There’s a few notes along the lines of A. “Other pet sites do it, so it’s okay” and B. “Getting upset about this is an overreaction” here. I wanna make something clear: I’m not an artist. Maybe an amateur doodler, but not a professional, paid artist by any stretch of the word. But even I understand how much value artwork has, and how much time and effort goes into an artist’s mastery of their craft. Artists deserve to be compensated fairly for their work, just like everyone else. It would be really weird if someone paid, say, a programmer for the site in turnips, right? Even including the option for artists to be paid in turnips set’s the expectation that their art— their professional art, for a business— is only worth a pittance of online funny money.

I understand that the turnip option may have been mentioned because the DV staff could use less strain on their budget. That’s understandable, especially considering how green DV is… but if you can’t pay employees or contractors, you shouldn’t be hiring them. This is true for not only all pet sites, but ALL BUSINESSES. Additionally, the actual job description here is so very vague and unhelpful. It’s important for artists to have a say in how much they get paid, but the business should still have an estimate of how much they’re willing to pay per piece or by the hour. I’d also like to echo the sentiments of a few other users in this thread— how many hours would each artist be expected to work per week, and at what rate should they be completing pieces?

Seriously, though. DV has the opportunity to set a good example for pet sites. It’s disappointing that they don’t seem to have used it, but hey, c’est la vie.