I’m Back

My cousin is a surgeon and was sewing something and used that stitch and then froze and said “Wait this isn’t a person.”

The protector of AUs himself showed up to inform you that:

Reposts hurt most artists!

Reblogs/likes/comments are much more effective!

He's willing to break your bones if you don't stop it!

i thought i’d make an faq filled with every excuse in the book about reposting, for those who still don’t understand why it’s bad…or for people who don’t know what to say in retaliation to these! so here we go. 

first of all, an artist doesn’t even NEED to explain themselves. in the same way with someone who says “dude, make sure that soda is diet” or “please don’t tickle me”. they don’t want you to do it. you don’t need to test them by ignoring them. the reason doesn’t matter: it’s the person’s wish with THEIR things. if you had any respect for others, you’d just take it at that. 

BUT for some people, they don’t want to respect others at face value, and want their reason. (which, i might add, is rude.) so let’s get into that: 

but i’m giving you exposure! isn’t that good?

no. 

you’re not giving artists exposure. for people like myself, freelance artists, you’re hurting us. about a year ago, i sent my portfolio off to an indie game. in it, i had a piece of work that had been reposted (that i didn’t even know about). i was told much later that they “looked into it” and saw that my work was posted by someone else, which means now they have no idea who the artist was, and THEREFORE can’t be sure my work was legit. i lost a potential job to a repost. 

doesn’t matter if you say “i didn’t draw this”. sometimes, they don’t even look. they just look to see if it’s on any site other than your own. and that’s terrifying for artists. so don’t endanger our livelihood for instagram likes. 

besides, you’re not even giving exposure if you didn’t credit, cropped out the signature, or somehow made the resolution so low to where you can’t even see the signature. which brings me to…

but i credited you!

some people still don’t want it reposted even with credit. the last answer should show you one of the many reasons why. 

you’re dictating what i can/cannot put on my page! this is MY page!

and it’s MY art you posted. you can’t take something i did and do whatever you want with it. imagine if you took someones drawing, photocopied it, and spread it all around the town without their permission. they’d have every right to be angry, right?

but you posted it online, which means anyone can do anything with it. so if you don’t want it reposted, don’t post it online!

i have to post my art onto my websites to build a fanbase, something crucial to an artist. it shouldn’t be on ME to not post it in the first place, it should be on YOU to not repost it. you’re just echoing victim-blaming arguments. 

you’re basically saying “if you don’t want to be bullied, don’t exist.” which is a terrible thing to teach people, rather than “be nice and respectful towards others.” yes, i know our world isn’t perfect. but that’s no excuse to contribute to vile things. 

well i would be honored if someone reposted my art. and my friend doesn’t mind reposts, so why should you?

good for you! good for them! but did you know there’s more people in the world other than just you and your friend? we have wishes and feelings too, so you don’t get to project your own emotions onto what WE should be feeling as well. i love peaches. some people don’t like them. that doesn’t mean that now they have to eat peaches because i don’t mind them. 

what an artist creates automatically belongs to society, though. 

go steal the mona lisa and tell me how that works out. 

everyone can VIEW it, yes. artists want others to view their work! we just don’t want you to do stuff with it we asked you not to do. 

WELL THEN SPEAKING OF THAT, since i can’t put your work on redbubble and sell it for myself, why do you have an umbrella of the starry night?? huh?? you STOLE van gogh’s work! (yes people have legit said this to me) 

putting my work on items and selling it is totally illegal. van gogh’s work is owned by companies now, who have authorization to print it on things. and i’m just ONE freelance artist who is, you know, still alive and not giving permission to do that. you can’t compare a dead artist from the 1800s to a digital artist in 2017. apples to oranges, my dude.

well i SAID “credit to the artist” so i DID give you credit!

because saying “the artist” really tells people who i am and lets them visit my websites! thank you so much! 

but all sarcasm aside, that doesn’t do anything other than show you were too lazy to find the artist. same thing with “source: the internet” and “who drew this xD” or misspelling my url on purpose or putting the credit under a cut. OR cropping the image the cut off my signature! you didn’t give me credit. 

it wasn’t on the website i wanted it on! you should have more social media.

i’ll have the social media i want to have. not up to me to make more accounts on more things just so you won’t disrespect me. 

but i don’t remember where i got it. besides, i reposted SOOO much work and saved it all a long time ago. how can i find it now?

reverse google image search is so great.

also, if you didn’t know the artist, that’s a HUGE reason not to repost it in the first place!! you didn’t even know if it was okay since you never got to see their position on that!!

take down your video with stolen fan art. take down your entire fan art twitter account. i don’t care “how hard it was to save those images” or “how many views you have now”. you got all that attention from someone else’s hard work. searching for art will never be as hard as making it. if it were that easy, you’d be drawing all the art yourself. 

but i asked the artist and they didn’t say anything! i assumed it was okay. 

yeah, i feel you. it’s the same thing as when you ask your mom if you can borrow some money, she doesn’t answer, so you just steal it from her purse. no answer means the answer you want to hear, right?

wrong. don’t take “unresponsive” as a yes. that’s disgusting. 

well i honestly don’t care. artists are just selfish. i’ll repost their art if i want to, just to show them how much i hate their stance on reposting. and (insert another really edgy statement here from someone who only says things to get a rise out of people since their life is empty) 

one day you’re gonna come across an artist who has no chill and wants to sue, and can actually do it, since some people put their work under HEAVY copyright. and i’m gonna kick back in my chair with a nice capri sun and watch it all happen, since you have that kind of attitude towards people. 

yes, this whole thing seems a bit. well. “salty”, as some would put it. and i have every right to be irritated over this. all these questions are asking “WHY should i respect their wishes? give me a reason” or “but here is my excuse rather than just taking it down”. time after time, artists are villainized just for telling people not to repost. 

like i said, the artist not wanting you to repost it SHOULD be reason enough! we’re so tired of having to fight people just to have respect for our art. we have to deal with tracing constantly, so can you please take reposting off our plates? i know bad things will always happen, but that’s no reason to make it worse by contributing. 

artists are generously putting our art out there for free. if you want to keep seeing our art for free (btw we don’t HAVE to, all the big artists could just up and leave and go to patreon), maybe show us some respect? because we get pretty dejected when we see strangers getting attention from something we did, and it makes us want to remove everything we show you guys. you say “don’t post it then!” but would be mad if all fan art disappeared. 

