#ftc ask

[13leaguestories]

Feel free to ignore this if you don't want to answer ofc, but those asks about Superstition & Insight made me wonder about For The Crown. It's my fave out of your WIPs, I loved the child soldier/assassin MC + the whole going undercover in a royal court aspect!

I checked and the last post in the tag was this one (https://www.tumblr.com/13leaguestories/744748222113808384/i-just-realized-that-for-the-crown-was-canceled). Since it was 6 months ago, is that still where you are now, that it may or may not come back altered in some way? Or are you leaning towards a particular direction?

Um ... I'm still pretty much still there. It's still teetering in limbo though so don't get excited. I think if I do get back into it I might do something similar to ToA and make routes out of it. But at the same time I'd have to go through and see exactly how that would work. It'd be great on one hand because let's say you wanted Lord Doran, well the original story you won't see much of him until the second half but with routes you'd see and focus on him more. But then that also means a lot of story twisting.

So, we'll see. I haven't really given it much thought but I know I 100% want to put that art to good use.

[adecila]

Has “for the cameras” been discontinued? 🥺

No, darling, I just girl bossed too close to the sun, and I became so important at my day job that since November last year, I couldn’t have any hobbies because I didn't have any free time 😂

The good news is that my big project is done and results were amazing. Now I just came back from a month long holiday, so I am finally working on FTC. It will come (hopefully soon)!

[exclamaquest]

PLEASE tell me how post wwi tax breaks lead to my little pony

-Advertising agencies help supply propaganda during WWI ->

In return, the government gives them large tax breaks by counting advertising as a business expense ->

Advertising in America grows from something most people are at the very least wary of to a lynchpin of capitalism ->

The FTC expands their powers and abilities to combat deceptive marketing, which includes advertisements ->

The FTC signs into law the funeral rule of 1980 which places consumer-friendly restrictions on how funeral homes can sell their products ->

Then they pursue legislation that would lead into the KidVid scandal. The laws would control what kind of ads can run on kid's television and when ->

Ronald Reagan runs on a platform of deregulation, and ropes the pissed off funeral home industry (among others) into supporting his campaign. The animosity the FTC drilled up helps get him elected ->

In 1980, a new act was signed into law that harshly limited the powers of oversight the FTC had over TV shows ->

Hasbro debuts My Pretty Pony in 1981 and then My Little Pony in 1982, complete with tie-in animated specials that would never have been legal otherwise.

[peliginspeaks]

To the frostbitten tomb colonist: have you had a favourite profession from over the years?

Her eyes seem to light up a bit, which is quite a feat for two empty voids amid a nest of bandages.

"I quite liked being a pirate back in the day, before they were styling themselves 'corsairs'."

She folds her hands over her cane and continues in a voice like a cold draft through paper.

"I always did find it so quaint how surprised the crews would get when I boarded them. It is so funny how all across history, people seem not to realize that others can simply take things. It got boring after a while, though, of course." She tilts her head. "I suppose zailors expect it more, these days."

[byrdstrolls]

Bulk anon wannabe

I have unsurprising news

[riftdancing]

haunt·ed (adjective) 1. inhabited or frequented by ghosts. a haunted castle. 2. preoccupied, as with emotion, memory, or idea; obsessed: His haunted imagination gave him no peace.

Unfortunately for me, it's both. It's been over two decades since you passed, but I still see you in the mirror every morning. Your judgement echoes in my ears and your haunting white eye continues to scrutinize my every move. My technique. Never quick enough. Foot work is always sloppy. Missed a spot cleaning that revolver barrel…

Was it love or obsession? Did you really love me, or were you chasing the remaining desire for my late Mother? I see her when I look in the mirror too. In my own reflection. In my features. I was not woman enough to be the daughter she wanted. I was not loyal enough for my Father's pride. I was not obedient enough for my Brother's care.

They all share your grave now.

Sometimes I feel ill when I miss you.

I remember when Father gave me to you. Like an object or a toy he'd discarded, something he'd grown bored of after I didn't fulfill his expectations. After I filled him with disappointment. I don't blame him entirely. After all I betrayed all of them. Not just the family… but the entire crew too. Even when he gave me to you, you didn't want me and I wanted nothing to do with you. I was a burden, but you made me useful. While Father ensured I'd never see the inside of another cockpit you honed me into a fine weapon. At first I hated you for it, but you taught me discipline and over time I learned how to be a ghost, just like you. Your very own protégé...

