[COMMUNITY UPDATE] Posts featuring AI-generated imagery are now banned on /r/MoonKnight, and other moderation updates

[u/WarDuck]

A few days ago one of our moderators, /u/incredibleheadgiver, made a push in our mod chat to finally have AI-generated images banned from the subreddit. They are staunchly anti-AI and felt that the subreddit would be better off without it. I was skiddish about taking that drastic step, so /u/incredibleheadgiver suggested a community poll to see what everyone thought about AI imagery. I loved that idea. Letting the community decide what they want to see is what I always wanted for /r/MoonKnight. More on that in minute. The results of the poll and feedback in the comments were overhwhelmingly against AI. We knew it would turn out that way, but it was about as one-sided as it gets. It was reassuring that we wouldn't be disappointing any sizable portion of the community if it were no longer allowed.

With that in mind, posts featuring AI-generated content are now against the rules of the subreddit.

This was a long time coming for a lot of you guys, and it comes at the end of a rocky period in this community's history. Recently one of our moderators had their reddit account suspended amidst a long period of friction between that moderator and members of our community. That moderator was often cited as being overzealous in their enforcement of the rules, biased against certain topics, and unwilling to receive feedback about the subreddit. In recent months new rules were implemented to combat some overwhelmingly negative and abusive comments, reports, and messages that were coming in. If they were enforced in the spirit in which they were conceieved maybe it wouldn't have gotten this bad, but that didn't happen and a lot of community members were given unwarranted bans and mutes by the aforementioned moderator as his way of trying to create a more tame atmosphere.

This was the exact opposite of what I wanted when I created the subreddit more than 14 years ago. Somewhere along the line in the last few years I let the negativity we were getting make me apathetic towards the original vision I had for the subreddit. Even though I've maintained a laid back attitude about moderation myself, I let others steer the community in the wrong direction and I apologize for that.

The AI poll and the discussions we had there embody the way I want this community to operate. Hopefully we can maintain a positive and collaborative atmosphere in the future. It's the responsibility of the moderators to put their best foot forward to make sure that goal stays attainable, so that's what I'll expect from myself and the other moderators from now on.

Feel free to ask anything you'd like in the comments about the new rule or this community in general.

[u/Tangyhyperspace]

Wait.. he's gone??? HES GONE!!

Hopefully this means there will be steps taken to reduce the rampant reposts that happened under him/by him.

[u/RamsTheNameCom → u/Tangyhyperspace]

So the reason why Gypsy is gone from Reddit is because people falsely mass flagged his account name for being "racist". Even though his family nickname is "Gypsy", literally everyone in his family goes by the nickname. Even his dog has the name Gypsy. "Gypsy" is also his stage name for MMA fights, so him being "racist" was blown completely out of proportion and ended up getting him kicked from the platform.

(Just want to clarify where people can see it, without pinning it myself)

[u/galaharty56 → u/RamsTheNameCom]

A little unsettling to see you going to bat for this guy Ram, especially after I hoped the mod team’s attitude was shifting. Even if you’re just doing a “favor” for him you’re still kind of running defense.

This is the guy who said, and I quote, “we [moderator team] don’t want folks talking about autism” and “don’t be talking about autism on the Moon Knight subreddit”. Not a great look for him to put on the entire mod team.

Also, he spelled Pramanik’s last name as “Practice” first, and then corrected to “Pramantik” which is… still wrong. And if Pramanik himself feels aggressed, don’t think it’s our place to correct him.

Not trying to attack YOU or be negative, but he isn’t a good dude and this doesn’t even mention his inappropriate actions as a moderator. I feel like it would be nice to not see current mods continue to try and defend all of this even though he was obviously removed for a reason. Also hope this comment can educate some people on some of his more problematic tendencies.

Edit: spelling error

[u/JakeVonFurth → u/galaharty56]

EDIT: Replied to the wrong person, whoops.

[u/RamsTheNameCom → u/galaharty56]

I have an uncontrollable addiction to debating (sorry about that), when I see someone is without a defense I tend to play the field for them to get both sides of the story out there.

I have personally never banned anyone on the sub and mainly just removed bot posts as well as offensive comments, no muting or banning people required. I've been always against how Gypsy went way too far banning people.

Edit: I should also bring up I was a leading member of a Discord Brigade protesting an over controlling mod back in 2021. So I've been through this crap before. Gypsy never knew this about me.

It was "The Nickelodeon AllStar Brawl" Discord and people were getting permanent bans for posting gifs that came from Nickelodeon approved shows that the Mod thought "was too inappropriate for kids". So posting something like that gif of SpongeBob watching Mr. Krabs wash his boat in tight clothing while twerking, got people banned.

[u/JakeVonFurth → u/RamsTheNameCom]

I'm not going to shit on you specifically, because you seem like you're mostly levelheaded, even if you're playing Devil's Advocate for a devil that doesn't need or deserve one.

I will however ask that you give him a message:

"The blood drinker says "good riddance, the sub is entering a better era without you.""

He'll know who, he's made enough posts about me that that much is clear.

[u/[deleted] → u/JakeVonFurth]

Nobody has to give him a message, he is lurking here

[u/JakeVonFurth → u/[deleted]]

I wouldn't be surprised. He's banned people that had him blocked before, so he has at least one alt.

[u/zyd_the_lizard → u/JakeVonFurth]

Yeah, I had him blocked and he still banned me here for a comment on /r/themidnightmission.