Will Tango be executed at dawn? Patreon introduces racist anti hummingbird crackdown:
Council of "Trust and Safety" Reviews Tango Fiction
Hey everyone.
Unfortunately I've got some really sad news that a lot of us were suspecting would come: I am under review and we all know how that goes around here. My money is locked but I can still post and back things up so that's what I'm doing. So this may be my last semi-free post on this site. I have been expecting this and living in fear of this moment for over a year but I was hoping that by using mostly text and carefully following Patreon's purposely vague rules without taking them to a zero tolerance, zero common sense extreme, I could slip through the cracks and create something with strong literary value under the radar without being put before a council of authoritarian puritans to judge all 500k words to see if they can find a few they don't like. The rules are written in a way where they can do anything and apply any standard they want. For example, Game of Thrones, is technically the most heinous piece of smut imaginable, according to the Patreon rules (but they love it). If you ever watched that show, the creators of Patreon think you are sick and you should not be on the site. Of course that is an untenable double standard that makes no sense, so they just do whatever they want whenever they want. And creators self censor or cower in fear.
Not being able to write what I want really wore on me (it's like wearing an albatross around your neck) and got to the point where I felt Patreon's passive control and censorious shadow over art makes it the antithesis of a true art funding /creation platform and rips all soul and passion from the development unless they are producing only vanilla content. Great art is produced at the fringes and by pushing boundaries. Not here though. There is no way you can be pro art - and then take a staunchly anti freedom of speech position and force direct and passive censorship on everything created here. This almost makes me tear up, but I cannot take a project like Transfigure which I love and then remove many of the things I think are special/unique in order to please well under a half of a percent of the audience, or to avoid their narrow field of offense. I have to complete this project as envisioned, otherwise I won't be happy and neither will my readers. If I lose all my primary funding and am forced to eat cat food I will do it with a smile on my face because at least I am writing from the heart without someone peering over my shoulder with a potential obscenity checklist.
I think Patreon has again forgotten what their business is. It's a payment processing business for creators, not a political action committee. They don't fund me. You, the readers, do. They aren't the ultimate arbiters of artistic freedom. Society does that through mores and folkways. Obscenity laws for TV were awful. They are awful here too, even if self imposed.
My other point of contention is that because this is a private company normally I'd just go elsewhere but the way Patreon and the Paypal oligarchs crushed and blacklisted their free speech rivals like Subscribestar is one of the most shameful, monopolistic and evil acts against the artistic community in modern history. They need to be under anti trust scrutiny because they are stifling competition and creation with their hard nosed monopolistic approach.
So instead of writing today and creating great fiction for my beloved community, I am making backups and preparing for the purge. At 520,000 words, thousands of passages, and millions of plays I am sure I've offended a couple people. If you are offended I recommend not reading what offends you and that you try not to destroy the livelihood of people you disagree with - that only galvanizes them against you.
In case I get taken out behind the shed and "disappeared" in short order I would like to take this time to thank all the patrons that have generously supported Tango Fiction over the past two and a half years. Thank you!!! The project has evolved marvelously and I am honored to have made so many cool friends.
Please be aware I have some email backups so I can send out what people paid for even if I get memory-holed tonight. I should have a direct Tango Fiction website up soon too. If/when I get deleted the primary page will become:
You must be registered to see the links
and the TFGS entry.
I intend to rigorously defend my creative rights as outlined here:
You must be registered to see the links
but I expect to get steamrolled by zero tolerance rules. Luckily there is a large class action suit brewing against Patreon for their outrageous conduct.
So what does everyone think? Is Patreon's disgusting behavior and business practices more obscene than the arbitrary themes they seek to control? I think so. The craziest part of all this is my story is so gigantic and they haven't said what they object to. I am betting its my politics they don't like and they will merely use their weak obscenity charges to defund and deplatform me as they have others that disagree with the leadership's extreme views.
It's probably not a good idea to poke the bear but I feel I must speak my piece before I am devoured, regardless of the consequences.
Rest assured Tango Fiction will live on. I am committed to making one of the greatest adult interactive stories ever... even if it gets me banned from Communist China and those that seek to imitate her.
You must be registered to see the links