Heya fox friends!
So a lot of big news this week! First, my roommate’s position has been officially confirmed! This means we’ll be moving out of our current place within the month, on the weekend of the 8th of September, or so. From there it’ll be a three day trip north (we’re taking our time) and then hopefully only a week or so of trying to lock down a place before we begin moving everything in. Things are still very up in the air, but we’ve got a solid plan in place and we’re already cleaning things up and packing our stuff to get it shipped out.
That’s all already been on the table and expected, so not a big deal, just have to keep at it and make sure everything stays in order. Hopefully, it’ll all go smoothly!
Second thing, and more immediately important for y’all (sit tight, this is a long one,) is that Patreon seems to be intent on rolling out a new identity verification policy. Mandated by Mastercard (stated as such by Patreon themselves in their FAQ), it uses a service which cross references via AI a photo of your government ID/driver’s license with a photo you take yourself with your phone so that they can make sure that any adult content creators on the platform are 18 years of age or older.
I feel this is an invasion of privacy in a number of ways, not the least the scraping of your phone’s metadata in anything you send them, as well as the feeding of your personal documents and image into an AI database. Not to mention giving Mastercard undue power and information, things which it has been shown to abuse in the past in regards to adult content creators whom it seems to be staunchly opposed to.
Patreon has stated that none of the information given will be used to search for law violations (and nothing that I do violates the law, regardless), but I do not trust them or Mastercard not to enable discrimination against me as a transwoman or a creator of adult content, nor do I trust them not to sell my data to other parties.
Now, I would normally not care if I was dealing with a more direct business or if they were simply asking for my license number or something like that so they could look up the information themselves; I give my driver’s license in person all the time, at the doctor’s office or bank, for example, but it’s the method that irks me. They already have my bank and tax information; they could literally just call someone and ask. Not to mention I’ve been on the platform for over nine years now, so the possibility that I could be younger than 18 is ludicrously small.
It doesn’t help that Patreon has, in the past, outright lied about its intentions as well as mandated the behavior of its users on platforms that it does not own. I also do not trust Patreon, should I not cooperate, to not take the money from y’all at the end of the month, and just lock me out of drawing from it (that’s specifically, how they’ve stated they will operate, not that they’ll ban people, but rather that people won’t be able to draw from their payouts, which is extra scummy.)
I have spoken with the Trust and Safety team, of course, and they’ve stated that they will present alternatives to this system to all Patreon creators should they not wish to provide a photographic ID. If it is as simple as transmitting online paperwork, then I might consider it, but somehow I do not think that any of the alternatives will be acceptable. We will see.
However, if no viable alternatives are presented, on Sunday, August 27th, I will be suspending the Patreon’s collections until Patreon is willing to use the information it already possesses or allow a non-invasive means of verification. If neither of those things occur, or the alternatives presented are not actually alternatives, then I will have to see about my own alternatives to using Patreon as a crowd funding source.
I do have a dormant SubscribeStar that I could dust off, if people were willing to make use of that. I also have considered a manually run fanclub, which could be fun! I’ll also be looking into other alternatives as well.
While staying with Patreon would be easier, it’s been growing more and more hostile to the kind of content that I want to produce, and my Patreon itself is already handicapped by me not being able to show my work on the site and taking it upon me to make it presentable rather than giving me tools to allow people to opt-in or filter out my work as NSFW. The layers of obfuscation that I already have to deal with are so much so that I basically have to promote myself entirely without their assistance, and Patreon simply functions as a middleman. But I can always find another middleman, if not cut them out entirely.
So as that date approaches, I’ll keep you all informed and I may create another poll to see what sort of alternatives people would be interested in.
That was a lot! I’m sorry about that, but I needed to outline the situation as best as I could so that people knew where I stood, and how this will affect things going forward. I appreciate all the support I’ve been given by all of y’all and I don’t want anyone to feel cheated or to give and for me to not be able to make use of that.
Now then, back to commissions!
Let’s have a look at the list:
2023
#006: Doc – In Progress!
#008: Artemis – In Progress!
