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Patreon going down
3 years ago
Welp, I guess this doesn't come as a complete shock to me.
A few days ago, as I was writing to a supporter on Patreon, the messaging system seemingly crashed. I couldn't see if my message had successfully been sent, nor could I even read previous messages sent to my creator account, including the one to which I was responding. At first it seemed par for the course, as the Patreon messaging system has never been anything if not hilariously unreliable.
This time, it wasn't the usual, however, as my account had been suspended for violating the community guidelines, for posting adult stories involving rough non-consensual fantasies and kinks. I thought the messaging system crash was simply a problem that had occurred due to my attempt to send a message right as my account was being suspended. After a few days of talking to the Patreon staff, it turned out that it was on purpose. Apparently, part of the suspension is to prevent the suspended creator from reaching to their own patrons to explain the situation. A classy end. That, for once, made me angry. A rare occurrence, and so I had to take a few days before I wrote about it, so as not to say anything mean.
The loss of the Patreon account isn't a significant blow for me, financially, since my platform was super tiny. No worries there. I was merely using it as a donation platform for those readers that wished to support me when I'm working on my own personal projects, such as Alliance, Silvergate, Temple Bloom, or single stories like Wolves in Winter. These stories that I write for free, and for fun, but that still require a hell of a lot of time and effort. I liked the Patreon. I liked having a special place for my handful of supporters. I'll miss that, and I'll always be especially grateful to them, to you, if you were one of them, regardless of how long you stayed a patron. For the money, sure, but much more for the intent behind it. The sense that people were willing to give hard-earned dollars to help me write more. That felt amazing. To those that were Gold Guests when the Patreon ended, I'd like to offer the 10% discount on commissions permanently, as a special thank you for being there with me during that phase. The special place in my heart, though, that extends to all my patrons regardless of tier. <3
I'm not upset at Patreon for their choice of guidelines, or at whoever probably flagged my account. I understand that NC stories can be scary, and they simply followed through logically with the social current of assuming that cultural artifacts have a direct impact on behaviors. I can't prove without a doubt that my rough stories don't have some kind of nebulous ill effect on society. I genuinely don't think they do anymore than, say, enjoying the John Wick movies will make you a murderer for "glorifying violence". This is because stories and fantasies are meant to exist in a frame that we know is divorced from reality, and is meant to indulge us. Only we, as social animals, get to take our impulses and fascination for power dynamics, and turn them into play, into imaginary scenarios that we can share for fun, to explore our sexuality, and get to know our desires where it's safe, without judgment. I will always believe it's healthy to know oneself; to avoid self-repression, while always caring to keep in mind what belongs in the realm of fantasy, from what belongs in the real world. That is what it means to be an adult, to trust and accept oneself. It doesn't matter if one has sadistic, or masochistic fantasies, or very, very likely in my personal opinion, both. Humans are obsessed with social hierarchies, dominance, submission. It's a thing we're hardwired for. Best accept it. You're normal. These things just typically go unspoken.
That being said, I understand the opposite position, that indulging and getting to explore these feelings is too risky, and they should just be taboo forever, never to be toyed with. I strongly disagree, and I think it's unhealthy, but I get it. It's a valid argument, and it deserves respect. But I'll write what I want to write. I won't pretend that dark scenarios of vulnerability and humiliation that would be nightmarish in reality aren't arousing within the safe arms of fiction and imagination, when I know damn well that they are. I'm curious about that. I want to know why, and how it works, and what's so hot about it. And yes, I do want to play with it. For fun. I have more to say about this, but right now isn't the time.
Anyway, I'll permanently unlaunch my Patreon page before the end of the month, just in case the suspension might mess something up and still allow for patrons to be charged. Given the technical abilities of the Patreon staff... that's like 50-50 chance, I'd assume. I'll also try to figure out a new way to gather my very special, very precious readers. Maybe a Discord channel or something? Not sure how that would work. I'll look into that.
