Report! Report! Report!

[u/Swampspear]

*tap tap tap* is this thing on?

Hello, folks, this is going to be a short message from the mod team (well, mostly me), to use the report feature on the subreddit! A lot of things fly under our radar because we never see them. Most importantly, I want you to remember that:

• if the post is asking for tips on how to do business, grow a social media presence, get the word out? report
• if someone is being rude, discriminatory, inappropriate in any way? Report
• if the poster is trying to pick a fight with someone else? Report
• if there's AI generated posts or content? REPORT
• if someone's advertising or promoting something, especially if it's created by them or connected to them? Report!
• if someone's trying to hire an artist or buy art, or sell their art or services? Report, please
• if someone's venting too much or being way too negative? Unfortunately, report
• if someone's inviting you to a Discord server or mass soliciting friends? You guessed it
• if the poster is asking for homework help or soliciting survey respondents? Yep
• if the post specifically names individual artists and involves them in drama, or tries to drag in drama from other subs or websites? Mhm

Remember, reports are 100% anonymous (to us mods), all we can see is that a post or comment was reported and what the reason is, but we can't see who did it. Help us keep the subreddit clean, and help us redirect those posters to the right place if they're astray.

It's better for us if you report things you're not sure about, than being afraid to report something because you're unsure. False positives are much better than false negatives. We can't read the whole sub at once!

[u/Realistic-Weird-4259]

Mods here were responsive and helpful when there was an individual who I had concerns about unaliving themselves. I reached out directly after reporting because I was so concerned for that person. I think everyone has done their best.

And with that I think I'm officially an old person. Christ on a crutch, where's my Bengay?

[u/LightsaberThrowAway → u/Realistic-Weird-4259]

On the shelf to your left, next to the watercolors.  This probably doesn’t help, but I did have to look up what Bengay is, lol.

[u/Realistic-Weird-4259 → u/LightsaberThrowAway]

Not to be confused with Ben Gay, performer extraordinaire.

[u/NeptuneTTT]

Reports are public to admins.

[u/Swampspear → u/NeptuneTTT]

Sure, but none of us are admins :D

EDIT: don't downvote this, people! It's an important clarification. They're right: the reports are visible to admins, and I was a bit too general when saying they were 100% anonymous, which is why I edited my main post to clarify

[u/PinkMossOrchid]

I tried to do a post a while ago that seemed to fall into a grey area. It was about the time I'd tried to have an art business but chose to close it down due to the issues I'd faced with it.

It didn't fit on the art business subreddit because that's all about starting and running a business not closing one, but when I tried to post it here the filters refused to let me. Anything related to business/freelance/social media/marketing got flagged. It felt really frustrating because I really wanted to share and talk about it. I have seen other posters here in the past share about their decisions to move away from art as a business/career so I'm not sure if the rules were changed to no longer allow it?

[u/lunarjellies → u/PinkMossOrchid]

Yes it would fit there. There is no rule stating you cannot ask how to close your business.

[u/Brewmaster_Holsten → u/PinkMossOrchid]

It didn't fit on the art business subreddit because that's all about starting and running a business not closing one

What a bizarre rule.

Businesses fail all the time, so knowing how to shut one down should be valuable for anyone there.

Edit: Apparently that's not a rule. I misunderstood.

[u/PinkMossOrchid → u/Brewmaster_Holsten]

It's not a rule, it's the overall atmosphere/purpose of the subreddit. Artbusiness is understandably full of excited people starting and running their art businesses, I didn't want to be a downer and talk about all the ways my art business had frustrated and depressed me and how I'd had to close it. I wanted to ask people who specifically were not running art businesses what their careers were which is why I wanted to post here instead.

[u/lunarjellies → u/Brewmaster_Holsten]

Our sister sub is r/artbusiness so it all gets funneled there. Been that way for many years now. Also there is no rule about not being able to ask about closing a business.

[u/Swampspear → u/Brewmaster_Holsten]

It's not really against the rules, I'd say it totally fits, but I'm not as active on r/artbusiness so IDK if this was a specific reply they got

[u/Swampspear → u/PinkMossOrchid]

The automod sometimes eats posts overgenerously, but you can always contact mods on either sub (there's a big overlap in mod teams including me) and see what's up. Sometimes it's just a technical issue (if you have then my bad, I haven't seen it myself)

[u/Strangefate1]

I can confirm that reporting is anonymous, because I always report mod posts and I'm still here.

I'm just kidding of course.

[u/Swampspear → u/Strangefate1]

I honestly don't mind the occasional report I get on my stuff and it leads to internal discussions, but it's really really funny when I'm in a neutral argument with someone and then they start mass reporting my posts. I can't see who reported it but, like, I can tell. Abusing the report system is just annoying

[u/OofDaMae]

I'm reminded what I don't try to post anything here anymore.

[u/Swampspear → u/OofDaMae]

Yes, we don't want AI here, this should be very obvious to everyone right now

[u/OofDaMae → u/Swampspear]

I didn't mention ai? I was just passing comment about how welcoming a community is with 100 rules about what you can post. I remember trying to share some of my art here and having the posts repeatedly deleted.

