#if i say the user i can trust you people not to harass them right?

[fudge24-7]

Huh, you ever have a blog asking for donation help just straight up block you before you could respond? Like damn was I taking too long for you? I get I was taking a bit trying to figure out if you were legit, but with how many scammers there are I've got to be vigilant you know

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

(Moo Deng related, sorry if you’ve been flooded with these)

Another reason why the “trust the keeper” argument isn’t a good one is… guess what… professionals can make mistakes too! Or, in this case, purposefully do harmful things.

Just because someone is a qualified, bonafide professional with degrees and years of experience doesn’t mean they will never make mistakes or do harm. I don’t want to doubt that Moo Deng’s keeper has experience, but how he handles her is just plain wrong. Professional or not, it’s not right.

And I understand the thought of “trust the keeper instead of this random tumblr blog” too. But c’mon guys, use some common sense! LOOK at how Moo Deng is handled, where she’s being kept, how she reacts. Even if you know nothing about hippos, you can pretty easily tell she’s not comfortable. Please, people, just think about it for more than a minute…

Completely agree! I have no doubt that these keepers love Moo Deng and care deeply for her. But there's just no reason to be handling her in such a heavy handed and aggressive way.

She's a nocturnal animal that should be sleeping for most of the day, not being poked and prodded and chased around.

Interestingly this article came out recently and a lot of people are also considering it to be a "debunking"

Now I certainly don't share any of that Tiktoker's sentiments about "imprisoning" zoo animals but this article did address the excessive handling concerns.

Basically they're saying that they don't interact with Moo Deng when she's eating, which is clearly not true since the animals pretty much always have food when the keepers interact with Moo Deng.

They also talk about all their conservation efforts. And yeah, that's great good on them. But it still doesn't justify how they handle her. It still boils down to "yeah but we only harass her for the entertainment of the guests a few hours a day and then she gets to sleep" and I still don't think that's an acceptable excuse.

And considering it is WAZA accredited it really should know better. https://www.waza.org/priorities/waza-code-of-ethics/animal-welfare-strategies/

This document is readily available in multiple languages and includes the following:

I would say a lot of the answers here would be no, regarding their Pygmy Hippo enclosure.

[echo]

this is a response to @anarcho-yorpism's tag for me in this post. i'm not directly rbing bc that post is long and it has a lot going on in the notes.

anyway please note all of my responses here are my own, and not representative of Staff or tumblr. i am not T&S and have zero power to make any moderation decisions here.

with that disclaimer:

Predstrogen received a message from Tumblr saying she was banned for "sexual content". If she was not, why was she told this, why were her transition photos removed, and why has she still not been told the actual reason? (I understand not making it public, but it is your policy to tell the user) If she was, what was this sexual content, if not her transition timeline?

i can't really directly answer this for few reasons. firstly, i feel that staff shouldn't talk about her anymore bc i feel this continued controversy will only attract more harassment for her on other platforms.

secondly, as a low-level staffer talking about moderation decisions can get me, y'know, fired. i'd prefer not to do that.

also just like... i want to avoid getting into a narrative of "well she did bad things so she deserves it" or whatever. idc if she broke the rules or not, she didn't deserve what happened.

i know this isn't terribly satisfying to hear, but i'd like to be honest about why i'm not saying more at least.

If you can't answerblegal questions, ignore this question: The NYCLU settlement agreed that Tumblr would fix its moderation so it targeted transfem users less. Why has there been no comment on the settlement and actions taken since? There could genuinely be a large legal case against Tumblr after this, and I love this site and don't want that to happen. Also, wasn't it illegal under GDPR to release her usernames?

i'm not able to answer legal questions. i don't know the exact text of the agreement, but it mostly boiled down to some training and stuff from my personal experience there.

however not as a staffer but as NYC trans human: i would not put a ton of faith in the NYCCHR. they have some noble goals but they are a chronically underfunded city agency that in practice does very little to curb real-world violence against marginalized people. i tried to use them myself when my landlord was kicking me out right after i had surgery and they didn't even get back to me until months after everything resolved. nobody i know in the community out here has been helped by them off the top of my head.

i have sincere doubts in relying on the state to help people here.

A lot of transfem users don't like vague language like "prioritize", especially given point 2 and Matt's statement that improving moderation was not on the agenda. I understand you can't reveal company secrets in an already risky post, but we would like to see the specific actions taken after this, given a lot of broken trust by what @\photomatt has said. Are any of the trans women banned recently for "sexual content" going to have their accounts restored?

i don't know. i'm pushing internally for at least a review of everyone suspended to see if the less egregious stuff can be reversed. but like i said, i don't have a ton of power as i'm not in charge of anything.

and yeah, "prioritize" is vague corpo-speak. i know some stuff is shifting internally and what we said does match what is happening inside. but also... i've been disappointed before.

i can say i'm tentatively optimistic. people are responding seriously, and being asked our opinions for once is pretty nice. but also, systemic stuff is hard. i trust in my fellow workers and i'll continue to fight until i can't anymore.

so... yeah. i genuinely wish i can be more informative here, but what we wrote (and i want to emphasize we here, it was not just me by any stretch!!) is what we can say in an official capacity.

i'm just frustrated, tired, angry, depressed... and also weirdly hopeful?

[confessionsofa-roleplayer]

I am going to say it loud for everyone in the RPC here, including folks in the back I've noticed are missing these very important notes. Majority of callouts are inherently BIASED and rooted in a personal opinion of the person(s) who started it. Callouts that have unrelated "evidence" from years ago tacked on, with claims that cannot be proven to be the truth at current day, should NOT be trusted.

Callouts that have only one piece of "evidence" as to why the person(s) dislike their target should NOT be trusted. Callouts with "evidence" of the target already being riled up from hate and harassment from the person(s) making the callout should NOT be trusted. Callouts that encourage any sort of targeted hate and harassment on the chosen target should be a sign to instead AVOID and BLOCK the PEOPLE DOING/ENCOURAGING THE CALLOUT.

Callouts that have any wording about wishing HARM to the target should BE REPORTED TO TUMBLR SUPPORT. Even if the harm is trying to get the target to delete or leave the site. This is proof the people making the callout are acting with planned harassment, and it is against the ToS for the site! All too often there are a lot of callouts that circulate the RPC that I spot that are just rooted in someone's personal beef with another user. They decide to make a post or preference of someone else a personal issue and try to validate their attack on that target. This is toxic behaviour on the part of the people making the "callout"!

