Updates to Rules (Update on page 7)

[ramattra]

i agree with loosening the restrictions in the off-oekaki board. i understand the argument that if it's not being sold for CS currency, then staff believe it doesn't belong here. however, i believe that art is a huge part of this website and is a big part of what keeps it thriving! CS is also an amazing place to sell art because there's a community here that tends to gravitate towards a certain market (like adopts and feral or anthro art). something like this seems hard to find elsewhere, at least when it comes to easily finding people. most other websites tend to have terrible algorithms that make it hard for artists lol and this community is a lot friendlier than other places.

anyways, i think that artists here should be able to take advantage of how easy it is to find your target client base on CS and i see no harm in allowing it. as long as artists are following the rules to take usd discussions off-site, is there really an issue? this is just something i'd love to see because i would prefer NOT to be posting in oekaki and making covers to advertise off-site adopts, but if im not posting in oekaki then im required to include cs options which i really don't want.

[tawnycatz]

I understand the restrictions on covers, or at least the reasoning behind them -- oekaki is for oekaki. It's a forum for a specific purpose, even if it has a built-in art program. I can't go into C$ trades and make a post about my favorite video games, because the thread would be moved or locked.

And I do prefer having any frame of reference (like we now have) for covers over none, so I can avoid accidentally breaking rules n getting threads locked.

However the rules are a little confusing. In theory I think they work, but the more I think about it, the more questions I end up having. Probably overthinking this, but hey!
I did a few quick doodles, so the post will be long, but I TRIED to make images small I promise XD I know staff can't plan ahead for every possible contingency, but I hope I can at least more easily convey my questions this way.

The point of most of the following questions: at what point is a cover 'done enough,' as it were?

let's say I have an adoptable. doodled this cat-thing up in a few minutes to act as a model for us, vaguely based on sweet treats (please ignore the fact that in subsequent images I forgot to give it a nose :sob:) :



the following two are unacceptable as covers, as I understand it. Neither took me a long time (or a lot of effort) to make. The first one took maybe two minutes, and the second one is just a more clean version of that first color-less sketch.

//

would these following two be acceptable, though? I feel like they probably would be, but I'm not sure.

these were not hard to make. they didn't exceed ten minutes in their creation (probably took about five max), and are just colored-in versions of the "cleaned up" sketch. if I were describing these to someone, I would label these "sketches" or "doodles," even if they are both colored and one even has shading. This is about the effort I put into character meme redraws for myself and friends.

though they have more effort put into them than the sketches above... they aren't what I consider to be my usual standard. this doesn't mean these would be fast sketches or low-effort for every single artist. For me, this is a sketch and something I can do in five minutes. For someone else, this might be a twenty-five minute headshot. I need to be clear that this isn't a dig -- there are plenty of skilled oekaki artists that post what they personally call "sketches" that I know would take me an hour or two to replicate, if I even could.

But then I have to wonder how exactly a sketch is defined (uncolored-in lineart with clear construction lines?), because this is my "lazy" art. The art you are looking at now did not take much effort.

//

this one is properly lined, colored, and shaded. Lines are shaky but my lines are pretty much always shaky lol. I'm fairly certain this would pass the cover check. It didn't take me long, sure, but I put more work into it than the others.



but then what about this? it has neat lines and is shaded, and the colors are similar to the adopt but it's not actually fully colored like the adopt (sort of just filled-in). is this acceptable? Not?



Or if the adopt cover is accurately colored in, but messily? Is slapdash coloring enough to tip something into an inappropriate spam cover?

//

then we have covers that aren't the adoptable itself. would the following be an acceptable cover? the adopt is based on desserts, but nothing in particular, and it's not a direct connection (the cat-thing doesn't have cake frosting on it, for example).

The cake isn't an "accessory" or their favorite food or something; it's not world or character building for the adopt. This is a somewhat common style of cover (more often seen in closed species I think) to create an item that abstractly conveys the idea of the adopt.

I would not consider this worldbuilding for the adoptable, and it's clearly not the cat-thing itself, but it's not entirely unrelated to the adopt either. Is this allowed? Disallowed?



Then for actual accessories: do they need a certain level of polish past not being no-color sketches?

