MOD POST! Important Changes to the Comm Rules PLEASE READ!

[aeka]

Greetings scans_daily members!

We just want to inform everyone of the changes that have been made to scans_daily's rules, so please be sure to check those out when you have the time.

There weren't too many significant changes to the user info page for the most part, but I do want to point out that we did mostly modified the posting rules so that they're hopefully more clear. Rules of conduct are still the same as before.

Notable changes:

1. Every post must have as its primary subject at least one image from a comic book, manga, newspaper comic strips, or webcomic. Any comic-related news, interviews, videos, movie/tv trailers, essays or articles containing no scans, etc, do not count as primary posts and a "legality scan" does not make your post legal. Please head over to noscans_daily for such discussions. The only time we'll make exceptions is if the aforementioned supports any ideas, topics, or issues shown in any of the scans you post, but other than that, "scans for legality" is no more.

2. LJ-cuts are required for any post which contains more than one image. In addition, any spoilers or nsfw content must be behind your lj-cut. For non-recent comics, you may have one preview image no larger than 400 x 300 pixels outside the cut provided that it has no spoilers or nsfw content. Absolutely NO panel from a comic released that is the most current issue of its series may be featured outside of a cut, however unspoilery it is.

3. Any post that contains potentially triggery scans and discussion -- such as extreme violence/gore, sexual violence, abuse, self-harm, and offensive and oppressive content -- must be posted under an adequate Warning before the cut, tagged as such, and framed with sensitivity in the post. In addition, NSFW posts need to posted with an 18+ age restriction filter and clearly labeled and tagged as such.

Another notable change we made is that in addition to reporting any members who demonstrate any oppressive behaviour or make any discriminatory remarks to the mod team, we now allow you to report any mods who are seen demonstrating these things as well:

Note: Please contact a moderator immediately if you see another member making discriminatory remarks. Similarly, if you ever feel or encounter a mod demonstrating discriminatory behaviour on scans_daily, PLEASE NOTIFY ONE OF THE OTHER MODS DIRECTLY and we will take it from there.

I will be posting an updated version of the posting checklist shortly after this post to further clarify posting expectations, but do check out salinea's updated tagging tutorial if you haven't already!

One thing that we haven't been able to decide on over at the mod comm is whether or not to keep "Fanart Thursdays" here on scans_daily or move it over to our sister comm on LJ, noscans_daily, so we've decided to let you guys vote on that! :)

**I want to especially note that if we do decide to keep it here on S_D, this will be the ONLY time you won't need a scan for your primary post!**

Poll #9934 Fanart Thursdays

Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 84

View Respondents

Where shall we feature 'Fanart Thursdays?'

View Answers

Keep on Scans Daily. We feel it's appropriate material for the comm.
66 (78.6%)

Move it to NoScans Daily. The comm could use more traffic!
18 (21.4%)

↓ If you have any questions regarding any of the changes, feel free to ask in the comments section! ↓

Comments

[violetclm.livejournal.com]

"comic book, manga, or webcomic" would seem to exclude newspaper strips. Is this intentional?

[aeka]

Newpaper comic strips do count as legal posts. Thanks for pointing that out.

Is this intentional?

Could you be a bit more specific on this please? :/

[shadowpsykie]

Could you be a bit more specific on this please? :/

I think they meant was Newspaper comic stips left out intentionally.

[violetclm.livejournal.com]

Specific? Uhh... well, newspaper comic strips didn't seem to count as comic books, manga, or webcomics, so the list as presented did not seem to make newspaper comic strips legal. By asking if this was intentional, I wanted to know if newspaper comic strips were [i]intended[/i] to be illegal, or if this was an accidental oversight.

[salinea]

No, anything sequential art is good. We only listed the most frequent genres of sequential art that are posted on S_D in that. Manwha, Bande Dessinées, Historietas, Komiks, etc. are also fine.

[aeka]

Gotcha. It actually didn't occur to me to specify comic strips as legal posts, but now that you've pointed that out, I'll be sure to do so now. Thanks again! :)

[shanejayell]

I'm.. not seeing why you're cutting off comicbook news posts. Other than trying to increase noscandaily's numbers, of course. Is this a decision just made by the moderators? I'd have at least appreciated a poll or something asking members what they thought. Seems rather high handed.

[aeka]

It was a mod team decision.

The purpose of Scans Daily is to specifically post scans of comics. Stuff like news articles, interviews, videos, etc feel like more appropriate material for NoScans Daily, which was designed specifically for comic-related discussions without the scans.

[shanejayell]

I've been on SD a LONG time, and we've had news posts for as long. It REALLY would have been nice if the members had been polled about it. Heck, it would be nice if the mods polled the community about any changes.

It's not a big issue, admittedly, but I don't like how this has been handled. The word 'arrogant' comes to mind.

(Why was your first reply deleted? Odd.)

