What Happened to AhriMains' Discord.gg/Ahri Link? How Poor DMCA Practices Led to the Demise of a Community with Over 6,000 Members and 6 Years of Content (2024)

AhriMains is a community of League of Legends players dedicated to the champion Ahri, a popular character in the game. The community was founded in 20141 and has grown to become one of the largest and most active groups of Ahri players in the game. While the community first started on Reddit, it quickly expanded to other platforms, including Discord, which became the primary hub for the community.

As AhriMains grew, it became the primary hub for all things Ahri, with other communities and subreddits struggling to compete. At one point, the r/Ahri subreddit, which was previously the main Ahri community on Reddit, was effectively taken over by AhriMains, with one individual becoming the sole moderator and killing off the separate subreddit. This move stifled competition and further solidified AhriMains' dominance as the primary Ahri community on both Reddit and Discord.

The AhriMains Discord server was created in 20162 as a way for members of the community to connect and discuss all things Ahri. The server quickly became popular, with hundreds of members joining. As the community grew, so did the server, with new channels and features being added regularly to accommodate the demands of the members. At its peak, the AhriMains Discord server had over 6,000 members and was one of the most active and engaged communities in the League of Legends community.

That's no longer the case. On November 2nd, 2021, the AhriMains community was hit with a devastating blow. The AhriMains Discord server, which had been the primary hub for the community for years, was suddenly gone. According to a post from one of the server's administrators, the server had been disabled and their account had been banned due to a DMCA claim3. This was a shocking turn of events for a community that had been thriving for years, and had built a strong and engaged community on the platform.

The AhriMains community had faced DMCA issues before, but unfortunately, it seems like they never learned their lesson. In the past, artists had to stand up for themselves to get their own content removed, as AhriMains moderators failed to notice and take action against copyright infringements. Ahrism, on the other hand, diligently caught the violation and informed the artist on their behalf4. However, despite Ahrism's efforts, AhriMains continued to blatantly disregard their role in the removal, refusing to acknowledge their mistakes.

The member of the AhriMains community had specifically stolen artwork from an artist and manipulated the image to remove the signature and lower the quality. Ahrism's Copyright Team was able to locate the original source and validated the artist's account before reaching out to inform them of the infringement. The artist was then transferred to AhriMains’ ModMail to request the removal of the offending post.

Despite Ahrism's diligence in locating the original artist and informing AhriMains of the copyright infringement, AhriMains moderators failed to take appropriate action, and the artist had to step in themselves. When the artist attempted to post their artwork legitimately on AhriMains, the post was removed without proper justification. When asked for a reason, AhriMains moderators responded with a dismissive and unprofessional attitude, further highlighting their disregard for artists' rights and their own community members. Overall, AhriMains' history with copyright has been poor, with a lack of proper enforcement and a blatant disregard for the efforts of those trying to protect their own work.

On Sat May 22, 2021, 10:28:04 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time), approximately five hours later, r/AhriMains sent back a brash and unprofessional response, not only disregarding the efforts taken to locate the original artist in the first place (1), but going on to make completely irrelevant remarks by questioning the legality of an informal request (3), and making speculations of the size of Ahrism's Copyright Team (4), which does in fact, have more than one member.

The only coherent point brought up was the lack of a source link, which at the time was mistakenly left out.

The "artist themselves pointed out the work" refers to Comment gz1gif0 presented in the above image, which for some reason was also removed. As the message from r/AhriMains pointed out, that comment caused the Post to be removed. So why remove it? Perhaps because it has r/Ahrism in the text. Likely that, or because the included source link https://redd.it/mvfxp7 leads to her original Post mvfxp7, which is located in r/Ahrism.

This also highlights the AhriMains moderator's treatment of modmail as if it were their personal messages, stating that they should not be contacted again, especially if the message is not relevant. This behavior is unprofessional and indicates a lack of accountability and responsibility on the part of the AhriMains community. Overall, the screenshot underscores the need for a better understanding and respect for copyright laws and ethical practices within online communities like AhriMains.

As a culmination of AhriMains' history with copyright issues, the server was dealt a devastating blow on November 2nd, 2021, when the AhriMains Discord server was suddenly disabled and the account of one of the server's administrators, Canti, was banned due to a DMCA claim. This was a result of the community adding an emote to the server that they didn't have the rights to use, which was custom commissioned by a streamer.

The removal of the AhriMains Discord server was a major blow to the community, as it had been the primary hub for the community for years, and had built a strong and engaged community on the platform. The sudden removal left many members feeling lost and disconnected from the community they had grown to love. It also highlighted the ongoing issues with copyright infringement that had plagued the community in the past.

The banning of Canti, one of the server's administrators, was particularly troubling, as it highlighted the toll that copyright issues can have. This banning was a clear message that copyright violations can have serious consequences, not only for individuals but for the community as a whole.

After the AhriMains Discord server was disabled and banned due to a DMCA claim, many members of the community were left wondering what would happen to the beloved community hub. As it turns out, the vanity URL for discord.gg/Ahri5 was snatched up by a Turkish streamer named "miyumeko6 yayında ⦮ ⦯" shortly after AhriMains was taken down.

While the AhriMains community was left without a Discord server and forced to rebuild from scratch, the loss of the vanity URL added insult to injury. The vanity URL was a symbol of the community, and its loss was a blow to the morale of the community.

AhriMains may have been the dominant community for Ahri fans in the past, but today, the community has yet to fully recover from the loss of its Discord server. While they may still have a presence on Reddit and other platforms, the community's reach and engagement have undoubtedly suffered. It's clear that AhriMains is not the powerhouse it once was.

This is why it's time to look for a new home for Ahri fans - Ahrism. Ahrism is a community dedicated to Ahri and her fans, created by fans for fans. Ahrism’s server is a welcoming and inclusive community where fans can come together to discuss all things Ahri, share fan art, cosplay, and even game together.

If you're an Ahri fan looking for a new community to call home, we invite you to join. With active moderators, engaging discussions, and a friendly community, and even more features7, Ahrism is the perfect place for any Ahri fan. So come join us today and help us build a new home for Ahri mains!

Join Ahrism