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ms-demeanor · 8 months

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any thoughts on the new post that staff went scorched earth on which is now making the rounds abt tumblr live? it basically screenshots all the tos and claims if you've ever opened the app (or in some rbs, unsnoozed live) tumblr has gotten your data. on the one hand i feel like this is fearmongering, but on the other its true that MOST sites have your data as is so its pretty standard. you seem pretty knowledgeable abt data gathering so i was wondering abt your take

This is going to be pretty unkind but watching tumblr users interact with staff and live is a great primer on how conspiracy theories happen.

Nobody on this fucking website knows how to read a ToS, nobody on this website knows how anything fucking works (sorry, this is not a dig at you but how would tumblr "get" your data from you clicking or unclicking live; the only data that tumblr has on you is the data that you have put on tumblr what data do people think that clicking the "new" button is scooping up that is anything beyond interactions or posts or IP addresses which are the things that tumblr already has information about like you do not introduce new information into the tumblr ecosystem by clicking a button you haven't installed anything you haven't changed permissions on your browser if everyone is so goddamned scared about live stealing their data i strongly recommend they stop using anything but public internet through an anonymizer and making sure location data is shut off on all of their devices and anyone who is flipping their shit about the type of data that live is collecting but who is using chrome on any device needs to chill the fuck out about live and flip the fuck out about google)

this is like that post about twitter's content policy that circulated the other day or that post about deviantart's content policy that circulated ten fucking years ago nobody knows how to read legal documents and nobody knows how to read technical documentation and this comes together into unholy matrimony on the no reading comprehension at all moral panic website

live never violated the GDPR it was just rolled out in the US first but the entire userbase decided that because it hadn't been rolled out simultaneously in the EU and the US that it was SO UNSPEAKABLY PRIVACY VIOLATEY THAT THE EU HAD BANNED IT FOR ITS CRIMES with, like, nothing whatsoever backing that up because, again, even at its most intrusive Live collects about as much data as Twitter or Yelp, both of which are *capable* of meeting GDPR standards with that level of data collection (even if musk sometimes makes decisions that violate GDPR).

Live is significantly less intrusive than any facebook product, than Amazon, and than any Google product. If you use youtube logged in, don't worry about live, the horse is out of the barn and tumblr is the least of your worries *regardless* of live. If you regularly use Google as a search engine please god learn how to evaluate and compare risks across platforms because Live is like a coughing baby compared to about a dozen things that most highly online people interact with every single day.

If you don't want to use live don't use live. Clicking the button doesn't magically transfer your secret FBI file to tumblr and even agreeing to the ToS doesn't share anything that tumblr doesn't already have if you don't continue to interact - if you don't interact with live after agreeing to the ToS it's not collecting any data except your non-interaction.

For everyone who is losing it over Live just turn off your goddamned location on your fucking cellphone and turn off your location on your goddamned computers and that's it, you're good, you're fine, relax. If your response to "turn off your location" is "but I need it for _____" then don't worry about Live, whatever "_____" is was already collecting and selling your data.

Do you use an activity tracker? Congrats, you have much, much bigger privacy issues to worry about than tumblr live.

Okay but also I yelled about that post and the very many ways in which it was incorrect in January.

And I happened to take an archive of the page at that time because I'm a paranoid motherfucker.

And if you want my guess as to why staff went "scorched earth" on that post it's probably because if you scroll down to the bottom of the page on the archive, OP calls on everyone looking at the post to send a kind fuck you to the CEO then tagged his tumblr.

If you look at the other posts that went scorched earth in relation to tumblr staff they were also posts that very pointedly directed a lot of ire at a single staff member.

I don't think that any individual tumblr staff members are above criticism and I don't think that staff as a whole is above criticism but part of learning to read a ToS is understanding that someone can be shitty and vague and use TERF talking points and skirt the line and be technically okay under the ToS while someone can have a legitimate gripe about another user being horrible and manage to violate the ToS by accidentally spinning up a harassment campaign or suicide baiting someone.

Shitty people like nazis and terfs thrive on being edge cases. They are very good at finding a boundary and standing juuuuuuuuust on this side of it and going "la la la I'm not violating the ToS, you can't stop me!" and that blows and it leads to a lot of people encountering a lot of shitty stuff on a lot of websites but personally I'm pretty glad that there's a lot of gray area because when you cut out gray area that's when you see things like It's Going Down getting banned as extremist content alongside white supremacists. Please continue to report nazis and terfs, and when possible go deep into their pages to report because a pattern of behavior is more likely to get recognized as hate speech than a single post that gets reported a hundred times. Please block as many people who it's harmful for you to interact with as possible because it's clear that staff is not going to do the kind of work protecting users that users would like staff to do.

However I just can't get angry on behalf of a blogger who got nuked for saying "Hey everyone who hates this feature that we all hate please go tell the CEO to fuck himself at this URL specifically" - that is an extremely clear violation of the ToS because it is absolutely targeted harassment.

So now tumblr-the-userbase is going off on its merry conspiracy way skipping through fields and lacking reading comprehension and saying "users are getting banned for reporting the crimes of tumblr live and its gdpr violations" and ignoring the fact that the post was nuked because the last line was saying "hey everyone, let's all individually tell the CEO to fuck off in messages sent directly to him that are certainly not going to include any threats, exaggerations, gore, etc. etc. etc."

If I were to make a post that had 50k notes and the last line was "and while you're at it, please send tumblr-user-ms-demeanor a personalized message telling them why they're a terrible person so they know what we think of them" it would absolutely be reasonable to say that was harassing that user. And that post did it with the CEO. Who is not above criticism (and I have my criticisms! I don't think he really gets tumblr and that's a problem!), but jesus fucking christ don't tag the goddamned CEO or any other staff member in a call to action asking users to send them messages saying "fuck off" this is literally the stupidest thing I've ever seen a tumblr conspiracy theory coalesce around.

