#Aethy

[brettdoesdiscourse]

Why I'm leaving Aethy and you probably should too

So, I already made a post about the fact Aethy has suddenly banned pro para and pro radqueer people. (Not even just people who are paraphiles or radqueers, just anyone who voices any support for them at all.) Which you can read about here

But the staff at Aethy has also started showing signs of being vindictive and demeaning. My account was limited the first time (after I made a post on there complaining about aethy which they weren't tagged in nor did I tag anything on it) for having "pro para" in my bio. I believe this was retaliation for my post complaining. They commented this on my post. Keep in mind that they weren't tagged nor was anything tagged. This is the staff who found my post and decided to argue with me on it.

Either way, I removed that from my bio and my account was no longer limited.

However, today, my account was limited again. This time, they offered no content that was against TOS nor an actual rule I had broken. The left features the first limitation I received when my account was actually breaking TOS, the second is the one I received after they were upset with me.

Your stance on radqueers or paras aside, I don't appreciate a site where the staff is lashing at or swearing at its users. This site is supposed to be for adults, yet it seems to be run by children. I also find it very uncomfortable that a site that markets themselves as an anti censorship site is telling users to shut up because nobody wants to hear their takes.

[prismatoxic]

on aethy's unexpected downtime

hello tumblr-bound aethy users! i carry news from staff (bc i am staff)

our image service provider just up and stopped working yesterday, and after trying to ascertain the issue, our admin (taullo) took the site fully down. this was intentional! aethy is not dead, hacked, deleted, or anything of that sort.

we do not know the issue yet. customer service has been monumentally unhelpful, taullo has no other correspondence from the company, and their status page reports no unusual outages.

if something is wrong--if we have been booted from the platform, for instance--aethy won't die, we'll just have to find a new host. we don't know if that's the case yet. try not to worry, we'll be trying to get back up as soon as possible.

in the meantime you are welcome to join the discord, which has a bot bridging posts between it and our matrix server as well. (tumblr does not like me trying to link the matrix, but if you mouse over the tab at the bottom of aethy's offline page, there's a link there.)

you can also just say nice things to me and i'll pass them onto taullo. you can imagine how stressful this has been for them. hang tight! we'll sort this out.

UPDATE: we know the issue now! and it's stupid as fuckall so we'll be switching image service providers. (whatever you're thinking, it's genuinely stupider than that.)

taullo is getting all our files (may have finished by now?) so there won't be any media loss. i'm not sure how long it will take us to find + set up with a new provider, but as before you're more than welcome to join the discord/matrix where taullo has been posting updates themself, and it's easier to keep everyone up to speed. i'll also keep everyone updated here as i can but please do not feel obligated to follow me, my blog is a mess LMAO.

aethy will be fine, don't worry. if you're concerned at all about how taullo foots the entirety of aethy's service fees, you can sponsor them on github here, where all money will go straight to them. our mastodon fork, ruffy, also has a patreon, which goes to the same place but patreon does take a cut.

tumblr does not amend edited posts the way mastodon does (boo) so please reblog this version if you see it! taullo is very stressed out and aggravated at our ex-image service provider, so support is still appreciated. thank you all for your patience!

[phantasm-masquerade]

people talking about moving to aethy... i'm going back into my joker arc

[taullo]

It's weird watching people who are younger than yourself try to twist themselves into knots to come up with outlandish conspiracy theories. At least boomers have the excuse that they grew up with lead paint and nuclear fallout to justify their weird Q-Anon conspiracy brainworms. "I got banned from site where I talk about my anime boyfriend" is so much less metal sounding.

[werewolf-cuddles]

aaaaaand there it is lmao

The Aethy mods literally banned me for criticizing them for banning people for criticizing them.

You can't make this shit up

[aethycom]

Why Aethy?

We're a free community run social fediverse site (18+) that focuses on fostering a creative environment! We don't run ads, we don't sell your data, and we don't kowtow to the whims of financial institutions. We promote the principles of progressive ideology to create a diverse environment safe from hate speech.

In contrast to other environments, we're also a completely sex positive space that also takes a hardline stance against hate speech while being committed to protecting the principles of consent! We realize that kink culture has an important place in our society and we don't agree with the attacks on it in recent times. We have a completely open door policy on all fictional kinks (yes, including so-called "problematic" ones). We realize that fictional kink play is similar to watching violent movies in that enjoyment of it doesn't correlate to real life desires.

