#but in the internet were all anonymous. which is fine! you SHOULD NOT be obligated to bring up your identity at all
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Experian doxes the world (again)
The nonconsensually compiled dossiers of personal information that Experian assembled on the entire population of the USA may currently be exposed via dozens, perhaps hundreds, of sites, thanks to a grossly negligent security defect in Experian's API.
The breach was detected by Bill Demirkapi, a security researcher and RIT sophomore, and reported on by Brian Krebs, the excellent independent security reporter.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/04/experian-api-exposed-credit-scores-of-most-americans/
Experian, like Equifax, has unilaterally arrogated to itself the right to collect, store and disseminate our personal information, and, like Equifax, it faces little regulation, including obligations not to harm us or penalties when it does.
Experian's API allows criminals to retrieve your credit info by supplying your name and address, information that is typically easy to find, especially in the wake of multiple other breaches, such as Doordash's 5m-person 2019 breach and Drizzly's 2.5m-person 2020 breach.
Demirkapi explains that the API is implemented by many, many sites across the internet, and while Experian assured Krebs that this bug only affected a single site, it did not explain how it came to that conclusion.
Demirkapi discovered the defect while he was searching for a student loan vendor. There is a way to defend yourself against this attack: freeze your credit report. Credit freezes were made free (but opt-in only) in 2018, after the Equifax breach.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/09/credit-freezes-are-free-let-the-ice-age-begin/
Indeed, you may have already been thinking about the Equifax breach as you read this. In many ways, that breach was a wasted opportunity to seriously re-examine the indefensible practices of the credit-reporting industry, which had not been seriously scrutinized since 1976.
1976 was the year that Congress amended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act after hearing testimony about the abuses of the Retail Credit Company - a company that swiftly changed its name to "Equifax" to distance itself from the damning facts those hearings brought to light.
Retail Credit/Equifax invented credit reporting when it was founded in Atlanta in 1899. For more than half a century, it served as a free market Stasi to whom neighbors could quietly report each other for violating social norms.
Retail Credit's permanent, secret files recorded who was suspected of being gay, a "race-mixer" or a political dissident so that banks and insurance companies could discriminate against them.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/09/equifax-retail-credit-company-discrimination-loans
This practice was only curbed when a coalition of white, straight conservative men discovered that they'd been misidentified as queers and commies and demanded action, whereupon Congress gave Americans limited rights to see and contest their secret files.
But these controls were never more than symbolic. Congress couldn't truly blunt the power of these private-sector spooks, because the US government depends on them to determine eligibility for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
It's a public-private partnership from hell. Credit reporting bureaux collect data the government is not legally allowed to collect on its own, then sells that data to the government (Equifax makes $200m/year doing this).
https://web.archive.org/web/20171004200823/http://www.cetusnews.com/business/Equifax-Work-for-Government-Shows-Company%E2%80%99s-Broad-Reach.HkexS6JAq-.html
These millions are recycled into lobbying efforts to ensure that the credit reporting bureaux can continue to spy on us, smear us, and recklessly endanger us by failing to safeguard the files they assemble on us.
This is bad for America, but it's great for the credit reporting industry. The Big Three bureaux (Equifax, Experian and Transunion) have been on a decade-long buying spree, gobbling up hundreds of smaller companies.
These acquisitions lead directly to breaches: a Big Three company that buys a startup inherits its baling-wire-and-spit IT system, built in haste while the company pursued growth and acquisition.
These IT systems have to be tied into the giant acquiring company's own databases, adding to the dozens of other systems that have been cobbled together from previous acquisitions.
This became painfully apparent after the Equifax breach, so much so that even GOP Congressional Committee chairs called the breach "entirely preventable" and the result of "aggressive growth." But they refused to put any curbs on future acquisitions.
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/420582-house-panel-issues-scathing-report-on-entirely-preventable-equifax-data
A lot has happened since Equifax, so you may have forgotten just how fucked up that situation was. Equifax's IT was so chaotic that they couldn't even encrypt the data they'd installed. Two months later, they "weren't sure" if it had been encrypted.
https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/450429891/Following-Equifax-breach-CEO-doesnt-know-if-data-is-encrypted
*Six months* before the breach, outside experts began warning Equifax that they were exposing our data:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/ne3bv7/equifax-breach-social-security-numbers-researcher-warning
The *only* action Equifax execs took? They sold off a shit-ton of stock:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-14/sec-says-former-equifax-executive-engaged-in-insider-trading
The Equifax breach exposed the arrogance and impunity of the Big Three. Afterward, Equifax offered "free" credit monitoring to the people they'd harmed. One catch: it was free for a year; after that, they'd automatically bill you, annually, forever.
https://web.archive.org/web/20170911025943/https://therealnews.com/t2/story:19960:Equifax-Data-Breach-is-a-10-out-of-10-Scandal
And you'd pay in another way if you signed up for that "free" service: the fine print took away your right to sue Equifax, forever, no matter how they harmed you:
https://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/equifax-lobbied-kill-rule-protecting-victims-data-breaches-2587929
The credit bureaux bill themselves as arbiters of the public's ability to take responsibility for their choices, but after the breach, the CEO blamed the entire affair on a single "forgetful" flunky:
https://www.engadget.com/2017-10-03-former-equifax-ceo-blames-breach-on-one-it-employee.html
Then he stepped down and pocketed a $90m salary that his board voted in favor of:
https://fortune.com/2017/09/26/equifax-ceo-richard-smith-net-worth/
Of course they did! His actions made the company so big that even after the breach, the IRS picked it to run its anti-fraud. Equifax got $7.5m from Uncle Sucker, and would have kept it except that its anti-fraud site was *serving malware*:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/equifax-irs-data-breach-malware-discovered/
Equifax eventually settled all the claims against it for $700m in 2019:
https://nypost.com/2019/07/19/equifax-agrees-to-pay-700m-after-massive-data-breach/
But it continued to average five errors per credit report:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/02/11/rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-takes-aim-equifax-credit-scoring/
And it continued to store sensitive user-data in an unencrypted database whose login and password were "admin" and "admin":
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/equifax-password-username-admin-lawsuit-201118316.html
Congress introduced multiple bills to force Equifax, Experian and Transunion to clean up their act.
