This new rule really doesn't feel right.

Posted 5 years, 1 month ago (Edited 5 years, 1 month ago) by void

EDIT: Since no one is suggesting any sort of actual... resolution, or constructive criticism of any kind, and just arguing for the sake of arguing, i'm going to lock this thread.

Here's some suggestions on what i'd change to the policy, for the admin :

1. Add a clause that canon characters that have been changed in visual & backstory design 70/30 can be allowed, since people do like to develop canon characters to an extreme degree sometimes so much so that they become an ""OC"" in a sense.

2. All art on their profile MUST be art you've drawn or art drawn for you, it cannot be official artwork or just random fanart you've found and uploaded without permission

3. Profile must include some information about distinctions / developments that make them your unique project, to explain how they're not just a mirror of a canon character

4. You must explicitly credit the original copyright to the holder of the canon character (such as marvel, blizzard, etc)

5. They must be marked as never to be traded, sold, etc

======================

"We no longer host the following characters: Re-uploads of canon characters (eg. please do not upload a profile to store official artwork or fanart/fanfic of Naruto, including AUs or altered designs who share the same name, personality and identity with the canon character)"

I know what it was initially targeting, after some digging, which was galleries filled with icons of "kin characters" and nothing else, which from a server management side amounts to nothing more than spam.

But in this sweeping rule, it also targets people who mean genuinely well, world builders role players, writers, genuinely creative people who have taken canon characters and have completely transformed them into something vastly different than the original canon media, so much so that documenting them on a website like this is the only way to really tell the world about them. This is the exact thing I do with my spouse, in the media "Transformers" and "Unreal Tournament". You wouldn't even be able to recognize the characters with their canon selves anymore after, in same cases, over a decade in development, but because they fall under this rule because they share the same name as the canon character, we wouldn't be able to keep their profiles on toyhouse.

We're not the only people to do this. Rewriting canon and further evolving existing universes is a really fun activity for world building hobbyists. This is why I like this website and have paid for premium, I feel this website has been a great place to store characters and and sort them into their various universes so I can sort my head straight when I talk to others about them. It's been one of the most well run and versitile online spaces for my purposes of a world builder and to see one of my specific hobbies shot down like this is really heart-breaking.

My husband and I grouse -- if he had filled out the profiles thoroughly, these would be targeted for the takedown of the new rule, because both these characters are AUs of Xan Kriegor

They both ARE Xan Kriegor, not designed to look like Xan Kriegor or pretending to be Xan Kriegor or inspired by Xan Kriegor, they Are Xan Kriegor, in name, story, and universe.

https://unreal.fandom.com/wiki/Xan_Kriegor

https://toyhou.se/1393649.xandmate

https://toyhou.se/1393644.krieg

Korp

I get where you're coming from, but at the end of the day this website is meant for uploading characters that you own. No matter how much time you put into someone elses intellectual property, you don't own the rights for that character. Yes, fan content is kind of a grey area, but it'd be a little like uploading fanfiction to a website meant for original literature.

I think people reinterpreting characters like that is really cool, don't get me wrong, I just don't think this is the place to host it.

ShinePaw101

Korp that implies that fanfiction can't be original- which I would strongly disagree with.

I'm utterly terrified right now that my characters will be taken down- it's not a fun feeling

The other thing is that Tumbler is HIGHLY not recommended right now- DA is better but TH is so far the champ.

Korp

ShinePaw101 I didn't mean to imply that, when I say "original" I'm not referring to how creative it is, I'm referring to ownership. As in an elaborate fanfiction au can be "original" in the sense that it's creative and well made, but it's not an "original work" in the sense that the work it's based off of and the characters aren't owned by the person who wrote it.

Again, I get where you're coming from, but like I said, no matter how much time or love you put into an au version of a character, they still don't belong to you. They are someone else's property. You're going to have to accept when there's rules and restrictions placed on them. (Also sorry if i didn't do the ping right, I've never had to use it before)

void

I see a lot of people kind of going broken record about "ownership" and "selling" etc etc -- of course fanwork isn't claiming Original ownership over a canon character, that would be absolutely absurd. I am not talking about claiming copyright or ownership or even trying to trade or sell canon characters as if they are adoptables, let me set that straight right now. Don't get hung up on abstracts what-ifs.

What we're discussing is the other purpose of this website, a website for the creation of profiles of characters where artwork, stories, information, etc can be stored, displayed and shared about characters in a rich CSS/HTML profile environment. If this was a website ONLY for the sale/trade of adoptables, then it wouldn't have the lovely ability to craft profiles attached to it. Not everyone is here to trade and sell adoptables. Some of us are here because we've been looking for a better alternative to charahub or rprepository for years and years, and this has been one of the best websites to make profiles for characters that's been made so far, with its ability to make galleries for artwork, rich profiles, being able to credit artists, etc.

I just want to make profiles for my characters, no matter your opinions on their universe, or their seed of inspiration.

Korp

People are repeating themselves about ownership because that's.... really what it comes down to. The purpose of this site is for creating profiles for characters that you own. Not RP profiles, not AU profiles. We're not talking about whether its derivative or not, or what universe they came from. The general consensus seems to be that fan characters are fine, reinterpretations of existing characters are not.

You said you just want to make profiles for your characters, which you can absolutely do.

Let's go with the Naruto example. You can upload all the naruto fan characters you want, because they're your characters, they're just from an existing universe. You just can't upload Naruto himself, because he doesn't belong to you. He's not your character. He isn't a "seed of inspiration". He's an established character, which you have no rights to, even if you spent 20 years developing an au for him.

This has nothing to do with selling or trading, you need to own the characters in your gallery, whether you intend to sell/trade them or not. I apologize if I sound harsh, I'm not trying to be, but these rules really should have been established from the beginning, it's kinda common sense for a site based solely on OC's.