They ostracize and try to get others to torment them for them. They send anon hate until that avenue is cut off, and encourage others to do most of the dirty work of this cyberbullying. They're just abusing their following and reach to hurt someone they disagree with because they decided to twist something that wasn't directed at them at all into a personal act. All to justify tormenting that target. Cyberbullying is a criminal offense, and if pushed too far people who make these callouts will discover they are not so anonymous. The targets, the true victims of the actual harassment, in those callouts if pushed too far may seek help from police and legally. Keep pushing them and you might find yourself arrested and facing expensive criminal charges for your actions against them. This has always been a reality and very often comes true.

The RPC activities are meant to be a hobby. Getting bent out of shape over what someone posts that you don't agree with to the point you decide to start harassing them rather than just blocking them is not okay. Stalking them after they block you so you can gather "evidence" is not okay. Helping someone stalk someone who blocked them is not okay. Making a callout to try and get others to join in your harassment of someone you should have just blocked and walked away from is not okay. The victim may have made a bad a post, said a thing you don't like, but that does NOT give you the right to claim they're harassing you when YOU DECIDED to go in for a PUNCH FIRST.

Having people helping you cyberbully that person means you're the problem. People who make these sorts of callouts are NOT the victim. They're the bully/threat/problem. If you don't like what you see on someone else's blog that the thought crosses your mind to harass them first, to make a negative comment, or throw shade about them on anon: BLOCK THEM, MOVE ON AND DO NOT STALK THEM.

Do not vague about them. Do not make a callout about them. Do not get your friends involved in your hate about them. People fuck up and make mistakes all the time, it's part of being human. If you can't approach someone politely to address a concern about something they posted, in a civil way, leave them be and move on with your life.

Don't be an asshole and resort to cyberbullying to ruin their fun through a callout rooted in your personal beef. Don't make that personal issue everyone else's problem to join in on. Don't try to claim anything they react or say AFTER being HARASSED by YOU and your friends directly is evidence of them being such a bad person. JUST LEAVE THEM ALONE. They have likely blocked you and your friends bullying them and clearly want nothing to do with you. Take that hint to move on, leave them alone and carry on with whatever you want to do. Life is too short to be trying to ruin someone else's fun so fervently, especially when they want you and your friends to stay well away from them.

[gakucchis]

my story about ♡being cyber bullied by the love live fandom even though i didn’t do anything♡

this has nothing to do with obey me and i doubt anyone will read this but.. who wants to know the story about how the whole love live fandom in 2017 was bullying and harassing me?? alright alright calm down everybody if you wanna know sooo badly

my account name for ig back then was dagashimanga/honokasmanjuu. i really just wanted an account to share my love live obsession with and shitpost.

if you were around back then, you remember the most famous love live confessions account on ig and all the DRAMA it came with. like so so much went down there it was hilarious. anyway, i was friends with one of the admins, her user was christmas.eli.

she was like one of my first internet friends. i live in germany and she lived in france, so sometimes we’d talk like the whole night. we were super close.

until… KAYLEE happened.

now, if you were around back then… you know who tf that is!! it was a (presumably) 10-13 year old girl who would have tons of accounts (talking 20+), all very girly and feminine, super pink, etc. she would either wanna be your friend or hate you to death, and often times when you wouldn’t become her friend or wouldn’t do the right thing, she’d hate you, stalk you, harass you, everything. blocking her didn’t work.

so, one day, i was her victim. idk how it started, but something set her off. she harassed me, texted me, created an account called honokasmanjuuu and copied my posts word for word lmao

a few days later, i took a nap and woke up to see my ig BLOWING up. what the hell happened? well, kaylee fabricated a screenshot of the worst thing you could do in the love live fandom: scam someone of their sif account. she sent it to the love live confessions account for awareness, and guess who approved and posted it? my dear christmas.eli!

my account was full of people telling me how horrible i am, how i deserve to die, etc. people found my private, real life account, commenting there, using my pictures and spreading them (mind you i was 14), telling me how ugly i am, how ugly my art is, even photoshopping me on a pig lmao

i texted christmas.eli and told her it was fake and asked her why she would do this to me instead of talking to me first. she absolutely hated me and told me to block her. my irl best friend (to this das mwuah) even tried explaining it to her but she didn’t want to hear any of it. the bullying got so bad, i deactivated any accounts i had — it was full on cyber bullying. i couldn’t listen or watch anything love live related because it was so traumatizing at the time.

i created new accounts, where one girl even texted me, and after talking to her she trusted me and felt sorry for me, before also turning on me and telling the confessions account my new user. i quickly deleted the account and started anew, without anyone except my irl friends and like 2-3 mutuals.

funny thing though: my new account actually grew quite a bit, and one day, christmas.eli followed me even. nobody knew who i really was because i kept private information at bay and started using an internet name (which, to this day!!, is ria ♡). and… i actually became her friend again, acting like i was someone else lmao.

she was close with two other girls, all three had big accounts, and one day the other two girls posted a screenshot of my account because i said something along the lines of most men only using male sa victims to minimize female sa victim awareness (which is true!). they called me a sexist who doesn’t care about male sa which is just as bad.. girl where did i say that….. anyway, i was only bullied for a day so ig it’s okay!

if you’ve read this far, wow, congrats. if you know me from back then (dagashimanga, honokasmanjuu, gakucchis and now gakuwucchis (you can follow me, but not very active)) let me know! also let me know if you bullied me too, no hard feelings unless you’re one of the three girls. because then i wish you hell on earth!

[adarkrainbow]

I just got a reblog... Not for one of my posts, but for a post I reblogged YEARS ago... I want to react to it, without calling the exact person out though, because it's not their fault... But here's the deal:

The reblog was about the situation of Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent (yes Disney's Maleficent, though it was on a post applying to Sleeping Beauty in general). And this person explained how Maleficent clearly is evil by fairy standard back "back in the days" (referring to medieval times I presume?), the "Fae" apparently had a limitation of never killing or harming children. "They could kidnap them, but not harm them", and this reblogger explained how this was a sort of moral rule all the "Fae" followed and never crossed. Which is why Maleficent was shown as "pure evil".