Anyway thank you for giving me a place to vent i've been getting more and more pissed about this for three days. Everyone feel free to kindly tell tumblr user ms demeanor to fuck off.

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cuubism · 3 months

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Okay there are so many I want to ask about but ELOPEMENT???

the triumphant return to math verse full of tattoos, technological ineptitude, and Mare confronting the fact that you can't actually get impulsively married in england because there's too much paperwork 😂

They’re at the registrar’s office the moment it opens that morning. Hob feels bubbly and high with lack of sleep, and even more so with the rush of knowing he’s marrying Dream. Dream isn’t faring much better, even if he’s more used to staying up all night. He’s leaning against Hob’s side, giggling intermittently to himself. Giggling. “They’re going to think you’re on drugs,” Hob tells him as they tumble into the office, right at nine a.m. “I don’t think you can get married while high.” “I am completely in control of my faculties,” Dream declares. “I am simply joyous.” Hob holds onto his arm, beaming. “Good.” The registrar looks up at them skeptically as they stumble to a stop by her desk. Hob supposes they’re bringing a lot of energy into a government office on a Monday morning, but he can’t bring himself to quell it. “Hi,” Hob says. “We’re getting married.” By his side, Dream giggles again.

The registrar looks between them, and sighs tiredly. “I see that. Do you have your documentation for the notice?” “Um,” says Hob, briefly flummoxed. It’s true that he’s never properly looked into the specific legal details involved in getting married. It’s possible just showing up wasn’t the best move. “We have our IDs?” Even that might not be true, but he’s pretty sure he brought his wallet… “What documentation?” says Dream. He sounds faintly devastated. Worst comes to worst, they’ll just have to come back, but it hurts to see his excitement quashed. The registrar seems utterly unimpressed with their lack of knowledge about the protocol. She starts listing things off. “ID, proof of address, venue information…” She studies their blank expressions. “You’re aware you have to give thirty days’ notice before you can hold a ceremony?”

“Um,” says Hob. Beside him, Dream makes a sad little whimpering sound, turning to Hob with a beseeching look. That look in his eyes makes Hob briefly entertain the possibility of running for Parliament just to change the law. Fortunately, he comes to his senses.

get engaged 4 AM try to get married 9 AM read not one government website in the interim 😂

#me googling how to get married in england: what do you mean there's a 30 day waiting period. how are people supposed to make terrible life #decisions this way 😂 how unromantic #complex mathematics #my writing #tag games #thank you!#ask #pellaaearien #anonymous

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kerink · 11 months

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PMG's documentary on ZA/UM really illuminated just how complex the issue really is. the entire situation has been framed as one thing when really it's two: 1. were kurvitz, rostov, and hindpere wrongfully terminated and 2. did kompus illegally acquire the majority share of ZA/UM.

i think that, in order for the narrative to not get muddled and emotions to not get too high, fans must keep these two issues separate. it doesn't matter if you personally like kurvitz, rostov, or hindpere or what you think about their professionalism, those beliefs shouldn't play into what you think about kompus' acquisition. and regardless of what the evidence and/or outcome is on one, that should have nothing to do with the other.

ultimately the issue of kurvitz, rostov, and hindpere's firing comes down to whether or not the three of them were made aware of the complaints about their behavior and contributions to the project and whether or not they were given ample opportunity to address these grievances. so far ZA/UM has only been able to produce a single piece of evidence in writing that kurvitz was aware of concerns regarding his professionalism. and while this evidence strongly implies that previous conversations about his behavior had been discussed, no other documentation has been put forward. the burden of proving just termination is on ZA/UM, and if kurvitz, rostov, and hindpere contest the termination we have to believe them.

i personally am unsure what to think about the issue. while i believe kurvitz, rostov, and hindpere all had varying levels of personal and professional discord within ZA/UM, i have yet to see any proof that their conduct was addressed in a way that is in line with professional and industry standards. whether i think the complaints against them are valid or not doesn't matter. what matters is whether or not the three were made formally aware of the complaints and were given opportunity to address them and change their behavior. i haven't seen proof this happened, which in my mind is in-line with the accusation of wrongful termination.

and we also have to keep in mind that this proof may in fact exist, but due to this being an on-going legal battle ZA/UM may not be able to showcase this evidence in a public format. therefore, we have to curb our opinion until after the case is concluded and all the evidence has been examined.

with regard to kompus' acquisition of majority share at ZA/UM we have the same issue: kompus has the burden of proof. if kurvitz and rostov are claiming they were unaware of or misunderstood the nature of kompus' actions, it's up to him to prove that to be untrue. since kompus claims the conversation was had verbally with nothing in writing being exchanged, we're now in a he-said-she-said situation, and while kurvitz and rostov have each other to support their side, no one has been willing to comment publicly in kompus' defense (that i've seen or as i understood PMG's coverage).

what i find most interesting about this whole thing is that in the slack message sent to kurvitz about his behavior, havel states that they're trying to create a more professional culture at ZA/UM. the lack of paper trail on any of the issues i've discussed here makes me doubt that. this isn't a point i just think the hypocrisy is really interesting.

ultimately where i stand right now is that i think kompus' actions are extremely suspect and that i doubt his story. he lacks proof that kurvitz and rostov agreed to this, and the way in which kurvitz and rostov were meant to benefit from the arrangement doesn't make sense. the entire thing doesn't pass a common sense check, to me.

all in all, though, i think this documentary is a must-watch for DE fans because it grounds us in the reality of how complex this is, not just for those directly involved but those indirectly involved as well. PMG made a fantastic point when they ended with a plea that the fans stop hurting the current ZA/UM employees because they want to get back at kompus and others responsible for kurvitz, rostov, and hindpere's situation. we need to recognize that the people who work there now just want to make games that carry meaningful messages and they want to connect deeply with their audience. they're all artists caught up in business and industry and we, as fellow artists, need to stand in solidarity with them. and we need to make sure we don't jump to any conclusions until the evidence has been brought to light

#za/um #disco elysium

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ancientstone · 4 months

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Okay Brits I need you to start paying attention.

