#it also means any time someone reblogs a post from me their reblog is flagged as containing the tag I have blocked

[loregoddess]

why play gacha games or gamble when I could instead block an entire fandom tag bc the fans annoy me, but then go searching through a character tag and get to hit the "show post" button and not know what I'm gonna see revealed

[tangledinink]

Hello sorry for tagging. I am very sick, my asthma is at its maximum level, my nose freezes, I have no medicine or food. I am in bad shape financially, I am a black disabled, who uses multiple medications, I pay for my food and lodging

Unfortunately I do not have all the resources to keep me safe, that is why I need your help, whatever you can contribute to me will be of great help.

Okay kids, are you ready for a lesson in SPOTTING ONLINE SCAMS????

*please don't message this person or harass them-- i do recommend that you report and block them, however.

right now it's incredibly important to give time, attention, and money to online fundraisers. but it's also incredibly important not to let scammers take advantage of that and steal money that could actually save lives right now.

firstly-- if we go to this person's blog, and navigate to "archive--"

this person's blog has only existed for a few days, only has a handful of generic posts (many reblogged multiple times,) and made their first reblog the same day that they posted their "fundraiser" post. this is a MASSIVE red flag.

please also note that neither their ask nor post actually mention palestine or gaza at all, but it's still tagged with "free palestine" and "gaza."

though this one should obviously be taken with a grain of salt, it is also worth noting the poor grammar here, because this can be (but isn't always!!!) another red flag. Note also that all the details are really vague and don't quite make sense... user describes "enduring cold" and their "nose freezing" though it's the middle of the summer. This user says that they're "sick," but doesn't really offer any further details about this. This user says that they need money for "resources," but don't elaborate on what exactly they need. They vaguely elude to a need for lodging, caretakers, and medicine, but don't actually give us any details-- despite this they have a "$1200" goal. What is this specific goal of $1200 for? Is that the cost of their medication? Overdue medical bills? Cost for rent this month?... They also apologize in their ask for "tagging" me... but they didn't tag me. They sent me an ask.

Another red flag is that their link labeled "Fundraiser link" leads directly to a Paypal donation page rather than a gofundme or anything else. If someone chooses to collect aid through paypal, venmo, etc. instead of through a gofundme, that's not a huge issue in and of itself... but it is fishy that it's mislabeled like this.

And if we GOOGLE this user's tumblr name or paypal name, we can find results like this:

This also led me to find them on @/kyra45's blog on their list of current scam accounts.

Despite all this, they have close to 100 reblogs from well-meaning people trying to signal boost and ask for donations on their behalf.

With the current situation in Palestine and the amount of actual, legitimate fundraisers and donations being circulated right now, for Palestine, Sudan, the Congo, or otherwise, it is more important than ever to be aware of people who are trying to take advantage of the situation for their own personal gain. Whenever possible, please take the time to do some due diligence when you receive messages like this and check to see if a fundraiser is legitimate! It always sucks for someone to be the victim of a scam and lose money to someone playing pretend on the internet... but it sucks even more when that money could have gone to people in actual, acute, dire need.

Here's some more information about spotting scams on tumblr! Shoutout to tumblr user kyra45 for compiling this, and for all the other hard work they do-- thanks.

Here's an actual, vetted, and legitimate campaign that could use your support. After receiving this ask, I went and donated. If you have the means to do so, it would be amazing if you did so, too.

[ see ALL gaza funds campaigns here ]

[jinogasux-fr]

Santae banned me without telling me why and won't unban me unless I send them my photo ID

Hey guys sorry for not posting in… forever? I just suck at social media lol. But you may have seen that I've reblogged some posts that advertise Santae in the past, but please disregard all that. I've since deleted those posts after learning how the site is managed and, after what happened to me a few days ago, I feel as though I should go public about this. Because boy did I just get fucked over.

Anyway, yeah, what it says in the title. On October 24th, around 10am EST, I was restocking my user shop when the entire webpage went white. I couldn't access the site at all and, when I tried to look for the Discord on my server list, it wasn't there. I knew what this had meant. I got banned from both the game, and the Discord - this is important to keep in mind for later.

I didn't receive any Discord DM or email notification about my ban, so after asking a mod what their support email was (and yes, I later verified that this is indeed their legitimate support email), I sent them this:

After a few hours, I get this back in response:

There's so much I'm confused about here. I think the one that screams out the most is that they're asking me to show them my photo ID so I can get unbanned. Absolutely not. I refuse to do this. This poses a massive security and privacy risk. They straight up banned my account, gave this half-baked explanation, and told me I need to send my personal information or... I stay banned?

Let me make something clear: The only personal thing they have on file about this account is the email address that I created my account with, which I've also used to contact them. My real name, date of birth, anything of that nature would not be connected because this was not asked for during account creation, therefore this wouldn't actually prove I'm the account holder. Theoretically speaking, I could show them any ID in the world and for all they know, that's my real information, because they have nothing else to go off of. They even say as much in their privacy page.

Secondly, "account has been compromised"? What does that mean? I think anyone's interpretation of this would be that my account got hacked. But if my account got hacked, why wasn't I informed of this? I had to reach out to support, they did not reach out to me first. That means my password, which I may share across other sites, would have been known to someone else and thus I should've been warned of this immediately, not roughly 5 hours after the fact.

Thirdly, what, was my Discord "compromised" too? If an automated system had flagged my account, does that system somehow interact with a Discord bot so they ban a user on both at the same time? How does that work? That makes no sense as to why they'd ban me on both the game and the Discord for something like this, which is why I'm calling bullshit.

Let me tell you what I think happened.

Recently, Santae has been in some really hot water with connections revealing their relation to an older petsite, Lurapets, which has a history of scamming and artist mistreatment, as well as proof coming out of them using AI art for their NPC art. You can find these posts on the @santae-salt blog if you want to see for yourself, but I'm also linking them throughout this post.

Once the post about them being directly related to Lurapets was released, several users that the Santae staff thought might be involved in the creation of the post got banned. As it turns out, I was banned at the same time as these users.

After speaking with the @santae-salt admin, we are both of the belief that I, a regular user, got caught up in this mess because they're assuming I'm an alt account of someone else and staff demanded to see my ID because they didn't think I was a different person. It may turn out to be wrong, and yeah that sounds a bit far-fetched, sure, but really, what else can I go off of here?? Santae staff has given me a very questionable and refutable explanation as to why I've been banned, and their radio silence after I refused to send them my ID is just making me believe they don't think I'm real. They don't want my photo ID to verify I'm the account holder, they want my photo ID to verify I'm not someone else.

This is unprecedented. I've never seen any petsite ask for a photo ID in any situation, and after asking around, not even those banned from Santae were asked for this. It's just me! This is an incredible attempted breach of privacy, and, with Santae now under doxxing allegations, I really don't feel confident they'd keep my personal information… well, personal.

I messaged back almost immediately after they responded to me where I told them I would not send my ID and I had asked if there were any other way I could verify myself to get my account unbanned. I've received no response so far, and after what I've learned, I feel like I'm not going to get one at all.

So, let this be a lesson to you: don't waste your time on Santae. You can be the most obedient player out there. You can abide by all their rules, be a nice and generous player, or just be minding your own business, but if they so much as think you're associated with someone who they think has wronged them, you'll be banned.

And they can't even be bothered to properly tell you why.

[skythealmighty]

why am i just now finding out about thisisnotawebsitedotcom i feel a little stupid.. then again i dont have the Book of Bill so maybe im lucky to know about it ???

