleplaying in some fashion since like... 2006 so buckle in kiddos this is a long one.
tl;dr: the overlap between free to use character art/stock images/things under creative commons and what rpers Want to use as reference images or character art is... nonexistent and the rules regarding what you can use are a little Vague and Confusing and don't offer a lot in terms of what you can actually use and where you can find such images. i'm also willing to consult on rewording them if the staff would like an outside user's perspective even though i'm a) not a staff member and b) not """active""" on the forums anymore, though i do lurk, but this is not an obligation.
i'm talking in the context of dungeons and dragons/other tabletop rpgs, but unless you want generic and, imho, ugly art, sure you can use what's included in dndbeyond or wizards of the coast assets, but most people who play dnd just straight rip art from pinterest. in most settings (being small groups that don't publicly broadcast their campaign in some form), it's benign because stays within the group and is for EXPLICIT personal use. the issue starts coming up when you start publicly broadcasting your characters/campaign/etc with or without the intent to profit off of it; it's a grey area within the art community iN MY EXPERIENCE. some artists don't care and have publicly stated it, some have said "just don't tell me", and some have gone against the current and said to not use their personal art since they are in the professional field and a lot of the art they do isn't theirs and they want just this one thing to stay theirs. it's why pinterest art theft is such a problem; that's where a lot of people get their character art- and i have done so myself, so i'm not entirely squeaky clean in this aspect- and it's near impossible to source art that way and many artists actively file dmcas on pinterest to get their art off the platform.
however, pinterest is a very large platform where you NEED to file the dmca for anything to happen; i'm quite unsure how many copyright claims cs has had to deal with, but if i were an artist and i was so pressed to get my art or photography off this website and i some how found out about it, i'd contact the admins asking them to take it down in good faith. dmcas are such a headache to file that for small potatoes such as cs, it's easier to just ask than go through the legalese. cs is also very small compared to pinterest and i'm very confident in that most artists that may have sent copyright claims in were told about it rather than stumbling upon it like how one would on pinterest [1].
i'm not saying cs needs to do away with this ruling (it helps me on the rare occasions i am on mobile), but i think it does need to be tweaked a little insofar explaining more clearly (with examples) what is allowed, what isn't, and where to find such allowed images. i remember when this ruling was newish i was confused on what was allowed and what isn't, as at the time i roleplayed more fandom roleplays or used anime characters from their source material as faceclaims/reference. in my eyes, fan created gifs etc ARE copyrighted to the person who made it as a derivative, however i was told that using those gifs and screencaps was fine. i would need to go find my own thread and reread it because this was several years ago and i may be misremembering, but it isn't mentioned at all in the image rules as written. this is also not including the confusing and ??? decorative text/formatting rules, as i find having "pretty" post formats that may "repeat" information honestly really benign, but i'm from a slightly older generation of roleplayers that like putting in equal amounts of time into formatting my posts as i do writing them since it helps me get more into character but that's a separate topic that i think isn't really the point yet here.
all of this is to say, yes, please consolidate the rules in one easy to get to place, even if it's a link directory in a forum topic. the rules do need a major overhaul with verbage and i am willing to help consult on the verbage please i need to use my degrees someway even though i'm not an """active"" forum poster, mostly out of how confusing and hard to find the rules are. i'd rather lurk out of just not dealing with the rules/what is and isn't allowed than like... participating in the community? which is a shame, i think the community is better now than when i was more "active" back in the early 2010.
i do appreciate these things being looked at at revised and even if it took a "clickbait" title, i'm glad it's being looked at finally. i've been around the block a few times since i've been a member since 2008 and i would like to see this site last as long as neopets has tbh.
