Virtually Isolated

virtually-isolated.neocities.org

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Oh, it's cascading. So, I still look at twitter to follow 2 handfuls of artists that could not realistically leave the site without losing too much of their fanbase, existing portfolio, brand name and everything you get from being active on a platform for so long. Also just some adult stuff. I'll be real, yeah. So, I got hit with a warning when I tried looking at some one I know and their gallery/Media tab:
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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

"Due to local laws, we are temporarily restricting access to this content until X estimates your age."

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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

The solution they offer is to pay them and thus automaticly give them banking details. Upload your ID and just give them everything that's on there. Do a sort of Live-selfie where you might be asked put on expressions to verify. Be lucky enough to have an account that's ancient. Or you should have been loud about your age from the start so their LLM could scan your profile for it.

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solar-cyber-punk's avatar solar-cyber-punk 1 month ago

(Still not being allowed more then 10 messages per day is a bit of a drag on this social part of the site. I know the profile and comment side is like, 5% of the site, but still)

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solar-cyber-punk's avatar solar-cyber-punk 1 month ago

Sure, I've started to loathe the whole site minus the people I follow and some small interactions I had and sometimes see. But we can't feed the place and people we dislike to an all consuming monster and hope it'll be done after that. I gotta stick up for the UK and large-parts-of-the European users of twitter on this one. I hate your platform, but I can't let dumbshits take it away from you.

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koyo's avatar koyo 1 month ago

these laws are an incredibly convienent way to track even more user data for profit, its really sick

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koyo's avatar koyo 1 month ago

(sick as in fucked up***)

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Hi, Solar-Cyber-Punk's main account here! Thank you for having a look at my little garden blog! I love the minimalist and colourful design on yours! Your zines look interesting!
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itselinor's avatar itselinor 1 month ago

Hello! I used to follow your blog under my previous account name, nighdreaming. I'm catching up with a new name and subprofile. It's nice to see your balcony garden doing well. I've neglected mine this year. No annuals for food, only blueberries. Can

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Hey, good/mid news! Collective Shout is struggeling to handle the backlash and is trying to deflect blame. Stating that some one random came by and demanded them to take action. They are also deleting pages from their site about their mission statement and previous actions. They are also trying to claim they did not ask Itch.Io to remove so much content. They did though. Please keep at it!
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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

Please look at this piece of revisionist history they have cooked up for us: https://www.collectiveshout.org/steam_campaign_history

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juglone's avatar juglone 1 month ago

YEEAAAAAGHHH. WOOOOOO

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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

Keep in mind that Itch.io updated their FAQ with the following on July 26th: "If you've collected money while in violation of terms, we may be forced to refund or freeze all pending transactions, as accounts that are in violation of our terms are not eligible for payouts."

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owthehedge's avatar owthehedge 1 month ago

im irritated about stuff being removed for the obvious reasons of "censorship bad" but the one im most annoyed about is mouthwashing. you know that game that's an explicit critique of misogynistic men who do awful things and the people who support them. great job guys really doing feminism out here

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owthehedge's avatar owthehedge 1 month ago

I hope collective shout crashes and burns catastrophically

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krystalspalace's avatar krystalspalace 1 month ago

Im glad to see them blundering

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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

I caught a reply the Itch.io account made to someone asking about Mouthwashing. Who ever handles the socials for Itch.io stated that the dev themselves removed the game from Itch.io a while ago and all they had on their page was a link to the steam version since then. I don't know if this is true.

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owthehedge's avatar owthehedge 1 month ago

@virtually-isolated ohhh, I see

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Hello! Your site still looks wonderful, and i wanna let you know that i have RETURNED. (and still attempting to make a cool-looking website!) For now, i'll make my site just a minimal site with a teaser in the middle...
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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

Fun to see you again! Hope you've been doing well! I just want you to have fun and be proud of your work, I remember you having a bit of a rough time because not that many people were engaging you and you felt like your site was not good enough. I had/have the same, too! I've looked at plenty of sites that were hand crafted in CSS and I just want to obliterate mine because I got nothing and I can't even draw my own-

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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

elements like borders, let alone any other type of decoration. But we persist. We get better over time and we gotta accept that even if we feel overcast by some one else's work, remember, no one does it like you do. Sure, there are people that can make more beautiful things then us regarding webdesign, but look at you and your gamedev skills! I'm sure plenty of people feel the way you do about other people site, but-

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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

about your games! I'm sure there are people who look at what you can do and also feel demotivated. I hope I'm helping and putting things in a bit of perspective. I like your work and I think it's terrible that you felt unseen and like you shouldn't have tried.

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sealkode's avatar sealkode 1 month ago

Thank you for the kindest words! I'm updating my site's teaser image again right now!