...But you are gone, and I still feel your gaze from behind. I still feel you watching when I look over my shoulder. When I am with someone new. Heckling me about having a particular type. That I am still soft. Vulnerable. Weak. Womanly. A hound ready to obey. Maybe I am.

He says it too and in many ways, he reminds me of you. He is one of the few people on this star who has proven to be worthy of my subordinance. But unlike our troubled past, he doesn't force me to be something or someone I don't want to be.

He is the catalyst to my healing.

He has taught me my choices are my own.

From now on I will no longer be a slave to my past.

((There's a bit of context in bullet points under the cut for this if it interests you but it's really raw because she's got a very long and complicated story as I've been writing her since 2011.))

Some bullet points on Blink's early history:

Blink was born into a life of Sky Piracy.

Her Father was the Sky Pirate Captain of the Harbingers.

His First Mate was a man named Judas, who was known in more public circles as a ghost-like assassin.

Blink fell in love with a pirate in a rival crew and tried to secretly elope with them. Her Father found out, he saw it as a huge betrayal, and sent Judas to hunt her and the lad down.

Judas killed the guy in front of her, brought her back to her Father.

Her Father disowned her after arranging her marriage to Judas (something neither of them wanted)

Judas viewed her as a burden, and basically decided when life gives you lemons, you turn them into your protégé and train them like a soldier.

This brought the pair of them closer over time… and as they'd both been screwed by the Crew's bullshit hierarchy and politics they decided to do something about it together.

Judas wound up fighting Blink's Father for Captaincy, and won. While it was supposed to be a fight to the death, he let the man still walk away with his life.

He was a good Captain for a while, with Blink as his First Mate and under the two the Crew had a prosperous window.

But, unfortunately her brother thought he was entitled to inheriting the title of Captain and was furious about Judas killing his Father. So eventually he wound up fighting Judas and killed him-- in front of Blink, taking up the role as Captain (and he was terrible at it.)

Blink wound up going into hiding for six years after this. There was some more trauma laced in this I won't get into. But when she surfaced again she had enlisted with Garlemald to become one of their soldiers. Which is a whole other arc I won't get into tonight. But��� that's some context to this story/post.

Fast forwarding past the Garlemald years... I will at least say that Blink eventually wound up fighting to get the Harbingers back and served as their Captain for a good while (The crew's choice). It was basically the crew's golden years with her in the lead. However, eventually she decided it wasn't the life for her, so she wound up retiring to do piloting work and that's how she fell in with Firelight Trading Co. To this day, the Harbingers still revere her as their Captain even though she's passed that title on to someone she trusted.

But yeah, ask me about those Garlean years sometime... those are a doozy. Like an Event Horizon inspired arc through Void Ark... :|

[ayyy-imma-ninja]

I’m not done reading your third chapter of the sk boys BUT so far I’m absolutely adoring it! The part where sunny gets yanked back into the apartment was such a fun image to imagine, you’re very talented!

hehehe, I love portraying their goofy shenanigins XD

You would have no idea they just killed someone the night before~

[inrainprose]

I'd like to vent 🙋‍♀️

narutos complete non reaction at finding out kakashi, jiraiya and hiruzen knew about his parents the whole time but just didn't say shit pisses me off SO MUCH. if there was ONE time he deserved to just rage a little. it was then!!

Been said before but to me it makes it really obvious that this wasn't planned at all and kishimoto came up with it later in the story. Otherwise he would have hinted at something, and they would have been written and would have reacted much differently.

It's either that or they were all terrible people and the story never goes back on that. What a mess. Naruto should have decked them.

[confined-existence]

Find The Chomiks Realm: Backrooms; Level 28: Stormstone Keep

Absolutely in love with this level aksjbfkafn

[13leaguestories]

I feel so dumb for asking but in Superstition, is Lucia the witch from the For the Crown realm the same person as Lucia the witch from the real world?

No, and I wouldn't have even realized that I used the two names if you didn't say anything. But damn that would've been a cool little world blend huh, the witch managed to like divide or something. I don't know, lol.

[ella-animine]

Attn: Those interested in death/dying, or ppl who don’t wanna go broke going into the earth

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is revisiting policy about the funeral industry known as Funeral Rule. This means they are examining decisions made in the 1980’s about what funeral homes and the business of funerals is REQUIRED TO DO FOR CONSUMERS

And let’s be honest, we are all (or will be) consumers of the funeral industry.

