BLOG: FurAffinity, The Betrayal of Adult Content Creators, and Patreon (Patreon)

Hello guys, gals and non-binary pals!

I haven't done one of these in a little bit mostly because I wasn't sure what to talk bout. I've had a few ideas for blog posts but nothing too concrete. However, there has been some recent news that got my ol' brain ticking over and so here I am.

For those of you who don't know, FurAffinity is a primarily furry (I bet that's a shock, right?) site where you can most art, stories, etc. It has been around for a long time and is big in the furry scene. I'm not the biggest furry myself though I do have a fursona and like some of the art, I rarely visit the website though.

So... If I'm not a big furry, none of my work is furry related and I rarely visit the website why am I writing about FurAffinity?

In the last week or so FurAffinity have announced a rule change. From now on they will not be allowing short (that is under 5ft) characters in sexual art. Many babyfur artists (people who combine furry and ABDL together) have got into contact with FurAffinity and been told their art breaks the rules even if their images involve nothing sexual. Some have been told their art will be deleted because of the "head to body" ratio which is particularly funny considering furry art and fursuits often have comically large heads regardless!

Things get even more bizarre when, after being asked about the height rule, FurAffinity moderators have said that drawings of characters like Pokemon or Koopas wouldn't be allowed.

Now your first thoughts might be: "But Elfy, don't you avoid writing protagonists in stories who are under 18 regardless of how sexual the story is or isn't? Why do you care?"

I care because there is already evidence that completely non-sexual images of characters on FurAffinity are going to be deleted simply for wearing a diaper regardless of context. The moderators are given a free hand on that website with little to no oversight, all it requires is one moderator who hates diapers and there will be a purge of that content. ABDL's are going to be essentially forced off the website regardless of how acceptable their art is.

Don't get me wrong, if you have art that is CLEARLY showing a character who is underage engaged in explicit acts of a sexual nature then I don't thik you should be allowed to post it. There is obviously a limit. However, if you draw art of an ambiguously aged character who has a diaper on I don't see the problem. I personally wouldn't do it but I don't see the problem with people who would and do. FurAffinity are nuking everything rather than showing any nuance.

There is a lot of very good art on there that will be lost for no reason. Well, there is a reason and I'll get on to it in a minute.

This isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened. In fact it has happened many times on many websites. The most famous example in recent times is Tumblr.

Tumblr as many of you will know is a blogging site. It is used to post pictures, build communities and share ideas. It is probably most well known for its fan communities. Shows like Dr. Who, Supernatural and many more have a large and prominent presence on there. It also used to be a place for porn.

Tumblr had an extensive pornographic user base. What made Tumblr good for porn was that it was user curated and specific. If you wanted to see pictures of girls in diapers you could find thousands of blogs full of it, if you wanted sissy stuff it was the same. Users with those interests could compile everything they liked. It was GREAT for finding niche porn. Unlike FurAffinity, I used it often.

Tumblr's greatest strength was, however, also it's greatest weakness. You see, because there were millions of these blogs posting daily it was almost impossible to moderate. If you were searching for niche porn that very legal you could find it... However if you were searching for niche stuff which was much more borderline or worse you could probably find that as well. Tumblr didn't have the staff or capability to stop inappropriate content from being posted quickly.

Eventually, I believe, it was the Apple app store that removed Tumblr for this reason. Tumblr's panicked response was to announce that they wouldn't allow ANY porn. Full stop. None of it. This caused a huge exodus of users and Tumblr lost a lot of it's prominence. It was a huge shame because there were a lot of marginalised groups who were caught in the crossfire. Queer people, for instance, were hit particularly hard. 

So, how is this the same as FurAffinity?

Well, there is a common thread running between these two incidents. There is a trend for websites to grow through pornographic material or through catering to niche interests and then, when they've made it big, cutting out those communities and abandoning them in the pursuit of money.

Tumblr needed to be on the Apple app store for advertising revenue. After helping to make their site big in the first place Tumblr indiscriminately and unceremoniously kicked out all of the porn users to get back on the store. There wasn't even a second thought about doing it. Tumblr lost 30% of their usual page views afterwards and tried to backtrack on the ban a little but it did little good.

My theory is that FurAffinity were running into trouble with advertisers or had been offered some bigger money deals with the catch being they have to start "cleaning up" the site. You see, advertisers and payment processors HATE porn. They don't want to be associated with it.

Even OnlyFans banned kink. Did you know you aren't allowed to post ABDL or age play content on there? That's why all the ABDL creators are on rival site JustForFans. By the way, the ABDL creators frequently make up a large number of the top earners on JustForFans showing just how big (and horny) our community is!

So the problem becomes that as soon as a website hits a certain point the porn is in the crosshairs. It is tolerated but never loved by these sites because it brings in A LOT of users, but as soon as someone with the money has a problem they will start wiping it out. Porn is simply not respected, creators of it are tolerated to a point. These websites will let you post on them and make them money until they reach a point where they can make more without you and they'll kick you to the curb leaving communities having to try and find a new place to call home.

I'm of the opinion that pornography and it's producers should be respected more than this. I'm proud to create what I do and I do it because I love it. We are providing a service and a product that clearly has an audience or we wouldn't be doing it. It annoys me when these FurAffinity or Tumblr incidents happen because it is so unfair to the people affected, the people making their income with their work who are suddenly cut off and left with nothing. It scares me too, because if it can happen to other creators on other platforms then it can happen to me.

Which brings me on to my final point.

Unlike the above examples I would actually like to give out a lot of plaudits for Patreon. This isn't an advertisement or anything, by the way, I know I rely on it for income but I would be saying this regardless.

I know for a fact that Patreon has been put under pressure by payment processors (such as Visa, Mastercard and Paypal) regarding it's adult content. These puritanical companies are uneasy about facilitating payments of porn. In the year 2023 it is hard to believe but it's true.

I have been on Patreon for a long time. I believe I first started in 2015 or 2016 on a Patreon which I voluntarily closed when I had a mental health crisis before coming back in 2017 or so where I have continued to this day (and hopefully many, many more days to come!)

In that time I have heard and seen a lot from Patreon staff and I have never been in any doubt that they have been doing their best to shield adult creators. Originally the porn could be found via searching, when the payment processors kicked up a fuss Patreon dropped the ability to find adult content in the search rather than kicking us off. Payment processors started worrying about underage people making the content... Well, Patreon are in the process of sending out forms to all adult creators to prove their age. Again, we have seen how quick other sites are to cave to demands of people with the money. Patreon haven't.

Even Patreon's rules, when they update them, are nuanced and amended with feedback from creators. Most recently they have created a rule to ban revenge porn (which is people posting pictures or videos of their ex-partners without the partners consent). The initial wording in the Patreon rule was a bit vague but after feedback they clarified everyone's concerns (essentially that it was only about real people and that it was fine in works of fiction since the rule was created to protect people.)

I feel valued on Patreon. I feel like Patreon have worked hard to protect me and other adult creators when other websites have been quick to throw the bab out with the bath water. But there's always that worry. Patreon is still a company and one day maybe they'll go the other way. It's the creator's constant anxiety that they could wake up one day and all this will be gone. All we can do is hope that Patreon continues to be a bastion of adult content.

Thank you all for reading this far. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on adult content on Patreon or other places.