Okay, let's go over the basic rules of the Art Lounge, then.
1. No Porn
That pretty much says it all for this rule, doesn't it? In case I'm not making myself clear on what's "porn" and what's "not porn": Porn, or pornography, depicts sexual acts and/or private parts. If porn-art is posted in the Art Lounge, the offending topic will be edited and closed. Tasteful nudes are allowed, but if drawn with nasty bits, the nasty bits must be edited/blurred/etc out of the picture itself by its artist(s). Repeat-pornposters will be reported to the admins.
2. No Topic-Spamming
If you make two or more pieces of art at the same time, or wish to post more than one piece of art at a time, do not put them into seperate topics. This causes clutter, and in general is much more annoying and confusing than a single topic. You may still post different topics for art you created, if you posted one topic already, went off to make some more art, and then need to post your newer art. However, it is considered polite to stick to one or two topics per day at the most; and if you start slacking on this rule, you will have your topics merged.
3. NO BASHING OF ART
Sorry for the all-caps, but this is something I've seen turn ugly if the rule is not stressed enough. Do not tell someone their art sucks, is horrible, deserves to be covered in dung, etc. Instead, offer them constructive criticism on how to improve. If you have no constructive criticism, then stay quiet and move on. Vicious and/or repeat-bashers will be reported to the admins.
Addendum: Posts praising someone's artwork are allowed, but give them reasons you like their art. Persons going around and making replies that go to the extent of "Cool, I like it," will be warned on their behavior if they do not stop, and have some posts purged if they continue to do so rabidly. I mean, heck, would it hurt you to go "Cool, I like it because of the color," etc.?
Addendum 6/09/03: This also goes for people's replies/critiques. Whether the person is of less skill than you and giving you advice you would deem "bad", or is much more highly skilled and saying a million things at once, it is considered inappropriate to flame them for saying so.
4. NO RIPPING OTHER PEOPLE'S ART
This has been a problem in some places, as well. If you are known to have taken someone's artwork without their permission, the topic in which the offending artwork resides will be edited and locked, and you will be reported to the admins. Even if you "edited" someone else's art without their permission, it is still their art, and you will still be treated as a ripper. If your pictures seem a lot like someone else's pictures (as if you traced them, for example), you will be given a warning, and will probably be watched by the person you may have ripped. Coincidences occur, though, so if someone's art is only somewhat like your art, and you suspect them of ripping you, wait until they've made several supposed violations before reporting it in a Private Message (complete with hyperlinks to the "offenses" and "originals") to me. You may also use this method to report any rips I may have overlooked.
Addendum 5/03/03 [updated 6/11/03]: You may not post a new topic for others' art, even if you aren't claiming that it's yours, and even if you're hyperlinking to some webpage off somewhere. If the artist wants the people here to see their art, they'll post it themselves.
Addendum 6/11/03: You may post a hyperlink to someone else's art webpage, but only if there's a situation in a topic that requires a reply with an example of similar technique, theory, et cetera. Even then, you must give full credit to the artist, and link to their webpage, not an image hosted on their wepage (bandwidth-leeching is bad, mmkay?). People who do this gratuitously and link to the same person's webpage repeatedly will be watched, and if they don't stop, warned and/or reported.
Addendum 1/13/03 [updated 6/11/03]: According to Fair Use laws, you may edit officially sanctioned artwork such as certain anime and manga, and still be okay legal-wise. However, do make sure whatever you're editing falls under the Fair Use laws before editing. Nevertheless, it is frowned (see: very, very, very frowned) upon, and will probably end up being moved to the Signature Club, as it tends to agitate the locals.
Aditional note: Remember, when you are posting your artwork expect to recieve criticism. Please do not go mad or bash any people who are critizicing you because it will result in temporal banning.
Addendum 6/2/10:
I thought that this should be added because there are two new things that extend from the Artist's Alcove. Since these are two 'strictly based' type subforums that have been added to the Artist's Alcove within the last year or so, let's be going over them.
No. 1: The Artist's Alcove - "Share your Pokémon fanart here, along with any other unique and individual art."
The Artist's Alcove forum is now mainly for artwork that's been drawn with pencil and paper or have been worked on in programs like PhotoShop, Painter, GIMP, SAI or any other art programs that one can come to be naming. In addition to drawn out works, things like signature banners and image manipulations and/or edits can be having their own thread or added to the original artist's thread for other things that they can be doing. Note that the Artist's Alcove is still, and won't be, for fan works or pieces that you did not do. The rules above state why we disallow discussions or posts on things like that. Also, please do not post sprite work in this forum anymore! If you want to be posting your sprites, please post them to the Spriter's Sanctuary!
No. 2: The Artisan's Gallery - "A place for artists to show off their wares; other users can solicit works from the artists who are 'selling.'"
The Artisan's Gallery was created when we started to have a boom of 'shops' opening up in the Artist's Alcove. This had become a problem because it was making it so that other artists weren't getting the recognition that many of them deserved. Now that we have The Artisan's Gallery, we're proud to say that we have many different 'shopkeepers' -- all that do many different things and all have their own different styles that they've developed for their stores. All shops should be posted in here rather than in the main Artist's Alcove.
No. 3: The Spriter's Sanctuary - "A place exclusively for those who work with sprites to offer their creations to the Bulbagarden community."
To avoid the Alcove to be getting cluttered with strictly sprite based threads, we've created and implemented a new subforum called 'The Spriter's Sanctuary' that many of the spriters that we have in our community can be going to to be getting that specific attention. Note that this subforum isn't for shops in any way, shape or form. This is only for spriters that want to show off what they can be doing without the worry of requests or getting things done for others.
