MM Credit the Artists, Thanks!!

[mystic-messenger-editing]

Cheritz Banned My Account.

Did this happen to you too?

I've been playing Mystic Messenger on and off since early 2017. I've paid for in-game currency, won an MM related event on Twitter, played the game many times over saved my HG and hearts, as well as bought both VIP packages and plentiful of Cheritz official merch. (I have a whole closet full of the stuff)

I had well over 6K HG in game that I got through a natural progression of ingame play time as well as getting HG every time there was an event, birthday etc. and now all of that is banned because @cheritzteam involved some kind of AI targeting system. I did not cheat or alter the game to have more hearts. My account has been semi inactive except for me checking in for details about the game, because Mystic Messenger didn't stop being part of my life just because I semi quit the fandom. I have been writing with my RP partner for over 9 years about the characters and their lives. And it's been a stable part of my life for all of that time. So I'm angry that I had my account banned because I got flagged for having a high volume of HG. I paid for a good chunk of those and were frugal with using them for resetting chatrooms etc. If this happened to you there's a Reddit thread where they are collecting and sharing information regarding the bans. Write Cheritz and let them know this isn't okay. If enough of us write hopefully they'll roll back the bans, or at least remove the ban on people who didn't mess with the game like they are being accused of.

I really hope this is resolved before the Choi's birthday next month and the 10 year anniversary this summer!

[mystic-messenger-editing]

UPDATE

Cheritz customer support got back to me and asked for the receipts. They've gotten them, but I think what's happening is seriously twisted. No shade on the workers at the company, they are just doing their job. But... They have our emails, why haven't any of us who got banned received any notifications that they were blackballing/banning our accounts? Wouldn't they be able to see history of purchases etc.? ---

Help: If you don't have receipts for HG!

Let them know that you got the HG and hearts through natural gameplay. Clearly they have no way of knowing that you didn't. I know people who have gotten their accounts back without receipts.

---

About what's happening

The wide sweep ban points to them employing some faulty AI system to flag all accounts that seems 'suspicious'. Surely accounts that after near a decade and a lack of DLC drops since 2021 easily could have accumulated that, and so many more HG, through just regular gameplay? My accounts been up more than 9 years. Many of the others who have been taken down was up since 2016. What happens to the accounts of people who aren't terminally online (like me) or doesn't keep taps on the fandom anymore ? Do they just have their accounts deleted and find out when they remember Mystic Messenger is a thing and it's been 10 years? I expect to get my account back, but I also expect that anything else can happen. The sudden idea to ban year-old dormant accounts makes me suspect that something else is coming. With the recent track record I worry it's something worse. They ask for our 'kind patience', that ran out for me a while ago over other employment of AI in their company and games. This was just a cherry on top of a sh¡t sundae. So salvage your MM memories, they might get another unwarranted artificial face-lift soon. This is just me speculating. I hope I'm wrong.

[mystic-messenger-editing]

Cheritz Banned My Account.

Did this happen to you too?

I've been playing Mystic Messenger on and off since early 2017. I've paid for in-game currency, won an MM related event on Twitter, played the game many times over saved my HG and hearts, as well as bought both VIP packages and plentiful of Cheritz official merch. (I have a whole closet full of the stuff)

I had well over 6K HG in game that I got through a natural progression of ingame play time as well as getting HG every time there was an event, birthday etc. and now all of that is banned because @cheritzteam involved some kind of AI targeting system. I did not cheat or alter the game to have more hearts. My account has been semi inactive except for me checking in for details about the game, because Mystic Messenger didn't stop being part of my life just because I semi quit the fandom. I have been writing with my RP partner for over 9 years about the characters and their lives. And it's been a stable part of my life for all of that time. So I'm angry that I had my account banned because I got flagged for having a high volume of HG. I paid for a good chunk of those and were frugal with using them for resetting chatrooms etc. If this happened to you there's a Reddit thread where they are collecting and sharing information regarding the bans. Write Cheritz and let them know this isn't okay. If enough of us write hopefully they'll roll back the bans, or at least remove the ban on people who didn't mess with the game like they are being accused of.

I really hope this is resolved before the Choi's birthday next month and the 10 year anniversary this summer!

[mystic-messenger-editing]

Don't [OBJECTIFY] Elizabeth the Third

I've kept semi-quiet for a couple of months, because frankly I just wanted to turn my back on Cheritz and forget about them. But then it was pointed out to me that they started objectifying Elly and I can no longer hold my tongue.

For those who aren't convinced these images are gAI. I ran them through Hive with the result of 100% gAI images. These tools are faulty and should be used with care, but in this case it's obvious just by looking at them and now the checker has confirmed it.

