Let me clarify! I do not mean signing your images is bad, or working a watermark into an image with intentionality is bad!

I mean having a watermark that a website autopastes on for you, that covers the entire image with gradient colors and text, so you cannot comprehend anything you're looking at, is bad.

Toyhouse does this, and a large majority of users I've come across have this robot-pasted-on-without-any-regard-for-how-it-will-affect-the-image watermark. And just trying to comprehend those images genuinely hurts my eyes a little. Like- I cannot process where your watermark ends and the actual image begins.

And it's easy for the poster not to notice! Because the robot pasted it on for them. They didn't take the time to carefully work the watermark in themselves. User's watermarks are also hidden from them by default, and most users never bother to check how the image looks to everyone else.

And yeah! It's their character and their image and whatever, and it's usually because they're worried about theft. But, if you're so afraid of theft, that you believe the only way to combat that is to make sure nobody can enjoy the image... maybe just don't post it on a public platform at all?? Nobody can see it anyway, so what's the point of giving it to us?

This 14 second video illustrates the point probably more effectively than I can
"It's unwatchable to everyone else"

And, really, the only reason I'm bringing this up is because Artfight recently announced that an onsite watermark system is planned. Now, it's unclear whether they meant for character references, attacks submitted, or both, but, from the way I've seen people use the feature on toyhouse, either one would really suck. Characters with covered refs you cannot actually use or attacks given to you that a robot decided you're not allowed to actually see: pick your poison. Either one would make me really sad.

Am I gonna get bit for putting this into the world? I really don't know, lol. I don't know how strongly people feel about robots doing watermarks for them.