194
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) by dohpaz42@lemmy.world to c/comicstrips@lemmy.world

Update 1: I edited the πŸ“½οΈ Credit Where Credit is Due rule to be more clear about attributions, watermarks, and cropping of comics. Also I fixed some spelling mistakes.

Update 2: I edited the 🧬 Keep it Real rule for clarity. Keep it coming!

Update 3:
I edited the 🏘️ Community Standards based on user feedback.
Updated the formatting of the rules to remove spoiler tags.
Be more concise with some rules.

Good day/evening folks!

Note: Please read until the end; there is a lot here, so if you want to skip straight to business you can search for "Call to Action" and "New Rules" to get right to it. I won't be terribly offended. πŸ₯Ή

Last night (2026-04-08 America/New_York time) I was approached and asked to moderate this community. It seems our esteemed @lawrence@lemmy.world has found themselves otherwise occupied and unable to commit time necessary to maintaining the community. Whatever their reasons, we thank them for their service and wish them well in whatever they are doing now.

My name is @dohpaz42@lemmy.world. You may call me dohpaz42, dohpaz, doh!, jerkface (with love!), or whatever; just don't call me late for dinner. I have been a Lemmy user since July 2023, and it's been a wild ride. Love me or hate me, know that I took this post with the intention to be a fair and impartial mod. I do understand that I ~~may~~ will make mistakes, but I promise that if you come at me respectfully, I will listen. I may not agree with you, but I will listen. I only ask that you do the same for me and my (eventual) team.

A little about moi:
  • I am a divorced father of two young boys
  • I am a web developer who dabbles in devops
  • I am not an arch user (sorry, not sorry 😏)
  • I enjoy hobbies like: 3d-printing, household DIY, video games, woodworking
  • I like to watch Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror (Stargate SG-1, Supernatural, Star Trek (TNG, DS9, etc), Night/Dawn/Day of the Living Dead, Paranormal Activity, etc)
  • Cooking (Send me gluten-free recipes!)

Call to Action

If you are interested in helping to moderate this community, please let me know by DM. I will evaluate each request on the merits of the person making the request. This will mostly involve a user's post/comment history and modlog history.

Note: Having a modlog history does not automatically exclude you from being a moderator, but I do want to make sure that whomever helps helms this community can do so in a respectful and positive manner. Mods will be held to a higher standard than regular users.

I also have a modlog history. Some of it was (in my opinion) unwarranted, and some of it (upon reflection) was very much warranted. I believe in second (and possibly third) chances. I've been there too, and I've still been given this opportunity. So to honor that opportunity, I am willing to give (almost) anybody a chance.

New Rules

I have decided to start out with a rewrite of the rules. Nothing dramatic, but I feel there are a couple of things that can be refined and improved upon. Before I make it official and update the sidebar, I am open to your feedback first (see below). Once the feedback is given, and any revisions made, I will post the new rules to the sidebar. I will accept feedback (comments in this post) until Saturday, April 11, 2026 at 3PM EDT (19:00 UTC).

Note: If you moderate a similar community, and wish to be linked in our sidebar, please leave a comment and I would be happy to add it to the list.

And without further ado, here are the new rules:

Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.

Rules
  1. πŸ˜‡ Be Nice!

    • Treat others with respect and dignity. Friendly banter is okay, as long as it is mutual; keyword: friendly.
  2. 🏘️ Community Standards

    • Comics should be a full story, from start to finish, in one post.
    • Posts should be safe and enjoyable by the majority of community members, both here on lemmy.world and other instances.
    • Any comic that would qualify as raunchy, lewd, or otherwise draw unwanted attention by nosy coworkers, spouses, or family members should be tagged as NSFW.
    • Moderators have final say on what and what does not qualify as appropriate. Use common sense, and if need be, err on the side of caution.
  3. 🧬 Keep it Real

    • Comics should be made and posted by real human beans, not by automated means like bots or AI. This is not the community for that sort of thing.
  4. πŸ“½οΈ Credit Where Credit is Due

    • Comics should include the original attribution to the artist(s) involved, and be unmodified. Bonus points if you include a link back to their website. When in doubt, use a reverse image search to try to find the original version. Repeat offenders will have their posts removed, be temporarily banned from posting, or if all else fails, be permanently banned from posting.
    • Attributions include, but are not limited to, watermarks, links, or other text or imagery that artists add to their comics to use for identification purposes. If you find a comic without any such markings, it would be a good idea to see if you can find an original version. If one cannot be found, say so and ask the community for help!
  5. πŸ“‹ Post Formatting

