r/crafts • u/AMVilla86 • Aug 10 '26
Let's talk about Harry Potter
… 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.
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u/dothemath_xxx Aug 10 '26
The issue I see with a general "Problematic" flair is that a lot of people genuinely aren't aware of the controversy around these people/IP. I know it may be difficult to believe, especially in the case of Rowling who has been so publicly outrageous for so long, but - speaking as a trans person myself, and a former huge fan of Harry Potter - most people in my family have zero awareness that JK Rowling has become a controversial figure, and are surprised every time I mention it.
I saw a thread the other day (in a different subreddit) where someone found out about the allegations against Gaiman for the first time because of the strong negative response to their post where they mentioned they were reading some of his work.
I suspect there would be a large overlap between people who are doing crafts of these IP and people who aren't aware of the controversy, or who may be somewhat aware of it but not on a strong enough level to realize they need to select a Problematic flair. Even if you include a specific list of Problematic IP for reference, that would require people knowing to check it - and then you would be potentially opening up a debate over whether several hundred Youtubers and other content creators should be added to the list for their various crimes against public decency, regardless of whether or not crafts inspired by them actually show up regularly enough in the subreddit to cause concern.
My suggestion would be to pick out the worst offenders, in terms of IP - the ones that most often devolve into debate in the comments - and add specific flairs for those. There are a lot of controversial IP out there, but I am assuming it's only a few that are really consistent moderation problems. You could also set up AutoMod to add an extra comment on posts with those flairs with an acknowledgement of the controversial subject matter and a reminder of the rules.
Regarding an outright ban, I'm not in favor of that personally, but I also wouldn't be put out if the community as a whole feels that's the right way to proceed, or if you feel that it's the only way to address the fighting. I don't feel that someone creating Harry Potter crafts is trying to send a transphobic message (or is really materially contributing to the millions of dollars that JK Rowling is making). They just have a different relationship today to her work and to her as an author than I do.