Background
Hey there! Hopefully you can help me come to a conclusion on this.
Please let me know if this is in the wrong category!
In the DevForum rules it states,
19. Do not claim credit for work that you did not create. This includes, but is not limited to: building, scripting, compositions, animations, 3D models, and artwork.
When users post topics in #collaboration:asset-marketplace, they sometimes are selling direct or variations of other users work. (For example they changed the colors or added/deleted one or two things.)
What should we (the DevForum members) do if we find a topic like this?
Options
- FLAG IT - You could flag it and either report it for spam (as it violates the community guidelines) or for something else and explain.
Why Flagging May Not Work
When you flag something, it sends a message to the forum moderators, who then have to manually check the topic out. This means if moderators are not online, or are busy with other work then someone could buy the asset without realizing it wasn’t made by the person selling it.
- REPLY - You could reply to the topic saying something along the lines of, “This is a free model, I’ve seen it on ToolBox, find it here: Link to Model.” This way can also give the author a chance to publicly prove that the assets indeed are their work.
Why Replying May Not Work
The #collaboration:asset-marketplace has specific category guidelines (like all other categories), which can be found here. One of which is that you should only reply to a topic if you are interested in the asset being offered. And that you should not start lengthy discussions. Replying with the example -seems to be- against both those guidelines.
- PRIVATE MESSAGE - You could send a private message to the author of the article. Possibly including images/links to the work they are selling that isn’t theirs.
Why Private Messaging May Not Work
These are 2 scenarios that show why it won’t work:
-
The author truthfully knows that they are selling other users work, but to them you are just another user that didn’t publicly display this information so they just say that they made it and continue selling it.
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The author admits that they are selling assets that they didn’t create, but again, continues selling it as buyer’s may not be aware of this.
Question
If someone happens to come across a user that is selling free models in #collaboration:asset-marketplace, what should we do?
-
The options that are 100% for the guidelines are very faulty.
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While the options that work are considered ‘grey areas’ and may be against the rules.
It would be great if someone could clarify this.
tl;dr What should you do if you find a topic selling free models?
Do you feel there should be a better way (than what there is currently) to act on topics that are selling other people’s work?
- Yes
- No
0 voters
Conclusion
As shown by the poll, there are many users that agree there should be a better way to deal with this issue.
While I have no idea what can actually be done to fix this, my suggestion is add another flag type button for this. Only instead of asking why, ask for a link to the model. Then like flagging, if multiple users report the same link flag the post for moderation.
Thank you for reading!
-Cap