The thread, pretty much. Very disappointing to read so many of these responses.
If you're doing work, and you're not being paid for that work, but other people are doing the exact same type of work as you, and ARE being paid for it, that's inherently exploitative and their's absolutely no justification for it. Doesn't matter how much people scream "but they agreed to it," "but the exposure," etc, if you're paying one person for a certain type of work but also have another group of people doing the same work but not getting paid for it, that's just not a thing that should happen, EVER (as if that work is worth paying one person for when they do it, it's worth paying everyone for, you don't get to pick and choose) , for any reason, and shame on any employer for letting that happen to begin with, as they're the ones that ultimately call the shots, they're the ones that put those systems into place in the first place, they have every ability to shut that down and stop it from ever being a thing to begin with if they give the most SINGLE SOLITARY FUCK about anyone who works for them, and so I will not tolerate any shifting of blame or fault there as it's something that ultimately starts and ends with the employers themselves, and shame on them for doing this to their employees and putting these systems into place in the first place which shouldn't exist under any circumstances.
That, and as we're learning in this thread, it seems there's multiple accounts now of people saying Chucklefish promising them "future pay" which they never got, making it that much worse. That's on Chucklefish before anyone else, they're the ones that allowed that to happen and it wouldn't happen without them deliberately trying to pull a fast one like that and exploit them, and so I will put it on them above all else and will not tolerate trying to shift fault to anyone else in any way.