... Boy, do I have some news for this unfortunate person. Fairies, fair folk, fae folk, supernatural beings, however you want to call them, DID enjoy killing children on a regular basis. It's not because some specific legends claim some specific groups of entities never harmed children that it is true for ALL of European folklore (especially since Sleeping Beauty not only does not belong to the British Folklore, from which the "fair folk" come from, but is rather a mix of French and German ones since the most famous iterations that built the myth are Perrault and Grimm).

However I do say "unfortunate person" because this poor reblogger clearly has been misled. They said "If you don't trust me, just go ask X user, they'll tell you all about it". Said user is called "thenightling". Pretty infamous on Tumblr, especially on everything related to Neil Gaiman since they have been... haunting, in the most monstrous sense of the term, all Neil Gaiman related posts on Tumblr (especially Sandman which is apparently their hyper-fixation).

"thenightling" is NOT a good source of information. As in they do have some right informations, some good sources and make some good points... But they also are one of the most arrogant, obsessive, self-righteous bullies I ever saw, who randomly harasses and gets into fight with a ton of people everywhere over the slightest misunderstanding on their part. They are the kind of people who start an insane explosive rant at people making honest mistakes instead of just calmly explaining why they are wrong or where they can get better info. Plus, due to being obsessive, hyper-fixated and blind-sided in any of their rant, analysis or post, they also are prone to mass-simplification, presenting limited info as the only real thing ever, and apparently now spreading accidental misinformation...

In conclusion, this is a sort-of warning against this Tumblr user. I saw what they did in the past. I don't know if things got better now, but given people are sharing as "solid facts" some weird misconceptions about European lore using them as sources... You know. Just avoid these murky waters if you don't want to be yelled at for no reasons.

Heck I even hesitate to write this line out of fear this person is just going to come to my blog (which has been spared until now) and make a living hell out of it. It's incredibly stupid to fear such a thing, especially since they are probably never going to come across my blog, and if they ever see this post they'll probably just block me outright. But you know... It is the only real time I saw actual intellectual bullying on Tumblr. It kind of sticks in the mind, you know?

[bucknastysbabe]

THE LAST DAMN THING IM SAYING;

I’d also like to say and make this clear: I’m not friends with Bel and Fae anymore after what I saw posted. That connection is severed. I am still friends with Chris and will remain to be as she is a good person who also fucked up. I was apprehensive about remaining friends when the original post came out considering it was about me— including the purposely left comment by the OP also making fun of me. Which led me back into believing their lies.

I was lied to until the bitter end. I wanted to HOPE until the bitter end everything wasn’t true but I saw the screenshots. About analgate, about being inclusive, and use of slurs. Many other things under the guise of “we made up” so I wanted to trust them.

My gut feeling would switch now and then but I got caught up. I reread the entire gc convo to look at my comments. It’s disgusting to watch yourself become more hateful. That’s a really shitty part of me I worked hard to get rid of in real life through the program of AA.

Somehow I managed to convince myself gossiping and being mean wasn’t so bad online. It is just as awful because people are behind a url. I know better. Now the level of crassness and racism I did not see from them in our small groupchat, as it was being hidden. I have never sent a hate anonymous post, they claimed the same, only to find out that’s all they did and probably did the same to me. Nice.

I seriously fucked up making fun of Agnes appearance due to my dislike getting in the way of doing the next right thing. Which I’m trying to do now. Don’t harass readers or small blogs about me. They are reading about sucking and fucking, not looking into online drama.

The other fuck up I would like to clarify on my behalf. To all Germans— I made tasteless jokes about a German user not liking Fabien Frankel bc of his Jewish heritage. That’s ignorant of me. Very ignorant. Especially as I dated and loved a guy from Berlin for over a year and he even told me that’s a sore spot for them.

Now that sounds like “I have (insert) friends!!!”

But I’m following up to say I still have my OWN unresolved anger at him for our toxic relationship. So I have said “fucking Germans.” For the love of everything good and holy I DO NOT want every person in that country to blow up and die. There’s a difference between vile racism and backward comments coming from a place of hurt. I acknowledge it’s childish and nasty. I also don’t use the word n@z1, but that was clarified in the second post on who said that.

Hope this clears things up. This is the most transparent I can be. I can’t fix any of the hurt I’ve caused. Apologizing like a broken record is annoying— I know. So this is it. I’m staying up. I can only go forward, if you’d like to stay in the past, farewell. For people who are hurt take all the time you need.

[badlydrawncreepypasta]

Serious: Regarding the Sanityisforlosers situation

Trigger warning: the following post discusses grooming, stalking, sexual harassment, SA, necrophilia, anorexia and generally mature topics. Please read this post at your own discretion. If the aforementioned topics upset or trigger you, I strongly advise for you not to read.

Hi, everyone.

This isn't the sort of post that I wish to be making, because I prefer keeping personal problems and things such as online drama away from this blog. After all, this is the place I go to unwind and simply fool about.

However, things have gotten so bad that it has severely affected not only myself but everybody involved. For this reason, I can no longer afford to remain quiet on the matter, primarily for Sanity's sake.

It's no secret that I am close friends with Sanityisforlosers. I acknowledge that as a result, personal biases may rear their head and this post is, in fact, primarily defending him. However, the main purpose of this post is to clear up misinformation that has primarily been spread by the people calling him out.

If anybody is familiar with the characters Julius the Dressmaker and Killian Lynch, or has written for the character in any way, they may have received anons such as the following:

All the claims made by these anonymous messengers are entirely untrue. Arguments below:

However, before I go into this I wish to state EXPLICITLY: do NOT harass any of the parties mentioned within the post. These people have already been through enough, and I strongly implore for you to leave them alone about this issue once and for all.

"Sanity is a liar, having lied about MysticalSorcery being a groomer"

Untrue. Sanity made a callout post claiming that MysticalSorcery had minors in her server. This is far from claiming that MysticalSorcery is a groomer and this claim came to be due to a grave miscommunication between himself and a user named the-catcake, causing the spread of misinformation that Sanity did not intend for. A big reason for this is that Sanity was acting irrationally and emotionally, which does not make him running his mouth right, but the fact remains that the base claim was NOT MysticalSorcery allegedly being a groomer.

By now it has been established that MysticalSorcery did not have minors in her server, and that this idea came to be due to a conversation between Sanity and a third party which he felt he could trust, IvyDarkRose.

The callout by snuffbomb-awareness claims Ivy never explicitly confirmed the presence of minors, but this screenshot clearly states otherwise. As a result, Sanity had every reason to believe that there were minors present in nsfw spaces.

