Gumroad Protest
If you are a VRChat creator, or you love supporting them, please read this
I have decided to move my main storefront to Payhip due to the fact that Gumroad has been abusing many VRChat creators.
It has been a slow and steady decline over the past few years, but Gumroad has deteriorated into a shell of its former self. What used to be a fantastic website for self-employment and selling digital goods has become a corporation that wants to dip their fingers into more of its seller's earnings, while also bending over to Paypal and Mastercard's absurd demands.
Innocent VRChat creators are randomly being punished and suspended from their platform because of their new AI moderation, which will pretty much look at any sort of furry or piece of clothing as "NSFW" which the AI can then choose to suspend your account.
All the while, actual NSFW content are reigning at the top of the VRChat section of Gumroad, some of my content is actually NSFW, but for some reason, I have not been targeted.
I have reasons to believe (but not significant proof) that Gumroad is cherry-picking some high profiting NSFW creators to not ban, and that I could possibly be included outside of my will.
Even though I have gone unpunished, I will not stand idly as many of my creator friends are randomly being punished for no valid reason.
Until Gumroad decides I am worthy of suspension, all of my products will be more expensive on Gumroad, and the normal price will be here on Payhip.
If I am suspended from Gumroad, I will not get on my knees and beg them to let me back in, Gumroad is a sinking ship that I want off of, and I only choose to put my content on there still because a lot of customers still shop there over other platforms.
If You Are a VRChat Customer:
Please, I urge you, if the creator you want to support and purchase wares from has their goods on other platforms or services, consider purchasing there instead.
This not only hurts Gumroad by not giving them a percentage of a creator's earnings, but it also gives more of your money to the creator if the revenue split is not as terrible as Gumroad's is.
By purchasing on other platforms, you are opening the door to newer, less abusive platforms towards VRChat creators, and you are directly telling Gumroad that you will not stand for their actions.
A happy creator makes more, and higher quality content for you to enjoy.
If You Are a VRChat Creator:
It is understandable if the thought of moving away from Gumroad is an intimidating concept. Even today, roughly half my views and sales come from Gumroad's Discover system.
However, please do not let this deter you. No one says you have to do a complete hard switch from Gumroad, but maybe start offering your products on other platforms, give Gumroad something to worry about and give them good reason to try to improve the quality of their website for sellers.
As of right now, Gumroad has made it clear that they do not want us any more, and that they are trying to get rid of or sanitize us.
Payhip is a very promising website that has a lot of features to empower creators of all kinds instead of making them fear if they will have a job every day. It also has started to develop a promising search system with a section for VRChat all to itself, on top of that, it also offers a better revenue split for you.
I urge you to weigh your options, and maybe just give another website a try on the side, set up a shop on Payhip, Jinxxy, Itch.io, or any other marketplace that is normal for VRChat content just to see how it goes.
Any VRChat content creator on Gumroad can get hit with a suspension at any time, I have seen it happen numerous times now to many different creators, so just take that into consideration going into the future.
If You Work For Gumroad's Company:
There are better solutions to solving your NSFW "problem" then training some dogshit AI to be the equivalent of a blindfolded man with a shotgun firing in random directions.
Either ban NSFW, or don't. Don't sit here and allow some of your NSFW top sellers to sit unphased while you ban random people who are completely innocent and not even breaking your rules.
Offering your sellers crypto as a way of selling NSFW content is also an utterly brainless concept that I'm surprised even made it past it just being an idea.
Your media manager needs to be replaced, there has been numerous times the Gumroad twitter account has posted something, describing it in some incredibly terrible way, which then causes creators to riot over something that's not even happening. At least have someone else proofread these tweets before you post them for god's sake.
Work with your sellers to make a system that your sellers can be happy with. While VRChat content is not the only content on Gumroad, it does make up a significant portion of your content, if you bully all of them off of your platform you will soon find a massive hole in your profits.
The earliest VRChat sellers chose your platform, but it could of been any other platform that became the norm if they simply chose anything else. You are lucky to have VRChat creators on your website at all. If they knew what you would of became, they likely would of never even chose you.
Whatever you choose to do next, tread carefully, because many other creators are getting sick of your shit too. You're teetering on the edge of an exodus, one that I am trying to push because of your behavior.
It may put my earnings in danger, however, it is worth it to me to make this move. I believe every creator should be treated fairly, and should have a place they can sell their content without having to stress about the platform they are selling on possibly banning them for no reason, thus ruining their income.
By making this choice, I am trying to open the door for more platforms to be widely used for selling and buying VRChat content.
Please consider the words I have written here, as they mean a lot to me, and making content for VRChat means a lot to other people too.