I believe there's been a lot of controversy regarding the art posted on here that's of poor quality.

Not every single piece of art that's posted will be a masterpiece, but when it comes to users judging the lesser quality works, people seem to get quite defensive. Some users have even been banned because of their opinions on bad works of art.

It's understandable people wouldn't appreciate bad criticism and insults against a work, regardless of its quality.

But what you have to understand is there are always going to be people who will say that type of stuff. Even as I write this, users are insulting artists and the drawings they've made.

You can't ban them all.

Judging quality of art in the harshest terms in the presence of the author is just a tiny part of people being assholes in general. People judge everything they don't like. They can't stop doing it even if presented with tools to avoid seeing stuff they dislike, like blacklists which, in case of e621, can even be used to filter out low-scored posts.

Extreme fetishes, for example, attract sooo many stupid comments and pointless downvotes... Artists stop drawing (or avoid drawing in the first place), writers stop writing. Stalking causes IRL problems. Even when creators understand what they are in for, even if they can handle the stupid comments and rock bottom scores, it still causes problems. I can't rely on "order:score" sorting for any fetish which is outside of the interests of 80% of the furry population. Comments are at least removed, maybe, eventually, but nothing can be done about downvoting based on content instead of quality.

Creators by their nature are often sensitive souls without tough skins required to handle harsh comments, justified or not. I wish anyone could handle both trolling and constructive criticism, but it's unlikely to happen.

KinkyGlutamate said:
Judging quality of art in the harshest terms in the presence of the author is just a tiny part of people being assholes in general. People judge everything they don't like. They can't stop doing it even if presented with tools to avoid seeing stuff they dislike, like blacklists which, in case of e621, can even be used to filter out low-scored posts.

Extreme fetishes, for example, attract sooo many stupid comments and pointless downvotes... Artists stop drawing (or avoid drawing in the first place), writers stop writing. Stalking causes IRL problems. Even when creators understand what they are in for, even if they can handle the stupid comments and rock bottom scores, it still causes problems. I can't rely on "order:score" sorting for any fetish which is outside of the interests of 80% of the furry population. Comments are at least removed, maybe, eventually, but nothing can be done about downvoting based on content instead of quality.

Creators by their nature are often sensitive souls without tough skins required to handle harsh comments, justified or not. I wish anyone could handle both trolling and constructive criticism, but it's unlikely to happen.

And yet the moderator of this site think they can stop it by banning the people who're the harshest of all.

There is a very important distinction between voicing criticism and being insulting. We will discipline people who can't discern between the two and believe insults should be tolerated.

If we have to ban people for that so be it.

LaplaceLaw said:
And yet the moderator of this site think they can stop it by banning the people who're the harshest of all.

It has been working quite well, actually. If people manage to evade their ban and stop insulting people on their new account the problem itself, them insulting others, has been solved regardless. If they continue their behavior that got them banned they will get banned again.

LaplaceLaw said:
And yet the moderator of this site think they can stop it by banning the people who're the harshest of all.

What would you do in the admin's shoes? Let them have free roam and using insults and unhelpful criticisms ad nauseum? Criticism that helps the artist in the long run should be the main focus, hating a specific artwork and/or the artist itself for the sake of hating has no benefit, yes? There are, unfortunately, groups of people out there who will stop at nothing to provide negative and hurtful "critique" just because "they can". It's sad, to be honest. I've seen my share of pretty vile/hurtful comments over the quality of art, the fetish/focus, or what have you, it isn't conducive to the artists' growth nor does it prove beneficial to either party.

It's time for another "Good Idea, Bad Idea."

Good idea:
Commenting: "I'm not really a fan of this image--I find the pose to be a little too unbelievable, and I keep finding myself worrying about the character's spine rather than the sexy parts of this picture. Also the lighting seems a little... odd. But the facial expressions are adorable and hot!"

Bad idea:
Commenting: "This artist fucking sucks. They're can suck my fat juicy testicles while I fuck them in the ear hole. I hope they die. Everyone who draws this pairing should just kill themselves. I suggest (descriptive suicide method). I hope they and everyone they love get an incurable and painful disease."

Good idea:
*Hmm... I don't like this post very much. I just won't comment!*

Bad idea:
*froths with rage, deletes all of the tags and replaces them with racial slurs, comments about the quality of the image, and other high-quality remarks*

I think banning certain people is a good idea.

_{I need to go take a shower now, sorry. I love you all and think you're wonderful people. Come let me hug you T_T}

"Fuck you admin I have FREE SPEECH because this is AMERICA."
-at least half of the ban cases regarding people being shitheads in the comments with their "critique".

There is a difference between pointing out some things that could be done better, fixed in later images, etc, and telling the artist to go hang from the nearest tree. It's a sad day when this has to be explained.

Ratte said:
"Fuck you admin I have FREE SPEECH because this is AMERICA."
-at least half of the ban cases regarding people being shitheads in the comments with their "critique".

There is a difference between pointing out some things that could be done better, fixed in later images, etc, and telling the artist to go hang from the nearest tree. It's a sad day when this has to be explained.

Damn right, too often people downvote something "because it sucks", refuse to use a blacklist, and/or refuse to use proper critique to help. If people don't have anything helpful to say, or if they want to spout of negative crap ad infinitum, they should just at least not be do bloody rude about it. Antagonism has no benefit to artists.

LaplaceLaw said:
Some users have even been banned because of their opinions on bad works of art.

You're sugarcoating it a tad thick there, my guy. We only take action if they are being insulting towards peeps. We allow criticism, but we don't allow rude/insulting behavior. There's a difference between "Ehh, this could be better" and "This artist sucks and anyone else who likes this garbage are disgusting faggochinis".

In short, they break our rules, we give them the boot.

LaplaceLaw said:
But what you have to understand is there are always going to be people who will say that type of stuff. Even as I write this, users are insulting artists and the drawings they've made.

You can't ban them all.

According to that logic, should police just quit their jobs because there's gonna be crime 24/7 and they can't catch all the criminals?

Also, I will take this moment to point out that there is a big fat "REPORT" under every single comment.

If you see someone being an insulting douchebag.... click it! Make e621 a better place.