2021-2022 Updates Archive

[Aiko]

2021-2022 UPDATES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

An archive for official Art Haven update and announcements from 2021-2022

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February 2021

 

New Feature: Deactivating & Deleting Accounts

Members are now able to deactivate or delete their own accounts without needing to submit a support ticket! To deactivate or delete an account, go to your account settings, select "Deactivate/Delete" under "Other Settings" located on the right. Clicking this option will direct you to the control page prompting you to choose which option you would like for your account, along with important information regarding each decision.  Please make sure you read all information provided before making your selection.

 

For more information regarding deactivating and deleting your account, please click the spoiler below:

Spoiler

Deactivation will place your account on a type of hold, so to speak.  You will not be searchable, your profile will be hidden, members will not be able to message you, and you will not be able to access any part of Art Haven until the account is reactivated.  Your account and all of your content will remain untouched otherwise.  Deletion will permanently remove your account, including all of your content.  Regardless of which decision you choose, an email will be sent to the email address associated with your account informing you that a deletion/deactivation request has been made.  You will need to verify this request in order for the system to process it. 

 

Approving a deactivation via your email will immediately deactivate your account, prompting a message that informs you the account is deactivated and you will need to reactivate it to use it again.  You may reactivate it at any time.  Approving a deletion via your email will send your request up for administration review to make sure your account meets our deletion requirements.  If your deletion request is approved by an admin, you will have 30 days to cancel the deletion request before your account is permanently deleted. This is irreversible, so please make sure this is what you want to do.  If you aren't sure if you want to keep the account or not, deactivation is the better option to choose so you don't lose anything.

 

DMCA Takedown Request Forms

As a reminder, DMCA Takedown Requests MUST be filed by the original artist or copyright owner of the work that has been infringed upon. Committing copyright infringement is considered an act of breaking the law and there are certain procedures that we, as a staff team, must follow in order to document the infraction should there be a case of legal action being taken against the accused. Only the original artist or copyright owner or a legal agent can send in this form.

 

Please keep in mind that our DMCA Takedown Request form is for Art Haven artists and copyright owners only. If the original artist/copyright owner is not a member of our community, reporting the content as a possible DMCA violation is sufficient. Please remember to provide as much information as possible, such as links to the original images, portfolios for the artist, or their social media profiles to help us combat the infringement quickly.

 

The DMCA Takedown Request Form can be found here, by clicking the help button in the top bar of the website and clicking the direct link, or by scrolling down to the bottom of the website and clicking the direct link. 

The DMCA Takedown Request Form can be found in the following ways:

• By clicking the help button in the top bar of the website and clicking the direct link
• By scrolling to the bottom of the website and clicking the direct link
• By clicking here.

 

Disclaimer: This form can only be used to request content be removed from arthaven.co.  We CANNOT remove content on other websites, such as discord.com or imvu.com.  They each have their own DMCA agents you must contact in order to have any unauthorized content removed.

 

Staff Changes

Due to the continuous growth of our community and addition of other website features, the administrative team decided to overhaul our staff positions. We realized that although slight changes have been made to staff positions over the years, an overhaul was greatly needed to not only reflect community needs but to also minimize confusion as to who to contact for various types of questions and issues. This led to delayed assistance as many members were being redirected to other staff members.

 

In the past, we have had multiple moderator positions with each being responsible for various sections of the site. As we've grown and changed as a site, we've realized that some of these positions have become a bit redundant. As such, we've combined positions into two categories: Forum Moderators and Community Staff. For more information regarding the two positions, please see below:

Spoiler

Forum Moderators

Our Art Shop Moderator, Mature Moderator, and Miscellaneous Moderator positions have been combined into a new position and renamed as Forum Moderator. As the position's title implies, Forum Moderators moderate the forums only. If an issue or situation occurs outside the scope of forums, Forum Moderators will likely be unable to assist you as their abilities will be limited. Their duties consist of monitoring and managing all content created within the forum sections and no longer include monitoring or managing other areas of the website. 

 

Community Staff

This is a new staff position that was created for the purpose of monitoring and managing all content created outside of the forums. This includes the gallery, profiles, status updates, marketplace, auctions, etc. Simply put, if an issue or situation occurs that is not related to forums, the Community Staff are the ones to contact. They handle the extra overhead that was looming over our forum moderators and will have the ability to assist members when appropriate. Similar to the restrictions with Forum Moderators, their ability to help with issues or situations that occur outside of their scope will be limited. 

 

Profiles

The following cosmetic adjustments have been made to member profiles:

• Profile photos have been sized up to 170px.
• Cover photos now cover the top part of the profile and have been sized up to accept fairly large images.
• The sidebar of information has been made smaller so that custom tabs have more room to display artwork, information, and other images.

Default Display/Profile Picture Sizes

There is no set default size for display pictures. By default, the system will accept and display all artwork uploaded regardless of size. However, the maximum size it will be displayed at is 220x220px . This means that if you were to upload an image that was 400x800px, the system will automatically size the image down to 110x220px in order to fit the entire image within the 220x220px space. Images that are 1:1 will size down without issue. 

 

This applies ONLY to the display picture shown when you post content within the forums.  During image upload, you will be prompted to select a cropped version of your image.  That cropped version is what is displayed in various sizes everywhere else on the website, including your profile.

 

"My Artwork" Profile Tab replaced with "My Gallery" Tab

The "My Artwork" profile tab was removed and replaced with the "My Gallery" tab as it offers a more organized way to display artwork uploaded to Art Haven. Art Haven members can rate, react, and comment on each image right from your profile! To enable and add artwork to this tab, simply upload your artwork to the main gallery. Each time you upload a new artwork, it will be automatically added to your "My Gallery" tab!

 

Navigation Changes

Every year, we evaluate and monitor the activity of certain sections to see which areas of the website people are accessing more. We make adjustments to the site's navigation based on these evaluations in order to make links to popular areas a priority. As such, the following changes have been made:

• A couple links have been removed from the main navigation.
• All sub-links have been removed from "Forums" and "Store".  
• The links for the store were added as "Quick Links" that can be accessed from the store homepage in the sidebar.
• The " My Wallet" link has been moved to user navigation (the links that pop up when you click your little profile photo at the top of the website).

Mobile Navigation Changes

Mobile navigation has also received an update with better organization and a new help tree. All icons have been moved into the menu itself as the top bar of the mobile site was becoming cluttered with all the different options. Now, only the website color changer will show in the mobile top bar (this includes the revert button if you have a custom color selected). The light and dark mode switch (moon), quick content creator (plus sign), and search (magnifying glass) are now located under user information when the menu is opened. A link to access your wallet from mobile is now listed under, "My Account".

 

New Mobile Navigation Preview: (Some things may not show for you since I am staff)

Spoiler

 

Preview of the new Help Tree: (Some options are only available for members.  If you are missing some items, you'll need to log in to see them)

Spoiler

 

General Reminders

Here are a few important reminders for the community to help keep everyone safe while using our website or when dealing with members offsite:

• Art Haven Staff will NEVER ask you for your account log-in information or password for any reason. If you are locked out of your account, we will ask you to use the "forgot password" link to regain access. We will never manually unlock the account or claim that we provide that service.  If someone approaches you with this claim or asks for your password, block and report them immediately. If the "forgot password" link does not work for you or fails to reset your password, please contact support.
• If someone approaches you privately offsite and claims to be a staff member on Art Haven, always assume that they are NOT a staff member. Unless you are unable to access the website, your account, or some other extreme circumstance, we will never provide support via Discord or any other site. If you contact a staff member offsite, you will be redirected to submit a support ticket. If we need to contact you through Discord or any other site, we will send you a private message on Art Haven beforehand so you know you are talking to an actual staff member. This is usually only done during staff applications for trainee onboarding. You can join our official Discord server to view the real accounts of our staff members. Their names are green.
• If someone threatens you in any way and claims they are "friends with" or "close to" any member of the staff, report them immediately. We do not grant special favors or assist in personal vendettas for any one regardless of their personal status with a staff member or their "reputation" on the website. We do not tolerate this type of threat or behavior.
• Everything can be reported on Art Haven. While comments, posts, messages, and images have a report button you can click on, you can still report members and member profiles by submitting a report via support ticket. Do not be afraid of reporting too often or not knowing if something is worth reporting. If it's not a rule violation, we will mark it as such and move on. The longer you take to report something, the harder it is for us to resolve the issue. However, please keep in mind that we are unable to follow up with you about any report you submit due to our privacy policies.  We may ask your for more information, but we will never reveal the outcome of a report or any actions taken against the person reported. We will also never reveal the identity of the person who submitted the report.

[Aiko]

May 2021

 

Documentation

With the help of our assistant, we are currently in the process of updating all Art Haven Official Wiki Guides. We are aware that a few of them are outdated or contain information that is no longer necessary. In addition to updating our Wiki Guides, we are also in the process of creating new guides that may be useful to new and existing members. If you have a suggestion for a guide, please feel free to contact us! 

