i agree with others who have said that likely the most fruitful thing to do is pay attention to lobbyist groups, payment providers, etc. rather than small marketplaces such as itch which they target. are there legal avenues, ways to go after their funding, etc.?
bring back mail order games. get all that stuff off their books. get paid directly in cash as much as possible.
i was in germany recently and was shocked at how dominant cash payment was with many places not taking cards. its protection people should be considering. the extra effort/risks could be worth it if the government locks you out of your bank accounts.
yeah mail order games! i have been selling games locally but i've been selling keys. i suppose one could do USB drives...
thats cool as heck. could do some kind of deal like there was with glass bottles (return the usb to get discount, maybe even some .pngs n stuff)
oh that's a great idea, i love that. what i've been doing is like little attractive hand made physical artifacts, like this letterfold. they have an itch key in them. it's been really fun to do this, so i'm always trying to spread the concept!
addendum: link to itch's post on adult content. itch.io/updates/upda...
the biggest complaint about itch isn't really about the ban but the way it was handled, they really had no option, payment processors were threatening to basically kill the site, but itch did a wide ban with no warning and is withholding pay from many people
It sounds reprehensible, but is itch doing those things by its own choice, or are the payment processors forcing it to do so?
the usual vector (which seems to be the case here as well, according to their statement) is that payment providers can literally cut off revenue for the platform completely if they don't comply. but they do have choices about particulars like communication, whether listings stay up, etc.
payment processors are forcing them under threat of effectively killing the site, but it was known itch was the next target after steam, collective shout publicly said that and itch seemed to completely ignore the warning and had no plan, this is the biggest complaint directed at them
itch doesnt really have a way to fight back, but they also handled the situation in the worst possible way
other companies who faced similar censorship handled it in better ways, gumroad kept content already being processed and just blocked new purchases, steam delisted but didn't remove, the biggest annoyance with itch was the lack of warning
people are sharing channels, id say check ana valen's profile, she retweeted a lot of resources (i linked a post of her on another reply), there are petitions and some people are directly calling/emailing visa and mastercard to complain
i agree completely, in conversations with others i've said that even though they have their hands tied, there are still conversations to be had around communication, advance warning, collectively finding an agreeable solution, etc.
the gumroad approach seems a lot more effective and impacts creators less!