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Art While Apart

House Rules

Monitoring and Conduct for AWA team members.

Section I. General Forum Rules:


  1. Be kind and respectful toward one another and others. All members of AWA are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that respects the rights and feelings of others. Zero tolerance for hate speech, homophobia, racism, and harassment/bullying.
  2. No political discussions. Be respectful and mindful when discussing religious views.
  3. No illegal activities/content.
  4. No drugs, alcohol, substances, or talks of substance abuse. Gifs/emojis used for comedic purposes featuring moderate alcohol or cigarettes are allowed as long as the main intent is not the use of substances I.e. a gif of someone raising a glass to toast, or if someone is merely holding a bottle during a gesture is okay. Someone chugging a beer keg would not be allowed outside of the Adult Corner.
  5. Keep it PG-13; No nudity (picture or art, including sexual depictions) nor gory art (such as blood, severed limbs, unclean bones etc.) outside of the Adult Corner. Paintings that include skulls or skeletons of animals are allowed outside of Adult Corner when shown in a way that is not gore, horror, or NSFW (such as clean parts of a skull in an OC design or referring to skeletons to study anatomy).
  6. Cursing is allowed as long as it is not directed maliciously at other members.
  7. Try your best to use the appropriate channels (the General channel has no fixed topic).
  8. Be respectful of pets- We recognize there are phobias and personal opinions on some animals/insects being kept as pets. The subject is not limited, but please be mindful when discussing other pets and their wild counterparts.
  9. Please be respectful when discussing artists that operate outside of AWA.
  10. These topics are allowed but must be spoilered with a trigger warning of what the spoiler contains: non-graphic language of animal abuse, non-detailed mentions of dead animals. These topics are allowed but must be spoilered with a trigger warning of what the spoiler contains: graphic language of animals in poor health, non-graphic language of animal abuse, non-detailed mentions of dead animals, and alike potentially disturbing language regarding animals. Please don’t consider this an exhaustive list - if you think something might be triggering to anyone, whether in text discussion, a piece of art you’re sharing, etc. - spoiler it! Use your best judgment, and you can always add a generic CW (content warning) as a label to help people determine whether they’d be okay with reading/seeing it.

We have included a spoiler guide below, please be sure to read the descriptions under every image.

a. General Spoilering: https://imgur.com/a/ncsZu8C

b. Spoilering an image on an iPhone: https://imgur.com/a/B0nIEwg

c. Spoilering an image on an Android: https://imgur.com/a/80RLWiK

  1. Avoid triggering topics, even in vent , seeing as it could negatively impact other members who read it. Instead, please refer to the list of hotlines to talk to a professional. We also have provided volunteers with a @ helping hand role. These are people you can reach out to when you’d like to discuss triggering topics. Keep in mind that these volunteers are not certified in providing proper psychiatric advice/assistance/help and should not be a substitute for professional help. If you need to vent about something 18+ make sure the person is 18+ as well as a helping hand.

https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

  1. Strike System Staff has decided to add a warning and strike system in case anyone consistently acts inappropriately. Warnings will be issued to remind the individual of a rule and will not receive any strike. However, after the warning, strikes will be handed out if the behavior persists. When we hand out a strike, we have the discretion to impose a temporary restriction we deem necessary to prevent repeat offenses (such as temporarily restricting access to certain channels, freezing claim slots, or restricting access to the mentorship program). Under extreme circumstances, strikes may be accelerated, and an offending member may be muted or removed for the safety and welfare of other members. At 3 strikes, the individual will be banned from the Art While Apart server. So please abide by the rules as we don’t want to hand out any warnings just as much as you don’t want to receive them.

Section II. Adult Corner (AC) Rules:

Note all General Forum rules apply unless stated otherwise.


  1. You must be 18 years or older to take part in the Adult Corner. You may claim the 18+ role in role-claim.
  2. Sexual and NSFW jokes are allowed only in the Adult Corner.
  3. You may post (spoilered) nude art as long as genitalia and nipples are covered/not visible and there are no strong sexual themes.
  4. You may post mildly gory art only in the Adult Corner so long as it is spoilered. However, strong themes of violence or abuse are not permitted in neither images nor text.
  5. Vulture Culture and taxidermy may be discussed (without images), but should be spoilered with a warning. Paintings including skulls or skeletons not related to vulture culture or taxidermy should still be posted in AC when displayed in a gore, horror, or NSFW way.
  6. Mentioning alcohol is allowed only in the Adult Corner.

Section III. Lonely Commission/Lonely Rescues/Claim Rules:


  1. This is a volunteer program, so please do not stress <3 a. However, there is a 2-week deadline on commissions from lonely-rescues. With respect to lonely-commissions, there’s a longer 5-month deadline.
  2. Original Art only. Please don’t trace, copy, or steal other people’s art. It should all be original work created by your creative minds. On that note, photo manipulation and filter art are also not allowed. a. While sometimes pet owners give descriptions for their pets that might lead you to make their pet look angry (or something of the like), we ask that for claims from lonely-rescues you portray these animals solely in a positive/happy light! Portraying the rescue negatively is also against our rules.
  3. Tracing. Tracing is discouraged at AWA, but it is not against the rules if used properly. So long as the reference you are tracing is royalty-free, you would not be infringing on copyright laws. To read more about our stance on tracing, please read our announcement here: https://discord.com/channels/709199599704735805/709206473582051410/912383947537788938
  4. No anthropomorphic art. Art created from lonely-commissions and lonely-rescues should still resemble the pet and be the same animal/species.
  5. New Arrival Limit (Sprout Role Only). New Members (Sprouts) are limited to one claim until you finish your first piece, at which point you will gain the Artist Role.
  6. Rescue Commissions Limit (Bean Role Only). Budding members (Beans) are limited to claim only from the lonely-rescues. They may only have one active claim at a time.
  7. Limit of 2 Active Claims at a Time (Artist Role Only). You can claim a maximum of two pieces at a time. Claims from lonely-commissions and lonely-rescues count towards this total two claim limit.
  8. 5 Piece Weekly Maximum. You can claim a maximum of five pieces a week from lonely-commissions and lonely-rescues. This limit resets every Monday.
  9. Dropped claims. Let any staff know if you have to drop a claim due to real-life obligations or other reasons. Once you drop a pet, you have a one week refresh period before you can claim another pet for that slot. If you drop two claims (the maximum amount of claims you can have active with the artist role), both of those slots will be kept empty for a week. This is to prevent swapping pets.
  10. No asking for specific pets. This is a Booster/Mentor only perk. If you have submitted your own pet you may ask for it to be pushed up in the queue.

Section IV. Instagram Repost Rules:


  1. We will only repost art from those who have given us permission in their introductions form.
  2. The Instagram team consists of @Media Coordinators and @Isabel . Each day, finished pieces of claims that were waiting for over a week in the lonely-commissions channel are posted to give credit to artists who put in the extra effort to take on the claims who are often overlooked. Finished rescue portraits of animals who have not yet been adopted are also posted on the daily.
  3. If a pet has been sitting around in lonely-commissions for over a week, or if a pet is from a dropped claim, then your finished portrait of the pet will be posted on the AWA Instagram. This will help us avoid having so many backlogged pets in lonely-commissions while also giving you all more control over whether your piece gets posted to the Instagram or not.