We are likely in a General Election year.

We are going to be voting which political party we want to govern us the next five years. As of yet we don't have a date (the latest it could be held is January 2025, though it's probably going to be in 2024), but you need to start listening to what's going on so you can be ready and make an informed choice.

In the last General Election, the turnout was 67.3% across the UK. People often say they didn't vote because they didn't understand the politics or "they're all the same anyway."

When a General Election is called, Polling Day will be 25 days later. If you're working, busy, or just have life stuff happening, you may not have time to do the research you want. This is why it's important to start doing things now.

1. Are you Registered to Vote?

You can register to vote here.

You can check if you're registered by going here.

You must 18 or over on Polling Day to vote in a General Election.

You must also be one of the following:

A British, Irish, or qualifying Commonwealth citizen. (You can check here if you're a qualifying Commonwealth citizen)

Be resident at an address in the UK (or a British citizen living abroad who has been registered to vote in the UK in the last 15 years)

Not be legally excluded from voting

According to the website, while registering, "You’ll be asked for your National Insurance number (but you can still register if you do not have one). After you’ve registered, your name and address will appear on the electoral register."

There is also an option to register to vote anonymously "if you're concerned about your name and address appearing on the electoral register for safety reasons." The link to that page is here.

You can register to vote by post by going here and printing out the forms.

If you would like a step-by-step guide to registering to vote, here is a page that has a pdf doing just that. It is also available in Welsh.

2. Get a Photo ID

We now need to show a photo ID when turning up to the polls.

Here is a list of valid forms of photo ID.

Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get a valid ID, otherwise you will be turned away from the polling station.

If you vote by proxy, you need to "take your own ID when you go to vote on someone else’s behalf. You do not need to take theirs."

According to the website, "The name on your ID must match your name on the electoral register. If it does not, you’ll need to:

take a document with you to vote that proves you’ve changed your name (for example, a marriage certificate)

Small differences do not matter. For example, if your ID says ‘Jim Smith’ instead of ‘James Smith’.

If you do not have a type of photo ID that allows you to vote, you can apply for a Voter Authority Certificate."

3. You need to apply to vote by post

You can apply here.

You need to be registered before applying.

To apply you need:

"The address where you are registered to vote

Your National Insurance number or other identity documents, e.g. a passport

the specific date of the election or referendum you want to make a postal vote, if you only want a one-off postal vote

You’ll also need to upload a photo of your handwritten signature in black ink on plain white paper.

If you cannot provide a signature or one that always looks the same, you may be able to apply for a postal vote signature waiver within the service.

You might be asked for extra documents to identify you."

The linked page has an option for downloading an application form to send in by post.

4. Start Researching!

Think back to the last few years.

What did you like, and who did them? What about the opposite?

Is there something local happening in your area, and who is pushing for/against it?

Look up the parties' social media - what do they promote, promise, and call out?

Here are some resources:

An overview of the political parties

BBC News page for current politics

How many MPs are in which parties

Information on General Elections/when ours will likely be held

The other key political events in 2024

General info around voting, elections, boundary changes, etc.

TL;DR

2024 Will likely be the year the UK votes for the next political party in charge.

You need to register to vote.

You need a photo ID to take with you.

You need to apply to vote by post.

The best time to start looking into the parties and what they do is now, so you can be informed later on.

The rest of the world is welcome to share this!

#politics #uk politics #british politics #general election #general election 2024 #uk #britain #written in stone

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toskarin-gpl · 2 months

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oxydiane · 2 years

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a little while after being taken in by james’ family sirius asks every teacher at hogwarts to address him as “mr potter” because euphemia and fleamont and james keep insisting he is part of the family now and he had never felt like he belonged somewhere so much as when he sat at the potters’ dining table during the last summer. mcgonagall raises an eyebrow because “no mr black—“ “potter!” “as long as you present documentation that shows the change of name i will be able to accommodate but seeing as there is none…” and sirius insists he is “a potter on all levels except legal” james is of course solemnly nodding by his side “it’s true professor, mum even packed him lunch for the train ride and dad invited him to his studio and showed him all his brewing secrets, it doesn’t get more potter than that!” they go as far as sirius not responding to his last name “mr black!” “uhm? regulus black isn’t here professor, he’s a fair few years younger, why would he be in a seventh year class?” the teachers eventually give in with the only request he please, please, writes his actual name on the NEWT papers. it’s a delightful rest of the year for sirius.

years later, they cross paths again and mcgonagall can’t help but smile “well if it isn’t mr potter”, sirius snickers before throwing an arm over remus’ shoulders “mr lupin now, actually” she is not surprised “and this time i have the papers to prove it, professor!”

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gatheringbones · 6 months

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[“The fact remains that the most effective long-term solutions to protecting and empowering victims of abuse are policy changes that would grant victims reliable access to health care, housing, livable income, paid sick leave, child care, and safety from criminalization. Yet bureaucratic impediments on the federal level, lack of leadership from Democrats as a serious “opposition party” against Republicans, and general inaction have stalled meaningful, nationwide, progressive economic legislation for decades. As a result, too many victims are forced to stay in dangerous, traumatizing relationships solely for economic reasons, in a country where poverty can be a death sentence, and those who experience poverty are disproportionately policed for “survival crimes”—what we call being punished by the state for its own failure to invest in community resources, and its reliance on commodifying and profiting off incarcerating the most vulnerable.

Despite how frequently cases of rape and domestic abuse are invoked to justify policing and prisons, women who are victims of abuse face more severe punishment for “enabling” child abuse, pregnancy loss, or even surviving abuse, broadly, than their abusers do. The many documented cases of this include Marshae Jones, a Black woman in Alabama who was jailed for fetal homicide in 2019 after miscarrying from being shot in the stomach. Sex workers who report being victimized are disbelieved and often criminalized by police officers themselves (a 2007 study found 44 percent of police officers said they were unlikely to believe a report of rape from a sex worker), while the rapes and sexual violence cases of Black and Indigenous women and girls are chronically ignored by police departments and media.

