Content Moderation & General Update

Hi all!

You may have noticed that some content has been removed from my Patreon. I was contacted by a content moderator from the site and asked to remove The Beer Belly Project and several other stories because they violated their content guidelines. I’m bummed about it, but it is what it is! The Beer Belly Project will no longer be paywalled or posted on Patreon and will instead be free to read on the other sites I post on. The other content that was removed–all one-shots–will be posted there as well.

Between still being sick and having to take down one of my favorite stories, I've been really demotivated and having a hard time being creative. I'm about halfway through a new Culinary Librarian chapter even if it does feel a little like pulling teeth, so look out for that soon.

I also want to take a moment to say that if you’re in the US, please take some time to contact your House representatives and Senators to oppose passage of the EARN IT Act. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a great writeup talking about some of the biggest problems with EARN IT, but the reason I'm bringing it up here is this: the EARN IT Act, like FOSTA/SESTA before it, will increase censorship of all sexual content online. This covers everything from stories like my own to all the private messages you send. The EARN IT Act includes sweeping demands for all online content to be scanned for violations.

While this bill is on its face claiming that it protects children from abuse and assault, it does nothing to prevent trafficking or protect children. This is a censorship bill being pushed forward by conservatives who want all sexual content to be pushed off the internet. This likely will not come in the form of the government directly saying “you can’t post your porn,” but instead will look more like sites requesting "questionable" content be removed, or shutting down altogether because payment processors and advertisers will no longer work with them. We have already seen content guidelines tighten dramatically in the wave of FOSTA/SESTA, and EARN IT will amplify this.

If you’re outside the US (and I know many of you are!), spreading the word about this is helpful. Because of how interwoven the internet is, and how centralized and US-based the world's online infrastructure is, if this law passes, it will unfortunately affect you, too.

Thanks for reading!