The ComicBooks subreddit that has over 1.2 million subscribers banned the promotion of Mike Baron and Todd Mulrooney’s Florida Man IndieGoGo.
Florida Man editor and the editor-in-chief of Bleeding Fool Chris Braly posted a link to the IndieGoGo in the ComicBooks subreddit and subsequently received an indication that the post had been removed by moderators.
The reason for removal read, “Moderators remove posts from feeds for a variety of reasons, including keeping communities safe, civil, and true to their purpose.”
Braly would also receive a personal ban for daring to even post The Florida Man comic book IndieGoGo in the ComicBooks subreddit. They cited his reason for being banned as “Comicsgate support.”
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When asked why he was banned, a moderator responded writing, “Comicsgate support is not tolerated on this subreddit, such as pro-comicsgate website like Bleeding Fool and comicsgate-lead crowdfunding campaigns like those from Chris Braly.”
The ComicBooks subreddit’s Rule 1: Be Civil bans support for Comicsgate.
It reads, “Racial, sexual, homophobic, or cultural slurs will result in a permanent ban. Do not disparage the differently abled or threaten or incite harm against other users, creators, or industry professionals.”
It then specifically mentions Comicsgate, describing the popular movement as a hate group, “Any form of bigotry or support of hate groups (such as comicsgate) is not permitted. While debate and differing views are encouraged, please keep all discussion on-topic and do not resort to personal attacks. As a general rule, don’t be a jerk.”
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The rule continues, “Individuals of every demographic are important and deserve representation, both in media and as creators behind media. Deliberately propagating forms of erasure, belittling the wants and needs of other individuals, and similar complaints about “forced diversity” have no place in this community.”
It concludes, “Posts with comment patterns meeting certain negative criteria (such as excessive amounts of rule-breaking comments) may be locked at the moderation team’s discretion.”
The ComicBooks subreddit also appears to have an approved source of websites for comic book news.
Chris Braly issued a statement to Bounding Into Comics in response to the ComicBooks subreddit banning promotion of Florida Man.
It begins, “I think the most annoying part of this is that creators like Mike Baron and Todd Mulrooney just want to create comics and get them out there. It’s a shame that an anonymous moderator with an ideological axe to grind can deplatform a user just because they disagree with something that was written somewhere else online.”
The statement continues, “The trend of deplatforming is only one component of a broader crisis of free speech happening online throughout America.”
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He added, “Furthermore, it seems incredibly toxic that a moderator can ban another user for personal reasons and not because that user broke any rules. Nothing about Comicsgate was posted on Reddit, nor on the campaign.”
Braly continued, “At Bleeding Fool, our comment sections are open. We don’t ban people unless they are being repeatedly abusive. We have dozens of contributors who post their own opinions, some of them contrary to one another.”
“It’s a pity a site like REDDIT isn’t more inclusive of all perspectives so that dialogue and reason could prevail, but I was warned the moderators at Reddit are terrible, so I suppose I could have expected this,” he concluded.
Florida Man tells the story of Gary Duba’s bad day. He’s got a snake in his toilet, a rabid raccoon in his yard, and his girl Krystal is in jail for getting naked and licking the manager of a Waffle Castle.
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In order to get his girl out of jail, Duba turns to his best friend Floyd as the two set out to sell Duba’s Barry Bonds’ rookie card in order to pay for Krystal’s bail. And if you couldn’t guess it, things are bound to go wrong.
Florida Man has currently raised $3,559 from 74 backers on IndieGoGo. It has a goal of $7,500. There are 42 days left to back the campaign.