Guys, I’m not kidding.

Suicide-baiting, cyberharassmemt, cyberstalking, death/rape threats, and hate speech are illegal in all 50 states as well as Australia and the UK.

Some places include school suspension or expels. Some even include jail time for multiple years.

And yes, they can find someone by username or IP alone.

Also, yes. There are methods of catching someone’s IP. Even under a VPN.

So.

Next time you get hit with anon hate?

Casually remind them you can very easily take this to the next level. And they can earn jail time while you lay back in your chair, having saved yourself and everyone else from a violent criminal.

Your online actions have real life consequences.

Make sure they learn that.

(Just in case there’s a “the police wouldn’t do that” - Yes. They absolutely would.

Or a “I can handle it.” No. That person will continue to harass others as well. And one of them may not be as strong as you. So do it for them and everyone else.

Or a “It’s not that severe.” Yes. It is. People have died because of this. It really is that severe.)

About a week ago I posted this.

I’ve been getting horrible messages like this in my ask for months, including:

and my personal favorite

After getting the message saying “Just go kill yourself” I was completely done dealing with this person’s horrible messages and replied with just an “Okay.” and logged off tumblr.

About a week later I logged back on with 17 messages in my ask, most of them from the anon. I scrolled down and at first when I logged off, the anon messaged me things like

I scrolled up more and all of a sudden they started sending me more and more messages like

This was extremely surprising to me. I thought “After all those horrible messages you sent to me for MONTHS about hating me and wanting me dead, you say ‘sorry’ and that you ‘cant be responsible for someone’s suicide’?”

But I guess the lesson goes like this:

That anon. Pushed. My best friend. Over the edge. She took her own life around November 14th, 2013. I never sobbed so hard in my life because no matter the effort we put in to try and save her from the brink it was no use. I felt guilty for years because I couldn’t do anything more. I don’t even have closure, even after these years.

Bottom line: Do. Not. Send. Anon. Hate.

Not as a joke. Not if you are being serious. Never. There’s no reason. I don’t care.

She didn’t come back.

Angry thoughts. But hey, I’ve been angry for a good week now, since the 8th of November, 2016.

Checking my followers today, I found what appears to be your run off the mill "Jocelyn 27 pictures" bot.

But when I went to their blog to report and block them (and report and block all the other asshole bots i see on their page), the page looked like this:

Ok this is the attempt to appear like a nsfw blog. However, in reality a nsfw blog has a pixelized icon:

and the page looks like this:

DO NOT CLICK ON THE "YES I'M 18+". I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE THE LINK WILL TAKE YOU BUT CHANCES ARE IT'S NOT A PLACE WHERE YOU AND YOUR DEVICE ARE SAFE.

REPORT AND BLOCK AT SIGHT.

@staff @support

Also y'all when someone posts fanart/fanfic/edits/etc:

Up until around 2016 or so, the like to reblog ratio was the total opposite of how it is now. And it applied on posts with fewer notes and posts with a large amount of notes:

You get my point. But over the last few years it has flipped completely:

And, of course, see OP’s screenshot.

It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out that the posts with more reblogs have an astoundingly higher amount of notes because of increased exposure. Reblogging allows more people to see the content, that’s more people to either continue reblogging or at least give a like. For artists in particular who would benefit from the exposure in terms of commissions and patreon and all of that, this is a huge deal. It can make all the difference. 

Tumblr as a blogging platform was created with the intent to post and share content. It’s not meant to be a consume-only form of social media like Instagram. For fandom blogs in particular, it always boggles me that people don’t share content that they like. Tumblr was appealing for fandom in the first place because of the ability to plaster your blog with amazing things that other people made - this used to be unheard of. For me, it’s like saving something precious so you can always come back to it again. It’s giving the people who follow me something awesome to look at too. Creating and sharing content is the heart of fandom.

People rely primarily on their dash for content. Most people avoid going into tags/searches because of wanky fandom drama. So reblogs are crucial for exposure! Likes are a nice gesture, but they do nothing to help share and promote content. That’s why content creators are frustrated or moving to other platforms, or why they stop making content altogether. Tumblr has its issues, but it’s still one of the best places for exposure due to its reblog function and overall post formatting. It’s discouraging seeing content creators on Tumblr as a concept die off. This site is nothing without them.

We can enjoy making things as much as possible but when we share it and no one cares enough to show it to others, it does make us wonder why we bothered in the first place. And this isn’t a new complaint from content creators. But it has worsened over time as the likes started dominating the reblogs. 

It’s not that we don’t appreciate likes at all, notes are notes. But reblogs equal more notes, which equals more exposure, which equals happy content creators, which equals more content for fandom to consume. It’s a wholly positive chain of events that circles back around. Your reblog could be a deciding factor on whether that content creator chooses to keep contributing or to give up entirely.