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Hey there! This doesn’t really fit any specific category but it does involve an artist TOS and legal stuff so hopefully this works here? If not let me know! Anyway, I’m stuck in kind of an odd situation regarding commercial use and what seems to be the designer of a character I own willfully ignoring me. About two years ago I traded for a design and since then I’ve been developing a story around them that I’ve been considering turning into a game. Before anything else I wanted to get everything squared away regarding commercial use so I didn’t step on any toes and violate any artists TOS. That’s what lead me to where I am now. I won’t name names as this is an advice seeking post but in short, I contacted the designer of one of the major characters in this story and they seem to be willfully ignoring me. Their TOS very clearly states to DM regarding commercial use and I did exactly that. One message explaining the project and asking about commercial use, and a follow-up about a week later as the first message had been opened but ignored. This second message was also opened but never answered. They have been active and replying to others, and have possibly soft-blocked me since last time I checked up on their profile I was no longer following them, despite having followed them several months ago, and was still following them when I sent both messages. Other than a comment here and there on their art and statuses, I’ve never really interacted with this artist. I traded for the design secondhand too so I didn’t even have direct contact with them for that either. As far as I know I haven’t done anything to upset this artist or otherwise end up on their bad side, so I’m honestly at a loss here. So thoughts on what I should do? I suppose I should take their silence as a no but I want some other thoughts and opinions on this. Thank you!

Hiya, back around June / July of 2018 I commissioned an artist on twitter. Since then, they've been very "evasive" when I try to contact them about the work they owe me. They sent the sketch around July 2018, and after hounding them again and again they told me they'd have the work done around February. Back around the beginning of May this year they suddenly and without warning disappeared from social media. Recently they've suddenly showed back up online and have yet to reply to my messages inquiring about updates or a refund from them. Part of me is telling myself to wait it out but seeing as that has gotten me a year without the work, I'm getting a little tired of having to chase them down. Without going into too much detail, I understand the situation is entirely "beware-able" however I would prefer to not go down this route. I'd really like to get in contact with the few others that have commissioned them (The artist opened slots) but unfortunately there's no way for me to track them down. I guess I'm curious if there's really anything I can do at this point.. The charge-back period for Paypal has ended and I hate feeling like I'm at their mercy, as unreliable as they are. Should I keep waiting for them to respond? Or finally take the time to submit a beware (again, something I'd really rather avoid doing) I'm sorry if anything is out of place here- I usually do not participate in forums.