#rocket talk #gravity falls #miss this show. anyway twink cipher fuckign jumpscared me

(3 notes)

👓 the-nerdiest-glasses Follow

Why Flatland counts as an object show: an essay

Keep reading

🔧 warp-pipe-sfx Follow

Why Flatland does NOT count as an object show: a rebuttal

Keep reading

⛓️ chainsaw-massacres Follow

why flatland isnt an object show: its a book + movie you assholes

#this argument is fucking stupid its just flatland

(3,821 notes)

🔘 join-my-evil-polycule-deactivated08142020 asked: Im going to tear apart your circuitboard until its broken irreparably

🌈 super-rainbow-epic-computer Follow

lol ok have fun w that 👍

also do u know any recipes for roasted pumpkin seeds the internets failing me rn and im cooking a big dinner for me and my bf

🔘 join-my-evil-polycule-deactivated08142020

Oh yeah sure https://www.jessicagavin.com/how-to-roast-pumpkin-seeds/#wprm-recipe-container-35845

🔘 join-my-evil-polycule-deactivated08142020

Wait why am I telling you this go die I hate you

🌈 super-rainbow-epic-computer Follow

thx for the help!

☝i-date-iconic-posts Follow

Date of origin: November 3rd, 2021

(216,025 notes)

❌ mephonex-deletes-your-favs Follow

~~Welcome to MePhoneX deletes your favs!!~~

I'm mod Xav (the only mod rn - -"), here to cause trauma to your favorite characters :)! PLEASE keep in mind that submissions will take a while to get to, because I have to photoshop out the limbs + background or even completely recreate someone's object if they're transparent!

The background flag is in the header and the X (recreated from an image of MePhoneX) I overlay on top is the profile picture if you want to make your own :) just @ this blog and I'll reblog it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~❌~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RULES ABOUT SUBMISSIONS:

NO INANIMATE INSANITY CONTESTANTS. I would like to avoid Apollo's Dodgeball thanks (plus it's insensitive)

No algebralien or algebralien-adjacent characters! I love those guys too I get it but I honestly don't have a good method of 'deleting' them planned. Feel free to do it on your own time though!

If someone asks me to take down a submission with them in it I will do it without questions. This is for a variety of reasons, but I think you get it.

Alright, that's it! Have fun :)

#not xed out #mod xav #pinned post #your fav is #your fave is #mephone #mephonex #inanimate insanity #ii2 finale

(681 notes)

📁 sticky-note-hit-post Follow

has anyone else wondered why this spaghetti code webbed site can connect across DIFFERENT UNIVERSES??? or is that just me

(2,416 notes)

🦀 thesamepictureofbaxtereveryday Follow

follow for the same picture of my crab every day!!!!! look at him :D

(3 notes)

anonymous asked: greeny how does it feel to be technically a higher being than most other people on the site

🟢 greenyguy Follow

sir this is a wendys

#i didnt order an existential crisis today :(

(37,102 notes)

🎤 screamintothemic Follow

todays liveblog!! B)

🎤 screamintothemic Follow

knife and suitcase made it to the finale!! hell yeah so proud of them

🎤 screamintothemic Follow

balloons talk with suitcase didnt go so well :/ i hope they can get some alone time without anyone else so they can like talk properly next time

🎤 screamintothemic Follow

mepad???

🎤 screamintothemic Follow

oh i think the finale challenge is happening

🎤 screamintothemic Follow

baseball looks worried but lightbulb's brushing him off :|

🎤 screamintothemic Follow

ojs backing away from paper??? wh

🎤 screamintothemic Follow

WHJDT THE FUCK

🎤 screamintothemic Follow

WAIT I HAVENT SEEN SOAP IN A WHILE WHERE IS SHE???

🎤 screamintothemic Follow

OH GOD

#mics ramblings #SOAP???!??

(11 notes)

anonymous asked: evil woman are so hot <3 i will do whatever you want queen

🌐 dr-who-could-never Follow

Awwww, this means a lot to me, anon! Could you find Film Reel for me and doxx him? That would be really helpful <3

#He's been evading me #It's really annoying #Hard to take over the world when I have to worry about him 🙄

(6 notes)

🥄 only-a-spoonful Follow

WHY DO I KEEP GETTING SENT ASKS ABOUT PREGNANCY?!

#I'M GOING TO QUIT TUMBLR AT THIS RATE.

(47,284 notes)

📗 journal-of-secrets Follow

if this fuckass hand keeps showing up at the edge of my vision i'm going to hit something

📗 journal-of-secrets Follow

#maybe hes in love with you

what the hell is wrong with you.

[coulsonlives]

PSA: CAT MEDICAL BILL SCAM

Please signal boost this if possible to inform your followers about these scams.

Earlier today, I got a message from the account nicole-loves-king, where they asked me to signal boost a post because their cat needed medical help. Here's the ask:

(And you can see the post in question here)

I looked at this post and was immediately put off because they were asking for people to send things through 'friends and family', which if you aren't aware, is a very insecure way to send someone funds using paypal, because you don't have the protections you would get if you used 'goods and services'. So scammers can make off w your money really easily.

I looked at their blog and scrolled down to the end, and I realized their blog was made today! And, all their posts (there weren't many posts to begin with lol) were of trending topics. I noted puss in boots, and welcome to nightvale among others. This is probably how they found me, because I reblogged some of that stuff recently.

Here's the time stamp from their oldest post (notice it says the time, not the date, which means the post was from today):

In their ask, they also tell you to answer privately. Hm, that seems sus. Why would someone not want you to publish a request for help?

So I have a policy where I don't signal boost posts from brand new blogs because, yknow, they could be scams. I posted this, and the scam account blocked me. They also blocked my friend when they replied to their ask and said their blog looked suspicious. I did some more digging, and I found a comment from someone that confirmed my suspicions:

This is in fact a scam!

@nicstonka is almost identical to the above account (nicole-loves-king). Look at the avatar, the pictures, and the paypal address, both accounts even have 'nic' (as in 'nicole') in the name. The only thing that is extremely different is the name of the cat! Yet both blogs also have the name of the cat in their url ('king' and 'tonka'). That should also be a red flag, because usually someone isn't gonna have the name of their pet in their url, only a few posts, and a signal boost for that exact (fake) pet.

Here's a side by side:

Looks at those paypal accounts: nbrunelle519, and nbrunelle391. Nope definitely not a scam /s

And the cat pictures side by side:

Tumblr's "scam" tag is actually full of these reports now, which you can see here. Or if there's nothing there anymore, click here and here for images.

And links to some older PSAs about other cat scams: 1 2 3

So if you see any blogs like this, where all they have is trending posts, it seems like they've copied and pasted an ask to you, or if they're asking you to send things via friends and family, vet them so so so carefully, because chances are you're walking into a scam. Don't just repost things without carefully checking! If you aren't in a position to check carefully, better safe than sorry: don't repost it! Don't let these scams spread.

Pro tip: If a blog is dash only, so you can't view their archive to see when their first post was made, and you're on desktop, you can just open the blog in its dashboard view, then click 'end' on your keyboard over and over until all their posts are loaded. Usually if it's a spam blog, you'll only need to click 'end' 5-6 times, sometimes a bit more, since they only post just enough times to give the appearance they're active, then there's absolutely nothing after that.

If you want more proof someone is a scammer, you can look at the currency they use their post (or the currency shown in the vet bill), then hover over the paypal link and inspect the part of the url that says 'country.x=AA'. The 'AA' is the abbreviation for the country your money is going to! If that country doesn't match the country of the currency shown in the post, it's a scam! Example: someone's post says '$' for USD/CAD dollars, but the country in their paypal link is 'PH', which stands for Philippines, where they use Philippine pesos, not dollars!

Also keep in mind that these are not bots! There is a real person behind these accounts. They have replied to people who wanted to confirm they were real, but their intentions are still to scam you, they just know it looks better if they reply.

Stay safe!!

