Update 1: I edited the 📽️ 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. 🥹

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. 😇 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. 📽️ 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. 📋 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.,
      ✅ Correct: https://xkcd.com/386/
      ❌ Incorrect: https://xkcd.com/

  6. 📬 Post Frequency/SPAM

    • Each user (regardless of instance) may post up to five (5 🖐) 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 🖐) will be removed.

  7. 🏴‍☠️ 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.,
      Sí, por favor [Spanish/Español]

  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
  • MaryReads@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    0·
    6 days ago

    Heya, lately there’s been some people posting strips of TERF/Nazi creators. Could you please add a rule that bans posts of strips from those creators? Even if the content in a specific strip is not harmful, it stresses me out seeing them posted if I know the author of said Comic-Strip wants to see me dead. I’m unsure about the wording but maybe “No posts from authors with a history of harmful content”?

  • GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zip
    0·
    12 days ago

    Hello, and thanks for stepping up.

    Bots and AI are cool…

    Does this mean the no AI generated comics rule is gone?

    Honestly, I think most people here, me included, don’t want AI content in this community. It’s low effort and there’s already other places for gen ai stuff :S please, reconsider this one.

    • dohpaz42@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      0·
      12 days ago

      …but we value genuine human effort in posts… This is not the place for that sort of thing.

      I was trying to be concise, and cheeky, but I see where that might be confusing. Let’s see if we can make this more clear:

      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.

      I am also open to any suggestions you or others may have on wording this better.

      • GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zip
        0·
        12 days ago

        Thank you! I asked for clarification because I’m not a native english speaker and I didn’t quite get the initial wording :)

    • BurgerBaron@piefed.socialEnglish
      0·
      12 days ago

      “Keep it Real” is literally the rule name.

      Plus the “Bots and AI are cool… BUT” part seem clear enough to me that AI slop posting is against the rules.

  • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    12 days ago

    Welcome! Will be back later to discuss the suggested rules (other people have mostly said my concerns already), but for your awareness there was a thread requesting moderator rights of this sub a week ago that may have been missed by the admin that appointed you: https://lemmy.world/post/45162418

    That might be a good place to start on finding additional mods.

  • beep@piefed.worldEnglish
    0·
    13 days ago

    About credit, what if the original comic does not include watermark?

    What shall be done then?

    • dohpaz42@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      0·
      13 days ago

      You can do a reverse image search to try to find the original comic. But, if you make your best (honest) effort to find the original comic, and still cannot, then post it and tell everyone that you tried! If somebody is kind enough to post the original, attributed, comic or tell you the artist, then you are expected to update your post accordingly. People value an honest effort.

      • beep@piefed.worldEnglish
        0·
        13 days ago

        You did not get me.

        I am asking about unwatermarked comics, like my last 2 posts.

        How would the credit rule be applied?

        • dohpaz42@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
          0·
          12 days ago

          If the watermark, or any other attribution, is a part of the original comic, then yes that counts. The idea is that a comic should be presented how the artist intended it to be presented. Posters like yourself are merely messengers working on behalf of the artists. Does that help?

        • Agrivar@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          12 days ago

          Learn to read. Better yet, learn to read the room. Your actions are not appreciated by the majority. Don’t do it just for me though, as I’m about to block your latest account.

      • AzuraTheSpellkissed@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        0·
        12 days ago

        Thank you for moderating here, dohpaz! You are aware of the recent drama surrounding watermarks, with one particular (but actively posting❤️) user cropping out artists’ watermarks posting them here? I guess beep is confusing watermarks and an attribution link.

  • Baaron87@lemmy.world
    0·
    12 days ago

    Hi Dohpaz42! Welcome and thank you for doing a bit of a pulse check and getting some input from the community.

    I’m one of the many lurkers that typically just browses and rarely comments or posts but I wanted to post a little feedback on your proposed updated rules:

    I would like to ask that you consider including something about the comics themselves being cropped/modified before posting.

    I know there will be times where a person mistakenly uploads a modified one randomly found on the net, but recently there have been a ton of posts (comments as well) where the one user in particular, decided that cropping the images are justified and will link to places like Reddit or the main website for their comic (e.g. xkcd.com) without the direct link/attribution. Followed by taunting others who point it out in other threads. It is causing unnecessary drama in the community obviously.

    Thank you

    • dohpaz42@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      0·
      12 days ago

      📽️ Credit Where Credit is Due

      This is the rule that was meant to address that issue.

      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.

      How does this sound?

  • CarrotsHaveEars@lemmy.ml
    0·
    12 days 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

    • dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      12 days ago

      That’s a good idea.

      Typically though it seems that posters of comics are self sorting. So if I don’t want to see the anime chick I just block that one person and she goes away. It is a little heavy handed to the person who posts them though I guess…

      • CarrotsHaveEars@lemmy.ml
        0·
        11 days ago

        I agree. In most cases that works.

        However sometimes a poster posts more than one series, and more than one posters post one series.

        To control a pollution (figurative speech) we control the source.

  • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
    0·
    12 days 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.

  • Mac@mander.xyzEnglish
    0·
    12 days 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. 🙄

    • dohpaz42@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      0·
      12 days 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! :)

  • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    0·
    12 days 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.

    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.

  • Slacking@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    12 days 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!

    • dohpaz42@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      0·
      12 days ago

      I appreciate your honest criticism. Please revisit the post as I have updated some of the rules based on feedback, as well as the formatting. Hopefully it’ll be a little easier to parse.

  • edgemaster72@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    12 days 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

  • cannedtuna@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    0·
    12 days ago

    I’ve been wondering for a bit what happened to lawrence. Glad to know someone is stepping in.