1. No Porn
That pretty much says it all for this rule, doesn't it? In case I'm not making myself clear on what's "porn" and what's "not porn": Porn, or pornography, depicts sexual acts and/or private parts. If porn-art is posted in the Art Lounge, the offending topic will be edited and closed. Tasteful nudes are allowed, but if drawn with nasty bits, the nasty bits must be edited/blurred/etc out of the picture itself by its artist(s). Repeat-pornposters will be reported to the admins.
2. No Topic-Spamming
If you make two or more pieces of art at the same time, or wish to post more than one piece of art at a time, do not put them into seperate topics. This causes clutter, and in general is much more annoying and confusing than a single topic. You may still post different topics for art you created, if you posted one topic already, went off to make some more art, and then need to post your newer art. However, it is considered polite to stick to one or two topics per day at the most; and if you start slacking on this rule, you will have your topics merged.
3. NO BASHING OF ART
Sorry for the all-caps, but this is something I've seen turn ugly if the rule is not stressed enough. Do not tell someone their art sucks, is horrible, deserves to be covered in dung, etc. Instead, offer them constructive criticism on how to improve. If you have no constructive criticism, then stay quiet and move on. Vicious and/or repeat-bashers will be reported to the admins.
Addendum: Posts praising someone's artwork are allowed, but give them reasons you like their art. Persons going around and making replies that go to the extent of "Cool, I like it," will be warned on their behavior if they do not stop, and have some posts purged if they continue to do so rabidly. I mean, heck, would it hurt you to go "Cool, I like it because of the color," etc.?
Addendum 6/09/03: This also goes for people's replies/critiques. Whether the person is of less skill than you and giving you advice you would deem "bad", or is much more highly skilled and saying a million things at once, it is considered inappropriate to flame them for saying so.
4. NO RIPPING OTHER PEOPLE'S ART
This has been a problem in some places, as well. If you are known to have taken someone's artwork without their permission, the topic in which the offending artwork resides will be edited and locked, and you will be reported to the admins. Even if you "edited" someone else's art without their permission, it is still their art, and you will still be treated as a ripper. If your pictures seem a lot like someone else's pictures (as if you traced them, for example), you will be given a warning, and will probably be watched by the person you may have ripped. Coincidences occur, though, so if someone's art is only somewhat like your art, and you suspect them of ripping you, wait until they've made several supposed violations before reporting it in a Private Message (complete with hyperlinks to the "offenses" and "originals") to me. You may also use this method to report any rips I may have overlooked.
Addendum 5/03/03 [updated 6/11/03]: You may not post a new topic for others' art, even if you aren't claiming that it's yours, and even if you're hyperlinking to some webpage off somewhere. If the artist wants the people here to see their art, they'll post it themselves.
Addendum 6/11/03: You may post a hyperlink to someone else's art webpage, but only if there's a situation in a topic that requires a reply with an example of similar technique, theory, et cetera. Even then, you must give full credit to the artist, and link to their webpage, not an image hosted on their wepage (bandwidth-leeching is bad, mmkay?). People who do this gratuitously and link to the same person's webpage repeatedly will be watched, and if they don't stop, warned and/or reported.
Addendum 1/13/03 [updated 6/11/03]: According to Fair Use laws, you may edit officially sanctioned artwork such as certain anime and manga, and still be okay legal-wise. However, do make sure whatever you're editing falls under the Fair Use laws before editing. Nevertheless, it is frowned (see: very, very, very frowned) upon, and will probably end up being moved to the Signature Club, as it tends to agitate the locals.
Aditional note: Remember, when you are posting your artwork expect to recieve criticism. Please do not go mad or bash any people who are critizicing you because it will result in temporal banning.
Addendum 6/2/10:
I thought that this should be added because there are two new things that extend from the Artist's Alcove. Since these are two 'strictly based' type subforums that have been added to the Artist's Alcove within the last year or so, let's be going over them.
No. 1: The Artist's Alcove - "Share your Pokémon fanart here, along with any other unique and individual art."
The Artist's Alcove forum is now mainly for artwork that's been drawn with pencil and paper or have been worked on in programs like PhotoShop, Painter, GIMP, SAI or any other art programs that one can come to be naming. In addition to drawn out works, things like signature banners and image manipulations and/or edits can be having their own thread or added to the original artist's thread for other things that they can be doing. Note that the Artist's Alcove is still, and won't be, for fan works or pieces that you did not do. The rules above state why we disallow discussions or posts on things like that. Also, please do not post sprite work in this forum anymore! If you want to be posting your sprites, please post them to the Spriter's Sanctuary!
No. 2: The Artisan's Gallery - "A place for artists to show off their wares; other users can solicit works from the artists who are 'selling.'"
The Artisan's Gallery was created when we started to have a boom of 'shops' opening up in the Artist's Alcove. This had become a problem because it was making it so that other artists weren't getting the recognition that many of them deserved. Now that we have The Artisan's Gallery, we're proud to say that we have many different 'shopkeepers' -- all that do many different things and all have their own different styles that they've developed for their stores. All shops should be posted in here rather than in the main Artist's Alcove.
No. 3: The Spriter's Sanctuary - "A place exclusively for those who work with sprites to offer their creations to the Bulbagarden community."
To avoid the Alcove to be getting cluttered with strictly sprite based threads, we've created and implemented a new subforum called 'The Spriter's Sanctuary' that many of the spriters that we have in our community can be going to to be getting that specific attention. Note that this subforum isn't for shops in any way, shape or form. This is only for spriters that want to show off what they can be doing without the worry of requests or getting things done for others.
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", while hotlinking to a handful of pictures I liked best... that would be a violation of the rule.