He has since apologised for making this claim, and MysticalSorcery has accepted this apology.

I will continue to reinstate: Tori/MysticalSorcery is innocent. Do not harass her and bring these claims up to her again, as they now have been disproven. She has done nothing wrong.

"Sanity is a stalker."

There is no evidence of this whatsoever, and word of mouth claims should not be trusted.

"Sanity claimed to be SA'd by Jesterca, Candy Pop's creator"

What Sanity claimed was that he was sexually harassed, not sexually assaulted. Jesterca sent them an unsolicited image of a bare ass (presumably a 3D model).

To claim this is sexual harassment is by definition correct, because unsolicited nsfw imagery falls under sexual harassment. Mind you, this all happened because Sanity pointed out that the parties opposing him are openly friends with Jesterca, who has already stirred up controversy due to queerphobic views.

"Sanity lied about his friendship with Krisantyl and made her uncomfortable."

I understand that because a screenshot was provided in a callout by Tumblr user snuffbomb-awareness, it is difficult to disprove this claim, and because what I am saying is word of mouth you have every right to take this argument with a grain of salt. However, this sudden change in stance strikes me as odd, as I have personally seen exchanges held between him and Krisantyl, and the both of them engaged very amicably with each other. Of course, all I have is my word of mouth, and for this specific case you are free to make up your own mind.

Additionally, I would like to address a few more wrongfully made claims brought up in the callout by snuffbomb-awareness:

"Sanity's OCs are a bad and fetishistic representation of MLM"

This claim, in my personal opinion is one of the most outlandish. Sanity is a pansexual man. He is quite literally mlm himself. With this I would then like to ask: on what basis is the relationship between Julius the Dressmaker and Killian Lynch a fetishistic depiction of mlm? Is it because one is feminine and the other masculine? Because the more feminine of the two feels more inclined to take a sexually submissive role?

These are dynamics that very much exist in mlm relationships. If one believes that this makes for an inherently fetishistic depiction of mlm, that says more about them than the person who wrote the dynamic. I say this myself as a bisexual man (and I understand that mlm can all have different opinions).

"Sanity glamorises SA, anorexia and necrophilia through his works and OCs"

Once again a claim that upon closer inspection simply is preposterous.

Killian Lynch and Julius the Dressmaker both are characters who engage in sexual violence and necrophilia, yes. This is not a secret. However, these actions are not painted out to be a good thing and are supposed to be bad and horrify you. They are horror character, after all. A prime example of this is an extreme horror piece which Sanity posted a while back of his character, Killian.

Not only is there a disclaimer right at the top of the post, Sanity additionally triggered tagged this post appropriate.

As for anorexia, this claim also is blatantly false and even borders on being offensive, as Sanity once again not only doesn't make Julius' anorexia out to be a good thing; he has always been vocally pro-recovery as well.

Not only this, but Sanity suffers from anorexia himself and has been using his own experiences grappling with the disorder in order to write this accurately. This online debacle has caused him to relapse.

Closing Statement

Sanity is many things. He's brash, hot-headed, impulsive and an asshole. What is isn't is what these people claim he is: a liar, stalker, harasser, fetishiser of mlm.

I can agree with the notion that a lot of this could have largely been prevented if communication had run more smoothly. I do not agree with the way Sanity handled his accusations towards Tori. He was emotional and approached the situation incredibly irrationally, and no, I don't believe it was right for MysticalSorcery to be compared to SnuffBomb.

You would think that because Sanity has publicly apologised and this was accepted, that people would stop spreading misinformation now, but within just a day of the apology being issued this has only worsened. It is for this reason that I am writing this post. Please let it rest now. Tori wants no more of this. Sanity wants no more of this.

Whoever the anon may be who has been spamming the inboxes of Julius fans, stop. You have stressed people out and you are not behaving productively.

This post may be edited to add additional evidence. Additionally, I would appreciate for people to spread this through reblogging. I simply wish for the truth to be brought to light.

[opinated-user]

indeed, anon. i'm sure it means a lot for LO that you're willing to lie so blatantly. 1. that user they mentioned? not one of my followers or regular users who interact with my content. if you go to their blog, literally the only one that reblogued from any of us was this post. for the record, it was the post where i posted the screenshot of LO using the r-slur against her critics and Brittany commenting that LO later changed it to "crackhead".

i can't speak for the other blogs though. at least they didn't ring any bells for me. just in case it's needed too: i'm stubbornly clear about how i don't want anyone reading my blog to go interact with LO in any sort of way. the goal here is deplatforming and you can't deplatform someone if you just keep validating their platform with more social interactions. not to mention that anything you say to her is just more for her victim narrative. 2. one reblog post. zero likes. the rest of their interaction are miscelanious posts that have nothing to do with either LO or our blogs. is that what "regularly interact with" means now? but even if they did "regularly" interacted with any of us... again, we're all pretty adamant about not harassing or bothering LO because it'll always be useless. so clearly this person is not listening to us either and went out of their way to go against what we try to do. i'm not happy about this person going off on LO like they did either. 3. let me get this straight. when we say that some anons write the exact same as LO does and we can recognize the tone, or it's just pathetically obvious in some other way, that's us building conspiracy theories because we can't accept that someone might actually like LO. those two things have nothing to do with each other in the first place, LO is capable of using sockpuppet accounts and also there being people who for some reason think they like her, those are not mutually exclusive, but that's what LO has said before. but when this unconfirmed anon that nobody know who they are say that they recognize the writing style of some of the anon messages we get with this other random tumblr user who only wrote something by themselves once, oh, now that's a valid thought process. to clarify, they might be right for all i know. i have no clue. i just know that this user went against LO in the most unnecessary way possible and it did nothing but anyone, so i hope at least it was worth it for them because certainly it wasn't for us. they might have also send us some anons for all i care. i just question the double standard here. when we do it, it's a conspiracy. when other people to it to defend LO, no, that's just being a smart person who just notices this kind of things. 4. "showing people 5+ instances of you being directly contacted by the blog"... what is this even talking about? what other 5+ instances are they refering to? i only just found out about this one user going on their own. this one user i might have seen once in my activity notifications and never again. where are those other blogs who are part of this side of tumblr doing this? 5. "everything going on with Poppy last month has also been very helpful." i'm so glad, anon, that you're able to be so honest and say that you're glad that Poppy violated the consent of a survivor of CSA to the point that she destroyed his trust. i almost respect that. or do you mean the multiple allegations of abuse against her that have nothing to do with us or LO? the ones that LO has majorly ignored? while treating Poppy like a potential victim only after she put the testimony of Courtney behind a paywall? truly, i'm fascinated with how you see a sex pest harming people, using them and discarding them as "helpful" to keep the good reputation of your favorite youtuber. indeed, the sign of a well adjusted and moral person with their priorities in the right places. thank god that all those people were negatively affected by Poppy so it could serve you to keep protecting a proven groomer. i bet all those victims will be delighted to know that their experiences were useful for you. but really, what i can expect from a fan of the woman who has said more victim blaming things that are more aboherrent than that? you two truly deserve each other.

