Hello again! 

In addition to our last comment, we wanted to let you all know that we have heard your feedback. We are making some adjustments to our recent changes, and you can expect a newspost about it soon. The newspost will also provide some context regarding our initial intentions with the changes. Thank you for your patience! 

I've seen multiple people, both in the comments here and in other places, claim that the rule against fetish/kink art is actually about fetish mining but. It's just not. The rules say that "depictions of fetishes and kinks" are disallowed under being "sexually explicit content." If they really wanted to combat fetish mining, they would write a rule like "Clearly label and filter fetish art, don't request it without disclosing that it's to fulfill a fetish." If anything, the new rule is only going to encourage people not to label fetish art properly. You cannot know with certainty that something is fetish art, because people can be attracted to anything. So, say you have an artist with a maw fetish who draws art focused on characters' mouths. There's no way to prove that this is fetish art unless they "self-report" by filtering their work, which would then get their art taken down for violating the rule against fetish art. So, someone doing the right thing by filtering kink art so that minors can't see it would be punished for doing so, while they'd never be affected if they hadn't filtered it.

Reading "fetish/kink art is sexually explicit and disallowed on site" as "don't violate people's boundaries and trick people into drawing it" only makes sense if you view fetish artists as creeps who don't respect boundaries.

i am aware, im just mostly talking about their reputation. like for example companies that have done shitty things in the past still carry on their reputation, even after leadership changes. and even if one single employee or manager did shit, that company already has that image of the person doing the bad things, even if it doesnt represent the company as a whole. that is why most people are now more critical of art fight, even after leadership changes (including me)

sorry for the ping reply!

Akivaq  the money issue was only a problem with the previous owner, not any other staff members! that should not be something that you put on the rest of staff that had no control over that matter

AnamayCat i fully understand what you're saying, but remember they have gotten in trouble with something like this before with banning a person and accusing them for making pedophilic content just due to height differences. its kind of a never forget situation where even if they have mitigated the issue, we start to look at them in a more critical lens. also the money laundering issue only added salt to the wound 

trust me, the only reason why im being so critical is that so they can repair their reputation

edit: please don't ping me or vague-reply to my message. i'm just saying that we could do with being a little less harsh to the staff about this matter & allow them time to change and fix any issues within the new rules, i'm not disagreeing with the concerns.

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while i do agree that there are definitely some portions of the ruleset that could be worded better / clarified + fixed like others are saying, & the updates and changes definitely should have been in their own post so people had better warning just in case their characters are in violation.

 i do think that everyone seems to be immediately jumping to worst case scenario for all the changes. please have some better faith in the staff! 

these types of rulesets are very hard to define because people do take different meanings out of each phrase or word, but none of these rules were written to be malicious. just having a bigger chest on a character or some larger proportions is not going to get anyone banned- i do fully understand the concern but we must remember that art fight has just changed ownership, they're trying to fix everything right now and clarify rules and make sure things are set up properly. 

all of the management care about art fight and definitely aren't making vague rulesets maliciously so they can take down your bigger chested characters and label silly things like collars and leashes as bannable. these rules are subject to a heavy amount of context, so it would be very hard to write down a very detailed definitive ruleset on these things without basically writing an entire book.
 we have not seen these rules in action yet, there is no reason to assume that everything will be taken the worst way possible without seeing it happen first. 

to clarify, i'm not disagreeing with the concerns about these rules. I think it is a good discussion to have! however my problem lies with the fact that some instances of this discussion is assuming art fight staff will be applying these rules in the worst way possible and "cleansing" the site, which I fully believe isn't going to be the case, and we really should have some better faith in the changes than that

again, it's still good to be concerned & bring up flaws within this system. I also think that the reporting system itself needs some sort of major overhaul and can definitely see that users might use this maliciously in a way, but the staff should be able to discern between someone reporting maliciously and someone who is not. 

