it could be a sign of manipulation but it could also just be a sign of lossy compression so I find that inconclusive
You just restated my point in its entirety. I'm not sure why you think we're disagreeing?
When I think of digital photo artifacts I think blocks of miscolored, corrupt pixels.
You're thinking of corruption in some digital formats (PNG?). I'm suggesting a minor mis-adjustment of the camera's sensor resulting in some clipped highlights.
Also just to be sure, could you provide an example of a digital photo artifact similar to the one above?
This would be extremely difficult to reproduce in a controlled fashion, so no, I can't. I can only hope that an explanation of the concepts involved will be obvious to someone who claims to have experience with photography.
Is the fact that I personally took this image using my own equipment and therefore know exactly how it was created and all the steps taken to create it relevant here?
No, because you're refusing to present any data of worth - just a low-res, blurry and heavily compressed JPEG. If you want to be relevant, try being useful to the discussion.
Oh yes and just in case there is any confusion, shootingstar has now become manicminer. Fancied a change.
You keep deleting accounts after receiving moderation warnings. I consider that an attempt at dodging the rules. Next time you "fancy a change", rename your account like everyone else.