#i have to pay $200 for access to a *website*

[nereb-and-dungalef]

I keep drinking coffee thinking it's gonna make me Productive and then instead of doing the work I actually have to do I just compulsively make spreadsheets :(

[mousedetective]

Help A Mostly Queer Disabled Family Get Out of Homelessness?

PAYPAL | AMAZON WISHLIST | KOFI | GOFUNDME

VENMO: @penaltywaltz | CASHAPP: $afteriwake23 | ZELLE: DM me for email address

02/18/24 - New Post

So we were recently blessed with $2,000 to pay bills, get hotel stays covered for the rest of this month/part of March and get food while I wait until the local county office opens to find out why I never got my food stamps. I almost started crying, for real.

I paid off the money my mother owed to PayPal so we can send each other money again (it will take two to three business days for the payment to process, then another day or two for her to regain access to her PayPal account), I paid off/paid down some of the PayPal 4 In 4 payments I needed to make (I've been ignoring them in favor of paying off other things), I got us a room every day from February 28th to March 13th except the 2nd, when we have to go to another hotel (we do that one via the hotel website, and I make sure we pay that one on-site because they charge a $50 fee for anything that might happen to the room that gets refunded after we leave) and I paid off one of my mom's loans down to $21

If we get really lucky, I can take the loan payments we have coming out on the 1st and 3rd and get them paid and not take out any more loans except for my and my mom's MoneyLion ones (I can take those out in increments as needed) and we can get closer to saving up for a down payment on an apartment. But I still have bills to pay. I owe about $500 to PayPal for the 4 in 4 plans still, my mother needs to pay $610 for a credit card bill we thought was under her debt consolidation payment (I'm going to try and add it later, and if they'll take it, then we only need $200 to get it up to date) and we still need to get Lena her glasses (around $150 there, since I pulled out the money for her exam in cash). Plus I will need to get us accommodations on the 13th for the rest of our 28-day stay.

I'm tentatively setting the goal at $2000, which should cover paying off all the bills we need to pay, the glasses, and the later hotel stay. Any help sharing or donating is much appreciated. If we don't have to take out the loans to cover stuff in March we can get the money together in April for a deposit. We're almost there! Thank you!

$135/$2000

[llama-named-pizza]

Anyone talking yet about how Elon fired someone right after publicly mocking him, and for what? Asking Elon for some contact after being ignored for days?

Meet Haraldur Ingi Þorleifsson. Born in 1977 with a genetic congenital muscle disease that forced him to use a wheelchair since age 24. That didn't stop him, though. In 2014 he founded the company Ueno. Ueno was a company that designed digital brands for various companies. The company was pretty successful, since it won various awards and Haraldur was named Icelandic businessman of the year in 2019. You can see more things he's done on his website - http://haraldurthorleifsson.com/

In 2021, Haraldur sold his company to Twitter. Not just that! He sold it as a salary so that he could pay higher taxes. He ended up paying the second highest tax in Iceland for that year (for an individual).

Outside of his company, he also aided in a project called Ramp Up Reykjavík, the intention of which is to help in installing wheelchair ramps around the city for better wheelchair access everywhere. After the success of the first project, a second one called Ramp Up Iceland was launched, with the intentions of building 1000 ramps around the country. This seems to be the site for the project - https://www.rampur.is/ - it would be great if someone who knows Icelandic can help with explaining how to donate to it?

He also created Bueno, a project that, by his own words, "a non-profit that donates money to good people doing good things". He was given The Order of the Falcon by the president of Iceland, the Icelandic medal of chivalry for contributions to social issues. He was Person of the Year in Iceland in 2022. Honestly, there's probably even more.

And this is the person Elon Musk decided to take the mick out of.

Queue March 6th, 2023. Haraldur tweets out to Musk.

[id: Dear elonmusk,

9 days ago the access to my work computer was cut, along with about 200 other Twitter employees.

However your head of HR is not able to confirm if I am an employee or not. You've not answered my emails.

Maybe if enough people retweet you'll answer me here?]

[id: Elon Musk: What work have you been doing?

Haraldur: I would need to break confidentiality to answer this question here.

If you have your lawyers share in writing that I can do that then I'd be happy to discuss that openly!

Elon Musk: It's approved, you go ahead.]

[id: Two consecutive tweets by Haraldur: Among others:

- led the effort to save about $500k on one SaaS contract. Supported closing down many others

- led prioritization of design projects across the company to make sure we were able to deliver with a small team

- led design crits to help level up design across the company

- was hiring manager for all design roles

- worked on efforts to steer the company away from focusing on power users and on to younger users (because our user base is aging)]

[id: Elon Musk:

- Level up from what design to what? Pics or it didn’t happen.

- We haven’t hired design roles in 4 months

- What changes did you make to help with the youths?

Elon Musk: Would you say that you're a people person?

Attachment to the second tweet: A YouTube video named "What would you say...you do here?". The video depicts a conversation between two men, presumably higher ups, and a third man, presumably someone who works at the company. The conversation is condescending towards the third man, implying his job (a type of customer service) is useless. The video ends with the third man outbursting "What the hell is wrong with you people!" before he leaves the room - based on his body language (looking down when he almost bumps into a colleague), it is implied that he was fired.]

There are other threads with the two conversing, this one is the most notable though as this seems to be when Haraldur learns he is fired. Musk later attempts to imply that Haraldur didn't work, saying that Haraldur "claimed he had a disability that prevented him from typing". As I mentioned above, Haraldur has a disability that forced him into a wheelchair. This same disability is slowly forcing Haraldur to lose strength in his upper body and arms. Not to mention, you don't need to type to work, mister "Lines of code matters". Newsflash, people can do work without typing. Musk thinks he's the only one who can do work without typing, I believe.

It's unknown (to me) if Haraldur was fired during this exchange or before it. At any rate, don't forget that Haraldur was on a "Don't Fire" list, yet Musk still laid him off.

And definitely don't forget that Musk seems to be avoiding paying him.

[id: Tweet by Haraldur: But ok, fair enough, I've been laid off and I'm ok with that.

Next up though is finding out if Twitter will pay me what they owe me per my contract.

Or, will elonmusk, one of the richest people in the world, try to avoid paying?

Stay tuned!!]

[crazylittlejester]

you mean to tell me. i have to pay a nine dollar shipping fee. for a free. digital textbook. that’s supposed to be completely fucking free. with the 200 DOLLAR WEBSITE ACCESS THING I HAD TO BUY TO TURN MY FLASHCARDS IN FOR A FUCKING PSYCH CLASS??????

[communistkenobi]

Hiiiiiiii Nick, so sorry if you've already answered this somewhere, but I couldn't find it. I was wondering if you have any recs for leftist literature that's somewhat digestible for people who don't usually read a lot of academic papers/journals and the like? Basically, theory for beginners, I guess. I've been wanting to start reading more theory and while everything you posted about The Authoritarian Personality was super interesting, I think that trying to read a 1000 page book right now would kill me 💀

(also definitely don't feel the need to answer, I just thought you might appreciate getting an ask that's not star wars related asjdjdjshdjdhsjdjfj)

oh god yeah do not start with authoritarian personality that thing is insane

There is a Marxism archive that has a page for beginners here (ignore the advice to read Capital. Like try if you want to but it’s not accessible at all in my experience lol, so I would not start there). That website gives you free access to a lot of theory, you can poke around there and see what you might want to read (if you scroll to the bottom of the page I linked it has a link where you can search by subject - so if you want to learn more about leftist feminism, or colonialism, or etc, you can do so). I’m not the most well read marxist unfortunately so I can’t give you detailed recommendations from the lists they give. I have read a bit of Lenin and found him to be quite funny. Also sorry this is skewing communist, I have only read a few bits of anarchist literature and wasn’t impressed with it (not a dig at anarchism in general, I just did not have a good introduction to it and because of my schooling I tend to spend most of my time with more critical/marxist lit). So don’t let that sway you, this is just my own bias and theoretical instincts.