[1]: i have had to do such thing on two occasions, though i wasn't the copyright holder. i told the artists in question that they, your art is being used/edited on a site that is in a way for profit, just thought you should know, and they would not have known about it had i not told them. i am not using this as evidence towards relaxing the rule, i'm just using it as an anecdote regarding how rare it may have been/still be for cs to get "organic" copyright notices. since cs does have ads and a Real Money Currency, i can see why they would not allow images outside of stock images/things you own the copyright to since they are making a profit off the site and that gets weird with copyright laws.
i would like to weigh in on the rp image mention as somebody who has been roleplaying in some fashion since like... 2006 so buckle in kiddos this is a long one.
tl;dr: the overlap between free to use character art/stock images/things under creative commons and what rpers Want to use as reference images or character art is... nonexistent and the rules regarding what you can use are a little Vague and Confusing and don't offer a lot in terms of what you can actually use and where you can find such images. i'm also willing to consult on rewording them if the staff would like an outside user's perspective even though i'm a) not a staff member and b) not """active""" on the forums anymore, though i do lurk, but this is not an obligation.
i'm talking in the context of dungeons and dragons/other tabletop rpgs, but unless you want generic and, imho, ugly art, sure you can use what's included in dndbeyond or wizards of the coast assets, but most people who play dnd just straight rip art from pinterest. in most settings (being small groups that don't publicly broadcast their campaign in some form), it's benign because stays within the group and is for EXPLICIT personal use. the issue starts coming up when you start publicly broadcasting your characters/campaign/etc with or without the intent to profit off of it; it's a grey area within the art community iN MY EXPERIENCE. some artists don't care and have publicly stated it, some have said "just don't tell me", and some have gone against the current and said to not use their personal art since they are in the professional field and a lot of the art they do isn't theirs and they want just this one thing to stay theirs. it's why pinterest art theft is such a problem; that's where a lot of people get their character art- and i have done so myself, so i'm not entirely squeaky clean in this aspect- and it's near impossible to source art that way and many artists actively file dmcas on pinterest to get their art off the platform.
however, pinterest is a very large platform where you NEED to file the dmca for anything to happen; i'm quite unsure how many copyright claims cs has had to deal with, but if i were an artist and i was so pressed to get my art or photography off this website and i some how found out about it, i'd contact the admins asking them to take it down in good faith. dmcas are such a headache to file that for small potatoes such as cs, it's easier to just ask than go through the legalese. cs is also very small compared to pinterest and i'm very confident in that most artists that may have sent copyright claims in were told about it rather than stumbling upon it like how one would on pinterest [1].
i'm not saying cs needs to do away with this ruling (it helps me on the rare occasions i am on mobile), but i think it does need to be tweaked a little insofar explaining more clearly (with examples) what is allowed, what isn't, and where to find such allowed images. i remember when this ruling was newish i was confused on what was allowed and what isn't, as at the time i roleplayed more fandom roleplays or used anime characters from their source material as faceclaims/reference. in my eyes, fan created gifs etc ARE copyrighted to the person who made it as a derivative, however i was told that using those gifs and screencaps was fine. i would need to go find my own thread and reread it because this was several years ago and i may be misremembering, but it isn't mentioned at all in the image rules as written. this is also not including the confusing and ??? decorative text/formatting rules, as i find having "pretty" post formats that may "repeat" information honestly really benign, but i'm from a slightly older generation of roleplayers that like putting in equal amounts of time into formatting my posts as i do writing them since it helps me get more into character but that's a separate topic that i think isn't really the point yet here.
all of this is to say, yes, please consolidate the rules in one easy to get to place, even if it's a link directory in a forum topic. the rules do need a major overhaul with verbage and i am willing to help consult on the verbage please i need to use my degrees someway even though i'm not an """active"" forum poster, mostly out of how confusing and hard to find the rules are. i'd rather lurk out of just not dealing with the rules/what is and isn't allowed than like... participating in the community? which is a shame, i think the community is better now than when i was more "active" back in the early 2010.
i do appreciate these things being looked at at revised and even if it took a "clickbait" title, i'm glad it's being looked at finally. i've been around the block a few times since i've been a member since 2008 and i would like to see this site last as long as neopets has tbh.
[1]: i have had to do such thing on two occasions, though i wasn't the copyright holder. i told the artists in question that they, your art is being used/edited on a site that is in a way for profit, just thought you should know, and they would not have known about it had i not told them. i am not using this as evidence towards relaxing the rule, i'm just using it as an anecdote regarding how rare it may have been/still be for cs to get "organic" copyright notices. since cs does have ads and a Real Money Currency, i can see why they would not allow images outside of stock images/things you own the copyright to since they are making a profit off the site and that gets weird with copyright laws.
