Hi everyone, ~esintu speaking here!

So, we get a lot of questions about our criteria when we reject works from our members. This is partly because no one likes reading long lists of rules and it's more convenient to just try and see what works, but also, I should admit, our criteria aren't very clear-cut and can border on subjective a lot of times. You should know that many works get votes both ways and are not rejected or accepted unanimously. I will provide a long explanation of the criteria, but also a shortlist of rules of thumb at the end, so if you don't have time/don't care about the details, scroll down to the list.

Before I provide the brief list, I should explain what we understand from "abstract" and how we interpret it, as it might not be very intuitive. Abstract classically means non-figurative. Technically, most fractal artwork out there is actually abstract, aside from landscape and still life fractals (which are not very common anyway). However, within fractals, there are commonly occuring 'objects' and forms such as spirals, flowers, mandelbrot sets, julia sets and mobius transformations. We consider these not to be abstract within fractal art. So many works that you can easily submit to regular abstract art groups around dA will not be considered to fit our abstract fractal galleries.

Another important aim of our group is to accept non-conventional and innovative works. This is indirectly connected to the concept of abstract art too, as back in its first days, it was also a protest of conventional and figurative art. This second criteria is very subjective by nature, but there have been trends emerging as to what kinds of works most moderators vote unfavorably for these reasons. These mostly include issues with composition such as symmetrical, centered compositions and tiled fractals.

One more thing. While we would like to support upcoming artists (and we all do, outside of this group), this specific group aims to exhibit high-quality unconventional works. Again, the judgement of technical merit and quality of works are very subjective in nature, and it may or may not result in a negative decision, but please understand that we do turn down some works because we think there are technical problems with them. I personally pay a lot of attention to textures, and solid, 'raw' fractals can be a turn-off for me (unless I realize that was intentional and adds to the meaning/feeling of the image). That's a very personal criteria, and nothing is rejected or accepted by my single vote. So you could get away without textures if you convince the other moderators, but it's an example of what the judges take into account when viewing your submissions.

For convenience (i.e. for tl;dr), I will now provide you with a short list of very basic rules we follow when voting on your submissions:

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One or more of the following features may result in an unfavorable vote on your work;
- Realistic landscapes, still life fractals and other highly figurative works;
- Flowers, spirals, mandelbrot sets, julia sets, mobius and other commonly used fractal forms as the central focus of the work;
- Standard, conventional styles and composition (centered, symmetrical images, tiled fractals etc.);
- Lack of consideration for technical details (bad antialiasing, various unwanted artifacts, perhaps noise).

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Do remember that not all judges agree a 100% on each and every aspect mentioned above. In the end, every moderator votes on submissions based on whether they think the work is abstract, unconventional, and high-quality. There could be exceptions every now and then. These rules are just trends that have emerged over time on what we accept and what we reject. Don't hesitate to provide feedback

Cheers!
~esintu