Why Marx Was Right by Terry Eagleton (this is a book, sorry I don’t have a link) is fairly accessible, as is Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher (this is very short, like under a hundred pages).

Also I KNOW I keep bringing this up but Discourse on Colonialism is such a fantastic essay (you can skip past the introduction in this pdf if you like and go straight to the essay). You don’t need to know all the theorists Cesaire is talking about or get all of his references. I think this is a very good introduction to colonialism as a force in the world. Cesaire is a fantastic writer, extremely witty and scathing while being incredibly insightful, truly a level of hater we should all aspire to become

There’s also the communist manifesto, which is very short and easy to read. You don’t have to pay too much attention to the historical stuff they bring up imo. This just answers the basic question of like “so what do communists believe exactly?” Even if you’re not a communist I think it’s useful to see these beliefs articulated in plain language.

If you want a book to read, there is Black Jacobins by CLR James about the Haitian Revolution (~200 pages). This is a history book written from a leftist perspective. I find reading about history very instructive because it alerts you to a lot of the problems with mass organising, all the sticky ways that class conflict manifests at all levels of society, and gives you context to a lot of leftist thought that, when detached from its historical circumstances, may seem weird or abstract.

I hope this helps!

[loserchildhotpants]

My Notification of the End of the World

Pharmacy: you have (1) prescription ready for refill

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[spam call]

[spam call]

Friend: idk why she doesnt invite you, everyone else is always there

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[spam call]

[scam caller]

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Father: well your aunt wants to know how you’re doing so give me a call and let me know how the year went for you

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[Flood Warning]

Psychiatrist: We cancelled the appointment because when we charged the $150 co-pay to your account, it was declined, and all appointments must be paid for in advance

[scam caller]

News Alert: The on-going genocide in Palestine is perhaps the best documented genocide in history, but is still being denied on all major news outlets as it escalates

Email: 200 people enjoyed your passion project, 3 people left you any form of encouragement

University: A prolific criminal that got away with his hate crime very publicly is here to talk about his side of the story in a sympathetic frame, and we encourage the marketplace of ideas, so please come politely tolerate his hate speech

[spam call]

News Alert: the crimes against humanity in the Sudan, Congo, Palestine, Haiti, Papua, Ukraine, Cuba, Yemen and Amhara are getting increasingly brazen, and unless you can spare more money, there’s little you can do to effect real change

Friend: oh, I’m sorry you’re feeling badly - we can talk later

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Friend: I’ll definitely read your thing later!

[scam caller]

Pharmacy: you have (2) prescriptions ready for refill

[High Wind Warning]

Bank: Low Balance Notice

Friend: it was just supposed to be for fun

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Friend: you need a vacation

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News Alert: New York Times journalist describes how your unhappiness and anxieties are a symptom of serious pathologies, and also entirely your own fault

Me: sorry it took me so long to reply. I had to put my phone down for a little while.

[adambja]

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[cheylouwho]

i’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and i want to hear someone from SPHS’s thoughts.

i know you’ve noticed the “tiktok” fan base- the ones that only watch clips of the show and then say they’re fans. i read one of your posts talking about these types of fans and making blatantly incorrect headcanons. that’s something that bugs me, but another thing that bugs me is the fact i do not believe south park is tiktokable. i’ll use family guy as a comparison for my points.

first of all, compared to family guy, the humor is different, pretty much everything they explained in the cartoon wars two parter explains what i mean, m&t are not fans of interchangeable jokes and are able to give characters emotional progression throughout the episode. that’s one huge factor, i hope you get what i’m trying to imply with that. m&t are passionate about their story telling and it pays off in their episodes. i know not EVERY SINGLE joke follows this, but there are jokes made better by understanding the characters and the circumstance of the episode. the episodes work best in their entirety. (that was difficult to explain so i fear it can be misinterpreted easily)

the characters are another thing i want to mention. i watched the episode TSST with two friends awhile ago, one of which who had never seen an episode and didn’t understand cartmans character. she kept asking questions about him, or said how weird his hitler obsession was. the other friend hadn’t finished south park and said he hated cartmans character and it’s hes one of the bad pieces of the show. i believe even if you don’t like cartman as a personal preference thing, you should at least appreciate him as a character and his placement, it’s hard to understand him (despite us watching an episode that really dives into him, they still didn’t know much about him before). with family guy, one episode is enough to grasp the character, hell, even a single scene is i’d say, while m&t are very good at developing and fleshing out character personalities over time. it’s why they can pull off making sad episodes (like kenny dies and assburgers), heartwarming episodes (like tweek x craig and even bits of episodes like in raisins) all while still being a comedy show. they understand how to make the characters react in a way that can make you feel something while maintaining a good amount of jokes in the episode.

i dont know, theres more i could add but i’m just writing whatever comes to mind first so it might make no sense or it might be wrong. also, i’m by no means an old fan. i’ve rewatched the series quite a few times, watched commentaries, researched through wiki pages and am constantly trying to better my knowledge of the show, but i know i’m not quite there yet and could just be making a mistake GAHAH

No anon, I actually totally get this and agree 100%. SP as a show is not something that works well with out of context clips (and even then, the ones that do work are usually from very early in an episode before the plot fully gets established and stakes as drawn). Until pre s18 when they started soft continuity (and then s19-21s full continuity, after that is a whole other discussion entirely), the shows syndicated nature did make it easier to hop into any episode and watch it in its entirety and enjoy it without much prior knowledge of the show or it's characters. However, even then, you really needed to watch the *whole* episode to get the big picture of it's message.

And I get it, SP full length episodes are not as accessible as they once were. People these days don't know how or aren't willing to pirate things if they don't have the streaming service SP is hosted on, and beyond that, south park used to be free to watch on their website. Like, that's how I ended up catching up on the show when I finally decided to take it all in other than a handful of episodes and scenes I'd seen during my childhood back in 2013. It was all entirely available (save for Super Best Friends, 200 and 201, which I had to go track down on other websites) for free, with ads unless you used an ad blocker, right at your fingertips. And that's how M+T wanted SP to be consumed, because they explicitly noted that they didn't care about making money on streamed episodes, they cared about getting their show out there. (I will have to go find that interview, I know it's somewhere).

But still, regardless of that, you're right. SP is not something that you can consume short form as a brief tiktok video, and that's why I think we have newer fans with such big gaps in knowledge that seem like they would be easy to fill in. It's not that they're being willfully ignorant, they're just being fed a very piecemeal version of the show through social media, which is how we get people thinking Pip is a he//llpa//rk OC (augh!!! dont get me started) instead of realizing this dude was actually in the fucking show, or headcanons that are very easy to contradict with canon itself by watching like 3 episodes. That's not me knocking HCs btw, go wild and do whatever you want, but these people don't even know it's ooc, and that's a little troublesome. I've made some outlandish character decisions in the past but I at least KNEW they were not evidence based.

