Guess I'd better commission you another time soon!

I personally don't think the badge matters to be fair.

And why I think this is here bellow for those interested....

There is little to no due diligence from the "trusted artist" side of things, not that they have any real means of ensuring that the artist behaves accordingly, other than public complaints made by supposed commissioners.

There is large room for spiteful hearsay to bias the results and make someone ineligible to be considered "trusted", even if the artist haven't done anything wrong other than having some people dislike them for some reason or another and slander their name. But vice versa is equally true, it isn't hard for someone to join the list despite being fairly untrustworthy.

Not to mention the fact that "trusted" artists sometimes have the badge despite technically not behaving accordingly. The people upholding the "trusted artists" badge are themselves also fairly lenient towards letting "minor" complaints slide by, even if there is clear evidence that the artist isn't to be trusted. Not like it is trivial to keep track of how trustworthy all the artists on the list are over time. It is a lot of work.

There is also the trouble that as more and more artists join the list, it becomes harder for artists not on the list to get commissioners, and since the current "trust validation" is only applicable to established artists, then this creates a large catch 22 preventing new artists from joining the field at large. Not that this is actually a real problem, there is plenty of other platforms outside of FA where "trusted artists" isn't as applicable.

In short, it is somewhat "hard" to get onto the list, but getting off it due to poor behaviour is seemingly about as hard.

In the end, an artist with it is about as trustworthy as an artist without it. And this is why I consider it a waste of time, like reading this by modern standards book of a comment expressing my thoughts, yes I don't use Twitter.... Though, seeing another dragon artist on the list would be interesting, since there is very few currently.

Personally, I've never seen the point. If you want that particular art style you're gonna commission them regardless.

It's never been a factor for me in like 8 years of getting art, and I've only had 1 bad experience, but the artist eventually delivered.

Yes, most artists are honest people and will deliver on the project.
And one generally goes to people drawing in a style one likes above most else.

I too haven't had any real bad experiences, haven't commissioned a ton of images yet though, but few of my friends seems to have had a lot of bad experiences either. The occasional image that didn't turn out as they wanted it, sometimes missing details or incorrectly drawn ones, but generally most things works out fine in the end.

I am not saying that this icon is something important for me. and I'm not saying that something will change from its appearance. My gallery is my quality assurance.
It's just an icon that will look cool in my page description. I think I would just be pleased to see it - to feel progress and some kind of movement forward. Even if it is formal and does not mean anything.

It is always nice to be accepted into a group, I can understand the desire for progress, life tends to get a bit stale otherwise.

I'll wish you the best of luck on the road you are walking, even if it takes turns that I personally don't see as necessary. What is important is that you enjoy the ride, not me or anyone else watching you take the steps.

I've experienced this from them despite being referred using the proper channels they took the badge away cause of personal bias. They threatened me over it because they dont like me even tho I did everything I needed to do to "earn" it.

To a degree, I think FA could do a better job at it themselves. But I am afraid even they would do a poor job at it. Since it is a complicated issue. I think Ebay does it best currently, but they have a much easier job than to judge if an art commission were done properly to the agreement between the parties involved.

But it would still likely not matter much, since even FA doesn't have most of the needed information to make an informed decision. One needs a proof of payment and preferably the communication surrounding the commission as to know what work were agreed on. Without these two parts, it is all mostly hearsay.

Though, even if there turns out to be an issue, then preferably the commissioner should get their money back. This Ebay at least does fairly well. But for a site like FA to do that, they needs to partake as a middle man, a much larger job that is likely outside their scope. (Though, just like on ebay, this system could be gamed in a way that the artist would unfairly suffer from it, since we would also need to judge the honesty of the commissioner, not just the artist.)

The admins expressed a personal hate for me and they admitted that to being the reason I won’t get admitted.

But at the end of the day I don’t really need their approval to determine myself as trustworthy. I think my repeat customers do a much better job at showing that then some stupid badge.

This badge is honestly pretty worthless and doesn't mean anything. Just a bunch of people who think they can police who is and isn't "trusted".