    • Post an image, gallery, or link to a specific comic hosted on another site; e.g., the author's website.
    • Meta posts about the community should be tagged with [Meta] either at the beginning or the end of the post title.
    • When linking to a comic hosted on another site, ensure the link is to the comic itself and not just to the website; e.g.,
      βœ… Correct: https://xkcd.com/386/
      ❌ Incorrect: https://xkcd.com/
  6. πŸ“¬ Post Frequency/SPAM

    • Each user (regardless of instance) may post up to five (5 πŸ–) comics a day. This can be any combination of personal comics you have written yourself, or other author's comics. Any comics exceeding five (5 πŸ–) will be removed.
  7. πŸ΄β€β˜ οΈ Internationalization (i18n)

    • Non-English posts are welcome. Please tag the post title with the original language, and include an English translation in the body of the post; e.g.,
      SΓ­, por favor [Spanish/EspaΓ±ol]
  8. 🍿 Moderation

    • We are human, just like most everybody else on Lemmy. If you feel a moderation decision was made in error, you are welcome to reach out to anybody on the moderation team for clarification. Keep in mind that moderation decisions may be final.
    • When reporting posts and/or comments, quote which rule is being broken, and why you feel it broke the rules.
Web of Links
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Grimy@lemmy.world 1 points 16 seconds ago

Really not digging the pg-13 stuff. Lemmy has an older demographic than most social media. And it's certainly not up to us to censor in case of someone's spouse (???).

I'm fine with disallowing full nudity but NSFW is meant for stuff that can be seen at a glance, not for a coworker or kid breaking into our phones and actually reading the content.

Yes it was like that in the rules before but it was not enforced and it doesn't seem like something the community thinks needs rectifying.

Tagging anything mildly spicy isn't a compromise! I do not surf here with the NSFW on, most people don't either. I'm not on Lemmy to look at porn but that doesn't mean I want it clear of anything related to sex. This isn't a church.

Sorry if I'm being a dick, but reading the comments, it seems like most people have a problem with it and you haven't properly addressed it.

"Raunchy" is fine, anything with explicit sex or nudity behind a tag. No censorship for the jokes actual content (text) whatsoever. It's that simple.

Thanks in any case, I'm just happy that loser finally got banned.

[-] fireweed@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

I haven't seen this mentioned (sorry if it was and I missed it), but I want to question rule 2a:

Comics should be a full story, from start to finish, in one post.

Even in the newspaper days, it was common for comic strips to have ongoing plots, with each day's strip presenting the next part in the story (with the plot usually starting on Monday and being resolved by week's end, although some were ongoing serials, iirc Dick Tracy was like this). So the way this rule reads, it sounds like you would need to publish all strips from the same storyline together.

I think you're trying to prevent someone from breaking up comics that were initially presented together and intended to be read in one chunk, or otherwise truncated? It's hard to recommend alternative text since so many exceptions exist (what if the panels were originally posted one at a time? what about bonus panels? What if the bonus panel was only published to patreons? What if the strip was reformatted from a graphic novel for mobile-friendly re-publication? etc etc.) But maybe something like this would work: comics should be posted in their original format (e.g. multi-panel strips should not be split up). But this is already covered somewhat by rule 4a: "Comics should [...] be unmodified." So maybe rule 2a is unneeded and only causes unnecessary confusion?

[-] Denjin@feddit.uk 9 points 7 hours ago

Tough on Beeps, tough on the causes of Beeps!

[-] lena@gregtech.eu 2 points 5 hours ago

I think the 7th rule could be modified a bit, Lemmy has language-tagging functionality built-in, so the rules could just mandate that every post be tagged properly (without the [Language] part of the title).

[-] grue@lemmy.world 4 points 3 hours ago

On one hand, yes. On the other hand, if it's a comic that might still be funny without the words -- or if it's translated, as the rule requires -- then you might still want to see it even if it's foreign to you. Unfortunately, AFAIK the way the built-in function works is all-or-nothing: you select the language and you see every post in that language, or you don't and they're all hidden.

Also, it's annoying to use that function because you can't set a default for stuff you write, so you have to select it from the drop-down on every single post and comment.

[-] lena@gregtech.eu 1 points 2 hours ago

Also, it's annoying to use that function because you can't set a default for stuff you write, so you have to select it from the drop-down on every single post and comment.

The alternative is writing [Spanish] on every single post, which is a bit more annoying.

Otherwise I agree, you also can't select multiple languages apparently (if it was possible, you could select Spanish and Undetermined, for example). I guess we can hope Lemmy devs consider to implement multi-language posts. Until then, the tags in the title seem like the best solution.

