News

Throughout the years, we’ve been blown away by the determination and dedication of users who have challenged themselves to create large volumes of attacks over the duration of the fight. It is truly an incredible feat! But at its core, Art Fight is a battle where everyone's contribution matters - regardless of how fast you can draw. To steer clear of any hostility, and to continue promoting a positive and uplifting environment, we have made the decision to stop featuring the top attackers and longest revenge chains in our end-of-event posts. No amount of attacks is too little, and no revenge chain is too small!

---

Financials Update

Not only did we reach the first tier of our contribution goals (98k), but we're also super close to reaching Tier 2 (150k)! Thank you all so, so much for your contributions. As a reminder, unlocking Tier 1 of our contribution goals allows us to make many updates to our site’s code: this includes things like better moderation tools, two-factor authentication for user accounts, and new bookmark organization features! 

If Tier 2 is unlocked, we’ll be able to implement even more new features, like an attack button on character profiles, character CSS, and a discovery page with new features to help search for users and characters! You can check out the full list of our contribution goals and the rewards to be unlocked here.

While we have met our first tier, please know that a large majority of the features will need to wait until after the fight is over and once we hire a paid developer to be implemented. Please also note that our tiers are not concrete, and instead represent our broad goals for the site's development. These tiers are also representative of paid work; we still have developers who wish to remain volunteers, and are thus free to work on features they'd like to implement, so some features may be added or completed outside or inside of the tiers.

Tracing Reminder

We're aware that there have been a relatively high number of attacks that are created using a background image that's imported into a drawing program, and then traced over as a template. We'd like to take this opportunity mid-fight to remind users that this violates Upload Rules 1 and 2, which prohibit tracing and base usage in attacks. These works of art, while fun, cannot be uploaded to Art Fight, so please help us ensure the fairness of the event by following our rules.

Instead, if you're interested in referencing a famous painting, meme, or existing template, please make sure your art references the image without tracing it. Consider opening the reference in another window or printing it out to look at while you work. We love to see creative homages as attacks, and this is the best way to make sure they can stay on Art Fight.

July Changelog

You can read more about what changed by heading over to our Changelog! Have an idea for Art Fight? Let us know here! We'll periodically check up on this form and add submitted suggestions to our Trello board.

• Added the ability to hide CSS on user profiles by default via settings. Note that if you have this option enabled, you can still view a single user's theme by clicking the right-hand hamburger menu and selecting 'Show Theme'.
• Emojis in places where they would cause cryptic errors before are now removed on submit.
• You can now crop images on-site in places where images were previously limited to certain dimensions. This includes profile avatars and thumbnails for both attacks and characters. You can also now add borders to attacks on-site with an option to disable the cropping tool.
• Account deletion is still in testing, though we expect it to release before the fight ends. 

Thanks again to our volunteer dev fuzzyfuture for these features! 

Extension

Due to the site partially being down on the 1st, bundled with a pesty submission bug and some unexpected maintenance periods, we have decided to extend the fight by two days. The fight will now end on August 3rd at 12:00 MDT. We'd like to remind you that like last year, the point totals will be hidden a few days before the fight ends so moderators can adjust incorrect ratings.

Debug Bar Incident

Regarding the debug menu that was erroneously shown for all users on Saturday, July 13:

• Rest assured that there was no security breach of any Art Fight system. The incident occurred because we brought on the previous contractors (who helped us migrate our servers) to help us evaluate and optimize our new AWS architecture. Unfortunately, they mistakenly installed the debug menu on our production environment due to a lack of communication on our part.
• The only sensitive information accessible through the debug bar was the login token of the currently logged in user. For the brief time the menu was enabled, this login token could have been used to login to your account only if it was shared externally. All login tokens were quickly invalidated and replaced once we took the site out of maintenance mode. No accounts are currently at risk due to this incident, and no information was leaked to other users or Art Fight staff.
• The IP addresses shown in the debug bar were those of Cloudflare proxy servers rather than user IP addresses, meaning that they could not be used to obtain information about your ISP or physical location.

