FAQ & contact

Answers to common questions about ArtaQuest — how publishing, the reproducibility checklist, challenges, coins, sponsors, and donations work — and how to reach us.

What is ArtaQuest?

A social feed of citable, reproducible work. Every submission — survey, dataset, model, article, 2D or 3D illustration, 2D or 3D animation, 2D or 3D game, or music — is a public Kaggle notebook that has been run. The author pastes the URL of the notebook's output page, picks which of its output files to publish, and an exhaustive reproducibility checklist runs against Kaggle's public API before the author publishes the work from their own inbox. Published files land in the Library, where any member can attach them to their posts. Reading everything is free, no account needed.

How do I publish a work?

Paste a Kaggle notebook URL, pick the files to publish, read the checklist, request publication, then confirm from your inbox. That is the whole flow. The checklist's blocking checks all have to pass; then a single-use secret goes to your own registered email, and your click plus your device passkey signature is what publishes the work and mints its permanent DOI short link. Every step is free.

How is a work checked?

It is checked, not judged — nothing here is scored, ranked or graded. A reproducibility checklist runs about twenty deterministic checks in four groups: can anyone open it, can anyone re-run it, did that run produce these files, how repeatable is the result. Every check names the exact evidence it read from Kaggle's public API. Blocking checks must all pass; warnings are shown loudly and never block. Because the Kaggle pages the checklist reads answer without a login, the whole checklist is a public assertion anyone can re-run and contradict.

Why must every work be a public Kaggle notebook?

Because that is what makes it checkable by a stranger. Reproducible here means anyone can hit Copy & Edit then Run All on Kaggle, from public inputs, and get this — weaker than a byte-for-byte guarantee, stronger than taking our word for a run on our own machine. Kaggle runs the notebook and enforces the internet switch; we read and report what its record says. The Kaggle kernel is the provenance, and the DOI short link (artaquest.com/d/n<id>) is the citation of record, because a kernel is owner-editable and deletable and a DOI is not.

Do I need an account?

You can read, play and listen to everything without one — and re-run any work yourself on Kaggle. A free account is needed to post, heart, publish and enter challenges. Signing up takes under a minute and needs only an email address; there are no passwords, ever.

Can I join if I am under 18?

Members aged 13 and over may register with parental or guardian consent. Buying Arta Coins, or any other payment, requires the account holder to be 18 or older, or a parent or guardian to complete the transaction.

How do challenges work?

A challenge is founded by a member: pick a kind, a sitewide topic and a full-moon deadline, set the entry fee, and open it with your own notebook — the founder pays in like everyone else. Every entrant's fee goes straight into the pool, and at the full moon the most-hearted entry takes the whole pool; an exact tie splits it evenly. The Foundation never takes a cut.

How do I enter a challenge?

With your own work of the challenge's kind — a public Kaggle notebook that has cleared the checklist and that you have published from your own inbox. Pay the entry fee — all of it goes into the pool — one entry per member per challenge. At the deadline only the hearts decide.

Why hearts instead of up and down votes?

Because taste needs no negative. You heart what you love — one heart per member per reply or work, never your own — and the counts rank the boards. There is nothing to downvote: content that trades in hate or fear is handled by ArtaMod, not by pile-ons, and everything else deserves to stand on the love it earns. Every heart is public in the Data explorer.

What's the difference between coins and points?

Two different things. Arta Coins are money — gold-backed, spendable, cashable; you win them by taking a challenge pool. Points are standing — a lifetime tally of what you've contributed that sets your rank (Quester to Legend). You earn points by creating (publishing works), engaging (a point for each reply you post), donating (a point per coin given), and volunteering (resolved contributions, shares, referrals). Spending coins never lowers your points.

我該如何捐款？

Go to the Donate page, pick or enter an amount, and continue to checkout. Pay by Interac e-Transfer or card; you will see payment instructions immediately. We confirm receipt within 1–2 business days.

What is Arta Coin (₳)?

Arta Coin (₳) is ArtaQuest's currency. Each coin is a claim on one milligram of real gold, and the Reserve page publishes the live ratio of gold held to coins issued — so you can check the backing yourself instead of taking our word for it. A coin is worth the same in every country. You win coins by taking challenge pools, and you can buy or cash them out at the live gold rate from your Wallet.

為何捐款以加幣計？

The foundation banks in Canada, so checkout is denominated in Canadian dollars. Card payments convert your local currency automatically; Interac is for Canadian bank accounts.

What can I do with Arta Coins?

Found or enter challenges, donate them to the member fund (which also earns you donor points), or cash them out for ordinary money at the live gold rate from your Wallet. Every coin is a claim on one milligram of gold; the live backing ratio is on the Reserve page.

Can I get a tax receipt?

Not an official one, and we would rather say so plainly than leave you to find out at tax time. ArtaQuest Foundation is a Canadian non-profit corporation, not a registered charity, and CRA does not permit a non-profit to issue official donation receipts — so a gift to us is not tax-deductible. Every donation does trigger an email confirmation you can keep as a record, and every cent of it appears in the Foundation’s published books, on the Finances page.

Can I get my donation back?

Donations are non-refundable in general (see the Refund Policy), except for duplicate or unauthorised payments. Coins minted for a refunded donation are reversed.

What is a bursary for?

So that cost never decides who takes part. Through the Sponsors programme, donors earmark Arta Coins to a community, and bursaries draw on that fund. Where it stands today: the bursary form still covers the retired course fee, not a challenge entry, so it cannot pay a challenge fee yet — we would rather say so than send you to a form that cannot help. Every coin in the fund is public in the ledgers meanwhile.

What proof of income do I need for a bursary?

One document is enough: a CRA Notice of Assessment, a government benefit letter (AISH, Alberta Works, Income Support, or equivalent), a credit rating report classifying your income as Low, or another means-tested document.

Is ArtaQuest a registered organisation?

Yes. ArtaQuest Foundation is a registered Canadian non-profit. It operates exclusively for educational purposes and distributes no profit to members. The non-profit structure is deliberate — it protects the platform's independence from being acquired, monetised, or quietly steered off its mission.

What is ArtaQuest's position on AI?

An AI is trained to give you its single most likely answer — to collapse a world of possibilities into one. As a tool, that is powerful. As a substitute for thinking, it quietly narrows what people believe is possible, and rewards accepting the average answer over working one out. It also burns a great deal of energy. ArtaQuest was built in response — not against the technology, but for the human faculty it cannot replace: the ability to think for yourself, and to widen a question the machine has narrowed.

Does ArtaQuest promote a particular ideology or worldview?

No. We do not advocate for any tradition, denomination, or political position, and we accept no funding that would pull us toward one. We bring you the best free knowledge we can find, present the strongest honest case for competing positions, and let you reach your own conclusion rather than handing you one. No fear-mongering, no hate speech, no propaganda.

Where does ArtaQuest's funding come from?

Donations. Submitting, checking and publishing are all free, and challenge pools are never touched: 100% of entry fees returns to the winning entrants. Every gift, every coin and every gold figure is in the open ledgers — see the live Reserve and the Data explorer.

Does ArtaQuest have charitable status for tax receipts?

No. We are incorporated as a Canadian non-profit and rely on the paragraph 149(1)(l) income-tax exemption; we have not obtained charitable registration from the Canada Revenue Agency, and until we do we cannot issue official donation receipts. If that ever changes, this page will say so first.