Victims of abuse with the least resources and social capital are more likely to face punishment than anything else when they seek help from authorities, rendering it more likely they would seek criminalized means to protect or provide for themselves. In too many documented cases that disproportionately implicate people of color, pregnant people are criminally charged for ostensibly endangering fetuses—for example, due to substance use struggles—and even prior to the overturning of Roe, for self-managed abortions. Many pregnant people have faced charges or incarceration for miscarriage or stillbirth, and even for harms inflicted on them while they were pregnant, like Marshae Jones.

This is in part because about forty states have feticide laws that were written with the intention of protecting pregnant people from domestic violence. It’s an important crisis to address, given how high homicide rates targeting pregnant people are. Yet all too often, feticide laws are co-opted and misused by anti-abortion activists and prosecutors to criminally charge pregnant people who lose their pregnancies. Misuse of fetal homicide laws has contributed to the nearly 1,300 criminal charges for pregnancy loss doled out between 2006 and 2020 alone—a number that’s tripled from 1973 to 2005, according to research from Pregnancy Justice. Let’s not forget that it’s police officers who are the primary enforcers of abortion bans, a role they’ve enthusiastically stepped into: In February 2022 the city of Louisville paid a police officer $75,000 in settlement fees almost a year after the officer was suspended for protesting outside a local abortion clinic while armed and in uniform. After being suspended with pay for almost half a year in 2021, the officer sued the city for supposedly violating his constitutional rights while off-duty and discriminating against him for his “pro-life” views. The incident is part of a long history of police officers either ignoring or enabling violent anti-abortion protesters at clinics, and apparently even joining protesters themselves.

Fetal homicide laws are just one example of legislation that accords unborn fetuses with legal personhood rights, resulting in extensive legal risks for pregnant people, and particularly those who experience abuse. Dana Sussman, deputy executive director of Pregnancy Justice, told me in 2022 that there’s “simply no way to grant fetuses ‘personhood rights’ without subjugating the rights of pregnant people by creating a false tension between the rights of the fetus and the rights of a pregnant person.” When a pregnant person’s “rights are secondary to the fetus, or at odds with the fetus, that lends to an environment in which violence—whether it’s state violence like imprisonment, or interpersonal violence—can be committed against pregnant people with far less accountability.”]

kylie cheung, from survivor injustice: state-sanctioned abuse, domestic violence, and the fight for bodily autonomy, 2023

#kylie cheung #currently reading #cw rape #cw abuse #history stuff

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quitealotofsodapop · 8 months

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Ooh, wait! SWKs lawyer! The one he ignores emails from! Imagine said lawyer finally seeing SWK at Pigsy's one day and, just, judo throws him in outrage at practically ghosting them!

Lawyer: SUN WUKONG!!!!

SWK: SHIT, that's my lawyer!

Mac: What's a lawyer?

I've seen theories that SWK's lawyer is Mei's dad (Mr Dragon/Long) and while it would be hilarious if thats how they knew eachother, I also love the thought of SWK's lawyer being a random celestial who handles his earthly legal matters as a favor.

One delightful character in Journey to the West is Yinghuo (火星) aka the Fire Star/Star Lord of Fire of the South/Spirit of Mars. Despite his rather lofty title and his command of fire entities, he's described in story as a mild mannered bureaucrat with little offensive experience (he even describes Nezha as being far stronger than him). When he first appears in Journey to the West, he even assumes SWK is there to discuss "earthly things" related to a recent internal investigation about missing gods.

So yeah, I hc SWK's Lawyer as a very confused celestial, wondering where tf the Monkey King has run off to - cus the paperwork is piling up and Yinghuo is starting to get worried. I feel like he only finds SWK by tracing his IP address or something.

Yinghuo: "Mr Sun please. I need to go over these documents with you. You've recently changed your place of residence, your legal title. marital status, dependants, and your status of mortality!" SWK, grumbling: "I hate celestial bureaucracy." Macaque, reading the paperwork: "Do I put myself down as Deceased or Living? It's a little complicated."

Yinghuo is very polite and patient. He goes over every little detail before confirming things (which annoys SWK cus boring). He also has no issue changing the legal details (surnames and stuff) to help hide them better from the rest of the Celestial Realm.

#lego monkie kid #lmk #lmk au #journey to the west #yinghuo #star lord of fire #the monkey king and the infant #the monkey king and the infant au #shadowpeach #lmk shadowpeach au #swk's lawyer #lmk character ideas

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legalzonemarketing · 2 years

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techtow · 17 days

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Understanding Transgender Rights: A Beginner's Guide

Introduction:

In recent years, the movement for transgender rights has gained significant attention worldwide. As awareness grows, it becomes increasingly important for everyone to understand the issues faced by transgender individuals and the rights they are advocating for. This article serves as a beginner's guide to understanding transgender rights, exploring the history, legal framework, and importance of these rights in today's society.

What Does Transgender Mean?

To begin, let's clarify what “transgender” means. Transgender is an umbrella term that refers to individuals whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. This includes people who identify as trans men, trans women, non-binary, genderqueer, and many other identities along the gender spectrum. It's essential to respect each person's self-identified gender and use the pronouns they prefer.

Transgender Rights Are Human Rights:

One of the central messages of the transgender rights movement is that trans rights are human rights. This means that transgender individuals deserve the same fundamental rights and freedoms as anyone else. These rights include the right to live authentically, free from discrimination and violence, and access to healthcare, education, employment, and housing without fear of prejudice.

The Origins of the Trans Rights Movement:

The modern trans rights movement traces its roots back to the activism of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals who have long fought for recognition, equality, and justice. While transgender people have always existed, organized advocacy for their rights began to gain momentum in the mid-20th century. Key events such as the Stonewall riots in 1969, led by transgender women of color, sparked a broader movement for LGBTQ+ rights, including transgender rights.