Edit:

Updating this post to announce the scammer's made more blogs, and they're probably gonna keep doing it! Here's the list so far. This isn't up to date btw, go to @scamarchive and check their pinned post for the most recent detected blogs

turncoatrune, starlightdisc, xxmy, wxnt, eeyore-pg, coatedpeanbean, starrypanelstars, panelstars, scyllostyle, the-nonbinary-witch, aash-aash, leechness, ash-aahs, commandobutch, lovely-pages, pagefive-to-six, reconnecteed, five-and-fourty, stepsapphic, farmer-butch0, health-pages, turnersapphic, lxve, march-pls-be-good, emberful, imse7en, kassidymaygemz, kassidymaydream, dreamingkassidy, kasdream, live-march, confusedskulll, march-lives, criticaltuesday, quicksilvah, wrldy, quicksilveey, the-stucked-pan, flurrbum, o345, nxce, thls, hokkairi, sykdykee, furrtasticbu, bumfurry, supsense, wickdart, the90sbest

Keep in mind you may not receive an ask like the above ones. You may get something simpler like this, instead:

Most of these are cats, but there's been dogs and even people too.

If you wanna get even more info on all these accounts, there's an archive of this scammer's pinned posts and asks here, so you can see at a glance how similar they all are. You can also see a comprehensive list of scammer red flags specifically for tumblr here!

And lastly, you can report the scams using 'report something else' > 'unlawful uses or content' > 'phishing'

[does-it-introject]

... is an account dedicated to introjects, fictives, factives, faitives, songtives, ... tives!

Here's the basic idea: Each post includes a source and a poll; if your system has someone from the source you go 'YES', if not you go 'NO'. If you're not plural you go 'RESULTS'.

Why? Because I think this is fun. Don't take it serious! Don't think too hard about it! You can even use it to find source mates if you want? All up to you!

"Oh but [NAME] what counts as "from the source"?" "Do fictionkin count?" "Does ... count?" YES. Everything counts, if you want. Don't think! Just press little buttons and clarify or don't clarify in your reblog if you want! I'm not gonna limit your button pressing experience!

Is there a DNI? No! It's a poll account. Who cares about who interacts. Just don't go around being an asshole and we're fine!

Requests are always open! Unless they're closed!

Yes, the profile is the fictive flag, but this account is for all of you tiny beings; I just really love this flag so... yea man!

Curious about the Queue: Check This Out!!!

Small, growing QNA below the cut!!

"Can you add a button for 'unsure' / 'used to' / 'maybe' / 'not interacted with source'?" - I appreciate the questions, but I'd prefer to keep the polls limited to these options! I get the frustration though. Just click whichever option feels right to you, and if neither feels right you can always click 'RESULTS'.

"How many requests can we send it?" - Go crazy! Go wild! Send 100 requests in one ask or 100 requests in 100 single asks! I don't mind either way!

"Are there any requesting rules?" - My only condition is: do NOT expect me to know what "TIAEOWNTDLOL" means as an acronym. Write the full name, I beg of you, my oh so dear requester. I had to delete three asks because I had no idea what the letters meant. Extra Note: I give you a cookie if you write (game / show / band) in your request.

"Are there any forbidden sources?" - No, where's the fun in that? Request whichever! Also, yes, factive sources are absolutely welcome and appreciated here as well! Adult sources are okay as well, but will be tagged accordingly to keep the younger people safe!

"Do you respond to asks?" *- Not directly no! It's easier for me to keep track of which requests I have done and which not. Usually theres multiple folks sending in the same questions, so they'll be answer here; so make sure to check this regularly! It would also just spam my account if I answered every single one whoops!

"Can I request a source you already made a poll about?" - Yes, if the original poll is atleast a month old! I will let it rerun if people want it!

"Can singlet fictionkin / IRLs / ... vote in the polls?" - Sure, if you want! You guys are just as cool as everyone else so go ahead and press that little button!

"Can you post more polls a day?" - People keep asking this, actually! So: I upped it, from 2 to 4. Please be patient with your requests! I do not want to spam the tags with polls that not everyone might want to see. 4 is the maximum posts a day. Okay? Yea!

"Can you please update queue?" - I try my best to update it every weekend! I barely have time during the week and I get atleast 30 requests a day so it's hard to keep track of everything! I'm working on a new way to keep track of queue though so please be patient! If you're unsure if your request has sent, feel free to send it again, and again and again! I'm bound to see it at some point!

[moghedien]

So someone is in your inbox asking for money

I'm not going to say that every single instance of this happening is a scam, but in my experience, random people following you and then sending you an ask to ask you to reblog a post or donate, they are almost always a scam.

You may feel bad about ignoring them or deleting the ask, but doing so is probably going to be the best course of action. Not only so that YOU don't lose money but so that you don't give the scammer access to you followers.

But how could you know that the person is a scam and not the one instance where someone really needs help? Let's go over some ways to check for signs of a scammer.

this is the post I got in my inbox today. I've personally never dealt with this particular version, so I didn't immediately delete. I probably wouldn't have reblogged anyway, but I wanted to look into this specifically.

The first thing to do is go on their blog. In this instance, the post they want me to reblog is pinned, and it also has a donation link. I'm NOT going to click on the link because there is no indication at all to what this might lead to and I'm going to instead hover over link and see what url pops up

in this instance, the url shows me that I'm going to be redirected to paypal. IMMEDIATELY a sign that this is a scam. people can still scam with gofundme and other sites like that, sure, but at least with those sites, there is some accountability in that you can see if the donation goal is being met or not. with paypal, you're just blindly donating, assuming that this donation amounts are what the person says they're at.

And also this is not to say that honest people can't use paypal for donations, sometimes that's the only option. But if you're going to donate to someone via paypal, you should at the very least be personally aware of who you're donating to and that they are an actual person.

But let's look deeper just in case. The next thing to do is look for other sketchy signs on the blog. So I scrolled through to see what they were blogging about otherwise, and there were red flags here.

Just glancing through the blog, I could see that they almost exclusively posted about Taylor Swift and the Mandalorian. They posted A LOT within the past day (this is why you should have times enabled btw) and exclusively from the same four or fives blogs.

But maybe they just post a lot. You can actually very easily see their posting habits by looking at their archive.

We're going to go to the three dots and click "view archive"

You can also just type in "[username].tumblr.com/archive" for any blog and access anyone's archive as long as they have a public account. But what's the point of doing that. Well, in the archive, we can get a very quick overview of someone's posting habits.

And here I've circled in red the first and last thing this blog has posted in the month of February 2024 (the month I'm writing this). You can see that both of those posts were posted on the same day. Meaning all of their posts in the entire month of February happened on the same day.

But what about posts outside of February 2024?

Well there are none

You can sort posts by month and year and doing so for this blog shows that they ONLY posted in February 2024 and ONLY one day in February and it happened to be the day before I got an ask in my inbox asking for donations.

These are the most obvious tells, but there are other signs you can look out for.

For instance, all of their posts are without any sort of tags. They never comment on anything and their only original post was their one asking for donations. If you click on the search function in their blog, nothing comes up

There's also the fact that the blog is clearly targeting at making the people who WOULD care about someone needing insulin sympathetic. The fact that they use BLM, identify as a black man, have pronouns in their bio all are on purpose to make people who might care feel like this is a person who deserves help. the scammer is using your empathy against you. DON'T LET THEM. Be smart and always always think before you act, even if that action is just posting. You can help people in need without feeding the vultures that want to take advantage and want to use YOU to steal from your community

But let's just be REALLY REALLY sure this is a scam.

On whim, I copied the text straight from the ask in my inbox and put into google and then added "tumblr' at the end. You'll be shocked to know there were immediate results and not from this blog

First one was a reblog from over a year ago. the exact same wording minus the cost of the insulin and the call to action at the end

I clicked on the original poster for this and the blog was cleared out!

Minus them using the exact same photograph in their header as the blog that sent me an ask today, of course.