We take full accountability for this mistake, and we sincerely apologize for the confusion and fear caused by it. Going forward, we will be implementing additional measures to prevent any mistakes like this from happening again. This includes:

• Improved real-time communications systems internally and with third parties (e.g. Slack instead of email),
• Formal documentation of all Art Fight systems,
• DevOps workflows to prevent the need to manually adjust production environments.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in, and supported, Art Fight! This year has been particularly turbulent, but we are striving to create the best experience possible for everyone. As always, we greatly value your feedback and patience. 

Keychain Updates

• Shipping has started! Batches of packages will be going out every weekend, so check your email around then for your shipping confirmation. We expect all packages to be sent out within 6 weeks. 
• If you do not receive a shipping email by that time, please contact us at [email protected] or via Shopify! 
• Thank you for your patience and support! 

User Submitted Assets

• Are you looking for thumbnail decorations? What about profile decorations? If so, check out our new Toyhou.se World! 
• Users can submit Art Fight related assets to the Toyhou.se World for every user to use. We're constantly blown away by everyone's creativity! Additionally, you don't need an account to view the world, so anyone can view it. 

---

Team Badges

Be sure to show your team pride on your Art Fight profile by using a badge! You can add them to your profile by clicking the little emoji on the text editor. Thanks to leafjelly for making them this year!

Seafoam vs Stardust CSS

If you are a Premium member ($25), you can use the new fancy Art Fight CSS brought to you by cyxxie and leafjelly! 
Seafoam Code 
Stardust Code

Theme Reveal

If you haven't already seen the 2024 theme reveal animation, you can watch it HERE! Thanks to everyone who stopped by our stream this year. Speaking for all of staff, we had a wonderful time! 

Art Fight x Makeship

As you all know, we've collaborated with Makeship to bring you guys the super adorable Wormston plushie and our awesome Werewolves vs. Vampires enamel pin! They're only around for six more days, so if you're interested in buying them, check out our Shop button at the top of your screen!

---

June / July Changelog

You can read more about what changed by heading over to our Changelog! Have an idea for Art Fight? Let us know here! We'll periodically check up on this form and add submitted suggestions to our Trello board.
Once again, we prioritized improvements to various moderation tools. That being said, we do have some really exciting quality of life updates for you this time around! 

These features are currently in testing and will be available sometime this week if all goes well.

Resize Image + Border Decoration: Art Fight is no longer in 2010 - you will now be able to resize images directly on the upload page! In addition to this, say hello to "Border Decorations," a way to decorate the thumbnails of your attacks and characters. We hope you are as excited as we are about this!


Option to globally turn off CSS: An option to permanently turn off CSS will be added. You can turn this setting on via user settings. 

Reply Button on comments: Yes, you heard me... you'll now be able to reply directly to comments. Long gone are the days of pinging someone manually!

Account Deletion: Users will sooon able to delete their accounts by heading over to the settings page. Deleting your account is permanent, cannot be reversed, and the data associated with your account cannot be retrieved once the deletion is processed. If you've changed your mind, there is a 15 day grace period in which you can cancel the request. 

Please thank our volunteer dev  fuzzyfuture for spending countless hours developing these features in time for the fight. He's also new to Art Fight (and drawing in general), so give him a big welcome! We appreciate you! 

---

Rules and Filters Updates

As we've outlined in our last two newsposts, we've made some adjustments to our Rules and Filter Guidelines. With the event now here, it is especially important now to be familiar with all of our Rules and Filters.

Changes to Rules include:

Created General Rule 11 to combat fetish mining

Clarified that "point farming" is not allowed in Spirit of Art Fight Rule 6

Clarified that characters based on current, real-life tragic events are not allowed in Upload Rule 6

Added examples and clarity regarding small creators to Upload Rule 5

Added additional bullet point regarding uncredited photography to Upload Rule 3

Added additional bullet point to Upload Rule 1

Added comments to content included in General Rule 7

---

New additions to the team

Please give a warm welcome this year's new additions to the team! 

Developers: fuzzyfuture jenn

Chat Mods: zouzzie aesiete arakkami epitheterased hanuh Doodul mechabond 

Site Mods: CondensedMilk eman Sea_Ville elessar Rainby KaminooniSeika Nyxxdotexe

---

Art Fight 2024 Banners

The 2024 Banners are here! As we do every year, we'd like to extend a huge thank you to Axel for all his hard work and thank you all for your patience. Owners of the characters are tagged below. 


awryze YeenBeanzArts Luminoux RabbitJaguar


ClockworkRhapsody Trinket Coelagirl TheCandyHoIic


Freeway EmbyrFyre WitchyWhosit Kirin


Manakete Nisnow EchoDutchie cinnamonbunnydog

---

Art Fight x Makeship

Well, what do you know? We've collaborated with Makeship to bring you your very own Wormston plush! That isn't all, though... Rep your Art Fight 2023 teams by purchasing our exclusive enamel pins! 

