Well hello again everybody! This has been a wonderful past couple of days. I want to give a huge thank you to everybody who participated in my Under New Management post from Thursday. There was a lot of great feedback, and it will go a long way to helping me better understand all of your wants and needs for this community. Yay!

Yes, this will be wordy. Read it anyway. I will try to be concise.

I spent the entirety of Thursday afternoon and evening working through the over 600 reports that existed for the community. There are still a little less than 200 more left to work through. To be fully transparent, I was given the option of simply mass clearing all of the reports so that I could start with a clean slate. Halfway through, it was very tempting to take the powers-that-be (PtB) up on their generous offer. 😅 But, I wanted to see the reports and see what was being reported (and also by whom). Again, this is my way of learning about this community and its members.

The first thing I want to say is this: for the time being, I have decided that @beep@piefed.world is allowed to stay – with conditions. I have reached out privately to them about their past behavior, and they conveyed that they will respect the rules going forward. I have conveyed back to them that their continued use of the community is contingent on their ability to not break the rules going forward (especially with the alteration of comics). With this said, I fully expect this to ruffle quite a few of those proverbial feathers. But, for better or for worse, the decision is made. Please do not report their posts/comments merely because of who they are. If you do report them for anything, do it because it actually breaks the rules (be sure to be specific about what rules).

With this out of the way, I also want to take a moment to welcome the following people to our moderation team:

• @TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
• @Harvey656@lemmy.world
• @slazer2au@lemmy.world
• @Otter@lemmy.ca
• @cannedtuna@lemmy.world
• @18107@aussie.zone

They have each reached out in some capacity to ask for this job, and I see no reason to not bring them aboard to help out. I expect that they will do their very best to ensure that this community, and its visitors, are treated fairly and with the upmost respect they deserve. Let's be sure that they get the same in return. Everyone made it a strong point that we are all adults here, so let's be sure to act like it.

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

• !linuxmemes@lemmy.world: "I use Arch btw"
• !memes@lemmy.world: memes (you don't say!)