Hello fellow Newgrounders. Off and on in the last few years I've visited the forums and have checked out a few different threads in the art forum. One specific grouping is the "Request" or the "Artist needed" type thread.

Earlier today, I was looking around online and found 2 different articles on boredpanda.com that showcased a collection of artists that were essentially badmouthed for wanting to be paid for their talents.

While these are somewhat entertaining to read, it gets annoying to see so many people not want to pay or "Be unable to pay" or "Paying with exposure" for a legitimate amount of work and then get mad that no one helped you on your project. 

While I don't sell art or make enough of it in high enough quality, this entire topic hit close to home for me last year as a person skilled in a trade.

By unofficial terms, I am an IT worker. I'm not truly trained with IT but it's the job I do and I'm pretty good at it. I have been looking to do some freelance work as a person to set up social media accounts for small businesses and do basic maintenance of photos and general updates.

I had gone to a local business where I had seen their poorly functioning website and facebook page and asked if they were hiring a temporary job to do simple commission work. They seemed interested and after I stated a simple rate of approximately 8.00 an hour ( A fair rate) I was looked at with scorn and confusion.

"We're not paying you to play on a computer." Was the response I was given. "We thought you would do it for free."

To make a long story short here and get to the point:

You don't ask a construction crew to build you a house for free

You don't get a mechanic to fix your car for free

Remember: The people you're asking to take time and do work need to eat too.