None of those bills passed.
https://www.axios.com/after-equifaxs-mega-breach-nothing-changed-1536241622-baf8e0cf-d727-43db-b4d4-77c7599fff1e.html
The IRS shrugged its shoulders at America, telling the victims of Equifax's breach that their information had probably already leaked before Equifax doxed them, so no biggie:
https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/355862-irs-significant-number-of-equifax-victims-already-had-info-accessed-by
Since then there have been other mass breaches, most recently the Facebook breach that exposed 500m people's sensitive data. That data can be merged with data from other breaches and even from "anonymized" data-sets that were deliberately released:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/21/re-identification/#pseudonymity
And while you can theoretically prevent your data from being stolen using the current Experian vulnerability by freezing your account, that's not as secure as it sounds.
Back in 2017, Brian Krebs reported that Experian's services were so insecure that anyone could retreive the PIN to unlock a frozen credit report by ticking a box on a website:
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/09/experian-site-can-give-anyone-your-credit-freeze-pin/
That was just table-stakes - it turned out that ALL the credit bureaux had an arrangement with AT&T's telecoms credit agency that was so insecure that *anyone* could unlock your locked credit report:
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/05/another-credit-freeze-target-nctue-com/
These companies came into existence to spy on Americans in order to facilitate mass-scale, racist, ideological and sexual discrimination. They gather data of enormous import and sensitivity - data no one should be gathering, much less retaining and sharing.
They handle this data in cavalier ways, secure in the knowledge that their integration with the US government wins them powerful stakeholders who will ensure that the penalties for the harm they inflict add up to less than profits those harms generate for their shareholders.
This is why America needs a federal privacy law with a "private right of action" - the ability to sue companies that harm you, rather than hoping that federal prosecutors or regulators will decide to enforce the law.
https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/16/where-it-hurts/#sue-facebook
Experian promises that this breach only affects one company that mis-implemented its API. We would be suckers to take it at its word. It didn't know about this breach until a college sophomore sent in a bug report - how would it know if there were others?
Image:
KC Green (modified)
https://kcgreendotcom.com/
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Hi. I am the Advice Anon. Please ignore those asks! I am so sorry for spamming your ask box. I still need help, so I’ll paste the entire thing over here. Again, sorry and thank you! Have a great day!
My reply and the full ask are below:
Hello! I hope you’ve been having a great day so far. This is probably unlike all of the other asks you get on a daily basis, author. However, I am in dire need of help, and I have turned to you. Before I begin, I want to apologize in advance, as this ask is going to be long. Now, like I said before, I need some help. You see, I am a freshman in high school, and school hasn’t even been going on for a full 10 weeks (a quarter), and I am already in a huge, messy, sticky situation. You probably already know that in high school, you need a certain number of credits in each field to be able to graduate. I am going to be extremely vague about this because it doesn’t really matter, and I’d really like to remain anonymous, if you know what I mean. One of the fields is World Languages and Visual Arts. Obviously, I am not talented enough to do Visual Arts, so I opted for World Languages instead. My teacher for the course I chose this year… she’s nice. Really kind, and I love that she makes learning a whole new language and culture, which is extremely hard, so much fun. And the fact that she’s one of the nicest teachers I know makes the rest of this so, so painful for me. 4 days ago, for me, was a Thursday. In this class, we had a vocab quiz that day (background info: two days before every quiz, my teacher posts a practice quiz to be done before class starts). I don’t really want to discuss what happened, as it still brings tears to my eyes, but I will give you a vague summary of what was going on. Basically, I couldn’t access my quiz (it was online), so my teacher told me to come in after school to re-do it. I was supposed to close down my computer and work on homework from another class, but instead of doing so, I worked on the practice quiz. And… this was considered cheating, because I was getting extra practice in before taking the quiz– something that the other students didn’t get, you know? My teacher saw my computer screen, and told me that she’d talk to me after school, and she’d be calling home. I couldn’t concentrate for the rest of the class, because I was afraid of what might happen when she called home. After school, she told me to speak with her, and be honest about it. When cheating happens, at our school, the teacher will write us up for Academic Dishonesty and give it to the administration, who then decides the consequences. My teacher had told me that if I was honest with her, she wouldn’t write my up; she’d just give me a zero on the quiz and call home and tell them what I did. I was honest with her, because like I said before, I was afraid. Once I told her everything that happened, she told me that I could call home, let them know what happened myself, and I’d be off the hook (with a zero on the quiz, of course). So, I called home, like she had asked of me, but… they didn’t pick up. I told her that they didn’t pick up, and she told me that it was fine, and that she’d talk to my parents in-person before they picked me up from school. I’m not going to lie, that terrified me more than calling home. I don’t really remember what happened after that, because I was too busy crying, but I do remember that she mentioned something about me doing this before, and that it was not OK to do it the second time, but she’d let me off the hook. The thing is, I am 100% sure I haven’t done this before… or maybe she just didn’t approach me the first time. I told her that I didn’t do this before, and she told me that I was lying again, and began to write me up. I told her that I didn’t mean to do this, and that I was sorry, but she told me to stop lying. She said that she DID approach me the first time I did this, and that I was rude to her then. This brought tears to my eyes– my kind of favorite teacher telling me that I was rude to her. You see, I didn’t grow up here, and although I’ve lived here for 4 years, I am not used to the way people interact here. It was very different where I grew up. For example, you didn’t ask each other how their day was, or what they did during their day, unless you were REALLY curious or concerned, because that was considered nosy and rude. So, I tend to be unintentionally rude, and completely oblivious to it; I have no idea when I’m being rude or not, unless someone specifically says so. I also don’t really understand people well, so that’s a huge problem. So… hearing this from her, really hurt. I told her that I didn’t intend to be rude, and I was trying my best to change (I mean, I was & am reading a book to teach me etiquette and all), and she replied with “that’s good to hear”. Then, when my parents came to pick me up, she talked to them, and even asked one of my parents to walk with us to the Administration Office to turn in the write up. Stuff happened, I got called into the Assistant Principal’s office, and now I have a zero on my quiz (and my homework activity that I never finished), Saturday School, and a black mark on my record. But the thing is… that’s not what I’m concerned about at all. Sure, getting my grades up in time for Progress Reports is going to be an extremely hard task, and Saturday School is going to leave a huge black mark on my record, but that’s not what I’m worried about. My grades have been fractured, but so has my relationship with this teacher. I feel as though she hates me now, that she has lost all trust in me. (Background info: our school