What that means for the fandom down the road I don't know, and its made a lot of discussion and analysis more shallow-- it's so hard outside of my SPHS friend group to find good breakdowns these days. I'm hoping maybe something will change, but who knows.

TLDR fuck tiktok and its watering down of media

[sotcwcrp]

SECRETS OF THE CLANS TWO-CLAN OPENING

Art done by our member Pidge! -> BurningPigeon#3793

Secrets of the Clans is a 15+ discord based roleplay server! We have over 200+ members and a lively, welcoming space. Our world is based on the forest territory of the books with the four original clans.

What makes SOTC so special? We use a TTRPG system to add random chance and level-building skills into your RP experience. Not only that, but you will be sorted and clan-locked into one clan based on a personality quiz.

OPENING DATES

We’ll be having a two clan opening for Shadowclan and Riverclan for only a few days, in order to help even out our current number of members. Applications will open starting on September 25th and will stay open for two weeks through to October 9th.

FAQ AND FEATURES

Can we be in more than one clan? No, you are only able to create and play characters in one clan, though if you are unhappy with where you're sorted you can switch within the first two weeks of joining! Our clan-locked system helps to create bonds within your clan, more realistic cross-clan romances and rivalries as well as gatherings that can feel authentic and surprising!

What if I'm not familiar with warrior cats, or a dice system? SOTC is a great place for beginners! Many of our members have never read the books, nor had experience in dice-rolling prior to joining the server. Our staff and clan-buddies are in place to guide you through any questions you may have!

How does character creation work in SOTC? Upon first joining SOTC you will be given two character slots, which can be used to adopt a premade adopt, and one oc token that can be applied to make your own from-scratch character. (Only your first oc token will have an age-range applied to it!)

How do I play a kit or apprentice? Kits and Apprentices are special characters on SOTC, as nearly every child character started from a litter born in the clan's nursery! You can adopt these newly born characters (or any young cats who no longer have players!), with their guardian player's permission. The only exception are cats bought with a donation to one of our server's supported charities (Right now, we're donating to a blind cat rescue!)

FEATURES

🌈SOTC is very LGBTQ+ friendly! ★

🍖 Working fresh-kill piles and herb storages! Hunt to provide for the clan, and gather to prepare for accidents, illnesses, or even battles! ★

💗 A thoughtfully curated content warning system, with paw-rating emoji for each thread. ★

🐣 Custom litters rolled accurately! ★

⭐ Unique brawling, healing and injury systems! ★

🎇Special lore crafted for each clan! ★

Still have more questions?

LINKS

Check out our website, or pay us a visit in our server. Some channels will be missing when you join; you'll have full access to your clan's channels once you're sorted in! We are still open for new members, so hop in before we close in two weeks! If you miss this period, feel free to hang out in the rookie nursery until our next opening date is announced!

[a1220-poetic-witch]

What is NUMEROLOGY?

The principle of numerology is that all of the numbers that somehow relate to your life can be reduced and simplified to one single number, except the numbers eleven and twenty two. I like to think of numerology as the mathematical version of astrology.

For example, instead of being called a “Leo” person, they may call you a number 6 person.

And just like in astrology, where signs and symbols may be repeated in your life; you might also want to pay attention to the numbers that seem to pop up in your life as well. For myself, these repetitive numbers are 1, 6, & 9. The numbers that constantly appear and reappear in your life are not by accident; these can be thought of as your soul’s energy and/or vibration!

Numerology is the study of the numbers inherent in our names, birth dates, and other significant objects or events that surround us; and their meanings and effects. Many people find that numerology provides extremely valid insights into their lives or things that are happening to them. This form of divination attempts to analyze the numerical information around us, and makes a determination of the implications and associations that these numbers have. Numerology uses techniques common in data transmission and cryptography (the art of writing or deciphering messages in code) to derive, from the numbers of your birth date and letters of your name, numbers and structures of numbers that reflect or contain the influences of each individual digit of the base information.

Gematria:

Gematria is another type of numerology.

Coming from Jewish beliefs, Gematria taught that if the numerology of a name determines the meaning and mystical significance of the name, and of the thing it describes, then other things with the same numerological attributes should be comparable in their basic principle.

Here is an article I found on the Britannica website, I feel as though it explains things better than what I can; for the simple fact that I’m not Jewish and I don’t have a lot of first hand knowledge/experience with the Hebrew alphabet.

“Gematria, the substitution of numbers for letters of the Hebrew alphabet, a favorite method of exegesis used by medieval Kabbalists to derive mystical insights into sacred writings or obtain new interpretations of the texts. Some condemned its use as mere toying with numbers, but others considered it a useful tool, especially when difficult or ambiguous texts otherwise failed to yield satisfactory analysis. Genesis 28:12, for example, relates that in a dream Jacob saw a ladder (Hebrew sullam) stretching from earth to heaven. Since the numerical value of the word sullam is 130 (60 + 30 + 40)—the same numerical value of Sinai (60 + 10 + 50 + 10)—exegesis concluded that the Law revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai is man’s means of reaching heaven. Of the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, the first ten are given number values consecutively from one to ten, the next eight from 20 to 90 in intervals of ten, while the final four letters equal 100, 200, 300, and 400, respectively. More complicated methods have been used, such as employing the squares of numbers or making a letter equivalent to its basic value plus all numbers preceding it.” —Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "gematria". Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Jul. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/gematria. Accessed 7 January 2024.

[untilyouremember]

Where can I read and request manga?

My mission with my tumblr is to help you find official resources to consume manga; doing it these ways will help the mangaka who work to bring you content and it encourages English publishers to bring over more series.

Check under the cut for legal websites, apps and retailers with detailed information. At the bottom you'll find surveys and ways to contact publishers with requests.

You can use regular retailers to buy digital and print: Amazon/Kindle, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Bookwalker, Google Play, Apple Books, Nook

There are apps available for buying volumes, chapters, using ticket systems to access free content, or with subscriptions.

Mangamo - $4.99/mo for 200+ titles; titles available for purchases with in-app library

Viz manga - $1.99/mo; titles available to purchase with in-app library (carries titles from Viz, but not their SJ series)

Shonen Jump - $2.99/mo; titles available to purchase with in-app library (carries specifically SJ titles, which are often popular shounen)

Comikey - uses a key system; ability to read for free with ads and patience

Kmanga - app maintained by Kodansha; chapters are often available to read for free through a ticket system and able to purchase

Kodansha - a website where you can create a free reading account. They offer 3 free chapters on all their manga, occasionally feature several free volumes, and run sales on their content somewhat regularly.

MangaPlus - $1.99 or $4.99 for a subscription; will allow a free read of their simulpub series.

MangaPlaza - 7 day free trial; $6.99/mo; [info incoming, seems to have more mature licenses]

INKR - 3 ways to access content; free, coins & 'Extra Membership'. Extra can cost $4.99/mo or $44.99/year and gives you access to content, extra savings and "free ink" that can be traded for their coin system. (Used to be Manga Rock and that was a fun read from them)

MangaPlanet - $1.99/week -> $47.99/year depending on which tier you pay for.

MangaUP - 1 month free trial, $4.99/mo; you can browse their 'vault' to see if things you like are included

Irodori Comics - hosts 18+, specializes in doujinshi, more info incoming

Renta! - point system; 1 point = 1 cent; regular bonus points for higher purchases

ComiXology - $4.99/month; a service through amazon that allows you access to comics, manga and graphic novels. Specifically boasts {2400} manga titles.