#010: Chacumera – On Hold for Payment.
#011: Doc – In Progress!
#013: Kennie – On Hold for Payment.
#015: Salisha – In Progress!
#016: Salisha – In Queue
#018: Azure – In Progress!
#022: Spectrickster – In Queue
#026: Mabel – In Progress!
##EX: TZ – Complete!
- - - - - - - Late Line - - - - - - -
#032: Norithics – In Progress!
#033: Dakkath – In Conjunction with #034
#034: Shaze – In Queue
#035: Turner – In Queue
#036: KlinKitty – Complete!
- - - - - - - Move Line - - - - - - -
#037: Maldore - Waiting for Payment.
#038: ElBoberto - In Queue
#039: Aspira - In Queue
#040: Radec - In Queue
#041: MadCoil - Waiting For Payment
Credit: Doc - $320
Discount Bin
Salisha: Durex Date #2 - (Jessie Hart x Bakeneko Spooky) [#2023-015] (In Progress!)
Norithics: Princess Cocoa Doppled Pin-Up [#2023-032] (In Progress!)
Turner: Cass, Under Pressure [Not Yet Issued]
Anzu: Assorted Occurances [Not Yet Issued]
So yeah! Things are being compressed nicely! I finished two things this week (though they were smaller ones, to be fair) and I’ve got a bunch of sequences and character sheets that are in progress to work on.
I currently have nine (9) pieces paid and in queue or working, and two (2) discount bin items that are paid and working, with a further two (2) discount bin items that are planned and waiting, and two (2) items that haven’t been paid for yet.
The more recent items are in queue for after the move, but that should be well within the hopeful 90-day turnaround.
Again, I don’t expect to get everything done, but I’m hoping to get as much as possible.
On further things, projects! I know you all have been patiently waiting for any kind of updates for Various Happenings and The Adventures of Clara Cosmos, so once the pressure of the list has been relieved somewhat, I intend to go full bore in on my work.
Let’s look at those:
Project Work
===
Various Happenings
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Chapter 6: It's Never That Easy, Is It? (Pt.1) - Script Written, Proofreading
Chapter 7: ???? - Outlining
Chapter 8: ???? - Outlining
---
Current Updates Ready: 0
===
The Adventures of Clara Cosmos
---
Episode 1: A Planetary Plunder of Preposterous Proportions - Outlined, Scripting
Episode 2: ???? - Outlining
---
Current Updates Ready: 0
===
???? (Interactive Media)
---
Current Phase - Asset Creation
===
???? (One-Shot Comic)
---
Current Phase - Outline Written
===
???? (Visual Novel Fanwork)
---
Episode 1: ???? - Scripting
As you can see, there’s a lot of stuff I want to get to! This is a small fraction of it, certainly, but this is the stuff I think is the most time sensitive, important, or doable at the moment.
I know a lot of it is a mystery (on purpose, I assure you) but when it makes its debut, I’m hoping it will be exciting. Still, VH and Clara are the priority right now and I want to get them moving on a regular schedule. That, of course, means getting ahead so that my whims won’t dictate a six month hiatus on things in the future.
My goal is to get three months of updates ahead (that’s 12 on each) so that I have the time to go off and work on other things when I have the desire to without interfering with the overall update schedule. Anything beyond that will be considered extra updates and posted on an off day. Hopefully that will be enough time to take care of the next step of the story for each comic and buffer me against emergencies, flights of fancy, and periods of low motivation.
We’ll see what happens, but that’s where I want to be for the future. I’m so excited to share things with you and I’m tired of not being able to, so goshdarnit, I’m going to get a move on!
That’s all for now, so until the next time, everyone!
~Spooky
Commission Submission Form: https://forms.gle/wgUSpMcvE8LiUtuq6
Commission Rules: https://foxsaliant.com/Commission.htm
Discount Bin: https://foxsaliant.com/Discount.htm
Various Happenings: https://www.varioushappenings.com/
The Adventures of Clara Cosmos: https://www.claracosmos.space/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/foxsaliant