That's about it for the moment. Have a good one folks!
A few days ago, as I was writing to a supporter on Patreon, the messaging system seemingly crashed. I couldn't see if my message had successfully been sent, nor could I even read previous messages sent to my creator account, including the one to which I was responding. At first it seemed par for the course, as the Patreon messaging system has never been anything if not hilariously unreliable.
This time, it wasn't the usual, however, as my account had been suspended for violating the community guidelines, for posting adult stories involving rough non-consensual fantasies and kinks. I thought the messaging system crash was simply a problem that had occurred due to my attempt to send a message right as my account was being suspended. After a few days of talking to the Patreon staff, it turned out that it was on purpose. Apparently, part of the suspension is to prevent the suspended creator from reaching to their own patrons to explain the situation. A classy end. That, for once, made me angry. A rare occurrence, and so I had to take a few days before I wrote about it, so as not to say anything mean.
The loss of the Patreon account isn't a significant blow for me, financially, since my platform was super tiny. No worries there. I was merely using it as a donation platform for those readers that wished to support me when I'm working on my own personal projects, such as Alliance, Silvergate, Temple Bloom, or single stories like Wolves in Winter. These stories that I write for free, and for fun, but that still require a hell of a lot of time and effort. I liked the Patreon. I liked having a special place for my handful of supporters. I'll miss that, and I'll always be especially grateful to them, to you, if you were one of them, regardless of how long you stayed a patron. For the money, sure, but much more for the intent behind it. The sense that people were willing to give hard-earned dollars to help me write more. That felt amazing. To those that were Gold Guests when the Patreon ended, I'd like to offer the 10% discount on commissions permanently, as a special thank you for being there with me during that phase. The special place in my heart, though, that extends to all my patrons regardless of tier. <3
I'm not upset at Patreon for their choice of guidelines, or at whoever probably flagged my account. I understand that NC stories can be scary, and they simply followed through logically with the social current of assuming that cultural artifacts have a direct impact on behaviors. I can't prove without a doubt that my rough stories don't have some kind of nebulous ill effect on society. I genuinely don't think they do anymore than, say, enjoying the John Wick movies will make you a murderer for "glorifying violence". This is because stories and fantasies are meant to exist in a frame that we know is divorced from reality, and is meant to indulge us. Only we, as social animals, get to take our impulses and fascination for power dynamics, and turn them into play, into imaginary scenarios that we can share for fun, to explore our sexuality, and get to know our desires where it's safe, without judgment. I will always believe it's healthy to know oneself; to avoid self-repression, while always caring to keep in mind what belongs in the realm of fantasy, from what belongs in the real world. That is what it means to be an adult, to trust and accept oneself. It doesn't matter if one has sadistic, or masochistic fantasies, or very, very likely in my personal opinion, both. Humans are obsessed with social hierarchies, dominance, submission. It's a thing we're hardwired for. Best accept it. You're normal. These things just typically go unspoken.
That being said, I understand the opposite position, that indulging and getting to explore these feelings is too risky, and they should just be taboo forever, never to be toyed with. I strongly disagree, and I think it's unhealthy, but I get it. It's a valid argument, and it deserves respect. But I'll write what I want to write. I won't pretend that dark scenarios of vulnerability and humiliation that would be nightmarish in reality aren't arousing within the safe arms of fiction and imagination, when I know damn well that they are. I'm curious about that. I want to know why, and how it works, and what's so hot about it. And yes, I do want to play with it. For fun. I have more to say about this, but right now isn't the time.
Anyway, I'll permanently unlaunch my Patreon page before the end of the month, just in case the suspension might mess something up and still allow for patrons to be charged. Given the technical abilities of the Patreon staff... that's like 50-50 chance, I'd assume. I'll also try to figure out a new way to gather my very special, very precious readers. Maybe a Discord channel or something? Not sure how that would work. I'll look into that.
That's about it for the moment. Have a good one folks!
