Legal Stuff/Content Freeze (Patreon)

I realize that myself and my content are often a magnet for outlandish circumstances on social media, and I'm not exactly doing well at avoiding it while preserving my own personal standards regarding honesty and standing up for myself.

I'm trying very hard to write this post while balancing on a tight rope between being clear about what is going on while encouraging my supporters to not "take sides" or involve themselves. It's already embarrassing. I will not be naming names or groups in this post. Some of you may know something about the situation I'm referring to. If so, please do not name names or groups here.

Last week someone from a small company's Discord server had filed complaints with multiple companies and organizations (some large, some small), that detailed  exaggerated, false, and unsubstantiated allegations about my behavior on that server. Understandably, things need to be taken extremely seriously on a formal level with larger organizations.

Statements need to be written, attorneys need to be filled in, and chat logs need to be collected from a 3rd party (in this case, Discord itself as the moderator of that channel is unresponsive). Until then, a lot of things have to freeze or be reviewed by legal council. Certain words will need to be banned on YouTube channels for a little while, and some comments regarding the situation may be flagged or hidden on Discord. I'm extremely against any type of censorship, but it is what it is. 

The legal fees are also extremely expensive, and has gobbled up the budgets for 3 different science videos (2, if you don't count AI-enhanced UFC fighters as science). Additionally, I can't work directly or closely with audio companies or retailers until the situation has been either resolved by the complainant or the HR/legal departments of the organizations the complainant involved. Within 5 days, the situation has cost more than 3 months of Patreon + YouTube AdSense payments. I'm not sure yet whether I intend on seeking damages in the future. I just want this to be over with and don't want to hurt other artists or small companies. 

Sim Selections can still happen this month, and I may be able to do streams with very careful planning. But the more important part of this message is that I'm extremely thankful for this community and its support. It makes extremely emotionally and financially difficult situations like this worth it. I'll keep everyone updated, and I understand entirely if the slower release of content in this period makes you want to take a Patreon break. 

Cheers, from a very noisy hotel in glorious Gallup, NM.