[-] Speiser0@feddit.org 1 points 5 hours ago

Could you please clarify in the rules which definition the word "should" follows?

[-] nocturne@slrpnk.net 3 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Removal of the spoiler tags definitely made the rules more difficult to read.

A version history of rule changes would have been helpful.

A community of this size really should have more than one mod. I do see you are looking for more mods though.

A jump from 2 a day posts to 5 seems like a bit much. I think 3 would be a better place.

[-] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 26 points 18 hours ago

See I'd have just made an anti-Beep rule and called it a day, good on you for really diving into the role o7

[-] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 12 points 18 hours ago

Best. Response. Ever!!! 🀣

[-] davidgro@lemmy.world 7 points 14 hours ago

I'm really liking the revised rules as of this comment. Thank you for taking this on!

[-] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 88 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

πŸ‘Ά Keep it at PG/PEGI 7

Can we add an 'unless tagged NSFW' addendum to this? There's plenty of quality NSFW things that get posted here (e.g. Oglaf comics) and I for one would be sad to see them go (or to have to create a new community for those things).

Edit: To add to this, looking back at post history, it looks like we get about 1 NSFW post per week here, give or take. Have those really been problematic enough to warrant a ban (when appropriately tagged?)

[-] NeilNuggetstrong@lemmy.world 42 points 1 day ago

Yes please, the nsfw feature is there for a reason

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world 9 points 19 hours ago

I'd be in favor of using PG-13 as the baseline, not PG. A lot of the stuff here I probably wouldn't show a 7 year old. Lemmy isn't exactly a children's site anyway.

NSFW tags can be used for anything you wouldn't show a minor, but keep in mind this isn't a porn community - adult topics and suggestive content are okay, but actual porn is not (unless we do want to allow it???).

Going with the PEGI ratings for sexual content might be a bit more helpful. (There's a bit of interpretation leeway because this is written for games not comic strips)

This [sex] content descriptor can accompany a PEGI 12 rating if the game includes sexual posturing or innuendo, a PEGI 16 rating if there is erotic nudity or sexual intercourse without visible genitals, or a PEGI 18 rating if there is explicit sexual activity in the game. Depictions of nudity in a non-sexual context do not require a specific age rating, and this descriptor would not be necessary. Wikipedia

If I'm reading this correctly, PEGI 12 is if it subtly references sex in someway, or if a character is in a "sexy" pose; a "let's Netflix and chill" or "is that pickle in your pocket" type of thing.

PEGI 16 is the sex scene on TV that your parents always seem to be watching when you walk in. It doesn't show main parts of the act, but you know what they're doing.

PEGI 18 is just porn.

From those descriptions, I suggest allowing PEGI 12 with no tagging necessary, PEGI 16 must be tagged, and PEGI 18 is not allowed.

I'd get rid of the last sentence of the wiki description too to make it simple - if there's nudity tag it as nsfw.

Or even simpler; If you'd get arrested for showing it to a 16yr old, tag it. If you'd shoot your "creepy uncle" for showing it to your 16yr old kid, tag it.

I'd apply similar rules for violence, pegi 12 is fine, pegi 16 tag it, and pegi 18 is guro/NSFL and not allowed.

[-] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago

The original rule stated:

Adult content is not allowed. This community aims to be fun for people of all ages.

The adult content is already a rule; I was merely rewording it and trying to offer a clearer definition of "adult content". However, if the community so desires and posts can be properly tagged NSFW, I wouldn't be against adding onto this rule.

But, I also do not want this comm to devolve into yet another porn depot. There are instances for that already.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 7 points 17 hours ago

I feel like allowing tagged NSFW would work as long as it's legitimately a comic strip, and one that isn't exclusively porn. (So, like, that recent Jucika would be okay, an Oglaf would be barely toeing the line, and anything beyond that would belong somewhere else. Or maybe Oglaf would be on the wrong side of the line, IDK.)

[-] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 3 points 17 hours ago

I don't follow either artist, and have only seen mentions of them like how you describe. So my thought process is likely going to be case-by-case.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

I picked them as examples because both have recently been posted here.

Here's the NSFW Jucika I mentioned (note: none of the other Jucika strips are NSFW), and I can't find the Oglafs anymore because I think you removed them.

On a related note, it would've been easier for me to search (and especially, to check the modlog since the image is gone and you have to go by title alone) if the name of the strip were in the title.

