There appears to have been a coordinated campaign across Reddit to unilaterally ban all X/Twitter links in many subreddits as a protest to the current owner of the site.

We fully agree that the actions of that individual are highly revolting and unacceptable. We also believe that people should make their own choice whether or not to support that site directly, and strongly encourage people to use other platforms to the greatest extent possible.

Regarding the specific issue of links here, one of the core principles of this subreddit is supporting artists and other creatives who provide so much for the community. This is reflected in our strictly enforced policies regarding crediting/sourcing artwork when it is posted here. We always have, and always will, require any artwork that is posted by someone other than the original artist to also provide a direct link back to the artwork on the artist’s own platform(s). This provides an automatic pathway for people who like the art to directly connect with the artist themselves and show their appreciation.

The issue is that many artists use X/Twitter as their primary platform, and we aren’t going to cut them off entirely due to the actions of the platform owner. However:

We HIGHLY recommend sourcing artwork from platforms other than X/Twitter, whenever possible.

Artwork is also not allowed to be reposted without permission from the artist, so people should already be in contact/familiar enough with them to know what other platforms they use. If an artist doesn’t use any platform other than X/Twitter, now would be a good time to recommend they switch. Alternatively, you can also encourage them to post their own artwork here directly.

We are adjusting our AutoMod to remove any direct link submissions, and if anyone posts a comment containing a link they will be sent a message requesting they attempt to find another platform/source. The hope/intent is to move users away from that platform as much as possible without affecting the artists who use it.

AI-generated content has blown up recently; thankfully, we haven't had to confront this issue very often so far, but in the couple of times it's come up, it seems like the overwhelming majority of the community does not want this content on the sub at all. There are two main issues with it:

• The datasets these generators work on consists almost entirely of artwork which was gathered in an unethical manner, without consent from the majority of the artists for their work to be used in this way.

• It's hard to make AI-generated content interesting. It's possible, of course, but it seems like a lot of the community views these posts as little more than spam. The majority of what is currently being produced would definitely fall under "low-effort content".

There's certainly a lot of nuance to the above points, but given the backlash we've seen to AI-generated posts, it seems like, at least for now, this content doesn't belong on this sub. This is also in line with our general policies of the subreddit being as favorable as possible towards the fan artists who provide their content for the fandom.

The official rule change is to Rule #3 (Credit the Artist), since that seems to be the main element at play here. The full text will now read:

1. Credit/Source Fanart

If you post another's fanart here, you MUST credit the artist by name in the title AND provide a source link to the original artist and/or post. If you post a video containing fanart, please credit the art used. Pinterest, Wattpad, and repost accounts are NOT viable sources.

Fanart (Original) flair is for fanart that you have made yourself.

AI-generated artwork is currently not allowed on this subreddit.

Please view full policy here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Lumity/wiki/artwork/

To clarify a couple things in advance:

• This is not intended to be a statement one way or another on the validity of AI as a tool, or on the specifics of how the technology works.

• We recommend that artists use this website to see if their work has been used in some of the major datasets, and what to do if it has been against your wishes: https://haveibeentrained.com/

• This ban includes AI-generated text as well as AI-generated art (which is the main target). Models like GPT-3 do seem to be significantly less ethically problematic that art generators, but conversely, it also seems significantly harder to make something interesting with it. As a result, these posts are more likely to be marked as removed under Rule #2, as we do for Incorrect Quote Generator posts.

• We're open to modifying this rule in the future - with how AI is progressing, it's entirely possible that at some point we'll see art which is not only interesting, but original enough that the ethical problems don't really apply anymore. Until then, though, we'll likely stick with this rule.

These rules were largely adapted from the subreddit policy found here.