TurtleBox420 2024-11-06 12:54:02

You can't see my DMs, or what's being said in private / on discords. The fact that multiple people have made complaints about the art portal just kind of tells me what I need to know in combination with experiences I've had there.

Also it's not so much venting as much as it's me just showing how absurdly bizarre the behavior of the individuals in question are when it comes to cherry picking where to moderate and where not to.

TurtleBox420 2024-11-06 12:59:14

It's incredibly obvious that you're an alt account of this moderator and this behavior is quite weird.

Takeover Tuesdays must not be something you're familiar with I assume?

TurtleBox420 2024-11-06 17:48:09

I'm absolutely loving the audio community, it's the art side of things I've struggled with for two years. Between post being removed, my art witch hunted for Ai even when I debunk the accusations, constantly being told my art isn't "good enough" for here, and when I post higher quality work getting accused of stealing it, when I post professional photography / mixed media I get told that it's not for Newgrounds, just a waste of time to be honest.

I talked to Tom, it was a good chat. Unfortunately it's a situation where the rules are blatantly being nitpicked to prevent me from being scouted and using the art portal for one persons dislike of mixed media. The least I asked was for the constant unscouting of my art portfolio to be given valid purposes other than the individual unscouting me just saying they don't think my work belongs on NewGrounds. Even if I can prove the woman on the pictures is my partner, above 18, consenting to the posting, ect.

It's basically not worth the effort to go out on locations, stage and light photoshoots, shoot them for an hour or two, edit them in Photoshop, draw over them in Krita, go back to Photoshop, ect...all for it to be called "not good enough" for one person and have my account constantly in the crosshair of someone who takes their position here way to seriously.

At the end of the day, I respect Tom's perspective and he respected mine. It's not worth the stress to post here when my post on other sites are getting my art sold, getting me comissions, and overall just performing better.

I'll continue to post music here though. Just not anything really related to art.

TurtleBox420 2024-11-06 21:24:28

So, the first point to this, and what Tom and I talked about.

"You may submit collages with photographic elements, providing they constitute a new work of art with handmade elements."

This is what I have been doing. My argument was taking Analog photography, editing and drawing over it to create mixed media follows the guidelines of NewGrounds. Tom Agrees, but unfortunately it's a subject that's not up for the artist on NG it's up to the Art Portal mods, which is where myself and many others find the frustration.

Art like this - https://www.reddit.com/r/ARTIST/comments/1glcdhg/what_does_my_art_taste_like_analog_mixed_media/#lightbox which is an entire trace and sketch over an Analog photo somehow doesn't constitiute the standard a single moderator is setting on the board.

The problem isn't issues listed in 1, 2, or 3. Like my discussion with Tom went, it's a matter of the mod in question (who other users have also made complaints about) quite literally saying my art isn't "good enough" long after unscouting me and removing it all without any effort to open up a discussion about my artwork.

I used Mixed media. I take the photography myself. The model in question is my partner. They can confirm they consent to these photos being taken. They can confirm they are of-age. However these facts become irrelevant the moment the decision is made, which is why I just no longer care to put effort into posting here.

There's no discussion to be had. Our art is either deemed "good enough" on the spot by a single authority or we're told it doesn't belong on NewGrounds.

Either these portal mods lose their grip on the gatekeeping, or they grow up and move on with the times and understand that not everyone wants to post traditional art, hentai / rule34, or anime / cartoon styles. Some of us specialize in other styles, and having this mods friends laugh at me and say I got "scammed" in college and I'm a "fake" artist is insane.

Tl;dr - I am not the only one to complain about harassment from the mod in question. I talked to Tom about it, it was a good chat. Unfortunately way to much would have to change for Non-Traditional artist to safely have a place to post here without worrying about 20+ of our submissions being removed and us being unscouted randomly and told after the fact that our "Degrees" are a scam and we're not good enough for Newgrounds.

TurtleBox420 2024-11-07 00:14:28

So me drawing entire new layers upon layers worth of elements into these images isn't good enough because you don't think hand drawn drawn or noise or facial features or hand done color grading is just bare bones?

This is EXACTLY what I mean. There were zero questions asked about what's being manipulated versus drawn here, My art and the art of other experimental / non-traditional artist just gets removed here without question and it's become insanely tiring to try to even find someone to contact about it who isn't the mod who removed it (same dude EVERY time) or Tom, who seems to quite frankly not know what to do at this point because the rules as written really just fuck over non-traditional artist.

TurtleBox420 2024-11-07 10:11:53

I talked to Tom on twitter about it. That's enough validation for me.

The art I've posted here that hasn't been removed are all professional comissions. I regularly talked about just uploading little nonsense pieces here, but the mod in question seemingly removed any high effort piece I post (including art I did when I worked at Gearbox) or claimed they were Ai generated. Upon being proven they were not Ai generated (I literally showed live stream footage of me drawing two of the pieces and original google drive files of the progress) he just stopped communicating but kept proceeding to remove my uploads.

So I mean, yeah. I talked to Tom. Tom agrees it's a really fucking weird situation but the mod in question truly believes they're doing the right thing and apparently that's good enough.

The fact of the matter is I'm not the only person saying this mod has an issue with power abuse. I showed Tom other people's complaints, Tom was aware. Oddly enough, SourCherryJack is someone people also complain about and someone I've seen first hand talk down to newer artist, telling them to give up and quit, shit like that.

So I mean, it's like I said. The fact I've been doing art professionally for 15 years but NewGrounds is the only place where I've EVER experienced any sort of treatment like this says a lot. So I'm just not going to waste my time posting art here, that's all.

TurtleBox420 2024-11-07 14:24:09

The moderator was shown proof that the pieces were created before modern Ai image generation existed. The moderator also claimed a picture from National Geographic that I RGB split was also Ai Generated, which is when they started dropping their claims too.

If you want to see where my 15 years of experience doing art and sound design professionally has gotten me I can show you my invoices and my house. The fact you people only ever have put downs as a response is astonishing and something Tom had no response to when shown how often it happens when people attempt to defend Alternative Art and Mixed media in this community.

My first offense was also put off by Tom, and others, when I proved the work that mod tried riling up existed before people were generating Ai images. Bringing it up again as a "gotcha" when I'm clearly still here posting artwork of the same quality off NewGrounds doesn't say much when you all (the mods) told me my art doesn't belong here.

Kind of moronic to go "Your art doesn't belong here so we're removing it." then see me upload toilet doodles and go "You're a liar and not a real artist!"

This entire situation, from start to finish, sort of just reeks of jealousy if I'm being honest. Maybe stop witch hunting everyone who shows up here with a portfolio they started filling back in 2015 and maybe stop letting the power here get to ya'lls head.