Wormston Plush is priced at 29.99 and the Werewolves vs Vampires enamel pins are priced at 19.99

Both of these will be available for 21 days. You will also get 5% off if you purchase both products, and an additional 5% off if you purchase within the first 48 hours. 

---

Filtering Update

Based on staff discussion and user feedback, we have made adjustments to the rules regarding suggestive themes. A separate newspost has been made, which can be read by clicking here. 

Art Fight 2024 MAP

This year, the 2024 Official Art Fight MAP song will be BUBBLE TEA - dark cat!

The applications for the MAP will go live on this newspost on June 22 at 12 PM EST.  Parts will be assigned on a first come first serve basis – users who do not get a part are automatically signed up to be backups. You must also have or be willing to use a Discord to communicate with the hosts of the MAP, cyxxie and scribedhearts.

As a reminder, all MAP parts and participants must follow Art Fight rules. While the entire part must be created during the duration of the event, parts may be of any finish level, and we are accepting and welcoming people of ALL animation levels. Participants will be required to join an Art Fight MAP-specific Discord server so the hosts can keep in contact easier and do check-ins throughout the month.

Signups >>> https://forms.gle/dDfxN8x3s2zCUfVV8

We'll see you all soon!

---

   First and foremost, we’d like to clarify the reason that the changes to our suggestive themes filter had been made, specifically the section related to removing fetish art from the site, even if tagged under suggestive themes.

   Previously, we have had issues with a certain subset of users intentionally drawing art for (or requesting art from) unsuspecting and non-consenting users, some of whom were minors, that contained fetish art. This is called “fetish mining,” a practice wherein a user intentionally ropes another into participating in fetish works without the other user’s knowledge and consent. In order to combat this and reduce mod strain, we decided to remove fetish works from the “allowed” list under suggestive themes.

   Ultimately, after careful consideration of user feedback as well as several rounds of internal review, we decided that the removal of all fetish works was not going to help us combat this issue. Instead, it led to more uncertainty (as it is difficult to define what isn’t/is a fetish when it comes to suggestive work), as well as more moderator strain due to needing to delete all prior attacks/characters involving fetish. Instead, we have edited the filtering guide to once again allow fetishes, with the caveat that any works have to be non-penetrative (i.e. no people/objects are allowed to enter the body), cannot involve ageplay, consent play, or bodily fluids/waste, and MUST be filtered under suggestive themes. For those affected by moderator action following the previously made changes, you are free to reupload your characters so long as the works they are involved in keep in mind our guidelines. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused!

   Additionally, we have also added General Rule 11 to combat fetish mining. It reads as follows:

• 11. Fetish mining, which involves soliciting fetish art without the knowledge and consent of the user involved, is a bannable offense.

Other Updates

• A minor update has been made to the phrasing regarding NSFW content involving feral characters. Previously, the text had stated: “This includes characters who are sapient, alien creatures/animals, or monsters/fictional creatures.” This text was intended to specify that ANY feral creature, regardless of being made-up or real, couldn’t be drawn in suggestive or explicit situations. Due to confusion regarding these rules, we have altered it to read: “This also includes fictional or made-up animals.”

Additionally, we’ve made some minor changes to the following rules:

• General Rule 7: Specified that comments are included
• Upload Rule 1: Added additional bullet point
• Upload Rule 3: Added additional bullet point regarding uncredited photography
• Upload Rule 5: Specified policy on smaller creators
• Upload Rule 6: Clarified that characters based on current real life tragic events are not allowed
• Spirit of Art Fight Rule 6: Clarified that "point farming" is not allowed
• Filtering/Attack Guides: We're currently working on updating visuals and removing old/inaccurate images from our guides

   We acknowledge the unfortunate timing of this newpost. We’ve been actively working on these changes throughout the week, and believe it'd be ideal to sort everything out on-site before the stream so as to not confuse the influx of users that become active once the theme has been revealed. We understand the importance of this issue, and want as many people as possible to see the changes made, so we will be linking back to these updates in the next few newsposts to ensure that all users are well aware of the changes made.