does Odd and Even days, so I have half of my classes on one day and half on the other, so that means that I didn’t face my teacher at all on Friday) 3 days ago, on Friday, when I went to school, it was an average day. It would have been an amazing day, had it not been for the situation I was in. All I could think about that day was my World Language teacher. And just thinking about her, and about that classroom, it… gives me a bit of anxiety. This is where I need your help. What would you do if you were in my situation? I really want to repair my relationship with my teacher, because I know that she’s really important; we’re going to be on the same campus for the next 4 years of my life, and even more importantly, she’s going to be my teacher for the next 8 months. I want to graduate with good grades, but more importantly, I want to graduate without holding a grudge against my teacher. I want her to like me, and I want to gain her trust again. Today is a Sunday for me, and I have to go back to school tomorrow, and I have her class then. A part of me is really scared to go to school, a part of me is really angry at my teacher for reporting me (even though it was the right thing to do), and a part of me wants to ditch school tomorrow, or even drop out or transfer from her course, all because I don’t want to face her after I did the wrong thing. It’s not only that, either. I’ve also been avoiding my friends. Would you like to know why I am confiding in awesome strangers on the internet anonymously instead of letting my friends know what’s going on? It’s because I’m afraid that they won’t like me anymore, and they’d ditch me or something. They’re amazing people, and I know that they won’t do that, but a part of me is still paranoid. I’ve been avoiding my friends since Friday, barely talking to them at school, and texting them a little bit in our group chat. They don’t really suspect anything, but that’s good. And that’s why I am asking you. Not just you, but actually anyone who sees this, if they helped me, I’d really appreciate it. I really need help moving forward in this situation, and I’m desperate for help. My parents don’t understand the situation I’m in, and I’m too scared to talk to my friends about it, so I’d really appreciate the help. It’s OK if you don’t reply to this, author. I know that this doesn’t affect you in any way, so you’re not obliged to help me. I’d like to thank you for taking the time from your day to read these extremely long asks. Have a great day. P.S: I absolutely love What Heroes Do! Izumi is such a well written character, and sometimes, I see myself in her. The way she handles situations is so inspirational! And your writing skills are top-tier! My best friend and I actually started writing a book 4 years ago (I mean, we wrote for one month in 6th grade, and then spent one day in 8th grade editing it, and we’ve only got a prologue and 1.5 chapters done, so… clearly, we aren’t doing a good job lol), and you’ve inspired me to go back to that book and re-do it! Thank you so much for being such an inspiration and an idol of mine! Ilysm ❤️
sugiwa:
I wanted to take the proper time to reply to this. I think any adult willing to hold a grudge against a child is in the wrong. You clearly made a mistake and are now taking steps to improve and learn from it. Additionally, I think teachers tend to forget how much stress students are under in their academic and private lives, so a mistake should be used as an opportunity to teach not punish. I don’t think that you should worry about what this teacher thinks of you. Your teacher didn’t believe you, despite you telling them the truth. No matter how kind or nice someone is, their behavior towards you will always reflect their inner thoughts. If you’ve clearly made a mistake, you should fight to prove that. It’s not as if you intended to ‘cheat,’ given the situation we’re all in with the pandemic, online classes and quizzes are the norm. These kinds of things probably happen regularly. Additionally. I don’t think you need to concern yourself with being rude. My culture is rather blunt and when I first moved here, people weren’t fans of brutal honesty, so it was a big cultural shock. If people aren’t willing to learn about your culture and understand, then I don’t think they’re people worth hanging out with. Lean on your friends, I don’t think they’d make a big deal over a couple of mistakes and if they do, then it might be worth reconsidering why you were friends with them.
Thank you for your kind words about the story and I really hope everything works out for you!!
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Chloe does night-time diary posts on HER tumblr, so I'm going to start doing them here, sometimes. It would be nice if you read it, but, please, don't feel obligated! This is more for me to write.
(I got tired of my normal journal, I guess. It's full of bad poetry anyway. Besides, where's the thrill of losing anonymity in a physical notebook?)
I've basically been asleep and depressed for several days, because I had withdrawal after not being able to get my adhd meds. But, I got it today, and DID THINGS. (This is SO much better than before!)
Today, I went to a small café or restaurant (focused on tea) called Alice's Teacup that was Alice in Wonderland themed! My long-standing obsession with Alice in Wonderland knows no bounds. It was a really cute place. I got pumpkin pancakes, and some really good iced tea. Like... REALLY good iced tea.
Still, it seemed like the entire place was geared towards having a pot of tea and snacks with your friends, which left me a bit lonely. The person I asked couldn't come, and by the time I heard back, I was more than halfway there. Still, I read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and watched Monty Python on my phone, so I still had a good time!
I dressed pretty eccentricly and effeminately all day, but, with my facial hair, I was ALWAYS coded as a man, even by people on the street! Pastels, a stupid hat, a crop top, and facial hair was a winning combination.
On my way, I was stopped by some guys soliciting for charity. I don't make a habit of stopping for strangers on the streets of Manhattan. What if it's a scam? What if I'm being pressured to buy something? What if it's a strange political rant? But, I had already taken my earbuds off, I wasn't in a hurry, and I'm terminally polite. The first guy said he liked my energy, which seemed to come from a genuine place, because I liked his too!
They were asking for donations for a breast cancer charity, the United Breast Cancer Foundation. After a discussion, it seems like the charity helps pay medical debt, medical bills, and other practical needs, which is much better than *some* others I could name. I regretted not being able to give their minimum there, as it was pretty high, but told them I'd give what I could when I got on the website.
I... did not. Money is tight, because I'm bad and irresponsible with money, even though this is more than a worthy cause. I didn't NEED to go to that tea place, and I don't NEED to spend so much money on food. Sure, I can justify it: I wanted to go to that place for so long, and it was near the college anyway! But, if I was responsible with money, you KNOW my friends direct fundraising drives would go first, worthy charities second. Still, I feel bad about it.
Then, I went to the college library, to get books to start my thesis research. I have literally been unable to go to the college itself, aside from getting my ID, so this was great! There just wasn't a reason. It was... very empty. I went to the library stacks, which was deathly quiet and deeply haunted by the old books. I half expected something to pop out at me, as I turned the stacks, but I wasn't even paranoid or anxious. It was like I was in something else's house. I was welcome, but on thin ice.
I picked up an irrelevant psychology book on the "schizophrenia problem" from the 1930s, out of morbid fascination, and quickly put it down when it threatened to shatter in my hands.
Some students walked past (which was a suprise in those monastic basement library stacks), and I added something to their conversation, in a totally natural and casual way. But, omg the poor girls, I made them jump! Luckily, I'm the least threatening person on earth, and we laughed it off.
