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/sillygoofygooose]

You may be right, but it is interesting that this argument matches exactly the one most often levelled against political protests in general. Sadly disturbing the status quo - even one that is vile like transphobia - is always going to make a lot of people uncomfortable

[u/redoingredditagain → u/sillygoofygooose]

I believe we have to fight transphobia and other bigotry in every space, but I guess what I’m trying to say is that the people making and posting Harry Potter crafts are not really the people who are going to suddenly go “oh no, I’ve been perpetuating bigoted content! I have seen the errors of my ways and will stop immediately.”

It’s me being more realistic than anything else. And I’m against a total ban due to censorship anyway.

[u/sillygoofygooose → u/redoingredditagain]

I mean yeah, people don’t tend to change their beliefs right away. That’s why climate change also isn’t solved, and you’d better believe ‘this is stupid because it inconveniences me a lot/makes me feel bad’ is the most common response to attempts to change people’s minds on that.