@garfieldfromgarfield: My personal philosophy is that, if the artist has a couple pieces already uploaded, then someone probably asked for permission at some point and I shouldn't bother them by asking again. But if the artist has zero/only one or two uploads, I send them a message and ask first. In this case, I can also recommend doing a search for the artist's name along with status:deleted, to see if they have any previously deleted works which follow a pattern to avoid (and obviously checking the Avoid Posting List ).

I definitely believe this puts me in the minority though, and that most people work on a "post now, delete later" principle. Though I can say that from my personal experience with two separate artists (monstrifex and unixcat) that they were both very open to me posting their content (and having the affirmation was also a great way to alleviate the uncertainty you're describing).