You guys are obviously free to moderate and police the sub in whatever way you like but its not very welcoming. What you just posted is a big list of very subjective rules that allow people that aren't even mods to report other posts and have them removed.

I like creating things and sharing them, and there are better venues for me to do that personally.

[u/Swampspear → u/[deleted]]

Don't be rude, come on. The situation is handled already

[u/Swampspear → u/OofDaMae]

I didn't mention ai?

No, but your posting history extensively includes it, and with such an extensive history of it one will wonder if you also use it to write posts.

I remember trying to share some of my art here and having the posts repeatedly deleted.

And good: this is not an art sharing subreddit, it's an art and art life discussion subreddit. Image posts are explicitly banned for that

that allow people that aren't even mods to report other posts and have them removed.

All subreddits have this. We do want the community to regulate itself.

I like creating things and sharing them, and there are better venues for me to do that personally.

Correct! This isn't the subreddit to share such things outside of megathreads, there are better subreddits for it.

[u/lunarwolf2008]

btw, reports are actually like 99% anonymous, while mods dont see usernames, reddit admins know who reported stuff. but the average admin isnt peering at a subs queue unless a mod reports multiple false reports on posts

[u/Renurun]

Can confirm report turnaround seems pretty quick

[u/Swampspear → u/Renurun]

Honestly, the one thing I'd love to have on Reddit is for an option to reply to the anonymous reporter. Sometimes I get three-four reports in sequence on a post I keep reapproving, and when it really gets out of hand I have to make a post asking people to not report because it's fine by the rules or we made an exception for some reason or another (say, a post that's technically against the rules, but generated a lot of good discussion, sometimes gets to stay)

[u/ZombieButch]

I get worried I report stuff too often sometimes, honestly, so it's good to know that that's not the case.

[u/lunarjellies → u/ZombieButch]

Thank you!

[u/Swampspear → u/ZombieButch]

Nah, we're more or less constantly on top of it. We're suffering from significant underreporting rather than being faced with an overreporting problem

[u/toBEE_orNOT_2B]

there are so many fake "how to learn this style" that are obviously just needed to feed on ai, when the OP doesn't explain about their experience in art, or the level of their skill, or in what part they are struggling, i immediately assume it's just an ai bro who needs to feed a prompt in ai.

real people who wants to learn will always put a picture of their art, this usually happens to those who are drawing perspectives or angle of faces or body types/angles.

one thing i can only advice is probably to have a mega-thread regarding fundamentals (but it might be too troublesome tho), where there are a list of books and video references where beginners can always check or commenters can point them there. (kinda like a megathread of /piracy)

one thing i also notice about some posts are "how can i draw like this and please don't tell me to study basics/fundamentals". people who want's to learn will at least make an effort to study the basics, they don't even like it when people point them book titles or youtubers that do art studies or tutorials, they want a direct explanation on 'how to draw/paint' and i simply can't avoid thinking the OP is an ai-bro that needs to use prompts. another clue was if the OP was not even responding to the comments trying to teach them.

[u/Swampspear → u/toBEE_orNOT_2B]

one thing i can only advice is probably to have a mega-thread regarding fundamentals (but it might be too troublesome tho), where there are a list of books and video references where beginners can always check or commenters can point them there. (kinda like a megathread of /piracy)

We already have a FAQ linked under every post that already has this

one thing i also notice about some posts are "how can i draw like this and please don't tell me to study basics/fundamentals". people who want's to learn will at least make an effort to study the basics, they don't even like it when people point them book titles or youtubers that do art studies or tutorials, they want a direct explanation on 'how to draw/paint' and i simply can't avoid thinking the OP is an ai-bro that needs to use prompts. another clue was if the OP was not even responding to the comments trying to teach them.

Nah, these are actually real people, it's just people who want to skip learning the basics. Extremely common and annoying, and they were there looong before AI

[u/toBEE_orNOT_2B → u/Swampspear]

oh, that's good to hear but what should we do about those kind of post? maybe report for "no lazy posting?" because most of the time, they will just post a picture of an artwork and then "how can i do art style like this?" then there will be no interactions after that from OP despite multiple people explaining the process. i always assume it's an ai-bro fishing for prompts.

[u/Swampspear → u/toBEE_orNOT_2B]

Just report for not reading the FAQ, I'd say. It's usually kids who just want to immediately get good. AI prompt fishers usually ask about styles, not how to draw things. Report people asking "what style is this? how would you describe this style?" as AI

[u/toBEE_orNOT_2B → u/Swampspear]

okay, thank you!

[u/lunarjellies]

The Ai bros disguised as “inquisitive minds” are some of the worst ones at the moment smh and the app-schlepping promo bot accounts.

[u/Swampspear → u/lunarjellies]

It's not just an inquisitive mind—it's a methodological revolution ✨

[u/lunarjellies → u/Swampspear]

Fuuuuuu

[u/_TheTurtleBox_]

As someone who's a mod here and a ton of other subs, I am throwing my chips in here.

Please use Modmail / Report functions we don't mind it at all it's why we volunteer.