Welcome to Artists Beware

[James]

Welcome to Artists Beware!

I see old faces and new faces joining our community.  So, now that the Livejournal has been officially closed, I think it's time to have an introduction.  For those of you who are already familiar with staff you can skip this section and jump right down to site usability.  Everything covered in this post will eventually be absorbed into various parts of the website when we have time.

My name is Celestina.  I'm one of two administrators for this site. The other is Xai.  You can find who is staff from our staff page.  For the time being please follow this order of contact while we get settled in:

• Administrators
  • Technical issues with the website.  We will determine if the problem can be fixed by us, or if it needs to be forwarded to our web admin.
  • Conduct issues with our moderation staff, or if you are submitting a beware on them.
    • Moderators are not immune to bewares on them, though we strive to have individuals who have good track records working for us.
    • If by any chance you need to submit a beware on an Administrator (eep!!), contact the other one.  We'll step out for discussion.
  • If an administrator has sent you a rejection notice, you may respond if you need help.
  • If you have a suggestion for a resource to go in the Resources section.
• Moderators
  • General site usage questions.
  • Submission related questions.

 

"~* And that's the AB difference. *~"

Those who are new may be asking what makes us different than any other site that handles bewares.  Well, for one we are the oldest.  We began operation in 2003 on Livejournal, and have been evolving ever since.  Second, we utilize a tag system so everyone can make informed choices on who they should work with.  We do not allow post deletions, as that would undermine the point of this resource.  What we do have are resolved tags.  Lastly, one of our points of pride is our submission standards that we hold everyone to if they wish to participate in the site.  We ensure that:

• Posts are transaction based.  No drama, no personal fights, just actual business transactions.
• All posts are moderated.  Multiple people read over submissions to ensure they are clear, have proof, and are valid.
• There is no doxxing of anyone involved.
• Comments are also kept on task and appropriate.  No flaming, no bad behavior.
• Only the individuals directly involved may submit.  No group posts.  No hearsay.

What constitutes as a valid submission?

• A Beware:
  • An active transaction where an individual has not received their end of a transaction or a refund.
    • Either due to non delivery of a commission, trade, or fursuit.
    • An item that was completed, but done improperly.  The artist will not or has not fixed it despite them being the cause of the error.
  • A client who has filed a fraudulent chargeback after receiving art.
  • A finished transaction that is technically resolved, but one party's behavior was so poor that it warrants a beware.
• A Caution:
  • A transaction that did not reach to the exchange stage due to poor behavior on one party's side.
    • Caution posts must be recent.  If an artist was rude to you two years ago, this will not be valid.  We don't know if they're still behaving this way.
    • Caution posts must have happened to you.
    • Caution posts still must be transaction based.

Your post may be rejected entirely at discretion of the staff.

We will outline clearly why we are outright rejecting your post.  There are no hard and fast rules, but we strive to be as fair as possible.  For instance, we would not accept a beware where the primary crux was that the artist didn't want to be friends during a transaction.

 

Archiving the Livejournal Site

We are archiving the old Livejournal site by hand.  It will be a slow going process, but it will get done.  Please do not repost old bewares as it will slow us down.

 

What Are Those Quality Contributor Statuses?

You may notice a number of members commenting with a shiny gold star and a status called the "Quality Contributor".  These are to indicate members who have proven themselves to be knowledgeable, and who have a long history of giving good advice.  These are handed by by staff discretion, and for a little while you may see primarily people from Livejournal sporting this title.  As time goes on and new faces hopefully get settled in, we may issue more.

 

Site Usability

Thank you for hanging in here with me.  Now let's get to the good stuff.

To submit a beware:

Desktop:  Hit the +Create button at the top of the page, select your database/ subcategory.  Hit go!

Mobile:  Navigate to the subcategory you wish to submit to.  (Either Artist Bewares, Client Bewares, Artist Cautions, Client Cautions)

Then scroll down to the bottom of the page to find "Add New Record"

 

Following Content That's Important to You

You might notice these little buttons scattered around the site.

 

They're on each forum, and each subcategory of the beware database.

 

These allow you to indicate what you wish to be emailed about.  You can mix and match your notifications to only email you about what you want to see.

 

That Should Get You Started

Thank you for reading this far.  We hope to continue to be a valuable resource, and to evolve and grow over time.

If you have any comments or questions feel free to comment here.  I'll be around.

Thank you https://twitter.com/dewdlepies

[James]

(It's the website's grand opening and I don't even have the FAQ page ready.

Not.

Even.

The.

FAQ)

(Thanks https://twitter.com/Skippy_Lynn)

[Xaila]

Hi! I'm Xaila aka Xai. I'm the other one.

Everything Cel broke down is true!

And fear not, we are here to help as long as you are willing to understand that:

• We're volunteer run so "post this immediately" doesn't work on us.
• You do your best to follow the submission guidelines.
• If we say it goes; just get rid of it don't attempt to justify it.
• If we sense its not there or all right; we're going to act on that. Don't be surprised if we ask a lot of questions.

The staff is incredibly flexible and understanding as we all do some sort of art or building as a craft. 
 

And lastly... I accept fine French pastries as bribes.

[Alex Wright]

I am the one who hides in the shadows, kind of like the Grimm, but I'm worse. I fix things. I fix all the things. You can contact me if:

• You run into an error code. These will usually display as their own page with error codes such as 1x/c35a.
• You run into permission errors, such as "I should be able to post in X area (forum, database) and can't."
• A theme breaks (which can happen with upgrades).
• A language bit is missing or incorrect (These will display as application_language_name). Most of the regular items you see on site (such as menu items, names of forums or directories, etc) are language items. If anything appears incorrect, please let me know. If you would like a translation, please also let me know, as the site (in theory) can be translated.

Or any other problem related to the hosting or coding of the site.

Cheers!