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/CheshireRaptor]

Personally, I'm not bothered by seeing crafts based on any particular IP, even if I have issues with the creator or company behind it. There are IPs I won't purchase new merchandise from because I don't want my money supporting them, but I also don't judge someone else for making a different choice. I'll happily buy something secondhand if it's related to an IP I enjoy and works for a project I want to make.

I also think trying to decide which IPs are "problematic enough" to ban or require a warning/flair would put the mods in an impossible position. Harry Potter may seem like an obvious example to some people, but once you move beyond that, you're going to get wildly different opinions about which creators, companies, actors, authors, etc. cross whatever line is established. At some point, moderating crafts turns into moderating everyone's ethical relationship with media.

For what it's worth, this issue has actually made me less comfortable sharing my own work here. I've avoided posting some IP-related crafts because I've received some pretty horrible DMs from people who objected to the IP involved. I got tired of dealing with that.

I'd much rather see the focus remain on the craft itself. If someone doesn't want to see or engage with a particular IP, hiding the post or blocking the user seems like a reasonable solution. Obviously hate speech or content that violates Reddit's rules is a different matter, but I don't think simply making a craft based on a controversial IP should be treated as an endorsement of everything its creator has ever said or done.