[clairethecutepup]

It's YOUR Fault if You Give Up Art...

Does anyone else feel like it’s more on an artist than anyone else if they gave up because of insults/harassment/etc? No, I obviously do not condone such behavior… I mean, you need to take time out of your day to write scathing messages and do other things to pick on someone, just because, “Wahhh, I don’t like the thing they made”? Honestly pretty spoiled, if you ask me: having to discourage and “punish” someone for making content that doesn’t appeal to your personal level of “quality,” like nothing is allowed to be done nor exist in this world when not to your exact liking.

I mean, I’d personally prefer to witness artwork/etc I find terrible, rather than witness a terrible tragedy unfold before my eyes… Man, how many people forced to, say, experience America’s mass shootings would’ve preferred to see poor drawings/animations/etc, than seeing friends and family get gunned down instead? Apologies for the extreme example of “there being worse things to witness and better warrant outrage,” but sometimes ya gotta get intense to make a point when claiming some social media users as “spoiled” and all.

Anyhow, back to the artists/etc themselves… People are saying what you make is “bad,” they’re not threatening to track you down and kill your entire family if you continue. … Okay, yeah, there’s the rarer cases of doxxing and what have you, but that’s a different story because you are being made to stop for the sake of your safety and those you care about. I’m talking about cases where it’s just insults, bullying and nothing actually threatening to your well-being. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but not everyone is gonna be the nicest about what you have to show. Trust me, I’d know: I’ve had multiple people on a discussion board point out how terrible my pilot of my first animated series was, I’ve had comments insulting my work getting thumbs-up (ex: “Tell me why anyone would like this…”), I’ve had a user by the name “I Fave Bad Art” do so on Deviantart before… But did I ever give up, despite that and more? All in all, I’ve seen my fair share of people going out of their way to ensure that I knew I only made crap. 

I’ll admit, I ironically hate the, “I was in the same boat and I didn’t do what they did” argument: it completely nullifies the concept of searching for even the slightest difference and just blatantly spouting, “It’s not an excuse!” when we should instead be asking, “What made them turn out different and how can we avoid it repeating?” But still, I think I have a right to say this time: “If I didn’t give up and kept creating things, no matter how mean people got, what’s making you do different?” I get you’re more sensitive about things when you’re a young teen or older one, as that was when I experienced these things, but are you really going to give up on your artistic and creative dreams entirely…? If that’s the case, you honestly never deserved the “artist” title to begin with. After all, it sounds to me like you really wanted gratification and praise more than to actually bring your dreams to life.

You got the keyword of, “entirely,” right? As in, not taking a break to recover and rebuild confidence, but never creating anything ever again-- drawings, stories, etc --right? If you got your heart broken as a young teenager and tried again as a more capable adult, you definitely still deserve to be considered a true artist. It’s when you decide to never do it again that you don’t, as in never again and up to when you finally die. After all, why are you letting these people decide whether or not you can create things: just because they don’t like it? Okay, then find a way to improve and make something that can be more appealing if you need others to like it so badly. “Negative criticism” is a real thing, and people aren’t always going to be so nice about pointing out how you can improve-- nor will they care if you want it or not.

Case in point, I want to one day make original series that can appeal to a wide audience. You think I’d be able to do that if I still drew in the lesser quality I did as a teen or if I still had the worse writing quality I did back then? No, I needed to learn-- and still am --how to provide enough quality to not only create something others enjoy, but also be the best possible way to bring a vision to life. Not gonna happen if I don’t pull a “Scott Cawthon” and open myself up to what aspects might suck about my work… I mean, I want to make something I’d like and be proud to know I made, too! Like, I finally managed a drawing style that I like and wanna keep doing: that hybrid look of Western (American) and Eastern (Japanese) animation! Even if not many people do end up appreciating it, I can still feel happy I draw in a way that makes me like what I bring into the world. Plus, there’s something just generally satisfying to me about making my ideas reality and simply sharing them, anyhow. 

Overall, stop crying, “Boo hoo, I don’t wanna do art/etc anymore because everyone’s so mean about it…” Instead, focus less on your hurt feelings and on continuing your journey. Back to Scott Cawthon: do you think Five Nights at Freddy’s would have ever gotten made if he gave up game-making because of how badly Chipper & Son’s was chastised? I know a friend over in Canada who also learned to draw better than “simple MS Paint shapes” and whatnot, after years… And let’s just say that she’s familiar with insults and even accusations of being “underaged” for Deviantart because of how bad her drawings admittedly were back then (her “being” under 13). Don’t worry, I’m only brutally honest because she’d be fine with admitting they weren’t of the highest quality.

So, just block people who get too spam-happy, find ways to tune out those who mock you-- and if someone actually is trying to doxx you or something over what you make, get the police involved. Even if they just threaten it, you have every right to still make a report because that’s a serious crime… 

But typically, at the end of the day, it’s you who decides if you continue with art, so what’re you going to choose?

[poppy5991]

MHA Meta: Negative with the Public in Disasters & Early PTSD in First Responders

Ok, so MHA really nails this one in a way that most shows do not! When you work in disaster situations, you will see humanity at its best and at its worst! On the news, you will mostly see feel good stories, but yeah stressful situations bring out the bad in people. And that’s traumatizing to witness.

Some real life examples of common occurrences:

Harassment, Threats, & Violence Against Responders and Volunteers by angry public or conspiracy theorists

People deliberately abandoning their children or elderly relatives at disaster shelters

People attempting to steal purebred or particularly cute dogs from disaster pet shelters by falsely claiming ownership

Media and random civilians trying to sneak photos of injured, sick, or deceased persons

In my experience, witnessing horrible behavior is more traumatizing than what you would expect to witness on the job. You are trained with how to cope with injury/illness/death. Not so much the general horrors of humanity.

