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/PureFicti0n]

Librarian here, so I know a thing or two about censorship. Full disclosure, I have not read through all 400+ comments in this thread so I might be repeating something that's already been discussed. Also, I know I'm a bit late to the party, but hopefully my comment doesn't fade into obscurity.

I'm pretty left-leaning, socially and politically, and I'm not a fan of Rowling's views. But censorship is a double-edged sword -- for every person who wants to get rid of the ideas that you find abhorrent, there's someone else who abhors the ideas that you embrace. If we have this discussion about crafts based on "the boy wizard," what happens when someone comes along who has moral objections to, say, Rick Riordan's personal views? (I'm well aware that there aren't a ton of crafts getting posted based on the Percy Jackson books, but that's not the point here.)

I'd prefer knowing that this sub allows HP-themed crafts to be posted without censorship or comment, because I also want to be able to post, say, Percy Jackson themed crafts without censorship or comment.

Obviously I'm not suggesting a free-for-all where anything goes; there's no room here for gore or hate speech, for example. Nor should we approve crafts that include Nazi imagery or crafts based on Mein Kampf, say. But censoring with broad brushstrokes doesn't make the world a better place, so I think the mods need to tread carefully here.