Artist Relations-$Moonbeam13-Director

Today, after $lolly and myself spent hours working through the mayhem newly coined 'disasterpiece theatre', I created a chatroom called #FantasticallyFractal to open a forum for the fractal artists to work with us to find a solution to the issue at hand.

To that end, we have come up with the following which we see as a good beginning to nurturing an art genre I not only have great respect for, but have currently hanging on my walls.

First, the policy of policing art theft and the issue with parameters

As of right now the stance on art theft in fractal is the same as any other art genre. We judge the theft on the end result (the image). The likelihood of someone generating the same image without stealing parameters is worse than being struck by lightning in my opinion and as such an image should not at all look similar. This holds true for cut images as well, if we can spot the similarity, chances are something was swiped and unless there's permission for that 'borrowing' of parameters (which I'll get to in a sec), that image is coming down. *DWALKER1047 is investigating the copyright of parameters with the US copyright office and we are waiting to hear what the result of that is so we can assess our position again, but for now we think this certainly helps in maintaining the integrity of the artists here.

Second, the concept of sharing parameters

Fractal art is largely a self-taught, tightly knit group and to tell you that sharing parameters makes it your fault is not only erroneous but hurtful to the community and as such we've created a new gallery to house your fractal resources. So now you can submit parameters and other fractal resources to Tutorials & Resources -> Fractal Resources This is the place to post your parameters and any other Fractal related resources you wish to share. Posting here allows usage by other deviants as applied to stock images. If you do not list your usage rules in the deviation comments, standard dA stock policy will apply in which the deviant who uses any part of the resource must link back in the comments or face having the final image removed.

Third, a place to be heard

After the onslaught that transpired it is without a doubt something $lolly and I would like to avoid in the future. If you have concerns about your galleries please note or email me at moonbeam13@deviantart.com , if you have concerns about policy related issues or think you're not being heard, note or email $lolly at lolly@deviantart.com We had no idea what had been brewing all this time and quite frankly we should have. We vow to listen and be available but we need you to meet us halfway and talk. I am also having a forum created in the gallery forums for fractal art so you can have a home to discuss and share. I will let you know once it's in place.

and now to my partner in crime.........

Community Development-$lolly-Director

First Off, Apologies

In the last 24 hours, some of the members of the fractal community may have seen the incident that led to a lot of confusion and resulted with things being said that made it appear that the administration here doesn't feel that Fractal Art is in fact art, that we do not care to protect it, nor take it seriously.
None of this feeling was ever at all intentional and on behalf of the entire administration involved in this I would like to once again apologize. Saying anything that could remotely even begin to lead someone to think something like this is inexcusable and all parties involved have been spoken to on this matter and all have issued apologies of their own.
I promise you, that not only within this community, but all of the artistic communities, nothing, absolutely nothing, will ever be said that could be construed as demeaning to you and what you do as anything less than art and of artistic value.

And to make sure we do things right, myself and $Moonbeam13 currently have a very open line of communication going with this community and are working directly with them to better not only our policy in regards to fractal work but just our own personal understanding of the faces behind it.

Fractal Art is Art

During this whole discussion, or as I referred to it in my journal, episode of Disasterpiece Theater, one thing kept coming up from members of the fractal community, and that is that many people feel that Fractal Art is not art at all and is simply button pushing.
Well, would you say photography is simply button pushing, or hey, photo manipulation is simply taking someone else's stuff and pasting it together, or go further and painting is just mushing a brush around till something happens. Vector is just connect the dots and so on. You discount one form of art and you discredit all of them. It is never ever the tools behind the work. It is only the artist behind the tool and what they do with those tools no matter what form of art it is.

Take a look at these images and glance through the galleries of these artists and tell me this is not art.