Apparently, the way I've been interacting with my customers via DriveThruRPG's customer email feature is problematic.
People complained, DriveThru issued some kind of email warning (which I didn't receive), I sent out another "inappropriate" email to my customers, and now I don't have access to my publisher's account.
Is it so wrong to engage with my customers in an alternative, outside-the-box fashion? Is joking around that great a sin? Am I corrupting the youth? Do I deserve cancellation, never to be seen again? Ask yourself, what would Communist China do? Whatever that is, Americans should probably do the opposite.
Of course, that's just my opinion. Who am I? Just some guy who's written the books over there on the right-hand sidebar. Yeah, what do I know?
I don't entirely blame DriveThru for their actions. I wouldn't want customers complaining to me, either. But just imagine, if you will, a world where gamers take time out of their busy day to complain about a couple of humorous emails to the big corporation, so that... what? An independent creator gets in trouble, gets temporarily (tentacles crossed) shut down?
Just another reason why we've fallen so far from grace. Especially in a year like 2020. Keep it up, guys. Another asteroid is surely on its way.
VS
Goddamn... is there any decent alternative to DTRPG?
ReplyDeleteThe problem is the whole chain. DTRPG has most of the market share for PDF sales. Even if they let you through the gate, a handful of payment processors (paypal, stripe, etc.) can choke off your ability to get paid. Even if they don't actively block you, the credit card companies themselves (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, AMEX) will choke you.
DeleteThe left does this with content they don't like fairly often. The government does this with stuff they don't like (pot stores being a good example- legal at the state level in some places, but forced to pay staff, taxes, rent, etc. with cash because the banks can't deal with them. Oh, and the IRS wants its cut of your "illegally acquired" gains, so you have to fork over cash to them, too.).
Bypassing DTRPG will solve today's problem, but tomorrow the authoritarians (left or right leaning) will simply move to a different spot to apply pressure.
Add facebook, twitter, google, youtube, etc. to the mix for a community building/marketing perspective (mewe, parler, minds, lbry, etc. are making some inroads there).
What were the contents of the emails?
ReplyDeletePeople were talking after the 1st email... a lot of people. Just said that I was totally baked. In the other email I compared online RPG conventions to online orgies in terms of stimulation.
DeleteShow us the screen shots and let us decide if you behaved how you believe you appeared to have behaved
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I saw the 1st (might have been eaten by the Google failure on Monday). The second is as described. I saw it, thought about it, and moved on. If I can get folks in trouble for every inappropriate email I get, I'm going to happily deplatform a LOT of businesses that junk up my mailbox. At least with VS's DTRPG posts, if they bothered me enough to want to stop them, my wish would have been honored quickly, not the several weeks that the big companies claim (and at least one took multiple attempts over multiple months to make them shut the (bleep) up and stop contacting me.
DeleteScreenshots of what? I'm sure someone has posted screenshots of those customer emails. They went out to over 5k gamers If you're talking about something else, let me know.
DeleteIf annoyed you would think folks would just unsubscribe. Who would take the time to complain? By the way I though the second one was funny.
ReplyDeleteI am just disappointed that DriveThruRPG didn't send me one of your publisher emails...I could have used some entertaining email. I am weary of the cancel-culture/Karen types and besides: it's the product that matters...so I ordered the hardcover of Fuchsia Malaise. :)
ReplyDeleteMan that sucks. I actually liked you emails. I thought they were funny and who complains about 2 small jokes that had literally zero offensive content?
ReplyDeleteCome on man, Karens do. (ducks)
DeleteThat's the way Capitalism works, dude. Money is king. Some customer complains to the company, and whatever the customer doesn't like goes away. It's called "Freedom". Yeah, some people suffer, but that's the price of freedom. What do you want? Congress to pass a law restricting corporate rights to treat you like Bleep?
ReplyDeleteIdeally, DTRPG would realize that the risk of pissing some people off is the small price for greatness... and riches. I'm a capitalist, too.
Delete