The second instance I found was slightly different wording, but using similar enough wording that it can be assumed came from the same scammer. This came from another ask in an inbox, but the receiver rightly called them out as a scam. The post is from two months ago and the blog that asked it as been deleted outright

All of this to say, there are always scammers on tumblr, but there have been a lot recently. This one happened to not be posing as Palestinians in need, but a lot are (in that instance, Palestinian bloggers have been vetting who is and isn't real so you can always check to see if they're getting support or getting called out from actual Palestinians). They won't always use these methods and won't always been this obvious, so even if you don't donate to someone yourself ALWAYS be thorough in your checking before you reblog a donation post. Make sure the charity its collecting for is REAL and if its a person asking for money, make sure that person is real as well.

You can help people without getting scammed or giving scammers access to your followers, and not reblogging every donation post doesn't make you a bad person or mean you don't care. Its important to be careful, and not being careful can do more harm than good. it makes actual people in need look sketchy and takes away resources that could have been given to them. So if you aren't sure if something is real DO NOT REBLOG IT

[snowflakesincalifornia]

I couldn’t reblog the og post bc ig Tumblr’s ruined the code, so this is a copy of it. Please give credit to the og posters.

milf-percy

It dosen't really matter that Percy isn't hurt by Annabeth insulting him all the time and sometimes even being physically violent to him(he should be because that's a realistic response from an abuse and bullying survivor but i digress),not just because he's a fictional character and not a real person with free will,but also because that's Annabeth's way of showing she fucking hates him.Her treatment of him has literally not changed since they were 12 yet nobody in this dumbass fandom can shut up about how ~developed~ their relathionship is cause they make out now and are planning on having a dysfunctional cishet marriage while trashing the characters of color for being 'annoying'.

Percy and Annabeth are not 'made for eachother' because Rick wrote everyone in-universe as telling them that and i'd like to remind y'all that this is the same guy who wrote Luke,an adult serial abuser and ped0phile,as a 'hero' because of the Great Prophecy.Destiny means jack shit and Annabeth and Percy-ESPECIALLY Percy,who's been doomed to trauma over and over again despite his best efforts to escape it-should've been allowed to choose who to love instead of having it shoved down their throats by both everyone in their franchise and the creepy weirdos in the fandom too

@southasianpercy

chaoticcerise

Hi! As someone with ADHD who's been in several abusive relationships before, I figured I'd add something about why it IS actually realistic that he doesn't appear hurt, but that's actually even more alarming. So it starts with meeting them (obviously) and especially if they don't really have any healthy romantic IRL relationships to compare it to (which the books go out of their way to emphasize that this is the case) then it can be really hard to notice when red flags like that start to come up. "Oh it'll get better!" "They're still adjusting to it!" All of which are valid! There's healthy relationships that start rough and there's relationships that start really well and then something happens that doesn't go super well and it turns bad real quick. I've been in a few of both. The problem comes when it still happens after they're asked to stop, which is what happens in Percy Jackson. This can lead to things like "Oh they're just kidding, surely they don't mean it!" "Oh that's just how they flirt/show they love me!" Which, again, is fine IF IT'S WELCOME. However if it's not then eventually it's "Oh they're just like that." "Oh it's fine I guess, it's not like I can stop it." Just because someone doesn't complain doesn't mean that they're consenting. It means they're resigned to the abuse. And that means that he's internalizing and normalizing it. "We don't hear any real negativity towards Annabeth in Percy's thoughts though!!!" Well no but we don't hear any love either. We don't ever hear any thoughts about her really ever. Nothing about how pretty she is or how cool she is or anything. Percy Jackson has thoughts about EVERYONE. As someone with ADHD, this level of no thoughts is concerning and no basis for a relationship. He deserves someone who will treat him well. She deserves someone who thinks about her fondly. Both of them deserve better but they both need to undergo some character development and serious therapy first.

[llyfrenfys]

Some really good notes from my post courtesy of @margridarnauds about that person accidentally using a white nationalist slogan to support the Welsh language:

I know someone who is doing a PhD on the Far Right and the co-option of cultural movements and these tags are bang on. Its the difference between a healthy nationalism and an unhealthy nationalism. A lot of this goes for Irish nationalism as well as it does for Welsh nationalism.

There's nothing wrong with (and arguably a lot right with) minority language preservation. It can be used for great good (strengthens community ties, preserves culture) but if co-option is not guarded against readily, it can also be used for great evil (see: using minority language struggles as an argument against immigration, for example).

The Far Right sees the cultural preservation of anything (white) and it's like a bat signal. These things are magnets for white supremacists and assorted fascists of all kinds. Which is why it is so goddamn important to be vigilant against people like that hijacking your movement.

I see a worrying amount of Welsh nationalists use (accidentally or not) the language of the far right to argue for Welsh language preservation. It can be as innocuous as advocating for a Welsh Academie Francaise to as obvious as insinuating that Wales must be kept "ethnically" Welsh in order to keep out foreign influence on the language. I see this go unchecked all the time in various Facebook groups for Welsh independence (most of which I've left since admins of these pages either don't know or don't care that people use their groups to share these sentiments).

Nationalism ≠ Fascism - but if you don't keep an eye on the company you're keeping, any well-meaning nationalist/independence or language preservation movement can be hijacked to promote hate. I only know a scant amount because I was only vaguely considering joining Yes Cymru a few years before they all went sideways (but I remember Owen Exie Hurcum talking about this on Twitter at the time) but the leadership of Yes Cymru began to squeeze out minorities from the group- nonwhite folks, gay people, trans people etc. Whole thing put me off from joining. I don't remember the full details but from the testimonies of others, the group was hijacked and steered into a reactionary way of being. Considering a large amount of Welsh nationalists also idolise groups like the FWA (Free Wales Army - a Welsh nationalist group formed in 1963 which tried to emulate the IRA in Ireland, with little success- mostly just playing paramilitary dress up) - whose symbol is this flag:

Even if the flag itself is based on Welsh folklore and is supposedly an entirely innocent, non fash design- it still is like a beacon to the Far Right who will take any amount of symbolic validation as a cue to join your movement and derail it for their own ends.

Which is why Celtic scholars, people with casual interest in Celtic languages and/or their respective cultures and civic nationalists alike need to be vigilant against those who would co-opt the field for their own twisted hate campaign.

So, one final thought,

Returning to my original post responding to that American chiming into Welsh politics from overseas. Please PLEASE be careful when wading into politics that isn't yours. Where the Far Right are involved, it doesn't take much to cause a dumpster fire - if you aren't 'on the ground' with these issues so to speak, you aren't in the firing line if your comments go sideways and enable/provoke the Far Right in this country.

If you have an interest in Celtic languages, countries and politics- you have a duty to be responsible with what you do and say. This isn't to say that you cannot engage with these topics- but that you should exercise caution lest you accidentally worsen an already delicate situation.

This has been your regularly scheduled Celtic anti-fascist tedtalk. Please reblog to make sure more people become aware of how delicate things can be and how to prevent fascists from getting a foothold in this field. Thank you.

[u-reblogged-a-scam]

Do not donate your money to, or reblog any posts from, @/sublimedestinybird bc they are a scammer. Take down any of your reblogs if you haven’t already done so.

Ok so I'm usually certain of my claims when I accuse people of being scammers, but there are a few times I'm not 100% sure if I'm right

This is one of those times

So, like those other times I was unsure about an OP, I'll share what I found that caused me to doubt their validity, and I'll leave it to you to decide for yourself if you still feel confortable enough to support them. And if I’m wrong about this one, please let me know and I’ll take this down.

It started when I saw this in my inbox:

I received this ask today, which triggered my suspicions for reasons I’m not entirely sure how to pinpoint; after receiving dozens of daily messages from real Palestinians over the past week or so, this ask just didn’t feel… genuine? Ig? Idk how to explain it, but when you get messages from both real people and scammers alike, tend to notice when something isn’t right.