We also realize that in addition to allowing kink, consent is vital. While all sorts of fictional kink, violence, or other types of content of sensitive content is allowed, we foster an environment where Content Warnings are given before viewing said content. We also don't allow anyone that infringes on the bodily autonomy of others, including a zero tolerance policy toward those who believe minors can consent to sexual or romantic contact with adults, or that animals can consent to sexual or romantic contact with humans. Anyone who even entertains ideologies that violate the rules of consent is removed from the website. Our policies were crafted from the perspective of someone who suffered through this type of abuse as a minor, so we know full well how violations of consent can cause lasting trauma.

If that sounds great to you, check us out! We run a custom fork of Mastodon called "Ruffy" that allows for a more feature rich experience! Unlike most fediverse sites, we have blog length posts (up to 100k characters!) that allow for rich text formatting. We also allow up to 20 images per post with high resolution image uploads. Then we also have fun features like emoji reactions and searchable GIFs!

You can learn more, here:

[fuqer]

if anyone's curious what actually went down with the aethy "drama:"

1. someone posted art that wasnt theirs and the admin took it down

2. said person threw a fit about it, claimed it was "censorship" to not allow reuploaded artwork that they didn't have permission to use, and insulted other people and staff

3. they were temporarily suspended and in response, one of their friends made a new mastodon instance for themselves

4. friend group started insulting & spreading false rumors about aethy's staff on their instance and off of the fediverse

5. aethy suspended the instance, and now these people are actively harassing aethy's staff via email and through their aethy accounts and are continuing to spread hate & disinfo

[catgirl-catboy]

what are the issues with the aethy staff? I've been considering setting up a blog there but I haven't heard anything about them

They didn't like people complaining about them on other websites, and wouldn't answer my questions on how vague their terms of service were. (maybe they're stupid questions, but I legitimately didn't understand, possibly due to neurodivergence) The moment someone doesn't allow you to state an honest opinion about their site, all positive reports from it become unreliable.

As a whole, they seemed really petty and inexperienced.

[the-bar-sinister]

I get intimidated by new spaces. Do you have any recommendations for settling into a new site?

Specifically, Aethy? Can I really feel safe to post any (fictional) content I make? How do I navigate it? Is there a Drafts section?

That's a good question, honestly. We're also very intimidated by new places and platforms; it takes us a long time to get comfortable on a new site.

I think the best method is to just jump in and try shit.

Unfortunately I don't think aethy lets you save drafts.

[brettdoesdiscourse]

What is Aethy? And is it worth it?

A lot of you have probably seen people posting their usernames on Aethy and telling you that you can follow them there, but what is it? And more importantly, is it worth your time?

Aethy is a website that was created in response to new rules being enforced in fandom spaces. It aims to be a space that's safe for all types of fiction, as long as it has the appropriate content warnings.

The site itself operates as a mix between Twitter and Tumblr. Users can post text, videos, gifs, photos, etc. You can tag each post using hashtags similar to Twitter and you can search through each tag by chronological order like Tumblr. You can also follow tags similar to Tumblr.

The content is widely nsfw, though there's plenty of other types of content too. Discourse is discouraged by the userbase to help create a fun, carefree website. It's exclusively made to appeal to pro ship or neutral people, so there's no need to worry about large numbers of antis being present.

Smut is welcomed, even fanart. So it helps support artists and creators by not limiting their artwork.

You can like or "favorite" posts. You can "boost" them which is essentially just retweeting/reblogging. You can also bookmark and reply to posts.

Some reasons people might not like it is the low userbase, age restrictions, and lack of some popular features.

At this time, you cannot direct message anyone. You can privately mention them which functions similar to dms. They will be under the "conversations" tab.

There's no way to send an "ask" or anything similar to that.

And as of right now, lower numbers of people have created accounts. But more and more people are joining every single day.

Due to the nature of the content posted, Aethy is 18+ only.

Aethy can be found here if anyone wants to check it out

*Disregard this post, Aethy has since become an awful site. The staff and mods are not great. They tend to not tell users why they've been suspended, retaliate against users they dislike, curse at their users in derogatory ways, and have also been accused of harassment among other things. Read more about it in this post and the replies on it. They have also since changed their rules and are now not welcoming of anti contact para, radqueers, or anyone who supports them.*

[prismatoxic]

ok. let's clear some things up.

so there's this callout post going around on twitter right now for someone who is, in a word, dangerous. they are a pro-contact MAP and zoophile and they run a mastodon instance that allows minors, NSFW, and people of all contact stances to share a space. very bad!

now, this person is extremely open about their stances, so callouts are kind of useless to start with because if someone is interacting with this person, they know damn well who they are. they're really not hiding it.