In the second one it couldn't figure out what gAI model was used, but in the second one it's 81% sure it's Stable diffusion. Some people think faultily that Stable Diffusion is safe to use, that is almost always not the case and definitely not here. Hive is one of the more trustworthy AI image checkers.

Cats aren't objects.

And Stable Diffusion is not ethical AI by a long shot. If you want to read up on How Stable Diffusion and other gAI models works, here's a resource:

Pretraining data, fine tuning, data, ai , generative ai, scraped data — createdontscrape

data, unethical data, pretraining, generative ai generative models, ai, ai revolution, adapt or die, pretraining, finetuning

Also if you are an artist who want to protect your work against gAI models being trained on your work. Please check out the new and improved Glaze 2.0 that dropped a couple of days ago by the Glaze Team from University of Chicago. And if you want damage to injury, check out their other tool Nightshade.

What is Glaze?

Glaze is a protective layer you can put on your art that defends against AI Mimicry. That means that it can't learn from how you draw, but other humans can still see it perfectly and do so as they please. Enjoy this illustration from the original Glaze 1.0 Paper. You can read more about how it works <<HERE>>

Links to sources for the Text Bits from Cheritz posts:

Hello, this is Cheritz. Some of the photos of our newest Ssumone, June, have not been polished enough to the game standard, and we will be u

[The Ssum] December Update - Harry Ending & Video Call Support and Season 2 Update Schedule

Hello, dear lab participant. We’re announcing the updated schedule for <The Ssum>‘s December update. Harry Day 201 to Ending (71 days) + Ful

[mystic-messenger-editing]

I am reposting this in response to Cheritz latest post blaming an anonymous third party artist for what is CLEARLY their use of generative AI! They keep lying and make half-arsed apologies and promises when they get caught, only to break them or pushing the bar further

Artists protect yourself! Glaze & Nightshade your work before putting it online.

[mystic-messenger-editing]

UK creatives Fight Back

Against your Governments plans to sell you out…

If you are from the UK, the CRAIC has set up a tool so you can write your representative by typing in your UK postal code.

The reply is pre-written, with option to rewrite sections as well as your own signature.

Safeguard Creative Rights in AI

Safeguard Creative Rights in AI

Below you can see the Creative Rights in AI message.

[angelsallfire]

[dduane]

People... watch out for these things!

The saying applies with more than usual force here: if you're not paying for it, you're not the customer: you're the product being sold. (And maybe you're the product being sold even if you are paying for it.)

DO NOT MAKE YOUR PERSONAL PHYSICAL DATA AVAILABLE TO PEOPLE WHO COULD THEN SELL IT TO THOSE INVESTED IN USING IT TO SURVEIL YOU AND POTENTIALLY CHARGE YOU WITH CRIMES.

[mystic-messenger-editing]

Don't [OBJECTIFY] Elizabeth the Third

I've kept semi-quiet for a couple of months, because frankly I just wanted to turn my back on Cheritz and forget about them. But then it was pointed out to me that they started objectifying Elly and I can no longer hold my tongue.

For those who aren't convinced these images are gAI. I ran them through Hive with the result of 100% gAI images. These tools are faulty and should be used with care, but in this case it's obvious just by looking at them and now the checker has confirmed it.

In the second one it couldn't figure out what gAI model was used, but in the second one it's 81% sure it's Stable diffusion. Some people think faultily that Stable Diffusion is safe to use, that is almost always not the case and definitely not here. Hive is one of the more trustworthy AI image checkers.

Cats aren't objects.

And Stable Diffusion is not ethical AI by a long shot. If you want to read up on How Stable Diffusion and other gAI models works, here's a resource:

Pretraining data, fine tuning, data, ai , generative ai, scraped data — createdontscrape

data, unethical data, pretraining, generative ai generative models, ai, ai revolution, adapt or die, pretraining, finetuning

Also if you are an artist who want to protect your work against gAI models being trained on your work. Please check out the new and improved Glaze 2.0 that dropped a couple of days ago by the Glaze Team from University of Chicago. And if you want damage to injury, check out their other tool Nightshade.

What is Glaze?

Glaze is a protective layer you can put on your art that defends against AI Mimicry. That means that it can't learn from how you draw, but other humans can still see it perfectly and do so as they please. Enjoy this illustration from the original Glaze 1.0 Paper. You can read more about how it works <<HERE>>

Links to sources for the Text Bits from Cheritz posts:

Hello, this is Cheritz. Some of the photos of our newest Ssumone, June, have not been polished enough to the game standard, and we will be u

[The Ssum] December Update - Harry Ending & Video Call Support and Season 2 Update Schedule

Hello, dear lab participant. We’re announcing the updated schedule for <The Ssum>‘s December update. Harry Day 201 to Ending (71 days) + Ful

[mystic-messenger-editing]

Sad day.

