Reddit’s r/Art locks down after backlash over artist banned for mentioning "prints"

One of Reddit’s largest art communities has gone dark after a moderation decision sparked widespread outrage across social media platforms.

Artist Hayden Clay, known on Reddit as “Strawbear,” found themselves permanently banned from r/Art on November 24 after posting a comment that mentioned prints of their work were available. The subreddit’s rules prohibit any mention of sales, but what happened next turned a routine rule enforcement into a full-blown controversy.

When Clay questioned the permanent ban and apologized for using the word “print,” the moderator responded by deleting their entire post history on the subreddit. Screenshots of the exchange show the situation escalating quickly, with the mod stating “I don’t even know who the f**k you are” and later reporting Clay for harassment. This led to a three-day sitewide ban for the artist.

Clay took to X, where their initial post detailing the ban racked up over 100,000 likes and sparked discussions about moderator power dynamics on Reddit. “They’re strictly against any mention of art sales,” Clay wrote in response to a confused follower. “God forbid an artist wants to survive”.

The fallout was swift. Users flooded r/Art posts with comments saying “print” in protest, many receiving bans themselves. Take this one post for example:

Several users reported being hit with three-day bans after the moderator filed harassment reports against them. One X user described the situation as “absolute corrupt authoritarianism”.

As of early November 26th, r/Art stopped accepting new submissions entirely. The last post went live late yesterday, and all recent posts remain locked. The subreddit has made no public statement from the moderation team.

This marks the second time in recent years that r/Art has faced major backlash over moderator behavior. Back in late 2022, the subreddit went private after mods banned digital artist Ben Moran for posting work that “looked like AI art,” despite Moran offering to provide Photoshop files proving otherwise. The mod told Moran to “find a different style” because AI could do better work in seconds.

It’s unclear when this lockdown will end, but it just goes to show how Reddit mods can sometimes exploit their powers. We’ll keep an eye out for any further developments and will update the post.

Featured image generated with AI