Update on Patreon Support Situation (Patreon)

I'm just copy/pasting this from the recent upload to have it in a publicly accessible post. There is a tl;dr at the bottom for people that don't want to read the whole wall of text.

First note to make is that I will be removing a lot of content from this Patreon soon, and sadly I will not be allowed to direct you all to where it has to move to. Since it has to be removed from Patreon, it cannot be linked to from Patreon. Those are the rules and I have to follow them. I will begin removing the content in probably a few hours, because it will be a lengthy process due to a lack of bulk post removal tools, and I have to get something else done before I can start on that.

I want to start my next points by pointing out that I do not entirely blame Patreon for what is happening. Patreon has always been helpful and understanding in these situations, and as someone that has tried getting other payment processing options for my own private platforms, I know how inhibiting the restrictions are from the big three - PayPal, Visa, and MasterCard. In Patreon's case these restrictions are almost always PayPal enforcement. PayPal forces Patreon to follow certain sets of rules, and if Patreon curbs the line even a little bit, PayPal will shut down their ability to process payments. It's happened between them a few times in the past already, so it's no idle threat.

Now onto how this impacts me. I received a more prompt response from Patreon than expected, and now have confirmation that there are no issues with Emotion Sickness. With the emoticlones all looking so similar to Raven I wanted to make sure this wasn't treading on some grey line of the rule they're hitting me with, but have been directly told that it is not an issue. As such Emotion Sickness will continue without issue; however, my other content is not so lucky.

To summarize what is happening, I have to remove all content containing incest. I was under the impression that my content was safe, because previous interactions seemed to indicate that so long as there was no direct statements or context within the content itself that had incestuous implications, that it was not considered content that glorified incest. This also coincided with interactions I have had with payment processors in the past, since while it's obvious when there's a portrayal of something like bestiality, the processors themselves are typically not in a position where they have to assess that two fictional characters are related if the content does not state as such. This is why my comics here never made comments about relations, and I have been deleting user comments that made remarks about incest. I was previously put under the impression that if I did not discuss it in the comics, and did not allow user interactions to implicate it, that it was effectively not an issue that existed as far as this platform is concerned.

I have now been made aware this is no longer the way things can be interpreted on Patreon. They are looking at the entire context as a whole, which includes implications of original canon. This means Dipper and Mabel is not okay, because canon says they are related, but Raven and emoticlones are okay, because there is no canon that makes them relatives, despite them visually looking nearly identical, far more than Dipper and Mabel do.

What this means moving forward is that Emotion Sickness will continue, but Bawdy Falls will have to be dropped. This is upsetting for me, as I had a lot of fun ideas I was looking forward to doing now that Wendy was going to be more involved, but my hands are tied. I can say with almost complete certainty though that I will be replacing it with Star vs Evil, which I know I said a while ago that I was planning to do anyway. Since SvE didn't necessarily win the polling before I was going to begin doing some random shorts with it on occasion after the current scene of Emotion Sickness, because I didn't want to add a third ongoing comic to my list. However, now that other work must be cancelled, I will be escalating it to something more ongoing. This will likely begin immediately after the current scene of Emotion Sickness is concluded.

tl;dr: Patreon, likely under order from PayPal, is requiring me to remove all content containing incest. I will begin doing so within a few hours. I cannot link or direct to anywhere I move the content to, as that would also be in violation of the rules. I don't like it, but that's how it is. I have verified that Emotion Sickness is safe with the current scene, as emoticlones may look rather identical, but they are not relatives in canon so they're safe. Bawdy Falls, however, will have to be canceled as a result of this. I will most likely be replacing it with a Star vs Evil comic once the current scene of Emotion Sickness is complete.