General Information, Rules Guidelines

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stopBSL's Information, Rules & Guidelines


:note: Notice: Please do not post on this blog!
Understand that this is the page for stopBSL's general information, rules & submission guidelines, none of the contents here is up for debate or discussion. If you have any questions, we ask of you to please direct them stopBSL's administrative team in note form only; all comments posted on this blog entry are considered spam, which will be hidden / flagged as spam & ignored, and questions will just be left unanswered.  Please respect our wishes to keep this free of comments.

:groups: Welcome to stopBSL :la:

stopBSL is a group solely for canine lovers & artists, a place where canine enthusiasts can share dog related artwork in effort to raise awareness about breed-specific legislation, also known as BSL, to encourage responsible dog ownership & to demote the undeserved stereotypes among man's best friend, the dog

We are for responsible dog ownership, responsible / ethical purebred breeding, we also wish to promote adoption & rescue instead of buying from irresponsible / "backyard" breeders & pet stores

We do not believe in breed discrimination, profiling or stereotypes; we look to discourage discrimination & dismiss myths through education & raising awareness; we are here to provide our members with accurate need-to-know information as well as a wide variety of resources on the different aspects of responsible dog ownership


We are anti-BSL & pro-canine!

| Can I Join & How Do I Join? |

To join stopBSL, click where it says "Join Our Group" at the top of the page and wait patiently for your join request to be accepted by an administrator. Please do not ask to join the group because everyone & anyone is entitled to join

It would be very much appreciated if you included stopBSL's icon or username in your journal or anywhere else on your account page, but this is not mandatory, it is only a simple request to help spread word about the group and attract more supporters

:pointr: FAQ #81: How can I create links to other deviants, deviations, or websites?

| How Do I Submit Artwork? |

Once your join request has been accepted, you can begin submitting artwork to the group's gallery. To submit artwork, you will need to click the gallery tab and click where it says "Contribute to This Folder", here you will be able to select which of your own deviations from your gallery which you would like to submit to ours

| Which Folder Do I Submit To? |

Each folder contains details on the left hand side which describes to you what kind of artwork is accepted there and what the folder's general rules are for its particular focus. Please see the Overview of Gallery Folders, this gives a summary of what each gallery folder is used for. Artwork submitted to the wrong gallery folder will be declined, members are welcome to re-submit the declined work to the correct gallery folder



:work:

General Submission Rules


:note: Notice! After reviewing the rules, please be sure to see stopBSL's Fequently Asked Questions too!

If you feel the need to argue or question our rules that all of our administrators have agreed upon, or if you feel you yourself are above the rules over all other members then refer to our FAQ which provides directions on how to leave stopBSL

Only members are permitted to submit artwork to our gallery and favorites collection

The gallery submission limit is three per day, per member as of 2013

As of 2013, stopBSL now accepts a maximum of three submission to the gallery each day per member. While the global submission limit is set to three, some folders have their own submission limits that go by a weekly or monthly basis; the Overview of Gallery Folders shows a summary of what each gallery folder is for and also what their individual submission limits are, those same submission limits can also be found on the left hand side in each folder

While stopBSL enforces a submission limit of no more than three submissions per day, please be aware and understand that sometimes the group's system does not always enforce these limits due to bugs in the system, these bugs occur without warning and without our knowledge until a member goes over our submission limit. Please respect and abide by the group's submission limit of three per day, just because you find that you are able to submit more than three pieces of artwork at once does not mean you should

Because stopBSL  permits a total of two photographs of the same dog into the group's gallery each day, we do not allow collages or groupings of multiple photographs as one submission, whether or not it is featuring just one dog or twenty different dogs; all photographs must be sent in as single, individual photography submissions, which is a rule made specifically out of fairness for all members of the group

:note: Please take note that this rules has two minor exceptions:
1. artwork featuring multiple drawings / paintings as a single submission sent to either of the folders for traditional and digital artwork
2. artwork sent to either of the two folders Pet Adoption Promotional Artwork and In Memory - Rainbow Bridge
Aside from those two minor exceptions, all submissions of photograph groupings / collages will be declined!


We automatically decline artwork sent to the wrong gallery folders. We automatically decline artwork that is categorized under the incorrect dA category; if you need help with either of these, please contact us before submitting to our gallery

Please do not submit the same deviation more than once for any reason unless asked by an administrator; all submissions of the same deviation submitted to our gallery will be automatically declined. If your submission has yet to be accepted you are expected to wait patiently for an administrator to log on, submitting the same deviation more than once will not speed up the process, instead it will extend the process, so we ask members to please be patient and pay mind to this general submission guideline

Members are not allowed to remove deviations from the group's gallery only to re-submit them for any reason, once a member removes a deviation from the group's gallery it is never allowed to reenter the gallery; please be aware that when members remove deviations from the group's gallery, a notification appears in the group's message center showing the administrators what deviations have been removed and by what member. stopBSL's administrators pay close attention to what enters the group's gallery, as well as what is removed from the group's galley

In order to prevent overcrowding, some folders in our gallery have their own submission limits per week or per month; this information is provided on the left hand side within the folder, along with that folder's own set of rules, this information can also be found in our Overview of Gallery Folders

We welcome all types of artwork here, with only very few exceptions

Please only submit finished artwork, no "works in progress" or sketches

Clean, quality lineart is allowed

Please do not submit artwork to our gallery that is located in your scraps. Should any of our administrators happen to come across artwork in our gallery that has been moved from a dA category to the member's scraps, we will remove it from our gallery altogether; if you have submitted artwork to the group that you have decided to move to your scraps later on, we would appreciate it if you'd remove said artwork from our gallery instead of leaving it to us to deal with
:pointr: FAQ #242: What are scraps?

The only exception to the no scraps rule is for stamps, as some deviants do not feel stamps are a real art form and prefer to submit & / or move stamps to their scraps gallery instead of submitting them to their regular gallery under the DeviantART related  > Deviant stamps category

Concerning stamps, we also accept some non-canine stamps as long as they are otherwise pet / animal related, we prefer to only accept stamps that raise awareness on important animal-related issues, providing factual information and are educational, or in some way are pro-animal and positive. The range of what kind of stamps we accept is rather limited

Do not submit personal journal / blog entries to our gallery or favorites collection, these will be declined. The only exception to this rule is for journal / blog entries being submitted to the Pet Adoption Promotional Artwork folder in effort to promote adoption of available shelter / rescue pets, promote a rescue organization or animal shelter, or raise money for a rescued animal in need

We do not allow DeviantID images

Animated films are welcome, but we do not accept home movies / videos, that is what YouTube is for!

We ask members to please remove deviations from our gallery that have been placed in "storage"

Submit your own work only, this rule concerns both submissions featuring artwork that includes stolen material, as well as submitting requests to include any submissions from another deviant's gallery. Submitting stolen artwork to our gallery is prohibited; you will be reported for art theft and removed from the group without warning. This includes using others' artwork in your own work without permission
:pointr: FAQ #8: What are violations of the DeviantArt copyright policy?
:pointr: FAQ #157: Can I use things created by other people in my submissions?
:pointr: FAQ #306: Does "Crediting" let me use whatever I want?
:pointr: FAQ #257: What sort of permission do I need to use someone else's work?


Artwork submitted to the group's gallery must contain at least one canine; domestic dogs only. All breeds are welcome including mongrels / mutts / mixed breeds of unknown ancestry

A domestic dog must be the main focus / subject of the artwork, but humans and other animals are most certainly welcome to be included as well

No artwork containing wolfdogs / wolf x dog mixes or any other wild canine x dog hybrids; as said previously, this group is strictly for domestic canine artwork only. This issue is discussed in our FAQ to help members further understand

Drawings and paintings can be of any style, but must maintain realistic aspects and be as anatomically accurate as possible; skill does not apply here. Fanart and original characters with natural colors are allowed. Please take notice that we no longer accept fantasy styled artwork, "furries" or anthropomorphic artwork or any other related artwork; we do not accept "adoptables" either

If we feel as though any artwork categorized under DeviantART's digital art > photomanipulation section does not appear to have a significant amount of modifying done for it to have the title as a photomanipulation, then it will not be accepted into either of the digital + traditional art folders; instead, these are preferred to be sent to either of the photography folders. We do not believe that simple / minor editing and adding basic filters are what qualify an artwork to be called a photomanipulation, these only appear to be mid to highly edited photographs thus they will be treated as such

In relation to our rule concerning photomanipulations versus photography, we do not accept any kind of artwork that has been placed in the wrong DeviantART categories as this goes against dA's rules as well; any members found to do this will be asked to change to the correct DeviantART category before their submissions are accepted into the group's gallery

Artwork that depicts or promotes animal abuse, negligence or cruelty in any way is prohibited. The only exception to this rule is that the artwork is intended to raise awareness

We strictly prohibit all photography and artwork in general that contains injured, ill, diseased, dead animals or in any way depicts abuse, negligence, starvation and/or violence, which also pertains to our rule regarding irresponsible dog ownership. This includes photography of stray pets living on the streets and are not in some way currently under the care of or sheltered by humans. The only exception to this rule is if the artwork is intended to educate / raise awareness

Artwork promoting, condoning or encouraging irresponsible dog breeding, such as breeding dogs for profit or appearance (size, color, cross-breeding, etc), is forbidden; while we accept purebred and mutt artwork, we will not tolerate mutts being labeled under designer names, as this represents and encourages irresponsible breeding. These issues are discussed in our FAQ to help members further understand

Artwork depicting irresponsible dog ownership is unacceptable. The only exception to this rule is if the artwork is intended to educate / raise awareness

Artwork showing violence on behalf of the dog in the artwork is not allowed; this would also include any artwork with mature content filters due to excessive and extreme violence, blood &/or gore, if a mature content filter is required then we will have to decline it should we feel as though the artwork in question may not be suitable for all of our members, this includes digital and traditional artwork featuring dogs with scars, blood, gore, open wounds, torn flesh or any type of injury, as we feel such artwork is not suitable for this group. The only exception to this rule is if the artwork is intended to raise awareness.
:pointr: FAQ #554: Is my deviation Mature Content?
:pointr: FAQ #220: What is Mature Content?


Here at stopBSL, we prefer not to display artwork in our gallery that features dogs showing aggression or behaving in an aggressive manner; we wish to show dogs in a much better light, as "man's best friend". As stated above, we do not allow artwork into our gallery that shows violence on behalf of the dog, and this includes artwork depicting aggressive and vicious dogs / dogs displaying any aggressive behavior such as growling and snarling and of course, biting and attacking; one exception to this rule is if the artwork is intended to raise awareness, or in some cases, the only other exception to this rule is if the artwork features a dog that is being used for sports that use the animal's natural instincts such as police work and schutzhund; please understand that this rule does not pertain to dogs that are harmlessly barking as long as the dog in the artwork does not appear to be displaying aggressive behavior or as long as the artist of the piece can assure our administrators that the dog in the artwork is not acting out in an aggressive manner, however our administrators reserve the right to decline any artwork that we feel is not acceptable for our gallery regardless if the dog in the artwork is not necessarily displaying aggressive behavior

Obviously, pornographic imagery or any artwork pertaining to sex is prohibited
:pointr: FAQ #565: You prohibit the submission of 'pornographic imagery'; what do you consider this to be?

Please do not submit artwork that others may find to be crude, vulgar or offensive, even if not done intentionally, and any artwork that is intended to offend others or in any way has been determined to be a form of "hate art" is prohibited.
:pointr: FAQ #12: DeviantArt doesn't allow 'Hate Art', 'Hate Speech' or 'Hate Propaganda', what is this?

Dog owners who prove to be irresponsible or harmful to their pet in anyway will be removed from the group

Dog breeders who wish to be apart of our group and contribute art to the group's gallery must prove to comply with responsible and ethical breeding practices; whether a breeder's practices prove to be ethical and reasonable or not will be determined and decided on by the group administrators. This issue is discussed in our FAQ to help members further understand

We at stopBSL do not support, encourage or in any way condone dog fighting, or any forms of animal cruelty; members found to be supporters and enthusiasts of dog fighting, or any other form of animal cruelty, will be removed without warning or notice

While it should not at all be necessary to actually create such a rule that should otherwise need no explanation, as of September 2013 after handling a newly joined and now former member that supports breed-specific laws, we felt it may be useful to post a rule outlining how we generally feel about supporters of breed-specific legislation joining this group and also as a warning should any others with the same mindset try to join this group in the future. It must be well understood that while the administrators here at stopBSL maintain an open mind, always respect all other opinions and also welcome new ideas to the table, we cannot in good conscience allow those who support breed-specific legislation to be apart of this group. It is fairly obvious that any breed-specific legislation supporter who joins stopBSL simply has absolutely no respect for this group, its mission, its members or administrative team who have put much effort in making this group what it is today - therefore any members found to be supporters of breed-specific legislation will be removed and banned without notice. We will not tolerate breed-specific legislation supporters taking advantage of stopBSL's gallery and audience, as such behavior is a total insult to not only the group and the administrators but also the members who have joined us in support of what we stand for

