Hey Everybody,
First off, thanks for your patience and understanding as myself and the other mods sort through this and figure out the best course of action to deal with the whole Harry Potter debacle. We’ve seen your Mod mail, your comments, etc. With that being said, this will be an ongoing adjustment, and we are asking for patience, KIND feedback, and understanding as we navigate this. This is a group of 20,000 people, and with that, it is understandably impossible to appease every single person here, but we will do our absolute best to make this a space where everyone feels welcome. Now onto the meat and potatoes.
-We cannot and will not ban Harry Potter/Honeydukes content. It is a series within the Miniverse Make it Mini line, just as any other. While I understand it may not be pleasing to see so many people purchasing products from that line due to the harm that money goes to, it is still a Make it Mini product and a large portion of this Miniverse fan base overlaps there. We would be alienating an entire group of people based on our own ideology which is also wrong, and does not foster a welcoming environment.
-Following up on that, we will not be allowing “dog-piling” of any kind.
What does that look like? Someone posts their Harry Potter Miniverse collection and another user comments “oh so you hate Trans people”. “Can we quit with the Harry Potter??” Or, someone comments that they love Harry Potter because it helps them connect to their relative who has passed, and they feel nostalgic because they miss that relative, and they get absolutely decimated in the replies. That’s still wrong. You’re not changing people’s minds by bullying them. We’re not going to be doing that. We are not going to be dog-piling people for their hobbies, policing their wallets, their purchases, etc. We get why, and we agree with you.
Inversely, however, we ABSOLUTELY will not tolerate any sort of transphobia, homophobia, etc. If we see it, I won’t even give you the chance to explain yourself, I will just ban you. I do not care. If you start saying trans-exclusionary shit, buzzer noise gone, I don’t care.
Anyways, moving on. Onto some FAQs.
Why have some comments been locked?
We locked comments on two posts, the first because the comments were snowballing, and people who were not group members and likely came from the explore page (at least one obvious one, no previous posts or comments in the group at all, etc) were coming in to say nasty things, and everything was being reported. New comments were being made, and then reported en masse. Things like that endanger the subreddit, but then also, we don’t want our members to feel harassed either. The second post where some threads got locked was due to 1) mass false reporting and 2)dog piling. We needed to get a handle on that as well. A user wanted to post something they were excited about, and it got out of hand.
How is it a Trans-Safe space if these posts are allowed?
I think this is a bit of a straw man of sorts. Giving money to MGA at all supports future collaborations like these, giving them money in the past supported this current collaboration, so on and so forth. Your fellow mini-maker picking up a clearance Harry Potter ball at Walmart does not mean they are a transphobe for doing so, or for being gifted the Potion Classroom for Christmas. And shit, if they are a blatant transphobe, send them our way. They’ll be dealt with swiftly.
How is it a No Hate Space if…?
This sub being a no hate space also means that people should be able to post their creations without being criticized, bullied, harassed, reported, etc in the comment section about their ally-ship, having to explain their purchases, or having to explain their love for the franchise etc. As long as it isn’t legitimately hateful, bigoted, etc.
We do not want to restrict speech on controversial topics as other subreddits have done. Though this is a toy subreddit, it is a very important topic that impacts many of us. We took a look, for example, at the Build-a-Bear subreddit per one of y’all’s suggestion, to see how they handled the release of a Harry Potter collaboration, and they simply do not allow conversation surrounding “controversial” topics whatsoever. We do not want to do that. We do not want division of any kind to rear its head here.
All in all, the Mod team here is Queer, and very much pro-trans as one moderator is trans! and we do not in any way support JK Rowling or her actions against the trans community. However, this is a subreddit for all Miniverse Make it Mini products, including the controversial ones. We will not allow dog-piling on other members posts, and ask that you respect other members regardless of their decisions to back certain releases. We understand that these releases can cause emotions to flare up and tensions can be high, and that those emotions can be warranted in some cases. We are just asking users not to attack, demean, belittle or report others based on these emotions. People have joined this group to connect with others on a hobby they enjoy, if a post is not enjoyable for you, it is not necessary to comment on it. Scroll past.
All of that being said, if you have any suggestions, complaints, etc. feel free to drop them below or send them in mod mail if you’d like it to be less public.
Edit to add: stop reporting random comments you disagree with, that you’re arguing with, etc. as targeted harassment. Honestly.
