Hi Volties,

Please read the entire contents of this post as it pertains to some important changes we’ll be making and expectations we think our growing community should uphold.

*These rules start immediately and will be edited into our Forum Rules shortly*

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Rule Addition 1: Flammable Content

It’s been a growing concern of ours that some forum content is feeding into negative energy. Voltra was created to nurture a fun, enjoyable, and lighthearted environment where our community members are able to forget the stressors of everyday life.

In our efforts to keep the negative energy to a minimum we have to address the threads that go by Post Your Rants, Confessions (Make A Confession), and similar topics.

First, I’d like to make it clear that it is not our goal to quiet or censor any particular group or members of our community. These topics seem to be full of negative feedback, comments, and behavior. We have decided NOT to lock or remove these topics, but we are introducing expectations we have for any users who chose to share in these topics.

Moving forward any of the following actions/content shared on public forums or these two threads in particular will result in a warning. (Continued disregard to our community expectations will result in a ban.)

Complaints, Concerns, or Negative Comments:
About another member of the community
Infractions and consequences dealt to your account

The reason this content is no longer acceptable for sharing is because over and over again we’ve found this material to be flammable. Most importantly, please address any of your concerns involving any aspect of the website with a member of staff so we can resolve the matter.

As a result, you will find the following amendment to the forums section of Voltra’s rules:
“Any flammable content is not allowed. This includes the act of ranting, commenting, complaining, or negative behavior against any member of the site, and/or any infractions made on your account.”

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Rule Addition 2: Art Galleries and Mini-shops

The following additions to Voltra’s rules revolve around any artwork produced and shared in the forums and on the website. It’s a serious consequence to use another individuals creation and claiming it as your own, this is considered stealing. The following rules will guide you and hopefully keep you safe from any legal issues that may result from such actions.

Tracing:
What is considered Tracing? If in the process of drawing you are layering a canvas/paper over someone else’s art and replicating the line art from the bottom layer drawing. That is considered tracing. Even if you are only tracing the pose, it still qualifies and should be credited.

Tracing on Voltra for personal growth is permitted under the condition that you give FULL credit to the original artist and the art piece that you traced.

If Voltra is contacted by the original artist of the piece traced and is requested to take it down. We reserve the right to act upon this request. We will inform you that a request has been made by the original artist and the art has been taken down and should not be re-uploaded in any shape or form on Voltra.

If you are reported for tracing and not crediting the original artist or admitting to tracing, provided with evidence. You will be issued a warning.

Reporting a tracer. DO NOT PUBLICLY CALL THEM OUT. Report it to a moderator or an admin and we will deal with the case. If you publicly shame the tracer you will receive a warning as well (because this is considered flammable content).

References:
Drawing from a photo reference is not considered tracing as you are re-drawing what you see from scratch. We understand that each artist needs to use references to study and grow their skills.

If you re-create a photo that is anything between 50%-100% identical you should credit the original piece.

Mini Shops:
It is against Voltra rules to sell traced art. If you are reported, provided with evidence, you will receive a warning.

Using bases is ok under the condition that you have proof of the original artist giving permission for their bases to be used. This means that the artist giving consent created the base from scratch and has the rights to give permission.

Bases that are traced from anime screenshots, manga panels, comic panels and or other artist’s work are not permitted. As the Tracer does not own these and cannot give consent to use.

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Rule Addition 3: Triple Posting Exceptions

As per our spamming rules, Triple Posting is not allowed. We’d like to take this chance to expand on that with the following rule amendment:

Triple Posting is allowed in regards to the following scenarios:
Bumping your topic if it’s fallen off the first page of its respective forum

Posting multiple times in a row to set up a thread’s first page

Updating another party about your current trade/exchange
(ie. You’ve completed an art order in the mini-shops forum, you can ping the customer to notify them the art is ready, even if you were the last two posts.

A window of 12 hours has passed
(ie. You completed a new piece for your art gallery. If the last two posts were you, after 12 hours from the previous post you are able to post the update for others to be aware.)

We hope this eases any frustration of the Triple Posting rule.
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns regarding this change.

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Discord

Rather than assume, we wanted to state that we uphold our community to the same forum rules and expectations on our public discord. Violation of rules on discord may not get you banned from the site, but they will result in you being kicked from the server.

To help nurture a safe and positive environment on both our forum and discord platforms we hope to introduce guidelines, rules, and moderation for each Discord channel over the next coming weeks.

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Resources

As a user, we understand some instances you may feel at a loss. There is only so much one can do when it comes to an issue on the internet. Our staff at Voltra will actively do as much as we can and provide features to minimize any negative behavior that tries to soil our community.

If you find yourself upset with the content another user is posting do not interact with that user, neither should you take it upon yourself to “back seat moderate” by informing them they’ve broken a certain rule. At the very least, take advantage of the following resources:

Using the blocking feature - this will not allow either party to see or interact with each other through website features.

Contact a member of staff - it does not need to be an admin, whomever you feel most comfortable with will do. We will do our best to resolve the issue.

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We want to thank every Voltie who take the time to log on and give their time to our community. Your commitment and energy is what keeps us driven to make Voltra the best it can be.