It’s a very bizarre experience to be treated as a ‘hero’ in one respect while also being treated very poorly by the public that you are meant to be helping. You take a lot of the brunt of anger over problems caused at an institutional level way above your head.

A LOT of us (including me) experienced death threats and threats of violence to our faces doing COVID work. As well as straight up belligerence.

My trauma therapist used to work with combat vets and would say that her pandemic responder patients reminded her heavily of her work with Vietnam veterans. Because the trauma was chronic and focused heavily on ‘I’ve seen what humanity is capable of and it’s horrifying.’

People dying of the virus was not the main trauma, it was how the public reacted around it.

So the trash throwing scenes hit me right in the stomach.

And if you wanted the perfect visual metaphor of what this feels like, it’s this:

To see Deku who is carrying the entire burden. Overworked and exhausted. Being pulled apart in a million different directions by a mob.

And he is losing parts of himself to the work he is doing. I mean the apathy and horror in his eyes says it all.

Deku is displaying very early signs of PTSD: self-isolation, pushing others away, refusing to rest, overwork, refusing to talk about his experiences (avoidance)

AND the belief that you cannot share the burden with others because it is too heavy/dark/traumatizing.

Now let’s talk about All Might and what he unconsciously taught Deku. All Might is a singular symbol of peace, but this is achieved through extreme overwork, keeping secrets to himself, not trusting or confiding in others, and even working through near fatal injuries.

Opposed to that, we get this new narrative- that nothing can be accomplished alone. Deku has to rely on both the former users and his loved ones/colleagues. It’s not sustainable or healthy to bear all the burden alone. This is what Nighteye kept trying to warn All Might about.

And he finally realizes it with the heartbreaking bento scene.

But the recurring beauty of MHA is its appeal for two things: Empathy and Connection.

We get the reunion of class 1A. This forces Deku to share the burden of his experiences with peers, to rest physically, and to receive support.

And Uraraka pleads with the public for empathy; a reminder that heroes are human. And to please treat them with humanity.

So Horikoshi’s message is kind of two-fold: Trauma is a burden that can’t be endured alone AND the solution to society’s problems is empathy for others.

[dawnfelagund]

Thank you so much for such a detailed and well reasoned reply! That makes me feel a lot more educated on the subject. Out of curiosity, since ao3’s popularity and ubiquity seems to have bred its insularity and lack of accountability, what do you think they would have to do, promise, or change to become more credible again, or to excise this issue? (While preserving their mission, as AO3 is not a moderated site like SWG). Because I do like their mission statement, and some of their operations seem transparent, but as you said, the zero commentary and progress (outside coding) for three years is ridiculous. And if this is outside the realm of something you can or want to answer, that’s okay! No sweat.

It's really hard to say, to be honest! I'm not very familiar* with how the OTW runs (aside from knowing that it is a registered nonprofit in the U.S. and therefore follows the law where that is concerned), and really, I think the question of what needs to be done to regain credibility is really up to individual users/fans to decide. Like the AI thing? Kind of eye-rolly as indicative of dysfunction because of the lack of communication within the upper echelons of the organization and the inability to quickly get about even a basic reassurance that AI scrapers were blocked. Probably not something I'm going to leave over, though. But End OTW Racism? Especially if I was a fan impacted by racist harassment who felt the site had been made off-limits to me as a result?? Every day of silence would make it hard for them to win back my trust, I'd imagine. I wasn't even involved in the protest but find myself pissed, as we approach a week with no response after the protest ended, by the complete lack of response.

* Though it seems that not many people are familiar with how the OTW runs. I recently read this post, which does go into organization-level changes (and Chestnut is in a much better place to speak on this topic than me), which also has a number of comments from OTW volunteers along the lines of, "Well, I was a volunteer for x years but I'm not 100% sure how this is handled in the org." Which is interesting to me that even long-term volunteers--some of whom were quite high in the hierarchy!--lacked that big picture understanding.

The [lack of] communication piece seems quite big to me. In my experience, that torpedoes an organization quite quickly. In my work running the SWG but also as a teacher-leader (someone who takes on leadership roles in my school and district while remaining in the classroom), I have found that better communication always makes things better. Even just saying, "Hey, I know this is a thing. I'm working on it," makes a difference. My experience is that people tend to be pretty understanding. It's the radio silence that is hard to handle. People feel unseen and unheard. Like right now ... there was just a massive antiracist protest against the OTW and still there is nothing on their news page about their promises three years ago, much less a response to that movement. How can that be?? It's hard not to hear in that, "We don't care." It's hard not to see the lack of response as the response.

I wonder too to what extent this dysfunction is going to be endemic in an organization of this size that is run almost entirely by volunteers. Over the weekend, in writing this post about the SWG archive, I realized that we recently reached 5,000 fanworks. Then while checking the OTW news page to see if there were any updates on antiracist actions going forward, I saw that AO3 recently hit 11 million fanworks. 11 MILLION. I know what goes into an archive of 5,000 fanworks and cannot imagine scaling up more than 2,000 times that on volunteer power alone. I also know that the most difficult and time-consuming work the SWG mods do is moderating our Discord server (which is, again, relatively small and friendly!), and while I don't agree with the argument that "AO3 is no longer an archive but a social site and should be moderated accordingly" (i.e., throw out their ideals around serving as a universal archive), I do wonder if we, as fans, need to accept that a site of that size will not be able to do an adequate job of even the limited moderation they do and socialize/interact elsewhere. Which again takes us back to a "small internet" with sites and groups that function as communities and can be moderated by members of those communities. If people want that, let's do it! Let's build those places again. But as I said in my last post, that task isn't on the OTW/AO3, it is on us.

[nightmaretour]

Lmao I'm the anon from before and I don't even know socialorganism. You probably won't believe that but lol whatever. They have more of a logical point on their blog than you do though anyway. Your post from a while back about the glasses thing showed up on my "for you" page. Ive never interacted with you before and I'm on anon because I've seen people get dogpiled and accused of "violence" for just passively disagreeing with someone in the cripplepunk tag. Don't worry though, I'm blocking you after this. I don't want your poorly informed bs opinions on my dash anymore.