After a lot of hunting, I got 5 out of my 10 books (for the most part)! (The rest are, sadly, online. I like to read physical copies.) Strangely, I only came in with a list to get 3 books out of 6.
Most of the books I got are about art in the AIDS crisis, which is the core of my thesis, I think, all with different value. One about exhibitions, one about the larger narrative of those gay artists, and another contradicting the larger narrative.
I also got a book about "Art and Homosexuality". Just, the parallel construction of both "art" and "homosexuality" across cultures and times, from earliest history to the modern age. It wasn't on my initial list, but I'm really excited to read it.
Finally, I got a book called "The Thief, the Cross and the Wheel", about the pain and spectacle of punishment in Medieval and Renaissance European art. I'm mainly interested in Italian Renaissance art of the crucifixion--and its masochism--for the second quarter of my thesis.
The rest are online, and Should mostly focus on Bacchus in the Italian Renaissance (especially through art) and what I call the art of "gay liberation", concurrent with the AIDS crisis (i.e. The Cockettes). These two topics make up the last half of my thesis.
I'm SO excited to get started!!
I even got to cross the college's sky-bridges! (The college is a few skyscrapers.) Still, the loneliness and novelty were kind of the same thought. Imagine if I had been here before COVID, or, if COVID hadn't happened. Who would I have been able to meet? What would the college buildings mean to me? Because, for now, they're just buildings. But, I got to see the street from above, and that was amazing!
Just walking through New York--the Upper East Side--on a cool, sunny day was beautiful. It takes 20-30 minutes to get from my place to the college (and the tea place), but it was great being able to listen to my music (a lot of They Might Be Giants on the playlist today) and see the city. You know, people, super cool old architecture being pushed out by terrible new architecture, and pigeons.
Oh my god, the pigeons. I took pictures, but none of them are good. I kept thinking about how pigeons and doves are functionally the same. We domesticated pigeons, which is why they're here, and no one is stopping to notice them? Even the ones that were splotched with pure white, like doves? There's only so many pigeons you can take until they're just white noise and a nuisance, I know, so don't think I'm blaming anyone! But it's so hard to look away from these quirky little birds.
Also, at one point my walk, I was vaping very strategicly. The mental task of searching through library stacks will do that to you, when you already have an addiction to nicotine. I made sure no one was around, and no one would be affected. I stopped on a corner next to an old, ornate Catholic church while the traffic light changed, and I almost juuled right next to a priest! I'm glad I stopped. I don't believe in Hell, but, I would have walked down there myself had I vaped at a priest. Still, the church advertised itself as LGBT+ friendly, so maybe they aren't so trigger happy on the damnation. Either way, I DIDN'T vape at a priest today, which is good.
Once I got back, I spent a few hours watching things with my amazing girlfriend Chloe, who you may know here as @cisphobiccommunistopinions. She is so beautiful, and I love her more every day, every time I see her. God, it's almost been 5 years!
I just wish I could spend more time with her. She's in Virginia, and I'm in New York. Like she said to me earlier, I'm flighty at the best of times, and, with my lack of object permanence for the digital world, I find myself not giving her the attention I deserve, or, the full connection I long to have with her. We used to live together. Luckily, someday we will live together again! All these problems won't be forever, and we can live together again.
We watched a lot of things, but we're pretty deep into Serial Experiments Lain right now. It's a postmodern anime from the 90s, and, wow, do I have no idea what's going on in it. It's about the internet, and potentially schizophrenia as well. However, I'm obsessed! One day I'll be able to crack this artistic code, and it's unreality, thematic knots, and double-meanings. I will probably understand it better on the second watch. I don't see myself in Lain, but I see my 14 year old self in her, when I had just developed schizophrenia. Her cyberpunk fate seems like it's railroaded towards tragedy, but I want to save her, even if it's silly and irrational.
I told Chloe that I was scared about spilling apple cider on my library books, and she referred to it as "The Great Apple Juice Disaster of September 11, 2021." To which I said that it was the second worst thing to happen in New York on that date. It was funnier if you were there, and also were in my brain at the time.
Anyway, tomorrow I'm meeting some online acquaintances from the college's "Queer Srudent Union" at a Japanese Culture Fair in a park. (I do not know which park.) It emphasizes "fun"! I don't know them very well, but they're friends with the one person I know irl, so it should be good.
Tomorrow night, I should Probably head downtown to check out a gallery show by MFA (masters of fine arts) students at Hunter! After all, I was in a group project with one of them, and they're absolutely brilliant. I missed the Thursday gallery opening by a landslide, because of the aforementioned lack of adhd meds and Being Asleep, which I infinitely regret. I could have listened to all the artists and curators talk about their art and exhibition! Maybe I could have even talked with the artists and curators. But, it's best for me to go sooner, rather than later, so I don't forget. And, I REALLY want to go.
It's "This dialogue which happened to be present in all other dialogues" at the Alyssa Davis Gallery. From the email I got, "Each of these works observes a threshold of transition. [...] [These] intimations [are] of a frame of mind shared by the artists. These works perform, record, access, engage, document, and entrap, embalming the viewer within the gallery space."
sgp is a really good artist, by the way. Their work is just next-level. Be sure to check out their art, if you have a chance. Let me link their portfolio: https://saragracepowell.com/
(I highly suspect spg and the other member of my group project ghosted me afterwards, but I understand. I was really in over my head. Still, they're both really sweet and kind people, don't get it twisted!)
I ALSO really want to see The Cake Boys. They're performing at the 3 Dollar Bill in Brooklyn on September 26th. (It's only $15!) They're the only all drag king collective in NYC! (Are... there any Other all drag king collectives out there?) Other than the fact that a lot of them are trans or nonbinary, which I love, this show is a totally non-judgmental competition for over 40 drag kings! I've heard their shows are hilarious and unique.
I just have to wait until I have $15 to spare. I... didn't eat dinner tonight, because I'm irresponsible with my money and don't want to ask my parents for money... again. Don't worry, it's literally fine, and I don't make a habit of doing this!
Which reminds me! For my birthday, my parents gave me a gift card to Lush! I'm definitely going to Lush tomorrow, which will be great. I would describe my personality as "Lush store employee acosting you about a bath bomb demonstration", so I'll fit right in.