Animeplanet - has a library of completely free comics and anime through partnerships; seems to host less manga styled comics but free is free.

Manta, Comicle, Webtoon, Tappytoon, Tapas, WebComics, Bilibili will be looked into but they host mostly webtoon style comics

Seven seas has a (mostly) monthly survey that is linked on their homepage at all times. {They will pull from any publisher, including digital only simulpubs}

If you have a bookwalker account, I found a Google doc that you fill out requests and they send them to publishers.

To send suggestions to Viz, use this survey that is listed through their Contact Us page (you select the "Series Suggestion" and will be redirected) {they mostly pull from shogakukan and shueisha titles}

To send suggestions to Kodansha, go to their contact us page and there are 2 useful drop downs; suggest reprints and suggest series, suggest series is also useful to request a print of anything they've licensed digital only. {They pull almost exclusively from Kodansha Japan}

TokyoPop has a discord server where they look at your suggestions in the channel #licensesuggestion

If you are able, in any way, support official English releases. It shows it is a lucrative business decision to continue the manga. Nothing is worse than starting something and being unable to finish it because it stopped getting translated and published.

I will update this post as needed, enjoy your manga! ♡

[witchern]

rant incoming. i'm losing my fucking mind. i cannot fucking STAND the hellscape that late stage capitalism has turned the writing community into, especially re: instagram ads. every time i scroll i see an ad for some product touting itself for writers to "write without distractions"/"finish your novel, guaranteed" and out of morbid curiosity i'll click on the shop button and it's always a recurring subscription to some fucking software or a piece of some fucking tech that costs $200+ and i wanna throw my goddamn phone at the wall.

you wanna know how to write without distractions and do it FOR FREE??? disconnect your computer from your wifi for a bit. if you can, write by hand with a pen and paper. download a (free!) app like self control (or a windows alternative) that blocks whatever websites you tell it to. download one of the (many, many) free apps that play white noise if you need something to drown your surroundings. if you need EXTRA stimulation, download the (free!!) stimuwrite app and give it a whirl. don't have access to microsoft or a google account? use libreoffice (it's – guess what – free), or if you prefer a no-nonsense, no-frills software that works in your browser with no downloading required, use calmlywriter. find a classical music playlist on spotify if you already have an account there, or fuck it, go to youtube and find a playlist there; here's one with 354 videos in it. make a (fucking free!!!) trello account and start organizing your ideas with their boards and note cards.

don't pay for a subscription to some fucking app. don't pay for an expensive piece of hardware. don't let some overvalued startup company convince you that you absolutely positively need their product in order to be a writer. just write. just fucking write.

[yooniesim]

I don't like to share financial struggles on here but, I have always made a point of being transparent as possible too. So let me tell yall frankly. I am 1-2 months away from not being able to pay any of my bills including rent. the new medication I have to switch to bc of the national shortage is $182 per month. I don't know how im going to afford it. The one i switched to already and have been paying for has had no effect at all. I have had doctor's visits every few weeks for various health issues since March and no insurance since January. My student loans have unpaused and I have been paying them for several months now. I was laid off from one of my jobs this year and the other was paused when my family member I was caregiving for passed away. I have another caregiving job now but it doesn't pay nearly enough for all my bills, medical expenses, and food. I am in the red every month and what I have saved will not last much longer.

Regardless of all this, I still do not paywall my cc, even early access, and I do not ask for donations. I took up curseforge because it seemed like a good place to host my files, and then was pleasantly surprised by the small amount of money I was able to get from it every month or so. This money doesn't even touch my expenses and will not even be enough to pay for my meds anymore. It ranges from $50-200 over the course of several months depending if I am active enough to post any cc or not. Any of you that are independent know that this is nothing in terms of the current cost of living. I haven't even received my payment from last month yet and as soon as I do it is already spent. If I had any leeway at all, I would have already deleted my cc from there, but the gravity of the situation right now is... extremely high. If I deleted it now, I probably wouldn't even get the money I already earned there, as it is still in process. And I cannot risk that. What i can do is not upload anything new to their website in the meantime. But I cannot delete my old uploads.

I have spent most of my life being vocal about social justice issues. I have donated very often to the causes i cared about, spoken to people both irl and online to raise awareness despite being in an area where it is dangerous to do so, done volunteer work, and hosted fundraising efforts. Much of my breath over the past weekend was spent talking about Palestine. It is not that I do not care about this issue- far from it. I've lost a lot of sleep trying to figure out what to do about this. It's not easy trying to weigh the impact of a boycott against your own well being. Especially getting conflicting info on whether or not Overwolf is actually supporting the IDF or just victims of the terrorist attacks as they say. It's all complicated, confusing, and heartbreaking. And even so, I am boycotting in the terms of not uploading new stuff to there and offering alternate download links for my old stuff. And when I am able, I will eliminate curseforge completely. But I hope this helps anyone understand why it's not gone immediately and what my current perspective is.

[barrenstars]

𝙱𝙰𝚂𝙴 𝙸𝙲𝙾𝙽 𝙲𝙾𝙼𝙼𝙸𝚂𝙸𝙾𝙽𝚂 !

hello ya’ll it’s me, poloma, finally making this post after being reminded like five times by space over the course of like two months.  i decided to try my hand at doing icon commissions given that i do almost all of my own ( except for the few lazy comms i’ve made ) and i actually enjoy it!  it would be nice to make some extra cash as well because of the cost of living crisis where i live and everything is going up in price, and i mean everything.  so if you’d be interested or want more info then read below the cut!  reblogs are VERY much appreciated! ♡

( steve rogers voice ) so you’ve read below the cut?  well, thank you for even wanting to be nosy!  or if you’re here because you’re genuinely interested then i’ll get right into it.  i want to start by stating that i will not screencap or make icons for any problematic actor / actress.  the same can be said for some fictional characters, but i’ll let you know if i’m uncomfortable capping for any character or actor / actress, but i tend to be very open about stuff.  

please note i only have access to uk netflix, disney plus, crunchyroll, and hulu ( and maybe a few other websites like them ) so if your face claim or character of choice isn’t from a show from any of these platforms then please provide me with a website that i can watch it on.  i can use youtube and am willing to rent films if provided half the payment!

moving on from that let’s get into the pricing.  ngl i understand that people can be put off a lot by prices and it’s not like i’m a graphics blog and can do a shit ton more than just making caps and slightly editing them ( and on a good day making a cute and simple icon border ) so i plan on keeping my prices low and affordable, simply because i enjoy doing this, so it’s not the type of “you pay for my time” situation.  below are my icon prices!

