Community Rules and Guidelines

All of us here at American Artist are excited to meet you and want to welcome you to the site! We want this to be a positive, encouraging, fun place where you feel welcome and safe and above all else, we want to help build a community based on our shared passion for art.

We want this to be a very open community and will only intervene if absolutely necessary. However, in order to maintain a positive and safe environment for everyone, there are some simple rules listed here that we all need to follow. So here they are...

"The Rules"

Personal Conduct and Posting Etiquette – “Don’t be a jerk”

1. Debating, discussion, and even passionate disagreement is fine, but we cannot tolerate rudeness, insulting posts, or personal attacks. Posts of this kind may be edited or deleted.
2. Profanity, racism, or other offensive discussions will not be tolerated. Posts of this kind may be edited or deleted. We have the final say as to what does and does not violate community standards.
3. We encourage you to upload your own custom avatar to help showcase your own personality. But do not upload an animated avatar, an avatar that contains nudity, or is otherwise offensive. Avatars that may be confused with staff or moderator avatars are also not allowed.
4. Be tolerant of “newbie” type questions and help them out. We all were new at this one time or another and we want to encourage more people to get involved with art. There are no stupid questions!
5. Post your messages and images in the appropriate area. Moderators may move your content if they feel it’s better suited to another area.
6. Do not post your message and images in multiple forums or galleries. Duplicate posts may be deleted.
7. Critiques and comments are welcome in many places on the site, but please refrain from critiquing someone's work who has not specifically requested that kind of feedback.  Some members feel uncomfortable with criticism.  If you are looking for critique, make sure you ask for it clearly so that other members will know how to help.

 Protecting Artist’s Rights – “Don’t upload stuff you don’t own”

1. Discussion of any artwork – whether yours or someone else’s – is encouraged!
2. Feel free to upload images of your artwork or link to images of your artwork on other sites both in the forums and in the galleries.
3. Feel free to link off to someone else’s artwork on another web site as long as the image on the other site is there legally and with the permission of the artist.
4. If we discover that an image has been uploaded without the permission of the artist, we will need to remove it.

 Advertising and Solicitation – “Advertise where you’re supposed to”

1. Members may advertise art supplies or other art-related items that they have for sale to the designated “Member Buy/Sell” forum.
2. Promoters, retailers, manufacturers, etc. may not advertisements in the blogs, forums, galleries, or public groups. Posts of this kind will be deleted.
3. You may include your group, association, or company name and a link to your web site in your personal signature block.
4. Use of the private messaging system for advertising of any kind is prohibited.
5. We encourage these companies to contact us about advertising opportunities.

 Children – “Sorry, no kids under 13 allowed”

1. We comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) which applies to children under the age of 13.
2. Our sites are not directed at children under the age of 13 and we do not solicit nor desire to collect any personally identifiable information from such individuals. If we become aware that a person under the age of 13 is attempting or has submitted information via this site, we will notify the person and remove any personally identifiable information.

 Miscellaneous – “Stuff that just has to be said”

1. Registering with multiple accounts is not allowed. Multiple accounts undermine trust that there are real, honest people behind each account. Moderators may remove accounts that are found to be duplicates.
2. The decision to edit, move, or delete a post, or to ban a user, is at our sole discretion without prior notification or explanation to the member.
3. Members who willfully or repeatedly violate the forum rules may be banned from the site. This is something we only want to do as a last resort.
4. While these rules cover most common situations, we cannot anticipate everything. Consequently, we reserve the right to take actions we deem appropriate to ensure these forums are not abused and stay a positive, fun, and safe place for everyone.
5. If you see someone abusing the site, please click the Report Abuse link located in the bottom-right of any post. This sends a message to a private forum for our moderators to review. The moderators may not be able to respond to you personally and you may not see immediate action, but please know that your message has been received and taken into consideration.

Please know that your posts are permanent here on the site.  If you decide you'd like to have your account deleted, that is fine, just let me know.  However, your posts associated with that account will remain on the site.  Deleted posts leave holes in the system.  As other people have also posted in threads, members expect to see whole conversations where they have participated and taken the time to write.

Consider what you write, knowing that your posts are permanent.  Thanks.