Itch fighting this here would mean ALL creators here get fucked.
Focus your anger on the puritanical cults. Not their victims.
Viewing post in Alternatives to itch.io?
The thing is that itch isn't the first and it isn't going to be the last until someone stands up and says no. If ALL the platforms that have been affected stood up together to give Visa and Mastercard the middle finger, then something might change because Visa and Mastercard wouldn't want to give up that much revenue. Until the corporations we are unfortunately beholden to stand up together, we are just going to keep getting screwed over and having to move from platform to platform.
Itch fighting this here would mean ALL creators here get fucked.
You're not wrong but it does go a bit deeper than that.
- NSFW creators are likely feeling very much thrown under the bus right now. They'll be a big part of what got Itch so popular in the first place.
- Now, they're more trouble than they're worth and cut loose before the official statement was made. That'll leave a nasty taste in many people's mouths.
- They've set a precedent that puritanical organisations can force payment processors to squash content they disagree with and Itch will immediately roll over without a fight.
- So you will have creators not currently affected wonder what the next tag or subgenre to get this treatment will be.
Intentionally or not, Itch are now saying that they heavily favour safe content. And that the definition of "safe" can change at any time, depending on who can bully the flow of money at any given time. Which doesn't quite sound like the open marketplace for independent digital creators with a focus on independent video games that Itch still claims to be.
That precedent kinda already existed. It already happened to a much larger degree with Tumblr and even fucking OnlyFans - a site whose sole purpose is sexual content.
Leave itch if you want, since I won't blame you for this leaving a fairly nasty taste in your mouth, but the same problem of payment processors getting to suppress whatever they don't like will keep occurring elsewhere until something is actually done about it. And companies ain't gonna do that, because they either can't afford it or just have no interest in dealing with it.
And look at what happened to Tumblr. They sold it off… and it was worthless. It got sold again and again for less money each time, and I can’t even remember the last time I saw anyone seriously use the service.
Folding might save Itch in the short-term, but you only have to look to Tumblr to find an example of the long-term effects, and since Itch is so much more specialized, I’d expect it to have a much harder time shambling forward.
Itch fighting here, and actually trying not rolling the fuck over instanatly, would mean they actually champion the "open marketplace for independent digital creators with a focus on independent video games" thing they claim to be.
They're victims, yes, but by no means are they blameless. Attribute blame to them, hold them accountable too
Fine, go ahead. List how they could actually fight.
Please, elaborate, o wise one, as to how they would not just instantly be fucked over, along with ALL creators on the platform, sfw and nsfw, if they told the payment processors (i.e. how payments are actually made on the platform) to fuck off.
Itch ain't got the funds to last for months while looking for a new processor with zero income.
alternative to stripe exist, they just aren't popular due to monopolization and ease of access [and probly favorable teams due to monopoly status.]
3thix reachsd out in email and in the forums, a payment processor happy to do stuff with nsfw. Oh hey look! An alternative that always existed and could've been taken all along! Waow it's almost like Itch didn't try