I also made a transition timeline, to show how much I've changed on testosterone. For the better, I hope! I really believe I'm becoming, if not Have Become, the man I was always meant to be. It's so strange to look back at who I was not too long ago, and to know the absolute pain I was in. It's also strange, in a good way, to see the man looking back at me in the selfies. I'm so much happier now! Much more candid in my pictures, at least. But, I know that I'm so much more comfortable as myself than I was even 6 months ago. It's strange. Sometimes I think to myself, "I don't pass yet; I'm not who I Need To Be yet." Then, I look at my selfie from today, and... I'm THERE. My mind just hasn't caught up with my amazing, natural, normal reality.
The end. I have to get ready for bed, (even though I could be partying on a Saturday night in the city. I'm lame.) If you actually read this, I am kissing you on the mouth right now. I hope it made you calm down tonight, like a terrible bedtime story. If you didn't read it and just skipped to the end, don't worry: you did the rational thing.
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asks from 08/06/18
dudawakmax asked:
Hello! How have life been so far? (Sorry I had no idea what to say)
Matt: I think it’s been nice! So many new people to marvel at my beauty!
Tord: Good. Better then it’s been in years.
Tom:… Interesting… if you call military R&D interesting.
Tord: You were the one who decided to do that. *dodges paper weight* HA! *gets hit in the face with second paper weight.*
(also, that’s okay! at least you asked something. -mod x)
dudawakmax asked:
I'm glad that everything it's okay! But I have a bad feeling something bad will happen.
Tord: That’s… ominous.
Matt: … I don’t like that.
Tom: Do you know something we don’t?
Anonymous asked:
A bit too desperate for asks, don’t you think?
Is that supposed to be some kind of insult? -mod x
Anonymous asked:
Just an observation...
Ah. Not really desperation more a slight lack of patience. Technically this blog has been open to asks since the beginning but no one really asked any questions. I just feel like some times a little reminder that it exist doesn’t hurt. -mod x
Anonymous asked:
Hey Tord, how are you holding up? Any phantom limb pain?
Tord: Not as much anymore actually.
Tom: You’re welcome.
Tord: Yes, thank you.
dudawakmax asked:
No, I don't know anything yet. I'm just guessing from experience. But don't worry! Its probably nothing! And don't matter what happens we will protect you.
Tom: We?
Matt: *shifts closer to Tom and Tord*
Tord: Now you’ve succeeded in making us paranoid. Thanks for that.
(Are you commenting on the common state of angst filled ask blogs or are you planning something? I’m game for either. -mod x)
Anonymous asked:
Mod x, is it just you working on this?
as in currently? yeah. the other mod, mod t, is a minor and is either prepping for school or is in school. (or their phone broke or something idk) -mod x
dudawakmax asked:
"We" because my account is shared. Also the other people who are reading this, after all, this blog is way to good to be just me (and the other person who use my account)! And I'm sure you will be okay! Don't you worry! (Idk actually, I thought you had something in mind, and normally there is some angst in ask blogs)
Tom: Oh… you or this “other person” got a name?
Matt: Other people? As in fans?!
Tord: I’d rather deal in certainties thanks.
(the asks won’t have angst unless the askers start it, the story segments on the other hand… -mod x)
Anonymous asked:
Oooh, a mysterious mod t.
Yes. Mod t. the lovely artist who agreed to occasionally draw art for this blog. the person i addressed a few times already in my rules post and the post transitioning into an active ask blog.
dudawakmax asked:
Yes! We actually do have names. I'm Duda Wakmax, its a pleasure to meet you. The other person's name is Author-chan, but she don't speak to often 'cause prefers Wattpad. We are happy to meet ya! :D
Tord: Likewise I suppose.
Matt: It’s a pleasure to meet you!
Tom: I’ll remember that.
dudawakmax asked:
Hey. Author-chan here. Don't mind Duda, she loves to scare people like that. That's how she gives me a lot of ideas for books actually. :P
Tord: You get book ideas from your friends causing other people stress and worry?
Tom: You should keep her in check not encourage her.
Matt: Hello new person!
Tom and Tord: Really Matt?
(they would have been fine with it if it had happened to any one but them.)
dudawakmax asked:
No. She have a sh!t ton of ideas for stories whit bad endings and tell me them at like 3 am. But don't worry, she can't hurt anyone, she's just really annoying. –Author-chan
Tom: … I’ll be watching you two.
Tord: We’re holding you to that.
Matt: She really shouldn’t be interrupting someone else’s beauty sleep. Rude.
dudawakmax asked:
Can't blame ya for that. Also, Matt, its kinda normal now, since we live in the same house. –Author-chan
Matt: Tim and Tord never woke me up!
Tom: It’s Tom.
Matt: Oh. *turns to face Tord* Sorry Tom.
Tord: No Matt. You were right, it’s Tord. He’s Tom. *gestures to Tom*
Matt: Oh. *turns to face Tom* Sorry Tord.
Tom and Tord: *sigh*
dudawakmax asked:
Yeah, but you guys are bff, we are sisters. Anyway, I should go. Bu bye! –Author-chan
Matt: BYE!
Tom: *cringe* ow.
Tord: Matt, buddy, volume.
Matt: OKAY! oh wait. Okay.
dudawakmax asked:
Yeah... Sorry for that, I'm really annoying sometimes. Just like momma always said, we are the devil and the angel from the house :) –Duda
Matt: Hi again.
Tom and Tord: hmm.
(you have received a raised eyebrow from two of the three occupants of this room, congratulations! seriously though you’re not all that annoying, from my perspective. -mod x)
dudawakmax asked:
Okay, so people don't seem to like me so I guess I'll just go... *slowly back away though the door*
Tom: you’re in a military base, you can’t just back out slowly.
Tord: let them go, their discomfort is amusing.
Matt: bye!
(Don’t worry too much, Tord and Matt will give you another chance once things cool down, Tom will have to suck it up. -mod x)
Anonymous asked:
What the hell is happening?
With dudawakmax or just in general?
dudawakmax asked:
I'm in a military base, but I'm also an asker, which means I can just... *disappear into glitter*
Tom: We’re fixing that before she gets back.
Tord: Oh, most definitely.
Matt: yay! Glitter!
dudawakmax asked:
Can we ask Edd? 'Cause making those dorks uncomfortable won't lead anywhere.
No.
Anonymous asked:
Both.
Duda implied to three traumatized military men that there was danger present. they have every reason to fear for their life.
Tom, Tord and Matt are currently finishing up the days paper work in Tord’s room.
dudawakmax asked:
*Set two cups of caipirinha in a near table* Idk if Matt will like it so there is only two. *Disappear again*
Tom: Matt’s the only one who would drink it he’ll drink anything. Tord only likes spice when it comes to alcohol and I’m trying to quit. You are not helping that by the way.
