r/art
r/art is an internet forum on Reddit dedicated to art discussions and the sharing of artwork. As of January 2023, it has over 22 million members.[1] It is the largest art-related forum on Reddit.[2][3]
History
r/art was created in 2008.[1] In 2014, it was made a default subreddit, which meant that all Reddit users were subscribed to the forum by default.[4]
In 2015, the moderators of the subreddit shut the forum down in protest of the firing of Victoria Taylor, then an employee at Reddit.[5]
Academic analysis
A study in 2022 found that approximately 10.15% of discussion on r/art were "toxic comments", using a sample of 1,021,702 comments.[6] A separate study found that controversial comments on the subreddit had more anger, less admiration, and less joy compared to non-controversial comments, and that these emotional differences were larger than those in political subreddits.[7]
In 2015, the online art magazine Hyperallergic described r/art as comprising "mostly artwork uploaded by artists of all skill levels requesting feedback, with few discussions, questions, and articles scattered in between these personal submissions".[8]
2022 AI art controversy
In late 2022, the moderators of r/art removed the artwork of Ben Moran, a Vietnam-based artist, and banned them from the subreddit, citing the artwork's resemblance to AI-generated art, which is unallowed on the forum. When Moran contacted the moderators to "complain" about the ban, the moderators stated:[9]
- I don't believe you. Even if you did "paint" it yourself, it's so obviously an AI-prompted design that it doesn't matter.
- If you really are a "serious" artist, then you need to find a different style, because A) no one is going to believe when you say it's not AI, and B) the AI can do better in seconds what might take you hours.
- Sorry, it's the way of the world.
Moran was then muted from messaging the subreddit moderators. As of January 7, 2023, they remain banned from the forum.[9] The subreddit moderators have stated that to "reverse course now... [would mean that] online trolls get to dictate the state of the community."[10]
References
- "r/Art". reddit.
- Ables, Kelsey (2020-03-30). "On Reddit, Artists Find Unexpected Exposure and Unbridled Criticism". Artsy. Retrieved 2023-01-19.
- "VISUAL ART-RELATED REDDIT SUBREDDITS". NYFA. 2015-08-17. Retrieved 2023-01-19.
- protected, email (2014-05-07). "Reddit adds 25 new default subreddits to its front page". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 2023-01-19.
- Abad-Santos, Alex (2015-07-08). "The Reddit revolt that led to CEO Ellen Pao's resignation, explained". Vox. Retrieved 2023-01-19.
- Hind Almerekhi, Haewoon Kwak, Joni Salminen, Bernard J. Jansen, PROVOKE: Toxicity trigger detection in conversations from the top 100 subreddits, Data and Information Management, Volume 6, Issue 4, 2022, 100019, ISSN 2543-9251, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dim.2022.100019.
- Kai Chen, Zihao He, Rong-Ching Chang, Jonathan May, and Kristina Lerman. 2023. Anger Breeds Controversy: Analyzing Controversy and Emotions on Reddit. In Proceedings of WebScience (WebScience ’23). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 9 pages.https://arxiv.org/pdf/2212.00339.pdf
- Voon, Claire (2014-06-18). "The Art Guide to Reddit". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2023-01-19.
- Stokel-Walker, Chris. "A Huge Subreddit Suspended A User For Posting AI Art, But The Work Is 100% Human-Made". BuzzFeed News.
- "'I Don't Believe You:' Artist Banned from r/Art Because Mods Thought They Used AI". www.vice.com.