Large piece of news (22.07.2020) - Opening a SubscribeStar account Edition

Well, I opened it three eternitites ago, but I am actually going to use it in the future.

Okay, so as you may or may not know, Patreon is operated by a bunch of assholes.

I've first wanted to get off this platform a long while back, due to them deciding they could play overton window and decide what kind of political speech they allowed on their site. I don't think its the place of a money aggregator to decide what discourse is and isnt acceptable, but this is more of a personal thing.

More importantly for what I write, being a producer of erotically "tainted" content, I have been quite sure that Patreon would eventually give me the boot. I should say I AM still quite sure of that. Their terms of service on pornography are both vague as all hell (for all I know Aclysia and Beatrice could fall under the 'no incest' rule) and unequally enforced. While I get bigger, making it ever so slowly more likely that I get someone's attention, the noose continues to get tighter with people getting banned for "hypnosis" hentai glorifying rape and monster girls counting as bestiality.

Patreon's rules are arbitrary and enforced unequally, I've known that for years but alternatives are hard to come by.

SubscribeStar was there but, to put it mildly, their text editor is shite. Shouldn't be a big issue for me, since I copy over all chapters. However, upon copying things over, it deletes all paragraphs/indents.

In case you want to see what that looks like, here is some random chapter excerpt:

“Ahanu… I notice no surname?” John wondered about that first, because it seemed like the decent thing to do.
“I put it aside while I serve all tribes,” the Chieftain-Elect explained readily. “Is that all this scrying spell told you about me?”
“No, I have one more, if that is right with you?” John asked, a gracious handwave was the indication he needed. “Are you the strongest in your guild?”
From a level standpoint, that seemed impossible, but John had been through enough to know that levels themselves weren’t everything. Elu may have double the base numbers, but it seemed Ahanu had access to something very finely tuned to the specific magic of his people. In other words, he had access to a bullshit ability. Not nearly as brutal as John’s, Romulus’ or Sigmund’s, but definitely potent in its niche.
“Yes,” the answer came pretty quickly and, after John nodded to himself to signal that he believed it, the Gamer relaxed. If their strongest person came all the way out of the nexus of his power, to a place he was quite vulnerable at, then this showed a degree of trust. Trust that John had answered by showing up here without his usual entourage. “Anyway, this is the famous Eliza then?” Ahanu moved on.
“Is there even a need to ask?” John wondered, putting an arm around the smaller woman to keep her from hiding behind him. As usual Eliza met new people with a mixture of immense disdain and a dash of fear. Although that fear was less for what they could do to her than the reverse. “Not like information about her is much harder to find.”

It's not the worst thing in existence, but it bothers me enough that I didn't want to make the switch, because why would I create a worse end user experience? There were other complications with the payout system and the layout that I won't get into.

Anyway, recently it has come up that Patreon has a tiny little clause in their ToS that says that everything that is posted on their site is and I quote: "By posting creations on Patreon you grant us a royalty-free, perpetual,  irrevocable, non-exclusive, sublicensable, worldwide license to use,  reproduce, distribute, perform, publicly display or prepare derivative  works of your creation.  The purpose of this license is strictly limited to allow us to provide  and promote memberships to your patrons. We will never try to steal your  creations or use them in an exploitative way."

As you can see, they put the "we would never steal your stuff!" thing at the end there to make it sound not quite as bad. I decided to shoot them an email asking what they would need all those adjectives for if they weren't going to use them.

Their response was that "there is no Patreon account affiliated with this email." - Which is total bullcrap, as I sent the email from the account THIS VERY PATREON USES.

Now, to be perfectly clear, the clause above is actually industry standard, because basically all modern tech firms would love to start Shadowrun. Discord has it, I am pretty sure Twitch has it, everyone has it. So SubscribeStar also has it. Which I decided to email them about.

Their answer wasn't a pre-written dodge, so that was a nice start. Cute little typo in there.

Anyway, they told me that they just took the industry standard and assured me that I could opt out at any point and that they would never use any of my stuff without asking. The usages they specified were for promotions they would potentially make using their Twitter/Facebook presence. Of course, that insurance is about worth as much as Patreons is with just the word.

HOWEVER!

I have been in further contact with their support and it has give me enough trust of them, where I have no trust of Patreon whatsoever at the moment.

I am very aware that it is highly unlikely that anybody ever uses the ToS in a way that harms me, but this is the straw that makes camel collapse. I don't say break the camel's back, because I actually can't afford to get off this camel.

Like, I literally can't financially afford to leave behind this camel. This is my livelyhood. Which Patreon can just decide to pull away under my feet at any time. And then they still have the right to post and modify my stuff.

Life as an artist has its perks, but this shit is retarded to deal with.

So, what am I going to do?

Well, you look at the title. I am going to use my SubscribeStar account in addition to Patreon. I may not be able to leave behind this camel, but nothing is stopping me from having two. That way, when Patreon boots me, I won't be left dry in the desert.

Also if they go bankrupt, which is a very real possibility. Yes, they are so inept that they manage to run a deficit with a company thats literally handing money from one person to another, while taking a cut. I don't get it either.

I still have to set things up, so I won't start things immediately. September is when I will officially start posting there.

Now, all of this rambling done, what actually changes fo YOU?

If you don't want to make the switch, nothing. I will still be here and I will still post here. I would love to at least move the images somewhere else, but, safe for making my own website, everything has that ToS bit. Can't escape. I'll just have to operate with the trust that they will never use it. Which they probably won't, but I hate the situation out of principle. I would have it even more if you didn't get the art though.

So nothing changes. I'll be here until Patreon boots me or goes bankrupt. I would love to say that I will hop off whenever I get big enough on SubscribeStar to afford it, but then I am just at the mercy of another tech company. They look friendly now, but who knows how things will be in a year, even? Better to keep several options open.

If you are as annoyed with Patreon as I am, for aforementioned or other reasons, and don't mind the worse user experience, you are welcome to join me on SubscribeStar. I won't post any special content there, so you are free to make this choice at your own leisure. I am not going to try to morally bully you into it either. I ain't without sin, so I'm not casting the first stone.

Head on over here, or don't:

https://subscribestar.adult/funatic

I wish you all a nice day,

Funatic.