u/LiminalMask

I have implemented two new rules:

Rule 4: No Piracy. No illicit sharing of copywritten material, nor links to the same.

This was always a rule but wasn't formally posted until now.

Rule 5: No Low-Effort Content. Content shared in this subreddit should be thoughtful, additive, and effortful. This includes restrictions on memes and AI-generated images, text, music, or videos.

This rule came about after a large discussion on GenAI content. You can find the whole discussion with specifically my explanation for why I chose this rule in the bottom half of this post.

Thank you all for your contributions to this subreddit.

WARNING: Anyone who uses name-calling, harassment, or other uncivil speech toward any other person will earn a ban. Opinions are allowed; name-calling is not. If you must attack, attack the idea not the person expressing it. This is your only warning.

I would like for us as a subreddit to discuss GenAI-generated content and its appearance here. (And here we are mostly talking about Generative AI, large language models or media database algorithms that are used to generate artistic content. I don't consider something like Grammarly, for example, to be GenAI. ChatGPT and Midjourney certainly are.)

Many RPG subs already have a "no AI" rule. I have not implemented one here for reasons I'll go into below, but recently it's become a hot-button issue, so rather than act unilaterally, I'd like to hear from you all.

First, my personal opinion: I find GenAI to be deeply problematic. There are many reasons for this. The source material GenAI is trained on is made by creators who were not asked nor compensated for the use. GenAI "slop" is watering down the artistic landscape, burying human talent in homogeneous, low-quality, and monocultural product. GenAI trains itself on itself, leading to reinforcement and proliferation of errors and lies. GenAI requires enormous amounts of power and water which cause environmental harm. The use of GenAI also sabotages critical thinking and encourages the acceptance of whatever result the algorithm provides because it's just 'easy', without consideration of who controls that algorithm. And I make no distinction between 'personal' and 'professional' use. The problems remain both ways.

Given my opinion, why have I not implemented a "No AI" policy in r/traveller? A few reasons:

One, it's really not a big problem at this moment. If you skim our front page, you will rarely see any GenAI-related posts. Whether that's because we're a small RPG sub or whether such content gets downvoted and thus discouraged I don't know. But of course, it bears watching.

Two, enforcement is also problematic. Where do we draw the line? One can usually recognize GenAI-created art or text. But what about an advertisement for a supplement that may or may not be GenAI-created? How are the mods to tell if someone used a paragraph here or there in a work? What if someone uses a GenAI prompt as a starting point but most of the result is original? We cannot check out every link to every product on Drive-Thru RPG to verify that it's human created. One person may claim content is GenAI-made, but other people may disagree. There are a lot of gray areas.

Three, I try not to make rules unless there is a specific problem the rule needs to correct.

Given the above, my policy has been to keep an eye on the number of GenAI posts and then remind the users here that if you dislike the content, your solution is to downvote and/or block those posting GenAI content. (I downvote posts I don't like, too.) And overall, I think it has worked. So far.

In fact, there are usually more offenses from users resorting to name calling, harassment, and personal attacks about GenAI than there are to GenAI posts.

So, here is where we are. What are your feelings about implementing a "No GenAI" rule in the sub? If you think we should, how would you deal with the enforcement problems above? How should we, as a subreddit, approach this topic?

Your constructive and civil discussion is welcome. Don't get personal.