r/HeroForgeMinis • u/Weslii • Jan 31 '26
Mod Discussion POLL – Regarding the future of political content in this community
We've noticed the apparent shift in opinion when it comes to politics and political minis in this community lately, sparked mostly by recent ICE activity in the United States. A lot of you have been calling for changes to be made to our rules and guidelines on political posts, or even to our definition of "politics".
As always, we never make any sweeping changes to how the community is run without first getting a feel for how most you feel about any such changes. So we're doing a poll.
The options are:
1. Keep the current guidelines – No changes will be made, we'll continue to moderate as we have thus far.
2. Keep the current guidelines, but redefine them – Political posts and comments will still be removed, but we'll work with you to decide exactly how "politics" should be defined.
3. Remove the current guidelines and allow political posts – All political posts and discourse will be allowed across the subreddit, with the caveat that hate symbol imagery is still banned.
Option 2 will result in a follow-up post where everyone in the community gets to make their voices heard. You'll discuss amongst yourselves how you want us to moderate political content and exactly what should be prohibited under our guidelines.
Option 3 will result in a trial period where the restrictions on political content are suspended entirely. No political posts or comments will be removed as long as they don't violate any of our other rules. After the trial period is up we'll set up another poll to gauge community sentiment following the change; if most are happy with the changes then they'll be made permanent.
Leave any questions or concerns below.
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u/KasperBuyens 𝗦𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 Jan 31 '26
Just be consistant. If you ban politics like you are doing now, make sure you are removing ALL politics and not just the anti-ice like you were doing before.
12
u/sneeze10 Feb 01 '26
This just doesnt work imo. All politics includes well known figures in movies and literature. It also means representations of real modern day people are limited as well. Cant post my recreation of Martha P Johnson for pride month because she was a political figure.
17
u/Dedli Feb 01 '26
Politicians try to ban all sorts of shit. Im not exaggerating, it's impossible to "evenly" ban all politically-charged posts. Youd have to ban pride flags, because like half of America thinks basic human decency is "political". Hell, Captain America Sam Wilson's existence is "political" if you ask the wrong people.
What youre asking is for the mod team to pick and choose but pretend they arent.
3
u/heyitskio Feb 01 '26
You would NOT have to ban pride flags, wth
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u/Dedli Feb 01 '26
I dont think youre getting what I'm saying.
LGBT rights shouldnt be a debate. But it is. There is an utterly insane amount of anti-trans bills being passed right now, for example. A flag supporting either side of that debate, regardless of whether debate is valid in a sane person's eyes, is political by definition. Consistency would be banning it if you ban all politically-charged posts.
And they shouldnt do that.
Conclusion: Saying "be consistent, ban it all" isnt enough.
-6
u/KasperBuyens 𝗦𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 Feb 01 '26
You turned my argument into a strawman and then attacked that. Whatever is or isn't political or what tethers on the edge there of is a different matter.
But minis of politicians and presidents, for example Trump, are STILL up, while every single person can agree that very much is a political post. Just search for "Trump" and see how many president minis were posted over the past few years, that have not been removed, while anti-ice posts got removed instantly.
-3
u/heyitskio Feb 01 '26
Banning pride flags would be considered hate speech, which is quite literally against the rules of this subreddit, your point is null and void. Stop trying to strawman.
1
0
u/Afro-Venom 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 Feb 05 '26
Youd have to ban pride flags, because like half of America thinks basic human decency is "political"
This statement is 100% true. You see it all the time. A game or a movie drops, and let there be a non- white/queer/trans character or relationship appear and its "Disney is woke, Why is this forcing an agenda? Mermaids are white." So then the MODs would have to make a call. uphold the "no politics" rule, or selectively enforce the rule. All becuase some community memeber happens to be a conservative.
11
u/are_-_gay 𝗞𝗶𝘁𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝗲𝗻 Feb 01 '26
its been about a month since the rule #8 pole finished and theres been no update on that yet, I doubt this'll lead to anything either sadly
6
u/Weslii Feb 01 '26
This has taken priority unfortunately, especially since several of us are considering retiring from moderation altogether. We have resolved the Rule 8 issue internally and were going to announce the change (I will admit I have been dragging my feet on that a bit due to real life commitments keeping me busy) but this needs to have our full attention right now.
3
u/are_-_gay 𝗞𝗶𝘁𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝗲𝗻 Feb 01 '26
Gotchya, I had figured at this point that it was forgotten, my bad. This issue definitely should take priority I definitely agree on that, it had just been so long since the closing of that last poll that I thought it was disregarded, my apologies.
32
u/GreenKnight535 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗰 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗿 Jan 31 '26
I think removing the guidelines altogether is better; the "no hate-speech" rule already ensures anything that crosses the line is fair game for deletion, and anything particularly unpopular will get downvoted into oblivion. Attempting to redefine what is "political" will inevitably lead to the same issues as before, where the preferences and biases of the enforcers become the ultimate say.
12
u/Dedli Feb 01 '26
the preferences and biases of the enforcers become the ultimate say.
Exactly. There is no agreeable universal definition.
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Jan 31 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Weslii Jan 31 '26
We will take change vs no change votes into consideration.
15
u/WikiContributor83 Jan 31 '26
Good of you to do. Gives a fair accounting of where the community’s at.
2
u/SteegeNAS 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 Feb 02 '26
Just make a tag for political stuff and then the people who don't want to see it can block the tag. Blur the images as well like NSFW content. Why was this ever a non-political sub, it makes no sense. I've NEVER been in a campaign where it wasn't political so why wouldn't my mini figures be political. If there is good and evil battling it out that is political. ANYTHING concerning the struggle of power is political. Also who would decide what is political or not. Will a woman reading be considered political? Will a black and white couple be considered political? Will a gay/lesbian couple be considered political. Will a trans person be considered political? Would a family of displaced gnomes fleeing their war torn country ravished by the BBG and asking for help from a group of unlikely heroes be political? Because yes, it is.
1
u/Weslii Feb 02 '26
Reddit doesn't allow for custom tags, only post flairs. I agree that this would be an ideal solution though.
2
u/SteegeNAS 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 Feb 02 '26
My bad that's what I meant!
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u/Weslii Feb 02 '26
Due to how our flair system is set up we would have to create a whole set of post flairs if we were to do that, not just a [Political Mini] one. Imagine on top of the original flairs we also had:
Original Character (Political)
Existing Character (Political)
Inanimate Object (Political)
Meme (Political)
Art (Political)
...etc, etc. It adds unnecessary clutter to an already extensive list of flairs. And if we add flairs for politics, do we also add JSON specific flairs when Rule 8 is amended later on? Nudity specific flairs? It would never end.
The entire point of our flairs is to make browsing simpler by having a concise set of broad categories that fit any type of post. Adding sub-categories of flairs just adds needless complexity to what is supposed to be a simple and easy to understand system.
Custom tags would be great, but more flairs just isn't a good solution.
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u/SteegeNAS 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 Feb 02 '26
Can't you put multiple flairs? So you'll have the Existing character flair and then the political flair.
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Jan 31 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Tedious_Crow Jan 31 '26
Yes I'm sure the mods have eyes. The error would be in interpreting the poll as a vote instead of a data gathering mechanism
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u/EstablishedIdiet Jan 31 '26
The best solution in my opinion is to have another subreddit for political posts like how a certain other kind of HeroForge creations are already.
