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DieselBrain
@DieselBrain

I am not an expert on community organizing so I want to be clear that I am open to suggestion, and criticism, re: how best to actually make change.

off the top of my head, I think we as a community need to, as a collective, push the message that sfw creators, clients and customers need to boycott Gumroad, and any other platform that bans NSFW content. I believe part of the reason why these bans happen at all is because they see simply complying with payment processors and tanking what they see as a temporary backlash (if any) from their userbase as the path of least resistance. We need to send a message that a porn ban will be a kiss of death for any platform that attempts one due to pressure from banks. That means alongside us nsfw creators pulling from these platforms (for those of us that arent already nuked), we also need as many sfw creators and users as well to pull their support from the platform.

My logic here is that, if we can successfully pull off a boycott and it effects businesses bottom line hard enough, then they will come to understand that these draconian anti-porn mandates from banks is a threat to THEMSELVES, and will not be the path of least resistance. If businesses are forced to see this as a threat against their own existence, then theoretically we may see them push back and throw resources behind lobbying against this kind of interference from banks.

once again, im not an expert here and I would genuinely like to hear suggestions about ways we can organize as a group. My idea here may not be the best one, i do not want to make the claim that is is foolproof. I know im definitely acting upon some assumptions and theories moreso than guarantees, and if im wrong and there is a better plan of action, then I want to know. I just want to use this as a call to action because we CANNOT just keep running, we are running out of places to flee to.


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in reply to @DieselBrain's post:

an acquaintance of mine has got the ball rolling on a class action lawsuit against Mastercard for discriminating against porn creators, and customers of porn creators https://twitter.com/pom_poison/status/1768753517651546540

in addition, the ACLU is taking on Mastercard for their discrimination against sex workers https://action.aclu.org/petition/mastercard-sex-work-work-end-your-unjust-policy

there's a lot of fronts to fight this with, and going straight to the source of the problem (payment processors) seems like the strongest front for collective action

this is so funny, because i actually know pom and i helped contribute to planning his effort. like, i have actual insider knowledge and experience enough to know that you're talking completely out of your ass. which is funny enough, but what's more interesting to me is that it paints a vivid picture of your mind and the way it works. by default, your mind believes (or wants to believe) in the worst outcome, it wants to believe sincere people are tricking you or exploiting you. and it will ignore, manipulate, or invent whatever facts are necessary for that belief to be justified, as ridiculous and far fetched it may be. your brain won't be happy until it has a suspicion that something sucks, and you bend over backwards to confirm that suspicion in order to feel normal. i wonder what happened to you, to condition your mind to be that way? that pessimism must take a lot of effort, your brain must be exhausted. it seems like a miserable way to live. i hope your brain gets the chance to believe in the best in people someday.

I think a good way to organize boycotts would be a public facing post, that can be spread through various social media, with clear indication of when the boycott shall start, how people should boycott (removing their content, not posting, idk never used gum road), what are the demands, and the reason for such boycott... I know, most of this seems pretty obvious, but to spread the message it needs to be clear to everyone, after reading the post, despite their previous knowledge of the problems.
I am also speculating, I never organized this kind of stuff, but I think that setting a start date gives people time to learn and spread word about boycott, and boycotting only works when people are organized, so I think what I said is valid

this is good advice. what may need to be done is putting together an actual group, be it a discord server or something else, where creators can come together and pool their experience and resources for the sake of organizing in a useful manner.

youre right, boycotting only really works when people are organized, and organization is something our community lacks.

I think every time someone calls for a boycott like this, there's always going to be a few people who are like "well it didn't affect me, or, I can't just boycott, I'm making a living off this", it'll be like the main argument against the purpose of the boycott.
I guess to that end, I'd say look, they aren't going to have your back either when the rubber hits the road.

I say this all the time to people who think they're exempt from when corporations wanna pull shit like this. Whether or not you're making adult stuff. They can boot you for whatever reason.

I want to make it clear I'm agreeing with this. Boycotting does work. And people have more choices than they think they do about where they put their money and resources. And we have a choice to act on decisions that call for changes so the field is fair for everyone, not just some people some of the time.

tldr: I agree with all of that. Organising is what is needed for proper and consistent action. There's no time like the present.

I think a key for it to work is of course numbers, but to get that it needs visibility; it sounds like something that should have been tried before, but when I look for art unions or orgs, they're for political outreach groups or freelancers that need the leverage to work for big corporations, not for porn artists who don't want to be intimidated by global credit cards. The only things I can find that's close is APAG and the International Entertainment Adult Union, maybe there's something there, but it looks like those are just for porn actors.
I'm not very knowledgeable at all but an idea I have in this circumstance is making up a named org with flashing lights and getting big artists to stand behind and promote it to as many people as possible, and then invite all artists, with a focus on solidarity. And then keep promoting it regularly and having a thing (like discord or fuckin wechat idk) that shows the pressing issues and points of interest like boycotts. (this is idealistic, I have no experience with how that would pan out)
Also, very public demonstrations like protests and boycotts would be good onboarding opportunities for that future imaginary artists' org, it works for socialists🤷

This is all pulled from deep within my behind but it feels right so I'm not putting it back up there.

On the other hand, turn that last bit upside down: the best time for adult artists and own-body sex workers to organize together would've been before any of the bans, to be able to resist them. But the second best time is right now, ASAP. Sex workers, whether writing, visual art, photos/videos of their bodies and actions, or directly paid for sexual services in person, clearly have a common interest still. While life continues, it's not too late to organize for something better.

im having a weird deja vu feeling from this because like… didnt a bunch of artists jump ship from gumroad a couple years ago because of nft/blockchain stuff and the owner violating users’ privacy? i’m surprised so many people stayed on after that because afaik itch.io can host anything gumroad could so most people just moved there anyways. like blanket nsfw bans are bad but if we’re talking “canaries in the coal mine”, the canaries were ALREADY dead