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« on: May 16, 2017, 03:26 AM »
Personally, I'm glad that we are moving away from treating defaults as a sin. As Jetster said, shit happens in life and its unavoidable. Mental illness, financial issues etc, are a huge problem in real life and as a community we absolutely should be understanding and lend a hand when we can.
However, I think it's important to keep in mind that a battle involves another person (or persons); it is incredibly unfair for one artist to put in a lot of effort in a comic and not see it returned when the deadline hits. To challenge and accept a battle is a responsibility and it takes time and effort; if you don't have the time nor are you giving it the effort, don't accept a battle. When I defaulted on all my battles, I felt awful. Uni was stressing me out, causing me to default on Hats in Johnny vs Wizzie, and me procrastinating and not giving my 100% effort on the Animal Girl Squad fight; two fights where my opponents gave it their all. At the time, they must have felt so disappointed that I didn't reciprocate.
Yes, Void is fun, comics are fun, creating and bouncing ideas off people is fun, but at the end of the day making a comic takes time and if you have all these other responsibilities that can take up your time, or you are unfortunately plagued by any sort of illness, then maybe you shouldn't be accepting a battle in the first place, no matter how much you get your jollies off on accepting a challenge. And if you are continuously defaulting (or submitting incomplete comics), then maybe it's time to take a step back and rethink things for a bit. If you want to make a comic but don't have the time, Beyond Battles are definitely a thing and i highly encourage people to make em.
I'm not entirely sure how we can motivate people to submit complete comics, but I believe teaching time management such as in Pyras' bootcamp, open communication between members, and a good atmosphere is important. I think that when a default or an incomplete comic does happen, we should ask the defaulter if they are ok and if they'd like to talk about it but if it's a repeat offender, I think it's within the mods' rights to give them a temporary battle ban until they can show a bit more responsibility on their behalf. And it goes without reason, don't give them the title of Big Dumb Baby or I will shove a lamp pole up a mod's ass and I don't care if I go to prison for it.