bad news

Hey guys,

I got bad news.

Itch.io has shadowbanned all adult content on their site, including Rain Check and probably other NSFW furry VNs you like to read. You can still access their page (for the time being), but any attempts at searching up adult content on itch shows nothing. Things could get better or worse, we have no idea.

I also have no clue if this will be permanent, but what this means for me and other creators is that we don't have a platform to grow and/or publish our content reliably. Yes, I can look for alternative ways to post Rain Check at the moment, but given what's been happening with the recent widespread porn ban in videogames, it doesn't seem unlikely that it'll stop at just removing adult content off of Steam and Itch. It could very much happen to sites like Patreon next.

I don't know what's going to happen, but please spread the word to others. This is bad for everyone and I totally understand if you want to stop your pledge on Patreon because of this. For those who want to know more about what's going on and my thoughts, you can continue reading.

For those who don't know why this is happening, to put it short, there's a group called Collective Shout run by anti-porn members managed to beg MasterCard and Visa to go after Steam and remove all adult material for the sake of 'children and young girls.' It's been a huge shit show and you can read up more about it online, but needless to say, the changes are affecting our furry community too.

Honestly, this sucks for everyone, the creators and the readers. Creators won't be able to grow anymore, and smaller ones just starting out will never get the visibility they need to start out. It'll be exponentially more difficult for the community to share and discover new FVNs. My biggest concern is for what's to come. Collective Shout's goal is to basically wipe all adult content off the internet 'for the children,' and they've started with video games.

Even if we eventually stop this nonsense, I'm scared of what the level of damage will be until it does. Most people/furries don't even know about what's been happening in the past few days, and those who do don't care because it doesn't affect them. As an NSFW artist as well, I'm also concerned that this will worsen and soon all adult material becomes outlawed in the coming years. Please spread the word about this issue.

For the time being, I don't know what I'll do. I've been extremely busy with life and unmotivated to work on Rain Check because of personal issues these past few months, and this most certainly does not help. A lot is on my mind, and I'm contemplating if I should take a break and return to doing art full time again or do something else with my free time. Yes I can continue working on Rain Check and publishing it on Patreon only but it's just not the same for me. The sense of community is lost, and I'm stuck feeling guilty paywalling content out for other if I make it Patreon only vs. making a huge loss if I released it for free. Again, because of this, you're more than welcome to stop pledging to this Patreon.

If you managed to read up till here, I want to thank you. I definitely need some time to gather my thoughts on what to do next because this whole situation affects me directly (since I draw and write NSFW content). Spread the word, I'll be around.