Right now the FTC is looking to gather feedback from experts, organizations, and individuals about how they should move forward with Funeral Rule. In particular they are concerned with whether funeral homes should be required to

list prices for services online,

whether any additional or hidden fees should be disclosed,

whether they should amend how a funeral homes disclose their embalming practices,

if new forms of disposition should be included under the rule,

and a few other things dealing with accessibility and underserved communities.

Go to this website to share your thoughts! The more detailed and well researched the better, but ALL comments are valuable.

We are an aging population Tumblr, and as it stands the average cost of a funeral in the US is about $8,000.

TLDR: tell the FTC what information you think the funeral industry should be required to share regarding pricing, fees, and embalming policies.

It is more expensive than ever to die, and without clear rules and regulations the funeral industrial complex will continue to jack up the price and take advantage of grieving individuals with hidden pricing, fees, and deceptive language to make you buy things you don’t actually need.

Your voice matters. Share it

[adecila]

hi alice! just wanted to tell you whenever I play ”I can see you” lately I think of ftc!dany writing it daydreaming about jon lol

Amazing taste, babes. Btw that song is on my on repeat playlist 😚

[rocketsagan-blog]

I was going to craft a post like this one, so THANK YOU KIND WHILOMM for doing the good death-care work <3

If you're in the US, spread this around.

Death in America should not be so expensive, and clear pricing as well as clear wording around embalming would make a world of difference for a lot of families!

to help spread the word a lil, ask a mortician just put out a new video, this one specifically about proposed FTC regulation changes for U.S. funeral homes, and theres a comment period that closes October 10th, 2023 to ya kno. comment on em. tell em to help make funerals a lil cheaper.

I would really reccomend watching the video as she explains it a lot better, but the TLDR is that the FTC is thinking of adding some rules to the regs on how funeral homes disclose a couple of things, like prices (making them list prices online, so you dont need to drive to 7 diff funeral homes to price shop the day your son died, and cause hidden prices=more expensive), and make it clearer WHEN embalming is required (that is, that its NOT required by law, but might be required by the funeral home themselves)

like i said, watch the vid for a better explaination, but both of those things contribute to funerals being Mega Fucking Expensive, so. if you feel like it, go to the FTC and tell em to implement the changes!

comment period ends october 10th, 2023!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Canonical enshittification

This is the Facebook playbook: you lure in publishers by promising them a traffic funnel ("post excerpts and links and we'll show them to people, including people who never asked to see them"), and then the rug-pull: "Post everything here, don't link to your own site. Become a commodity supplier to our platform. Abandon all your own ways of making money. Become entirely subject to the whims of our recommendation system."

Next will be: "We block links to other sites because they might be malicious."

Then some kind of "pivot to video."

Probably not video (though who knows?) but some other feature that a major rival has, which Twitter will attempt to defraud its captive, commodified suppliers into financing an entry into.

In case you were wondering, yes, this is canonical enshittification. Lure in business customers (publishers) by offering surpluses (algorithmic recommendation and an ensuing traffic funnel). Lock them in (by capturing their audience and blocking interop and logged-out reading).

Then rug the publishers, clawing back all the surpluses you gave them and more, draining them of all available capital and any margins they have, until they die or bite the bullet and leave.

I would also give good odds on this leading to a revivification of the "Pay us tens of thousands of dollars a month for a platinum checkmark and we'll actually show what you post to the people who asked to see it."

That will be pitched as the answer to publishers' complaints about not wanting to turn themselves into commodity Twitter inputs. It will be priced at the same (or more) as the revenues publishers expect to lose from being commodified, making it a wash.

All of this seems to me to be an "unfair and deceptive business practice" under Sec 5 of the FTC Act.

If I sign up to follow you because I want to see what you post, and Twitter shadowbans your posts unless they are formatted to maximize your dependence on Twitter, they have deceived me, and are being unfair to you.

This is *very* analogous to the Net Neutrality debate, where a platform blocks or deprioritizes the things its users ask to see, based on whether the suppliers of those things are its competitors.