But like many people who tend to share scams without knowing they’re scams, I don’t like the idea of ignoring a cry for help in the event that it turns out to be real, so I did what I usually do when I’m unsure if an ask is real or not: I looked into the OP

In this case, I used reverse image search to see if OP’s pfp could be found anywhere, and lo and behold, the pfp led me to another tumblr post, where that person received an ask very similar to the one I got, from “pleasantcollectionlove”, and they couldn’t tell if they ask was a scam or not. In the notes of said post, someone else confirmed that the person who sent the ask was, indeed, a scammer, and they used the same pfp that OP is currently using

So, that would mean these two scammers are one and the same, right?

Well, normally it would (scammers tend to stick to one pfp; not always, but man, have I gotten familiar with certain selfies over the past few months), but I didn’t wanna rely on that alone, so I kept looking. While looking for exact matches for the pfp through RIS, I also found a Twitter account with the same pfp; this person is also asking for money, though the reasoning for the money is notably different that what OP provides in their own posts:

It should also be noted that the Twitter account has been around since last August, while OP has only been posting on this blog since September

Does this mean that OP stole the pfp from the Twitter account of someone who honestly needs help? Are OP and the Twitter user the same person? I honestly don’t know, which is why I said at the top of this post that I’m uncertain about this one

However, what I am certain about is a common red flag I recognized that hasn’t proved me wrong yet: the link in OP’s linktree (in their pinned post) leads to an empty PayPal account. If you’ve seen/been tagged in any of my previous call out posts, you know that empty PayPal accounts are ALWAYS included in online scams like this. In this case, the PayPal belongs to “Luciamkira”; this could be OP’s name (or at least the name they actually use for their personal PayPal), but then who’s “Aska”?

This might very well be a scam, which I believe is the case, but whether or not you decide to donate or share the post on the chance it might be real is up to you

If you’ve seen any of my previous posts, you know what I’m going to say next: Never trust a donation post linked to an empty PayPal account unless said link has been verified by a trusted source

Here’s an additional resource to help you spot the red flags of scams moving forward:

And here are some posts that go a little more in depth about the scammers that have been repeatedly spotted:

Tagging as many people in the notes of OP’s fundraiser post as I can; if anyone who sees this can reach out to those in the notes I didn’t tag and let them know this is a scam, that’d be really helpful not just for me, but for them as well

@ibontheweirdwitch @not-a-bot735 @sexywafflecuh @issues-oclock @velesej @alittleprincex @katie-wants-donut @alwaysmellowkryptonite @starsalot @shhoup @darklylovely @dontstoptalkingaboutpalestine @sunnysidefries @fangpunk @sunny-satellites @moonmothbroth

[kiruliom]

coin fight 2023!

what is coin fight?

have you ever heard of art fight? it's like that, but for liom/mogai!

there is 2 teams (sun and moon for this year), and you 'attack' a member of the opposite team by coining things you think they'd like :D

this is made completely for fun, and has no rewards besides some "I was in the winning team" graphics (userboxes, blinkies, etc.)

the event will start on 9/20 and will last a week, with an exception being if it's still active after 1 week.

instructions:

make an entry here!

make a section on your pinned post (or an easily accessible rentry page) with your team and what you associate with your identity (make it as vague or specific as you need, doesnt need to be gender exclusive)

reblog the associated team post (sun) (moon) so people who check the reblogs of that post looking for people to attack can find you!

find a person to attack and coin things you think they will like! tag the person you're attacking and me (kiruliom), and tag #2023coinfight. also it would be really nice if you could tell us the approximation of your points (eg. it's a 5th link on a friendly fire revenge chain? please tell us its 7 points. ( 5 base, 2 points deducted for friendly fire, 5th link means 4th revenge, so +4)) this makes my job a lot easier.

rules:

if you fail to follow the instructions above you will be reached out to, or if you need help just tell me!

please check if you fit the DNI of the person you'd like to attack, or if THEY fit YOUR DNI. to avoid awkward situations.

all flags and terms made will have a 5 point base value. for every new 'link' on a revenge chain it will have 1 more point added to it. non-gender terms get 2 more points added to them, to encourage non-gender coinings

the terms coined dont need to be unique, just need to have unique flags. you can make an alternative bigender flag for example and it'd count as valid for points. however you cant submit flags made outside of the event time, this is more of a trust thing though as I cant tell for sure whether the flag was made before the event or not lol

there is a 3 attack per day rule, to avoid spamming. any more attacks submitted for the day will be rendered null, meaning no more points will be added for that day, this includes revenges. attacks are counted by amount of terms and not the amount of posts.

coining non-disordered paraphilia, MUD, oculoid or transid terms will render those attacks null, which means you wont earn points for them. transpecies is the exception to this as it's an alterhuman term and not a transid term.

friendly fire (attacking someone of the same team), is allowed. however 2 points will be deducted. this is to encourage a "team rivalry" more.

you can only attack 1 user at a time.

please dont take advantage of my awful memory and math skills and cheat, this is supposed to be for fun and you need to do your part for that, yeah?

re-elaborating the point system so it's in one place:

base term (say, a gender made for someone of the opposite team) = 5 pts

friendly fire (attacking someone of the same team) = -2 pts off total

revenge (attacking someone back)= +1 point per link on chain, starting from 2nd link/'first revenge'

non-gender terms = +2 points

sorry it's so messy, this is the first time Ive hosted an event that needs heavy moderation like this. I hope to figure this out via suggestions and trial-and-error.

[nick-nonya]

Hello!

I've noticed that you've reblogged/shared links to a lot of people who are asking for financial support (donations) and who claim to be from Palestine. I think it's really awesome and kind that you're doing that, but I've noticed a lot of similar messages being posted in the replies/notes of popular meme posts that are completely unrelated to Palestine/Gaza. Which is, unfortunately, tripping all sorts of "scammer" red flags for me.

Maybe I'm just being too paranoid, but I've been on the internet long enough to have seen two dozen fake donation scams for every one legitimate donation post. I can't help but worry about the possibility that some of them might be scammers thousands of miles away from Palestine who are trying to take advantage of compassionate people who want to help others. :(

Anyway, all of this is to ask: how do you check the gofundme asks that you receive to ensure that donations are going to exactly who they're claimed to go to? I'd like to be able to do this myself, just in case I ever get any. Also, are all of the ones that you've received so far legitimate?

I hope you have a really nice day!

Hi! this is a very legitimate concern, i try my best to verify the ones i've received by making sure they've actually been vetted by whoever they claim to be vetted by but i'm still erring on the side of caution as i think some risk is worth it if it ends with more people in need get the help they deserve, even if it means occasionally boosting a scammer.

that said do not hesitate to say if you know something i've reblogged is a scam.

as for how to check yourself:

check the name, scammers like using automatic name generator that work in groups of three, names like "beautifulblizzardheart" and the likes are nearly always scammers.

if the ask claims to be vetted by someone find the proof, usually they'll have a pinned post with an @ for 90-ghost or some other vetter. look through the reblogs for that vetter's post (you can ctrl+f the vetter's name to speed up the process) then reblog *that* reblog

if the post is suspicion and isn't vetted you can reverse image search the images, this is time consuming but it might lead you to a genuine campaign

as for the comments yea i've noticed too, i cannot say if it's bot behavior or simply desperate people.

if you are still too uncertain you can always donate to larger organizations like UNRWA and medics without borders, or the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund

[dnalt-d2]

My Predictions for Who (If Anyone) May be Corrupted Next

I'M BACK ALREADY YOU CAN'T GET RID OF ME FOR LONG!!!!