50 base icons     £5

100 base icons   £8

150 base icons     £12

200 base icons    £15

and so on and so forth!  if you’re wanting lighting adjustments then i’ll probably slap on an extra two pounds or so given that requires me going through each cap / icon and editing it individually.  now, moving on from that, i think a few examples of my work is in order?  so i’ll toss some examples of manga icons i’ve made and some caps from some shows i’ve had open recently.  ( there are no examples of any webtoons or manhwa, but i think you can kinda get the idea of things from the examples below! )

example: phanora kristoffel from the manga the witch and the beast.

example: steven grant from marvels moon knight.

example: sabaku no gaara from the manga naruto.

example: musa from the netflix show fate: the winx saga.

in addition to making icons, i’ve decided to also do screencap comms!  purely because every icon maker has their own way of making icons, they cap and crop and edit differently and i’ve noticed how some people prefer their icons up close and personal or with certain angles, which i totally get.  ngl, i’m the same.  if you’re not too sure what i mean i’ll provide a little example below.

so here we have the absolute love of my life, may calamawy as layla el faouly.  in this single cap alone you could get three, maybe four or five icons if you messed around with the angles and sizing.  and, of course, i took the liberty of making another example for you all because i am never too sure if what i say makes any sense.

as we see here it’s the same exact cap but just positioned differently, which is easy to do if you have an icon border with all the little nooks and crannies.  so the option to commission caps instead of icons is there, an alternative if you will, if you’re not too fond of the way i make my own screencaps or the angles i use!

please note this option works best with realistic face claims as manga caps, webtoon caps, and manhwa caps can be tricky to work with.  if you’d still prefer this option with a non-realistic face claim i’d have to flicker through the manga / webtoon / manhwa to see if i can work with the artwork to create big caps that work well enough without ruining the quality.

but if you’d prefer icons but like having multiple icons of the same cap ( like above ) then that is also an option, but i will charge for each icon instead of each cap.  so if i make three icons from a single cap alone i’m charging you for the three icons instead of the cap ( does this even make any sense ) unless you’d like to pay for extra.  honestly, anything goes.  i’m open to discussing it if nothing i’ve written makes sense.  so if you’re interested or have any questions then shoot me a dm and i’ll get back to you!

[reasoningdaily]

Daniel Motaung, a former Facebook content moderator employed by Sama, photographed near his home in South Africa on Feb. 11, 2022. Motaung alleges Sama wrongfully terminated him in 2019 while he was attempting to start a union

In a drab office building near a slum on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, nearly 200 young men and women from countries across Africa sit at desks glued to computer monitors, where they must watch videos of murders, rapes, suicides, and child sexual abuse.

These young Africans work for Sama, which calls itself an “ethical AI” outsourcing company and is headquartered in California.

Sama says its mission is to provide people in places like Nairobi with “dignified digital work.” Its executives can often be heard saying that the best way to help poor countries is to “give work, not aid.” The company claims to have helped lift more than 50,000 people in the developing world out of poverty.

This benevolent public image has won Sama data-labeling contracts with some of the largest companies in the world, including Google, Microsoft and Walmart. What the company doesn’t make public on its website is its relationship with its client Facebook.

Here in Nairobi, Sama employees who speak at least 11 African languages between them toil day and night, working as outsourced Facebook content moderators: the emergency first responders of social media. They perform the brutal task of viewing and removing illegal or banned content from Facebook before it is seen by the average user.

Since 2019, this Nairobi office block has been the epicenter of Facebook’s content moderation operation for the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa. Its remit includes Ethiopia, where Facebook is trying to prevent content on its platform contributing to incitement to violence in an escalating civil war.

Despite their importance to Facebook, the workers in this Nairobi office are among the lowest-paid workers for the platform anywhere in the world, with some of them taking home as little as $1.50 per hour, a TIME investigation found. The testimonies of Sama employees reveal a workplace culture characterized by mental trauma, intimidation, and alleged suppression of the right to unionize. The revelations raise serious questions about whether Facebook—which periodically sends its own employees to Nairobi to monitor Sama’s operations—is exploiting the very people upon whom it is depending to ensure its platform is safe in Ethiopia and across the continent. And just as Facebook needs them most, TIME can reveal that content moderators at Sama are leaving the company in droves due to poor pay and working conditions, with six Ethiopians resigning in a single week in January.

The office in Nairobi, Kenya, where Facebook content moderators began working in 2019, photographed on Feb 10, 2022. Sama was known publicly as Samasource until early 2021.

Khadija Farah for TIME

“The work that we do is a kind of mental torture,” one employee, who currently works as a Facebook content moderator for Sama, told TIME. “Whatever I am living on is hand-to-mouth. I can’t save a cent. Sometimes I feel I want to resign. But then I ask myself: what will my baby eat?”

TIME is aware of at least two Sama content moderators who chose to resign after being diagnosed with mental illnesses including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression. Many others described how they had been traumatized by the work but were unable to obtain formal diagnoses due to their inability to afford access to quality mental healthcare. Some described continuing with work despite trauma because they had no other options. While Sama employs wellness counselors to provide workers with on-site care in Nairobi, most of the content moderators TIME spoke to said they generally distrust the counselors. One former wellness counselor says that Sama managers regularly rejected counselors’ requests to let content moderators take “wellness breaks” during the day, because of the impact it would have on productivity.

Workers say Sama has also suppressed their efforts to secure better working conditions. In the summer of 2019, content moderators threatened to strike within seven days unless they were given better pay and working conditions. Instead of negotiating, Sama responded by flying two highly-paid executives from San Francisco to Nairobi to deal with the uprising. Within weeks Daniel Motaung, the attempted strike’s leader who was in the process of formally filing trade union papers, had been fired—accused by Sama of taking action that would put the relationship between the company and Facebook at “great risk.” Sama told other participants in the labor action effort that they were expendable and said they should either resign or get back to work, several employees told TIME. The workers stood down before the seven days were up, and there was no pay increase.

Are you a content moderator at Sama or elsewhere? TIME would like to speak with you. Please get in touch with the author: billy.perrigo@time.com

“At Sama, it feels like speaking the truth or standing up for your rights is a crime,” a second employee tells TIME. “They made sure by firing some people that this will not happen again. I feel like it’s modern slavery, like neo-colonialism.” (Sama disputes this characterization, and said in a statement that its content moderators are paid triple the Kenyan minimum wage.)

Foxglove, a legal NGO based in London, says it has informed Sama it is preparing legal action in relation to its alleged wrongful termination of Motaung. “Firing workers for trying to organize is against the law,” says Cori Crider, Foxglove’s director. “Daniel did a brave thing by blowing the whistle here—as was his legal right.” The Katiba Institute, a Kenyan public-interest law firm, is assisting with the case.

Sama denies that there was any strike or labor action. “We value our employees and are proud of the long-standing work we have done to create an ethical AI supply chain,” Shriram Natarajan, the head of Sama’s Nairobi office, said in an emailed statement. “We exist to provide ethical AI to our global customers and we are proud of the role our employees play in building new online experiences and cleaning up the internet. It’s a tough job and it’s why we invest heavily in training, personal development, wellness programs, and competitive salaries.”

Facebook says it spent more than $5 billion on safety measures in 2021. It contracts the services of more than 15,000 content moderators globally, most of whom are employed by third-parties like Sama. In response to a detailed set of questions for this story, a spokesperson for Facebook’s parent company Meta said: “We take our responsibility to the people who review content for Meta seriously and require our partners to provide industry-leading pay, benefits and support. We also encourage content reviewers to raise issues when they become aware of them and regularly conduct independent audits to ensure our partners are meeting the high standards we expect of them.”

A strike, struck down

Daniel Motaung was a 27-year-old university graduate from South Africa looking for his first job when he came across an online ad from Sama seeking Zulu speakers.

It was early 2019, and Sama had recently won a contract to provide content moderation for Facebook’s Sub-Saharan Africa markets. Sama placed job ads in countries across Africa, both directly and through agencies, looking for people with fluency in different African languages who were willing to relocate to Kenya.

Motaung, like many other moderators TIME spoke with, says he had little idea what content moderation involved when he applied for the job. He thought it simply involved removing false information from social media. He says he was not informed during his interview that the job would require regularly viewing disturbing content that could lead to mental health problems. After he accepted and arrived in Kenya, Sama asked him to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and only then did they reveal to him the type of content he would be working with daily. By then, he felt it was too late to turn back.