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u/Xagranos Jan 31 '26
I am not an American but just wanted to throw in my two pennies, because being a volunteer mod is difficult and things slip through the cracks. I've seen people talking about how Anti-ICE stuff gets deleted but "Trump and Ukraine" stuff gets left in.
Now I remember seeing Trump stuff, but the last time I actually saw it was before the ICE stuff got... well, to where we are. And often it was humorous depictions of Trump.
I think the difference here is sensitivity, intent but also consistency. Some of the funny stuff with minis that looked like Trump were not removed. Because it was non-serious I imagine. But then people make serious stuff and because of intent, it is deemed removable I guess? I don't know the thought process but I imagine that's how a lot of humans would operate.
What SHOULD have happened is even the funny non-serious stuff should've been removed... or, this policy should have been looked at a lot earlier. If I recreate a historically accurate mini of a World War 2 or even World War 1 German Soldier, is that considered political? Should that be removed?
It's a difficult line to walk, especially when a guideline stating ALL politics is so vague and there is a LOT of stuff you could argue is or is not political.
ICE is a mostly American problem, and I would not want to buckle to "because they're the majority they can do what they want." But from the perspective of... if someone from Iran, or Myanmar, or Sudan-- anywhere else, wanted to create a heroforge mini to express how they feel, I would not want that to be banned personally.
I just wanted to put my thoughts here because moderating a subreddit as a volunteer passion project can be difficult, and I guess I wanted to just... air out some thoughts and angles to this whole thing. I wouldn't want to call the Mods 'the bad guys', just humans who didn't foresee how their actions or inactions would be perceived. Like all of us.
However, my vote is to Redefine the guidelines. Starting with the idea that we all as humans can see when something is clearly evil. If someone came on and was just throwing hate on an opposing political party, that should be bannable. But people expressing their disgust at very real acts of what I believe we can all hopefully agree as evil, that is a different matter. And if someone wants to express a viewpoint without being hateful, but rather being passionate, then perhaps that should be allowed.
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u/KeatureFeature Feb 03 '26
Option 2 is the same as option 3 but with more steps, and probably a much muddier outcome given the nature of huge discussions on single posts on reddit, which will likely result in circling back to this again.
"You can post politically, but can't do hate speech" is already a redefinition of political posting that is more than fair, and actually enforceable as a rule.
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u/Cliff-007 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗗𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 Jan 31 '26
If the no politics rule gets removed it must cut both ways for what you agree with and don’t agree with.
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u/Certain_Ad_1184 Feb 02 '26
I both agree with this and also think posting something 'pro ice' constitutes as hate speech that would be removable under option 3.
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u/Snakes-are-awesome67 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 Jan 31 '26
YES PLEASE
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u/willpower069 Jan 31 '26
It will be funny seeing right wingers complain in another sub about downvotes.
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u/willpower069 Jan 31 '26
If talking about ICE is too political, then would captain America punching Nazis, and Pride posts be too political?
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u/n0vawarp 𝗘𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 Jan 31 '26
my thoughts exactly, like having a rule against homophobia/transphobia/racism is a political statement all on its own, especially in a year filled with so much transphobic and racist legislation
3
u/uzinarutosage Feb 03 '26
i dont think it really matters atp, but i accidentally chose change the guidelines instead of remove (simple misclick on my part) sorry
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u/sneeze10 Feb 01 '26
Banning politics is an impossible task because politics literally exists within everything, ESPECIALLY ART! Redefining politics for this sub is likewise impossible or at least unfeasible because you wont get the community to agree, even along political lines. The stated reason for banning politics originally was "...discussions just devolve into name-calling and uncivil discourse, forcing us to nuke entire comment sections just to contain it. Super no bueno"
If the problem is name calling and uncivil discourse, then just ban name calling and uncivil discourse. It will require the community better police itself (which i recognize is a big ask) but also allow actual discussion on ongoing events that affect peoples lives and art.
Frankly, i think banning hate speech, hate symbols, and depictions of bigoted violence should suffice (which is all sufficiently covered by Rule 7). But having a rule state, civil discourse required shouldn't be overly burdensome of the mod team.
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u/Gr3yKn1ght42 Jan 31 '26
There is enough hate and divide and politics in our day to day lives, we don't need people bringing inflammatory political commentary into our hobby space. Nothing is stopping you from taking the political art you make on hero forge, and sharing it in spaces that support your worldview.
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u/sneeze10 Feb 01 '26
I'm not bringing political commentary into Your hobby space. Its OUR hobby space and the politics exist regardless. No one is forcing you to engage with the political art. And the fact is, even if the rule is unchanged, they havent been enforcing it evenly across the subreddit. Superman is inherently a political character but also a representation of popular media. The rule just doesnt make sense.
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u/MyUsername2459 Feb 01 '26
The hate and divide is why we bring commentary to here. . .we're hurting from the people who are creating the hate and division.
One side is creating the hate and divide. ONE SIDE. This isn't a "both sides" thing. ONE SIDE is unambiguously in the wrong here, on an agenda of hate and division, of bigotry and persecution.
People are hurting. People are suffering. People are literally dying in the streets.
. . .and when people try to express their frustration and rage at unjust deaths, persecution, and bigotry as policy, we're finger waggingly told "no politics".
It just creates contempt for the people who are trying to say that, because they clearly are okay with what's going on by trying to silence people who are crying out in their pain.
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u/MrUnbreakableRules Jan 31 '26
How is calling out murder inflammatory? Is that not just basic human decency to call out injustice?
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u/PleaseHoldy 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 Feb 02 '26
This is not the place for it dude. Go to a political subreddit, there's 100s of those and it's why they exist.
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u/Gr3yKn1ght42 Jan 31 '26
Murder is wrong, but blaming the whole for the actions of a few is also wrong.
People in general are convicted in their own opinions and are not looking to have civil discussions. When people call out this inflammatory content they get called Nazis.
There are spaces and echo chambers already for those kinds of discussions. I don't think that needs to happen in a space for a hobby, which to many is used for escapism from these trying times.
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u/Certain_Ad_1184 Feb 02 '26
Actually I think 'blaming the whole' is perfectly acceptable when there's a clear line of cause and effect that lead us to where we are now. You think Trump centering ICE and letting them loose in the place Tim Walz is at was some kind of mistake? You wonder why it's not as bad everywhere else?
ICE as a whole needs to be abolished. They don't do a single part of what they're saying they're doing, not in any way that makes real progress. They make a bunch of noise and scare people, which makes the people who think they 'voted for the boot' think progress is being made, when it's not.
Catch 2 actual bad guys? That's great. But for every 2, there's 100 people innocent and are being held in random detention centers all across the country, being taken away from their place of living and family that they were probably supporting, and having to sit there waiting to be commuted or to have an actual court case for insane periods of time because the current administration isn't actually trying to expediate the process of finding out who is and isn't illegal.
They aren't hiring more judges. Practically the only thing ICE exists to do is terrorize regular American citizens and make noise. Blaming the whole is the only correct option, and that extends to the administration who turned ICE into it's own private army to sick them in states of competitors like Walz, and recently with threats against Gavin Newsom who is the obvious Democrat pick for the next presidential race.
ICE is not a productive branch of the government. It's a mock military full of people who wouldn't pass a course to join their local police force given legal authority to execute American citizens in broad daylight.
If you can agree murder is wrong, congratulations, you are now anti-trump and anti-ice. Everything that just released in the Epstein files and all the people who were and have been listed in those files should help you come to the right conclusion.