[-] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 23 points 1 day ago

Sure, but the original rule was not being enforced. Presumably given that we have an active mod, now, you're planning to enforce the rules. Basically all I'm saying is, I'd prefer that the content that has been getting posted be allowed to continue to be posted. Nobody's looking for hardcore pornography, but the occasional risque comic should (IMO) not cause problems, as they haven't been for quite some time.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Bbbbbbbbbbb@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

It does look like the community overall enjoys the more adult themed comics sometimes splashed in here, and theyre not super frequent and we havent devolved into a porn spot yet.

Like others have said, Oglaf is fun and can be very raunchy, their site is 18+ and at times they have some safe PG13 to PG comics in their arsenal. Besides them, Cyanide and Happiness are very PG to PG13 and then on occasion they post very R rated content.

I think as a community we can generalize what we enjoy without going overboard and a NSFW provides a clear boundary to people in settings where looking at this content can get them in trouble. While I understand wanting to keep things relatively family friendly we shouldnt be the guardians over other peoples children.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)
[-] racketlauncher831@lemmy.ml 5 points 15 hours ago

Proposal of a new rule: Every post must have the author's name and name of the series (if any) in the title in a given format.

Purpose: for users who want certain contents filtered out.

Example: [da Vinci][Jesus's Delicious Meals] The Last Supper

[-] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 28 points 23 hours ago

In response to those who have mentioned the PG/PEGI 7 rule, how does this work for a compromise?

🏘️ Community Standards

Posts should be safe and enjoyable by the majority of community members, both here on lemmy.world and other instances. Any comic that would qualify as raunchy, lewd, or otherwise draw unwanted attention by nosy coworkers, spouses, or family members should be tagged as NSFW.

Graphic content of any kind will not be tolerated. This includes gore, pornography, or violence.

Moderators have final say on what and what does not qualify as safe and enjoyable. Use common sense, and if need be, err on the side of caution.

load more comments (7 replies)
[-] moakley@lemmy.world 18 points 22 hours ago

Very glad to see this. Obviously this whole thing is happening because of that one troll who was removing attributions from comics. So my question for you is: can you go ahead and remove everything he ever posted here?

Because as long as the unattributed versions are sitting out there, they're liable to be reposted elsewhere, making it harder to find the real versions. It should be stopped at the source as soon as possible.

Other than that, I see that everyone else is already on you about the PG thing.

My origin story on Lemmy is that the first thing I ever posted here was an original comic that I hadn't put anywhere else. It was a Lemmy exclusive, which obviously is not a thing people really do. It got removed because it had the word "balls" in it.

So I posted it to reddit. It hit the front page immediately, and it's been reposted tens of thousands of times across the internet since then. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I think that means it was some premium content, which seems like something the largest webcomic community on Lemmy would want.

Anyway, I'm actually fine with not allowing full-blown nsfw content here, but "balls" should be allowed.

[-] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 5 points 19 hours ago

We will work on the attribution/watermark issues. I have a feeling it'll take time and community effort. But, as I am going through every report, I am seeing that people are commenting and conversating, and I do not want to take that away from them. Also, a lot of the posts have attribution in one form or another, despite the image being cropped. This was either done by the poster as body text, or by a community member.

Anyway, I’m actually fine with not allowing full-blown nsfw content here, but β€œballs” should be allowed.

This you?

[-] moakley@lemmy.world 9 points 19 hours ago

You're missing my point. If I drew a comic and signed my name on it, and some jerk removed my signature, it doesn't matter if I get credit in the comments. Because that image is going to get reposted elsewhere, and my name is no longer with it.

In some cases he even used AI to "upscale" comics, and it made changes to the art. All of his posts need to be nuked. They're poisoning the well.

[-] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 4 points 18 hours ago

I agree with you. I do. But keep in mind that I am coming in after the fact; after other people have taken the time to contribute in one form or another via comments. They have also made efforts to post the correct sources in the comments. Now, going forward this will not be tolerated at all (this is why I am trying to update the rules). I consider cropping and "AI upscaling" to be vandalism, and it will be dealt with accordingly. I have also reached out privately to said individual to let them know my feelings on the subject. It's going to take time and effort.

[-] moakley@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago

Can you clarify something else for me? Is the offender in this case not being banned? Because he is way, way past third chances, and I don't think the community is ok with that.

[-] moakley@lemmy.world 3 points 16 hours ago

Ok, but you can just remove the vandalized comics. Otherwise they'll continue to do damage. Taking them down doesn't hurt anyone.

The efforts in the comment sections were towards this end - to try to stop the harm he was doing.

[-] nocturne@slrpnk.net 3 points 8 hours ago

Mods are not able to edit posts, so the images cannot be removed without removing the entire thread.