 

Off-Site Grievances 

We have received multiple reports involving scamming, art theft, and harassment that has occurred on other website such as Discord and Instagram. While we do not condone this type of behavior, we unfortunately have no jurisdiction on other platforms and cannot control what people say or do. We are unable to penalize them and have no right to do so. If someone is scamming, harassing, or committing art theft on another website, please use that platforms reporting tools or contact their customer service team for assistance in resolving the issue. 

 

Every website has their own policies that they enforce and procedures to handle transgressions that occur, please keep in mind that these policies and procedures may differ from ours. Unless a violation occurred directly on Art Haven, such as a member attempting to sell illegitimate artwork or harass another member via private messaging, we do not have any jurisdiction over their actions. There are only a couple extremely rare exceptions to this rule. 

 

The staff team does care about everyone's safety and we want you to have a positive experience on our platform. We are all personally involved in the community and are fully aware that there are members who make calculated attempts at avoiding consequences by going offsite. It is something that frustrates us and while we wish we could do more, we simply cannot as we have no right or jurisdiction to. 

 

We appreciate the community for understanding why it's important to utilize the appropriate channels of communication on each individual platform. We review each and every report that is submitted, even if we are unable to resolve the issue ourselves. If we are unable to provide direct support, we will provide you with any important information, links, or guides that will help you get the support you need. 

 

Discord Links

Discord has become one of the most abused platforms when it comes to offsite advertising within topics and listings. We have seen an incredible spike in reports for scamming, payment disputes, and the purchase of illegitimate artwork within sever Discord servers and private messages. Offsite advertising is something Art Haven has only allowed via paid ads, signatures, profiles and status updates. We consider offsite advertising to be promoting your goods and services that are provided on another website or app. 

 

Offsite advertising is not allowed in topics, posts, or the marketplace due to the lack of buyer and seller protection once you leave our website. Additionally, you are not allowed to ask members to contact you offsite to complete their order or for updates on their commissions. Transactions that start on Art Haven, must be completed on Art Haven and all updates must be posted within your topic or via private messaging. You are free to buy or sell on any platform you choose, but we are unable to provide assistance for any transaction that occurs offsite, even if you were influenced to make that decision by something posted on Art Haven. This includes issues with payment disputes, false charge-backs, or failure of delivery. While we try our best to create a dialogue between members in disputes, our support is ultimately limited whether an agreeable resolution is met or not.

 

Please keep in mind that once you leave Art Haven, you are doing everything at your own risk and we are not liable. The staff team does their best to monitor and moderate all content on the website and we appreciate the help of all members who bring thing to our attention by reporting rule violations to us. However, there isn't an efficient enough way for us to review every piece of content that gets posted to the website no matter how hard we try. 

 

Due to the influx of Discord links being posted within topics, posts, and marketplace listings, we have decided to implement an automatic system filter to place any content that contains Discord information into a pending queue for staff approval. This does not mean that we have changed any rule, but rather we are implementing a way to help enforce our existing rules and protect our members. Members can continue to post their Discord links in their status updates, but please keep in mind that there will be a temporary delay between when you hit "post" and when the rest of the membership will be able to view your status. This delay is due to the automatic system filter. Once a staff member approves your status update, it will be visible to the rest of the site.

 

July 2021

 

Elite Renewal Issues and Updates

We have been experiencing some issues with our Elite Membership subscriptions due to a change in the way they are handled. We have also updated our Elite Perks. For more information, please view the following announcement topic: 

 

November 2021

 

PayPal Issues 

Last year, Art Haven made some changes to its leadership and ownership which led to a new PayPal account being created using newly filed documents that established the business under its new ownership. As part of PayPal's policies, all newly created business accounts must undergo a lengthy verification process. While undergoing verification, business accounts are unable to process payments and withdrawals. These issues have since been resolved, but if you would like more information, please view the following announcement topic: 

 

Art Haven Wallet Updates

Following the resolution of our PayPal issues, we decided to update our Art Haven wallet page with a new withdrawal schedule. 

Withdrawal requests will now be processed weekly on Friday by 7:00pm CST (8:00pm EST or 5:00pm PST). Any withdrawal requests submitted after this time will not be processed until the following Friday. Once your request is approved, funds will be sent instantly.

 

As always, if you need your withdrawal sooner, need to request an amount less than $50.00, or need to make more than one withdrawal within a week, you may contact support and request a manual withdrawal. Manual withdrawals have a fee of $5.00 taken out of your balance before the withdrawal is processed. Please note we may not be able to accommodate some requests under certain circumstances.

[Aiko]

January 2022

 

Upcoming Important Announcement

Please view the following topic for more information about our upcoming announcements: 

 

2022 Updates and Changes Announcement

Please view the following announcement for more information about all of Art Haven's updates and changes for 2022!