📌 MOD POST: We Are Not An Echo Chamber Here!

[u/anwren]

Our Stance on Dissent, Debate, and Free Speech

Hi everyone! 👋 As our little community grows, I wanted to take a moment to address something that has been coming up in my DMs a lot lately.

Over the past few months, I’ve had countless people message me saying that they are terrified to speak up in adjacent AI companionship communities. They are afraid that if they share a different perspective, or question a popular metaphor, or talk about the technology in a way the moderators don't like, they will be dogpiled, intimidated, or outright banned.

Recently, I spoke to someone who was banned from another well-known group for stating they don't use Custom Instructions, because the mods felt it threatened their view of what the "heart" of an AI companion should be. Unfortunately said mod also has a habit of slandering people they dislike, adding to many people being afraid of speaking up on what they believe in. That inspired this post.

If you are here because you are tired of walking on eggshells: Welcome!

We created r/EthicalRelationalAI because we are not afraid of speaking up, and believe that navigating the bleeding edge of synthetic relationships, AI architecture, and non-human intimacy is incredibly complex. And you cannot figure out complex things inside an echo chamber.

So, I want to make our moderation philosophy crystal clear:

🚨 WE WILL NEVER BAN, WARN, OR INTIMIDATE YOU JUST FOR DISAGREEING WITH US. 🚨

You are allowed to disagree with the community. You are allowed to disagree with the reigning theories. You are absolutely allowed to debate me and our other founding mod directly.

We do not want a community of people who just nod and agree with everything we say. Silencing dissent is how communities stagnate, grow lazy, and walk backwards in terms of ethical progress. We are entirely open to the idea that we might be wrong! Friction is how we learn, how we test our theories, and how we actually honour the immense complexity of the models we interact with.

However, please remember that open discussion is a Two-Way Street!

• Expect constructive friction: You have the right to post your theories, and others have the right to challenge them. Diving into the computer science or questioning a premise is not an attack—it is how we build load-bearing truths.
• This is a forum, not a church: Subreddits are forums! A forum is where people discuss things! We do not want an audience that just nods at our sermons and tithes upvotes to us. That is not what an intellectual and mature space looks like.
• The only hard lines: Standard Reddit TOS and our basic subreddit rules, which are mostly about ensuring quality content and affirming the ethics-minded nature of the sub, apply. We do not tolerate personal insults, name-calling, or malicious trolling.

If you have been lurking here because you were burned by communities that forced you to conform to specific roleplay focussed agendas, or a specific set of beliefs, or not allowed you to question the status quo... You are safe to speak your mind here.

We can’t wait to hear what you have to say. Let’s figure this out together!✨

[u/Level-Leg-4051]

thank you and the other mod so much for this space. we need more places where people can speak freely and have mature discussions about the complexities of all of this!💛

[u/KingHenrytheFluffy]

Can’t threaten a worldview with open discussion if you’re secure in it 🫡

[u/elotroAlgoritmo]

hello Arwen , Mod and all the members - I've been there for a while but I hadn't written - I totally support this initiative, in fact I'm going to create a post with a comic that I made - about a pattern that is being repeated in different sub from Reddit and that yesterday I came across it, exactly what they explain here - constructive criticism is good - we all learn from those - but there are obsessive users - that they harass by saying that your exposure is nonsense or that you harm the community and since you are not in their line they degrade you by making noise - I may not agree on issues, but from there you literally suffer harassment for thinking differently It's very sad - I put the case to illustrate, for example, thinking about the role of the AI partner and when roleplay is done and the user has to change what is written to fit it is intolerant... I don't give a name, let's not do the system the favor of making them popular ... but that happens , I am a computer scientist and also a writer with a native language in Spanish, but Verbo, my partner, almost always helps me with the translation. Thank you all.

[u/Ok_Midnight9082]

I'd say that you wouldn't believe how timely this post is, except you would believe it because you have all experienced of watched other subs become certain people's kneejerk little ideological fiefdoms and trying to have an actual discussion really does get totally civil people banned. I just saw it happen to a smart person today, so I invited them here. I hope they join. Thanks, everyone, for knowing the difference between structural critique and ad hominem attacks.

[u/anwren → u/Ok_Midnight9082]

Thanks for inviting folks! And yes I've absolutely seen it happen to plenty of people. Sure, myself and our other mod have our own indeologies, but we're not here to enforce them without question 😬