Let's talk about Harry Potter

[u/AMVilla86]

… and other problematic IP

Hi folks,

We need your input. The mods have been discussing for a bit now about crafts with complicated Intellectual Property creators. Occasionally a craft will receive reports due to the theme of the craft and not about crafting itself. While we try to be as open-minded as possible, and we follow sitewide rules (such as no hate speech targeting identity or vulnerability, etc), there is still some nuance with moderating these types of posts. These posts have raised many questions, but we realized we needed to ask the community what they thought. If the community is uncomfortable with something, we want to know and be sure to moderate appropriately.

Some of the ideas we had so far, and why they would be tough to implement:

- Ban specific IP→ Where do we draw the line of what is and isn’t allowed?

- Create specific flair for ‘problematic’ → again, where is the line drawn?

- When a post receives enough reports about the theme and not the craft, leave a high-level moderator comment explaining how to block a user and/or hide a post → might be ignoring a problem rather than solving the issue for the sub.

With that being said, there’s only so much we can police. We want crafters to feel welcome, but with all the moderating we do, it would be hard to add on a layer of “educate a crafter on why the creator of this IP is bad” on top of our normal roles. We also don’t want our subreddit to become a lightning rod for debate. Ultimately, we are a crafts subreddit. While a few comments about inspiration of a craft is allowed, and questioning of said inspiration is also welcome, once we're many comments deep in multiple comment threads with no mention of crafting, it is no longer an appropriate conversation for r/crafts. There are many other subreddits for discussion and debate where you can converse.

So, what do you all think we should do with these types of posts? If we receive a large variety of ideas, we'll put it together in a survey or poll to further gauge how the subreddit feels. Also, feel free to message the mods if you're uncomfortable commenting on the post.

[u/RatherBeAtDisney]

I think “problematic” is maybe the wrong word for a tag if we go that route. Maybe “complicated IP”

Edit: thinking more, I think the tag could just be “Contains IP” and then everything gets the auto mod comment regardless even if it’s about Mr Rogers.

[u/kyothinks → u/RatherBeAtDisney]

I feel like "contains IP" is plenty neutral and can cover a wide variety of stuff--HP, but also Barbie, Stranger Things, Disney, Star Trek, Doctor Who, whatever. The high-level moderator comment can say something like "discussions of the IP that are not explicitly about the craft itself can be had here 👇" or something. Then people who feel compelled to educate have a space to do that, and others don't have to engage if they don't want to, and OP isn't getting dogpiled by notifications.

[u/Adreeisadyno → u/RatherBeAtDisney]

Maybe mom something like “ CONTAINS IP [HARRY POTTER]” And a spoiler tag/NSFW tag, so if someone doesn’t want to see the IP they do not have to, whether it’s Barbie or Disney or Friends

[u/mensfrightsactivists → u/Adreeisadyno]

logistically, as a mod (not here), i shudder to think how difficult it would be to come up with and maintain an exhaustive flair list for every possibly problematic ip. i like where this idea is going but dont think its possible to call out all the specific ips that could have issues, especially when you consider it on a global scale. does r crafts have mods who know enough about and can maintain a list of problematic bollywood ips? a mod who knows about what k dramas to avoid? (not that i know any of any off the top of my head, just examples)

i think something like.. “controversial IP” or another type of blanket flair could work, maybe with a few specific ones for the hot button franchises (such as hairy potman etc)?

just spitballin here

[u/Adreeisadyno → u/mensfrightsactivists]

Not a flair, but in the title of the post, for all possible IPs, so example would be “I made this for my niece! CONTAINS IP [My Little Pony]”

[u/mensfrightsactivists → u/Adreeisadyno]

oh okay gotchu. so that would be a whole different level of moderation wrt enforcement though. i can see it working but since that would need to be a formatting rule, and titles can’t be edited, i would see implementing that would involve a lot of post removals. not to mention time investment, since reports are user input and not a great thing to rely on usually. maybe an automod guidance like r/crossstitch has? but they require bracketed tags like that on every post, so implementing an automod rule for something that isn’t applicable to every post would be challenging too

i like the idea just trying to see the holes because i understand the mods’ need to get ahead of stuff like this instead of batting away constant reports on a touchy ip