While I know the collar on the right would likely be fine as a cover, would the left one be? I want to say yes, but I'm not certain. Drawing a collar doesn't take me a lot of time, though it's definitely related to our theoretical adoptable, since they're wearing it!

//

I think most of the images here would count as acceptable covers, and this feels like a long post and very worthy of a TL;DR.

But I have to ask because this is meant to combat spam and "low-effort" covers made to post off-oekaki adopts on oekaki, and I wanna know what falls under that definition D:

It's not like i'm trying to get around the rules, to be clear -- but there are some covers that fall between 'clean headshot' and 'construction linework,' and I want to know at approximately what point that line is so myself and others don't trip on it accidentally. I myself have done a number of these through the years!

i think i'm overthinking this.

[low tide]

is there any particular reason why it's fine to sell designs for USD on oekaki but not anywhere else?

[winx]

is there any particular reason why it's fine to sell designs for USD on oekaki but not anywhere else?

The main reason I’m aware of is that selling USD-only adopts in the Character Sales and Design board is off-topic to CS. There are no relevant CS features involved, such as pets or C$ currency, so there's no clear connection to the platform. On the other hand, posting on the Oekaki board is on-topic because the artwork is created using Oekaki, which is a CS art program.

[BlueEyedKite]

Thanks for the explanation, winx. Maybe I am dumb but this difference never occurred to me.

[low tide]

ah i see, thank you for the explanation. is there a way to at least put this reasoning out there? i'm not an artist so this decision doesn't affect me personally but this difference won't honestly occur to the average art seller at all which i feel like will lead to a lot of confusion and frustration down the line.

[Celozon]

I'm not going to respond to everyone here as much of this is being re-hashed over and over. I would suggest that if anyone has specific questions they want to ask about these rules, want further clarifications, or want to know if specific art would pass the cover requirements, to please send in a help ticket instead. This thread is not here to argue about the rules, these rules have not been changed, this update was only to try and add more clarification since the previous version of the rules had not given much information on what qualified as an acceptable cover.

I also wanted to add that our help ticket system is always open for anyone if you want to check if something you want to post is following our site rules. So if you are afraid a cover you made is not enough you can send in a ticket with the image and ask us if you need to make any changes.

We also obviously understand that we have many users of different skill levels on the oekaki and we are not here to judge someone's particular skill level. The rule does not say that no sketches are acceptable, it only lists 'quick sketches'. The base requirement is that a cover must be "purposeful, relevant, and show effort". This does not exclude sketches. That said, I have never been an oekaki mod and am not going to be as familiar with the minutia of that as the oekaki mods, which is why I suggest sending in a ticket for these answers instead as they will be much more prepared to answer your questions on this.

The main takeaway is that you should not be creating a sloppy cover…

Being so completely serious, the verbiage on this is disrespectful. Who gets to define “sloppy”? Is there a minimum quality of art required to be an oekaki adoptable artist? What happens when someone’s colored sketch takes them 30 minutes but it’s deemed not good enough? I’m so bewildered. Please explain why and how “sloppy” is appropriate to use in reference to other people’s art.

Seasonal is not calling anyone's artwork sloppy here, she is just emphasizing that art created on the oekaki should have a level of effort put into it and not just be created as fast as possible in an attempt to meet cover requirements, which should not be the goal when creating a cover.

and if covers with sketches of the character is "sloppy" and "spam", does that mean sketches in other oekaki boards are also sloppy and spammy? staff have worded this rule in various ways several times but not once is it clear what's "good" and what's "bad" in terms of covers. what if someone made a detailed, greyscale, lineart-only art piece? a detailed sketch? a sketch of a scene? what if someone made a very quick, but colored cover? which of these are ok and which ones are not?

i know this post was meant to clarify the rule but to me it still needs more clarification, and skimming over the thread it seems like other people agree. and this is in no means meant to be critiquing / angry, i'm just confused and maybe a little bothered, but i know the rule was not made in bad faith.

