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RE: ASCII art

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Posted May 28, '08 at 12:50pm

Strop

Strop

10,605 posts

Moderator

Guys, not to be a spoilsport but I have noticed a proliferation of ASCII art that involves a level of artistic composition that even most adults couldn't possibly possess.

This is awesome, but what is not awesome is that no credit has been given where credit just might be due (given that many who post ASCII art also go to lengths to specify that they are too young to access this site legally). Moderators have already instructed that no art be stolen- and by stolen this means claimed as your own if you haven't done it yourself.

In short, I'm suspicious of some of what comes out, so I'd like to encourage a little honesty here. You still get kudos for finding the source of much awesomeness.

Alternatively, I could go ahead and point you directly to things like the largest repository for ASCII art, or even, zomg, an ASCII picture generator! You will note that the former has not been updated in 2 years.

But seriously, not to hate on or rag on anyone in particular, I'm just asking you to beware of the fad of coolness. If you have been 'omitting' the detail that this crazy awesome art wasn't actually entirely drawn by you, just out of respect it might be an idea to start including it.

If I've offended anybody who genuinely spent several hours on creating their original piece of ASCII art, I do apologise, but as an artist myself, I have to tell you...them's the breaks. Worse yet, since ASCII art is more about reproduction than creation, you're going to cop more 'oh noes, art theft' flak than I possibly could, seeing as my medium allows me to display a very distinct style. All that said, that's not going to stop me from sitting down and giving it a burl myself :D

Posted May 28, '08 at 2:58pm

Arax_Nisanu

Arax_Nisanu

1,343 posts

I truly see where you are coming from. Many profile's of members contain ASCII guns and weapons. I know for a fact that the source of these weapons did not originate from a member on the armor games site. It started with one member who put them on his/her profile. From there many have copied the artwork onto their own profiles. I will search for the culprit site to where the originals can be found. Until then, i am here by stating my opinion on these ASCII guns.

All members who have the ASCII guns/weapons should immediately remove them. For the following reasons:

A) Art is indeed stolen and not original
B) Violence is never the answer
C) If the administration checked profiles as often as they should, they would most likely enforce a general rule to ban all ASCII weaponry.

I'm sure many also feel that bringing violence to a community site would not be a grand idea. If you are reading this, i duly hope that you have it in you to spread the word and help abolish such violence.

The culprits
http://www.asciiworld.com/guns.html
http://www.chris.com/ascii/art/html/guns.html
http://www.heartnsoul.com/ascii_art/guns.txt This has artists names

For those members who would like to get involved in creating such ASCII masterpieces please take a look at this web page here It offers many varieties of programs used to create such art. All programs are free for general use.

Thanks for your time!

-Arax 0_X
 

Posted May 28, '08 at 5:10pm

steevo15

steevo15

1,506 posts

I feel that it is going a little to far to say that we should ban them because of violence, because these ASCII guns aren't really making me want to go out and shoot someone, in no way are they promoting violence.

Although i do think that they should all be removed because they are not original art or at least not credit is being given to the creator of them. I see people giving credit to the person who posted these ASCII guns on their profile fist, but they are acting like this person made the ASCII guns, and the person is just taking the credit even though he obviously did not make them, so therefor it is stealing another persons work.
 

Posted May 28, '08 at 5:26pm

Arax_Nisanu

Arax_Nisanu

1,343 posts

I stated nothing of that sort. Banning members for having these "ASCII Guns" would be unheard of.
 

Posted May 28, '08 at 6:03pm

steevo15

steevo15

1,506 posts

i did not state anything about banning the members, i guess you misinterpreted what i posted

when i referred to "them" i meant banning the ASCII art off of the profiles because it is not made by the person

I guess you thought when i referred to "them" you though the users

But i still disagree with you about the violence part
 

Posted Jun 7, '08 at 10:14pm

GreatZulu638

GreatZulu638

284 posts

i understand where you are coming from but a ban for having it on your profile is a bit extreme.. they are just passing it along, unless they claim credit for it that is..
 

Posted Jun 8, '08 at 12:02am

Strop

Strop

10,605 posts

Moderator

...unless they claim credit for it that is

Well, by failing to cite the original authors or at least their sources, one implicitly claims authorship of the work. This is common interpretation, and is also legal interpretation.

Arax's point really is that the administrators may feel the problem is so severe that it warrants a simple "if we can't handle it, we'll eliminate it" approach, meaning "no ASCII guns on profile pages". In order to prevent this, I highly recommend that people cite their sources!

Regarding the violence, I also don't think that's particularly relevant here because, well, I see this as one of those fascinations that don't have any ramifications. I know that when I was younger I was constantly designing weapons. It's just a thing to do. Some people have posted the ASCII gun on their pages saying "annoy me and i kill u" but heh, that too I believe is relatively harmless in itself.
 
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