Several other current and former content moderators described similar experiences of not being warned about the nature of the job. Two, from separate countries, said they had answered job ads placed via agencies for “call center agents.”

Elsewhere in the world, similar working conditions have landed Facebook in hot water. In 2020, the social network paid out $52 million to fund mental health treatment for some of its American content moderators following a lawsuit centered on mental ill health stemming from their work, including PTSD.

In the U.S. and Europe, many Facebook content moderators employed by the outsourcing firm Accenture are now asked to sign a waiver before they begin their jobs, acknowledging that they may develop PTSD and other mental health disorders. African content moderators working for Sama say they are not asked to sign such a waiver.

Read more: ‘I Sold My Soul.’ WhatsApp Content Moderators Review the Worst Material on the Internet. Now They’re Alleging Pay Discrimination

According to payslips seen by TIME, Sama pays foreign employees monthly pre-tax salaries of around 60,000 Kenyan shillings ($528), which includes a monthly bonus for relocating from elsewhere in Africa. After tax, this equates to around $440 per month, or a take-home wage of roughly $2.20 per hour, based on a 45-hour work week. Sama employees from within Kenya, who are not paid the monthly relocation bonus, receive a take-home wage equivalent to around $1.46 per hour after tax. In an interview with the BBC in 2018, Sama’s late founder Leila Janah attempted to justify the company’s levels of pay in the region. “One thing that’s critical in our line of work is to not pay wages that would distort local labor markets,” she said. “If we were to pay people substantially more than that, we would throw everything off.”

Employees themselves didn’t see it that way. One day in July 2019, Motaung got talking to a group of other moderators who were hired four months previously. He recounts that many said they felt the job that they had applied for was not the one they were doing, and discussed their low pay and poor working environment.

Some said they had done research that showed content moderators in other countries were being paid far more for the same work. They resolved to group together and take action to better their conditions. Motaung took the lead, and he and his colleagues created a WhatsApp group chat to begin canvassing opinion more widely. Soon, the group had more than 100 members.

Employees who were in the group chat say they discussed the trauma of the work and how many felt they had been hired under false pretenses. Kenyan employees said it was unfair that they were paid around 30% less than the foreigners in the office, and that they had not yet received the medical insurance they say they had been promised. Other employees were frustrated that Sama had recently introduced compulsory night shifts to meet Facebook’s demand for 24-hour coverage.

Based on the discussions in the chat, Motaung drafted a petition with a list of demands for Sama’s management, including that everyone’s pay be doubled. The document, seen by TIME, said that if management did not “substantively engage” with the demands within seven days, employees would go on strike.

Kibera, the largest informal settlement in Africa, out of which Sama says many of its workers are hired.

Khadija Farah for TIME.

The Alliance, as the group of employees began calling themselves, presented their petition to Sama’s management in a meeting on July 30, 2019. Two senior Sama executives from San Francisco joined via video-conference, but they dismissed the workers’ concerns, according to Motaung and others. “They told us there are lots of people who are dying to get this job, that they did research on the wages and this is a nice wage considering what people are getting in Kenya,” says one employee who was present during the meeting. A 2021 study carried out by three MIT researchers found the average salary at Sama including benefits was approximately 2.5 times the Kenyan minimum wage. But even so, these wages only cover the basic costs of living, workers say, and don’t allow them to save or improve their financial situations.

Within days, the two executives from San Francisco had arrived in Nairobi, and Motaung was suspended from his job pending a disciplinary hearing. Sama told Motaung some of his colleagues had accused him of bullying, intimidating and coercing them to sign their names to the list of demands. He was told to stay away from the office and barred from talking to his colleagues. Motaung says the allegations that he bullied more than 100 of his colleagues into signing a petition for better pay and working conditions are ridiculous. He suspects that Sama intimidated several of his former colleagues into making statements against him. “It was just them pretending to follow a process so that they can get rid of me quickly, so that everything can go back to normal,” he says. Sama did not comment on allegations of worker intimidation.

Meanwhile, other employees involved in the attempted strike action were being invited to individual meetings with Cindy Abramson, one of the executives who had flown in from San Francisco. Two employees who were particularly vocal during the worker revolt said that Abramson flattered them in these meetings, suggesting that they had leadership potential, and dangled the prospect of promotion if they could convince their colleagues to stand down.

Three rank-and-file participants in the labor action told TIME that during their own one-on-one meetings, Abramson, whose total compensation in 2018 was $194,390, according to Sama’s public filings, intimidated them into revoking their names from the petition, saying that they must choose between disaffiliating from the Alliance or losing their jobs. Her warnings were especially stark toward Kenyan employees, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. The Kenyans were reminded in the meetings that they were more easily replaceable than foreign employees, which many of them took as a threat of being fired if they did not stand down. Scared, many people started revoking their signatures from the petition. “They threatened us, and we backed down,” says one Kenyan employee, who reasoned that it was better to have a low-paying job than no job at all.

“There never was a strike or labor action,” Sama said in its statement to TIME. “Being a responsible employer, we wanted to see our team in person, meet with everyone face-to-face and address their concerns head-on. It’s why we flew members of our leadership team to our offices in Nairobi and it’s a decision we stand behind.” The statement also said that after employees asked for higher salaries, the company conducted a pay audit and found they were already being paid double the living wage for the region. Sama said it has since changed its onboarding processes to “be more transparent about what to expect and we intensified our onboarding program by developing new training modules to ensure team members were prepared on how to handle the functions of the role.” Abramson, who has since left Sama, declined to comment.

Two weeks after his suspension, Sama fired Motaung, claiming he was guilty of gross misconduct “for engaging in acts that could amount to bullying, harassment and coercion and that led to the disruption of business activities and put the relationship between Samasource and its client [Facebook] at great risk,” according to a termination letter dated August 20, 2019. (Sama was known publicly as Samasource until early 2021, when it changed its name as part of a transformation that also included switching from a non-profit organization to a business.) The letter also noted Motaung’s leadership role within the Alliance, and said that he had advised his colleagues not to attend one-on-one meetings with management. Sama did not respond to questions about its firing of Motaung, but said in its statement that it had dismissed three employees who had “violated workplace rules.”

In the days before he was terminated, Motaung was busy drafting documents that would have formally established the Alliance as a union under Kenyan law. “I think they found out. While I was doing that, I received a letter terminating my employment,” he says. Motaung’s work permit was then canceled, leaving him just three weeks to leave Kenya for his native South Africa.

Kenyan labor law says employees are protected from dismissal as a result of “past, present or anticipated trade union membership,” and the Kenyan constitution says every worker has the right to go on strike.

Before he left Kenya, Motaung says, he handed the union incorporation papers to another employee in the movement. But the resolve of the Alliance had been broken, and the union never materialized. “We were in shock, devastated, broken,” one employee said. “And then life continued. After that, nobody dared to speak about it.”

For a time, however, a spark of resistance remained. Jason White, a former Afrikaans quality analyst from South Africa, says Sama fired him around a year later, in the summer of 2020. He had been a participant in the Alliance, and continued to ask questions even after most of his colleagues had given up. He says he regularly asked managers whether Sama was deducting too much tax from employees’ payslips, and why his girlfriend, also an employee with the company at the time, was not provided a work permit despite being promised one.

