FAQ (Work in Progress)

Support Blender Artists Website Support
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Table of Contents

Note: This is work in progress; feel free to post questions that you think should be on this list as a reply an we’ll process them. We will remove those replies once they’re added or rejected

General information

How is Blender Artists organized?

Blender Artists is managed by @bartv and maintained by a small team of moderators. You can see the team here. Please only DM team members if you have a question that requires privacy.

Are you affiliated to Blender.org?

No, Blender Artists is a separate entity.

How do you pay the bills?

Running this site isn’t cheap; we spend quite a bit on hosting and on work hours. Our ads cover most of the costs, and we hope that regular members will support us on Patreon.

Your account

Can you change my username?

Of course! Just leave a message in Blender Artists Website Support and include the new username you’d like to use.

How to add your social media handles to your account

You can add your Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, ArtStation and Mastodon handles to your Blender Artists profile. That way, they’ll show up on your user card, and we’ll automatically tag you when we share your work on social media! Just head to the profile section in your preferences.

Posting on Blender Artists

Where should I post?

How can I create a new post?

  1. Navigate to the appropriate category, like Finished Projects, and click the ‘New Topic’ button on the top right of the page.
  2. Enter a title and message. You can drag images straight into the editor to upload them.
  3. Optionally, select some tags.

How do I upload images?

There are two ways to add images to your post:

  1. Click the ‘Upload’ icon in the post editor:

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  1. Drag image files into the post editor.

We do not recommend posting links to images. In most cases, Discourse will download these images, but in some cases (like when a website forbids this), it won’t and your post may be broken in the future when your file disappears.

Why can I only upload one image?

When you have just created a new account on Blender Artists, you have limited permissions. By spending 10 minutes browsing the forums and reading topics you will be automatically upgraded, allowing you to upload more than one image at a time.

How can I select the thumbnail image for my topic?

The default thumbnail of your topic will be the first image in the first post. If you’d like to change it to something else, edit your original post and add one, and use this code to make it the thumbnail by inserting ‘|thumbnail’ in the post code:

![<image title>|<image size>|thumbnail](upload://url)

What is the policy for NSFW content?

While we allow artistic nudity, erotic or pornographic work will be removed and will result in an official warning. Additionally, you need to apply the nsfw tag to any work that contains nudity, graphical violence etc.

NSFW work is not eligible for the featured row.

Why is the ‘New Topic’ button grayed out?

Each topic needs to be in a category, so make sure you’re in a category first. Also, you can’t post in ‘top level’ categories like Artwork - select the appropriate sub-category first, like Finished Projects.

(Instagram) Can you repost my work?

I’m sorry but we don’t do reposts. Start by sharing this on the Blender Artists forum and if your work is selected as a Feature, you’ll be shared here too.

Note: only add your username, not the full URL!

Featured Row

How is Featured work selected?

Level 3 members (see ‘What are Trust levels?’ below) collectively cast votes on a private topic. The ones that get over 70% approval are featured. Also, the winner of each Weekend Challenge gets their submitted work featured.

As noted above, NSFW work is not eligible for the featured row.

Contacting the moderators to get featured is generally not going to help you.

Trust Levels

What are Trust Levels?

If you contribute actively to this community, Discourse will ‘reward’ you with a higher ‘Trust Level’. New users start at level 0, and will quickly level up after a bit of reading. The Trust Level (TL) system helps the community manage itself, fight spam and self-organise.

You can learn more about this system on the Discourse Blog.

How do I increase my Trust Level?

The only metric that affects your Trust Level is your engagement with the Blender Artists community; the more time you spend reading, replying, liking and receiving likes etc, the better you’ll do. We don’t publish your stats to avoid ‘gamifying’ this system.

Self Promotion

What is the self-promotion policy on this site?

You can make up to one self-promotion post a week. Please refer to this post for details.

What is self-promotion?

Self-promotion is a post or reply that advertises you. Specifically, this may mean:

  • A Tutorials, Tips and Tricks topic linking to your YouTube channel, blog, or personal website
  • A link to your YouTube channel, website, or blog in a reply to another topic
  • A BlenderMarket/Gumroad/etc link to one of your products
  • A topic in Released Scripts and Themes sharing an add-on you’ve made

Note that we count replies to your self-promotions too as these bump your topic back to the top of the message list.

What isn’t self-promotion?

This does not include links to your social media, or YouTube videos posted in your own Finished Projects - this is an expected part of sharing an artwork. For example, you post an artwork in Finished Projects and add a link to your Instagram, as well as a art breakdown video on your YouTube channel. This is not self-promotion, for the sake of this rule.

However, if you make a reply to that topic sharing the model on BlenderMarket, that is self-promotion.

What if I need additional promotion?

You can reach out to @bartv if you’re interested in commercial opportunities for promotion, such as site banners or advertising on the Blender AdNet.