If someone has created a sketch on the oekaki that isn't a cover for anything than it doesn't need to meet any kind of requirement of effort or 'skill' (beyond not being categorized as spam by the oekaki rules, which is separate from the cover requirements). The reason for this rule is that we do not want to oekaki being used solely as a means to advertise something else that wasn't made on the oekaki, because the oekaki is not an advertisements board, it is an art board meant for posting art created using the oekaki art program. If someone wants to post something on the oekaki that they made on a different art program, they should also be creating something relevant on the oekaki as well, otherwise we have non-oekaki boards where it can be posted instead.

[rabidcoyote]

I'm not going to respond to everyone here as much of this is being re-hashed over and over. I would suggest that if anyone has specific questions they want to ask about these rules, want further clarifications, or want to know if specific art would pass the cover requirements, to please send in a help ticket instead. This thread is not here to argue about the rules, these rules have not been changed, this update was only to try and add more clarification since the previous version of the rules had not given much information on what qualified as an acceptable cover.

I also wanted to add that our help ticket system is always open for anyone if you want to check if something you want to post is following our site rules. So if you are afraid a cover you made is not enough you can send in a ticket with the image and ask us if you need to make any changes.

Normally I would've been fine with this, but whoever wrote the info on the front page clearly asked for input; the clarification that was meant to explain the gray areas is leaving people confused, so we'd like some further clarification that does a better job, and that's the input. It seems to me like information that should be posted publicly and not restricted to a ticket, since we're already discussing this very subject and there's multiple people interested in it.

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I'm gonna go ahead and quote my two mostly yes/no questions for the second time:

• Not allowed:
  
  • (...) doodles, (...) quick sketches.

• We allow:
  
  • Additional art (...).

This seems to me like a contradiction, I'd very much consider doodles and quick sketches additional art. As long as the character is clearly recognizable, why not allow it? I get that a sketch of a cat would be too generic to count, but if there's enough design-specific detail or stylization to recognize as the adopt, would it still be off limits?

Also - where do closed species fall into this? Would the premade background (for the species that have one) classify as world building?

I really don't mean to be obnoxious (although at this point I probably am), but I'm neurodivergent and haven't gotten an answer at all and the sole possibility of being ignored is really gnawing at me - is this going to be answered here at all? Could you at least please tell me if that's the case?

[Simon]

The news post was asking for input on the two threads linked right below, not the rules.

It's very hard to address everyone's individual questions here so please send a ticket so our O Mods can give everyone accurate answers. In general if your cover has a reasonable amount of effort put in (you art level will be considered) and it's clear the cover could stand alone as art and wasn't done quickly just to bypass the rules, it should be okay.



We also obviously understand that we have many users of different skill levels on the oekaki and we are not here to judge someone's particular skill level. The rule does not say that no sketches are acceptable, it only lists 'quick sketches'. The base requirement is that a cover must be "purposeful, relevant, and show effort". This does not exclude sketches. That said, I have never been an oekaki mod and am not going to be as familiar with the minutia of that as the oekaki mods, which is why I suggest sending in a ticket for these answers instead as they will be much more prepared to answer your questions on this.



@rabidcoyote Celozon directly answered your question here. I'm going to lock this thread now, please send any further questions as a help ticket so we can make sure to get you an accurate answer!

[Simon]

We've updated the wording of a few more rules for more clarity after some user feedback, as always if there are any questions about these please feel free to send in a ticket for further clarification

Code of Conduct (reworded for clarity) :

• Images that display nude breasts, butt, or genitals are not allowed. Characters with smooth skinned breasts or butts must be covered by clothing.
  
• Anthros must be drawn with "doll anatomy". Fur must obscure the details of anatomy, only a simple outline is allowed, with no details inside. Genital areas may not be colored pink or other skin tones.

Personal Info (New bullet point to further explain rules related to sharing voice):

What IS considered personal information:

• Voice memos, voice recordings, or any content where users exchange audio/voice communication, including on platforms like YouTube, Twitch, Discord, or similar services.

Oekaki (Reworded previous rule as it accidentally contradicted the new cover rules):

• The Oekaki is for making and sharing art in the Oekaki program. If you want to share art made without oekaki, the best places to do so would be the creativity boards. Adoptables made off oekaki are allowed to be posted on Oekaki as long as they follow the "cover rules" below. Adoptable communities hosted on "Adoptables 2: Closed Species/Communities" may post adopts under covers as well, but entire species created off-oekaki should be posted in user-made adopts.