I've written about how an end-to-end principle for social media could be enforced under Sec 5 of the FTCA, how it would address this kind of sleazy practice, how it would be easy to administer, and wouldn't form a barrier to entry for new market entrants:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/10/e2e/#the-censors-pen

[mollyjimbly]

🚨🚨🚨RED ALERT🚨🚨🚨

if you care about trans folks please take a few minutes to read through this post and share.

They are not even trying to hide their true intentions with KOSA...

"Top of the agenda is to go after providers of gender affirming care, including for adults. The FTC could also go after online platforms for displaying LGBTQ content which would be supercharged under KOSA."

This is catastrophically bad.

There is a HUGE push to pass KOSA rn at the end of the year.

Real quick summary: Blumenthal and Blackburn "rewrote" KOSA to appeal to the right more. They worked with ELON MUSK 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♂️ to push this bill "protecting kids". Tomorrow, many orgs are bringing groups of parents to speak to congress. This is coming at a time when FTC commissioner admitted their agenda is straight transphobia:

There are two ways KOSA can be passed right now. Either from the House or attaching it to an end of year spending bill. They will try both.

Republican leadership (Scalise and Johnson) are surprisingly what is stopping thia from going through. They wont admit it out loud but they dont like the bill.

WE NEED TO PUSH BACK NOW!! Tomorrow those phones need to be ringing OFF THE HOOK while they meet with parents.

PLEASE SPREAD THIS EVERYWHERE!! ADD THESE LINKS TO TWITTER, REDDIT, INSTA, TIKTOK!!

USE THESE CALLING TOOLS AND SCRIPTS TODAY AND TOMORROW ALL DAY!!!

SCRIPTS:

🔴 If your rep is GOP:

"I am urging you to VOTE NO on KOSA, the Kid’s Online Safety Act. This is a dangerous bill that will harm children.

Many news organizations have reported that this bill actively harms kids by exposing their private data to strangers under the guise of protecting them.

We need to hold Big Tech accountable, but KOSA is not the solution.

The bill let any state attorney general and the FTC to sue any website for “harmful” content. Do we really want blue state lawyers deciding what can and can’t be allowed online?

Big Tech is already censoring us. That’s why they support KOSA. This is massive government overreach. We need a bill that actually protects children by creating better security measures instead of bringing about more censorship.

Multiple experts agree this bill pushes age verification, even with the new language.

KOSA hands more private data of children to third party companies, which would put them in further danger. How is this protecting children’s privacy?

What parent would want their child’s private data in the hands of strangers like this? KOSA is actively putting kids in danger.

Do NOT support this bill. Thank you."

Also,to note, Biden supports KOSA: You could try asking your GOP rep why they would support a bill that has Biden's support,and that he could use it to his advantage somehow (we know GOP does not like Biden,so it should be utilized somehow). We need to ensure the bill doesnt pass at all.

🔵 if your rep is DEM:

"I am urging you to VOTE NO on KOSA. Nearly 200 human rights and LGBT organizations total came out in an open letter opposing it. The ACLU is against it. Hundreds of thousands of Gen Z, who actually live online, are against it.

We know the harms of social media, and we know this is not the solution. The new language does NOT meet any concerns brought up, in fact many organizations were ignored.

Major news have reported that this bill actively harms kids. We do not want this. The rewritten bill would still allow any state attorney general, and now the FTC, to sue any website for “harmful” content. When you have Republicans calling anything LGBT “sexual exploitation” or anything about race “CRT” to successfully ban books and teachers, then they will use any justification to censor the internet.

The Missouri attorney general used “mental health” successfully to ban gender-affirming care with backed up research. Suicide rates will skyrocket for marginalized youth with this bill restricting content. Multiple experts agree this bill pushes age verification, even with the new language.

KOSA hands more private data of children to third party companies. Furthermore, updated language threatens encryption the same way the Earn It Act does.

How is this protecting children’s privacy? KOSA actively harms kids. Do NOT support this bill. Thank you."

Tell them you'll vote for your reps if they vote no on KOSA, anything goes. But most importantly it's crucial that KOSA is not being brought at all for any vote.

Thank you, remember to stay calm and stay strong. We've got this!! ♡

[inrainprose]

Do you plan on writing the meeting of Naruto and Minato in as a flashback? I'd love to read the anger xD

That would be pretty satisfying ^^ I don't plan to add it to the main story cause a fb now would be a bit out of nowhere, but I always planned on doing a side collections of missing things for this fic, so maybe it will go there!