regarding itch.io

tldr: all project files are still available on Itch.io, for now. fuck TERFs

hi again! unfortunately, a TERF (that’s trans-exclusionary radical feminist) organisation has been busy on the interwebs lately (as has always been the case) having a whinge about certain game storefronts (steam, itch.io) selling adults only games with themes that aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but nonetheless have an appeal to certain people in fictitious creative works. if you’ve heard about steam having to take down games recently, that’s what that is about. the campaign also involved targeting Itch.io, a place I use to host the project files for my CC0 works, so people can use them for free for whatever they want.

as per the article from itch.io, both valve and itch.io experienced pressure from payment processors following the campaign to act quickly to sort this out, and have done so, with itch.io’s approach being more drastic. this lead to the deindexing of all NSFW works, and the outright removal of several. I don’t blame Itch.io or Valve for this, since they’re just trying to cover their asses for everyone’s sake (and their own cause mony), but yeah it sucks!! if it wasn’t a christian organisation, of course it’d be some misguided TERF specimens that want to censor everything! calling them trans-exclusionary is an important point to note, since you shouldn’t mistake such organisations as actually having women’s rights and interests in mind.

anyways, all NSFW works on Itch.io are now deindexed, which deplatforms them severely on what’s supposed to be a storefront. they should for the most part still be accessible, especially if not accepting any payments and avoiding the target themes of the campaign, but you might notice some works from other artists and gamedevs you follow on there being missing if they’ve been taking payments for (or are just posting) especially saucy works.

as for my project files, they’re fortunately all still accessible at this time. I say at this time, because I’m worried about additional efforts by such organisations, or more precautionary action taken by either storefront, and potentially others. i’ll be ensuring a backup solution that’s ready to go when needed exists soon after this post for all previous project files just in case :)

!!! I’ll note at least that Itch.io mentions the deindexing being temporary until they have means of ensuring works posted don’t contain themes coming under fire, but I’ve heard such promises before fall flat in the face of needing to preserve a company’s existence now, which sucks, but how it is now with stuff online… censorship in the guise of protecting children, promoting women’s rights and all that, blah blah, show me your ID, show me a live video of your face, consoom only what we tell you, that’s a good citizen blah blahhhhhhhhhhhh blah

okay im gonna go eat something now i feel ded