This was bound to happen. No centralized VC-backed company could stay uncensored like that forever.
CivitAI already gathered all the growth it could, now it has to focus on making a profit and therefore pleasing credit card companies and advertisers.
Terms of Service Update We’ve updated Section 9.6 of our Terms of Service (ToS) to explicitly prohibit content depicting:
Incest
Self-harm, including depictions of anorexia or bulimia
Content that promotes hate, harm, or extremist ideologies
Bodily excretions and related fetishes, including;
Urine
Vomit
Menstruation
Diapers
And to;
Require all mature content (X, XXX) to include generation metadata. You’ll be prompted to add metadata when uploading new content.
Additionally, the following content depicted in any mature or suggestive context (X, XXX) is explicitly prohibited;
Firearms aimed at or pointed towards individuals.
Mind-altered states, including being drunk, drugged, under hypnosis, or mind control.
Depiction of illegal substances or regulated products (e.g. narcotics, pharmaceuticals)
Was discussing this with a friend yesterday.
Civitai has a long history of bad moderation.
But bad moderation does not mean that you need stricter moderation.
Rather , civitai’s moderation methods has alienated normal users from engaging with the website in a positive manner.
Give users the ability to generate what they want privately , on the condition they keep it nice and tidy on the front end
and people will have incentive and capacity to restrict themselves in the public space.
Treat people fairly , they open up to you about the problems they see.
Set clear boundries on rules , and users can work the problem for you; ensuring they get what they need without posing problem for the website.
If normal users leave , or become dormant , then there will be nobody to keep the crazies in line.
Referring here to people with kinks and motivations that fall well out of scope of what one normally has to moderate on a webpage.
Once the normal users become inactive , the entire community becomes a madhouse.
Which I think is more or less is what has happened to civitai at this point.
Active users are crazy , the normal users are dormant , moderators have to work their *ss off to regulate everything 24/7 , website becomes a trash heap and nobody cares about anything anymore.