Why I'm leaving Saucepan.ai

(cw: discussion of racism, sexual violence themes, slavery, rape, torture, gore, zoophilia)

I reported a user (handle: Aurelie Catena) on Saucepan after discovering the level of depravity she was openly advertising on the site. My reports were closed with no action. I'm posting this timeline because I'm not the only one who's reported her and been told the same thing, and I think people considering the site deserve to know how this was handled.

The bot

Aurelie published a bot called "Slavery Barn." Its system prompt explicitly broke down captive characters by race and stated outright that Black and Asian characters were to be treated worse than others, with instructions for NPCs to use hateful/degrading language "without provocation." After this was exposed publicly, she edited the bot's definitions — but only after the callout, not before.

the raw defs from jannyai

the defs also state this is a MODERN setting
^^This will be important later.^^

Here is Saucepan's own Arita model confirming what was in the defs

I wont even get into her "Big Black Cove" bot rn.

She was previously banned from a different platform (JanitorAI) for a similar bot, which she has described as a "historically accurate 17th century slave trade bot." There is no public record of this bot or its definitions so I'm unable to confirm if it was this innocent, however, she states she reworked the bot and its not sexual, despite having sexual defs

Meanwhile, the bot:

The Fetlife account

Her Saucepan profile links out to a Fetlife account containing self-insert fiction centered on the torture, rape, and abuse of enslaved characters, with a recurring focus on Black and Asian victims specifically. She has defended this publicly as acceptable because the characters are fictional.


the classic "my friend wrote it, not me!!

The 31 slurs i was referencing:

She claims this story was written 20 years ago, but reposted it on her fetlife 4 years ago, and she has made at least 1 bot based on the slave character that her self-insert violently rapes and tortures.

note:

shes removed her fetlife from her profile, here's proof that it was there.

Back to Saucepan and how their staff responded

I opened a support ticket flagging the linked Fetlife content under Saucepan's own Community Guidelines (Rule 3: profiles linking to malicious content are bannable). Staff response, in summary:

• The bot has "already been handled" per their guidelines/ToS. (it hadnt)
• They can't act on the Fetlife content because it's off-site. (fair, but allowing her to link it to her profile is something they can act on)
• On the bot specifically, staff argued that instructing NPCs to treat Black and Asian characters "worse" doesn't glorify violence, since it's "historically accurate" that those groups were treated worse historically — and that stating a historical fact isn't the same as condoning it. (remember earlier, the fact that the bot is set in MODERN TIMES. This seems like a slippery slope that would allow so much NSFL content as long as its "historically accurate". Also, i would argue that she is condoning it by explicitly sexualizing and fetishizing it.)
• It was insinuated that I'm just sensitive, and I should just block/hide her.
  
  

Older history

Before any of this, she ran a now-deleted Tumblr blog. Why does this matter? Because since this came out publicly and she was called out on it, she has since deleted "problematic" bots, her fetlife link, and added a disclaimer to all of her bots stating the bots do not reflect her real-life opinions. This is so obviously a lie.

Im not gonna have the images here due to the graphic nature of them, click the link to see them. (pixeldump is a local file host that I use because catbox and I have issues, nothing sketchy i promise)

Tw racism, abuse, rape, kidnapping
TW misogyny, abuse, rape, zoophilia
Tw racism, abuse, rape
Tw racism, abuse, rape

This is the woman whose very obviously racially charged bots are being protected by Saucepan.

Why this matters to me

None of this is about her having a kink I don't share, or writing dark fiction- that alone wouldn't be my business. It's that:

1. A live, public-facing bot was coded to escalate abuse specifically against Black and Asian characters, and was only quietly edited once someone caught it.
2. When reported, the platform's own staff defended that design choice as "historically accurate" (despite it being a modern setting) rather than treating it as a red flag.
3. Multiple people have reported this account and gotten the same non-answer.

I'm leaving Saucepan over this. Posting this mainly so other users can make an informed choice, and so there's a public record of how a direct, documented report was handled.

This isn't a call to action.

I dont condone bullying, harassment, or witch hunts, I'm simply laying the facts (all of which are public and easily found with a simple google search)

Aurelie has explicitly said she has a humiliation kink, going after her is genuinely something she would get off to. Dont dm her or comment on her bots or attack her. The issue I'm trying to highlight is how Saucepan handles clearly NSFL content, and protects it, despite it being genuinely damaging to interact with. I understand wanting to protect your creators, and as a creator I can appreciate the sentiment, but this is not the type of creator that should be getting protected.

update:

so as ive been working on compiling all of this, after my ticket with Saucepan, she has completely updated her profile, removing the fetlife link, taking down the Slavery Barn and Big Black Cove bots, and adding this disclaimer to her profile:

My bots are fictional entities written for roleplay only. They do not reflect my real life opinions or way of life. Roleplay is a place where you can pretend to live things that would be dangerous and stupid for real. Never mix up fantasy and reality.
I'm not responsible of what the LLM may write. They are prone to hallucinate

and all of her bots with

Disclaimer:
This bot is a work of fiction intended only for roleplay. It does not represent the real-life opinions of its author.

