It's vore month, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate than to get payment processors to stop censoring vore art <3
If you've been following the news about Steam and Itch delisting or removing adult games, you'll know that payment processors have been coming down hard on NSFW games, books, and art.
Of course, this is nothing new. It's been getting harder and harder as a NSFW artist to find ways to monetize artwork. The number of platforms we can use to exchange payments for commissions is dwindling fast. Sites like Patreon already have a testy relationship with vore artwork. Itch.io was one of the very few platforms left I was looking at as a way to sell artwork or stories, or to even fund larger pieces.
It feels like every other week I log onto socials and see a new site that's kicking us off. But this time has been different. This time, there's a coordinated campaign from gamers, NSFW artists and sex workers, queer activists, and free-speech advocates to get Mastercard, Visa, Paypal, and Stripe to reverse their restrictions. And the results so far have been extremely promising <3
I want to try and help. So during vore month I'll be offering semi-regular YCH doodles on both Mastodon (https://gulp.cafe/@foxyoreos/114960442722029409) and Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/foxyoreos.bsky.social/post/3lv...). These are pre-made quick pieces, but masked out so that your characters can be drawn into them. And they're free! All you have to do to get one is to make a phone call or to mail a physical letter :3
If you send me a screenshot of a call log from you phoning one of the companies on this list, or you send me a picture of a physical, addressed piece of mail you're sending out to one of them (please redact any of your own personal information that's visible on either of them), along with a link to a refsheet or picture of your character, I'll draw them into whatever the currently active doodle is. <3
And once I put up a new doodle, if you want to grab that one too, all you need to do is send me another picture dated after I put up that doodle :3 Like I said, I plan to be doing this allll through August <3 (assuming that payment processors don't crack before then X3)
Importantly, these doodles are timed releases. Only one is active at a time, and when I put up a new doodle, that's it, if you missed the previous one - too bad. >:3
I want to encourage you to phone or write to payment processors regularly, and not to put it off - so if you see a doodle that you like, you'll probably have less than 24 hours to grab it, so find a free moment during your day to make a call!
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I make my living full time as an artist. It's a difficult but fantastic job, and I love what I do. But I'm also worried about what will happen in the future - what will happen when enough platforms close that I literally just can't do this full-time, because there is no way for me to monetize it. There are probably half-a-dozen really fun projects I have wanted to do over the past 6 months that I shelved because I couldn't figure out the platforms. Anything involving small commissions like 5-10 minute doodles got shelved. Stream incentives also got shelved. Figuring out how to do community YCHs has been a nightmare. And with Itch closing down, there are larger writing projects and longer comics that I might not do, because Itch was the platform where I was going to sell them.
Even if you're not an artist, and even if you're not a commissioner, this stuff affects you. All of the public art that I release is subsidized by commissioners and supporters, they are the reason why I'm able to release as much art as I do. The time I spend trying to jump through hoops just so that a supporter can use a credit card to pay me, is time that I don't spend drawing, interacting with the community, or planning new projects.
But if enough people/critters complain, publicly enough and loud enough, for long enough - that could change. And with the current momentum that the backlash to Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, and Stripe's censorship - it is possible to force payment processors to make changes. If you've wanted to get doodles from me but haven't been able to afford a commission, this vore month is a great opportunity to get some for free, and to really tangibly help NSFW artists everywhere <3
And hopefully in the future, artists will be able to spend less time worrying about this kind of bullshit, and more time drawing <3
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FAQ:
Why can't I send an email?
Emails are easy for companies to filter. Early on in the campaign, support centers were constantly trying to get callers to email instead of calling. The reason for this is because companies like Visa/Mastercard set up dedicated inboxes for complaints that are easy for them to ignore. But they can't ignore phone calls or physical mail - everything that comes through those channels has to be triaged by a person. The goal of this campaign is not to make Mastercard understand that you're upset - payment processors already understand what the problem is. But for whatever reason (whether pressure from fundamentalist groups, or their own hang-ups, or soft government pressure) they don't want to fix the problem. So our job is to be so annoying and to cost them so much money in support triaging, and to generate so much negative press, that they have to fix our problem just to make us go away.
How long does a call need to be?
More than 2 minutes, roughly. Every bit helps, and I know critters get anxious about making phone calls. If you've dialed in, you've done an amazing job already. However, consistent with the above, long calls do hurt payment processors more than short calls. Every minute that you're on the phone with a support person is a minute that person can't spend helping somepony else - which means that the support lines get longer, and Visa/Mastercard/etc.. need to pay more to resolve the issue. So while this isn't a *promise*, I might be tempted to occasionally spend a few more minutes myself on a drawing if the call duration is impressively long~
What should I say?
Be polite. Support staff don't set these policies and don't have any control over them, and we are doing something that is extremely annoying to them - we are making their job harder. Don't take out your frustrations on them, these policies are not their fault. But, do keep them on the phone, because unfortunately the only way to complain to payment processors in a way that they'll notice is to tie up human workers and cost these companies money. The linked site (https://stop-paypros.neocities.org) has a great list of scripts that you can use. You can also mention recent news coverage and Valve's recent statement (https://kotaku.com/mastercard-denies-pressuring-steam-t...) to help get across that this is something getting mainstream coverage, and isn't just a niche protest.
Why is there a deadline to redeem a slot on a doodle?
Persistence is the name of the game during a protest like this. I've been very encouraged by seeing critters on Bluesky talk about "daily calls" the same way they'd talk about logging in to get daily rewards in a video game. The idea is that this is a marathon, it's a thing that critters can do every day as just a small chore. So I want to reinforce that feel - each day you can check to see if I've uploaded a new doodle YCH, and if you like it, you can make a call and grab a slot. I also want to discourage critters putting off calls - it's really easy to say "well, I'll get around to this maybe this weekend" - especially if you have social anxiety and aren't feeling very excited about sending a complaint to a service worker. Having doodles timed makes it harder to give in to that temptation. If you see a YCH you want on a Thursday, by the weekend a different one will be available.
Can this actually work?
Yes. It's going to be an uphill battle, we're fighting decades and decades of porn censorship. But I've never seen a response like this to payment processors, and already Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe have been forced to make public statements that they wouldn't normally make. I really believe that if we stay organized and persistent, we can force payment companies to make concessions. How many? I don't know. But being able to openly offer NSFW services on Stripe or Paypal would be a minor life-changing event for me - I'm not lying when I say there are multiple projects I've abandoned purely because of this issue. Getting any kind of serious concession from payment processors would be really impactful for the work that I do. And I do think it's possible.
Does my call really help?
Especially if you don't call companies very often, your call helps <3 Repeat callers to service centers get shuffled into their own handling process. Over time, repeat callers will get less effective at tying up the lines. Calls from new numbers don't go through that process. If you haven't been calling, now - right when companies are starting to filter out and handle repeat callers - is the perfect time to start. <3
I'm not on Mastodon/Bluesky, can I join?
Sure! The reason why I'm prioritizing those platforms is for reach and ease of posting (uploading doodles to full galleries is much more time consuming). But if I see a note from you on an account I'm monitoring with a refsheet and a screenshot/photo, I probably won't turn you down ;3 Just be aware that because this is kind of time consuming, I'm only posting the doodles on these platforms for right now, I'm not setting up delivery pages for them right now. So even though you're sending me info on another platform, you'll have to check my Mastodon to download your delivery :3 (also keep in mind that doodles are public)
