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/AMVilla86]

I like your idea of having a spot where comments could explain the issues, and then people have a discussion there rather than throughout the whole thread.

[u/____ozma → u/AMVilla86]

They could use the same stickied comment to do that as the one with instructions to hide/block, like they do with unsolicited advice in Girl Dinner Diaries. 

[u/oceansapart333 → u/____ozma]

Exactly the sub I was thinking of.

[u/bioticspacewizard → u/AMVilla86]

My issue with this is that if comments are left open with only a siloed thread to call out transphobia and bigotry, then the visible discussion still platforms support.

[u/CheesecakeExpress → u/bioticspacewizard]

The stickied mod comment explaining its problematic content would be visible.

[u/bioticspacewizard → u/CheesecakeExpress]

It still means the messages of support drown out any valid criticism.

Platforming the IP does material harm to trans people. I think people should be allowed to call that out.

[u/CheesecakeExpress → u/bioticspacewizard]

I don’t think it would drown it out, I’m in the girldinnersub and they do something similar when an op doesn’t want advice, and it works really well. It is big and blaring at the top and would highlight the issue clearly. It would be a big indicator this is problematic.

I appreciate your point of view completely. I guess for me, I think it’s really tricky for mods to be the ones who decide what can/can’t be discussed. Where do they draw the line? What if something posted something in support of Palestine or Ukraine?

There are other trans people on this thread who disagree with you (in that they think a pinned comment would be ok( so how do the mods decide which view to take? At least a mod comment means consistency which I think is the least problematic way to move forward