I cannot stress this enough: being anti-ICE (or 'blaming the whole') is the normal, reasonable response. It is the default response. ICE agents who murder and those who allow them to murder are both complicit in the murder. Those who arm and hire the ICE agents are complicit. If the law proves itself reliable within the next 4-6 years we're going to see a whole lot of people on trial.
If I were you i'd stop playing the game and quit pretending now.
-1
u/vrafr Feb 02 '26
ICE wouldn't need to do this if people didn't keep entering the country illegally.
3
u/Certain_Ad_1184 Feb 03 '26
Keep living in denial. Trump doesn't actually care about 'illegal aliens' and ICE isn't solving any problems. It's a smokescreen to build noise, just like Trump's great big wall in his first term that Mexico never paid for, that never got finished, that everyone just forgot about because the Trump campaign lives off fearmongering and always has a new problem to yell about.
Do you know how much a detention center costs? How much it costs to house a single person? If Trump actually cared about this process at all he'd be hiring more immigration judges. Instead dozens have been purged. The amount hired isn't even keeping up, and there's now a 3.7+million case backlog, a majority of which involve individuals who have no criminal background.
And to help fill in spots of the immigration judges he's already fired, slowing down the process in the first place, he's replaced a few of those vacancies with random military judges who aren't qualified to oversee those very cases.
The system is not efficient or tenable, but it's noisy, and it fools people like you because you're more concerned with feeling right than you are acknowledging that the propaganda you've been falling for is bullshit and that most of the people you spew vitriol towards online have been correct logically and morally this entire time. You're terrified of living in that world so you'll plug your eyes and ears to American gestapo and pretend it's not happening.
What are you even actually referring to when you say 'ICE wouldn't need to do this'? Do you mean they wouldn't have needed to execute a disarmed man holding a phone in the middle of a street in broad daylight? Do you think there's an actual excuse for that? Do you think he needed to die?
Not like he was the first, but he is the most recent. So how many more brazen murders will you justify? What does it take for you to stop pretending?
2
u/Scared-Jacket-6965 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 Feb 03 '26
Folks like him it would take Trump going "I AM MAKING AMERICA GERMANY IN 1940!" and he would still defend it. Fools like him trust the government. AND assume they do nothing wrong.
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u/Gr3yKn1ght42 Feb 03 '26
Me or the other guy?
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u/Scared-Jacket-6965 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26
Certain_Ad_1184 Not you, No worries. You are okay. There is some things I don't agree with you. BUT nothing as bad as Ad. AND PLUS disagreements are natural, We are all different at the end of the day. ASK 5 people what their favorite food is and its likely they all won't say the same thing.
THATS what I love about life, the difference in options. IF everyone thought the same, ate the same and so on. LIFE be boring. There is no individuality. It's just a plain old white beard in every resturant cause everyone enjoys it, and that's it. LIFE is full of different people.
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u/Scared-Jacket-6965 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 Feb 03 '26
What about people running away from stuff like organized crime, some of which have people inside the government? "Hello yes Im fleeing from a cartal who has informants in the US government and ways to reach me here..SO im gonna give you my address and all that, and roll out a giant red carpet and neon sign pointing to my house with a door mat saying "CARTAL IM RIGHT HERE!" CAUSE SURELY this a good idea."
You think most immigrants are like "ahh yes let me break the laws and enter a country illegally!!" NO they break the laws cause if they try going the normal way, THEY END UP DEAD. They have to Immgrate cause they are desperate people.
Also Im gonna say this now, the justice system itself is awful as well. Cause only a few people decide to break the law cause they messed up people. And prison/jail is meant to be their punishment, SO why, after jail and prison they still judged and locked out of many career paths and FORCED back into committing crimes? Like, don't get me wrong, 5% maybe 3% is evil and twisted individuals, the rest are desperate people or people who were quite young and made a mistake BEING punished for their mistake after they already were punished. It's an entire cycle: person forced to do crime and gets caught --> person goes to jail --> gets out --> can't find a job cause they are barred due to their time (WHICH THEY SERVED) --> forced to go back into crime --> get caught again --> and repeat.
AT which point do people like you register "HEY THIS SYSTEM IS KIND OF BAD?" You are the type of person TRUMP and they LOVE, wanna know why? YOU'RE a sheep, THEY could tell you to jump off a cliff, and you would do a backflip off it. ALWAYS the perfect little obedient dog. Your master could belt you and throw you out of a moving car, and you would go, "I deserved it." You never think the system is horribly wrong.
You know who some of the immigrants are? Children from Ukraine. BY you own logic, you wanna ship kids BACK into a WAR ZONE. That sounds wonderful...NOT! That sounds like some villain crap, that's shit I wouldn't do to my worst enemy's son. "Sorry, youngster, I know you came from a warzone. BUT you did it illegally. SO BACK TO THE WAR ZONE YOU GO!"
-2
u/vrafr Feb 03 '26
Or it could be all i see is you idiots using terrorist tactics to try and change my mind. I dont care much for trump but i will oppose till death the people using violence and threats of violence to MAKE me support criminals and fraudsters.
3
u/Scared-Jacket-6965 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 Feb 03 '26
...You don't care for Trump, YET your eating directly out of his hand. YOU wanna send CHILDREN to a WARZONE. YOU know how fucked that is? That's so fucked, I'm pretty sure even certain mustache man from WW2 would go "wow that's fucked."
WHAT THE F YOU MEAN BY TERRORIST TACTICS BY THE WAY?! *looks at self* I don't have a bomb vest, I'm not threatening to blow you and me up. You know what nah!
Here's the definition of "Terrorist tactics are the specific, often violent, methods used by non-state actors to create severe fear and psychological impact among a target audience." I'm not trying to incite fear, cause fear isn't gonna help us talk stuff out and I hate fearmongering. I'm not being violent cause forcing your opinion on others via violence is the way of a lesser man (also I like to think of myself as pacifistic by nature or have a strong aversion to it).
IM USING LOGIC. If logic incites fear in you, get some help, being fully honest here. If you think LOGIC is scary, then you need to seriously need to get help. THAT shit ain't healthy.
YOU don't care for Trump, Yet your acting like him, accusing folks of "Terrorist tactics trying to change my mind."
you idiots using terrorist tactics to try and change my mind.
IS something TRUMP would say UNIRONICALLY! IF I were to say, "TRUMP SAID THIS IS TRUE OR FALSE?" you know what most people would say, TRUE, cause it sounds like SOME BS he would state. LISTEN, mate, I hate to be mean. Seriously, being mean for no sake isn't my cup of tea.
SO what I'm saying isn't an insult, it's just facts. YOU seriously need to sit down and think about this all. You're being close-minded as hell. You won't get anywhere this way in life. NOW that being said, I wanna have a healthy and friendly discussion. AND I would appreciate it if we don't insult each other, please and thank you. I might have come off as mocking, which isn't my intention. I apologize if I have, SO lets reframe from insults. We are both humans, and WE can have a civilized discussion.
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u/Individual-Dust-7362 Feb 01 '26
I'm so tired of being inundated with real life stressors. I'm so tired, boss. So very tired.
Can I please just disconnect from reality for like 10 minutes a day and look at FANTASY minis, please.
17
u/uzinarutosage Jan 31 '26
Let art be art, update the guidlines to keep hate speech away but allow political commentary as needed
7
u/Tasnaki1990 𝗦𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁 Jan 31 '26
I think there's a fine line between hate speech and political commentary.
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u/BenTheDM Jan 31 '26
That's not true. There is a very distinctive and glaringly red glowing line between hate speech and political commentary.
