AI and background images

I'm going to mention this briefly, because it is a rather raw topic, but I also have had friends on the anti-AI side who felt bullied, wildly discouraged, and have ultimately made the decision to quit site in the wake of the AI usage. It's deeply sad to know some of my favorite concepted plots out there will simply not get to come to fruition on a site I have loved for the past 8 years of my life -- I joined all the way back in 2018, and this site has been huge for my development as a writer and artist.

Any topic like this is bound to be uncomfortable and cause friction; it is crucial to remember that we are all humans behind the screen and being respectful to each other is paramount. The loss of great users across site from both sides of the debate is unpleasant; if anyone needs a place to vent, please know my owls and discord DMs are always open.

Even with that said, I'm glad this thread exists so these discussions can be had, because this is a topic close to my heart. Thank you, Zach, for opening and facilitating the discussion; though I personally am staunchly anti LLMs and generative AI, I can recognize the amount of work that went into coding the new navigation system and that goes into upkeep of the site as a whole.

Again, if anyone needs a place to speak on their frustration, my owls and DMs remain open. Please take care of yourselves.

Remember, if this thread is a serious, dangerous detriment to anyone’s mental health, please take time away from it. These discussions are meant to be constructive and healthy, and sometimes when emotions are high we can misinterpret certain messages.

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t continue being respectful and kind. But please, please, give yourself time to collect yourself before diving into these discussions. Have empathy, have patience, and have kindness.

Overall, there are always going to be people we disagree with, people we don't particularly like, and decisions made by any community that we wouldn't have made ourselves. That's true of Hogwarts.io, and it's true of every online community.

I'm not going to pretend this discussion hasn't affected people when it clearly has. But I also think there was a missed opportunity throughout all of this.

I don't believe anyone involved "loves AI." There is simply a spectrum of comfort with it. Speaking for myself and Zach, our ideal outcome has always been a site filled with unique, hand-drawn artwork. The challenge is not one of desire but rather one of scale. Hogwarts.io has a very large number of forums, and to fully support the navigation system we would need hundreds of unique images. Even generating them via AI was a taxing process. Realistically, producing that amount of artwork through commissions or volunteers will take years. Years we hopefully have as a community.

The use of AI was never envisioned as the destination, it was envisioned as a bridge between where we are today and where we ultimately want to be. And I understand that there are a range of opinions ranging from something being wholly unacceptable to being tolerable for the time being or even indifference.

Had the AI debate not dominated the conversation, we'd likely have a community art contest running right now. I can also imagine us sitting together in voice chat, taking these placeholder images and improving them collaboratively. I would happily spend hours in GIMP editing, repainting, and refining them with community feedback until they better reflected the style of the site. Yes, the starting point would still have been AI-generated, but many modern digital art workflows already incorporate AI-assisted assets in ways people may not even realize. And again, while I understand some people's unwavering stance, most destinations are not reached in a single step. We could have immediately improved the site's presentation while steadily replacing those images over time with original community-created artwork.

Instead, we've spent days debating whether we should take that first step at all causing significant harm to one another in the process. For those who know me, you may be aware I am at my terminal point. Not because of a love for AI but for the aggressive stance some have maintained and because I have been very hurt by the commentary that I have been dismissive.

As for the vote, everything is ready on my end. I've configured the permissions so that only student characters (not adults or iNPCs) will be able to vote, helping preserve the integrity of the process. Graduated members who no longer have a student character have been individually audited and granted access so they can participate as well.

Zach wants to be the one to open the vote. After spending an entire day releasing the navigation update and then seeing the reaction across both the site and Discord, he's understandably exhausted and has other obligations at the moment. Once he's ready, the community will have the opportunity to decide whether players should be able to toggle AI-generated backgrounds on or off as part of the navigation experience, or whether everyone should instead use the same plain backgrounds. Whatever the outcome, that decision will reflect the community as a whole rather than the subset of people who have participated in this thread. I can see how many users have toggled the background images off, 12%. I also know that is not an accurate or fair expression of the site as a whole because some might plan to after they explore the settings with the images. Others might be trialing the site without images so they can speak to both options. Some may simply be unaware of how to toggle this setting and will find it in the coming days. In addendum, this update is mere hours old. There are many members who have not seen the site yet and will make their decision in the coming days because that 12% is based off of members that have been on the site since the update.

In the meantime, the backgrounds themselves remain a work in progress. Several already on the site are brighter or busier than I'd like, and they're on my list to revise. I've already edited a number of them, and I expect to continue refining others manually using GIMP to improve consistency, reduce distractions, and better match the site's aesthetic. They're not perfect, but they're being actively improved. There are some images that need to be uploaded still and it will happen in due-time.