The mod is saying he wants to keep these threads because of the comments, and then actual attribution happened.

While you are saying you want the initial image gone so that someone down the line does not find the beeped version and share it as the original art.

While I personally think preservation of the threads is a good idea, I think preventing beeped images from being disseminated is a better idea. I for one am for nuking the offending threads.

[-] moakley@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

Exactly. The threads are not the point. The art is the point. Most of the comments were about what kind of asshole would remove attribution anyway.

It comes down to what we want this community to be. Is this just some third tier meme group, sharing the reposts of the reposts from other communities? Or is it a place that's respectful to artists, that could eventually be where content creators post their original stuff?

Some other things will have to go our way to make the latter happen, but it'll never happen if we're positioned for the former.

But if I'm understanding the situation correctly, I don't think beep is even banned. Which would make sense why the new mod is so reticent about nuking his content.

I'm all for second chances, but as long as a single beeped comic still exists in this community, he and every one of his alts needs to be banned. Anything less is hostile to artists and makes this a meme factory instead of a place to share and celebrate comics.

[-] nocturne@slrpnk.net 4 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Beep 1 (lemmus) was banned by their instance
Beep 2 (fedinsfw) was banned by their instance
Beep 3 (.world) has all of their comments and posts nuked, I cannot tell if they did it, or admins. Beep 4 (piefed.world) active and posting in this community.

And technically, the rule regarding attribution was not active while they were posting. But I think if a rule is made because of you, you probably deserve a ban.

ETA I saw posts from a beep account last night and only saw it was .world. It is piefed.world, not Lemmy.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] tanisnikana@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago

Thank you so much, jerkface! We really appreciate you stepping up.

Hopefully this puts an end to beep’s shenanigans.

<3

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 22 points 23 hours ago

+1 for attribution

-1 for PG. We've been unmoderated for probably over a year now, and it hasn't devolved into anything. Starting to enforce a PG filter now is an active change. Not a passive continuation.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Man, jerkface, I really appreciate you taking on this responsibility, but I'm really wary of a hard pivot to "no adult content"/PEGI 7. I'd even be slightly skeptical toward PEGI 12, but PEGI 7 is pretty restrictive and leaves out really good content that's non-offensive to social media platforms like Lemmy where ~~users are expected (not formally in LW's ToS, but nevertheless expected) to be at least 13.~~ (edit: I'm a dummy; I forgot LW's ToS were 18+. The 13+ assumption was sort of threadiverse-wide, but I totally whiffed the LW-specific part.)

I wouldn't gripe too much over PEGI 12 and allowing for the NSFW tag for exceptions (because that covers 13+), but PEGI 7 is saying "let's keep it appropriate for users who shouldn't even be browsing Lemmy unsupervised".

Anyway, your diligent moderation is better than beepsville, and I still really appreciate the hard work I know you're willing to put in.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] Cassa 20 points 1 day ago

This seems great!

I am concerned for the family friendly ruleπŸ˜… Will nsfw comics be banned? will jokes that are sexual in nature be banned? There is this one comic that often just has casual nudity f.ex - would that be banned?

load more comments (6 replies)
[-] Slacking@sh.itjust.works 9 points 21 hours ago

Thank you for taking on the responsibility, the little background info does inspire confidence. Very cool.

I kind of preferred the rules as they were. This is kind of a wall of text, hard to parse and will probably mostly go unread.

I think keeping the old and just adding the anti bot rule and attribution rule is fine. Just saying attribution must be kept on the image frame if possible is enough. I think bumping up the 2 limit per day max is alright but 5 might be a lot. Quality over quantity and all that.

I'm really against any kind of heavy handedness for raunchy comics, especially if it's about the joke and not the image itself. Having people tag the NSFW stuff (ie actual nudity, sexual content, dildos, etc) is fine imo.

For violence, I mean, we are all adults here and it's cartoon violence in any case. It just feels a bit puritanical to be hard on this kind of stuff. It doesn't really feel like a problem.

Sorry if this is overly critical. Thanks for the help!

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Mac@mander.xyz 7 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Should i just unsub now before i get banned for using normal adult language?
Miss me with the fuckin family friendly shit.

That's exactly what this formerly unmoderated, yet tame community needs: ti be forced into being PG. πŸ™„

[-] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 11 points 19 hours ago

You do whatever the fuck you feel is the best thing for you. But, before you go, feel free to check out my revisions that I've made. And thanks for the fucking feedback! :)

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next β€Ί
this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2026
194 points (100.0% liked)

Comic Strips

23231 readers
2779 users here now

Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.

The rules are simple:

Web of links

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS