I would personally lean towards keeping the focus of this community to the content in the books (and to a lesser extent their adaptations and other media), but I'm interested in hearing people's thoughts.
this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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Harry Potter
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Community dedicated to the world of Harry Potter.
Mostly focused on books and fan creations, movie content is accepted but should not overwhelm the community.
founded 2 years ago
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i think keeping it focused on content would be better. every other harry potter space seems to be devoted to posts like the one you described.
it'd just be nice to have a place where the fans can focus on the books and films.
Thank you for your input. We will consider our options carefully, but I suspect it will not be possible to please everyone.
We could maybe have a pinned post similar to this one? https://old.reddit.com/r/HarryPotterMemes/comments/10vk5e8/trans_wizards_are_wizards_this_is_not_the_place/
It used to be pinned over there, but I guess defending trans rights isn't trendy on Reddit nowadays
A pinned post is a possible option. Would a pinned post accomplish anything that a paragraph in the sidebar would not? I've had federation issues with pinned posts unpinning themselves on remote instances, whereas sidebars seem to federate more consistently.
A pinned post making the official stance clear similar to the reddit one should definitely exist imo – no matter what else is decided.
Still shocking that they unpinned it on Reddit, during Pride Month on top of that. Classic modern Reddit move I guess.
Pinning from a post written by a local account from a local mod account usually works.
Based on experience, pinned posts are much more visible than sidebars (those are usually hidden on mobile)
This community isn't about JK Rowling, it's about Harry Potter. That's what I came here to see. If it turns into just a JK Rowling dunk fest, I'll unsubscribe.
i am the same. i came here because its a place away from all that.
The main question is probably "can we split Harry Potter from JKR while she is now funding trans hate actions, and can do so thanks to HP?"
I don't see why not. Separate the art from the artist, including not giving the artist money (eg pirating the media)
Giving the saga more visibility still keep it relevant in the current popular culture. I haven't given any money to JKR for years, but Hogwarts Legacy was still the best selling game of 2023 with 15 millions copies (https://thesagenews.com/22413/lifestyle/top-selling-games-of-2023/)
On the other hand people will probably argue that she has probably enough money to fund hate actions for generations, and that a local boycott on Lemmy isn't going to achieve much.
It's a debate to have, hence this post.
Thanks for your input. We will consider our options carefully, though I suspect it will not be possible to please everyone. I hope we will be able to provide an update ~~in the next few days~~.
Edit: Blaze and I are currently organizing a bunch of community migrations due in anticipation of lemm.ee's closure, so it may be a few more days until we can come to a decision on this community. Thanks for your patience, and apologies for the delay.
On Reddit, the Joe Rogan subreddit organically developed into a forum for trashing Joe Rogan. I think it's embarrassing that the most popular JK Rowling community on the Fediverse isn't dedicated to exclusively reporting on her quest to dehumanize and erase trans people.
There are plenty of places where discussion of her abhorrent views are either suppressed, or allowed to exist alongside fun memes about the work that funds her vendetta against women. If there is any uplifting moral message contained in those books, then the primary community for Harry Potter on the Fediverse should exist to lead a revolt against the author.
June is Pride month, and Rowling has announced her intention to use her fortune to escalate attacks on trans people. I'm surprised there are people who think we should be discussing anything else here but that. I know people love sharing uplifting HP memes, maybe a separate community can be created for that purpose. We could call it !slytherinmemes or !umbridgesoffice to highlight how evil it is to continue to fund her work, or !jkrownlingisatransphobe or !jkrowlingisabigot to play on the ironic meme common in community namespaces like /r/marijuanaenthusiasts being about arboriculture while /r/trees is about marijuana.
This is not the "most popular JK Rowling community on the Fediverse". For one it is not about that woman, and for the other the amount of subscribers to this community is ridiculously low.
Which Harry Potter community is more active than this one?
The wording was "popular", not "most active". By subscriber numbers alone I think the dormant Leaky Cauldron one is bigger?
And the fediverse is big, I'm pretty sure that somewhere on mastodon you'd find a more popular group of people for this topic than here.
Subscribers are not the best metric for community activity, a lot of communities have high subscribers counts but low activity for different reasons (e.g. inactive accounts having subbed a while ago)
Leaky Cauldron one
The subscribers there will soon be 0 as the instance will close in July (https://diagonlemmy.social/post/111137)
And the fediverse is big, I'm pretty sure that somewhere on mastodon you'd find a more popular group of people for this topic than here.
Does Mastodon properly support groups nowadays? That was still in progress last time I checked.
Again, we're talking semantics here. The original phrasing was "popular", not "active"/"activity".
And when I say communities regarding mastodon, I'm not talking about the technical feature of groups but rather individuals interacting with each others in their posting.
"Popular" is ambiguous in that sense, is was not "most subscribed" either.
From Mastodon.social: https://mastodon.social/search?q=%23harrypotter
It is the most active, has the most active subscribers, has an active mod. It's also the only one considering suppressing news about how increasing the cultural value of Harry Potter is funding hate.
All news articles about Rowling are posted all across Lemmy. It's not like people on here don't know what she is doing or what views she has. And discussion on her has way more engagement on these other Lemmy communities than in this one – because user engagement in here is not high in general. Even if this community would be shifted to only talk about her, that would not generate good discussions because there is not much engagement.
It is basically impossible to discuss anything about this fictional Harry Potter universe anywhere on Lemmy because it gets down voted into oblivion. Taking away this small corner of Lemmy that can be used for this is really not cool IMO.
Let people simply enjoy posting about childhood memories and pirating this new content while hating Rowling. Why is that so hard? For all means, create a new community exclusively focused on Rowling and trolling her. I'll support that. But this community here is not the right place for that. Because it derails the actual focus of the community.
It is basically impossible to discuss anything about this fictional Harry Potter universe anywhere on Lemmy because it gets down voted into oblivion.
Memes on [email protected] would regularly hit 300 upvotes, so I'm not sure if this is the case.
Let people simply enjoy posting about childhood memories and pirating this new content while hating Rowling.
Does it still make sense to hate Rowling while talking about the upcoming show, and thus giving it visibility? Even pirating content still gives you emotional attachment to a universe, and you might be tempted to get related products, be it Lego, visits to the Universal park, London studios, or a scarf for Christmas, all of which would support JKR.
I'm split myself, I was a regular poster on [email protected], but JKR latest actions really make me question what to do now.
i absolutely agree. for fuck's sake. 99% of potter communities are already jk rowling hate fests. you can't walk two feet without tripping over one. there's nothing stopping anyone from making an instance devoted to that. I'd support it.
can we just talk about the books we like in a peaceful environment? let us have like one place.
. 99% of potter communities are already jk rowling hate fests.
What are those?
[email protected] is closing
[email protected] and [email protected] are inactive.
There doesn't seem to be any other active community besides the one we're in: https://lemmyverse.net/communities?query=harrypotter
not on lemmy. i meant in a more broad term.
All of Lemmy doesn't need to constantly hear about JK Rowling and her evil. People who are supporting her directly need to know.
It sounds like you feel you're the victim because you're concerned you won't be able to enjoy Harry Potter on Lemmy without being reminded that your enjoyment is ruining the lives of others. Would you say that's accurate?
it derails the actual focus of the community.
What is the actual focus of the community? I've already suggested creating another community that explicitly acknowledges how bad JK Rowling is, and posting memes there. So it sounds like you're saying the actual focus of the community is enjoying Harry Potter along with people who explicitly support JK Rowling's ongoing campaign to harm trans people, while censoring people who support human rights. Why can't you enjoy Harry Potter memes in an alternate community called !jkisabigot or something similar?
You came in here claiming that this community does not acknowledge how bad JK Rowling is or censors it. That is a claim you made without any evidence to back it up.
I'm not a mod here, I'm just subscribed to this community and post every now and then. It is not my decision how the mod(s) should handle this. All I want is not having to say literally every time I post anything "yes Rowling is bad". I know she is bad. It goes without saying. constantly asking people to distance themselves from evil is absolutely unnecessary when that has already happened over and over again.
Maybe the community should display this better. But it is not my responsibility. That is what the mods need to decide.
My so-called "enjoyment" of so-called "Harry Potter" is not ruining anyone's life. Or would you say that suggesting this just shows that you are a hateful person, is that accurate?
I’m not a mod here, I’m just subscribed to this community and post every now and then. It is not my decision how the mod(s) should handle this.
Maybe the community should display this better. But it is not my responsibility. That is what the mods need to decide.
Hello,
Mod here. We are looking for community feedback on this topic, so feel free to suggest ideas.
We're mods, but we also don't want to take decisions alone, hence this post.
i would like to put forth a rule that those kinds of posts be done elsewhere and not in this instance. I'm not saying they're invalid, but I came here to get away from all that and check out some memes.
most of us just want a quiet place to talk about a book series we love.
Mod here.
Likewise.
It seems like there are multiple community members who are interested in discussing Harry Potter in a space separate from the views of the author.
Thoughts on trialling a community split of Harry Potter and JK Rowling posts? We could try it for a few weeks/month, and reassess at a later date.
Community fragmentation is always a risk in the fediverse, but I think this may be a case where separate communities are warranted.
Just sent you a DM to switch to Matrix, it might be easier to discuss this topic
there's already tons of places dedicated to doing all that stuff. can you just leave us fans of the books a place to talk about them in peace?
the Joe Rogan subreddit organically developed into a forum for trashing Joe Rogan
Interesting. I don't see why we couldn't do something similar on Lemmy. I did a brief search, and there don't seem to be any !jkrowling communities yet. As you seem passionate on this subject, would you be interested in helping to moderate such a community?
the ironic meme common in community namespaces like /r/marijuanaenthusiasts being about arboriculture while /r/trees is about marijuana
While this was a rather funny occurrence, it arose naturally due to the "trees" subreddit name being "taken". I'm not sure it would be quite the same if we set it up intentionally, especially given that a consequence of the distributed nature of Lemmy is that community names being "taken" is rarely an issue.
the primary community for Harry Potter on the Fediverse should exist to lead a revolt against the author
I hear where you are coming from, but there are other members of this community who may disagree with you. We will consider our options with care, but I suspect it will not be possible to please everyone.
I do have moderator experience and I am interested with working with you to make communities that aren't safe spaces for bigots. I can help you mod [email protected] and [email protected] - but I don't support creating a separate community to direct discussion of JK Rowling away from the Harry Potter community. That places news about HP's toxic social side effects where it is easily ignored, and makes !hp a safe space for bigots.
I think directing JK Rowling discussion from !jkisabigot to !harrypotter and HP memes from !hp to !jkisabigot is hilarious. People who join the Fediverse and look for a Harry Potter community will probably come to !harrypotter first and experience a sorting hat of sorts. If they're not a bigot, and they learn that actual Harry Potter literature discussion happens in !jkisabigot, and !harrypotter is for the latest news on JK Rowling's hate campaigns, they'll get the joke. If they endorse JK Rowling's ideology, it will send the not so subtle message that maybe the Fediverse isn't for them.
I kind of like the idea.
The community name would act as a constant reminder that JKR is a bigot.
or maybe fuck off and leave us alone? you're teaching nothing. nobody has learned a single thing from all your brigading and link dumping. nothing you've said is new.
we get it. you hate JK Rowling. we do too. we heard you.
your point has been heard. but sadly the internet doesn't always bend to your will.
or maybe fuck off and leave us alone? you're teaching nothing. nobody has learned a single thing from all your brigading and link dumping. nothing you've said is new.
I wasn't aware about the latest funding from JRK to the trans hate actions.