So yeah, we’ve got Corrupted Forever now. That’s fun

What’s more fun is how this happened, and what this means for other people

Because Forever might have been the one most at risk to corruption due to his extended time in the Nether, but he is far from the only one vulnerable to this

Here’s who I know of to be at risk, in order of most likely to least likely

Fit, Phil (Kinda), Etoiles, Bagi, and Pac

Because like I pointed out earlier today, Fit and Phil cleaned up a huge amount of the concrete left around the server, with QSMP Updates even commenting (specifically in regards to Fit) that “That surely won’t have consequences, right?” Or something along those lines I don’t have the patience to look it up because Twitter is a hot mess in that regard

That, and his Rebellion work, is why I think Fit is currently most at-risk. Because in addition to the Black Concrete Cleanup he and Phil did, he also went to investigate the Black Concrete Dungeon to find traces of one of the Codes. So unfortunately, I think if anyone else is gonna succumb to corruption, it might be Fit. (AND PHIL WILL SUFFER DAMMIT)

After that we have Etoiles, who has been doing various work for the Rebellion that has semi-frequently led him to be exposed to Black Concrete, but to my knowledge, he hasn’t had as much direct contact with it aside from the Code Explosion and the time he, Fit, and Bagi investigated the Code together. Not to mention that he’s already Code-Corrupted kind of, and it’d be a little strange for him to have two separate infections/corruptions

And of course there’s Bagi, who had also investigated that Black Concrete Dungeon, but this is basically the only time Bagi had any extended contact with the Concrete aside from day-to-day stuff that everyone had

Pac of course, was in the Nether for a bit, having been led there by Walter Bob, but it doesn’t look like there’s been any effect on him that we can tell, since he wasn’t there as long as Forever was. I’m just adding him to the list because he was in fact in the Nether at one point (There's also the fact that right now he's probably gonna have his hands full with Mike, if anything comes from that)

Now, I did put Phil on the list, but he’s a bit of a special case here. Because while he DID help clean up the Concrete, leading to him having a lot of direct contact, he wasn’t the one that QSMP Updates called out. Not only that, but we now have Rose possibly helping him, which means he may not get corrupted because of her influence and protection. (It’s not surefire though, so that’s why he’s still on the list, and pretty high on it at that. I think I might have more thoughts on this later though because I’ve got an idea for some good angst potential here specifically)

So yeah, that's who I think could possibly be corrupted. Fit is definitely the highest on the list

(AND APPARENTLY SOMEONE REBLOGGED MY FIRST POST TALKING ABOUT THIS WITH THIS IN THE TAGS SO HEY THAT’S A GOOD OMEN IF EVER I'VE SEEN ONE)

In short, lots to look forward to :)

*Edit because I forgot to mention that FIT IS DOING A SATURDAY STREAM TOO BTW. That ISN'T TOO NORMAL FOR HIM and is raising ZERO RED FLAGS

[the-witchy-housewife]

｡+*✧ 10 Red Flags That Signal a Mystical Charlatan ✧*+｡

This is an article from my website, The Witchy Housewife. You can read it at the source here or look under the cut to read it here on Tumblr. If you enjoy my work, please consider subscribing (at the bottom of this page) to receive articles as they're posted via e-mail, exploring the shop, leaving a tip, or reblogging this post. I run this all myself, so all support is greatly appreciated. 💜🔮✨

As I have begun reworking the intuitive services available in my shop, I’ve found myself contemplating the current state of our culture and economy and the heightened sense of desperation these things can induce. While I firmly believe that, given the system we currently live within, those with a passion for the metaphysical should be able to make a living by assisting others through various mystical services, it is imperative that those of us who do provide these services acknowledge the presence of con artists and charlatans in our midst who seek to take advantage of the emotionally or financially vulnerable. Today, I’ll be discussing some of the potential warning signs that are good to keep in mind when seeking spiritual services, whether they be divination work, energy work, or any other form of spiritual assistance you may encounter.

1. Claims of Exclusive Abilities

If a prospective spiritual service provider insists that they possess some sort of unique, one-of-a-kind ability that cannot be found anywhere else on the planet, it is likely they are a con artist at worst or lying as a marketing gimmick at best. While, in some cases, such claims may be related to a system of working that is truly of their own creation, there are always routes to be taken by others that have the ability to yield similar results. In truth, as with any skill, mystical abilities can be mastered by anyone willing to put in the time, effort, and dedication, including those who may not have been blessed with “natural-born” inclinations.

Certainly, those who have put in such work prior to offering mystical services may show better focus or discernment when delivering results and interpretations when compared to those who have begun offering services with little prior experience, but the tools available to achieve the former are not unavailable to the latter by any means. In fact, for those interested in delving into the world of divination and magick, I offer comprehensive articles packed with free, fundamental information for anyone at any level here on this very website. Everything that a spiritual service provider can do for you, you can do for yourself, and the choice to hire someone else is one that should be one of convenience rather than desperation.

2. Claims of Superior Abilities

While I will reiterate that a more experienced and well-studied spiritual service provider will likely show evidence of stronger focus or discernment in the results they yield, the need for them to put others down in their various interactions and marketing material should be obsolete. The ability of a good service provider should speak for itself without the need for name dropping and muckraking. This is another red flag which strikes me as scam-bait at word and sleazy marketing tactics at best.

Further, claims of exclusivity or superiority have the potential to create a dynamic of inauthentic dependency. Rather than returning to a service provider because you find them to be reliable and helpful for your particular needs, you risk being hooked onto false claims which prevent you from seeking out other providers who may work better with you, and as with the previous red flag, you also run the risk of developing a subconscious complex of inferiority which hinders you from developing your own abilities.

3. Fearmongering About Curses

Throughout my extensive journey in the realms of spirituality and magick, I’ve found curses to be an exceedingly rare occurrence. Even for those who associate with the more unsavory occult crowds, the individuals who dwell within them tend to lack the necessary depth of knowledge and practice, courtesy of an ego-driven approach, to produce meaningful enough results to cause you any substantial issues that a quick cleanse won’t cure. Such is the case, as well, for inadvertently directed negative energy by non-practitioners, which can deliver rather unpleasant results but can ultimately also be solved by a quick cleanse.

Regardless of the “level” a curse may be at, however, it is worth noting that these things can be cleansed, banished, and/or mitigated by anyone who takes the time to familiarize themselves with the appropriate techniques. If a prospective spiritual service provider tells you that you have a curse that only they are capable of removing – or, in the same vein, if you have any sort of spiritual haunting or attachment going on that they claim only they can remove – they are attempting to deceive you. More than likely, there is no curse or entity or energy plaguing you, and they are simply saying so to hook you into another payment. Even if someone does legitimately provide cleansing, banishing, healing, or protection services, a good one will never force you into that service through fear, and a better one will always assure you that you are entirely capable of handling it yourself if you are unable to or simply do not want to outsource the work.

An unfortunate possibility that should be mentioned here, however, is that feelings of negativity, especially when paired with a newfound awareness and acknowledgement of other realms, can sometimes attract unsavory energies and entities who feed on or thrive in such emotions. Horror and despair are especially powerful at drawing such attention. As such, it is a good idea for anyone seeking out spiritual services for hire to at least familiarize themselves with cleansing, banishing, and protective techniques that feel appropriate for and compatible with them. I feel that my article, The Basics of Spiritual Safety & Wellbeing, is a very important one for anyone dipping their toes into such explorations. I would also like to note that I am available within my office hours to offer guidance to those who feel they need it, so if you have come across this article after a negative experience with a spiritual service provider which has drawn any unsavory presences into your midst, feel free to contact me here and I will be happy to advise you where I am able.