Trans Joy and Resilience:

Despite the many challenges faced by transgender individuals, it's essential to acknowledge and celebrate moments of trans joy. Trans joy encompasses the happiness, pride, and sense of community that many transgender people experience. It can be found in personal achievements, supportive relationships, and moments of self-expression. By highlighting trans joy, we honor the resilience and strength of the transgender community.

Understanding Transgender Rights:

Transgender rights encompass a wide range of issues, including legal recognition, healthcare access, protection from discrimination, and safety from violence.

Let's explore some key aspects of transgender rights:

Legal Recognition: Transgender individuals often face significant barriers to having their gender identity legally recognized. This includes obstacles to changing their name and gender marker on identification documents such as driver's licenses and passports. Legal recognition is essential for affirming a person's gender identity and ensuring their rights are protected.

Healthcare Access: Transgender people deserve access to healthcare that is respectful, affirming, and inclusive of their unique needs. This includes access to gender-affirming medical care such as hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgeries. However, many transgender individuals face discrimination and barriers to accessing quality healthcare.

Protection from Discrimination: Transgender individuals frequently experience discrimination in various aspects of life, including employment, housing, education, and public accommodations. Transgender rights advocates work to pass laws and policies that prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and expression.

Safety from Violence: Transgender people, particularly transgender women of color, are disproportionately targeted for violence and hate crimes. Ensuring the safety and well-being of transgender individuals requires addressing systemic issues such as transphobia, racism, and misogyny, while also providing support services and resources for survivors of violence.

Trans Rights Laws:

Several laws and policies have been enacted to protect the rights of transgender individuals, although there is still much work to be done. Some of these include:

Anti-Discrimination Laws: These laws prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and expression in areas such as employment, housing, education, and public accommodations.

Hate Crime Laws: Hate crime laws enhance penalties for crimes committed against individuals based on their gender identity or expression.

Healthcare Access Laws: Some jurisdictions have passed laws to ensure that transgender individuals have access to gender-affirming healthcare without discrimination or barriers.

Trans Rights Quotes:

Throughout history, many individuals have spoken out in support of transgender rights. Here are a few powerful quotes:

"Transgender rights are human rights." - Hillary Clinton

"We should indeed keep calm in the face of difference, and live our lives in a state of inclusion and wonder at the diversity of humanity." - George Takei

"We must ensure that trans people are treated equally under the law and are not discriminated against in any way." - Bernie Sanders

Conclusion:

In conclusion, understanding transgender rights is essential for creating a more just and inclusive society. By recognizing transgender people as valued members of our communities and advocating for their rights, we can work towards a world where everyone can live authentically and freely. Trans rights are human rights, and it's up to all of us to ensure that they are upheld and protected.

Through education, advocacy, and allyship, we can contribute to positive change and create a more equitable future for transgender individuals everywhere. Let's stand together in support of trans rights, now and always.

#trans rights #transgender rights #trans rights are human rights #transgender #trans #trans people #trans joy #trans pride #germany #france #poland #austria #netherlands #europe #uk #usa

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pumpkinsy0 · 2 months

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HAITIAN SHEPARDS HISTORY WOOOOO

TLDR: the shepards are immigrants from haiti who escaped from this dictatorship and found themselves in tulsa, tim made himself to be this intimidating guy because he wanted to protect his family, especially angela and curly, and that's also kinda how the shepard gang came to be

ALRIGHT SO QUICK CONTEXT, In the late 1950s, haiti was already facing political instability and economic challenges, so in the 1960s in haiti, this guy named papa doc came into power. He was ur average politician, when trying to get into office, he would cater to the needs of poor people and other marginalized groups, promising to address to their needs. Skipping past some electoral fraud, papa doc won through bribery, intimidation, and all around manipulation. When he was in power, he quickly made sure to try and keep that power and grow it, even creating this paramilitary force called the tonton macoutes. Anyone who opposed him were crushed,LITERALLY ANYONE who went against him were mostly jailed, tortured, or even killed, civilians, other haitian politicians, activist, ANYONE. And as you would guess, he would also censor the media, and made sure people were only glorifying his rule, and papa doc would essentially steal resources for himself, and ignore the needs of the haitian people.

NOW THE SHEPARDS IN HAITI, i would imagine that they of course had to flee, in fear for their lives however, of course it wasn't easy to do. Bc of papa doc, there were restrictions on immigration. Papa doc viewed immigration a threat to his power and would heavily surveil ppl who he saw as his enemies (aka people who went against what he wanted them to say). NOW i hc the shepards mother to have been this activist or AT LEAST someone who spoke out against what he was doing. Before she say him as this hope, but she quickly realized what was happening, tried to speak out against him, and got on his bad side, and was now not only heavily censored, but also bc now she wants to leave haiti, she's also being watched by papa doc's people. To make it clear, (NOT DOING MY MATH JUST GOING ON MY HEAD), tim is like AROUND a tween and angela and curly are like idk 9 or something, curly and angela dont really understand what's going on because their mom is changing, she's less outspoken and more depressed, but tim understands because he's been reading what his moms been saying and listening into her conversations with other activist. But back to what I was saying, their mother wants to leave haiti but papa doc's people is harassing not only her but her family, trying to stop them from leaving the country and spreading what's happening. At some point, their mom pulled tim aside and told him to protect angela and curly and that's just always been engraved in his mind. Now skipping over some other things that would really just deter me from what I want to do in this post, immigrating to the US was HARD, because of papa doc, but also bc the us is just SHITTY. It was literally just hard for haitians who wanted to move to get the legal documents the legal documents they needed to get to emigrate legally and even if they did, it would always jut be a very lengthy and complex journey, with NO guarantee of success

now up to this point, you can either see the shepards as legal immigrants or illegal immigrants, however because they get into a LOT of legal problems, im gonna say that they are legal immigrants cause they def would've been deported or somethin

