1.) Make sure they are active:
The most common thing we see others do is donate to Inactive accounts. It's easy to tell when people are inactive. The first thing you do is check their "Recent Activity". See the last time they logged in or watched someone. This can be found at the top of their account. If this is hidden, check when their last journal was, and then check when their last reply was in the comments on their profile page. If the account has deviations you can also check the date they submitted last.

By checking these things you can be sure not to donate your points somewhere they will never be used.

2.) Make sure they donate:
Be careful you don't donate to a point donor who isn't giving back. To check this go to their comment section and see when they last replied. If  if it says they donated, go check the account they donated to. Its usually good to check this with five people to see if they've received the points they were promised. If they haven't replied to comments that are two week old, you can assume they are inactive.

Also if you see no donations at all but it looks like their active, you can assume there is something not right with that account and take your points somewhere else.

3.) Where can your points do the most good?
Although we work to help point donors start up and be trustworthy. Donating to them is always risky mainly for human error. They could get bored and leave the account or be lying and steal all the points. No matter what you take a risking giving your points to someone else to hand out. So another tip is to donate to actual accounts, you know, ARTISTS. This way is actually a lot more meaningful, and you'll be thanked yourself.



1.) Donate Anonymously:
This is the easiest way to avoid attention, by doing this no one will know you donated and you wont have your username displayed all over the place.

2.) Avoid accounts with "Featured Artists" lists:
If you really don't care to get watches and llama's but just want to donate to help, go to accounts that wont feature you. Or better yet ask them not to. We know its tempting to have your name up so you can get some attention, but believe us with that attention comes the beggars.



1.) Post Rules on Your Account
If you don't have a problem with giving points but don't want to deal with many asker's, make your own set of rules, for example:
- Note me to receive points
- I do not donate to people after PM's
- I do not donate to people after other selfish things.
- I do not donate PM's (Unless you truly deserve it)
If people break these rules they get an immediate "no".

2.) Don't tolerate Spammers:
If you encounter a spammer mark all their comments as "spam" and please remember that spamming is actually against dA rules, and the person could get banned, so report them. Save others and save yourself from their annoyance.

3.) Dealing with Unwanted Visitors:
If you are not in the business of giving out points and don't want people bothering you. Having a Notice that you "don't give points" somewhere on your page is a polite way to say "Go away!". If that doesn't work don't be afraid to be tough. Block them. Ignore them. Hide their comments. It's the magic of the internet, if you see something you don't like you can get rid of it with a couple clicks of your mouse.

(If you would like to see something else talked about just comment on the journal and we'll bring that up.)