GraciousBean the problem is when it comes to characters with inspiration from kinks like leather pride though, as characters that takes inspirations from the dominatrix culture could be a potential ban due to them seeing it as a fetish. it also raises questions about why something like lingerie (something that is more revealing) is considered to be more nsfw than someone with a leather outfit, which i suspect has something to do with their bias against queer culture. also nsfw artists could get in trouble in this website for the anatomy exageration part, as nsfw artists do tend to draw a little bit differently than sfw artists, even if their art is sfw. like a lot of my attacks are potential to getting deleted due to me drawing bigger chests and i wouldnt know which one "crosses the line" and which one isnt, and thats the worrying part. i dont know where the line is drawn and saying stuff like "its obvious if it breaks the rules" only highlights the real problems. rules and laws need to be clear and concise with no possible misinterpretations. not to mention the "everything can be a fetish" argument i talked about in my past posts  

artfight moderation team try to write direct and comprehensive rule changes challenge (99% fail)

Guys the rule changes rlly aren't that bad   they make sense to me, i don't think they're really all that vague. I doubt beginner artists are gonna get nuked because of the low effort art rule! Ofc they're putting in effort, and I'm sure moderators could recognize that. Also, i don't think the no-kink/fetish content rule will be an issue either...? i highly doubt that, if you draw a character wearing a collar or wearing revealing clothes, you'll get in trouble for "fetish" content. I have a feeling that those rules are directed more at extreme cases of those things. 

Overall tho, I'm sure if there are any issues, the staff will fix it!! Theres no reason to let a few rules and confusions get in the way of having a fun fight this year <3

Looking forward to seeing every1's first attacks!! :> <3 Mwaaa!!

i really really hope they actually address this BEFORE art fight starts 

Oh man, these comments are blowing up... from what I'm reading, I'm actually really concerned about participating this year.... I've always enjoyed ArtFight for the opportunity it provides, allowing artists to experiment with their styles and content within the boundaries of the Character's / Owner's permissions as well as the site's (initially) clear rule set.  Since there ARE minors on this site, it's perfectly reasonable to assume that explicitly sexual content shouldn't be allowed.

But, I am also seeing evidence that moderators are starting to push the site and event in a direction suggesting they will be banning artwork that doesn't fit their personal bias.  Like the "overly-exaggerated" Rule.  That... is SO vague.  That is a completely arbitrary judgement.  And from what I've seen, Loony Toons cartoons are a perfect example of this type of art; stylistically they already have proportionately enormous Hands and Feet, as well as scenarios where they are muscled out or inflated or fat as heck depending on the context of the episode.  My point is, if the artist is just making "funny" art, will they be banned or their artwork rejected for their sense of humor simply because it doesn't fit their moderator's strict criteria?  Same thing with "suggestive content"; will artists be banned for submitting creations encouraging body positivity?  For example, there are plenty of artists I've seen on this site who have feminine characters with their breasts exposed and there is already a "Moderate" filter for the nudity; in their reference images, they can be seen lounging around, which COULD be considered "suggestive" but nothing close to erotic.  If I suddenly put this character in her underwear in the exact same pose, will I be banned?  That seems very backwards....

If this isn't the mods' intention, then their wording absolutely needs to be edited or completely rewritten.

The "low-effort rule" is also worrisome... if this is really an issue, I would also remove the "Polished" feature.  I liked the previous system where points were awarded strictly based on technicality.

I'm really looking forward to the news and I hope the situation with the rules will be corrected,,

Honestly don't even know if I'm able to participate this year with these vague af rules. I am primarily a nsfw artist, and per the rules of artfight I've only drawn sfw attacks, but am I going to get banned for this vague "No fetish and kink" rule? My artstyle is curvy, my characters are voluptuous, some wear collars (as a fashion choice, not a fetish), and some have tentacles. Are these now not allowed because someone out there may have a kink for it? Am I going to get punished for having an artstyle that isn't cute or designed to appeal to children? Will the fact that I draw suggestive and lewd art for the other 11 months of the year get me in trouble?

Please, I beg of you, change these rules to be more clear and specific, show us where the line is exactly so we aren't guessing and second-guessing in fear that any of us might break a rule. We all just want to have fun, and these undefined rules are too unspecific to uphold the fun spirit of artfight.