NOW WHEN THEY GET TO THE US, haitians MOSTLy moved to states like florida or new york, and some other states I can't name off the top of my head rn, but I think they did have someone in the US who was willing to help them and that's how they got there, if i didn't just imagine this shit, the shepards canonically have a step father, and so I feel like that's how they got to america, maybe their mother married him for a green card or whatever, Im not fully fleshing this idea out, maybe ill do it later, but y'all get what i mean, someone helped the shepard immigrate out of haiti, and either their mom, their bio dad, or their step father got the job, and so they found themselves in tulsa

obviously theyre facing racial discrimination, its the 1960s in america, its like dead middle of the civil rights movement, noirisme in haiti is still popping off and goin strong, so while the shepards are in a VERY racist time, they themselves, dont feel down or bash themselves for being black, they are VERY MUCH comfortable being who they are and wouldn't change that, and because people stereotype that in black people as being "rude" and "aggressive" sometimes, that's exactly what happened to the shepards, ESPECIALLY because theyre dark skinned I wanna make that be known right now

Going deeper into how this impacted tim, curly, and angela now!!!

So obviously, they have thick haitian accents, how they pronounce their r's isn't really pronounced, they speak kinda slow bc they have to translate what theyre saying, and they get laughed at for that, and that's where tim like, wanted to prove himself and wanted to protect his family. Even before moving to the us, tim HAD to step up and take care of angela and curly because his mom was really caught up in other things, so when their in a COMPLETLEY NEW ENVIORMENT??? that ramped tf UP, tim tolerated absolutely no disrespect from ANYONE about his family, and like I said, because of those stereotypes about black people, ESPECIALLY dark skinned black people, he was basically villanized, ADDING ONTO THE FACT NOBPDY REALLY UNDERSTOOD HIM BECAUSE HES A HAITIAN IMMIGRANT AND COULDNT EXACTLY COMMUNICATE WITH PEOPLE THE WAY HE WANTED TO?????? yea he was villanized BAD, and this would happen with curly and angela too, dont think it didn't, and that's how the shepards started building this idea of being 'intimidating' and people you 'shouldnt mess with', they knew the area they were in was really dangerous, and so they used this system that was already against them to protect themselves and their family, but also because they can be really intimidating people and WILL beat a bitch up

And long story short since this post is ALREADY long as shit, but that's also how the shepard gang came to be!!! as they got more and more used to being in america, they made friends with the people they could trust and started out as this group of friends like the curtis gang, but then they saw how important it was to have a gang in these times, especially when it came to greasers vs socs, and became this scary gang

ANYWAYS YAP SESH OVER, i didn't really spell check or flesh out some ideas or anything like that cause im running off of my asthma medication rn and im very shakey but omggg if y'all have any questions about this do tell me this is very fun for me to do

#curly shepard #tim shepard #angela shepard #the outsiders fandom #the outsiders headcanons #the outsiders 1983 #the outsiders hcs

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dawnfelagund · 11 months

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I feel like there’s a lot of stuff coming to light lately about ao3’s glacial pace at adopting transparent and actionable antiracist policies (and the fact that a longtime head of the abuse team who helped draft their abuse moderation bylaws was documentably quite racist herself). And on the one had, like what you brought up about it taking a while for the archive to address the AI issue because of organization size and slow ability to pivot, I can see why it took some time to iron out the code etc for the new block mute functions. But on the other hand, I feel like not much else has happened, and more volunteers are coming forward about it having been a kind of catty and clandestinely bullying environment. Since you’ve been active for a long time and run an (albeit much smaller) archive of your own (pun, haha), I was wondering if you had any thoughts on this. And if there’s anything unique or cool in the SWG bylaws or structure to either prevent this sort of 1) buildup of crappy user behavior and 2) insular and punitive moderator culture, or if you’ve dealt with anything similar on the site etc etc. and maybe if you have any advice for folks who want to open their own archive or who just mod a large discord etc etc.

Oh yes, anon, I have tons of thoughts and ideas, and thank you for these wonderful questions! <3

First of all ...

ao3’s glacial pace

I recently wrote about the OTW’s fumbling of the AI issue and compared change on a large organization to port-rounding the Titanic. The AI issue is an apt illustration of that. In the time it took for the Silmarillion Writers’ Guild to 1) decide we needed an AI policy, 2) write said AI policy, 3) open it for public commentary, and 4) research how to block and then implement blocks on AI scrapers to the best of our abilities (since this will never be 100% since not all scrapers follow the rules), the OTW managed to ... assure a distressed membership base that the thing they were worrying about (AI scraping) had been blocked in December. Why did it take a week just to say, “Hey guys, we actually did this months ago”? When we (with far fewer resources!) took the exact same span of time and managed to write a policy, release it, and research and implement AI bot blocks?

Part of it is that, yes, smaller orgs have the ability to be more nimble. On the SWG, there is me at the helm, three active site mods, and two Discord mods who work on policy, involving volunteers (like our inclusivity focus group) as needed. We generally go with a majority rule, and we’re not bogged down by the legal obligations of a nonprofit as far as our governance. But it also reaches a point where the size of an organization is not the only reason why it can actually get things done, and when it takes a week to offer reassurance to your membership that you have in fact done what they want, it really begs the question of whether that organization is able to effectively function at all.

Without commenting on the viability of the specific demands of @end-otw-racism, they are absolutely right that three years is too long to go without action. That's absurd, and it’s hard to see it as anything but thinking that the right words following George Floyd’s murder were all that would be required and hoping that promises of actual action would be forgotten. Actually, I’m more sympathetic to the time to implement new block/mute code than I am to the failure of the Board to take the promised action against racist harassment within the OTW: the coders are purely volunteer, not elected, and the burnout of “techno-volunteers” is a known reality (e.g., De Kosnik 2016) of running fandom sites because it is a hard job, invisible and unappreciated, and it is never done. I know that I have new features and improvements on my to-do list for the SWG for more than a year now because maintaining the current site and fixing it when it breaks takes priority and a lot of my time. So when coders take a while to get something done? Okay, fair. But the Board? Were the ones who promised action that they don’t seem to have actually intended to take. In even the most cumbersome organization, we should be seeing goals set and progress, in however small steps, being made toward those goals. In three years.

if there’s anything unique or cool in the SWG bylaws or structure to either prevent this sort of 1) buildup of crappy user behavior

I think the OTW/AO3 and the SWG begin from completely different philosophical foundations.

I’ve been in Tolkien fanfic fandom since 2004 and founded the SWG in 2005, so at the risk of being all “I was there, Gandalf” ... I was there when the OTW and AO3 were first being discussed, largely lurking but definitely following the discussions. And I was there for the content purges on LiveJournal and FanFiction.net that precipitated those discussions, and I was a part of fandom when writing adult content--especially LGBTQIA+ adult content--was risky business, both within fandom and “IRL.” From this climate (and the fear it created) came the OTW and AO3: the idea that “we own the servers and run the organization so we can accept everything that is a fanwork on our site,” and fans would no longer need to fear waking up and finding years of their work gone in a single deletion spree motivated by gratifying fans who ascribe to purity culture or advertisers or anyone.

The OTW’s mission, in their own words: “The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a nonprofit organization established by fans to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms” (emphasis mine). The aim of the OTW (and consequently AO3) is and has always been to archive everything. They are a universal archive on order of Project Gutenberg or Archive.org. The OTW’s FAQ calls AO3 “fandom’s deposit library” (“Is the OTW trying to replace all other archives?”). In other words, the primary purpose is storing as many fanworks as possible, regardless of the content of those fanworks.

Yes, this means the OTW considers AI-generated fanworks as legitimate. Yes, this means that the OTW considers fanworks with blatantly racist (or sexist or homophobic or transphobic or ...) content as legitimate. The parallel I keep drawing is to the ACLU, which prioritizes civil liberties in the same way that the OTW prioritizes fanworks preservation, which leads them to sometimes end up defending reprehensible people and viewpoints (and fanworks). They prioritize a principle above the harm that principle, taken to its logical extreme, could cause to people who are by and large already marginalized in and therefore harmed by society. That is not a critique of either organization, just a statement of fact, and this is where I feel like fans hoping for increased moderation or oversight of fanworks posted on AO3 are banging their heads against the wall. The OTW will never be that place; their very mission and reason for existence forbids it.

The problem is that, for most fans and fandoms, AO3 is their only option as an archive. Which brings me to the SWG ...

The SWG (which opened its archive in 2007, two years before AO3 entered open beta) originated during the same fandom era as AO3. The key difference is that where OTW/AO3 focused on fanworks and the values they embraced around the worth of all fanworks, the SWG focused on people and creating a fandom space that was open, welcoming, and civil. The Tolkien fandom was also a pretty messed-up place at the time. There were dozens of small, Tolkien-specific archives, most of which imposed some sort of content restriction, either in the sense of what they focused on (like the SWG focuses on Silmarillion fanworks) or in excluding certain content, such as adult-rated fanworks or slash. This certainly caused its share of hard feelings but I wouldn’t say was a problem in and of itself: There were so many archives and communities that there was someplace for everyone. The larger issue, from my perspective (as a new Tolkien fan when I started the SWG in 2005) was that bullying and harassment were extremely common in some places; homophobia and misogyny were acceptable under the guise of “canonicity” or “respect for Tolkien”; discussing racism, sexism/misogyny, homophobia, etc. in Tolkien’s works or in the fandom was Just Not Done in many spaces (you’d get pelted with a barrage of Tolkien Couldn’t Have Been Racist/Sexist/Etc. and Here’s Why if you tried); and new fans or fans who didn’t have full access to the texts were looked down upon and mistreated under the pretense of “correcting their canon.” Again, Tolkien fanworks fandom was very large and diverse, so this was certainly not all groups or sites, but it was true of many of the larger ones.

On the SWG, we decided we didn’t want to perpetuate this culture, so we set out to create guidelines (which we call our Site Etiquette) that prioritized civility and inclusivity. Again, we come from the same era of fandom history as the OTW, so we also ended up accepting most fanworks, but where we differ from the OTW and AO3 is that maximizing the fanworks we accept is not our priority. Instead,

Abusive or derogatory behavior will not be tolerated at any time or in any part of the SWG. We do not welcome or allow any content in our group that is designed to be hurtful or insulting.

This has been a part of our Site Etiquette since our archive’s inception, and it has persisted, unchanged, because it easily allows for the exclusion of anything--like the openly racist content identified on AO3 by End OTW Racism--that makes our group a hostile place for our members. We do also put the responsibility on our members to curate their own browsing experience on our archive:

Members are not required to like everyone, but they are required to be civil. If you dislike a fanwork, stop reading it and do not comment. If you dislike another member, do not interact with them.

To that end, we provide a number of warning tags that creators are expected to use (or else label their fanwork “Choose Not to Warn”), which includes a tag for “In-Universe Intolerance.” Unlike AO3, if a fanwork is mislabeled, the mods will work with the creator to assure that it is labeled correctly so that it meets the creator’s needs but also preserves visitors’ rights to curate what they read/view. That doesn’t mean that these systems will be perfectly implemented or will always meet everyone’s needs, but we have found that they generally do, in part because joining the SWG means you are agreeing to participate on an archive where civility and inclusivity are primary values.

Implied in all of the above but important to state, too, is that the SWG is a moderated community and site. We do not review everything posted to our site, but we will respond to “flags” or other reports of fanworks that violate our site guidelines, and on our Discord and other community spaces, we do hold our members to our standards around civility and inclusivity. We do address member behavior (mostly on our Discord) that creates a hostile culture, and we do ban members who demonstrate that they are unwilling to work on culling that behavior from their interactions on our spaces. That is not a preference and it is thankfully rare when we have to do so, but again, it becomes an option when you’re not looking at a person’s participation as the creation of a valuable cultural artifact that you are obligated to preserve but in terms of its impact on others who share those community spaces with them.

