@EOWDT This is mostly a what-do guide for mods to follow in the event someone's been found tracing to a degree we're pretty sure isn't coincidental and they're either not crediting or outright denying. We're not going to have mods comparing images, making overlays, or tracking down vanished FA artists from the early 00s; we're stretched thin as it is with current workload.
As for referencing, this doesn't really touch that; practically everyone reference to one degree or another, and while you probably
should point out that you used X or Y as a reference, IMO it's more of a courtesy (that people make note of), and unless it something wholly original, kinda hard to prove anyway, and may still not apply;
>>28359,
>>282716,
>>841252, and
>>1229186 are practically the same "thing", and while I can't speak for the other three artists, I know I hadn't seen CT's version until over a year after I finished (at which point I felt like an idiot)
Up to now the "policy" was just "let people tag these things and discuss it, intervene if people start getting stalkery, aggressive, spammy, etc.", aka applying the site rules as usual regardless of the topic. Outside of adding artist tags where needed and removing images per rule #1, the extent of actual moderation
specifically on the topic of tracing up to two-ish days ago was nil. We removed images we saw as overly meta or attacking people as we do regardless of who's who, diverted repetitious arguments on images to the forum as we do for SJW/politics/etc. wordy stuff, banned a "unnamed horsefamous artist" accused of tracing for breaking several rules (that didn't stop us being accused from defending them, but my eternal bitterness is my own problem).
Anyway, yeah; I saw this as a larger community issue where I thought it'd be enough for it to "self-police" via tagging and informative comments. The…
"passion", some people have about the topic lead to them being moderated, which combined with us not taking affirmative action on the topic gave people the impression we either don't care or even defend tracing, which given the constant arguments in private channels over the matter is
really not the case.
My desire to not add more rules and special cases and what-ifs and not complicate things got in the way of actually running what I'd hoped people would see as a fanart site, rather than just an imagedump. Not like I shouldn't have seen that coming, given I've repeatedly pointed out that ponibooru being so "hands off" is what turned it to poop in the end.
coulda shoulda woulda didn't
¯\_(ツ)_/¯