@cheritzteam have chosen to go the route of generative AI imagery and I can no longer support them in good conscience. I know I haven't been posting on here for a long time, but this is a message to say that I will be abandoning publicly supporting and interacting with and about their games. I was far from done with my obsession about Mystic Messenger, but this put an abrupt end to me wanting to financially in any way help them or gush about what they do. Honestly I've paid far too much already to the Ssum for the enjoyment it gave me. Mostly it felt like throwing money at a Kickstarter in the hope that it might succeed. Only to find out that it was dishonest about what it was. I still love Mystic Messenger and are thankful for their past games, but this is the end of the line for me. Cheritz is no longer a good game company.

[loish]

There’s a protest going on against AI art over on artstation, so I feel like now is the time for me to make a statement on this issue! 

I wholeheartedly support the ongoing protest against AI art. Why? Because my artwork is included in the datasets used to train these image generators without my consent. I get zero compensation for the use of my art, even though these image generators cost money to use, and are a commercial product. 

Musicians are not being treated the same way. Stability has a music generator that only uses royalty free music in their dataset. Their words: “Because diffusion models are prone to memorization and overfitting, releasing a model trained on copyrighted data could potentially result in legal issues.” Why is the work of visual artists being treated differently?

Many have compared image generators to human artists seeking out inspiration. Those two are not the same. My art is literally being fed into these generators through the datasets, and spat back out of a program that has no inherent sense of what is respectful to artists. As long as my art is literally integrated into the system used to create the images, it is commercial use of my art without my consent.

Until there is an ethically sourced database that compensates artists for the use of their images, I am against AI art. I also think platforms should do everything they can to prevent scraping of their content for these databases. 

Artists, speak out against this predatory practice! Our art should not be exploited without our consent, and we deserve to be compensated when our art is exploited for commercial use. 

[surprisegents]

quick and dirty guide to recognizing stolen content on tumblr

there is RAMPANT art and photography reposting on this stupid website, and it occurs to me that folks might not know how to recognize it. here are the mental gymnastics i go through every time i see a sus post

1. is there a caption? most creators tend to leave one. maybe it's so their url is prominent, or to express their thoughts about the piece, link their shops/websites, etc. most reposters leave the captions blank

2. look for credit in the picture. is there a name, handle, or watermark? does it match the url?

3. check the original post. often you'll find that the original poster actually linked the artist. go forth and reblog that version!! for some godforsaken reason people keep REMOVING CREDIT on this website and i will MANIFEST INSIDE YOUR HOUSE IF YOU DO SO

4. check the tags of the original post. beyond the main fandom/character/subject tags, creators tend to have a #my-art tag or something similar. photographers often use #photographers-on-tumblr/lensblr. sometimes they'll also have thoughts about their work there. this doesn't always work, but personally i never see reposters adding tags like this

5. look at op's other posts and bio. is there anything about being an artist or photographer in the description? does the art they post look the same? usually this is where you'll Know if it's a serial reposter, because their blog will be FULL of reposted shit with no captions that all have different styles. also half the time their blog description straight up admits it

6. check the notes to see if someone added the proper credit. at this point, if you know it's a repost but still wanna reblog it, at least give credit where it's due. see if someone else already did the work for you

7. reblog and add a link with creator credit. if you know it's a repost, and you can't find credit, consider doing your part to help creators get their well-deserved recognition. usually you can just google the watermark in the picture. otherwise reverse image search on google or tineye is your friend

8. if the original creator is on tumblr, reblog their version of the post. if you've gotten this far it's not hard to search their blog for it

9. consider letting the artist know their art has been stolen and send them the link. this way they can take action and file whatever claims they need to get it taken down

10. finally, support original content creators! look at the #artists-on-tumblr and #photographers-on-tumblr tags, follow your favourite creators and reblog their work. seriously it can make a huge difference

if you read this far, THANK YOU. making sure content creators get their credit is literally the bare minimum we can do to be respectful of the countless hours they spend on their work. especially when that content is freely accessible

[mysmecat]

Dear Artists,

We know you all want to protect your art from reposters. You have every right to do so. But continuously asking those who repost your art without permission, unfortunately, has proven to be an ineffective and tedious task most of the time. Very often, it ends up being a waste of time that could also end up sending a mountain of unwarranted and unfair blame your way from the reposters and their followers. Which none of you deserve.