In July 2020, White and a colleague took their concerns to the South African embassy in Nairobi. In a series of emails, reviewed by TIME, and then at a meeting in person, the pair informed South African officials about the thwarted strike and Motaung’s firing the previous year, and how some of their colleagues believed they had been hired under false pretenses. The officials promised to investigate, but never followed up. The embassy did not respond to a request for comment.

After that, “there was a definite change in behavior from [Sama’s] top management,” White says. Soon after, a Sama manager offered him a payment equivalent to two months’ salary on the condition that he stop mentioning the pay and conditions at Sama to anybody, he says. He declined.

Then, White says, he was called into a disciplinary hearing, charged with having unauthorized contact with a Facebook employee, forbidden under his employment contract. White says he believes this was a reference to an email that he had sent to a Facebook staffer who had previously visited the Nairobi office, in which he had revealed his pay to her and asked her whether she believed Sama was exploiting him and other employees. Although he never received a reply, he believes that the employee told Facebook, who informed Sama. “The company saw that as a good opportunity to use that against me,” he says. Sama did not address TIME’s questions about White’s dismissal or the alleged payment offer extended to him. A Facebook spokesperson said that the email’s recipient had followed protocol.

A system driven by Facebook

Once every few months, Facebook employees travel from Dublin to Nairobi to lead trainings, brief content moderators on new policies, and answer questions. Five content moderators said that ahead of these meetings, Sama managers regularly instruct workers not to discuss their pay with Facebook staff.

But satisfying Facebook is at the center of the work culture Sama has created.

When Idris (one of the content moderators cited above who asked to use a pseudonym out of fear for his personal safety and job prospects) arrives at Sama’s office in Sameer Business Park each day, he logs into a piece of software designed by Facebook.

As soon as Idris looks at his first piece of content, a clock starts ticking. He might be confronted with graphic images or videos depicting dismemberment, murder or rape. No matter how disturbing the content, Idris must make a decision within 50 seconds about whether to take down or leave up this material—a target laid down by his Sama bosses.

Every week, his average handling time (AHT) is measured against the 50 second target during a formal review process. (The target can rise as high as 70 seconds, or sink as low as 36, depending on workload and staffing, according to employees.) If Idris takes too long reviewing each piece of content, he might be reprimanded by his team leader. If the problem persists, he will be pulled off working for Sama’s contract with Facebook and put on an internal training program instead. If he still does not work fast enough, he believes, he could be fired.

Moderators like Idris are expected to maintain an AHT of around 50 seconds, regardless of whether the video they are reviewing is minutes or even hours long. Facebook guidelines seen by TIME—previously unreported—instruct content moderators to watch only the first 15 seconds of a video before marking it as OK to remain on the platform and moving onto the next piece of content—as long as the title, transcript, top comments and thumbnail of the video appear to be innocent, and no users nor Facebook’s AI systems have flagged specific points in the video.

Through its prioritization of speed and efficiency above all else, this policy might explain why videos containing hate speech and incitement to violence have remained on Facebook’s platform in Ethiopia.

TIME reviewed several examples of lengthy Facebook Live videos that contained hate speech and incitement to violence well into the body of the videos. In one example, a two-hour long video with more than 1,000 views, a man speaking Amharic says that anyone married to Tigrayans or Oromos—two major ethnic groups from Ethiopia—are traitors and enemies of the state. In a coded call for ethnic cleansing, the man says that Amharas must not live in an Ethiopia that contains members of those groups.

An Ethiopian digital rights group, Network Against Hate Speech, told TIME in March 2021 that it had reported this video and more than 70 others to Facebook. But this video was not taken down until at least three months later.

“The majority of posts that have taken [a] long [time] before removal … are videos,” Network Against Hate Speech told TIME in an email last year. In the months since, the Ethiopian civil war has only escalated, with reports of mass atrocities and murders of civilians along ethnic lines.

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen said in an interview that the working conditions described by content moderators at Sama appear to have had a serious impact on Facebook’s ability to police content in Ethiopia. “I am entirely unsurprised that these moderators are not being treated with the dignity that they deserve,” she told TIME. “It is tragic that the consequence of this devaluing of human beings is that others, in some of the most vulnerable places in the world, are now suffering as well.”

Adding to the pressure they feel, Idris and other Sama content moderators are also expected to make the correct call at least 84% of the time: a target known as “quality score,” which team leaders track each week and use to measure what they deem to be underperformance.

Some pieces of content are reviewed twice, first by Idris, and then by a more senior “quality analyst,” who is generally a former content moderator with good knowledge of Facebook’s policies. If the pair disagree on whether a piece of content should be permitted to remain on the platform, the quality analyst’s decision is taken as final, and Idris’s quality score ticks downward. Even if they agree a piece of content should be removed, they must also agree on the reason for removal.

Facebook has put some features in place to help protect moderators, like the option to render videos in black and white or add blurring. But one Sama employee says that he does not use these options because of the pressure to meet quotas. “How can you clearly see whether content is violating or not unless you can see it clearly? If it’s black and white or blurred, I cannot tell,” the employee says. “Some people use the option, but I don’t. Because if I wrongly action that [content], I will be marked down.”

Employees say they are expected to work for up to nine hours per day including breaks, and their screen time is monitored. “I cannot blink,” one employee says. “They expect me to work each and every second.” In a statement, Sama said that it caps working hours for content moderators at 37 hours per week, however TIME reviewed an employment contract from 2019 that said workers can be expected to work for up to 45 hours per week without additional compensation. It is unclear whether that includes breaks.

TIME reviewed several copies of Sama content moderators’ performance reviews, where they were measured against target metrics for AHT and quality. In one email, a manager chastises a content moderator for spending too much time not moderating content while logged in.

Employees say that on a typical working day, they are expected to spend around eight hours logged into Facebook’s content moderation program. On such a day, a target of 50 seconds per piece of content would equate to a de-facto daily quota of nearly 580 items.

This evidence appears to contradict public statements that Facebook has made in the past about expectations it places on its contractors. “A common misconception about content reviewers is that they’re driven by quotas and pressured to make hasty decisions,” Ellen Silver, Facebook’s vice president of operations, said in a 2018 blog post. “Let me be clear: content reviewers aren’t required to evaluate any set number of posts … We encourage reviewers to take the time they need.”

A Meta spokesperson, Ben Walters, said Meta asks contractors like Sama to encourage moderators to take as much time as they need to make decisions. The video guidelines, he said, were designed to allow content moderators to use their best judgment so as to avoid wasting time on long videos that do not appear to contain policy violations. Sama did not respond to questions about its workflows or targets.

Idris says that while Sama management, not Facebook, are the ones pressuring content moderators over their metrics, he thinks it is clear that they do so because of anxieties about what it would mean if the company did not meet Facebook’s expectations. “That is always their excuse: the client has seen your AHT is high,’” Idris says, referring to times he is put under pressure by his manager. A former employee adds: “They only care about pleasing the client.”

Content moderators at Sama are meant to receive “wellness breaks” of at least an hour per week, to help them deal with seeing traumatizing content. But some employees described having to “beg” to be allowed to take their allotted wellness breaks.

A former counselor said that Sama managers, not counselors, had the final say over when and whether content moderators were allowed to take breaks. The counselor witnessed managers repeatedly rejecting content moderators’ requests for breaks, citing productivity pressures. “There is a clinical responsibility in our job to ensure that the moderators are cared for,” said the former counselor, who asked not to be named. “This responsibility is not fully being fulfilled. Sama is more interested in productivity than the safety of the moderator.”

