I'm not part of the discord conversation but I've read a ton of posts here and I can understand why there is some disagreement with how the subreddit has developed.

I'm not here to argue whether or not there should be any specific rules or if there should be some sort of canon. But I'll just lay it out how I see it:

Immediately after seeing the image and reading the original description of the backrooms i understood it. I had that feeling, I had been there before/ deja vu. Or maybe I had dreamed it before or perhaps it was a myriad of separate memories that in some way all coalesce into some form of archetype of time and place. Like someone else in this sub described it, I felt a sense of comfort but at the same time a sense of dread simultaneously. The word antinostalgia obviously works.

Now to discuss "monsters".

I think the issue with the monsters is that there is definitely a feeling of presence that comes with the feeling of the Backrooms. But it's more of a question rather than a certainty. It's the fear that there MAY be something within the Backrooms. That it might find you. But it's the idea that it might be there, or it might not. And if there isn't anything/anyone else there, that might be even more frightening. The ambiguity in many ways feels like a part of the Backroom feeling. Which is why I think a lot of people are harshly rejecting any images that portray monsters or other people in the Backrooms.

In defense of Monsters

I see it like this. The original image/description was so resonant with so many people it obviously expresses some form of emotion a lot of people apparently share. With this discovery it's almost impossible for people not to jump in and want to create a canon universe out of it. It opens up a whole realm of possibilities of storytelling/games/characters for fictional/creative purposes. And that is great! I've spotted a few really interesting stories especially one that described a method of finding the Backrooms by locking yourself in an interior of a building and waiting. I thought that story was excellent because it kind of found a simple storytelling technique that was vague enough it actually kind of fit within the feeling of the Backrooms. Also roleplaying can be really fun with that eerie mystical realism tied to the Backroom emotion that actually exists.

So yeah I see it from both sides. On one hand, there is something fascinating about how so many people can relate to such a specific/eerie emotion, and want to explore this phenomenon. I noticed someone posted an image of a ballroom that definitely evoked a similar but distinctly different emotion. Like it was ANOTHER place that exists, but at the same time was related to the Backrooms feeling. I personally love that and want to see more discussion around that. Like why do we all share such a similar relationship to these images? How is it that there isn't already a concrete descriptive word for this feeling? It's crazy.

But then it also is a great springboard for worldbuilding and roleplaying.

TLDR: I guess my point or word of caution is that if you define a canon and create characters/ stories using the Backrooms, you are essentially morphing the Backrooms into something else, that can potentially lose its essence. That's not necessarily a bad thing! I mean it's obviously an emotion, so why not explore it! But at the same time it's understandable that other people might not want to go along for the ride since they experienced the feeling of the Backrooms too and their relationship to it/ method of exploring it might be different.