I thought your reasoning didn't make sense, because glasses still fit the definitions you're giving. Your definition given also just outright excludes ambulatory mobility aid users because they can't still "move" without the aids. I actually know people IRL who call their glasses mobility aids and my question was motivated by that, yet these people don't exist in your world? Im sorry it's just really weird.

You also can't just say they aren't mobility aids if you don't use them or need them that way. It doesn't really back up your point. My friends who call them that cant move without them. It's like saying, "a cane isn't a mobility aid because you can limp without it! I can limp without my cane so that means all people can! You don't NEED it to move!" like that sounds ridiculous. That's what you're saying about glasses. That's what you sound like.

The people disagreeing with you are physically disabled, so it doesn't make sense that you think a word is being "taken" from physically disabled people by other physically disabled people to discribe something they have an experience with.

Like I'm sorry but I'm gonna trust my friend saying their glasses are just as much of a mobility aid as their rollator. If I listen to you, I ignore the way they talk about their needs, and making them change a word they use to discribe something is hard because they have autism. Who stands to be hurt more by that? It's more like you're taking it from the people who need their glasses to be respected and thought of as mobility aids because you're the one saying "you can't say this". the only one thinking it changes the definition is you. Your response to my message didn't make literally any sense.

You are genuinely such a loser. It's so obvious that you're the same person, I already saw you comment using this same alt account that you made just to continue a stupid argument that I want no part in.

Get something better to do than harassing brain damaged cripples with paralytic disorders and epilepsy. I already told you that I physically cannot handle much stress right now and you are endangering me. I'm gonna report you to Tumblr for block evasion and harassment anyway so have fun with that

[konoa-t]

was surfing the wooooorld wiiiide weeeeebbbbb and i think i found the posts you saw that got you nervous about ao3. rest assured, i wouldn't worry about them. while their intentions are good, a lot of them are made by self-proclaimed hatebloggers that create discourse for fun and i would not trust. in good faith.

uhhhh i typed up a post on this but then i realized i was too coward to post it so. i am SO sorry for what i am about to paste here.

"i recently realized that the recent ao3 donation drive marked the return of a whole bunch of discourse. i usually wouldn't say anything about it, especially since this has been a thing for years, but i noticed that one of my mutuals was confused about the subject and thus decided to type up a little something, especially since a few of the people i've seen saying ao3 should die are hyper-purist hatebloggers that create discourse for fun and harass genuinely confused anons that come their way.

you are not a bad person for having an ao3 account or supporting ao3. for starters, nobody is making any money off you simply reading or posting fic.

as for donations, they're relatively public about what they do with the money they earn, and it's not going to anything particularly bad. there's always the possibility that you don't personally agree with them making a donation drive right now or don't want to support their policies, which is fair. you can always choose not to donate. that doesn't mean you should harass people who did donate to this mostly inoffensive thing, or worse, people that didn't even donate and simply enjoy reading/writing fanfiction on the site.

yeah, there's a bunch of really nasty stuff on there that probably shouldn't be. it's really bad. but i don't think moderation is as easy as you're making it out to be. for starters, do you realize how incredibly small the team moderating this site is? how overwhelmed these incredibly puny servers would be by something like this? and that's not even addressing the fact that morality in fiction is completely subjective. i personally have things i consider right and wrong, but my "right and wrong" probably differ from yours. reaching a consensus on what is "right and wrong" on ao3 is basically impossible, even with what the most fervent of ao3 haters envision as "perfect" moderation. that's not to say that something shouldn't be done about the genuine moderation problems the site has, but this simply isn't it. it's ok not to agree with some of the things the site does and it's ok to hate some of the works on it. but it's not great to claim that people who support ao3 are horrible and automatically support horrible content."

Hey thanks for this! /pos

I don't know why people are so keen on creating problems. It's one thing to warn others about unsavory material (and to discourage users from engaging with it), but it's a whole other thing to throw the baby out with the bathwater and say the site, as well as every user on it, is problematic. Moral crusades are NOT the answer. Also I didn't think that there was anything inherently bad with Ao3, which is why it confused me so much. I just thought it was a cool place to post fanfics tbh. Glad to see it's not something to worry about!

[salt-volk]

an apology to p0ppy

a little while ago, ch1 commented on another post that she was disappointed no one had come forward to apologize to p0ppy. i wanted to sit and reflect a bit before saying anything, but now that i have, i would like to offer her an apology.

two things: i am not affiliated with the people who sparked the harassment campaign against her; i do not know who they are, have never spoken with them, and never personally started any rumors or brought p0ppy's name up after the "p0ppy discourse" quieted down. (i did reply to posts about p0ppy and send in asks after she was brought up by someone else, which i take responsibility for, but i mean i was never the "instigator" and do not know who the instigator(s) is/are.) also, i do think i sent a shorter ask apologizing to her when she first posted here off anon to clear the air? but it's possible tumblr ate the ask. so i'm sorry this is coming to you a bit late p0ppy.

anyway, i wanted to apologize for sending negative asks about you and participating in the "p0ppy conversation" in the first place. while i believe in free speech and open conversation, and i think everyone has the right to feel however they want about other people, i was also totally misled by the p0ppy harassment campaign. i believed some of the false asks, such as the allegations that p0ppy was making people pay for m0on bunnies in advance and then skipping ahead in the waitlist to send bunnies to select users early. obviously if p0ppy was actually scamming people or running her custom distribution dishonestly, that should be called out so people don't fall for a misleading trade post. but the anons had no proof of their accusations and i realize now i should have stopped and waited for proof to emerge before joining in with the anons calling her out. (for those of you who weren't there, the "proof" never came out because the anons were lying lol.)

i also fell for the user or group or users who were making "pro-p0ppy" accounts meant to look like p0ppy's secret accounts to defend her and smear anyone who criticized her. i truly thought p0ppy was in the comments of this blog being nasty to anons, and that gave me a negative impression of her. but that impression was totally wrong and it was wrong of me to let those people color my impression of p0ppy. now that i see how p0ppy interacts with this blog, i'm certain those people were not her. she is very articulate and polite, and those accounts had 0 nuance or fairness to their posts and would just snap at anyone who they thought was vaguing p0ppy even if the posts didn't name her and weren't about her. 

i hope it doesn't sound like i'm pinning blame on p0ppy's harassers to avoid accountability. i'm not, i shouldn't have trusted those people in the first place, especially because they were anonymous and didn't offer proof of almost anything. and i am the one who sent my own asks in, nobody did that for me.

