Background Pony #C45A
@warc9
Personally, I don’t dislike Flash Sentry on principle, I wouldn’t downvote a Flashlight picture just for the ship, and I don’t dislike all of dm29’s art, but I’ve considered voting down several of his Flashlight pictures because I dislike that he produces so many which are more or less identical in style and subject without improving his art or trying much beyond putting the characters into generic romance situations. I haven’t done this, because I don’t cast downvotes lightly, but the thought has crossed my mind. The pictures bother me because of a combination of content and presentation.
If I did downvote some of the ones I found especially annoying, would that be a rule 4 violation, or would the fact that I’m doing it because of factors particular to these images make it okay? There are Flashlight and dm29 pictures I’d be willing to upvote, so it’s not bandwagoning. The same goes for Curtsibling. He’s more than capable as an artist, but I find the vast majority of what he chooses to draw and how he chooses to draw it so repellent that he’s the only artist on the entire site whose tag I’ve spoilered. Even still, there are pictures of his that I enjoy.
For a more extreme example, take >>217840. It’s not very poorly drawn. A little rough-edged, maybe, but nothing I’d say reflects a lack of effort on the part of the artist. It’s definitely MLP-related, because it contains one of the show’s characters, so there’s no reason to object on that basis. If I were to put aside content and decide what to think of it by the artist’s skill alone, I’d either upvote or ignore it.
If the site’s administration has decided that downvotes cast for any reason besides pure artistic quality are invalid, then that image’s score might as well be in the positives and all those who downvoted it should be given a warning for ignoring rule 4.
It might not be wrong to view downvoting an entire tag as misuse of the system, but I suspect very few people actually downvote an entire tag, and what’s really happening is that some images contain a combination of subject and style that’s off-putting enough to earn a lot of downvotes when neither factor alone would be enough. And that’s okay, because the reverse also applies. The Weaver and TJpones mostly produce very artistically simple images. It’s the content of those images which makes them such popular artists. >>542405, containing nothing but a few words arranged to look like a conversation, has a score of over 200. Is that upvote abuse?
The entire point of art is that emotion is a factor in its reception. At the end of the day, both upvotes and downvotes are always going to take what the image portrays into consideration, because that’s why it exists- to portray something. I find it frustrating to see a site looking for ways to enforce pure objectivity on something that’s inherently subjective.
Personally, I don’t dislike Flash Sentry on principle, I wouldn’t downvote a Flashlight picture just for the ship, and I don’t dislike all of dm29’s art, but I’ve considered voting down several of his Flashlight pictures because I dislike that he produces so many which are more or less identical in style and subject without improving his art or trying much beyond putting the characters into generic romance situations. I haven’t done this, because I don’t cast downvotes lightly, but the thought has crossed my mind. The pictures bother me because of a combination of content and presentation.
If I did downvote some of the ones I found especially annoying, would that be a rule 4 violation, or would the fact that I’m doing it because of factors particular to these images make it okay? There are Flashlight and dm29 pictures I’d be willing to upvote, so it’s not bandwagoning. The same goes for Curtsibling. He’s more than capable as an artist, but I find the vast majority of what he chooses to draw and how he chooses to draw it so repellent that he’s the only artist on the entire site whose tag I’ve spoilered. Even still, there are pictures of his that I enjoy.
For a more extreme example, take >>217840. It’s not very poorly drawn. A little rough-edged, maybe, but nothing I’d say reflects a lack of effort on the part of the artist. It’s definitely MLP-related, because it contains one of the show’s characters, so there’s no reason to object on that basis. If I were to put aside content and decide what to think of it by the artist’s skill alone, I’d either upvote or ignore it.
If the site’s administration has decided that downvotes cast for any reason besides pure artistic quality are invalid, then that image’s score might as well be in the positives and all those who downvoted it should be given a warning for ignoring rule 4.
It might not be wrong to view downvoting an entire tag as misuse of the system, but I suspect very few people actually downvote an entire tag, and what’s really happening is that some images contain a combination of subject and style that’s off-putting enough to earn a lot of downvotes when neither factor alone would be enough. And that’s okay, because the reverse also applies. The Weaver and TJpones mostly produce very artistically simple images. It’s the content of those images which makes them such popular artists. >>542405, containing nothing but a few words arranged to look like a conversation, has a score of over 200. Is that upvote abuse?
The entire point of art is that emotion is a factor in its reception. At the end of the day, both upvotes and downvotes are always going to take what the image portrays into consideration, because that’s why it exists- to portray something. I find it frustrating to see a site looking for ways to enforce pure objectivity on something that’s inherently subjective.