So we’re asking you not to ask. Why should you? They never bothered to ask for permission to post in the first place. You have the law and tools on your side. Use it and file DMCA / Copyright Infringement reports. Help yourself and your fellow artists by showing the reposters that reposting is not going to be tolerated anymore.

Links to reporting Copyright infringement:

Facebook

Twitter 

Instagram

Tumblr

Snapchat

WeHeartIt

Pinterest

Youtube

You have a voice, please use it.

Support and credit the artists, not theft!

- The CAT TEAM

[mysmecat]

Did you know?

You can earn points in the Tappytoon app to unlock chapters of the MM Webtoon if money is an issue. This way you'll still be supporting the artist and get it for "free". How to:

1. Open Tappyton 2. Choose "More" 3. Choose "Free Points" 4l "Watch Videos". Voila! You can get up to 30 commercials per hour. They roughly last 30 seconds at most and you can just sit and do other stuff meanwhile. Support the artists, thanks!

[mysmecat]

Credit the artists!

A page that will give Credit to the Artists when others fail. We won’t post original content without the permission from the artists, only share other pages images and credit the artists in order to combat these ill-willed practices that other fan pages use. Too many amazing artists have been given the finger by reposters that saw it as their right to steal and post original content without even asking the artists, not give credit to the artists by linking to their Social Media profiles or worse. Edit those works and/or claim them as their own. The result of these practices is that amazing artists leave the fandom with a bitter taste after offering hours upon hours of their time creating pieces for us to enjoy. Such artists include:

Cerithe

Eori_Namo

Myetie

Etc. Please be supportive of our goal and PM us examples of uncredited art. We will try our best to find the artist the piece belongs to, notify them of the theft and credit them for it in our repost of the repost. Sincerely, the CAT Team. PS: Credit to the artist is not a valid credit. If you don’t know who made the art, don’t repost it or simply ask someone in the fandom if they know this artist.

[leave-her-a-tome]

(source)

Unsplash -  photography, illustration, and art

Pixabay - same as unsplash

Pexels - stock photos and videos

Stockvault.net - stock photos

freepngimg - icons, pictures and clipart

Veceezy - vectors and clipart

Kissclipart and kissPNG - more vectors and clipart (often transparent!)

Getdrawings - simplistic images and drawing tutorials

Gumroad - photoshop brushes (and more)

Canva - needs login but has lots of templates

Library of Congress - historical posters and photos

NASA - you guessed it

Creative Commons - all kinds of stuff, homie

Even Adobe has some free images

There are so many ways to make moodboards, bookcovers, and icons without infringing copyright! As artists, authors, and other creatives, we need to be especially careful not to use someone else’s work and pass it off as our own. 

Please add on if you know any more sites for free images <3

[kmparker616]

Thanks for the information!!

[mayflowers07]

I will reblog this everytime i see it

[floraone]

Ok so while we’re at this, I just checked out Unsplash, and it’s an AMAZING site for free images?

[cryoverkiltmilk]

Reblogging because useful and because f*ck P**terest

[mysmecat]

Did you know?

You can earn points in the Tappytoon app to unlock chapters of the MM Webtoon if money is an issue. This way you'll still be supporting the artist and get it for "free". How to:

1. Open Tappyton 2. Choose "More" 3. Choose "Free Points" 4l "Watch Videos". Voila! You can get up to 30 commercials per hour. They roughly last 30 seconds at most and you can just sit and do other stuff meanwhile. Support the artists, thanks!

[mysmecat]

Hey everyone,

We need to have a conversation. Yesterday we shared a plea from an artist to help take down their art from a reposting page. This was achieved, but at what cost? It turns out that the reposter was a 12-year-old girl who had no idea that they were doing anything wrong. You may ask: what is a 12-year-old doing on Facebook (13+), and why are they playing Mystic Messenger? You would be correct that both of those apps aren't meant for such a young person. But neither is death threats. No threats are okay. No matter the age. Remember that there's a real person on the other side of your messages. Support and Credit the Artist, Thanks!

But don't forget to be kind. - The CAT Team

[mysmecat]

Artist is asking for help to report resposter for reposting their art and products. Be a bunch of champs and help out!

[mysmecat]

Did you know?

You can earn points in the Tappytoon app to unlock chapters of the MM Webtoon if money is an issue. This way you'll still be supporting the artist and get it for "free". How to:

1. Open Tappyton 2. Choose "More" 3. Choose "Free Points" 4l "Watch Videos". Voila! You can get up to 30 commercials per hour. They roughly last 30 seconds at most and you can just sit and do other stuff meanwhile. Support the artists, thanks!