blog.vvn.dev

Principled platforming

A quick glance at my blog contents makes it clear that I try to operate with intention, with my values at the center of my decision-making. This prominently manifests with respect to my computing: free software wherever possible. Locally, (almost) always. For networked services, I self-host wherever I can. Centralized platforms, I maintain such a preference for freedom, where published free (optimally AGPL) server code is provided, and often allows federation (if but in theory). These options are plentiful, but many of them have such a small userbase that it strains its value in networking.

Over the past few years I've been trying to increase my exposure, for both professional marketing and for personal connection. I've accepted compromise in my platform choice. I give my business to services which are not FOSS (indeed they are not common outside tech-centric circles), in cases where their foundation, mission statement, and values align with my own. This is critical for pornographic content creation—being independent or FOSS-only isn't viable in the space. Instead, I accept websites (which do allow me to use a website for everything, and don't require I download an 'app') that are sex-, kink-, trans-positive. That support creators like myself, rather than just tolerate them, or even offer hostility (in policy or in practice).

Even with these additional resources, swearing off others still limits my reach substantially. I hold three accounts on Bluesky, which while not without administrative controversy, offers a welcoming, permissive ecosystem, with enough moderation tools to use comfortably. Yet by holding fast to this platform, I miss out on some 30× larger daily userbases offered by the likes of X, Threads, Instagram... which I can't bring myself to fold to their problematic leadership, in-your-face advertising, slanted algorithms, widespread bots and AI, and policies and community actively hostile to myself and the content I create.

Side note—you may be asking about the other direction: Mastodon, or other Fediverse platforms. I started there, before I similarly "conceded" to Bluesky. While I enjoy its principle and flexibility, the interaction and growth was sadly not valuable to me, so I sunset my activity on it.

Similarly, my longer-form pornographic content lives on Fansly, rather than leader in the space (of twice its size) OnlyFans. But most forget that OnlyFans is not a "porn platform". It's a general creator platform, more like Patreon/KoFi/etc, which happens to have picked up steam in the adult niche. They have already once tried to shut down pornographic content, and while backlash caused them to step away from that change, they hold unnecessary restrictions on content. To me these factors communicate their mere tolerance of such content—the site doesn't support these creators, as much as barely allow them to do business.

Note—of course Fansly also has restrictions on content, but these are mostly transparently tailored to ones imposed by financial systems, which is a separate issue.

So, I know creators can get by on these favorable platforms alone. But it's harder! By swearing off the largest sites, it feels like leaving money on the table. Yet I hold fast—this money feels dirty to me, and any further concession feels like "selling out". But is it? Are my rules too strict, too hard on myself to where I hurt myself to maintain a principle? It wouldn't be the first time.

I use some "grey area" platforms already. I don't market on Discord (and often speak against it in favor of other, open platforms in its class, a class which has a substantially different use case than the other platforms mentioned anyway), but several of my communities exist online exclusively on it, thus I remain tethered to it. After years without an account, I also find myself back on reddit. The communities there are seldom palatable, and the closing of their API should have disqualified them from my use... yet I see them shy of an 'evil' company, yet one which offers substantial exposure to tailored markets—a presence I don't really feel great about, but doesn't feel like a betrayal of myself.

I've recently seen peers, marketing on a larger site—they forwardly admit it is compromise for reach and interaction. But to facilitate this, they self-censor. Obfuscating words like "porn", and even "transsexual", so as to not get deplatformed by the site itself. I abhor the implication of this: that these words—these very concepts, of sex work and of simply being trans—are acceptable to censor, to admit that it's okay to agree that they should not be seen. This reads as a gross breach of integrity to me, and one that further scares me away from these platforms. If I have to hide myself to use a service, I don't want anything to do with that service. The thought disgusts me, and reinforces my position against giving these platforms any of my time or effort.

Yet still, I often wonder if there's another middle ground to my middle ground of my middle ground. If my boundaries are properly positioned, to balance my ability to engage with others and to do business, with inherent statement of support via my very patronage of the platforms I choose to be a part of. These thresholds have changed before, and maybe they will again. Maybe they won't have to! The important thing, I think, is that I don't lose sight of myself along the way.

If you want to follow my socials and support my art and content, here are the ones I am active on, which I like and support and feel supported by: