Hi Zack I'm primarily on mobile when I'm on here so I'm personally just fine without the images however I will say I do like the idea to toggle them on/off when I am using my computer. Thanks for everything you've done for us all!

Can I just admit that when the site was missing a background for a few days I did not like it? I really felt like it was too... Zach what's the word I'm looking for? Bland. Boring. I don't like the void. Black is my favorite color, but it just doesn't fit. It doesn't feel magical. It doesn't feel welcoming. It doesn't feel enchanting. Even doing a pattern wouldn't make hio feel like hio. It's gotta have an image.

-- Expanding below on my post in a way as I came across things I disagreed with in here, tried to keep it clear where my stance was though.

Having volunteers do all of the art is a bit unrealistic as well, even if you set up a team, we've had teams on staff that no longer is a team anymore for a variety of reasons that I am not going to mention. We've had unofficial stuff that have been ran by general members of the site- like the Yearbook, usually people sign up then drop off the face of the earth.

I even offered pay for the Weekly Word when I worked with Avery and people were just busy, not writing either. That money came from my own site's purse. It wasn't a daily stipend people could collect in a forum and laze around for, I awarded people for the article. The point is, I do not support making a team or volunteering for this.

It sounds great in concept, but it would fall apart. Get something that you can rely on.
I'm sorry if it sounds blunt, but I have read posts in here several times and I find myself disagreeing because I've watched things fall apart even when I held hope that it wouldn't.

I also disagree with keeping someone's art work if they request a deletion or removal from a site. If they are banned, I wish to see their art work go away as well. They are not part of the community anymore and it should instead be replaced. Do we see where I'm coming from with this? I can agree with Lear's point with deleted users and their provided art.

I disagree with using photographs because, I also feel it can dox a user accidently. It's a very unique image for some of these forums that you'll have to take, and if someone finds out where that is and if you, the photographer, took that image, you are likely to be in harms way. Furthermore, we could use stock images, but I do not like to use those, because then it's like looking at a powerpoint slide background and I don't like that. I don't like looking at my desktop wallpaper either. But there has to be something there, so I'll give the photography one some credit. I know what I said was not in support, again, I apologize.

Guys, let's be real. Please. 400+ forums. No one, literally no one, is going to sign up for that AND make the art for every single one of those forums without dropping out at some point. Let's also just point at the fact that, and this is a really hard thing for me to say because again, I respect all the artists but I can identify this problem. Some art styles will not match. Some people's levels of artistic abilities are not alike. if there happens to be a "vote" or a "competition" in where a user's background image that they drew will be selected via popular vote, it will probably hurt the other artist's feelings.

Using AI has its problems. I will not reiterate those problems because I willingly use it. I can be called a hypocrite or whatever you want to call me, but I use it with images. It is a great tool and can help with visualization of something.

This image, based on the Hogwarts background we had in the entrance hall, is something I am using on my site. It is AI generated, I asked for it to do something similar but not exactly like Hogwart's, to imbed the place with dark magic. It is not really that different as me asking an artist to do the same thing, with the exception that I am going to have to take into consideration their talent, their art style, the costs, the dedication, the interest, and more. I also have to understand that this will not occur in mere minutes, nor a week. So I am in support of using AI images as the background to help us.


(Also I am well aware our values are different. My ethical values are different than yours are, so seeing it highlighted as an excuse tells me that you assume that we are ethically alike, and we aren't.)

First, thank you to Zach for continually working to maintain and update the site, and to those who have contributed their thoughts here—that's what a community is.

I just want to say I am personally deeply uncomfortable with AI images of any kind, and feel it goes against the creative spirit and values of the site.

Like several of the others here, I would be happy to donate time and labor to support new images. (Stock images are also a great idea.) Concern has been raised that photography cannot account for these spaces—that's where composite images come into play. In editing software, we can stitch two separate photos together that would be able to emulate these spaces. This is a creative practice that many photographers use especially for disciplines like self-portraiture or fine art. I would also be willing to donate financially if it meant we were able to use the work of real, community artists.