Art Fight Theme Reveal Stream

• Please join us on June 15th for the 2024 Art Fight Theme Reveal, which will stream live on our YouTube. The stream will start at 2:00pm UTC and run until 8:00pm UTC, at which point the team reveal animation will play! 
• The Art Fight Theme Reveal is an animation made annually by the talented Axel that announces the theme for this year's Art Fight. We hope you can make it, but don't despair if you can't - after the stream, the themes will be announced onsite, and the animation will be posted to our YouTube.
• Leading up to the reveal, we'll also have a ton of in-stream activities hosted by mods like Quiplash, Gartic Phone, and some fun art games! We've also got word in that there'll be an exciting announcement after the reveal, so make sure to stick around. I mean what, who said that?

Art Fight Start Date

• Like every year, Art Fight 2024 will start on July 1st at 6:00pm UTC.
• We recommend that you start preparing yourself now by updating your characters, bookmarking other people’s characters, and getting those refs into shape... there's no time like the present!
• Remember that drawing attacks before Art Fight starts (July 1st, 6:00pm UTC) is against the rules. Not only is it unfair to others, but it is a direct violation of the spirit of Art Fight. If you attempt to do this, your account may be banned. Please be considerate and show good team spirit! 

---

Art Fight Keychain Updates

• Keychains are now in production, and users who pre-ordered one will receive an email once they've shipped. They'll start shipping out soon, so keep your eyes peeled!
• The onsite achievement for users who purchased a keychain will be processed before the event begins. Thanks for your patience!

Site Rules Updated

• We've given our site rules a long-needed update. Before the event begins, please make yourself familiar with our updated Rules. 
• Alongside editing them for clarity, our rules have been updated to reflect our updated Filters Guidelines, our disallowance of AI-generated content, and general information regarding allowed characters and content on the site.

Filters Guidelines Updated

• We have updated our Filter Guidelines. Please take the time to review them here, as we have made some changes to certain types of content allowed on Art Fight. Notably, we have renamed Sexual Themes to Suggestive Themes, which has been significantly updated as a category. We are also moving away from using the term "Maturity Filters" in favor of simply "Filters". 
• We'd like to apologize for making these changes right before the fight, as we understand that these kinds of updates can be overwhelming. Internal systems and resources took priority this year; in the future, we will release major rule updates at least a few months before the fight to give users ample time to review them.
• To make up for this, we will be providing users with a grace period to change or remove any affected content. No penalties will be issued to users whose content may need to be re-filtered or removed from the site. During this time, moderators may hide offending characters and notify users that they need to be filtered or removed, and users will be able to migrate newly-disallowed content off-site. This grace period will last until July 14, 2024. After this point, content found that is in violation of the updated Filter Guidelines may be subject to stricter administrative action. Note that this grace period will not apply to content that is uploaded after the posted date of our new Filter Guidelines.
• If you have any questions concerning our new Rules or Filters Guidelines, please contact a moderator or ask in one of our Discord's help channels. 

Updated DMCA Procedure for Copyright Infringements

• In an effort to reduce site-mod strain and balance the creative expression of our users with respect for copyright laws, we have updated our DMCA procedure. 
• Uncredited photo backgrounds are now handled through reports from the infringed parties via the DMCA system rather than through site reports. We encourage users to credit photo backgrounds if they are using them for attacks.
• Below are the key points regarding what is now permissible on-site and what will be subject to takedown:

Permissible Content

• Original characters (OCs) in canon characters' clothes.
• Redrawing canon characters or logos on accessories; it is acceptable to depict canon characters on accessories such as T-shirts or as plushies, but they must be hand-drawn renditions.
• Alternate universe (AU) characters can now bear a closer resemblance to canon characters, as long as the AU has at least one noticeable difference from the canon design.

Content Subject to Takedown:

• Exact replicas and re-uploads of canon characters.
• Directly uploading company logos as characters.
• Posting images that are not explicitly free-to-use, such as collages or moodboards. You may however host these moodboards or collages off-site (such as on Pinterest) and link them in the character's bio.