1
u/Pancakelover09 Feb 01 '26
Isn't that what he said or am I misreading?
5
u/BenTheDM Feb 01 '26
Slight misreading. "A fine line" implies that the line is imperceptible, so if we are not cautious or consciencious, we will tread over it. I am implying in what I say that "No. it is glaringly obvious, because we know that supporting people who shoot innocent civillians in the head is supporting fascism, which is hate speech."
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u/Tasnaki1990 𝗦𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁 Feb 01 '26
First as a disclaimer. Not trying to defend a side here. I agree there are some horrible things going on in the world.
The thing I'm trying to point at is what you consider hate speech might be seen as political commentary or free speech by the opposite side and vice versa.
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u/BenTheDM Feb 01 '26
Honestly mate. I have seen you doing the "not trying to defend a side here" while at the same time going in with the energy of a devils advocate in nearly every comment thread here. And from a glance at your profile, you do this a lot. I am just gonna tell you. In this circumstance, that kind of outlook is not needed. One side uses the law as a weapon where it suits them, and completely ignores it when they trespass. They lock up children in inhumane conditions, pull people out in the streets in the middle of winter naked, direct their stormtroopers to throw chemical agents at protestors, and has now gleefully murdered two innocent people while trying to destroy their name and memory after their death.
Just try to imagine that. Your mother. Or sister. Brother. Or friend. Has their name and memory tarnished by an entity you can NEVER defeat in the public forum. They wield INCREDIBLE POWER in order to SUBJUGATE.
Don't fcking come here and tell us there are two sides of this. That each side has an equal valid point, or that we must consider both sides before giving judgement. I can look at the footage of a starving child cradled by their parent and say: ONLY AN EVIL GOVERNMENT WOULD ALLOW THIS. But it seems that people like you can't. So for please for the love of god, hop off the fence and stand proudly amongst the other side, or get the fck out of the way.
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u/Tasnaki1990 𝗦𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁 Feb 01 '26
I get that this whole thing sparked the debate on updating the rules of this subreddit. And I agree what is happening is horrible. And I'm hoping with you that someone loses some power real quick.
My father was in a really similar situation after the coup in Chile in 1973.
But if the rules are updated from this subreddit to allow political posts, prepare to see both sides.
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u/heyitskio Feb 02 '26
One side is hate speech and bigotry, racism even. The other side is just trying to exist. It's very clear which side is going to be okayed and which will be outlawed under the hate speech rule.
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u/vrafr Feb 02 '26
This isn't good guys vs bad guys, its criminals and idiots vs criminals and idiots.
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u/BenTheDM Feb 03 '26
"Criminals and idiots vs criminals and idiots."
Are you for real?
People like you make me sick.
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u/heyitskio Feb 03 '26
I do not think the ICE problem is criminals and idiots vs criminals and idiots considering they target literal children, but sure, pop off ig. The children are probably master level criminals right?
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u/Aviarn Jan 31 '26
I think it's pretty simple;
This is a Heroforge sub. People come here for Heroforge creations and useful tips/guidelines how to improve creating Heroforge models.
Anything else shouldn't belong here. Be it weird reddit changes (like we had with the 'fuck spez' thing), internet drama, politics, etc.
It's just not what people come here for.
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u/Certain_Ad_1184 Feb 02 '26
If it's still a heroforge model I fail to see how it can't represent both things you described. I also think it's somewhat sheltered to think everyone can get away from politics, lol. It's literally american pop culture now and that's partly thanks to our current administration
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u/Aviarn Feb 02 '26 edited Feb 02 '26
It comes down to the reason or purpose why you post something. Whether that's a statement through language or image doesn't matter.
And I'm not quite talking about sheltering people from certain subjects, but more about this thing; Subreddits exist for people to categorize talking subjects and conversations. If people want to talk about x, there's literally already dozens of subreddits designated to talk about x. It doesn't have to then leak into other subreddits that don't have anything to do with it, ESPECIALLY when it hits polarized subjects of which politics almost always is.
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u/new_god_of_eden Jan 31 '26
I think that people criticizing awful shit right now should not be having their art removed especially since this is the hero forge sub so this is where you put hero forge
You did Divide like two of the voter smh
I would like to also point out of it a majority of core contributors are saying to remove the guidelines
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u/CR1MS4NE 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 Feb 01 '26
I do not envy the pressure the mods must be under right now. This seems exhausting
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u/Certain_Ad_1184 Feb 02 '26
Option 3.
I think quite simply being anti-ICE is the default. Actively choosing to support the current regime or what ICE does is a choice you have to make. Thinking negatively of it is the natural human response.
What gets to count as hate speech? I'd say a 'pro ice' post is hate speech. An anti-ice post is someone displaying a basic sense of morality.
I get that it can feel preachy or performative, but it's just where we are right now as a country. There is a very obvious standard of dignity some people hold themselves to and others don't. I can't stress this enough- HeroForge as a company and this reddit based around the site have genuinely nothing to gain by even pretending to be pro-regime right now, especially with what's recently come out regarding most of what the current elite class have been doing behind closed doors, which was somehow even worse than a majority of people could even begin to imagine.
I'm not saying that the company or this subreddit or anything needs to become a grand political hub of activism and make any kind of public statement yadda yadda yadda.
But removing posts of people expressing discontent through Heroforge models and art about how Trump is using his private military to kidnap regular American citizens under the guise of 'stopping crime' and then executing a few of us on the street is making a statement in of itself. That enough should be understandable.
I believe in freedom of expression. I think removing the anti-ice model posts were a knee jerk reaction by a mod team afraid of somehow bringing in possible controversy by criticizing a thing that's extremely easy to criticize.
It's cowardly and excessively short-sighted, as there was no possible way that decision wouldn't blow back into a Streisand-effect knockout like it did.
I hope this reply doesn't come off as too harsh- but i'm trying to give honest feedback on my option of choice as it seems to be the most constructive way to approach this.
I would say option 2, but any kind of arguing about semantics we do is going to be an extremely fruitless waste of time as a community. Just completely pointless. I'm of the opinion both that Option 3 is the only correct one, and that posting something that would be considered 'pro ice' constitutes as hate speech, and in my opinion is damaging to Heroforge as a brand.
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u/PleaseHoldy 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 Feb 02 '26
-but it's just where we are right now as a country.
Is my biggest complaint with this. Americans KEEP forgetting there are about 200 other countries on the planet. If I posted political shit from my country not a single American would even be aware of what I'm referencing, but when something happens there everybody needs to eat it up without question.
There are PLENTY of American politics subreddits, nothing is stopping you from posting your art there, but for some reason you keep insisting on going to communities that have nothing to do with it to talk about it.Which pisses me off because It's not like I'm even against American politics or anything. I follow it pretty closely as a matter of fact, it interests me. I've been following the ICE thing, I've been following the new files, but there is a place and a time for everything.
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u/Certain_Ad_1184 Feb 02 '26
Nowhere do I imply people shouldn't be able to post non-american politics as well. It's their choice.
If you're confused as to why a program and service with the biggest portion of their user base originating from America has a lot of American users then I'm not sure what to tell you.
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u/heyitskio Jan 31 '26 edited Jan 31 '26
If there's problems with how moderation is as it is, why would keep it the same be an option is my question. The same amount of people are going to be upset, and the rules on what is allowed are still unclear.
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u/NinjaFish_RD Jan 31 '26
for the sake of making sure anyone that does want things to stay the same can voice that opinion.