Tord: Since when have you been trying to quit?
Tom: That’s not important.
Matt: These aren’t my favorite but they’re not bad.
Anonymous asked:
Will there only be text based responses or will there be illustrations too?
There should be some illustrations eventually but the artist for this blog is a minor and will be in school so i’m not gonna push for too much.
Anonymous asked:
Halló
is this in another language or is it just a funny way to say hello? i only really know English and high school German. if it’s just hello: hi.
Anonymous asked:
Dose it really matter that they are a minor?
it affects their schedule yeah. they’ve been available all summer but school starts up soon, they won’t have access to the internet during school hours and they will have homework and family obligations.
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Well, considering you think Poe and Ben are interchangeable aside from skin color, I think it’s safe to say who doesn’t actually care about Poe here. You only care about Poe and his ‘heritage’ when it suits your agenda of fandom policing and harassment.
The idea that I am only writing about Poe as a substitute for Ben is so laughable I can’t even. If I wanted to write about Ben, I would just write about Ben – and I do! My works list is filled with Ben and Kylo fics! I have at least half a dozen WIPs in my file featuring him! I literally do not give a FUCK what fandom thinks I should care about or thinks I should write; I have always and will continue to write what interests me, regardless of what anyone says. Writing is a hobby and as such I put my effort into characters and ships I love, and I try to treat them all with care and respect. I’m not sure what “consequences” you think I am afraid of; I’ve had negative comments, I’ve had trolls like you harassing me and making ludicrous accusations, and I’m still gonna continue to write what I want. Considering how many months you’ve spent trolling me without getting me to stop should probably have clued you in on that. I will ship things harder out of spite, and thus produce more content. So… congrats? I’m working on something right now, I hope you fucking hate it.
Poe’s heritage is that he was raised on a colonized moon by a pilot and a soldier. He lived on a ranch with a Force tree in the yard and his mother taught him to fly in her A-wing. That is all the canon info we have. Believe me, I have read every bit of tie-in material that exists about Poe, because I love him as a character. He is played by an actor of Latino heritage, that much is true, and his parents, as drawn in comics canon, are correspondingly darker-skinned, but culture as we understand it does not exist in Star Wars. Star Wars is not Earth. Our countries do not exist there. Our cultures do not exist there. The Star Wars universe has had intergalactic space travel for tens of thousands of years, with all the intermarriage and mingling of races that that would create. Attempting to equate that with Earth is frankly ludicrous. Star Wars is not even Star Trek, where there was a more clear-cut difference between planets and races and cultures.
Can a writer draw from Oscar Isaac’s immigrant background and use that to tell a meaningful and enriching story about Poe? Absolutely. If you can, and that interests you, go for it. But it’s not actually canon, so if a person doesn’t write Poe that way they aren’t doing anything wrong, and when done incorrectly it is only stereotypical and borderline offensive. Making Poe constantly eat tamales to make sure we all know he isn’t white isn’t actually a great story-telling technique.
Racism as we know it does not exist in Star Wars. Again, all that co-mingling and space travel. Even the Empire didn’t care what your skin color was – they only cared if you were human or alien. Representation is absolutely important and we as viewers want to see people of all kinds in Star Wars, but the actual characters do not care what you look like and making it an issue is creating a problem that does not exist in the universe as written. Skin color to them is utterly unremarkable, in a way that we as a society are still a long, long way from achieving. We should aspire to be more like the people of Star Wars, rather than try to bring them down to our level.
Fandom is meant to be fun, and if people want to draw from their own cultures in writing a character like Poe, that is absolutely fine. Please do! Latinx kids never got to see someone who looked like them in Star Wars before characters like Bail and Poe. That’s an amazing thing. I hope Poe is important to people because I think he’s a wonderful character. However, drawing attention to his race entirely for the sake of drawing attention to his race isn’t actually progress; it’s a step back. Oscar Isaac is Latino; Poe Dameron is not. ‘Latin America’ does not exist in the Star Wars universe. In Star Wars it matters only that he is human. We don’t even know what planet he is from, or what planet(s) his parents were from. (The only thing we do know, really, is that Shara Bey is not from Alderaan – her canonical first meeting with Leia in Shattered Empire would have gone differently if she were.) He grew up on Yavin 4 – which, yes, was filmed in Guatemala, and because of that Oscar Isaac thought it would be cool if that’s where Poe was from, and it is a cool character detail that I 100% enjoy – but he wasn’t born there, and Yavin 4 has no definitive culture because it was colonized after the fall of the Empire. Families from all over the galaxy came to settle there and begin new lives, bringing with them their own cultures, making it a mish-mash of everything, which is a lovely thought. Poe would have grown up surrounded by all sorts of lifeforms, which doubtless helped shape the compassionate, accepting person he is.
I am also sort of amused that somehow this became an accusation of white-washing Poe when the only thing I disputed was the canonicity of Alderaan as ‘Latinx-coded’. Which continues to be FANON, NOT CANON. Many houses of Alderaan besides House Organa were composed of other races, white and black. But, you know, if you want to ignore that, the current canon is far from giving you the answer you want. Queen Breha – the actual queen, btw, Bail is her consort by marriage, but fandom largely ignores her utterly in favor of Bail – was played by an actress who is not, in fact, Latina; she is of Spanish, Filipino, German, and Australian descent, but that is never mentioned. Captain Antilles of Alderaan was played by multiple white actors. EU character Evaan Verlaine as drawn is particularly blonde and white-appearing. Claudia Gray, who has written three official tie-in novels, uses Tom Mison (white) as her face-claim for the Alderaanian character she created, Nash Windrider. As mentioned before, the amount of intergalactic travel for such an immense length of time, in addition to the fact that Alderaan was often a haven for refugees, makes the idea of a mono-racial planet ludicrous, which current canon agrees with. I am frankly uncomfortable with the way fandom seems to want to segregate all characters played by Latinx actors to one planet, as well as the incredibly generic ‘Latin America’ way it’s often done, as though those countries don’t all have distinct cultures of their own.