May/June Changelog
Head over to our Changelog to find out more about what's changed!

• Like in April, we focused on improvements and additions to our moderation tools. In the past, moderators were not able to view certain report types due to permission roadblocks. This has been fixed, and believe that this will lead to better response times on reports. The Tag Search has also been optimized and load times should also improve. Both of these fixes are in testing and will be live on the site this week. 
• We are also working on implementing a way for users to delete their account. We're hoping to release this before the fight begins, but may not be able to due to the internal work it requires. As always, we thank you for your patience regarding this. 
• Have an idea for Art Fight? Let us know here! We'll periodically check up on this form and add submitted suggestions to our Trello board. 

---

Edit (06/12/24): Regarding our new Suggestive Themes rules
- We plan to release a separate newspost clarifying and adjusting some of our recently changed rules

Keychain Sale Ends!

•  Thank you all for the support! Our first merch run was a success. We are excited to begin producing other types of merch, and will be sure to share more news soon!
•  If you bought a keychain, make sure to fill out this Keychain Achievement Form, which will award you a badge onsite! This information will also be provided in the email that will be soon sent to anyone who preordered. 
•  If you have any issues with your order, please email us over at [email protected]

We've hit $20,000 (20k)!

• Since the start of 2024, Art Fight has made over $20,000! This includes both on-site contributions, plus the gross amount made from merchandise sales.
• Thank you ALL so much for the overwhelming support. As always, if you're interested in supporting us, you can head over to this page to see each tier!

Art Fight Theme Reveal Stream

• We are currently beginning to prepare for the Art Fight Theme Reveal! The date will be announced in the next newspost. 
• If you're unfamiliar, the theme reveal is an animation made every year by the talented Axel that announces the theme for the event! We plan on streaming it both on our Twitch and Youtube!
• Like last year, it will run for 12 hours. We plan on hosting many fun activities throughout the stream! You can also expect a surprise sometime during the stream...

Upcoming Rule Changes 

• We are working on making several changes to our Rules. Several new additions will be made, as well as general improvements in readability and making some rules more clear, like our stance on no AI Art. 
• Our Filter Guidelines will also be updated at the same time. 
• Due to mod strain & limited resources, no changes will be made to our rating system this year. 

April Changelog
You can read more about what changed by heading over to our Changelog!

• We focused mainly on improvements and additions to our moderation tools. Some new systems were introduced in order to better support moderators. We plan on implementing a few quality of life changes before the fight, but we will mainly be focusing on additional improvements to the moderation tools.
• Have an idea for Art Fight? Let us know here! We'll periodically check up on this form and add submitted suggestions to our Trello board.

Mod Apps Open

• Our moderation apps are still open, but will close soon! You have until April 30th to submit an application. Applications will then close until Art Fight 2024 is finished. If you're interested in moderating for Art Fight, check out this page!
• You can expect a first batch of new mods to arrive soon - thank you for your patience as we worked on an improved mentorship system, which we believe will better help and support new moderators. 

Sprout Fight Info 

• Thank you to everyone who participated in Sprout Fight and shared their artwork with us! We had a whopping 392 submissions in total (wow!). If you submitted a prompt piece to the form, you should now have an achievement for it.
• Likewise, Art Fight & Arctic Fight 2021 submissions should have an achievement. Please contact a site moderator with your prompt artwork if you know you had entered but did not receive your achievement!

• You can view the 2024 Sprout Fight video showcase by clicking here.
• All artists shown have been linked via Google Doc in the video's description. Show them some love!

Hey everyone,

The budget newspost is finally here! We thank you so much for your patience, and apologize for the lengthy delay. Holidays ended up being far busier than we initially anticipated, and we ran into unexpected roadblocks during the process, including rewriting some of the code pertaining to the site's PayPal integration. Regardless, we hope the holiday season went well for you all, and that you've had a great New Year so far!

This newspost will be split in two different sections - the 2023 Budget, and the 2024 Expected Budget. The 2023 Budget is fairly self-explanatory - it will be going over our expenses from last year in full. In the 2024 Expected Budget section, we will be showcasing a few different plans for spending, called “tiers.”

The implementation of these tiers will be dependent on the amount of money Art Fight makes, and estimated costs of the site operation are given based on last year’s budget.

