Patreon Revised Community Guidelines

Swallows999

Swallows999

Really Experienced
CHYOA Backer
If you have a Patreon,

Patreon has recently decided to crack down on some more hardcore adult content creators, in regards to "extreme" content, such as necrophilia, bestiality, incest, loli/shota and non-con. :(

In addition, it seems that none of your 18+ content can be made public (such as sexual images, but not links to stories), they must be screened behind a "Patrons Only" post.

https://www.lewdgamer.com/2017/10/20/patreon-community-guidelines-suspensions/

I think for now mostly larger names are the ones being scrutinized, but it may eventually trickle down. I also think that erotic writers are probably pretty safe as long as there is no direct-wording about forbidden content.
 
This probably has to do with the fact that...as the changed guidelines say: "Patreon is not for pornography". The banning of more extreme kinds of porn that wouldn't be appropriate for an "R-Rated Film" seems to be reflective of that rather than any kind of moral Renaissance on the internet.

They're certainly well within their right to allow and disallow anything that they wish. It's their site after all.
 
Amazon does similar from what I hear. But theirs is more haphazard. With erotic stories about mind control and hypnosis being taken down as rape porn one week and then allowed the next week in an ever changing battle of undefined guidelines.
 
For me personally the only part of it that really worries me is the part around Non-Consent stuff. Namely that it is still very vague on what they actually consider to be Non-Consent.

Sure they say rape as a specific example but, lets be real here, anything that involves someone being coerced in some way into a sexual act is rape. So they could easily apply this to anything with themes that come close to that.

Considering a decent amount of my content here comes under that area I am more than a little leery of the lack of clarity in that area.
 
lizisbest said:
For me personally the only part of it that really worries me is the part around Non-Consent stuff. Namely that it is still very vague on what they actually consider to be Non-Consent.

Sure they say rape as a specific example but, lets be real here, anything that involves someone being coerced in some way into a sexual act is rape. So they could easily apply this to anything with themes that come close to that.

Considering a decent amount of my content here comes under that area I am more than a little leery of the lack of clarity in that area.
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I should also elaborate on why it concerns me.

If you take the broadest possible interpretation of rape, which is the one I laid out above. Then you end up in a situation where a story that revolves around the idea of someone being reluctant to sleep with someone as rape. Hell, you could say that my story 10 to 1 falls under Rape since women in that world don't really have the right to say no(Although that isn't strictly true but that fact is only clear if you read the writers guide.) the fact that they don't mind or are simply apathetic to the act doesn't take away from the fact that they can't really say no.

So ultimately it comes down to context, hell the novel The Handmaid's Tale is pretty much a similar idea(At least from what I have heard about it, have not read it myself since I find most all Dystopian novels annoying since I read Brave New World) but played for pure drama rather than eroticism.

You can also get into the muddy waters around the issue of Fantasy vs Reality and that is a whole other kettle of fish.

So my main worry is that they may fall into the same trap that Amazon has, where they have a uneven application of the rules. I am also worried about exactly how one would go about fighting it if they ended up having there page taken down. Could you argue for the context of your stories or make some kind of compromise? What if someone commissions you to write a story that has those themes? That has already happened to me., so would I not be able to share that on my patreon?
 
lizisbest said:
So my main worry is that they may fall into the same trap that Amazon has, where they have a uneven application of the rules.
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I think this is a good "policy" to avoid trouble.
They can say "There are rules", though they will always have something to improve, so if there are complaints, they can justify themselves "We did something against that problem"
That way, they would only lose a minimum of their revenue and can close another gap if necessary.
 
gene.sis said:
I think this is a good "policy" to avoid trouble.
They can say "There are rules", though they will always have something to improve, so if there are complaints, they can justify themselves "We did something against that problem"
That way, they would only lose a minimum of their revenue and can close another gap if necessary.
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the problem is, from what I have heard from people who publish stuff through Amazon is that they seem near constantly change what they consider acceptable.
 
lizisbest said:
the problem is, from what I have heard from people who publish stuff through Amazon is that they seem near constantly change what they consider acceptable.
Click to expand...

Completely agree with this but as does a lot of publishers including smashwords and independent ones :(
 
lizisbest said:
the problem is, from what I have heard from people who publish stuff through Amazon is that they seem near constantly change what they consider acceptable.
Click to expand...
Of course, it is only a good policy for the publisher.
For the authors, it's the same as usual... "If you can't fight off, your just fucked!"
 
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