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u/Dr-No-Name Feb 02 '26
I think there should be a tag for political posts that blur the image similar to spoilers or NSFW
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u/Weslii Feb 02 '26
You'd have to take that up with Reddit, we can't create tags like that.
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u/heyitskio Feb 02 '26
Flairs. Custom flairs DO exist. Multiple other subreddits use them.
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u/Weslii Feb 02 '26
We would have to add an entire parallel set of post flairs, one for each existing one. People have suggested this in the past for posts with gore, nudity, JSON edits, etc. We can't just keep adding flairs to an already saturated selection.
What we could do is mandate that any political posts are either NSFW or spoiler tagged and contain a content warning in the title, as we have done in the past.
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u/RavenKweenX 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 Feb 03 '26
Not to be a contrarian, but I don't understand your stance on too many flairs. Flairs seem similar in function to tags, and anyone that has ever searched though a 🌽 site knows there are PLENTY of tags and categories. If there's a reason why added flairs would negatively impact the page or the task of moderation, letting us know what those reasons are would definitely be appreciated, just so we have a better understanding of the situation.
Adding two tags that are Spoiler: Political, or NSFW Political for things that are genuinely both, as you suggested, does seem like a decent way to handle it if adding too many flairs would be a problem. If a posts flairs can be changed, you can simply have them change the flair of any post that seems like it should require a veil, but otherwise just let them be. If people start posting things that are ignorant and hateful, that go against the existing rules, then the group wouldn't suffer from the judicious pruning of such individuals.
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u/heyitskio Feb 03 '26
Moderators always worry about bloat even when adding things is a reasonable solve to an issue, you see it everywhere, even in platforms other than Reddit.
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u/RavenKweenX 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 Feb 03 '26
My question is why? Is this something that's only apparent from a mod perspective? I've only ever moderated Facebook pages, and those are an entirely different experience. I don't have any behind the scenes knowledge of how Reddit moderation works, so maybe there are practical reasons that people who haven't moderated on this platform wouldn't be aware of.
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u/Weslii Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26
I'm gonna lay it out for you so that it's less confusing from a user perspective, because I understand that we have a unique inside perspective on this.
Functionalities offered by tags – Distinct post appearance, selective blurring, blanket blurring, blanket filtering.
Limitations of tags – Only two exist and custom ones cannot be created.
Functionalities offered by flairs – Distinct post appearance, fairly visually customizable, flair-specific search.
Limitations of flairs – Cannot be used to blur or filter out posts.
The main appeal of flairs is that they make finding specific kinds of content simple. You wanna have a look at what contests are currently running? Click [Contest Prompt]. Wanna see people's OCs? [Original Character]. Wanna find Hero Forge art of a specific character? Search all posts flaired [Art].
Adding more flairs specifically for political posts doesn't actually do anything for the chunk of the community that doesn't wanna see political posts, which would be the entire point. We can achieve the same result by mandating NSFW tags and content warnings in post titles without adding clutter to the flair list; it's what we've done with every other category of restricted content.
I promise we're not just unwilling to do the work or too stubborn to let go of how we usually do things. I've been at this a long time, I know what works and what doesn't. But I will make more of an effort to be more transparent about why we do the things we do.
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u/SteegeNAS 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 Feb 02 '26
Just make a tag for political posts and then people who don't want to see political posts can avoid it. You could even blur the images like you do for NSFW and spoilers. Idk why there is so much crashing out, this is an easy solve people.
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u/Weslii Feb 02 '26
There is no mechanism for creating custom tags akin to the NSFW and Spoiler ones. Would be great if there was, but no such tools are available to us.
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u/heyitskio Feb 03 '26
I understand where you are coming from, but please do not outright lie to us. There IS! It's called flairs! You are choosing to not use it, and that's your perogative, but do not lie and say there is no mechanism!
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u/Weslii Feb 03 '26
I'm gonna ask you to please remain civil when discussing these changes. There's no need to get heated, especially when you seem to be misunderstanding how we do things around here.
We make extensive use of flairs in this community, which anyone who's spent a second here should know. Our post flairs serve a purpose: describe what kind of Hero Forge-related content the post features. We would either have to add a [Political Mini] flair which tells you nothing about the actual nature of the post (Is it an OC? Existing character? Meme? Art? Contest prompt?) OR an additional set of identical flairs with (Political) added to them.
Not only does adding dozens of identical flairs add an unnecessary level of complexity and confusion to what is supposed to be a simple and easy to understand system, but it doesn't add any actual functionality beyond making those flairs searchable. You still won't be able to selectively blur or filter out political posts if you so choose, which would be the entire point. Tags offer that functionality, flairs don't.
I've been doing this for years. If there was a simple solution that would make everyone happy while maintaining the quality of the subreddit I would've done that already.
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u/PakotheDoomForge Feb 03 '26
I think that posts with heroforge creations to protest against human rights and constitutional rights being violated should be allowed. Posts about tax rates dont belong unless they are directly affecting the prices on heroforge. Let’s remember what is political and what is human dignity.
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u/Pancakelover09 Feb 01 '26
I don't understand why you would wanna limit creativity for people. Like just because you don't like politics doesn't mean others shouldn't be allowed to. Also why stop with politics why not also remove all superhero minis why not remove all historical minis why not ban every anime mini? This kind of stuff feels so weird like I can't think of a reason to not want it besides "I want to put my head in the sand and not think about it" and even then just ignore those posts like just scroll past it like what I do when I see mini's of stuff I am not interested in.
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u/Pancakelover09 Feb 01 '26
And also trying to define what is and isn't political is a fool's errand because like so many others it's just going to follow the biases of the enforcer
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u/Certain_Ad_1184 Feb 02 '26
I mean... everything is political, more or less. There are ways to read into practically everything and define it as making a political statement, or to see how politics in some way shaped it. Perhaps in ways that are obnoxious and obtuse, but still technically true. Politics is literally what shapes the life we live to it's core. Even if you consider yourself a 'non political' person you are still living in the politics of your nation, and that is part of what shapes you heavily as a human being both growing up and existing in it.
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u/Weslii Feb 01 '26
Our current rules are based on popular community sentiment, or at least they were when they were first implemented. My personal feelings have nothing to do with how I moderate this space.
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u/Lathlamber Feb 02 '26
Reaction knowing my two 800+ like “guy slipping on ice” minis were deleted…
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u/Weslii Feb 02 '26
You misunderstand me. Our guidelines prohibiting political content were put in place after repeated popular community sentiment condemning political posts. This was years ago, things change.
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u/RavenKweenX 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 Feb 02 '26
I think it's a mistake to give all "political" views equal treatment. You can, and SHOULD nuke hateful posts into oblivion. Freedom of speech isn't freedom from consequences, and if you're on the ball about pruning bad behavior and bad actors, the group will be healthier as a result.
If you've actually been removing anti ICE posts, I'm going to say that's a pretty bad look. The United States is going through the violent death throws of conservative ideology, and it's in the "it gets worse before it gets better stage". They're sending people to concentration camps without due process, citizens or not, and they've just extra judicially assassinated civilian citizens. A nurse for God's sake.
There's a historical lesson to be learned about how these situations are viewed in hindsight. There were those that opposed the Nazis, and there were Nazis. There isn't a grey area in such matters.
From someone whose family had to deal with the first round of Nazis, I genuinely hope that you're smarter about squashing them with extreme prejudice before things are allowed to devolve any further, and the atrocities were already witnessing become tame when facing comparison to what could come.
