Hi fellow pixel pushers!
It's been a bit since I last shared some thoughts on the health and status of our amazing community. I wanted to brief you all on some changes that have been made since my last post.
Updated Rules:
Self promotion, Selling, & Soliciting:
The biggest moderated item in our queue is often related to this category. There was a gap in the understanding with what we mean by this rule, so the rule has been updated.
Our rules can sometimes be complex, but they all point to one single idea: This space is simply to share your original digital art and your knowledge of digital art craft. That is it. Artist's are one of the most vulnerable people to be taken advantaged of by nefarious actors who pray on your hopes, dreams, and ambitions as an artists. Promises made to help you sell art, be a better artist, fake commissions, the list goes on. We want this space to serve a simple core place in your life which is to share your amazing work and your amazing craft. That is it. I take it personal in wanting to protect you from all the noise the internet tries to force onto your eyes.
However, we understand the business of art and art creation itself is often tangled up in each other. We have ran a weekly megathread that allows any and all self promotional content. This will turn into a monthly pinned thread that allows you all to post all your socials, links, surveys, and anything your beautifully beating soliciting heart desires.
Ai Content: A tale of survivor bias:
We have seen a reduction in blatant generative Ai being posted and reported. We also understand this could simply be a survivors bias; Ai is getting better and easier to trick the human eye. Some people are better then others are detecting whether a work is Ai or not, but as moderators, that tool is less useful than others. When Ai is suspected, we may go down a rabbit hole of researching an artist to see if there is a record of creating art. We aren't perfect and sometimes Ai slips through and may never be taken down. The idea is achieving perfect purity but pushing to bring that content as close to 0 as possible. Sometimes we may deliberately leave Ai art up because the comments in the post becomes a great resource for the community to learn about the trends in Ai so you can help us detect it and report it.
We also know art creation tools are increasingly baking in Ai functionality. Ai is inevitable but so is human created digital art. The goal of our Ai rule is not to be anti Ai, but to be pro human art. Your choices and art direction during the creative process is what makes digital art what it is.
Reddit has introduced Ai moderation tools that have helped us track users and posts that break all of our rules including Ai. Humans will not be able to moderate Ai out of the internet alone. We will increasingly rely on machine vs machine when it comes to keep our spaces clean of the noise allowing you, the human, to come through. Our goal is and will always remain to promote the human and the human creative process here.
We also want to stress one important idea here. As we collectively try to beat back the Ai posts to keep our space human, we should not lose our humanity in the process. Attacking artists, calling them names, being angry or vitriolic towards another human is not only wrong but disallowed. Venting your anti ai frustrations towards a regular person accomplishes nothing. If you want Ai change, content your representative or whom ever leads your respective nation. Maintain your decency and humanity here.
NSFW:
NSFW content has found its center in our space. When we were volunteered to moderate this space, it was the nosiest aspect of our community. Outside the occasional speed bumps, we have found a happy place with some minor exceptions and issues.
The first issue is Reddit and its featured section based on its algorithm. My profession IRL is I work in theater arts with a degree in graphic design and working on my master's in media design. My career has simply been visual communication in one form or another. I am not a computer scientist and can't begin to pretend I know how reddit decides what you look at when you pop open the app or website.
What I can say, however, is there is a distinct difference between one's experience of the community if its purely through the featured section and what we see being posted in order of being posted. As a moderator, I spend a decent amount of time scrolling through the most recent posts and can say without a doubt you are some of the most talented and fascinating creators. The featured section does not come close to representing that diversity and skill level. Instead, what usually gets shown is the heavily commented and heavily upvoted stuff.
We often see the posts that get the most upvotes are also the biggest battlegrounds between people. Typically, this will be NSFW or politically driven art. People will quietly upvote something they like or agree with while the comments attack those who do. It's a strange phenomenon here that ends up pushing the most divisive content to the surface.
I encourage you to visit our community main page on occasion and sort by new. Upvote and comment on your fellow artists who put on full display their amazing craft skill and talent. Be the change you want on the internet while we fight bots, 'gooners,' and other swarms of low hanging fruit on the internet.
The second issue we have been encountering is tagging NSFW content. The rule of thumb is, if you question 'is this NSFW,' it likely is.
The issue with NSFW as a reference is work has become increasingly diverse for everyone. My particular job has nudity everywhere for reference in art making. Someone in a very strict work setting may have a different definition of of NSFW that is much more conservative. Someone in the US may also have one general idea whereas someone in Japan another.
OP should use their judgement airing on the side of caution and use a NSFW tag. Our moderators will use their own discretion as well. For me, my rule of thumb is a subject matter could be seen in a public setting among little kids, it isn't NSFW. This is coming from a north east left leaning individuals approach. There is so much cultural discussion and significance tied up in designating something NSFW so this is a very fluid area. However, as all things on a spectrum, some content is obviously NSFW and in some cases, obviously too NSFW for our space. NSFW content is a fluid and dynamic space.
You ARE the community:
Moderators do not own subreddits. They are owned by reddit for its users. Moderators are unpaid caretakers who have a love for what the community represents enough to take time out of our busy lives to keep the spaces clean. It's often thankless and more often than not, a job that turns us into punching bags. We understand the risk and the job but I personally will keep one focus: Maintaining a safe and healthy space for you to share your digital art creations and craft.
But the MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF THIS COMMUNITY IS YOU. Your DMs matter. Your voice matters. YOUR REPORTS MATTER. You have an active role in keeping this space clean and healthy for all its members. I can not stress enough how important your DMs and reports are in helping us keep the space clean. Reddit is a world wide community with the most extreme diversity one can imagine. Without the input from that diverse community, all we do as moderators is impress upon the community our world view. So please DM us and report to express your thoughts.
Thank you!
Being in the presence of the diverse and amazing talent this community offers is one the things I am most honored by. I want to thank you for giving me great artwork to enjoy daily as I moderate the space.
As a reminder, we have a discord: https://discord.com/invite/jMXvJCjaKc
I'll admit, it's a very sleepy discord which isn't built to be hyper, loud, or over active. My goal with the discord isn't to create more noise in your already noise filled life, but a space you can simply come to share your art, connect with others, and enjoy some on the fly convo. Hope to see you all there!