In the interim, I have no problem (and greatly prefer) this plain background we are now experiencing. While it could perhaps be another color or texture, I find this is actually simpler and elegant—and perhaps more accessible for those with visual impairments.

I do appreciate the idea of user's being able to disable the images so that people are at least somewhat able to create an experience on the site that aligns with their values. That's a great idea.

However, I fear for many of us that depending on AI creates an environment that goes against our values and may turn people away from a hobby and community that we have come to enjoy and appreciate, and that has carried us though difficult circumstances as only fantasy can.

First, with the idea of photography, which I most agree with perhaps this will help with the worry that photographs would be unsustainable or doxing.

Pixabay purposefully runs a royalty free site, for photos and videos.


In the reducio is their content license.

Here are some photos that would work great, in my opinion as background photos



To confess, I personally feel disgust at AI images, and though they are background images, I would think the philosophy of it matters. If we stop AI for writing but reveal we used generative AI for elements of our site, even if it is not writing, there is a certain sense of confusion there.

Like others said, thank you for the massive amount of hard work it takes to maintain the site, and thank you for the transparency regarding the future of the backgrounds on here. There's so much work going on behind the scenes that I'm grateful for. I agree with others on the feeling that it feels off to draw the line in the sand at AI writing, but not for the passion and skilled work that AI images take from. I personally am incredibly against the usage of generative AI for both writing and images, and it was a surprise and a disappointment to find that in some of the site visuals.

I also very much agree that personal photography is a no go for many safety reasons, and that commissioning artists to draw backgrounds or enlisting volunteers is unfeasible. The cost would be eye-watering to hire artists for 400+ forums. The copyrighted backgrounds cannot stay, of course.

I think that royalty free photography, like mentioned by others, would be the most visually appealing and true to creativity without using AI. The examples that I've already seen are gorgeous and still has that feeling of magic. However, I would still prefer a black or solid color background over the use of AI images, if royalty free (non-user submitted) photography is not an option.

Yk I’m not really against ai and hear me out.
Yes I know it’s horrible for the environment, yes it will take people’s jobs, but what are the other alternatives? A bland site or tons of dollars spent. So hear me out. How about we meet everyone halfway.
For users who don’t want ai- Toggle off backgrounds so they can’t see it. It’s still there and if it just annoys you then idk what to do.
And then, so we don’t murder Mother Nature, we can do some things with ai and some things with user’s art. My digital art is personally not good, but I could try? Like halfway with user’s art and halfway with ai art?
I know ai is a very controversial subject don’t come at me. Ok I don’t want owls arguing with me or dms

Okay, I'm chiming in once again mostly because I do like the idea of using Pixabay And it would make sense to use it in some aspects

I am completely okay with ai backgrounds as I am not as much against as a lot of people. Yes don't use it for writing or anything like that don't use it for homework, but for this issue I would say go ahead with using ai art. Many of us already do that by having the majority of our pfps ai generated etc. I am with the use of ai art. I personally use Chatgpt for the AI art and I really like how it turns out. You do have a limit of how much you do a day but I think it's a cool option

I fully support the idea of being able to toggle backgrounds on and off. I dunno whoever suggested it, but that’s smart! However that may be constructed, I’ve got zero clue.

In regards to AI backgrounds, I’m all for keeping it easier for Zach and if that if there are bigger things on the site that can be worked on or addressed, I think an easy work around is the toggle button option. I personally like having a background to look at, and don’t mind AI in the sense that it is just “existing in the background”. A black background definitely would dishearten and discourage me to have motivation to write sometimes and overall I just like the background for a more surreal involved experience for a website. It’s magical, no?

For those highly against it, I too see where you’re coming from, in terms of it scraping together a mix of ideas from others’ real and hard work and going against site standards that we’ve set, although it is difficult to please everyone.

TLDR: whatever is easiest for Zach and helps the site run more smoothly, but would highly appreciate a toggle button option to please as many people’s diverse opinions as possible

How many images would we reasonably need to create new backgrounds for the site? Would we really need 100s? We could use royalty free assets as well to create new backgrounds, as others suggested, think of the graphics people make as banners but a simplified version with free to use assets. It would depend on how many we need created/edited.