I am never going to tell anyone they can’t use their own cultures in their fannish creation. If Latinx fans want to play with the idea of Alderaan as a Latinx planet, please go for it. Fandom should make you happy. As much as I love seeing non-white faces in Star Wars, it will mean an immeasurable degree more to them. When I first saw the ‘space Latinx’ trope, I thought it was kind of awesome, honestly. I have only become disillusioned with the way I have personally witnessed it portrayed, and the corresponding drama attached to it. But no one is obligated to please other people with their creations, and everyone has the ability to scroll past what doesn’t interest them. I am only objecting to the conflation of fanon to canon, and the original suggestion I disagreed with, which was that Alderaan was destroyed because it was Latinx-coded, which is just blatantly false. (As is the accusation that Cassian was killed off because his actor is Latino, in a movie where the entire point was that everyone died. EVERYONE. And Shara Bey? I love her, but ‘dead parents’ is a hugely trope-y and common convention for hero characters. Honestly Poe is a rare commodity in that he had a loving, normal, happy childhood, with one parent still living.)
Anon troll, I know you don’t actually care about anything I have to say and I know you can’t be reasoned with or listen to logic. I know that you are simply latching onto the newest thing you can think of to attempt to scare me off, and that you have never actually read a word of what I’ve written, which is obvious from all of your attacks. I just don’t like stupidity or meanness, hence this post. I hate drama! I really do! I’m in fandom to have fun. I’m not aiming to offend anyone and I fully believe in a ‘don’t like don’t read’ policy, in all its applicable uses – no one has the right in fandom to tell someone they can’t write what they want or ship what they want, despite what you seem to think. But I’m not going to be intimidated by a random anonymous online troll.
And above all, as my friend put it, IT’S SPACE AND IT’S FAKE. If you put a portion of the effort you put into harassing strangers on the internet about fictional characters into crusading for actual real world problems, something might change. Lord knows there are enough terrible things going on to choose from.
Now, kindly fuck off. Did you know that Tumblr lets you block anons? Because I do. And you’re blocked.
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compliments part 2 - zach dempsey
requested: yes
word count: 2.216
warnings: none besides fluff i think
plot: zach decides to (nervously) confront you after finding out you’re the one slipping compliments in his bag
a/n: i Cannot believe a 2nd part was requested i cant believe you guys enjoyed the first part and sent me messages!! i wasn’t planning on writing this but here she is since y’all are cute as heck
Thursday night found Zach Dempsey sprawled on his bed.
A week worth of complimentary notes was at the foot of the bed. Some were folded, some all the way open but none of them were in their original, pristine state. They were crumpled, thing that probably happened whenever the boy stuffed them in his pockets.
His right leg was loosely hanging off the edge of the bed. Both of his hands were holding up an IPhone and the sound of texts popping up constantly rung throughout the room, over the low volume of a The Weeknd song.
There were only two sources of light in the entire room: his bright phone screen and the desk lamp that shone over unopened text books.
Zach was ignoring all the groupchat texts, being too engrossed in scrolling through your Instagram feed. He liked your most recent selfie, then a picture you took of roses, and a shot of your friends sitting in a booth at Rosie’s. After those three likes he silently scrolled through the rest, thinking liking any more would make him seem desperate.
He opened snapchat after reaching the end of your Instagram feed. Remembering he had you in his friends list since freshman year, he looked to see if you had posted any stories.
The first one was a video taken in gym class earlier that day. It showed a couple of guys Zach knew from the football team giving their best at a volleyball game no one else seemed interested in playing. Your voice could be heard from behind the camera narrating one of those student athlete memes that had been going around the internet.
Zach snickered, a wide smile spreading on his face.
He debated on whether he should message you, start a conversation based on that one snapchat video, but decided against it and closed the app.
Ever since he spotted you dropping a compliment in his paper bag before Communications class that morning, he couldn’t stop thinking about you. Sure, it wasn’t the first time he noticed you, but it was the first time you showed interest in his mere existence. You were extremely pretty and smart, funny and kind and he never thought you’d look his way; ever.
And yet, there you were, slipping him anonymous messages that brightened up his days, making him smile just a little bit bigger and the feeling of great loneliness to slightly fade.
He didn’t know how to start up a conversation with you. All he knew was that he wanted to get to know you. He didn’t want you to remain the stranger that gives him compliments.
It took him an hour to think of a way to get your attention, and another hour to come up with the message he would later slip in your untouched compliments bag. He wanted his compliment to be something fit for you, something that wouldn’t push you away. Because each time he likes a girl he seems to fuck everything up with stupid remarks –like it happened with Hannah.
The next morning he went to school earlier, about half an hour before classes started. He made sure there was no one in Communications then he quickly slipped his compliment note in your bag after signing his name on its back. Zach then sat in his spot.
You walked in about five minutes later.
The look on your face upon seeing him already in class just confirmed to Zach that you truly were the one writing him compliments. That gave him a shot of confidence which pushed him to talk to you.
“Hey.” Zach’s voice rang throughout the empty, vast classroom. You approached your seat with caution, as if you were expecting something to blow up somewhere.
“Hi.” Your lips curled up in a smile, your eyes met his. Zach’s heart began beating a bit faster, his palms started sweating. “Seems like we’re the only ones eager for this class.” You nervously snickered.
Zach wanted to seem confident. He didn’t want you to think he was some awkward guy who didn’t know how to talk to girls.
So he responded with “Yeah, it’s been pretty interesting lately, right?” and grinned, leaning back in his seat.
Your eyes quickly shifted away from him, avoiding eye contact. “Quite.” You replied and Zach’s face dropped. Has he said something dumb again? Did he come off as an over-confident, annoying jock? Were you suddenly regretting ever giving him the time of the day?
People flooded the class right after that, the bell rang and the teacher came in. For that entire hour he kept glancing your way thinking of what to do. He wished Justin could have been there to give him advice, he wished he didn’t throw you off.
Eventually, Zach decided to wait for things to unfold, to see what happens after you read his compliment.
However, you didn’t even glance towards your bag after the class had ended. You just headed towards the door instead and Zach made the abrupt decision to be blunt, to ignore his racing heart and his nerves.
He quickly ran up to you before you could leave the classroom and placed a hand on your shoulder to stop you. He leaned down and whispered in your ear that you should check out your own bag, and then headed out.
The boy leaned against the classroom’s doorframe, looking at you as you got up on your tippy toes to reach inside your compliments bag. He watched as you read his message and he smiled when your eyes met.
You looked so pretty right there.
The light was behind you, making it seem like there was some sort of angelic aura all around your frame. Your hair was in a loose ponytail and strands of it fell messily, framing your face. Your rose lips were slightly parted in shock, your eyes were a bit wider.
