@margot

I am not trying to weaponize anyone's story. Gio already did, and I was assessing the accuracy of those claims. And make no mistake: none of the people involved were treated the way Gio describes his experience. I know that, I was never trying to imply otherwise.

The result of that assessment was not me trying to venerate Gio or his rhetoric; I think he's exaggerating big-time. My tone may not have brought this across properly, but I broadly believe all of these exist in "Hussie shouldn't have done that, but it's mostly a big nothing" territory. But regardless of Gio's framing, a kernel of truth exists here, the claims of "Homestuck fanworks have never been at threat" and "HS fan creators were monetizing okay before now) can at least be disputed.

Saying "it's fine because things never got that bad" doesn't sit well with me, because this still rests on putting trust in Andrew to not escalate things where they shouldn't. And, well...! Sometimes they do! Creators harboring no ill will towards the company doesn't mean the decisions were right, and 3 of them (possibly 4) not getting C&D'd just shows we're not jumping the gun and going scorched-earth on them, which I never disputed. But I don't think it's speculation or even a stretch to say that an IP holder is exerting power when they tell you you can't get money for your thing based on their work, C&D or not.

I brought each of these up because I assumed they were the worst examples Gio had of "Homestuck fanworks under threat". If there exists better, more-specific examples of this, I don't know about them, because as I've said, my level of immersion is shallower than a lot of people here who have been consuming Homestuck fanworks for a decade. That's part of why I'm still talking about this at all, my only bias is liking some stuff Hussie made. I have no allegiance to any of these people. I am awaiting your future post, as you say, but still think this stuff is worth considering. I'm not making any call to action here, I'm mostly trying to square away my own beliefs on this, and I think talking about it can help us understand this situation and possible future problems better. It's the most-neutral space I've had to actually discuss it, since previously all I had were unincorporated social media spaces, or else the reddit and discord that would necessitate dealing with Makin.

As for the overseer thing, sure, okay, I guess that does constitute speculation on my part. I'm just baffled by the phrasing of "mostly fake" from James. Like...it's an email. Either WP sent it or they didn't.