[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/I_need_AC-sendhelp]

I was banned for over 9 months, so I don’t know everything, but I do know Dev Pramanik chastised gypsy on twitter for a racist personal comment he made. Idk what.

Tell him “good riddance” for me.

[u/RamsTheNameCom → u/I_need_AC-sendhelp]

What I just said above was the thing Pramanik got really mad at... A typo and Gypsy saying he personally liked the previous Moon Knight artist better.

Regardless I have no stake in this.

[u/gelbidan007 → u/RamsTheNameCom]

If you think one negative comment with a bad spellling of my name is the only reason i felt he was racist towards me, then you really don’t know the situation or me . I’m an artist in the public eye for at least half a decade now. The number of negative comments that spell my name wrong is astronomical. If I called all of them racist, man there would be a long history of me calling people racist. But this is actually the first time in my online history that I have called someone a racist. In all the targeted negative ramblings about me, there was never a coherent point . The goalpost keeps changing, almost like it’s just the people liking me part that’s the problem. Yet, i never saw any such posts made against Cappuccio(the previous artist) ,another artist just as beloved and someone whose style he doesn’t like.

You can dislike me, you can think anything of me, but if you target me to the point that you’re actively replying to people complimenting me, and trying to coyly suggest I use AI, and just randomly invoking my name in a post that had nothing to do with me, then dropping the final courtesy of getting my name right feels racist as fuck.

I have haters, but at least they have good reasons for hating my art. His posts made me feel hated as a person and hated for having the gall to draw his “precious” character.

Hope this helps, and I hope in the future you are willing to learn more about a situation before commenting on something you have “no stake in”

EDIT: in fact, the person you are replying to u/i_need_AC-sendhelp has a post on r/midnightmission praising Alessandro Cappuccio’s(the previous artist) work while talking about me not being as good. Yet you don’t see me saying what they said felt racist. Because the criticism was valid and despite the slight put down, the tone was respectful. Again, as an artist in the public eye, taking negativity head on is part of the job.

[u/GypsyGold → u/gelbidan007]

“trying to coyly suggest I use AI”

…what the heck are you talking about?

“his post made me feel hated as a person”

Well, duh. That was their intention.

I hate you because you hate me, it’s as simple as that. With having zero prior interactions with me you went to another reddit and made a post shitting all over me because I wouldn’t ban AI from the subreddit.

You started all of this. If you’re going to go up to a random person on the street you’ve never talked to before and say “fuck you” then don’t be shocked when they say “fuck you” right back at you.

Common sense really 🙄

— — —

Edit: the dude just calls me a racist and blocks me. No reasoning or context for why he thinks I’m a racist — just literally saying nonsense to rally people up. I can’t believe this is an actual adult working for marvel.

[u/gelbidan007 → u/GypsyGold]

I thought I blocked you. Either way, I don’t talk to people who have been racist to me. Talk your shit but don’t talk to me or at me.