This is a post where you can give me feedback about moderation. I acknowledge that the roleout for moderation was scattershot and at times tone-deaf, that people are unsatisfied with comment deletion as a core part of moderation, and that the rules themselves have been unsatisfying to some. There’s demand for a place to discuss these things publicly, and since I really don’t want that place to be directly under the comic itself, here we are.

When providing feedback, please keep a few things in mind:

• I am paid to work an hour and a half per day. Working more hours is financially untenable for David Willis and frankly emotionally untenable for me. There is a certain threshold at which a proposed solution may become so time consuming as to be untenable, and I may reject it on this basis.
• One of my primary goals as a moderator is to curtail moral judgements about the characters, as it is the number one cause of fights and frankly just a shit way to engage with fiction. There are lots of ways to demonstrate that you care about a work, or be negative about it, without arguing about who has been on their best behavior. The rules will always be designed with this in mind.
• There have been a number of judgements made about my character. At best, I’ve been told that that I’m adverse to all negativity or criticism on principle. At worst, I’ve been compared to a tyrant or a fascist. I do not think this negates good-faith criticism of my methods or of things I have said, but I would appreciate it going forward if we could avoid that sort of thing. I want to believe we can have these conversations while acknowledging the full humanity of everyone having them.

Here are a few things I believe, up front, I can provide with minimal hassle:

• People have told me they feel the rules are too vague or that they have trouble understanding them. If you have suggestions about clarifying language, I can take them on board.
• All deleted comments are archived for a time on the back end. If you’re upset at having lost a great deal of work, I can fish that comment out of the ether.
• I can explain, on request under this post, why a comment was deleted. I cannot guarantee this will happen in a timely matter, but I will endeavor to carve out some time this week to handle more pressing requests.

I hope comments on this post will help those who are unsatisfied with my approach feel heard, and that we can reach some mutual understanding. Thank you for your feedback.

UPDATE, 2 Jul 2026: Thank you to everyone who provided feedback.

I’d first like to address the requests that I stop policing character reactions, step down, or close the comments section. None of those were ever on the table. I feel I was very up front about this. If those things are dealbreakers for you, I suggest genuinely that the comments section may not be the place for you to react to the comic.

To the people who suggested that I receive more help in the form of volunteers: that will likely not be happening. Willis has indicated to me that they are uncomfortable with relative strangers, especially unpaid relative strangers, having the level of access to the site’s back end that they would need to do the job properly. This may change in the future if we can find someone Willis trusts, but in the meantime I remain a solo practitioner. This means that things I would like to do, like provide greater heads up or notices about deletions, will not be possible. I remain open to providing people copies of deleted comments or explanations for deletion upon request. You can make those requests here, or email them to dumbingofagemod@gmail.com .

To the people who feel that I have been unfair to criticisms about race from people of color, I am genuinely sorry. I have tried, sincerely, to carve out space for those sorts of critiques to happen, as I do not think they are unilaterally without merit. I am frequently in discussion with people of color I know personally about how to improve on this matter, and have been for some time. I understand if this is not enough to earn your trust, and do not blame you for continuing to hold whatever attitudes towards me I’ve earned.

To the people who think I have handled issues of queerness inappropriately, well. My sense of humor is not going to change. Reasonable queer minds can disagree on whether or not a joke is objectionable.

One thing I can address is the requests for greater delineation between moderator!Wack’d and commenter!Wack’d. Having two accounts is impractical for this purpose, but I can add a little disclaimer to each of my comments to indicate how they’re meant to be read.

To those who feel that the rules or my attention are visually inaccessible, I will be endeavoring to comment with a link to the rules post and the feedback post at the top of every comments page. Given recent bugs, this may not always work perfectly, but I will try.

I remain open to feedback about how to rephrase the rules to be less ambiguous, more specific, or to increase whatever quality you think they are lacking on a semantic level. This was, frankly, the primary purpose of this post.

I believe this covers all issues that have been raised by a plurality of commenters. This thread will remain open until such time as the website automatically locks it. I invite you to continue leaving whatever moderation feedback you see fit here, and not under the comic, where it will be be summarily deleted. Thank you for your time.

People have been asking for a post where I lay out what, exactly, might get a comment deleted. Having done two of these already and being met with hostility makes me a little wary, but I agree having this stuff buried in a comments section of a comic from days ago is bad practice, so here we go.

If you’re just pointing out a character did something wrong, that’s gonna get deleted. Note the word “just” there–it’s okay to bring up someone’s wrongdoing if there’s a point besides the wrongdoing. Say, some analysis of their character or arc or something.

In general if your comment is just “this is a thing that happened, and that’s bad”, it is getting deleted. We’re reading the same comic you are and know what happened in it.

If you’re “pointing out” that a character is an abuser/hypocrite/manipulator/narcissist/insert negative trait here, that’s gonna get deleted. This isn’t analysis, it’s just insults.

If you’re “pointing out” that a character, were they a reasonable person like you, would hate another character for their misdeeds or want nothing to do with them, it is getting deleted.

If you’re “pointing out” that one character in a conflict is obviously and unambiguously correct, or that another character in a conflict is obviously and unambiguously wrong, that comment is getting deleted. (Apply this one in good faith–if your reaction to this is to troll by defending characters acting on obvious hatred and bigotry, like Mary or an evil dad or whatever, that is also getting deleted!)

If you’re talking about what a character has “earned” or “deserves”, as though pop karma is not only real but should be justly applied in a fictional narrative, your comment is getting deleted. We don’t cotton to the suggestion that if a character does good things, good things “should” happen to them, or vice versa.

If your comment can be boiled down to “why isn’t character a doing action x instead of action y?”, it’s gonna get deleted.

A friend of mine has suggested a rule along the lines of “if you write a comment as a personal letter or DM to a fictional character, it is getting deleted.” I’m not gonna enforce this one but if you find yourself doing this you might wanna double-check it’s not comorbid with the other rules.

If your comment can be boiled down to “ugh, more of this”–more of this character, more of this arc, whatever–it’s gonna get deleted.

And, perhaps most importantly–if your comment is a negative statement about David Willis, another commenter, another group of commenters, a minority or minoritized group, or myself, it is going to get deleted.

I do not have the time to individually address each individual deletion. To keep the comments from becoming about the comments, any comments asking for clarification or seeking to debate these rules will also be deleted. I understand the guesswork involved in figuring out why a comment was deleted is stressful for some commenters. I’m sorry that I have no remedy for that at this time.

I reserve the right to modify these rules at any time and for any reason. If and when that happens, the rule will be added here, and a new link to this post will be put in the comments for that day’s comic.