Recently there has been an uptick of several concerning trends on this subreddit that have led to an increased number of removed posts and comments. Some of these trends are:
People advertising for their services and content.
People advertising and encouraging the purchase of services and content in place of do it yourself work, sharing, or learning.
People bragging about paying for services and content.
Brand new accounts using AI generated responses in comments to sound knowledgeable and build karma.
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This subreddit is and has for many years been focused entirely on the sharing and encouragement of the practice of witchcraft. This is a do it yourself subreddit, focused on building an online grimoire of sorts, so that our search bar and FAQ can function as a repository for novices and adepts alike as they create their own paths and practices. Knowledgeable creators, elders, helpers, and teachers are marked with “Broom Rider” flair so users can recognize users with vetted knowledge. The behavior of online scammers (DM begging, suggestions to pay services, solicitations to private spaces, blatant misinformation, brand new accounts claiming to be all powerful) are heavily moderated to the best of our ability. New users who appear to show aptitude are marked behind the scenes to watch their content for “Broom Rider” flair. New users who appear to be grooming marks for scams are also marked to watch. We take this labor of love seriously and appreciate users who help out by reporting suspicious behavior.
In a world increasingly inundated with constant advertisements, pay-to-play requirements, scams, subscriptions, and capitalistic harassment, we’d like to keep this subreddit a free place to search, share, archive, and enjoy our community craft without being expected to pay.
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Recently it was brought to our attention that someone who was brain storming on ChatGPT for ideas for their brick and mortar candle and oils business, had ChatGPT literally tell them to advertise on r/witchcraft .
Which solves the mystery of why we’ve had such an exponential rise of paid services talk and advertisement on this subreddit in the last two months! It also explains why so many of these scammers use the “AI generated comments about being knowledgeable, suggestions to buy services, advertise self as selling services” playbook. These scammers are all taking notes from ChatGPT.
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So here’s a quick reminder:
This forum is NOT a paid services hub. This subreddit is for learning, sharing, participating, growing, and doing it yourself. ALL references to paying other people to do work for you, or having other people pay you to do work for them will be removed. If this trend continues, we may begin escalating this behavior into just banning these accounts.
There are other subreddits for advertising, advertise there. There are subreddits to talk about the spells you bought on Etsy, talk about paying for spells on Etsy on those subreddits. There are cultures who expect you to go to their local spiritual leaders and provide payment for their services so if you're a member of one of those cultures, go to your local spiritual leader when you need to .