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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Snarf Zagyg" data-source="post: 8373746" data-attributes="member: 7023840">I just want to make sure I understand-You don't use their product.You don't play 5e.*And this wasn't spec work (to be clear, and to avoid miscommunication like earlier in the thread, you mean "on spec" and not "to spec" since someone like me will usually use it to mean "to specification").But you are happy that you pressured D&D Beyond into canceling the competition, because you felt that it exploited artists.A quick detour into two concepts:"Spec work" in most fields usually refers to work to specification. Client says, "Build me a bridge." "Design me a logo." "Write me a manual for my Atomic Wedgiemaker." "Draw me a cover for my book."However, "spec work" also refers to speculative work, which is work that is done without a client in mind or any particular offer. This is most common in certain creative endeavors and (occasionally) the construction industry. "I'm writing this script and I hope that someone picks it up." "I'm developing this land and I hope people buy the houses." "I'm writing this article and hope that a magazine/blog picks it up."Both work on spec and to spec are common, in America, for independent contractors. To a certain extent, work to spec is the default mode of work of almost every contractor (the plumber is hired to do a job to spec- to clear the clog in a particular pipe, say). Work on spec is only common in a very small subset of fields. Most generously construed, work on spec would be the famous artist who produces the works that they want and sells them to the highest bidder; this has been the default approach for the art market for some time. Which usually ends up (like many creative endeavors) with a very few people making a lot of money, and a lot of people making little-to-no money.Which gets to the next issue- many professional artists have to end up choosing to take less lucrative jobs with employers to make ends meet. A person goes into debt to go to RISD, for example- and maybe they end up as Seth MacFarlane, or maybe they work in-house doing graphics for a regional sandwich shop. The creative endeavors (acting, music, art, writing, and so on) are hard- hard to break into, hard to make money off of. If you've lived in LA, for example, you know that almost everyone is either involved with or one step removed from "the Industry" and that anyone in the service industry is a "slash," (waiter/actor, cashier/musician, gas station attendant/writer) ... and I think they all have podcasts now?Anyway, back to the main topic. As I already stated, this wasn't "on spec" work. If you looked at the source documents you would see that this was just trying to be the usual marketing ploy. This wasn't crowding out artists in any way, shape, or form. More importantly, there are salient legal and factual differences between work that is on spec and contest.IMO, this type of activism ends up being hollow, because there are serious inequities involved when it comes to the labor force. When it involves the creatives that power a lot of different industries. Serious effort needs to be put into that- and I'm not arguing that the perfect is the enemy of the good. I'm saying, unequivocally, that this (the ending of this contest) wasn't good because there are serious issues that got caught up in terms of liability and competitions that are orthogonal to the issue of fair wages.The reason that you won (in other words, that D&D Beyond almost immediately cancelled this) is not because you were right; it's because you were wrong. It's because this was a marketing gimmick designed to drum up publicity around a new feature, and it had nothing to do with the art itself. And as soon as the publicity began going sideways (and, most likely, the T&C got kicked up and couldn't be changed from the Australian company's auto-generated default) it was cancelled.*To be clear- I am not reciting that to make you look bad. I am honestly impressed. Given that people are anonymous on the internet, it is far too common for people to just lie. "Oh yes, I totally use D&D Beyond all the time!" I don't use D&D Beyond either, but that's only because I am unable to use computers.</blockquote>

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