2) insular and punitive moderator culture

I honestly don’t see this as able to become an issue on a small site the way it appears to have become on the OTW.

By that, I don’t mean that small sites are incapable of having leadership who are cliquish, punitive, abusive, unresponsive, or any of the other charges levied against members of the OTW Board and leadership. However, the impact on a smaller site is much different than on a larger site: It’s easier for members to walk away.

There were definitely dysfunctional sites and groups in the Tolkien fanworks fandom’s history. What tended to happen is ... they didn’t last long. People went elsewhere with their stories and participation (because there were other places to go), the site’s reputation began to precede it so that people avoided it, and eventually it was just the rarefied few who had made it a miserable place to begin with making misery among themselves, which is really an ideal situation, when you really think about it. (In less extreme examples, my fandom history research using data from the Tolkien Fanfiction Survey has shown that users of small Tolkien archives tended to select where they posted on the basis of how the archive’s culture aligned with their own values.)

AO3, on the other hand, has developed a near-gravitational force in the fanworks world. Almost everyone uses it because we’ve reached a point where there are no other options for many fans. If you are in one of the few fandoms (like Tolkien) that still has independent archives, you can go there. If you can meet the content guidelines of FanFiction.net or Wattpad, those become options. But for many, AO3 is it. I guarantee there are many people right now, looking on at what is happening on the OTW with dismay, interested in at least crossposting elsewhere, but who have no place to go.

No one needs the SWG in the way that that need AO3; it is an “only option” for no one. Therefore, my comods and I, by necessity, have to create a site and community that people want to be a part of, and part of that (for us) is through our leadership: hearing and responding to our members’ needs, inviting member input wherever possible in our decision-making process, and being transparent in our decisions.

And again, so much of this comes back to our intentional work to create a community culture of civility and inclusivity and the fact that people who join us generally value those things as well. The SWG is a community archive, not a universal archive (to borrow De Kosnik’s terminology); it derives from our community values, collectively agreed upon, not the prioritization of massing as much relevant content onto our servers as possible in the interest of preservation and legitimization. (I have had, several times, conversations with people that led with, “I need you to consider if the values of this group are a good fit for you,” which is not a conversation that could happen on AO3, with its different goals.) Because we all agree on these central values when beginning our work, all of us--members and moderators alike--can generally work together to achieve our goals. That doesn’t mean that we always agree! The recent discussion of our AI policy is an example of discussions that got pretty intense at times. But I saved each of the three drafts of the policy as it evolved via the Wayback Machine, and those red comments at the top? Were by and large based on member contributions during the two-week discussion period. They, not the mods, were the reason the document ended up as complete and good as it was. But again, this can be done on a group that has, at most, several dozen active, participating members at one time. It is not possible on a site the size of AO3.

And again, if I disappointed the expectations of the SWG members? I know they would go elsewhere, and that is a pretty strong motivator to keeping them at the forefront of every decision I make.

if you have any advice for folks who want to open their own archive or who just mod a large discord etc etc.

I do! I wrote about the tech side of starting an archive here. Unfortunately, it’s pretty bleak right now, but I have hope that that could change. My exhortation to those dissatisfied with what’s going on with the OTW right now is to consider supporting small fandom sites and web development projects in any way you can, whether that’s donating money, providing tech skills or otherwise volunteering, or just making sure that you signal-boost and promote these projects when you can. (Seriously, when I see people link to a fanwork on the SWG instead of AO3, I want to send them a Valentine.) I am now less than three weeks from summer break and plan to spend that summer break trying to make the tech options less bleak. Watch this space.

As far as the non-tech side, I’d suggest first of all deciding who you want to be. What are your values? As I’ve said at several points in this (very long) post, the SWG values civility and inclusivity. We look at everything through that lens. That doesn’t mean that moderation decisions are made easy, but they are certainly made easier and more consistent/fair.

Once you know your values, be clear in what you expect from members/participants and hold them to it. Writing conduct guidelines is hard and is usually an ongoing process, but it is time well spent and, if done conscientiously, makes running a site or community much easier. It can be easy to be overwhelmed by a sense of urgency (“we needed to build this yesterday!!”) but spending a bit of time on this step will save you time and headache later.

Next: Moderation is not a dirty word. We, as Fandom, have gotten so used to these large, sprawling spaces like AO3 and Tumblr that are essentially unmoderated that we’ve forgotten that there was a time in the not-so-distant past where moderation was the norm. Again, that is not a panacea--there were plenty of awful “moderated” communities--but if you moderate with your community values and expectations in mind, you begin to build the culture you want to see.

Probably the biggest piece of advice I have is to think hard on the question: Do you really want to do this? Running a website or even a large community is a commitment. I do not have biological children, but I have pets and I have been a foster parent, and do you know what is the closest to a parenting commitment that I have? The SWG.

It is a lot of work, the work is often hard, it is usually thankless or invisible, and the buck stops with you. There is no higher-up to pass a responsibility off to. I have lost many evenings and days off to issues that arose out of nowhere with the site and that it was my responsibility to fix. Not gonna lie, that can be a bummer, and it’s worth asking if you’re up for it. A lot of small Tolkien archives died because of a combination of AO3, the ending of Yahoo! Groups, and plain loss of interest in those in charge of running them. This has contributed to the situation we are now in, where AO3 is the only option for many people, who are now not sure that they want all of their eggs in that basket, and yet here we are. Just like it’s 2008 again, and we’re wringing our hands over the lack of viable choices.

So just like taking on any large commitment, make sure you have what supports you need in place (who can help you? who would you rely on as a comod or coadmin? what are your limitations and how can you account for those in your plans?), do your due diligence to set your values and expectations, and then ... you do it.

Remember, it can be done. Many, many fans have done it before, and we can do it again.

#the otw mess #small archives #this post is long af sorry

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