The only thing I ask, and I say this because I am genuinely at my wits' end, is that we not insult when we give our perspective. That we consider having less confrontational discord monikers. It is setting us up for fights none of us want and less of us need.

I think everyone has had ample opportunity to express their views. My hope now is that we let the community vote, respect the outcome, and return our focus to what brought us all here in the first place: building a creative roleplaying community together.

I am neither for nor against the idea of using AI but as we don't have much choice, I think it would be fine for the background images to be AI generated

Well, I guess having a setting option would be fine

I don't often throw my two cents worth into matters such as this, but I feel compelled to express my opinion in what will hopefully be my return from absence as of late. This thread is still actively being used, and it was brought to my attention via DM.

I think building a creative roleplaying community here as Lear said can easily be achieved without the use of generative AI. I do understand not everyone has the money to pay artists for the time and effort it would take to create background images here, but I do believe it would add to the creative community element to showcase what members of said community made for this special place we're all a part of. There are more than enough artists (me included) here on the site that would likely be happy to pitch in for such a massive project even if we were only compensated here on site in some way or not at all. We create for the love of creation, not for monetary gratification.

Like Lear also stated, there are a multitude of non-AI options that could be in the works currently had the debate not shifted to the forefront of this. A contest is not a bad idea at all. Personally, I would propose a mass group formed where artists could choose/raffle which background they would like to work on and leave room open to collaborate with each other should someone fall behind for some reason or find a certain aspect difficult. That would certainly strengthen the communal aspect by giving artists a chance to showcase their strengths while learning from each other. Art is such an integral piece of this site, and I frankly think using artificial intelligence to replace human minds and hands is wasting a lot of potential.

My words may not carry as much weigh as some of the others here, but I have been a part of this site for over 5 years now, and as much as I love to see it grow and evolve, I do believe there are better ways to achieve this growth from a certain ethical standpoint. No process is truly pure, but I would rather see or be a part of a project that is handcrafted and takes longer than one that could potentially be a part of irreversible damage in the outside world as harmless as it may seem.

So, to reiterate and simplify my stance if you don't feel like reading my entire statement or lack the time, I am against the use of AI for background images.

With the vote out, I've decided to come here to share my opinions, I suppose. I have always been completely against AI. I don't think I've been quiet on that stance. However, I've read through the reasonings, the pros and cons of using AI for background images. It's- compelling. I'm not the most fond of it, but I don't hate it either. As well, it can be toggled. My student and staff account both have them toggled off (though nearly everything is toggled off now, my computer can't actually work otherwise) and I have to say, I do sort of wish I could actually see what changed.

I'm still firm on my stance on AI, but sometimes exceptions have to be made, and I believe this is one of those times. With luck, these backgrounds aren't something permanent and the community can work together to figure something out. I'm kind of bad with words sometimes, but I hope this gets my point across well enough... A lot of my opinions have already been said by a lot of people who are against AI, and I don't think it needs reiterating.

So, I am a very isolating person (surprisingly). And I tend not to realize when a pond is becoming a flood until it is too late, but I am now seeing the flood, and its in fact nearly up to my head.

This thread alone is apparently causing people to leave the site completely. Names will not be stated, but it has caused people who are a part of some circles I am in to choose to no longer be part of the site. It is actually even affecting site 'features' and potentially even causing the site development to even slow down because there are people going after the site's founder...for backgrounds. Backgrounds. We as a community are antagonizing admins, for freaking backgrounds. I heard more about these freaking backgrounds than I heard about literally anything else fun and new on this site, that's not very mentally sound for anyone to deal with on a continuous run. Are people really running into others DMs to talk about, backgrounds? Just backgrounds? Nothing else? Are we really fighting, blocking people, scaring people off and basically just preparing to screw the entire system as a whole...for backgrounds? I have been privileged to have not have gotten a drowning wave regarding this tomfoolery via DMs. I would not have been kind to anyone if they did so.

While I understand feelings, unfortunately I am very blunt and very brash and as I was very likely known in the past previous years, very unforgiving. Personality flaws I aimed and continued to aim to overcome. I will use these current flaws to what I think where they are best needed.

Admins, Lear, for the love that is all things holy and prosper, please just close this thread.

The discussion has been finished. There is no plans of anything being re-vamped besides a toggle vote, Zach is no longer reviewing this thread and I 100% agree with that decision, this thread is becoming a toxic wasteland site. Zach was even kind enough to see what others think when he could've just stuck his thumb up his nose laughing and did the changes anyway, no opinions necessary. Most sites do that anyway.