the main issue with these callouts, however, is the free advertisement they give to that mastodon instance i mentioned. that's right! to help people "avoid" this place, these callout posts blatantly spell out the name of the instance (as well as another like it), which... makes it very easy for people to find these extremely dangerous places!

that's advertisement. straight up. i don't care what your intentions were, you are giving people an easy way to directly go to these places. it's like antis who share CSEM in callouts. like... that's bad? don't fucking show that to people to prove your point.

so these callouts are ineffective at best and harmful at worst. and then people started trying to post them to aethy. (fwiw, we blocked both those instances ages ago, as well as anyone openly posting in support of them who had accounts federated with us/on aethy itself.)

so take into account the issues i've presented above, and now add to that rule number 3 on aethy:

read that a few times for me. really let it sink in.

if you think an instance or user are a problem, report them to us. we will take care of it. if someone associates with a person like the one in these callouts, tell us about that, too! because we also have a rule in that vein:

it is our job to keep our platform safe. help us do that. do not be a vigilante.

and furthermore, if you break a rule on aethy, and then you're shitty to staff about it? taullo does not have any qualms banning you. i may be a forgiving little doormat, but taullo owns the site and taullo does not take abuse lying down. some of you need to remember that aethy is not a big name platform like tumblr or twitter. taullo pays for it exclusively themselves. they code it entirely on their own as well. aethy is their house and if you are a shitty guest they have every right to kick you out. that said, such bans are uncommon.

in fact, only two such bans were made this month. so if you see one of those banned users claiming aethy is censoring detractors en masse and "imploding", do know that they are lying to your face.

finally, here's a reminder to read the rules of the sites you use. they do have meaning. even if you disagree with them, breaking them does mean staff has a right to inflict you with consequences. try to keep that in mind?

[phantasm-masquerade]

Well. It turns out that Aethy is a dumpster fire. Taullo is not only an anti-para adultist (which we been knew), but they’re also a bona fide cop, too.

For now, you can find me at https://asteroidm.space/@bigbrothermonika

[shrimpmandan]

hey since I know you also use aethy - is it also giving you a weird bad gateway message with a dvd player background? I looked it up and haven't found anything answering why is it like that

Hmm yeah I just checked up and it is. It's possible that it's just down temporarily and will be back shortly. Don't know how long it's been going on for though, since I don't use the site quite as much as I used to.

[werewolf-cuddles]

Anyway, don't join Aethy lmao. The mods are on a power trip over justified criticism and the site is imploding as a result.

[aethycom]

Callouts

We've watched firsthand how callouts have destroyed people lives. Anyone on the internet has seen the witch hunts that spawn from them and the damage they cause. Oftentimes they're filled with mistruths or overstatement of harm. Some people get callouts over drawings. Some people get callouts over having friends that someone else doesn't like.

But what about the cases where someone is abusive? Where perhaps the person holds abusive ideals related to consent or hold violent beliefs?

Honestly, we still believe the culture of callouts needs to stop. Aethy is known for being tough on predators so we understand firsthand the frustration with predatory people on the internet. But callouts will never be the way to properly handle them. When encountering actual predatory people, the solution is never to signal boost them and their spaces. The solution is to always report and block them.

At Aethy, we do everything we can to prevent predatory people from interacting with us. We quickly remove their accounts from our site or disable federation with locations that platform them. We also take the time to notify governing bodies of their existence and do everything to provide proper information to have these people removed from the internet.

Callouts achieve the opposite of this. They quickly spread between well-meaning people who want to show their disdain. However, they also have the opposite effect of allowing more people to discover their existence. It allows abusive spaces to start becoming mainstream. It allows people to be manipulated into genuinely harmful belief systems. People who hold progressive beliefs have seen their families become manipulated by violent conspiracies from Q-Anon. We've watched as transphobic discourse has wormed its way into unrelated groups of people (e.g. the Harry Potter fanbase). And we've seen it time and time again with spaces related to minor attraction that push for romantic and/or sexual contact between adults and minors (i.e. abuse).

People need to stop signal boosting this content. They need to stop making it more well known.

We completely disallow callouts on Aethy. At best, they're full of mistruths. At worst, they signal boost genuinely harmful people and spaces. There's just no place for them on our website and we don't believe they have a positive impact on social media in general.

[insomniac-ships]

Hello hello! Due to tumblr being, well, tumblr, I've made an Aethy to hang out at! I don't have any posts yet, and I'm still getting the hang of it, but if you'd like to follow me there as well, feel free!!

https://aethy.com/@mooshmallow

Edit: IM SO SORRY FOR THE @ AKDHSUWH