Nymrod — that’s fair. If Patreon has been enforcing AI chatbot-style content this aggressively for a while, then that’s on me for not being aware of that enforcement pattern.
But what still bothers me (and why I think the situation genuinely doesn’t make sense) is that their enforcement is not consistent with the plain language of their own guideline.
The policy they cited says: “Accounts that primarily allow access to generators, tools, or software that use machine learning or AI technology to produce 18+ nudity or explicit imagery are not permitted…”
After I pushed for clarification, Patreon essentially admitted that “primarily” has no practical meaning because they consider a single post/link enough to trigger removal, even if it’s incidental and not the purpose of the page. That’s not what “primarily” means in plain English.
On top of that, they expanded the rationale beyond what the guideline actually says — applying it to “adult AI chatbot/sexbot” experiences even where the guideline is explicitly framed around image generation. So the written rule says one thing, but enforcement is treating it as a broader “adult AI interactive content” ban.
Creators should be able to rely on the plain language of the guidelines when deciding what is allowed. Patreon’s enforcement (in this case) didn’t match the written standard, and there was no proportional remediation path (remove the post, clarify rules as enforced rather than as written, then reinstate).