It must be understood that stopBSL is well aware that in some countries the bloodsport of dog fighting is a legal form of entertainment and sport, but legal or not this is still a form of animal cruelty, and while some members may live in such a country wherein this sport is perfectly legal, that does not welcome members to submit photography of dogs used in the pit to the group's gallery. The single reason this rule has been further clarified is due to a now former member and individual who was not very pleased with stopBSL's choice to decline all of their photography featuring game-bred American Pit Bull Terriers used for dog fighting - it should be a given that no matter where in the world you live, be it in a country where dog fighting is rightfully outlawed or in a country where dog fighting is unfortunately apart of the norm and celebrated, it does not make this bloodsport any less cruel

Please do not feel offended, singled out or the victim of a personal attack should a group administrator contact you via comment on the pending submission process of the artwork you have submitted to our gallery. If we feel you have artwork that may be questionable to some degree, we are not going to hesitate to ask questions, & in return we expect thoroughly detailed answers, otherwise we will decline the submission and any other related submissions of yours. We do hope to resolve any and all issues in a civil and adult-like manner; however, if your behavior proves to be anything but that, then we are not going to waste our time with you or your submissions. These issues are discussed in our FAQ to help members further understand

Everyone must at all times be kind, courteous and respectful to fellow members as well as their artwork; this also goes for posting rude / hateful comments anywhere on our page in disagreement with what our group stands for. Harassment or rude behavior will not be tolerated here and those who act in such a way will be removed from the group without warning or notice
:pointr: FAQ #238: How do I report people for abuse, harassment, or another issue I think is a problem?

Again, all members must always be courteous and respectful to others. We understand that each dog lover may have their favorite dog breeds and their least favorite dog breeds, but we will not tolerate breed discrimination here no matter the breed, be it a German Shepherd Dog or a Yorkshire Terrier or a mutt of unknown ancestry, we at stopBSL support and love all dogs breeds, not just American Pit Bull Terriers and Doberman Pinschers! Please do not post disrespectful comments anywhere on our page or blogs discriminating against or degrading or down talking any breeds of dog that you may dislike &/or hate for whatever reason, these comments will be hidden / flagged as spam, said member will be given a warning and asked to stop; we hope that a simple warning will halt this kind of behavior and no further action will need to be taken

Should we feel that a member has proven to be a constant problem for our group by breaking multiple rules countless times even after being spoken to by any of our administrators and even after being presented with a single warning that their troublesome ways have inclined us to consider a ban, we reserve the right to remove said member from the group if these problems persist

Please do not use our front page or anywhere else on our profile as a place for you to advertize, we are not a bulletin board for "shameless self promotion". If you wish to advertize or share your artwork with others, that is what our gallery is for

Members found to have blocked any of our administrators for whatever reason need to speak with founder sassawj concerning the issue; we will not tolerate "blocking" for any undeserving reason, as usually the reason is to get the last word in which is blatant abuse of dA's blocking system. However if you feel as though said administrator was blocked for a good reason, please still speak with the founder about this, otherwise we will use this as reason to remove you from our group altogether

As it should be very clear from the very beginning when you initially join our group as we welcome each individual member by directing them to our rules, submission guidelines and FAQ - however, if you feel stopBSL is too strict with submissions or has too many rules that are not necessarily art-related, then you are more than welcome to leave, but please do not berate, mistreat or harass our administrators, please do not act out in a rude, childish manner and resort to name calling simply because we asked a question concerning the dog in your photograph, please do not complain to us that your submissions are continuously being declined and you do not know why despite the rules being right there in plain sight for everyone's convenience. There is no reason for anyone to act out in such a manner or treat our administrators badly, we are not forcing you to be a member here but if you want to be apart of this group and remain a member, then you are expected to respect our administrators, respect the rules and abide by them, otherwise you will not be welcome here



Co-Founders, Administrators &/or Contributors

The administrators of stopBSL are specially picked because of their knowledge & understanding of dogs / breeds, having much experience working with / handling dogs as well as possessing knowledge in various other aspects that make up our group's foci, such as responsible pet ownership, ethical breeding, rescue & adoption, and dog training & behavior. While we are not looking to add anymore to our team of co-founders we can always make room for more knowledgeable canine enthusiasts to be apart of our team of contributors who can devote some time to constructing accurate & factual educational articles on the many aspects of being a good dog owner, so if you believe that you can help out stopBSL with your knowledge on dogs, feel free to contact the founder or one of the co-founders expressing why you would make a good, reliable administrator and how you can help make a difference in our group.
© 2010 - 2024 stopBSL
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