4. Threats at Any Level

On the topic of fear, if a spiritual service provider has threatened you in any capacity, whether it pertains to threats of curses or harmful spirits or threats against your mental or physical wellbeing, they are most definitely not someone you want to continue working with, nor should you keep open any methods of contact. Keep a paper trail of such threats to the best of your ability to report them to their web host or to the customer service of the platform they are selling their services on, and in the case of a physical threat, to report them to the proper authorities. Beyond this, block them from continued contact wherever you are able.

Unfortunately, in the digital age we live in, most services are online, and the internet is very much still in this sort of murky, weird territory when it comes to law enforcement. Speaking from experience, I urge anyone with an online presence to be very careful with how much personal information is shared online, and it is also a very good idea to search yourself on Google in order to request the removal of your personal information on places like Whitepages if you’ve ever used your real name online. We seem to have gone from the era of “stranger danger” right into an era of no fear at all regarding the sharing of identities online. This is no less dangerous than taking out a physical billboard with that same information.

Returning to the topic at hand, however, if a prospective service provider is threatening to curse you in return for an unwillingness to hand over money, they are no different than those I mentioned previously who lack the sufficient expertise to do such a thing. More than likely, these types of people are practitioners at all. The worst they can do, in both of these cases, is direct a bit of negative energy your way, which, as I also mentioned previously, is an issue easily resolved with a simple cleansing.

5. Claims of All-Knowing Abilities

While this is particularly relevant for divination-based services, it’s still necessary to note in this article: If your prospective spiritual service provider makes grandiose claims of possessing any sort of all-knowing, 100% accurate ability, they are being fraudulent. Even the most highly skilled among us, while having the capability to give accurate and highly beneficial information in most cases, will still make the occasional mistakes of misinterpretation or a slight unsteadiness in focus. As is currently theorized based on the multitude of practitioner experiences which confirm it, the subconscious has a habit of communicating via symbolic gesture, emotional appeals, and vague notions.

This is why, when seeking a divination service, providing as much information about your situation as you are comfortable with is crucial to a thorough and relevant interpretation. The more context you give to a cartomancer, astrologer, or medium, the more context they can focus on when requesting information via other realms. This is also why many of those who offer blind readers as a viable option will make use of personally crafted proprietary spreads, as this allows them to put some degree of context where there is none. The tower card in tarot, for example, can be interpreted in various ways depending on the circumstance it is applied to, and an interpretation that makes little sense to you cannot necessarily be credited to the ability of a reader you have given little information to.

Further, I have found in my experiences and the experiences of many others that our futures are quite malleable. Magick done by a practitioner can influence a particular outcome, but it does not completely eliminate the many other factors that also bear influence. Divination done by a reader can reveal to us one or more potential outcomes of a situation or give us a peek of the path we are currently on, but it is up to us to take this knowledge and utilize it to either follow the same path or take a new one. If the world of metaphysics was set in stone like the physical experience, it would be much easier to observe and repeat in a scientific context, which is not the case at this time.

6. Dubious Pricing Practices

Market-conscious and economically-considerate pricing is a key aspect of any service, and it’s equally important to exercise caution when hiring spiriting service providers as it is when hiring any other service provider. Prices that are too high raise concerns of deceit, while prices that are too low raise concerns of unpracticed ability. It is worth noting, however, that unstable pricing does not necessarily reflect malicious intentions. Speaking as someone who offers freelance service in a number of sectors, it can be difficult at times to know what your ideal price range should be while taking into account the monetary value of the time and effort a project will take you, the state of the economy and the effect on the average person’s spending ability, and the reflection and impact the pricing of a new service will have on the rest of the industry who are all in the exact same boat as one another. So, I will once again reiterate that, when you hire someone for a spiritual service, you are paying for the convenience of not having to put forth your own time and effort to achieve a similar result. Some things, like a one to three card tarot reading, may be a couple dollars, while others, like a thoroughly written astrological report or a time-consuming ritual, may be a couple hundred because it takes far more time for one to complete with the amount of energy such a service calls for.

Ultimately, it is not really up to you to determine what someone “should” be charging for their services, but if something does truly seem outrageous to you, consider reaching out to the spiritual service provider to ask for more information about their service. If you find that it is something that it worthwhile but is out of your budget, ask about potential payment plans or if they offer any more affordable services. If all things fall through or if you simply don’t have a good feeling about the provider, seek others who provide similar services.

7. Cliffhangers & Other Vagueness

While taking into consideration that the less information you provide a reader, the vaguer of a response you are likely to receive, there is a time when it can cross into the realm of a predatory practice or simple inexperience. In the case of a tarot reading, for example, if all information you are given is a copy-and-paste of what can be found on a website like Biddy Tarot (an excellent tarot resource, by the way), it’s possible that your reader developed only a surface-level understanding of tarot before deciding to enter the field. This is not inherently malicious or deceitful, but it does cause its own set of issues in that it can be a waste of money for those who are expecting services with depth, it can spread the potential client pool more thin for those who have put in the time and effort to hone their craft, and it can further muddy the already-skewed public perception of those who study, practice, and/or sell these services.

On the other hand, if a spiritual service provider is telling you that there is something you need to know or do that they cannot share with you until you purchase another service (or an initial service, in the case of those who may reach out to you first, which we’ll discuss more later on in this article), they are most likely appealing to your curiosity to lure you into giving them more money. Now, this does not refer to providers who may tell you, “You are asking me to do something that is not part of the description of this service. Please purchase another service if you would like me to do the additional work you are asking me to tack onto the service I have just done for you,” in response to you having asked for something more than they’ve given you. Requesting that someone do additional work for you for free is, quite plainly, taking advantage of someone. This warning is reserved only for those who are bringing up “concerns” of their own volition without giving any detail whatsoever as a deceptive marketing gimmick.

8. More Money, Same Service

Similarly, if a spiritual service provider has not provided you with the full extent of what they have promised in their service description but instead stops short to ask for more money, they are, without a doubt, a con artist. Commonly, this is seen in ritual or energy work services wherein the scammer will tell the scamee that they suddenly require more energy for their working than they initially thought, and so it is “necessary” for the scamee to send more money for the service to be fulfilled. This should never be the case. Anything beyond what is listed in the description of a service is a separate service or a favor, but a service must include everything that is listed in the description once it is paid for.

This is why it is crucial as a spiritual service provider to comb through our service description with strict attention to detail and an enhanced awareness for how our words could potentially be misinterpreted. Sometimes things may slip through the cracks, and other times there may be customers who are intentionally misinterpreting things to take advantage of us, but we should attempt to mitigate these potential situations to the best of our ability before such a thing happens.

Please note that this red flag does not apply to service providers simply adjusting their pricing overall. If a service you’ve paid for once before is more or less expensive the next time you return to it, this is more than likely a simple reflection of a shifting market.

9. Love, Light, & Yes Men

While it is more than normal to receive positive news and validating information from a spiritual service provider, if it is the case that you are always being told exactly what you want to hear – and especially if your experiences outside of the service don’t necessarily reflect what you are hearing – it is likely that the provider is carefully choosing their words and/or glossing over potentially crucial information in order to keep you coming back as a recurring customer. Not every working goes as planned, and not every reading is pleasant to hear. A good reader is an honest one, and at times, that may lead to receiving information that makes us uncomfortable, angry, or otherwise upset. As a client, it is important to approach any potential spiritual services with a desire for truth and an understanding that the truth is not always in alignment with our desires.

10. The Opportunistic Approach

In today’s digital landscape which is plagued by ever-transient algorithms that seem to always favor corporations, clickbait, and marketing threads written with that distinct belittling for-profit pacing, advertising can be challenging. Authenticity often comes at the sacrifice of optimized search engine results and oppressive levels of visibility on social media. This is something I am intimately familiar with, as when I had first started this blog, I attempted to reconcile my unique voice and desire to be thorough with the need to be keyword-conscious in order to please the technocrats who determine which ventures are most profitable and, therefore, most worthy of circulation. I ultimately decided, however, that my authenticity was more important than my visibility, and my visitor count has taken a hit as a result.

