Did you publish a post and later got a notice of violation in your notification box?

Or perhaps, you're here to prevent such mistakes from happening in the first place?

Here are some common mishaps to watch out for ~

01 – Unrelated to the category

HoYoLAB is divided into numerous different categories which can get quite confusing for someone who's simply intending to publish a picture of their latest accomplishment.

At the bottom of the post creation interface, you can see two fundamental sections – Select category and Add topic. These define where in the forum your post will be shown, thus it's important to set these correctly.

It has become an everyday sight of having gacha pulls, random screenshots and whatsoever scattered through every category possible. Not to mention how chaotic it can get during some of the events. We find the event-related content all around HoYoLAB, in places they should not be in. This poses a huge issue, as users came to view content related to the current section and category.

Take your time and carefully review the post before publishing. Do not rush, there's no real reason to act in such a hurry. As for what comes into deciding the category, it's straightforward. Under the "Select Category" you find all HoYoverse games as well as the general LAB section. Upon hovering on them, you'll see further categorization on the right side. There's something for everyone; from different forms of art to guides and general discussions.

Time to look back at your post – that hilarious meme doesn't seem to fit in the definition of a guide, so better select "Memes" or "Funny Videos".

Then there are the topics, to specify what the post is about. It's rarely necessary to create a new topic (the + symbol) since a bunch of the essential ones already do exist. Please avoid creating nonsensical or otherwise dumb topics as they're not providing any beneficial meaning. However, if you decide to make something new, do not include the # symbol at the beginning, since HoYoLAB adds this automatically. (That would result in something like "##ImAwesome")

Content that's unrelated to the current category or topic violates our Community Rule #1. The violating posts will be hidden / removed from the community, thus all that effort was wasted.

– What exactly is the LAB section?

In the early days, we just had a general "Tavern" section where users from all around the world would gather to share their thoughts, funny images and essentially everything in the scope of the game.

But as we progressed to greater dimensions, it ceased to exist. Users quickly began to miss their old home, the Tavern, thus our mighty saviour Mimo stepped up to introduce the LAB section!

To explain what it's about, imagine a less chaotic version of those #off-topic channels in Discord. It's a place for everyone to gather thoughts that may not fit on any of the HoYoverse games. Be it a picture of a friend's cat, the accomplishment of touching grass or whatever you have in mind.

In a way, LAB provides more freedom for the users. Although to prevent it from getting completely out of hand, there must be certain kinds of guidelines and restrictions.

That's where our Community Rules step in. Rule #1 is based on off-topic content and spam thus it doesn't have the exact same meaning in LAB. Users are free to post content on all kinds of topics, as long as it follows the rest of the rules on HoYoLAB. So make sure your post doesn't break even a single one of them.

Nowadays Mimo organizes various events to keep LAB interesting and attractive (to at least some degree). This way encourages users to publish content which is still within the scope of the forum.

At the same time, we can discover a common set of post types that form an ocean of not-so-necessary and low-effort content. Announcing your likes, rising follower count and similar "thank you posts" doesn't benefit others, right? Some might also release quick "content" such as greeting other users and leaving it there. While these won't exactly break the rules (on LAB), they're not beneficial for the community either. It's always good for the post to have a clear topic that brings discussion and interest. Just because something isn't exclusively prohibited, doesn't mean it's good either.

To sum it up; Feel free to share your thoughts and accomplishments as long as it follows the Community Rules, while also avoiding the unnecessary stuff. LAB is a place for discussions that won't fit in other sections but is still relevant within our global community.

(Enormous thanks to our Mimo Devotee, User_110'someone', for sharing their knowledge on this topic! <3)

02 – Lacking credits / having a watermark

It's not unusual for users to forget the importance of proper crediting when reposting others' artworks. Often the case is that our Community Rules have not been read properly or at all. We cannot completely blame the user though, as undeniably the rules can be sometimes difficult to access.

I've already written a guide to achieving the right way of reposting, check it out here: Credit Artworks Properly | Guide on HoYoLAB

Watermarks cause frequent mishaps. HoYoLAB automatically generates watermarks, the grey-coloured "Nickname@HoYoLAB" at the bottom right, which can be troublesome. Fear not, because this function can be toggled by going to Privacy Settings and clicking on the "Add watermark when uploading images" option.

(Lacking or improper crediting violates Community Rule #3 and having a watermark on someone else's work violates Community rule #4.)

03 – False submissions on events / contests

When a new exciting event or contest arrives, it generally forms a lot of spam and false submissions around it. I've identified three types; pure accidents, misunderstanding of the event rules, and lastly wittingly spamming to have a "chance" of obtaining the rewards.

Pure accidents can happen due to carelessly reviewing the post before publishing, or simply not understanding what event tags are. Some people get so excited over the new event that they forget to properly read what it's actually about. Make sure to always read the full announcement!

Then lastly, some try to win without any effort at all. Remember that even though it may seem easy to just spam, in reality, you do not have the slightest chance of winning the top prizes. Mimo and the team will review submissions to make sure they aren't against the event guidelines or the Community Rules in general.

So in short, don't panic. Instead, familiarize yourself with the event guidelines and avoid spamming. Even if the event topic doesn't match your skills and talents, won't mean that you have the right to send false submissions.

You can always try out some new skills to participate in the events. In the end, winning is not everything! It's important to have fun and perhaps even learn something entirely new~

04 – Other spam content

In addition to the reasons mentioned above, spam is a regular phenomenon. Maybe it's a cat rolling on the keyboard, nonsensical topics after the lack of sleep, or anything imaginable. Some users might be after the EXP rewards by simply spamming daily. All this produces more workload for us and Mimo, as these kinds of posts have to be removed to keep the forum clean and interesting.

If there's anything I want you to definitely remember in the future; Always look at your post and wonder if it's sensible or not. Will this initiate useful discussions? Is this of any help to others? Do people want to see this kind of content?

At the end of writing this article I realised how this is mostly focused on Community Rule #1... ___〆(．．;)

I strongly hope this helps you to prevent and fix possible mishaps.

Huge thanks if you managed to read the whole article, this is now my second guide on HoYoLAB.

You're more than welcome to give any constructive feedback in the comment section.

May the might of Mimo be with you~!