my point is just that there's a lesson here: you should never trust unverified anons, ESPECIALLY if it's a situation where you already have a negative or suspicious impression of the person. for me personally, i already felt like p0ppy's clothing custom was overpriced and felt slighted that she had claimed to be critical of the custom system, then turned around and tried to make 1mp apiece off her custom. so when people came forward alleging she had done other shady things or painting her in a bad light, it was like confirmation bias for me. see? p0ppy can't be trusted.

but i never should have let ONE issue i had with p0ppy spiral into my believing everything negative anyone said about her. there was never any actual evidence of her being rude, shady, or scammy to anyone. and a person can do ONE thing you disagree with without being a horrible person who's actually doing bad things on site (doesn't go for issues like abuse or bigotry lol).

note: i really debated on whether or not i should mention the custom situation, as i don't want my apology to lead to ANOTHER wave of discourse about p0ppy. however, i decided to include it because i wanted to be honest about how one imo fair topic of conversation (not saying it would excuse the harassment - but "why do some custom owners claim they think the system is unfair to poor users, then price or trade their customs in a way where only other rich people/custom owners can access them?" in and of itself is, imo, a fair discussion to have) can spiral into toxicity. just because you have one issue with someone, don't jump on every negative thing said about them, because it may not all be true or may not all be a valid/actual problem. 

also should be stated that p0ppy stopped pricing her tea shop background at 1mp after anons, including me, spoke out about why that was inaccessible/unfair. just in case anyone wants to send angry asks about the topic, it's loooooong closed lol. and i should have left it there and accepted that the only ACTUAL issue i had with p0ppy was resolved instead of believing all these other fake accusations that popped up. i'm sorry for not doing that.

on that note: while i am generally against custom 4 custom trading, p0ppy, i hope you know that doesn't mean i hate you or wish any harm or harassment upon you. i do still have a commitment to discussing systemic issues with the site, however, i think we can all focus on dv itself and the problems with the way it's run rather than debating over whether or not a custom owner's reasons for distributing a certain way are "valid." i believe dv should put more boundaries into place to prevent custom owners from using customs as money printers, make non owners feel more included and valued on the site, discourage addictive gambling behaviors, include more mechanics to allow for first time owners, AND end the huge custom-focus that leaves people who never want to own their own custom maker out in the cold. i think a lot of us here share some or all of those goals, and i hope we can focus on those goals themselves rather than bickering about which owners are "doing it right" or "doing it wrong," something that can never be agreed upon anyway. especially because i think having custom owners speaking out against the system lends some credibility to our side of the issue, and i would like more owners to feel empowered to make different/more accessible choices for reasons other than pressure/harassment, and to know that systemic changes on dv would be to the benefit of all.

i also hope we can all take unproven allegations with a grain of salt and turn out focus to things we have actual proof of and to important conversations about the way dv is run.

all of this to say: p0ppy, i'm sorry if any of my asks ever hurt you, made you feel like your stalkers were "winning," made you feel unsafe in the dv community, or made you feel like you couldn't come forward to share your side of the story on the salt blog. i appreciate your presence here and i'm glad you were brave enough to share your truth. but i am truly sorry if anything i ever did contributed to silencing you or making you hesitate to stand up against the harassment.

i would like to echo ch1's sentiment that i think a LOT of anons owe p0ppy an apology. contrary to popular belief, i don't think ALL of the negative anons were sent by one or two people. i think 1-2 instigators (maybe 3?) would "spark" discourse, and then at least 2-3 more of us would hop on. i sadly don't think p0ppy's harassers are likely to take accountability, but i do believe several of us were misled about her character and could/should realistically apologize. if you are in this boat, i encourage you to apologize as well. 

this has gotten long but i will be available to discuss this further if anyone needs further apology from me or clarification. please note i don't expect any level of forgiveness and it's okay if you still feel negatively towards me (whether "you" are p0ppy or someone else). i don't need to see any anons or commenters or whatever jumping to my defense if anyone isn't ready to shower me with forgiveness lol, so please just don't bother, you'll only give me secondhand embarrassment.

[illwilledomen]

Time to ramble angrily like a cranky old man. Do not reblog this, this is entirely just me spewing my inner thoughts

Due to my great mistake of making an account on the Bird App, I have a viscerally negative reaction to reading or hearing the word ‘problematic’. Even typing it out made me mad. Not at the subject which is being deemed it, but rather, at the person saying it, because nine times out of ten they’re extremely annoying and are about to go on some deranged passive-aggressive rant about how eating pasta is rooted in colonialism.

Worse yet when they say someone or something is ‘problematic’ because of what they deem to be ‘bad vibes’. I am usually in favour of trusting your gut, because I can say for myself that listening to my inner sense of danger has gotten me out of many potentially dangerous situations, but an even better tool is one known as logical thinking. I’m not sure if twitteroids realise this but just because someone or something has a ‘bad vibe’ does not give you the ok to attack it mindlessly.

Apparently many of these people think that it is morally OK to harass someone solely because they’ve convinced themselves that because the person had done something bad, it’s free reign. They say ‘why don’t you apologise? Why don’t you apologise?’ And then when that person does, it’s never good enough, and because that apology was considered not good enough, it’s now ok to mindlessly harass them even more.

Don’t get me wrong - There are many famous figures which enter controversy for valid reasons, and I dislike them for what they have done. But what are you achieving by telling them to kill themselves, mocking their appearance/art/tragic things that have happened to them, threatening them, or otherwise acting like nothing more than a pack of rabid animals with the ability to talk? Is there such thing as civility anymore?

The majority of twitter’s user base is a bunch of brain-dead, act-before-thought judgemental gremlins who care not for who or why, but rather what new thing they can throw their pebbles and shriek at.

They used the wrong wording or misinterpreted what someone said? THEY MUST DIE!!!! Their artstyle isn’t the 700th generic anime girl? THEY MUST DIE!!!! They made art to express their feelings and dared to be mentally unwell in any way that isn’t deemed cute or trendy? THEY MUST DIE!!!!! They made a distasteful joke 16 years ago? THEY MUST DIE!!!!!!

You know a few years ago I would’ve rolled my eyes and said ‘yeah, yeah’ whenever my parents brought up how horrible it is how people act to strangers online, but now that I’ve seen it first hand and, when I was less wiser with my social media usage, experienced their behaviour first hand as well, the old folks were right. Social media has brought great misfortune along with its many benefits.