[aeka]

I do understand and appreciate your concerns. However, I should've pointed in my original comment out that we didn't get rid of the posting articles entirely, but rather modified the rule so that if you *are* going to post any articles, they have to be relevant to the scans you are posting and not the primary subject of your post.

The rest of our decision also had more to do with clarifying the purpose of both comms to users. If we make the two comms interchangeable with regards to content, we defeat the purpose of both comms and basically render one of them redundant.

[salinea]

You can post and discuss news if there's a scan to go with it (like, they often release scans as promotional material, I mean).

A big part of this is lately there has been so many discussion posts - sometimes on actually totally Out Topic stuff, and of course also movies, video games, etc. - that we feel it has been drowning out the main purpose of scans_daily. Those are cool discussions to have, but noscans is a more natural fit for it.

(Also it'll make tags overload easier to deal with :p)

[icon_uk]

Whilst I will, of course, abide by the decision, I have to say I'm not at all convinced that splitting the focus across two groups is the best choice. I found the variety entertaining and easier to find all in one place. I rarely found myself thinking "This should be on noscans".

As for "Fanart Thursday" shifting, the argument "The comm could use more traffic!" even in jest seems to be wanting to move it solely for that reason which doesn't seem a proper reason to me. Was whether noscans serves a valid function at all anymore considered as a question?

[shanejayell]

"if you *are* going to post any articles, they have to be relevant to the scans you are posting and not the primary subject of your post. "

So I could post about a Batman news item as long as it had ANY Batman comic scan? Or does it have to specifically relate to the news story to?

The uses of the comms is kinda obvious. Scans is for scans and discussion of those scans. Noscans is for more general comics discussion.

Still not seeing the point of the rules change. *lol*

[shanejayell]

Plus, I thought there were issues about posting comic-book stuff on Livejournal. Wasn't that the reason the first SD was shut down in the first place?

[icon_uk]

Fanart isn't really comicbook stuff though, it's fanart.

[aeka]

I specify all of this on the posting checklist I posted, but basically the primary purpose of your post HAS to be the Batman comic itself. If the scan your posting about contains themes, issues, concepts, etc that were covered or discussed in a news article, you may post the news article then as part of the discussion of the comic itself.

Still not seeing the point of the rules change. *lol*

salinea clarified this in her comment to you. :P

[icon_uk]

Also, out of curiosity (and vested interest :) ), would the likes of commissions postings also be expected to be on noscans? Despite having scans of comic characters?

[aeka]

salinea explained it best in her comment above, but one of the reasons we decided on this was because we felt that too many of these posts were being made to the comm to the point of drowning out the purpose of the comm.

As for "Fanart Thursday" shifting, the argument "The comm could use more traffic!" even in jest seems to be wanting to move it solely for that reason which doesn't seem a proper reason to me.

Good call. I should've thought about that before making the poll, though I will clarify that it was in fact in jest. (Most of my polls tend to be). >.o

Was whether noscans serves a valid function at all anymore considered as a question?

I'm not sure if you're asking if we should've considered keeping NoScans as a valid function or if the thought has crossed our mind about whether or not we still needed the comm. Could you please clarify? :/

[shanejayell]

I suppose what mostly bugs me about this is no one was ASKED. How hard would it have been to put up a post saying, 'There's too much off topic discussion, here's how we propose to fix it, vote yes or no in the poll.'

Clearly that was too tough, or it would have been done. Though I suppose no livejournal or DW community is a democracy anyway.

[salinea]

Good question. Speaking for myself, I see them in the same way I do fanart - so if the comm decides to keep fanarts on S_D, so do commissions.

[shanejayell]

But can we rely on livejournal to make that distinction? *lol* Just saying.

[aeka]

We do specify on the posting checklist that character sketches and commissions are allowed on NoScans.

With regards to character sketches in particular, I think as long as the character is sketch is something that the comic company has officially released, there should be no reason why they should cause any problems.

[aeka]

if the comm decides to keep fanarts on S_D, so do commissions.

Since it looks like it's here to stay, I may have to modify commissions and character sketches as an exception to the first rule for Fanart Thursdays. Not that I have a problem with this, mind you. :3

Or did you mean keep commissions and--presumably character sketches as well--as legal posting material independent of Fanart Thursdays? :P

[aeka]

Clearly that was too tough, or it would have been done. Though I suppose no livejournal or DW community is a democracy anyway.

I understand the reasons for your being upset, but I think that's going a bit too far as we didn't get rid of the ability to post articles entirely.

[salinea]

We try to do our best as mods of the comm to make the best decisions, balancing things that the popularity of certain options with what is meant to be the purpose of scans_daily, what's fair, as well as the things we perceived as necessary from our experience with managing the community from backstage. Sometimes it works out fine for everyone, sometimes less so. We are polling the community on the topic of fanarts. I'm sorry that this is too little to satisfy you.