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This is an amazing, colourful site that is oozing with character and vibes! Love the incredible gallery!
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knoxstation's avatar knoxstation 1 month ago

Thank you so much! Your site has so many resources aahh! I need to make a tools/software page soon! <3

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Screaming for how the puritans and conservatives got to Itch.Io via payment processing companies like they did to Steam and OnlyFans. Screaming that so few people around me knew this was going on. I need to scream more.
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humantooth's avatar humantooth 1 month ago

wait what? what happened?

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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

For a while now, Payment Processors like Paypal, Visa Mastercard and such, have been dropping support and no longer allow their payment service to be used on markets/sites with "adult"content. Now, you might reconize the pattern. They went after OnlyFans. A lobbying group told payment processors that they would never support them if they catered to adult sites. Mastercard and such love money and got convinced or -

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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

payed enough to start doing just that. Few other companies like Paypal followed them. They started with the Steam Market. They started by typing in "incest" and "rape" in the search bar and made a case those games should all be banned and payment processing companies should not be associated with that. That created a foothold for them. While there were questionable games on there, some were just Visual Novels -

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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

where the writer is exploring their own trauma. But, this gets put in the same category and gets removed by Steam in fear of losing their Payment Processor and by extention, blocking their consumers from buying games on Steam. Now, Itch.Io is hit by the same thing. They are forced to hide or remove ""Adult"" material to not lose one of the services they use to pay the creators on the site and keep the site itself up

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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

The bills and other bureaucratic pieces of paper are a little vague on what truly is 'adult material'. You might recognize the pattern here. This is slowly pushed forward, under the guise of protecting people and kids from "harmful" or "adult" material. First it's "just the extreme weirdo we're getting rid of, no worry!" then its "this has controversial subject matter, better safe then sorry!"-

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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

and so the paradigm slowly shifts. Most conservatives see a hardcore gay orgy on the same level as a fully dressed trans woman just living her life. The rethoric that being gay or anything instantly means you're a "deviant" or "degenerate" is being kept alive and is used as a weapon. And it will be used here, too. The puritan types will always pressure companies and incite them with cash. Sometimes the higher-ups of-

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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

these companies long for the "good ol' times" themselves and go along willingly and knowingly. Certain political leaders being so brazen in public and broadcasted mediums has really emboldened similar spirited people and they get more confident about being so openly malicious.

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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. TL:DR Stuff like Mastercard and Paypal doesn't want to provide their service to , what they claim to be, adult and inappropriate content. Sites and markets are caving in because these companies have massive power over them and their finances. I feel these bills and laws set a precedent to remove LGBTQIA+ content from the web.

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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

To add on this; there has already been the push to condemn and block porn sites in various countries. Whole parts of American can't even jork it to youporn clips anymore. BlueSky requires UK citizens to upload their ID to get verfied to see adult content or even DM eachother. Dystopia was always here, it just looks like crappy and rusty Blade runner instead of flashy sterile Cyberpunk.

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maniacalneocoding's avatar maniacalneocoding 1 month ago

Id just like to say this hole thing was enlightening. It interesting... I didn't know this was going on.

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cargopusher's avatar cargopusher 1 month ago

i was only made aware of this about an hour ago because of someordinarygamer's video about it. i usually listen to something while doing chores. this anti gooning shit actually bothers me

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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

Comment restriction lifted after 24 hours! To add more; Patreon was hit with this in... 2018 I believe? Payment processing companies refused service because "adult material" after a small group was able to pin-point a few isolated cases of actual bad stuff. Using these extreme examples to start the debate in their favor. Painting with broad strokes. Finding the worst to get to the mediums & later the smallest people.

virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

You cannot defeat most things in 1 fell swoop. Ideas, organizations & collectives and so on. But chipping off corners that you can paint as horrible or "degenerate" to a broader audience is how you kill something slowly. By moving goalposts over time. As the phrase goes: "Meet me in the middle! says the unjust man. You take a step forward and he takes 2 steps back. Meet me in the middle! says the unjust man."

virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

This movement of purging 'adult' material from the internet also hurts sex workers. Self-reliant people in this sector who would be on something like OnlyFan or Fansley are being pushed away and their livelihood taken away. This is also pushes people into the larger porn industry which is riddled with it's own severe problems. Let alone how a lot of art or written pieces about sexual safety & exploration are targeted

Oh! For what you're still calling a work-in-progress, this is already a goldmine for resources and guides on video editing! Amazing informative site with a fun visual vibe!
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fan-editor-junction's avatar fan-editor-junction 1 month ago

Thank you!! I really have only scratched the surface, I hope to make a bunch more guides as time allows. I am very excited and I hope this site can be a good resource to beginner editors x

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I think you may have already spotted it, but I added a little "Tutorials" page to my site and the first thing I point people to is your site and your Computer guide! Hope you're doing lovely!
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badgraph1csghost's avatar badgraph1csghost 1 month ago

i did notice <3 im glad to help

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thanks for following!
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virtually-isolated's avatar virtually-isolated 1 month ago

No problem, I love your gallery!

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CreatedMay 29, 2023
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