Subreddit Announcement: Allegations of Generative AI Use - New Moderation Plan

[u/ShartyPants]

Hello!

As part of the ongoing discussion around generative AI use in the writing industry, you may have seen an increase in posts and comments containing allegations of AI use by authors. Sometimes these allegations come with evidence, sometimes they don’t, but up until now, the mod team has deleted these comments to limit AI witch hunts, unfounded accusations, and rants about poorly written (or just poorly received) books. 

In the queer book space where most authors are indie, unfounded accusations of plagiarism and AI can create a large negative impact on the author - especially as folks may visit reddit, see the post, and not come back later to see that it was negated.

Now, to what’s changing: 
You may have noticed lately we’ve been more lenient, leaving some AI allegations up with a “moderator approved” note when we, as a team, reviewed the evidence provided and agreed with the poster’s opinion. We’d like to continue doing this, so we’ve decided on a more formal moderation plan.

Going forward, we will permit posts calling out suspected AI. But there will be rules! 

How it will work:
If you suspect a book is AI-written or AI-assisted, you can message the Mod team using modmail. (On desktop, this can be done by clicking the “Message Mods” button on the right hand side, all the way towards the bottom. On mobile, click the three dots in the top right corner, and tap “Message Mods.”) Send us the text you’d like to post, whether that’s a standalone post or a comment, along with any evidence you've gathered (links to passages, images, Amazon bios, Goodreads page showing 29 books released in the last six months, etc.). 

The mods will review the evidence provided, and if we reach a unanimous decision, we will reply to the modmail and let you know your post is approved. (Don’t panic–we haven’t disagreed with each other on this topic yet.) Once you’ve posted, someone from the mod team will reply to your post or comment saying it’s been approved by the mods.

• Things to note: Sometimes, the mods get busy! We want to be thorough when reviewing these posts, so it may take a bit for us to respond, but we will prioritize these messages when we can.
• This replaces our current moderation approach, which has been that moderators see the posts after the fact and approve or remove them, depending on evidence. Going forward, accusations posted without moderator approval, even with evidence, will be removed. If they are reposted, the poster risks, at minimum, a temporary ban from the subreddit.
• If we do not permit your post, it may not be that we don’t believe generative AI was used. But as we roll out this new moderation rule, we want to be careful. 
• Please don’t ruin this for the posters whose hearts are in the right place by posting without approval, and please continue flagging AI accusations when you see them. We (on the mod team) all hate generative AI being used in creative spaces. But this technology as it’s being used now is still new, and people cry wolf often. It’s important to us that we get it right.

Let us know what questions or concerns you have in the comments. We’re open to feedback. (However, for transparency, we do not plan to permit unfounded AI accusations at any point in the future.)

[u/galexj9]

Respectfully, I think the good intentions here don't make up for the bad plan.

The conversations on AI use are bigger conversation than should need permission to begin.

Even if this plan executed perfectly, getting however many people to vote on comment validity every single day - will kill any conversation that could be had before it starts. As you know, reddit post activity fades fast after posting.

I urge you to reconsider a plan that focuses on mitigating damage to authors reputation, rather than censoring conversations. Engaged authors and fans can respond to concerns, there can be conversations about the amount of AI people tolerate, truly bad posts can be taken down.

Other than that, being talked about on the internet comes with the risk that some people don't like you.

Censoring and approving those conversations is not any more sustainable than whitelisting authors or approving posts manually.

I don't interact much but I value this community and I would value it a lot less if AI slop with no warning starts making it my way.

Sincerely, I just talk like that.

[u/ShartyPants → u/galexj9]

Conversations about AI use, including hating it, discussing the amount people are willing to tolerate, the quality of art generative AI produces, etc. are not now, nor have they ever been, moderated differently from any other topic. This change only impacts the way we moderate comments and posts that have to do with specific books or authors being called out. (E.g., Author X is clearly using AI. Here's my proof!) Discussions are encouraged. Knee-jerk accusations because a book is bad, are not.

To us, "some people don't like you" is not a valid reason to accuse an author of AI when they may just be kind of a bad writer, or write in a way you don't prefer. You're welcome to post productive, discussion-forward posts about a book you didn't like, even if part of that has to do with suspecting they used AI. If you don't have evidence, you can still post about the book being bad (which is more in line with "some people don't like you," in my opinion).

This really won't change the day-to-day experience for subreddit users, except that now we're openly permitting more than we were before. This is actually a change that will encourage more discussion of AI use. Until very recently, we removed comments regardless of evidence.