Hello. First of all, I would like to say that this is not actually a complaint about the deletion of the wallpaper in question; I am not requesting permission to re-submit the wallpaper, or anything of the sort. Allow me to explain.

Recently, I had three wallpapers deleted from my gallery. The first was deleted for quality reasons, and I respect that, especially after looking over the section in the policy on your standards for wallpaper submission a second time. Unfortunately, before I noticed that the first wallpaper had been deleted, I submitted two more, both of which were also deleted. Again, I have no objection to this; actually, once I realized the first wallpaper had been deleted and why, I looked for a way to remove the other two myself, but couldn't figure out how.

Regardless, the two wallpapers were deleted, one for quality reasons. In regards to the other, titled Dragon and Tiger, I received this message:

Quote: Uttara,

The wallpaper you have submitted entitled Dragon and Tiger was removed from Minitokyo because it violated the following policy:

-The image or part of it was directly taken from another website or an image gallery, with or without modifying. We only allow the submission of wallpapers you have created yourself. Usage of stock pictures such as found on Minitokyo may be featured on your submission, but at least some parts must show your creative side.
-The description of your submission was inadequate; i.e. it fails to give basic information about the creation process of the wallpaper, and/or is entirely blank or consists of spam messages/smilies. This in itself conveys the impression of a ripped submission. Refer to the Minitokyo Policy.

Repeated violation of this policy will lead to banning.

Sincerely,

Minitokyo Staff

This is an automated message and cannot be replied.

Additional information provided by the moderator:
Your description suggest that this is not your own wallpaper. This is also supported by the evidence that your username & wallpaper signature do not match.

I could not find a thumbnail in my gallery in order to provide you with a link to the image.

This wallpaper was not ripped. I did create it myself, with, of course the exception of the stock images used. I apologize for not explicitly stating that in the description. As for the difference between my minitokyo username and the signature on the wallpaper, Little Red Bat is the name I go by on a number of other websites, fanfiction.net and deviantart, for example. It is the name I generally associate with any fan works I create, so it was also the name I used to sign my wallpapers.

When I first registered with minitokyo, I did not plan on using the site for anything other than viewing image scans. I did not think I would be submitting anything, or even having much contact with other users, so I just put down my first name as my username and left it at that. Afterwards, when I realized how much more the site had to offer, I wished I had used my Little Red Bat screen name, however there was nothing that could be done about that, so I used it as my title instead.

I'm not sure what sort of indisputable proof I can offer you that the wallpaper is my own and not stolen. The wallpaper was an old one; I made it over a year ago, and I know longer have the un-flattened PSD file saved on my computer. I can guarantee the wallpaper cannot be found anywhere else online, as I never actually got around to submitting any of the wallpapers I made to any website until now. I'm fairly certain that any users with the name Little Red Bat (or littleredbat) on any anime or art related websites are me; it doesn't seem to be a very common username.

Once again, I am not requesting the wallpaper be put back in my gallery, as it most probably would have been deleted for quality reasons anyway. I would simply like to clear my name of any charges of art theft, if at all possible. I am an English student, so any form of plagiarism is a very serious issue to me. The idea of taking someone else's work and claiming it as my own is actually repulsive to me, as dramatic as that may sound.

I understand that the moderators are doing their job in removing suspicious submissions, and that it was my lack of clarity (and consistency in usernames) that led to the wallpaper appearing suspicious in the first place, and hope I am able to clarify matters now.

Thank you for your time.

Your description on the image in question was "Kenshin and Enishi from Rurouni Kenshin". The policy states:

Quote: You must provide a relevant description of all gallery items you submit. Minitokyo moderators will delete any submission with a description that is incomplete, irrelevant, incomprehensible, or plagiarized.

Any item with an inadequate description will be removed and the reason is that they are instantly suspected rips. It is a matter of time management, the mods do not have time to contact every person about every questionable wallpaper. If the description is inadequate you can expect to see that message and also realise that it is merely a default, not specific to every circumstance.

You are the only one who would have seen that message and you shouldn't even think twice about something like that in the future unless you know you have ripped something or messages have been left through Guestbooks and such.

I'll close this thread and if you have any further concerns, feel free to contact myself or another mod.

merged: 03-18-2008 ~ 12:42pm
P.S. If there's a name on the wallpaper that doesn't match your username on MT, even more reason it would be removed as a rip! (unless you state otherwise in the description)