We can clearly see these are her real-life opinions because she has been making content like this for years. Also, pre-emptively blaming the LLM in case she is called out for when screenshots like mine are shared around.

After briefly posting about my troubles, without naming names, I've literally had people reaching out and naming her, already familiar with her and the content she creates, and sharing their experiences of her with me. Its honestly crazy that somebody that I'd never even heard of before 2 days ago is so infamous in our community.

you may be thinking, "well pippy whats the problem? the content is gone!" the issue is the inaction and the lack of concern by the saucepan team. the only reason the content was removed is because shes scared of getting banned. she will continue to create works that are harmful to the community because she doesnt think theres any wrong in it, which is displayed in how she talks about and defends about her jai ban.

also, just as a heads up, she is going through the comments on my posts and blocking anyone who has anything nice to say to me about it, so if you dont wanna get blocked by her dont comment i guess 😭

update 2

saucepan mods are just replying to all concerns with a copy and paste message. really makes you feel seen, doesnt it?

update 3

okaaayyyyy Saucepan comments time

so, X is a sp dev, for clarification.

i didn't bother replying to this one. it felt (to me) like an attempt to look like they cared. idrc, its fine, whatever, pr stuff, I get it.

next, speaks for itself i thinks

"ur wrong!" to "well our legal definitions are broad ur just trying to justify ur departure" 🫩

and the official Saucepan comment;

and my response, which I'll just paste instead of ss because im lazy ( I do have ss though, yk i ALWAYS have receipts )

This is honestly so exhausting atp.

we were unable to take action on the reported content because, by the time the reports from you and yours friends came in, the content had already been updated to fit within our guidelines.

"You and your friends" comes across as dismissive and minimizes the fact that multiple independent creators submitted reports. I only knew of one other person who reported it alongside me initially. After that, people independently reached out to me because they'd received the same copy and paste response. This wasn't simply "Pippa and her friends" coordinating reports it wass independent creators and users with genuine concerns.

Saying you were "unable" to act is confusing. If the issue is that your moderation policies didn't permit action once the content had been edited, then say that. "Unable" implies you literally lacked the ability, which isn't accurate.

This also raises concerns about how your moderation process works. If users can avoid consequences simply by editing content after reports are submitted but before they're reviewed, that creates an obvious loophole.

That said, we would like to note that before the update took place, we would have be in a better position to take action about it. But unfortunately, because of the way this ended up reported to us after callout had happened, we were left with a lack of actual cause to moderate, and could only do as our rules dictate: make note and keep it in mind.

This is objectively incorrect. My callout includes screenshots showing that I reported the content before making the post. The reports existed first.

From the screenshots on the Rentry; yes, our rules allow content that may be graphic or deplorable so long as it does not glorify situations from history or violence. We understand that the response you got was unsatisfactory and we strive to always take feedback into consideration. We've since started a review of what would be considered allowed and are working on updating our rules to tighten our definitions of what glorifying entails.

The content wasn't depicting a historical setting or attempting historical accuracy, it was a modern day scenario built around sexualizing a historical atrocity. I don't see a meaningful distinction there. Turning a real world historical tragedy into fetish content is, in my view, a form of glorification or, at minimum, something your policies should explicitly address.

Unfortunately, for the content in question, even after tightened guidelines, it would ultimately still not been sufficient cause for a ban; a suspension at most. If it was a repeated behaviour, then eventually perhaps, but with the current content it would not have ended up with a ban which we believe would be the satisfactory (and only) outcome you and your friends would have been happy with

Again, "you and your friends" as a way to minimize the people who submitted reports about this is very disrespectful and belittling. My concern has never been centered on one account receiving a ban. My concern is the moderation standard being applied. I'd much rather see clearer policies that prevent users from being exposed to genuinely hateful or fetishized content going forward.

The fact that this has escalated to this point is honestly unbelievable. I'm a very small creator. My post could have been ignored and very few people would have ever seen it. Instead, a developer publicly spread false information and responded with passive aggressive comments, and now this response continues to contain factual inaccuracies. That doesn't inspire confidence that this situation has been handled fairly or professionally.

--
thats it for now. im honestly done with it atp. im so burned out. my professional opinion?
1- saucepan needs to seriously look at how they moderate and their guidelines, and maybe invest in a pr team or pr training idk
2- why are we being petty as grown ass adults with jobs. like at most read my complaints, maybe think about them for a bit, and move on. this back and forth is so unnecessary. im one nobody, it doesn't matter if people think im dumb or dont like me, Saucepan is a whole ass company trying to make money, dropping down to this level of passive aggressiveness is not the way to do it
3- apparently I have more friends than I thought. my mom will be so proud 🥹