2023 Budget

In 2023, Art Fight received approximately 87k USD in contributions. 5k of that total sum went towards PayPal fees, making our gross income 82k USD. We spent $79k of that 87k, which is over 90% of what we received.

The majority of our costs (55%) went towards site upkeep and improvements, such as Linode costs, the server Migration, AWS, and miscellaneous software subscriptions. Approximately $3k was left over (not including contributions from 2024) and will go towards paying site bills.

Here is a simple breakdown of the terms seen on the pie chart:

AWS 27%: Amazon Web Services; for the majority of 2023 this was just image hosting, however we have now moved our web servers to AWS as well, so that is also part of the cost
Linode 10%: Web servers for the majority of 2023
Refunds 1%: Funds given back to contributors
Art 6%:  Funds used to pay for art assets, artists, and related services.
Business Expenses 6%: Software subscriptions Art Fight needs, such as Zendesk, Mailgun, etc.
Taxes 17%: Funds paid to the government for tax purposes
Server Migration 12%: One time cost to Loka to migrate Art Fight’s servers from Linode to AWS

Note on previous owner’s compensation: We understand the concerns regarding transparency about the previous owner’s compensation and are taking time to address them now. In 2023, the majority of the prior owner's compensation came in the form of various tax credits and deductions for business and office expenses, as opposed to being taken directly from Art Fight's income. Keeping in mind a previous lack of formality in bookkeeping, we estimate that the previous owner received approximately 14k in compensation for their work in 2023. Only about 3k of their compensation came directly from Art Fight's funds, which is included in the "Business Expenses" section of the budget.

Going forward, Art Fight plans to continue to utilize these legal tax credits and deductions wherever possible, with the aim of conserving the generous contributions from our community.

To improve bookkeeping records and emphasize future financial transparency, Art Fight has onboarded to a new banking system. Our new bank has managed expense accounts, budgets, and detailed spending reports. We will also hire an accountant quarterly to reconcile our spending, with reports planned to be made available to the community at the end of each year.

Proposed 2024 Budget

We are making it our priority in the 2024 budget to fund features that will improve user experience, mod tools, and overall site function.

In addition, we are allocating funds to go towards fixing internal parts of the site. The core of the site is old, having served us for about seven to eight years. For the long-term stability of Art Fight, we need to develop an API, which will streamline the development process, and also do a partial overhaul of a lot of systems. Another priority is improving security, which includes adding features like Two Factor Authentication.

Art Fight incurs substantial operational costs. As our current budget is now,  the site doesn’t currently bring in enough money to invest in high-quality, experienced developers. Although we are eternally thankful for the generous volunteer devs who have given us their time in the past, we cannot solely rely on them. Moving forward, we would like to prioritize hiring developers to bring new features to the site, and support our current volunteer developers who would like to remain volunteers. This will benefit users and improve their experience, as well as making it far easier for moderators to accomplish their duties.

In terms of “when,” Art Fight makes approximately 90% of its money during June and July. In the offseason, the site only makes around $1.2k USD per month, which is just barely enough to cover our monthly AWS costs. In order to begin paying for new developmental work, it is integral that we begin fundraising now in order to have new features and improvements ready for July. As such, we will be investing time into producing merch as one of our ways of fundraising. We are also considering user submitted advertisements (with proper guidelines in place) as another way of fundraising, but we have not solidified any specific plans yet.

To reiterate from the November newspost - all staff members have been working on Art Fight on an unpaid volunteer basis. As the Co-Owners, we all either work full-time or attend school, while also working ~20 hrs/week on Art Fight. Due to the estimated budget and prioritization of development work, Rainy, Axel and Turtle are choosing to NOT pay themselves, in order to put more money back into the site. The exception to this is paid artwork.

In terms of compensating moderators, we hosted conversations and sent out a survey on if and how they would want to be compensated, including options for financial compensation. The majority of the team members opted to be compensated via some form of free, and possibly staff exclusive merch, which we are incorporating into the budget.

Co-owners will only be paid if certain fundraising milestones are reached, which we estimate to be around $175,000. We are intending to pay ourselves ~10 USD/hr. Accounting for Axel’s work as being the lead artist, alongside co-owner work, an additional 2.5k will go towards the art role which works out to an additional 22.5k/yr of the budget.