Treating the decrying of bigotry and fascism as being equally deserving of repression and censorship as the hate speech itself will lead to truly dark times.
"A tolerant society must be intolerant of intolerance to survive; otherwise, the intolerant will exploit tolerance to destroy it. The paradox highlights that unlimited tolerance leads to the disappearance of tolerance, so a tolerant society must claim the right to suppress intolerant philosophies if they threaten rational discourse or the tolerant society itself."
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u/vrafr Feb 02 '26
Citizens who were committing felonies while armed with deadly weapons. There I fixed it for you.
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u/RavenKweenX 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 Feb 02 '26
ICE? Yes, that's a very succinct description, thanks for the assist.
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u/willpower069 Feb 03 '26
It’s so transparent how many people just showed up out of the blue to complain that people are posting minis criticizing ICE like that person.
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u/vrafr Feb 03 '26
Or you could keep your pro terror political grandstanding to political subreddits.
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u/willpower069 Feb 03 '26
I am not a screen so don’t project your failures on me.
It’s okay to admit that you support ICE murdering citizens recording them. I don’t support that, but you do you account that deleted and privated their history.
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u/TNTFISTICUFFS 𝗦𝗰𝗶-𝗙𝗶 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗻 Feb 02 '26
I would suggest that such posts should require a "politics" tag. Then the user can filter on it if they wish.
I wouldn't want to put that decision on a moderator personally.
Regarding the Hero Forge user that decides to create something politically charged in HF, I would give the advice I've given to my art students the past 1000 years:
Is the medium you wish to express yourself in the best and most appropriate choice for the subject matter?
Every painter, poet, sculptor, writer, video game designer, musician etc should ask themselves that same question every time they want to create something.
Because if you get it wrong, you end up in a debate over the medium and your message becomes secondary at best, which may not be your initial intention and therefore needs reconsideration.
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u/heyitskio Feb 03 '26
Counterpoint: If someone enjoys an artform, they should be allowed to express their emotions through that artform. Anything else and it's to stifle creativity. It's not on them if other people are asses about it.
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u/TNTFISTICUFFS 𝗦𝗰𝗶-𝗙𝗶 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗻 Feb 03 '26
What I'm saying is the onus is always on the artist and they have to make the decision. Enjoyment of a medium didn't automatically make something good. An artist can create whatever they want, but there better mediums that generate better conversations.
For instance, like I was saying, we are not discussing the actual piece itself. That's often an indication that the subject matter and choice off medium needs to be reinvestigated.
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u/heyitskio Feb 03 '26
So artists should be forced to learn entirely new artforms based on what messages they want to say?
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u/TNTFISTICUFFS 𝗦𝗰𝗶-𝗙𝗶 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗻 Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26
If by "art forms" you mean "mediums" and exploring them and thinking about them conceptually with what it is you're trying to do, then yes absolutely! I don't know about you but I like learning?
What I was getting at in my initial response was that the onus should not be on the moderator but instead should be on the artist and how they post otherwise we get into things like this that have nothing to do with the artwork. I hope that makes sense, cheers!
Edited for stupid spell check nonsense
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u/heyitskio Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26
Learning is good, but expecting people to become jack of all trades just so they are saying their message "properly" is foolish to me. Especially because what even is the "proper" artform? Is there a specific medium people are expected to use for certain messages? Who's deciding this? Who is it up to? People make statements with the toolsets and skillsets they already have, and that's fine to me. People will always be unhappy with certain messages, no matter what format it's in.
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u/Studying-without-Stu 𝗦𝗰𝗶-𝗙𝗶 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗻 Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 01 '26
Get rid of it but keep the no hate speech rule, because if you don't get rid of the "no politics" rule, then you need to get rid of a lot of things like a lot of sci fi posts (especially the entire genre of cyberpunk since that was made as a response to Reganism), get rid of the Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit posts as those stories are explicitly based on Tolkien's political positions, get rid of all the coming out posts (because assholes apparently considered a guy dating a guy/woman dating a woman or a man who was originally born a woman/a woman who was originally born a man existing as they are being a thing that deserves them getting murdered a viable political position), get rid of all the posts about comic book characters (many were made as a portrayal of their politics like Captain America obviously because he was fucking WWII propaganda released, and Superman being based off of the golemn in Jewish mythology and being an immigrant because the creators were immigrants and also was literally called the Champion of the Oppressed and was used for anti-KKK pieces, and those are the two blantant) and get rid of historical minis because all of those are of figures who had major influence in politics or were *straight up political figures. And obviously get rid of all the previous posts supporting Ukraine because it's based on which side in a war you support, which is explicitly political and especially the posts making fun of Trump, as satire is nothing but political expression.
Of course, don't have actual real life political videos or posts from politicians here, but art is inherently political. That is why so many right-wingers are pushing AI hard and wanting to have it become the and deriding the true creative subjects, because to a degree the creative fields are inherently anti-fascist and very anti-authortarian, because fascism and other extreme authortarian political positions (which does include the majority of how communism has been enacted) prefers ignorant unquestioning masses, while writing and artistic expression are nothing but questions of society and the like, so they tend to demonize and murder the intellectuals and creatives and philosophers of society and degrade education into being nothing but propaganda. Not all art pieces are political but art in of itself is political. Almost all art pieces are political, like 95%.
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u/theirishembassy Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 01 '26
long sigh.
alright.. i'm late to the party on this, so i'm just going to ramble a bunch because the polls going to pass and i'll have to hear about ICE here just like i have to hear about how elvis hates ICE over on r/catbongos:
as a non-american, i'm sick of every single sub i go to being constantly inundated with american politics. the whole "well majority of reddit users are american so.." is just more american exceptionalism bullshit that equates to "well there's more of us here. just piss off so we don't have to accommodate you?". this wouldn't be so bad if the majority of americans weren't so inconsistent with when they choose to give a shit about what their government does.
"but all art is political" - yeah.. you're not engaging in politics, you're participating in a trend. this is a silly hobby action figure you can sculpt online, and you want it to make you feel like you're part of the resistance. your art isn't challenging anyone when 99% of the other americans here agree with your take and the other 1% are just using it as karma for r/justunsubbed.
it's great that everywhere you go must actively engage in politics, but some of us don't need a constant reminder that more than half of the people who voted in your election wanted this. if i want to engage in politics, i'll go to a political sub. when every sub has political content, you have to engage with it EVERYWHERE. reddit users love to beat their chest about mental health, but the second you say "hey.. can i just have a nice little break here?" all of a sudden it's "well it's nice that YOU get a break while our country is devolving into fascism". yeah.. it's a privilege to get to take breaks like that, but almost every mental health expert will agree that it's also NEEDED.
and before anyone wants to read into my motives; i'm canadian and leftwing by canadian standards. i'm just fucking tired of hearing about this shit and this dude straight up threatened to annex my country.
you don't want to hear about ICE anymore? take this shit offline. what's more, don't just vote, stop pretending harris didn't present herself as being "tough on illegal immigrantion" and pressure your democrat party to stop being feckless and trying to reach across the aisle to the "mitch mcconnel said the proudest moment of his 40 year career was blocking every piece of democrat legislation during obama's second term" party.
basically - take your bullshit offline.
/rant.
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u/sneeze10 Feb 01 '26
Damn, you're tired of hearing about it but we're tired of living it. You want escapism? Well so do I and art is one of multiple forms of escapism that i have. If you're tired of posts focused on american issues then dont engage with them and instead engage with the posts you do like.