All this thread is doing now is making a bunch of people highly upset, and if you dared to have a unpopular opinion saying 'You know, the AI isn't so bad.' You're probably gonna get a swarm of angry bees coming into your OWLs and DMs questioning why you support a freaking background choice. Background choice! For AI pictures, that is already being accepted via profile pictures and lore pages alone. Tiring! If this thread continues, its likely to just send more people out the door or cause even more disruptions.

If needed, a discussion just for the toggle vote could be made. But please, consider my statement, for all our mental health sake.

For the last time, for a community I have come to love, I will share my thoughts.
I reread the whole thread too for the same purpose.
I remember when I started studying AI in grade 9th, as an extra subject offered by my board. The first chapter was all about its history, and ethics. Back then, you couldn't really generate images so I never connected ethics to its implications.
I had once used AI to help me write an assignment I could have been creative about. I reasoned with myself, I am sick, I have no one to help me, I am alone, everyone's doing it so I can do it too. It was only once. Before I realised it was easy and I could use it on my next assignment.
Two weeks of going back and forth with AI.
And I was drowned with guilt.
I could not write anymore, my writing skills dwindled, my ability to think and create dwindled.
So I lost my only weapon to AI.
So many people said "Do not school me about AI ethics", but you don't realise the gravity of it.
AI ethics were reiterated when I decided to bachelors with a specialization in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Helped me realise the repercussions of my actions. Guilty I redid my assignments that I could not submit anymore, just to believe I could get back into writing.
Much like people here who use the excuse of not being able to create art, I could say English is not my first language but I won't. That's so silly. It's a skill, that can be learned, not a disability.
That said, this discussion should not even take place. Writing is art. A creative site allowing users to use AI for one aspect but not for another is not only hypocritical but also unethical. It is almost like saying, "My dance, it should not be stolen, it's mine but I don't care about music, I am fine with the music industry being taken over by AI. It does not affect me, so it's not wrong. I can now make my own tunes because I decided learning music is too hard and I can dance to those beats. As long as my industry is safe."
What pains me to see is our side being called aggressive from almost the very start when all they were trying to do was express thoughts and solutions which were all ignored. I still stand by it despite the narrative being twisted. Zach had given us the option, and we tried to opt for one of them while suggesting other solutions.
"Not a safe space for AI users", but should it be? Should it even be allowed on site in any form?
I have seen people using it on a personal level and haven't done much to call it out before, because it seemed safe to stay quiet. A lot of the AI users I know have been really nice to me, and I did not want to do anything to hurt them.
But it hurt me seeing the site promoting it even further, when it should have worked on providing alternatives, and to promote what's healthy.
Even the poll now is so misleading, it's backgrounds vs no backgrounds. No one has explained other suggested choices. They were not even tried out.
I know it's your site, but I as a community member for almost 2.5 years, believe I have the right to call out things that are just wrong.
But perhaps I was expecting too much because the decision had already been made from day 1.
I still hope for the betterment of the site even if I decide to no longer stay here.
Thank you to all the amazing people I have met, anyhow.
Signing off,
Violet

Amethyst Castillo wrote: 29 Jul 2026, 15:21 Even the poll now is so misleading, it's backgrounds vs no backgrounds. No one has explained other suggested choices. They were not even tried out. I know it's your site, but I as a community member for almost 2.5 years, believe I have the right to call out things that are just wrong. But perhaps I was expecting too much because the decision had already been made from day 1.

I’m sorry, but I’m going to respond strongly here, because I find this entire passage both unfair and insulting.

I created this website and have been developing it on my own for 21 years on the French version and 8 years here. The work presented last week represented several months during which I devoted all of my free time to it. I would have been perfectly entitled (as most websites do, and as every commercial website and app you use every day does) to make the choices I believed were right. That is not what I did.

I opened this discussion myself, without anyone asking me to, in order to debate the issue with the community. Two weeks of discussion, 230 messages, and I kept it open despite several requests to close it. I also believe I responded to every alternative proposed in the discussion, contrary to what you claim.

I showed what the website looked like without images for two weeks (despite a noticable drop in new users do to the black screen, but I choose not to use that argument before the vote), and then with them since Monday. I developed everything so that it would remain entirely optional (I worked again this morning in order to improve the background for user who decided to hide images). I initiated a vote myself in order to gather the community’s opinion and said from the beginning that I would follow the result.

I explained, repeatedly, what the available alternatives were. I sent another site-wide owl message to explain the debate surrounding AI and invite everyone to take part in the vote. All of this also took me a considerable number of hours.

To now suggest that the question was deliberately phrased poorly, or even designed to mislead, is something I find insulting, not only to me, but also to the intelligence of everyone who voted.