Fundraising & Merch

We previously stated that there was a "special winter surprise" intended to help with fundraising. However due to continued legal delays we were unable to move forward with those plans. We still wanted to ensure we could provide something special for our userbase, so we've made the decision to start producing merch as part of our fundraising plans!

We’ll be taking pre-orders of an exclusive new keychain illustrated by Axel! This amazing keychain will be on sale for $15 USD for the first week, and then $17 USD for the rest of the month.

We're using Shopify to handle this sale and also any future merch sales. You can also find this at the top of the header. Money from these sales will go directly to the site and our proposed tiers. We are aware that international shipping is expensive and we deeply apologize for being unable to lessen that for this release. In the future when, we have the means, we will be sure to explore ways to make it more affordable.

This keychain is a limited run, and won’t return in a future sale. Pre-orders will be open for a month starting from today, and will end on April 8th. You can find more information, including shipping details on the Shopify page! Make sure to include your Art Fight username in the order form to get an on-site achievement as well!

If you are a Sponsor and are eligible for the 2024 Art Fight Banner this year, then you will be emailed with a special 10% discount code that you can use on the Shopify!

In the future, we hope to expand our merch line to include old team stickers, pins, and more! We also plan to provide discounts to all Sponsors on future releases, alongside discounts to VIPs+ as well.

---

2024 Contribution Tiers

These are our projected tiers for 2024. These numbers are not meant to be set in stone, but rather a rough estimate that can better communicate our future goals for the site.

The tiers are representative of paid work; we still have devs who wish to remain volunteers and are free to work on features they'd like to implement, so some features may be added or completed outside of the tiers.

We have 3 goals for 2024, plus extra stretch tiers. If a tier is reached, certain features and goals can be achieved, which will be outlined below.

Tier 1: $98,000

Tier 1 is the absolute essentials; the services that run Art Fight. This also includes high priority and necessary items that will help ensure the success of Art Fight in the long run. There is also a table below which showcases each service and its estimated costs.

Moderation Tools

• Ability to perform moderation changes on multiple attacks, characters, etc
• General improvements to mod tools and report system

Merch

• Produce Merch
• Compensate staff members with merch

Tech Debt

• Upgrading laravel, bootstrap
• Configuring AWS
• Creating a setup guide

Security Features

• Implement 2-Factor Authentication
• Improve the blocking system on site

User QoL Updates

• Allow users to delete their own accounts (with proper security measures while removing mod strain)
• Bookmark improvements: folders, mass delete, bookmark icon in searches
• Turning off user CSS by default in settings

Below the spoiler is an overview of each service and the expected cost (spoiled due to it being big): 

Tier 2: $150,000

Now that we have some money, we can begin working on requested user features, but with a priority on improvements to moderation tools and new features for contributors.
 
Moderation Tools:

• Implement a modmail system to allow moderators to message users without using their personal account. Includes templates/canned replies.
• General improvements to internal tools
  

New Feature: Discovery Page

• A new page on the site that allows for different search options, replacing the old search feature
• A place to showcase different types of users (e.g new to the site, low battle ratio)
• Contributors relevant to each respective search will be marked with a special decoration to indicate what type of contributor they are (Supporter, Supporter+, Premium, VIP, VIP+, Sponsor)

Subscriptions:

• Tally Pro (used for surveys, internal work, and applications, allows us to connect artfight.net’s domain)
• Notion Pro (for internal staff work)

User QoL Updates:

• Auto-crop icons and thumbnails
• Reply button on comments
• Attack button directly on character, autofills character information

Contributor Features:

• Extra character images for Supporter+
• Character CSS for Premium Members

Tier 3: $175,000

The Co-Owners are now able to be compensated for their time. Developers will be focused on projects that require a lot of time, like switching our text editor.

Overhaul the filtering system

• Introduce tags to allow users to block certain content

Moderation Tools:

• New tools for the proposed filtering system change

User QoL Updates:

• Convert BBCode text editor into HTML
• Character pinging (instead of a link, it shows the character’s name)
• Separate credit option for Art Fight users
• Various email notifications (when you get attacked, when you get messaged, etc.)

Paid Co-Owners ($22k)

---

Stretch Goals

As we become closer to these goals, we will work on expanding and developing them. If we do reach a stretch goal, we’ll keep you involved in the process.

