What I wrote (written on June 2, since then I have lost 2 more pictures on my account)
Dear Recolor,
I hope this message makes its way to you. I have been a faithful user of Recolor for over a year. I know you are being bombarded with angry emails at the moment, and I intended to keep this email as polite as possible, even though I am enraged at the new community guidelines. However, I lost my ability to be nice when I woke up this morning to find that I had lost 15 of my pictures, and I already lost one yesterday. I understand that there has to be rules. I understand that we must follow rules, but I REFUSE to follow rules that are this unfair. One of the pictures that I got removed from my gallery was a picture I took almost THREE HOURS coloring. All of these pictures followed every other piece of the new community guidelines other than "they needed to be colored." BUT THEY WERE. This is getting ridiculous.I see people who have over a million likes posting pictures with little to no color at all but they still have those pictures up, but poor little Allison who only has 40K likes can't keep a picture she took hours upon hours coloring? Honestly, that isn't fair. I do agree that some of my pictures that I posted during my grey aesthetic week weren't colored that much, but they still used grays. They still had color. It still was art. The images I have attached is a picture I got removed from my gallery with the Cape Cod outline, showing the color that was used, and the second attachment is the same picture with the Black outline, which is the way that I posted it. I have made no other changes to the picture from the way it was posted other than changing the outlines. I have lost 16 pieces of art that I worked hard to make, even if it was just a simple grey and black picture. The picture I have attached is not just some random picture off of snapchat that I posted uncolored on Recolor. This is a picture I took of my four best friends sitting together in our last hours together. This is a picture I wanted to share with my friends on Recolor who don't attend my school. I colored it. I took hours coloring this image, yet it was removed for "not having enough color?" I understand that you all have the final say, but it doesn't seem to me or any of my friends that you are using that final say to separate what should be removed and what should stay. I know that now that the guidelines have changed, many people are jumping on their new ability to get pictures from other people's galleries gone. I will admit that I am one of those people trying to get pictures removed from certain galleries, but it is with cause. I'm not just doing this because I can, I'm doing it because I do feel harassed by a certain user's posts that several times she has told me or other users that they are about me. Some people are taking the knowledge that almost everything that gets reported will get removed because there is no input from your side on what should stay. Everything is just getting deleted. This is not fair to the people like me and my friends who work hard to make their gallery look and feel the way that they want it to look. I deserve to have the right to post grey and black pictures if I'm using that for an aesthetic feel. I deserve the right to be able to post my poems and stories for my followers to read, because I finally found my creative outlet for life. Like I said before, I understand that there has to be rules, and most rules should be followed, but some rules are unfair and should not have to be followed. There has to be a change made on your part, because otherwise, you're going to lose most of your user base, including me. I hope this message reaches you well.
-Allison
The response I get:
Hello Allison,
Thank you for your feedback and we are sorry to hear that you are upset with the rules!
Art is diverse field and many types of writing can also be art, and are definitely creative endeavours. We love creativity in all of its forms and encourage you to continue pursuing your creativity in all the ways that you wish, but there is a time and a place for everything. Recolor is a coloring book and Recolor galleries are a place to share your colorings with other colorists. There are other venues where you can pursue your interests in writing, black-and-white photography and other non-coloring related interests.
If your pictures are colored and they are still removed, the reason is either the content of the picture or the content of your comments you have written under the picture. You can read the full guidelines here: http://sumoing.com/help-center/why-was-my-picture-removed
If you don't understand why your picture was removed, you can send us a copy of your picture and we will be able to give you a reason. We are sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you.
Thank you for being a Recolorist and sharing your art with us!
Happy Coloring!
Best,
Recolor Support
