Hello dear itch.io team.
Coud you give us any updates on the recent matters about payment processors and NSFW ban and situations?
Hi Dana,
I agree with you asking after this issue, because as far as I can see the latest news with regard to the Itch-NSWF-Payment Processor triangle was end of July.
I, and I suppose, many others, am anxious to know about how this will be resolved by Itch, if it can be resolved at all, and if Itch will stay a viable place to sell "sensitive" content.
I realize that the NSWF-Payment Processor problem is a difficult issue for storefront providers i.e. market places (I work with several and they all need to face this problem, none of which have solved it satisfactorily so far), but it's indeed more than fair to be kept updated regularly on what efforts have been taken and what the current developments are.
I cannot else than hope that Itch can resolve this. To be honest, if they do, it will be the first open market place (I mean one that doesn't take refuge behind a subscription wall) that will succeed doing so. So to me, this is a real important test case.
Anyway, thank you for speaking out about this and asking Itch to inform us about the state of things. Wish you (and all of us in the NSFW realm) best, Marce.
There's nowhere they can go and nothing they can do, without dipping into some REALLY shady partners that would probably fold before long anyway. "High risk" processors don't help: they exist to handle chargebacks, not to avoid CCCs decrees from on high. If the grand gods of banking throw you out, there are no alternatives for a law-abiding person. Itch, like Steam is in the spotlight now, which makes them radioactive. No one will go anywhere near them. Which was exactly the intention of the scumbags that did this.
The only glimmer of hope is that people have the memory of goldfish, especially these days. Given enough time, that spotlight may fade. But that does nothing to undo the damage that's already been done.
Patreon has, right this minute, many games and other content that are explicitly against CC TOS. The ONLY reason this is the case is that they do what platforms have done for years now: turn a blind eye and hope the processors don't notice/raise a stink. Which only works until a Collective Shout comes along. Because of this arrangement, they are anything but clear about what's acceptable, and what is "acceptable" is unstable, which is why for the past year or two (and really since Pateron's inception) the circle of what you can post on Patreon has been getting smaller, and smaller, and smaller.
Same story for Steam, except worse/more strict. The "Workaround" for Steam and Patreon is to a. whistle past the graveyard and b. axe all but the most generic, middle-of-the-road inoffensive content, something like Barely Working (which despite that rather backhanded compliment is a great game, check it out!). If Itch purged everything but hot (HUMAN) milfs having totally normal consensual straight sex in the missionary position, yes, payment processors would (probably) be okay with it...for now. But that would kill the whole point/vibe of the site, which is to share weird, offbeat creative stuff.
The gun to Itch's head is the same gun pointing at every major platform right now: you WILL enforce normality. You WILL allow only thought, expression, "creativity" that is as bland and inoffensive as possible. Or you will cease to exist, because no business can operate once it's cut off from money. Free speech, free expression, the First Amendment etc have effectively become meaningless, because Visa and Mastercard have crowned themselves as a fourth branch of government, and an untouchable one at that.
We are watching the total destruction of the free internet. Porn is just one small chunk of it.