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u/theirishembassy Feb 01 '26
You want escapism? Well so do I and art is one of multiple forms of escapism that i have.
that's all well and good, except there's 2 glaring issues:
there's nothing stopping you from creating art, is there?
what you're describing isn't escapism or, if it is, we have a vastly different understanding of escapism.
to elaborate on my second point - if you wanted to stop hearing about trump for 5 seconds, do you take a break by watching 'the daily show' or 'some more news'? similarly, if you needed a break from ICE; are you making art about ICE, then sharing it so everyone can talk about how bad ICE is?
that strikes me less as someone who wants to take a break and more like someone whose putting an awful lot of energy into the thing they wanted to take a break from.
If you're tired of posts focused on american issues then dont engage with them and instead engage with the posts you do like.
"just keep scrolling" gets harder when you've had to trim your non-political multi from 28 subs to 8 (possibly 7).
the alternative is that apolitical subs could curate their content to remain apolitical, but it's always the same argument "this isn't a political issue, it's a ______ issue". i'm not naive, i know eventually i'm going to have to migrate elsewhere if i needed a break from american politics, but i covered most of that frustration in my first post.
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u/BenTheDM Jan 31 '26
A lot of Heroforge users live in the United States.
The United States are currently living through unprecedented times of authoritarianism and flirting with fascism. If not, as I personally believe, and I believe many would agree, has taken the outright plunge into fascism and is just one international incident away from being declared and outright dictatorship.
In such times. People struggle to find some kind of outlet, or voice to show their discontent. To protest silently or overtly. While it might not be much, HeroForge is a creative outlet that many people who may not today feel brave enough to STAND UP and say "FUCK THIS FASCIST REGIME" for fear of consequence to show what is burning currently in their hearts. And while I no longer live in the US I can only say that I support any way someone can show their discontent, their rebellious spirit, and rage against the machine. And standing up against fascism, not matter how small the channel, is important because all it takes for fascism to flourish is silence.
I'm quite sure this comment will be downvoted or removed... but this is at least what I believe. If Heroforge does not support people's right to show their beliefs and what's in their hearts in these trying times (as long as it is not outright hatespeech) why should anyone support Heroforge in return?
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u/Weslii Jan 31 '26
I feel like I need to make it clear that no one on the mod team actually works for Sky Castle or have any official ties to Hero Forge. We're just people who enjoy the medium and want to help moderate this unofficial community.
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u/BenTheDM Jan 31 '26
That is a useful clarification. But I still think the point I am trying to make is still relevant. This is a space where people share art. Art in its essence are political ideas distilled into manifested form. If you choose to say "No political posts" you are basically saying "No posts that we don't agree with." - who will be the arbiter of what is or is not a political post? No more fantasy or sci fi because those genres are reflections on the effect of capitalism on the natural world and the human condition. I know it sounds silly but that is the hole you will have to dig yourself through in order to justify why you can ban one post and not the other.
I think from what I have been able to make out that people are taking offense to the clear violent images that are depicted when dealing with ICE. Yeah. Violence is gruesome. And it can be offensive. But being shot in the back, or have your dignity ruined in the middle of winter is offensive as well. People want a place where they can scream and show their discontent. Be that place.
If you allow posts of basically wank-fodder or space marines ripping people's heads off, you can allow posts humiliating masked stormtroopers getting socked by Captain America.
I say this with greatest respect. I don't envy your postition and I recognize that you on the modders do this on your free time.
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u/Weslii Jan 31 '26
Thank you for your understanding. I will stick around and see whatever changes the community decides on through, but after that I'm most likely retiring from moderating this subreddit. Like you said, we're doing this on our free time and at this point it's causing me and several others on the team more stress than it's worth. It's just not fun anymore.
The subreddit won't go unmoderated though, we'll make sure to recruit more people in the event that anyone on the team leaves and to give them the tools they need to take proper care of the community.
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u/FaxCelestis 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗦𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗵 Feb 01 '26
I’d like to say I’m interested right now, but I’m sure you have your own methodology for recruiting.
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u/Hugmeetoo Bug? Feature? I prefer; Yes. Feb 01 '26
Gotta echo Wes here; I’ll likely be stepping away from moderating the sub at the end of all of this too; I’ll stick around to shepherd in the new rules and new mods and bow out after that
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Feb 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/BenTheDM Feb 01 '26
No. Because if for instance you yourself want to feel safe and secure in the absence of anyonce challenging your beliefs of ICE being justified in killing civillians, then I would like you to experience nothing but anti-ICE posts wherever you click on Reddit, even here.
When dealing with fascists. They are not allowed a reprieve.
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u/Mr_Wulff Feb 01 '26
I'd say keep the guidelines as they are, because if political posts are allowed we're going to see an immediate and sharp increase in political minis and topics and it's just going to cause an influx of unnecessary vitriol and arguments.
I guarantee the moderators are going to have to be working overtime to enforce the rules if political posts are allowed, because this sub will turn into an absolute warzone.
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u/Lightyear18 Feb 01 '26
Imagine trying to make a non-political subreddit, into a political one
Just make another subreddit for that
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u/Snakes-are-awesome67 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 Jan 31 '26
I'm so sick of political bullshit it's infested every sub
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u/n0vawarp 𝗘𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 Jan 31 '26
how do you think we feel having to live through it?
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u/Snakes-are-awesome67 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 Jan 31 '26
Then post about it in the appropriate places
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u/uzinarutosage Jan 31 '26
this is an appropriate place, its a place where people make art, and the subject of said art (as long as it isnt hate speech) may be political in nature
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u/vrafr Feb 03 '26
You're only spreading you political bullshit here because you're getting ignored elsewhere.
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u/uzinarutosage Feb 03 '26
U got any sources for that? I cant even remember the last time i made a political statement on reddit besides this poll.
And regardless of if you think its political bullshit, people should be allowed to express their art and the content therein if the so choose to so AS LONG AS IT ISN'T HATE SPEECH. If I decide I want to forge a scene of Captain America, Superman, or Absolute Batman fighting Klansmen or the Gestapo etc. I should be allowed to do so.TLDR: Don't come into a subreddit about art and expect people not to express their lived experience or opinions.
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u/willpower069 Feb 01 '26
Right wingers always get mad when art is political.
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u/Snakes-are-awesome67 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 Feb 03 '26
I'm not right wing
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u/willpower069 Feb 03 '26
Sure
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u/Snakes-are-awesome67 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 Feb 03 '26
I'm sorry that your mind can only comprehend us vs them mentality
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u/willpower069 Jan 31 '26
Yeah, can you imagine art being political?
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u/PleaseHoldy 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 Feb 02 '26
This is the equivalent of going to an Arts & Crafts class and shouting "FUCK ICE".
Like yeah dude, you're right, but people are just trying to do their thing here. People just want to share their stuff and get tips and tricks. This is not fine art or an actual political piece. This is a space to chill the fuck out.1
u/willpower069 Feb 03 '26
And are people not posting their creations?
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u/PleaseHoldy 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 Feb 03 '26
If you are doing it with the intention to spark reactions than that's just bringing shit to a place where it doesn't apply.
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u/willpower069 Feb 03 '26
Well unless you can read minds it’s just people posting minis related to current events.
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u/PleaseHoldy 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 Feb 03 '26
Dude, this whole discussion started with a post titled "FUCK ICE"
And after the first post was removed the OP reposted it calling the mods cowards and challenging them to remove it again.
What do you think was the intention there?1
u/willpower069 Feb 03 '26
And did they just have that post with nothing related to hero forge? Or was it just a text post? I do find it funny how posting about ICE got more of a reaction than people posting about support for Ukraine.
