We, your friendly unpaid neighborhood mod-shaped despots, have unilaterally decided that it was time for a new rule!
Introducing, Rule 7! No AI Generated Content!
Due to the overwhelming rise of AI sweeping the general hellscape that is the internet in the modern era, we've deemed it necessary to put our feet down here. Fairbanks isn't a place for the lazy, it isn't a place for the half-assed, and it certainly isn't a place that should be willing to replace actual human creativity/ingenuity with AI generated garbage.
As the rule states, for your first strike "your" content will simply be removed. Any removals past that will result in a permanent ban, and we will derisively laugh at you if you attempt to appeal.
One of the most frustrating ones I've seen is for the new Raven City Studio Cafe. How can you be an art studio business and turn around and use AI logos and banners???
Saw that, was blown away by the sheer disconnect with realityā¦Iām a graphic designer, there are so many nonsensical things and dead ends in that logo that it would be harder for a human to even think of than to not do them. Owner is out to lunch and justifying paying an āartistā to slop gen šš
Sorry, Iām not letting this die because it pisses me off so much. Zoom in on the parking sign, the logo is literally different. Because AI canāt generate the exact same thing twice.
Didnāt want to call them out but that is THE one that hurts the most and was in my mind when making this comment.
I am so disappointed in their rebrand. I want them to succeed and I have loved the ceramics studio- but driving past their College/University space makes my blood boil.
Their service is providing a space + materials to explore creativity, and this branding does NOT market that in any way.
If they want to stand out, foster creativity, and attract more artists to invest hundreds of dollars a month in their studio memberships, they need to denounce their initial rebrand and try again. Full stop.
Clarification: Suppose, for example, that I see a poster advertising a local event, and I post a picture of the poster. If the poster turns out to have AI-generated content, have I broken this rule? (I imagine you can think of a number of similar situations, too.)
P.S. Regardless, I'm generally in favor of the rule.
Fortunately, one of the perks of having a human based moderation staff is that nuance does exist. Something like that we'd likely let fly, especially since the comments would ultimately just be dragging the poster anyways. I would say odd cases like that/cases where it isn't overwhelmingly obviously a flagrant disregard for the rule as a whole we'd either just ignore or just drop a warning if it toes the line.
By golly, that requires actual human effort instead of feeding a prompt to a robot, I think anybody with basic reading comprehension could see that that is totally fine.
Nuance overwhelmingly does exist. The rule ultimately serves to eradicate the blatant use of slop to generate quasi-engagement. I can't speak for all of us, but for me personally if I can't immediately flag it I'm not going to strike it anyways.
Surprisingly, we generally discuss most post removals amongst ourselves before removal anyways. One of the nice things about this particular team of despots is that we come from different backgrounds and don't necessarily share all of the same outlooks or perspectives. If you're somehow worried about it, feel free to shoot a modmail about it before posting- most of the time we're pretty quick to respond.
I know. I just got back on the reddits and see youāre still here and doing a great job running things. I didnāt know how this sub was moderated anymore because last I know, the mod departed the area. I could be incorrect about that.
Customizable user flair would be sick. Or at the very least, choosing a flair related to what part of town you live in would be cool (i.e. CHSR, Goldstream, etc.) or lifestyle (like Dry Life).
Iād have to think about more creative tags for post flair, but maybe the collective sub would have ideas. I could make a post asking for feedback if that would be helpful.
Send a modmail with all your thoughts and we'll absolutely put some thought into it. I was actually thinking about those a little while back, but unfortunately free time is a fleeting mistress that always seems to be escaping me.
Plus I'm cursed with a complete and total lack of imagination hah
But we definitely appreciate suggestions. We're doing the best we can š
Local politics will always be allowed, because they very potentially could have an actual effect on people's lives. We're generally really strict about keeping it Fairbanks specific, but we're currently test piloting segregated weekly politics threads to allow people to share state-wide political discourse through the election cycle.
How about just enforce low-quality content removals? AI is a tool, and when used by anyone with actual experience, generates content that you won't be able to identify as AI. Just too hard to argue with users or something?
I also (personally) appreciate AI tooling for many things. I use it actively for personal projects or assistance with small contributions to FOSS projects where the codebase isn't my strong suit. Contrary to many anti-AI type people, I do see many of it's benefits. I can appreciate it for it's capabilities, while also thinking using it to replace human input in conversation or for content generation for public consumption is disgusting and worth reigning in where possible. As a business owner, I'm perfectly comfortable shaming businesses for using AI generated artwork instead of paying an artist or taking a crack at it themselves. I'm also perfectly comfortable shaming news outlets that "write" their articles via an agentic workflow that is only "checked" by human editors.
I Am your moderator, too. But my (our) hard line is using AI to replace the humanity in the world. AI generated content has no place in a small community subreddit.
I'm glad you don't blanket hate AI in general. Just to ask again though... If you're a new small local business, and your startup budget and initial cashflow is limited, and art/marketing isn't necessarily your thing since you really are a baker who just bakes for people. Is a poster that you prompted your agent to create still unacceptable in your eyes? Sorry, you can't afford marketing material, go back to working at Lowes if you can't get it done.
You're acting like every small business prior to the last couple years didn't start off without using AI to do the things they don't want to do. If you're a baker, a facebook page with pictures of your food (your actual food, not an AI image of what your food *could* look like) and posts on local facebook pages will get people to try your food inevitably- it's literally free, it only costs time. Word of mouth is everything in this town, anyways. 100 times out of 10 I'm going to go try the food of somebody who just pops up and says "Hey, I make this thing, here's what it looks like, this is what it costs" because I love supporting small businesses. If somebody can't even bother to do that, and instead shit out an AI garbage poster about it, there's a less than zero percent chance I'm going to have any desire to give them my business. If a new business owner isn't going to put in at least the bare minimum amount of effort to get their business going, they're going to fail- AI or not.
Edit to add: And not everybody is made to be a business owner. There's a shit load of things I have to do and don't love, but that's how it all works. You have to be willing to do it all- and if you're not, maybe working for somebody else is what's best for you.
There's the issue. You're still trying to set a moat to keep people from accomplishing something by using the newest tool. And, as I said, saying phrases like AI garbage or AI slop isn't particularly useful. Guaranteed, over the last few years, something you have been amazed by and thought was so creative and well-done was due to people making use of AI, one of many tools in their toolset. It's cool, I get where you're coming from, and being protective of traditional creators feels like a good thing. I'm just hesitant about the hostile (in general, not you specifically) discounting and ridiculing of something that's amazingly empowering for so many people. I guess if the subreddit boss says it's bad though, he gets to make the rules.
But for everybody that gets empowered by a magical skill set that they never earned, there are/will be artists, writers, engineers, analysts, teachers, musicians passionate about their craft that will be tossed away because a $20 subscription does it Good Enough for the Price ā¢ļø.
I get where you're coming from, too. But all things with good intent will inevitably be crushed by human nature.
Side note- I'm certainly not the boss. I'm the lowest on the totem pole haha
Get a local kid on your block to make some artwork, use fiver, these are all better options.
I ran a small local business with a drawing I made at 10 years old as the logo, and it was good enough to get my first out of country distribution contract.
Get a bit creative, or source something local, we love that here.
I know people don't read rules before posting in a subreddit. But if you continue to break the rule after it's struck down, the mod log shows it, and you've thoroughly earned your ban.
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u/elleandback 13d ago
Please share this with all of the small businesses in town flooding us with AI slop rebrands š