Goal 1: $300,000

As we become closer to these goals, we will work on expanding and developing them. If we do reach a stretch goal, we’ll keep you involved in the process.

Contributor Features:

• Implement a new badge System
  
  
  
  • Change depending on if you are a Supporter, Premium, VIP, or VIP+
  • Visible by your username and icon
• Develop an Art Fight Discord bot to manage contribution roles

Paid Staff:

• Hire admins (5hr/week)
  

Partial redesign of the site

New Feature: More Themes

• Add specific site color schemes (instead of just lightmode vs darkmode)

Goal 2: $400,000

• Create ways to utilize Art Fight in the off-season
• Develop forums on Art Fight
• Complete site redesign!

Ending Notes

Thank you for sticking with us this year, and for your patience. Information about the tiers is also present on the contribution page! 



In addition, you might have noticed that the header has been updated! We are now utilizing the changelog page, and will regularly update it when changes have been made. There is also a new art assets page that showcases the official art made for Art Fight.  

As stated previously, we want to move away from using the term “donation”. With that said, you might notice the above URL leads to “artfight.net/donation” - we do plan on changing this to contribute, but it requires a bit of backend work. This should happen in the near future.

Please note: if you have a monthly Art Fight subscription, we are asking you to cancel as we have a new PayPal account that was created for the LLC. You can learn how to do that here.

With that said, the site will be transitioning its PayPal integration to the new SDK in the coming weeks. The old-style subscription button has been deprecated by PayPal and monthly subscriptions will be unavailable until this process is completed.

Your money is safe either way, but your benefits may be delayed if you don’t switch over since the old PayPal will no longer be directly connected to the site.  After a future grace period (about a month), your old subscription will be canceled so that we can consolidate and automate this process. Those who are subscribed will also receive an email with this information.

If you don’t receive benefits from any contribution made to the old PayPal within a reasonable amount of time, please contact [email protected] so we can input your contribution manually.


We’re super excited for the future of Art Fight, and can’t wait to share more news soon!

-  Art Fight’s Higher Up Team

---

Edit (04/09/24): Keychain Sale Ended!

• Pre-orders for the Art Fight Supporter keychain have ended! Thank you all for your support.
• Those who purchased a keychain will soon receive an email with more information.   

Edit (03/09/24): Clarification regarding contribution bar: 

• Currently, the bar only shows on-site contributions. We are working on updating it with the money that Shopify receives, but it may take some time as we need to edit the code to prevent automation from breaking. We'll update you once that works!
• The contribution bar will now update every day at 10:00 PM MST to include the money we receive from merch. On-site contributions will continue to update every hour. Thank you all for your support! 

Draw This In Your Style Raffle

We’re hosting a little event for the month of February! Redraw the drawing above in your own style, for a chance at winning a year of Art Fight Premium.
This event is cross-posted throughout our social medias:
 Tumblr Post |  Twitter Post |  Instagram Post |  DeviantART Post

Rules & How to Enter

• To be entered in the raffle, please submit your entry via this form. All submissions on the form are guaranteed an entry.
• The deadline is on MARCH 1ST.
• All submissions must comply with our site rules and guidelines. This includes strictly no tracing or AI - we want to see YOUR art style!

Optional: Tag your submissions with #AFmascotDTIYS on social media for a chance to be featured! You can also @ our socials directly, or upload your art to the mascots' Toyhouse pages: https://toyhou.se/25391894 and https://toyhou.se/25392011

Budget Update

The 2024 budget numbers are being finalized; most of the text is written out and completed. Thank you for your patience; the holidays were busier than expected!

Art Assets

All past official art assets including banners, badges, pixels, and animations are now available all on one page! This page will continue to be updated as more assets are made in the coming years. User-made assets are also available for use on this page, these are made by members of the Art Fight community! Check them out to add some personalization to your profile.

Social Media Update

Lastly, we just wanted to let you know that we're active on social media, and would love if you could give us a follow on the platforms you are active on! We plan to host more cool events in the future.

---

Hi Art Fighters,

Happy December! This update contains a few reminders, updates, and the release of the AF Developer Application!







That's all from us for now! Stay tuned for future updates. 

- Art Fight Team 

---

Edit (12/09/23):

• Clarified a point regarding Developer compensation model