Enter the virus

When Kenya went into COVID lockdown in March of 2020, Sama announced that it would hire out two luxury lodges in the countryside for its employees to relocate to, in order that they could continue their work uninterrupted. Many took up the offer, which was optional, and left their families behind. Dozens of Sama’s Facebook content moderators moved into the Lukenya Getaway resort a short drive away from Nairobi, where rooms typically cost more per night than an average Kenyan content moderator at Sama makes in a week.

Less than two miles from Sama's office is Mukuru kwa Njenga, one of the largest informal settlements in Nairobi.

Khadija Farah for TIME

In November 2021, Sama finally reopened the doors to its office near the Nairobi slum, Mukuru kwa Njenga. Employees, many of whom had not received a single COVID-19 vaccine, say they were pressured to return to the building even as cases of the Omicron variant rose in the city.

Some attributed the decision to a belief among managers that content moderators’ quality scores and Average Handling Times would improve if they were physically present. (Several employees said the return to the office had had the opposite effect.)

Soon there was an outbreak of COVID in the office, and many content moderators started requesting sick leave. Instead of granting all of them, a Sama HR manager informed employees via text message that they would not be granted sick leave unless they received a note from one of two specific hospitals.

As a result, some employees who couldn’t access those hospitals went to the office even if they had symptoms, two employees said.

In its statement, Sama said it had offered unlimited COVID-related sick days in response to the pandemic. “As we reopened our offices, we’ve worked to keep our team safe by following CDC guidelines, having nurses on site, utilizing 20% of the office space to encourage social distancing, and we’ve hosted three vaccination drives to make it as easy as possible to get vaccinated if employees choose,” the company said.

Outsourcing trauma to the developing world

In an era where Facebook has come under sustained fire for failing to stem the flow of misinformation, hate speech and incitement to violence on its platforms, the company is often praised when it says it is increasing the number of dollars it spends on safety.

But hiring content moderators in the U.S. and Europe is expensive compared to the cheap labor available in Kenya and other countries in the Global South like India and the Philippines.

The rise of content moderation centers in these countries has led some observers to raise concerns that Facebook is profiting from exporting trauma along old colonial axes of power, away from the U.S. and Europe and toward the developing world.

“Outsourcing is a scam that lets Facebook rake in billions while pretending worker exploitation and union-busting is somebody else’s fault,” says Crider, the Foxglove lawyer who is currently preparing a legal case against Sama. “But it’s not just Sama,” she added. “Foxglove has been working with Facebook moderators around the world for years – and these people have had it with exploitation, the strain of toxic content, and suppression of their right to unionize.”

Almost all of the employees TIME spoke to for this story described being profoundly emotionally affected by the content they were exposed to at Sama – trauma that they said was often exacerbated by the way they have been treated in their jobs.

Many expressed the opinion that they might be able to handle the trauma of the job – even take pride that they were sacrificing their own mental health to keep other people safe on social media – if only Sama and Facebook would treat them with respect, and pay them a salary that factors in their lasting trauma.

In its statement to TIME, Sama said it had “revisited” its mental health processes after employees raised concerns in 2019 “and made further enhancements, and provided additional coaching to team leads.” But employees say the protections remain inadequate to this day. “When it comes to your personal welfare,” one employee says, “You are not treated like a real human.”

After returning to South Africa after being fired, Motaung, the leader of the failed 2019 strike, says it felt like everything around him crashed. He went to Pretoria to look for work, but struggled. He lost a lot of weight.

“I was not OK mentally, emotionally,” he says. He eventually returned to a village in the mountains where he has family. “When I got home, they were like, what happened to you? What were you doing in Kenya? I couldn’t even talk about it because I signed an NDA.”

Sama extended Motaung access to its wellness counselors for one extra month after his departure, as it does for all outgoing employees. But Motaung didn’t take up the offer. He had attended wellness sessions around once a week when he was in Kenya, but found them unhelpful. “Those people …It was sort of like we were there for their entertainment, or there for them simply to get paid,” he says. “Whereas the help that we really needed, we were not getting.”

Motaung says he is still dealing with the trauma he incurred at Sama, but is unable to afford a therapist. “If you do this work, it’s very hard not to experience permanent scars to your emotions and mental state,” he says.

In conversation, Motaung still avoids any specific mention of what he saw during his work, conscious that he is still bound by the NDA. What he will say is that he had a traumatic experience, and that he still gets flashbacks. He expects to carry the burden of that trauma with him until the day he dies. “That sort of thing can change who you are,” he says. “It can destroy the fiber of your entire being.”

[not-poignant]

This was probably asked before, but did you ever consider releasing print copies of your serials like Fae Tales or FFS, or even an anthology of the oneshots and shorts? Not necesserily on amazon, but maybe your own shop?

Hi anon,

I've been thinking about this question for a few days trying to reason it out, and basically the reasons I wouldn't consider releasing print copies of my serials on my own website are the same reason I wouldn't consider releasing print copies of my serials on Amazon, with one exception (the Amazon TOS, lol).

If I'm not drop-shipping, which is a pain to organise re: quality control, I have to host the books at my house, which is a cottage where we already don't have enough room to store things. Not to mention shipping anything from Australia to the rest of the world (especially books) is prohibitively expensive.

Game Theory and The Court of Five Thrones are not normal 'books.' They are each about 5 standard novels in length (in romance, that shoots up right up to about 6-8). I would not want to make the font size small because that makes accessibility hard for everyone, and at best I might be able to publish the books as a set of maybe 6-8 books. So people would not be buying two books to get two installments in a series, but 6-8 really heavy books. Realistically, if I made the books like, nice to look at and factored in shipping and stuff, that means people would easily be paying over $300~ (and realistically much more) to get a series they can right now...read for free. Shipping books in particular is...like...the biggest killer for authors and why so many, almost all authors, do not organise shipping themselves. Even then, ordering 8 books at once is still a lot of shipping from most smaller distributors.

Amazon is not the main problem, anon. I can publish my books on Smashwords right now and there wouldn't be an issue with the content. Amazon is only a small part of the problem. Tbh hosting books on your own website is considered one of the worst ways to distribute in terms of getting interest. Which I would need, because of the next part:

Finally, the years it would take to edit these books to a standard that I would consider publishable would not really be worth the fact that I would never ever earn that time or labour back. If I was a rich person who could just spend my time doing whatever I wanted, then I'd be able to do this, but I barely have enough time as it is to write the things that I do which actually do make me a living. Paying someone to edit those books would cost easily in the bracket of around $15-20k AUD ($10-14k USD), for extremely cheap (and therefore not guaranteed good quality) editing - that's an entire year's worth of income for me. Doing it myself or in tandem with someone else takes a huge amount of time. Like, realistically, I would maybe sell 200 copies of the books at best. It's a little like taking thousands of dollars and flushing it down the toilet. I would love to be privileged enough to do that, because I would like to see my books on my shelves more than anyone else would, for probably obvious reasons. But this is the path I've chosen, and I do not have thousands of dollars or hundreds of hours of time that I can afford to flush away, anon. And right now I don't see very obvious reasons beyond 'it would be cool' to do it. I hate talking about these practicalities, but I have to consider them. The editing in particular is the biggest killer, because if it was just typos etc. I could maybe get it done in a year or so. But I want to make some structural and continuity edits to Game Theory in particular, and that will take a lot of time.