#so tired of people not knowing what they're talking about when they talk about otw's finances

[fiercynn]

thank you @vertebrae for adding this on because yeah, no, otw does not need our money. their current surplus is enough to keep them running for five years without additional donations. most nonprofits have a reserve of six months to two years worth of operating expenses, but otw has enough for five.

not only that, but they are mismanaging the $2.5 million they do have - not only do they have no concrete plans for it, but only $10,000 of it is in an interest-bearing account, so in 2022, they only generated $90 USD in interest. i didn't forget any zeros, that number is ninety dollars. TOTAL. FOR THE YEAR.

so yeah they deserve to be held accountable for a fucking fundraiser during a genocide for money they stated they didn't even need because of the bump in donations they received this summer after the ddos attack. and if you're going to argue with me about this, please read these two posts first so that you have the necessary background information.

(also i'm sorry but there's another key difference between ao3 and things you pay for like hulu and netflix which is that hulu and netflix pay both their creators and their employees??? not enough, obviously, they are shitty-ass companies in this capitalist hellhole we live in. but ao3 running as an all-volunteer outfit does not actually make it Morally Better. i know they could never pay creators but they can absolutely hire paid staff instead of overworking and mistreating their volunteers, particularly their volunteers of color. so please get off your high horse about ao3 being our savior or whatever, even otw/ao3 should prove that they both need our money, and will use it properly, before they solicit it)

can i be real? i think ao3 should die for doing a donation pool for themselves with everything going on

[daviesroyal]

Fanfiction Update:

I know there are some cases where users can't get an account for safety or legal reasons. I'm truly sorry about that. But I'm not willing to expose my work to bad actors for exploitation just to potentially reach a few people.

I'm tired. So very tired of fending off efforts to steal work for money. Very tired of AO3 and other platforms saying "sorry, we'll do what we can within our ToS, but you gotta fight this battle on your own" and not doing anything to change and improve how they protect the creators that use their platforms in good faith.

During the lore.fm debacle (it's recently been announced that the creator is "happy to shut it down" though it's still up on the app stores. I'm waiting for the EU and other legal action already started to nuke it properly), when multiple authors were upset about their work being stolen without so much as a notice from AO3 as to what was happening, when we were talking in the r/AO3 subreddit about how AO3 hadn't made significant changes to their web security after the scrapers and bot attacks, I had a (self-declared, I didn't know how to verify and honestly wasn't willing to pick a fight about it) volunteer tell me that AO3 couldn't make those changes because they would all negatively impact the readers and "readers are just as important as authors."

(I am not going to go into a technical explanation/cybersecurity rant, suffice to say their grasp of how security measures work is... incomplete at best. They're wrong. Several measures could have been implemented with minimal impact to users overall.)

It says a lot about AO3 that they are unwilling to enhance their security to protect authors even a little bit just in case it inconveniences some readers, when this is literally how any website or software makes security decisions: you protect the most people to the best of your ability with the least amount of inconvenience. AO3 is putting convenience over protection.

The fact that a volunteer saw no issue with telling me, during all of this, that I wasn't thinking of the readers and should be making decisions about how my content is used and shared with them as a priority and shouldn't be criticizing AO3 for prioritizing the readers over the authors and their works is galling.

AO3 is supposed to be an archive, where creators can be assured their work will be safe from exploitation or censorship. If it's meant to preserve and protect works, why is it that readers are placed on equal importance? That's like saying a kid could handle the Book of Kells with sticky hands because the "reader is just as important as the author" or work.

I've not only locked my works, but also put them in an unrevealed collection. I have yet to decide whether or not I will reveal them again, or if they will eventually be taken down. AO3 as a platform (and OTW as an organization) would need to show that they're taking creators' concerns about this seriously.

This was not an easy decision for me, and I apologize to anyone out there who was waiting for an update, or marked a fic for later, or even just enjoyed rereading. I hope, one day, I'll be able to put my work up again without worry or fear.

[nothorses]

About your post about Educating People, it also means you have to give clear examples of how privilege, bigotry, and stereotypes actually work, because you can't be morally uppity that ignorant people can't fully grasp it.

So much online discourse makes me exhausted, because I see a post on my dashboard, and then immediately several posts talking about why that post is problematic, often without clear explanations.

Ironically, it was Writing With Color, a blog listing a bunch of stereotypes and actually engaging in discussion about the historical roots of why they exist, that helped me dismantle my racism, antiblackness, and sexism. I'm not white by the way! Far from it. But Writing with Color helped so much more in me understanding fandom racism than something like End OTW racism that seeks to moderate the fics of a goddamn archive, lmao.

