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/MarlyMonster]

So I’m a mod of some Facebook groups and even in the service dog world this is a hot topic. My group got complains for people having vests for their dogs featuring HP stuff. Ultimately I as mod has to tell the groups that it’s not my job to police stuff like that. Because you’re right, where’s the line? If I ban one thing because people don’t like it (even if they don’t like it for a very valid reason) then where does it end and I’ll need to ban more and more. Either everything is allowed or nothing is allowed. And as mod it’s tricky when you start involving your own personal opinions. I personally always just stayed out of it as long as people weren’t purposely trying to offend others.

[u/Sad_snek_Janus → u/MarlyMonster]

Yes. Like how Picasso was a horrible person.

Or how DR suise abused his dying wife and then screwed her over..

I think as long as it’s tagged as Harry Potter or smt, then it should be allowed, because at that point, anything that has even a slightly bad connotation in it can be a bannable offense.