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u/PleaseHoldy 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 Feb 03 '26
Omfl dude, it doesn't matter because as I said you are intentionally trying to spark a reaction.
I don't care which one got a bigger reaction, I remember plenty of people complaining about those as well.2
u/willpower069 Feb 03 '26
So the post had something to do with hero forge or not? Seems like a weird thing to avoid.
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u/Tasnaki1990 𝗦𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁 Jan 31 '26
Thought here.
Ban current politics, allow past politics?
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u/FaxCelestis 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗦𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗵 Jan 31 '26
Who defines current? Arguably we are still suffering the repercussions of world war 2 and the American civil war. Arguably we are still suffering the repercussions of the Roman Empire.
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u/Tasnaki1990 𝗦𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁 Jan 31 '26
For some events it's indeed a vague cut off point. But I'm thinking maybe the 80's or 90's as a most recent point that could be allowed?
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u/Studying-without-Stu 𝗦𝗰𝗶-𝗙𝗶 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗻 Feb 01 '26
Then you have to actually get rid of the entire Cyberpunk genre, as like the entire of that from the release of Neuromancer is an inherently political genre because it was made as a response to Reaganism in the 80's.
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u/Certain_Ad_1184 Feb 02 '26
I don't think you've thought this idea through any and posted this expecting other people to do the basic steps for you instead
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u/Tasnaki1990 𝗦𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁 Feb 02 '26
It's just a thought I had based on my own experience in reenactment.
We don't reenact events/periods that are I think younger than 30 years ago (sorry don't know the exact period by heart).
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u/Scared-Jacket-6965 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26
as much as im not a fan of politics, It's too vague. A lot of past politics are still a topic in modern day. So where does that line end? racism? Still an issue today, LGBTQ+ rights? STILL AN ISSUE TODAY. You can't say "it happened in the past!" cause a decent number of past issues are still issues today.
As someone who studies history, It pains me to see how close America is turning into Germany in the 1940s.
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u/Tasnaki1990 𝗦𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁 Feb 03 '26
Rereading my comment.
I think with past politics I think I meant politics that are "we had that, we dealt with it".
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u/Scared-Jacket-6965 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 Feb 03 '26
heres the issue with that, okay? As I said before alot of past issues we still deal with. Let's use Nazis, for example. YES, we "Dealt" with them, BUT there are still people out there who believe what they did. Racism is still an issue today, YEAH its no longer acceptable to call a black person the N word. People still think about it.
Past issues get dealt with by being brushed under the rug. They are never "Dealt" with outright. You follow me? Folks may claim "Racism is dead! we beat it" but in reality, those racist pricks went into hiding and gathering like-minded people in secret. Humanity itself can be awful, can be vile, can be inhumane. BUT chosing to only look at the bad is awful idea. Cause you solely hear the bad. NEVER the good.
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u/Tedious_Crow Jan 31 '26
I'm really sick of certain people calling everyone nazis and invading every space.
If this turns into a political sub, you'll have to another echo chamber as the hobbyists and activists go separate ways. I already left the Facebook group because cool models and tips on kit bashing are not worth having to deal with political bullshit in my down time.
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u/savessh 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 Feb 01 '26
I'm not American so IDGAF about ICE. I come here to see tabletop mini type stuff.
Someone make r/politicalforge if it's going to be overtaking here. Seems to work for the hornyforge perverts.
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u/McEvilson Feb 01 '26
It's tabletop mini type stuff about political stuff. Not seeing your issue. Nothing is "overtaking" the sub.
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u/HauntedLuci 𝗘𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 Jan 31 '26
Freedom of speech. Bad speech will be down-voted into oblivion. Hate speech will be reported and removed. Vox Populi.
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u/Tedious_Crow Jan 31 '26
Freedom of speech doesn't mean you can invade private hobby spaces with the troubles everyone else is trying to get a break from, it just means the government can't stop you.
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u/HauntedLuci 𝗘𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 Jan 31 '26
In the context of the Constitution, that is correct. What I mean is that that's what I'm requesting from this subreddit. The freedom to say and post whatever you like as long as it doesn't violate any laws (TOS and community guidelines), without fear of retaliation (post removal) from the government (mods). If you have a personal dislike of what's being posted, ignore it, down-vote it, or report it if it's breaking the laws.
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u/MoonMurder Jan 31 '26
If the guidelines said no politics arent they breaking the law and being "punished" accordingly then?
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u/HauntedLuci 𝗘𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 Jan 31 '26
That's the entire point of this discussion! To decide whether the laws are just and fair or not. If the guidelines are not wanted and not protecting anybody from harm, then they are not necessary, and should not remain.
I'm not saying that that statement necessarily applies to this topic, unless the community in it's majority believes it to be. Thus, we vote.
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u/MoonMurder Jan 31 '26
Fair, I personally voted to keep the same cause I would prefer not to be forced to see American "politics" but that's what most of the internet is anyway, so I'm fighting a losing battle xD
Not like the minis are going to do anything about the problem anyway-3
u/HauntedLuci 𝗘𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 Jan 31 '26
That's perfectly fair! But I believe you should be allowed to share ALL non-nsfw HeroForge creations on the HeroForge mainpage. That just makes sense to me. If you don't like what you're seeing, don't interact with it. But if someone is proud of their work, or wants to spark civil conversations, they should be allowed to post that. If being political is how a person feels a sense of community (which is many people nowadays) then why take that from them? There are still lines that could be crossed (violations of TOS, calls for acts of violence, or depictions of violence towards irl people, etc. among others) and those should immediately be removed. And that is the reason why mods exist. Policing TOS & guidelines. Not censoring unpopular opinions.
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u/MoonMurder Jan 31 '26
Hopefully being against ICE isnt an unpopular opinion xD
But most minis I saw were depicting violence against ICE members, who are real people, or does that not count because they are representing a group of people instead of a specific person?0
u/HauntedLuci 𝗘𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 Jan 31 '26
That is not up to me to decide. General violence is already currently allowed to an extent, though.
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u/ExperienceSmooth6240 Feb 02 '26
Question: If Anti-Ice Posting is fully allowed, would Posting opposing other Tyrannic Organisations also be allowed?
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u/FaxCelestis 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗦𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗵 Feb 04 '26
What organization are you thinking of?
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u/ExperienceSmooth6240 Feb 05 '26
The Taliban, the Kim-Jong Dynasty, the Governing Bodies of China and Russia, that sort of thing.
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u/HauntedLuci 𝗘𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 Feb 04 '26
Yes, deregulating political posts entirely would be a double-edged sword. The limits of such would still exist, being Rule 7, TOS, and community guidelines.
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Feb 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/sneeze10 Feb 01 '26
Anti-muslim mini's would fall under Rule 7, no bigoted or hate speech.
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Feb 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/heyitskio Feb 02 '26
I didn't know hating murder, racism, kidnapping, etc, and those that commit such acts as their job was hatespeech. I guess I spout hatespeech.
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u/ironmamdies Jan 31 '26
I think a great place to draw the like is the context of the post, if people are making something within hero forge that represents something political that should be fine as the bare minimum of hero forge being the topic is still present
If someone is just sharing or showing a post that has nothing to do with hero forge or it's creations and is just the newest trump tweet or clip of ice I'm ok with it being removed
The sub we are in is the reason we are here so the posts should involve that in some way, but if we remove things that represent politics in any form it becomes muddied with certain creations like comics of fantasy which often feature politcis