I feel so many people assign a Moral Factor or Threshold you have to meet before you get to call yourself anti-ableist, anti-racist, a feminist, etcetera. And these same people often say, "Unlearning systemic oppression is a lifelong journey so just shut up and learn and stop your white fragility." (A valid point! But when someone makes a mistake that's likely stemming from extremely subconscious belief, they say, "Are you really an anti-racist, etcetera." )

I'm just tired of the guilt tripping, the gatekeeping. Leftism is being learned through scrambled social media condemning certain behaviors without connecting to the larger movement, and people are angry when others make the resulting mistakes. There is barely any kindness, lmao, or real education.

Yes, exactly!

Education is necessarily about community. In order to effectively educate people, you have to understand what and how they need to learn; where they're starting from, what the next steps might be, and how to engage them in that process.

You need to help them avoid shutting down, either because they feel overwhelmed or don't know where to start, or because they feel guilty and ashamed, or like they can't trust their teachers and mentors enough that they're able to open themselves up, ask for the help and clarity they need, and put their time and energy into the learning process for and with them.

Learning involves a lot of vulnerability! You're admitting things you don't know, you're asking for help, and you're trusting someone else to guide you in something you can't navigate alone.

Educating is difficult and taxing, and educators take on a lot of risk and harm in the process, too. But if we can't honor the vulnerability we're being trusted with, and we can't value the learning process, we're not going to be able to educate at all.

And if we want to see our values, knowledge, skills, and wisdom reflected in our communities, we need to engage in this process. We need to educate, and we need to learn.

And that's gonna take a lot of work, vulnerability, and trust that a lot of us, being very often traumatized people, are going to struggle with- which means it's that much more crucial that we share our progress by supporting others in making it as well. We need to trust people, forgive their mistakes, and initiate positive learning interactions ourselves. We need to show our communities patience and compassion, and we need to do it even (and especially) when it's not given to us first.

Change doesn't happen passively, and you can't destroy your way into creating something better.

[lunacwolphe]

Celexa and Gabapentin Day 5&6: Weekend Overview 5/5-6/18

Busy weekend was busy 😁

Friday night, Husband's grandfather called and needed us to come over yesterday. He thought he had given us a car jack (he hadn't) so Husband took the one we do have in case he needed it.

Since they were out of town for the morning, we got up and took everyone out for coffee and to the park. Miss asked if we could invite her friend, so I sent a text and the parents brought their son out to play. We spent like 2 hours at the park.

Over the summer we hope to be able to get together so they can play more. The family is from Venezula and don't have many friends here so they've been super thankful that Miss has taken so well with their son.

After the park we went to Home Depot for garden dreaming ^_^

Then we headed out to the grandparents since they were home. Grandfather didn't need the back, he found the one he was looking for but since they're moving soon he's offered Husband a bunch of his old stuff. We're going back next weekend to pick it up.

The grandmother gave me two planters with some succulents in them.

We decided to drive around for a bit after we left. I was in pain by then from all the walking around but didn't want to ruin the day so kept quiet as much as I could. Husband said I was acting cranky and a bit rude at the grandparents when I told him I was hungry. When I asked what I did he couldn't out and out tell me anything that was wrong just that he felt I was cranky.

We stopped to get take out.

As soon as we got home, I crawled up in bed to eat. We watched a new movie as well, Deep Blue Sea 2 (so so so horrible).

As soon as it was 8:30, I went a head and took all my medicine. I crashed asleep by 9 pm and slept all night long.

Woke up today and began to cook breakfast for Husband (kids already ate) when he got a text from Uncle that they were otw over. So everybody rushed about spot cleaning and making the house presentable.

They stayed for a bit and Sister came over to see them. Nothing horrible happened except she had 4 people tell her either leave her fuckup of a spouse or the family was going to take care of it. He's not physically abusive, but very emotionally and mentally abusive and manipulative. Like there's a whole slew of drama going on and I'm not spooned enough to go thru it all. We did tell her that if she needs a place for the kids she knows they're safer here than with his parents.

After they left, Husband and I just sat and watched tv. I sewed up Middle's spiderman blanket that had a rip in it. Talked with Husband again about how my behaviour was and he still couldn't give specifics of what I did wrong and felt I was just rude and that maybe I wasn't mean it was just him being tired and misreading my emotions.

But he says that my mood has improved and I'm doing better. He can tell a marked improvement in my attitude and stuff.

Went and laid out in the hammock for a bit and just came in. I'll be taking a shower later and taking my medicine.

I am definitely not eating as much as I was. I get hungry often but I don't eat til bursting, just til I'm no longer hungry.

The gaba helps a lot as long as I don't do anything to hurt myself. I think yesterday I walked too much and that's why I was in such pain. Today I've done very little and it's been a very low pain level all day.

All in all, the weekend went well and I'm proud of my accomplishments.