With this decision in mind, this leads one to seek out more creative methods of promoting their goods and services. Those looking to get their work seen may then seek out and follow/interact with users who share relevant content, may host giveaways in exchange for assistance with internet visibility, may regularly post about the goods or services they offer alongside the other content they may share, and/or may mention their goods or services in passing when pertinent to the discussion at hand.

When it becomes worthy of an eyebrow raise, however, is when you are approached either entirely at random or at a time when you have expressed some sort of desperation publicly and the appeal used to market to you is an emotional one. If, for example, you’ve recently posted something on social media about your troubles with love or money and you suddenly find your inbox filled with WhatsApp numbers and promises of infallible rituals cast by powerful spellcasters who can solve all your worldly problems, you are being propositioned for a fairly common scam.

[lokisgoodgirl]

hiiiii do you have any tips for someone who is just starting to post fics?? I'm an author but haven't posted ff in literal years and never on Tumblr, so I want to make sure I don't step on any toes or break some kind of fic etiquette first!!! <3 tia

Hey sweet!😍 How exciting that you're dipping your toe in the tumblrsphere!!!

Since you're a seasoned writer, here are some tips about other things:

No.1 Piece of Advice - Talk to people!!!!!! Be nice!!!! Let your freak flag fly!!! You sent me an ask apologising for being all over my posts ATM...DON'T!!! That is literally the best thing you could do. It's how you get to know other users, how you recognise each other, how you build little in jokes and suss out your people. Please please involve yourself in your fandom. Fics, silly things. Exposing yourself (careful...) and getting to know writers is honestly the best thing. Results will vary depending on other users you approach, but it's the best way to feel like you're not posting into a void. And reblog things you read, or that make you laugh! Especially if you're a writer, and you read fics... do unto others as you would have done unto you or naff off with the right to complain when people don't share yours, is my view (not you personally, just in general) (If you weren't aware, on Tumblr, reblogs are the best way to show appreciation/ share work - but comments are also great.) The read more button. You need to insert this on your fics (it's what causes the 'read more' line to appear at a certain point you choose.) A couple of paragraphs/lines/whatever in, press enter and this button will appear on the bar

It's the black squiggly one at the far right. This means that your post won't be 3 miles long and is more shareable - and also it means anyone who shares it won't have a huge long post on their dash :)

Tags/Warnings As well as your fandom # tags a lot of people add warnings at the top of the fics (for things ranging from smut, to various kinks, to anything triggering) Approaches to this vary, no ones perfect - but especially where things are obviously sensitive topics, include these to avoid upsetting people.

Headcanon Etiquette If someone's thought/headcanon they've posted inspires you, and it's very specific and inspires an idea - drop them a message to ask if they mind you writing something about it and credit them in the post because I've seen some absolute audacity in my time and it's never ok. I'm in no way saying you'd do this, but it's my biggest pet peeve. Just be respectful of other people's imaginations, basically. It's literally all we have here 🤣

Feel free to pop me a message if you think there's anything I can help with and I'll do my best 💖

[harfblarf]

“Help my Cat” Scam Going Around

Have you received an ask in your inbox from an account that previously wasn’t following you, pleading for a signal boost on their vet-related post? I got one today, but something felt fishy. Or perhaps “phishy” is more accurate?

Here’s the ask:

Now a couple odd things right off the bat. This is a blog I’ve never seen or interacted with, who wasn’t following me prior to sending the ask, so I immediately wondered how they pulled my name to ask for help. And while the world in general is a shitshow, so I can sort of see why a person would default to saying it “isn’t the best time to ask for help”, they say it with such confidence without knowing me at all.

Odder still, from their posts-- which at least do look extremely normal and human-like, down to the mishapocalypse profile picture-- we don’t share any interests aside from... well. Cats.

The other odd thing is them specifically requesting I reply privately, through DM or a private answer. I wouldn’t think much of it except they’re already asking me to publicly share something on my blog; if I’m going to answer the ask, why can’t I do so publicly?

I scroll through their blog some more. Their pinned post is, indeed, asking for help with their cat:

Weirdly, though, an earlier version of this post uses a completely different name for the cat??

This is bizarre to me and my red flags are pinging louder. Maybe it’s innocuous, though, I mean, it could just be a nickname or something? Why would you change it though?

Also, the post’s ratio is weird-- 101 reblogs to 44 likes. I suppose not too shocking if they’re doing this use-an-ask-to-get-a-boost tactic widely, but the ratio is pretty extreme. I check the notes. Every single reblog with tags has some variation on ‘boost’ or ‘signal boost’; there are no comments. No one has mentioned knowing this person, no one has vouched for the legitimacy of the post... but two mention that they were asked to boost the post.

*EDIT: Per a polite anon, I will clarify that signal boost/boost tags themselves aren't a red flag; what bothered me was that the post's ONLY interaction history came from boosts from seeming strangers. An active fandom blog, active enough to think posting a plea for financial help might get traction, SHOULD have at least one or two mutuals or friends who are willing to push the post and vouch for its legitimacy. Because the only engagement was from people who had clearly been approached via ask, like me, I got the heebie jeebies.

Okay, I’m doubtful enough that I’m not comfortable boosting this post myself. But let me check one more thing.

I search google for the exact phrasing of the help-requested post.

Ah.

There’s well over a dozen blogs pulled up with this exact phrasing. Most of them use the name “Koppi” instead of either “Ashel” or “Biscuit”, but a few use “Ashel”. The oldest result, from 2016, uses “Ashel”; more commonly, these results are from 2022 or earlier this year and again, most say “Koppi”. Also interesting: basically none of these posts exist anymore. Google can identify the exact wording even beyond what I included in my search query using whatever demonic powers allow it to reference removed content, but they’ve clearly been deleted.

Additionally, which I clarify for those like me who attribute Google’s quirks to demonic powers rather than an actual understanding of how it works: if the dates didn’t make it clear, these aren’t the blogs in the notes of falesyorac’s post. I cross-referenced the names. It’s not pulling up those reblogs, so presumably the majority of these results at one time came from someone who drafted and posted the wording to their blog, not from reblogs.

Maybe it was once a real post, maybe it’s always been a scam, but evidently the content of the post has been stolen and recirculated at this point. Along the way I found this as well, an anon warning someone who must have reblogged a version of the scam post:

So this is at least partly confirmed as a scam from another source.

Please be wary, do your due diligence before you put your money anywhere, and block & report falseyorac. I’m not sure the nature of the falseyorac blog originally; it may have been a real account that got hijacked, it may be a very convincing fake, it may be a real person’s blog who is trying to to leverage their innocuous appearance to pull quick money with a beggar scheme. Regardless, it is evident there is not a genuine Ashel/Biscuit needing help today and that whoever holds the falseyorac account right now is trying to pull a scam.

One more thing-- one of those reblog’s tags I showed earlier.

I also have a tag for reblogs of cats. (It’s “cats”.) I suspect this is where this particular iteration of the scam is pulling its targets from-- after all, people who reblog cats enough to tag them must care about them, right?

Finally, I am tagging the people who reblogged falseyorac’s post with tags (there’s too many for me to do everyone who reblogged it at all) below the readmore-- if I messed up and tagged the wrong person and/or you want your name removed, please just contact me and ask. I want to make sure you can see this warning, but I’m happy to untag you if it bothers you for any reason.

@thislilfecker​ / @koreanbibliophilegirl / @kingminyard / @sss-shyshy / @shoutmonishere / @cleocatrablossy / @mothmansass / @aroanehring / @valkyrie-ellis / @jae-writes-fanfiction / @ninja-chibi / @iambecomeahamburger

(A few people’s names didn’t come up when I tried to tag them, so I wasn’t able to include them here, rip.)