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Might it make more sense to take the first image from the most recent post as the thumbnail for the sketchbook section?

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That’s not supported by the thumbnails plugin, sorry.

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The phrase “become a Patreon” appears to be a link, but it has no URL, so it doesn’t take you anywhere. Seems worth fixing!

Also, the phrasing “become a Patreon” is a little weird (Patreon is the name of the entire site, not the individual patrons)… Maybe “become a patron” or “become a patron on Patreon”?

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If there’s no way to delete a thread, is there a way to ask a mod to delete it?

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@iangilman ah thanks, I have updated that part.

@TwistLia correct; deleting your topic would also delete everyone else’s contributions. If there are urgent reasons to delete something (for example because you shared personal information), please flag your post as ‘something else’ and enter your request+motivation.

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Hi Bart, I understand why threads can’t be deleted but is it possible (or can be implemented) to hide threads permanently in one’s archive? - for me it’s just a tidy-up issue but I can imagine some people not wanting to be reminded of an aggravating interaction forever, whenever they check their messages and look back into their archive

for example, (I’m a mildly known filmmaker) on other sites I’ve been pestered about “collabs” or “money making opportunities” and/or some artists seem to be looking for mentors or emotional support or whathaveyou, none of which I wish to engage with or have to think about every time I review my messages

for me it’s not a issue so far on BA, my issue today was just housekeeping: I tried to clean up my archive, found I couldn’t, searched the FAQ and ended up here leaving you this message

people can, of course, use a pseudonym but, for my part, ultimately I’d prefer to be myself while not being reminded of people from the past who’d like to gain something from me - I’m not easily triggered but I’m sure other people are - does that make sense?

keep up the great work! - Stephen Norrington

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? Hiding in personal archive? Isn’t the archive for personal mails? Subcategory of Messages Inbox… I haven’t any so i don’t know but aren’t they just deletable? (Not for the recipient anyway.)

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Please use the flagging option posts for this; and flag as ‘something else’ + leave a message. Note that we’re reluctant to remove posts that have replies by other members, especially if there’s a long discussion as this would remove their contribution as well. And we have no ‘archive’ option as you ask, we can only delete things.

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Hello bartv, I always use this site on my tablet. Today I accidentally pressed flag option to a post. Any way to cancel this ? Thanks in advance.

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There is not. I’ll remove the flag for you.

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To find out some more about how the forum works… there should be a message from the discobot :robot: in the personal/private message area… just read it…

If not… then just write it a message ( Profile → Summary → Messages → New Message) and write to @ followed by discobot… actually there is a completion funcion…
You might be noticed that this “member” wasn’t saying much for a couple of month and you might want to use another contact method… but don’t bother… discobot doesn’t even have to sleep… :wink:

Don’t forget a topic and you also will learn that the message has to be more then 10 character…

You proberly get an anser like:

…say @discobot display help

or you also even to so in the first place…

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It’s almost funny ( actually not ) if someone looks into some older posts…

And especially about:

  • Netiquette
  • How to ask questions

…because it helps to be polite and not re-asked after only some minutes even hours to push the question…
Maybe have searched the forum for some similar questions (and maybe answers) could already help (and often does) and also refereing those findings may also encourage others to find a solution.

I have tried everthing.

…is not very precise (actually simply false) and is not going to animate anyone else to do it for you…

Also to use clearly problem showing (not to big… size and uncompressed) images (with GUI if showing actuall options but not any unrelated GUI and not only the final render with the problem but maybe also the wireframe… but also not too small and a too big compression) or a blend file (layout already focused to the problem) where someone don’t have to search for the problem at all (so maybe deleting everything what’s irrelevant) will greatly help for any helpfull soul so even think about your problem.

Imagine the advertisment :

Car for sale. Call me if you are interested.

( Some questions really almost look like that… showing an image and someone have to ask what is shown at all… so… WHY ?? :crazy_face: )

So just do yourself a favour (and don’t make other struggly while investigating your problem):

Please be precise and clear about what you want someone else to do for you.

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I don’t think mocking someone who posted 17 years ago is particularly helpful, nor does it belong on this topic?

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I’m sorry if this came across in this way because i didn’t meant to mock anyone at all…

( I also refered/linked only to the start of the thread… i may should have mentioned that the liveliness (?) of this thread indeed changed a bit inbetween… and also just noticed that it was only liked once before…)

Anyway:
In fact i think this are good tips ( already back then ) about how to make the best out of this fantastic community to help the questioneer to make good questions so there could be good answers… and not only ask something what sometimes was even answered some days (or even hours) ago…

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When you just get here and you cannot attach things, etc… what is one to do? How does a person climb this social ladder? I feel lost, maybe this FAQ could include this important first step? can i say that being new?

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