Zach could stay there, watching you all day long. But his friends called out for him and he just mouthed “call me” before disappearing.
That day he constantly waited for your call. He checked his phone every hour and held it close during lunch in case it started vibrating.
He felt pathetic when he saw you walk in the cafeteria and sit down at the table right next to his without even looking his way. He angrily placed his phone in a pocket of his jacket and tried to ignore you.
The only problem was that he just couldn’t.
And even through you tried not to look at him out of nothing but embarrassment of being discovered, you couldn’t focus on your friends’ conversation for more than 5 minutes at a time.
There were quick moments when you looked at the cute jock to see him engaged in a conversation with other guys, or deep in thought staring at his food. And there were moments when Zach would glance your way and see you laughing or making hand gestures while speaking.
There was, however, one moment.
One moment when both of your eyes met.
You instinctively smiled, remembering his note; the note that was secured inside your phone’s case.
Zach was taken by surprise but as soon as he saw you smile, he mirrored you. Grinning and with a sudden burst of confidence, he nodded towards the courtyard exit, not breaking eye contact.
You frowned in confusion, having no idea what he was saying. But you watched him get up, head towards the door and walk out. He met your eyes through the glass and made a swift hand motion for you to follow him.
“I’ll be right back.” You told your friends before getting up and joining the tall boy outside.
He was waiting for you a few feet from the door. His hands were holding onto the straps of his backpack. You walked up to him smiling.
“Was it me you called outside or have I just embarrassed myself and you were talking to someone behind me?” You spoke, making him chuckle.
You had to look up in order to maintain eye contact since he was way taller than you.
“I was actually talking to the other hot girl behind you who’s also been giving me compliments every day.” Zach responded, fighting a smile.
“Ah, I’ll be dammed,” you caught on “guess you’ll have to settle for me.”
The boy broke into a bright smile that you instantly mimicked. Zach then began walking away, backwards. “Walk with me.”
“The bell’s about to ring.”
“So? Come on, let’s hang out for a bit.”
“You wanna ditch?”
“Sure, why not? It’s game day, I’ll just come up with an excuse if anyone asks.” Zach kept fiddling with the straps of his red backpack while slowly walking away and he was far enough that he had to raise his voice a bit for you to hear him.
You were still by the entrance, unsure of what to do. A week ago you weren’t even planning on giving this boy a thought and now, here you were, about to ditch History to hang out with the jock.
“What are you gonna tell them, that I’m helping you practice?”
“Yeah.” Zach replied and you shook your head, laughing. He was a bit dumb but strangely, you didn’t seem to mind.
“Fine.” You let out an exaggerated sigh and ran up to him. Seeing you join him made Zach put out his palm, waiting for a high-five and you shook your head but obliged. The bell rang in that very moment and you shared a look with Zach. You didn’t want to get caught by teachers just walking around after the bell.
Unexpectedly, Zach grabbed your hand and pulled you after him as he ran towards the football field. With one hand holding onto him and the other onto the strap of the bag slipping of your shoulder, you ran after the boy, laughing and telling him to slow down.
About half an hour later, you two were under the bleachers.
You were leaning against a truss leg and Zach was leaning against the one opposite yours.
Your legs were resting on top of his and both of you were sitting in absolute comfort in each other’s presence. It was as if you had known each other for years and hanging out was a normal, usual activity.
“I just can’t believe you have Elvis Presley’s greatest hits on your phone.” Zach laughed as he went through your music. Your phone was currently in his possession, and his was in yours. You were both curious about the other’s musical taste and what better way to find out than by browsing ITunes libraries?
Zach tapped on a song and “Bossa Nova Baby” started playing through your phone’s speakers. The boy laughed as you began bopping your head to the rhythm.
“As someone who’s got G-Easy on his phone, Zach, you really shouldn’t judge.” You laughed scrolling through the boy’s music.
“He’s got good songs, why does everyone hate him?” Zach retorted.
You just laughed, making Zach smile. He glanced back at your phone and looked for your most played song, tapping on that.
For a couple of minutes, none of you spoke. You just listened to your favorite song softly playing through the speakers and took in the sight of each other.
For the first time, Zach didn’t feel like the Zach Dempsey, star basketball player, “owner” of the school. All his labels faded away as you teased his music taste. And you didn’t feel ignored, or lonely. You felt strangely…happy.
“Why’d you do it?” Zach was the first to speak up again. His voice was low, almost in a whisper.
“What?” You whispered back.
“Why’d you give me all those compliments?” He quickly grabbed his backpack that had been thrown to the side since you two claimed that certain spot a few minutes earlier. After a thorough search, Zach pulled out a handful of notes –your notes.
You leaned forward and grabbed one of them. “I just wanted to make you smile, I don’t know.” You mumbled, looking down at the small piece of paper covered in your handwriting and basketball doodles.
“You didn’t have to.”
“I wanted to.” You shrugged, then leaned forward to place the note back in the small pile. “I can’t believe you’ve kept them.” You smiled.
Zach hadn’t taken his eyes off of you since he got the notes out. His gaze kept trailing between your (e/c) colored eyes and your lips and he just wanted to pull you close and kiss you but he couldn’t. It would’ve been too sudden, too fast and he didn’t want to scare you away.
“Of course I kept them.” His hand was aching to hold yours and he was fighting so hard against doing so. “They’re unexpected and beautiful, just like you.” He smirked.
You snickered. “That’s cheesy, but I forgive you since you’re cute.”
“I know.” He responded while holding up the note in which you mentioned something about his cuteness.
At that, your cheeks went red and you covered your face, looking down smiling.
“You’re cuter, though.”
“Careful, Dempsey. Continue saying stuff like this and your jock reputation will be stained.”
Zach shrugged. “I don’t mind ruining my reputation for you, (Y/N).”
#ross butler#ross butler imagine#zach dempsey#zach dempsey imagine#reggie mantle#reggie mantle imagine#13rw imagine#riverdale#riverdale imagine#I HOPE ITS GOOD
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Belated post by a few days, and I feel like this is completely stating the obvious, but why not. It usually takes a lot for me to get off my ass and say something because -
a) mildly lazy
b) kind of a coward
c) see again point a & point b, and bold and emphasize them times infinity.
Still, I have been really frustrated and disappointed to see people trying to shut down and box in discussion within the Black Sails Tumblr community. There have been some really patronizing comments this week, which is a shame. I also hadn't realized there were considerably worse comments and actual harassment happening prior to this, over a much longer period of time. This is disgusting, and is completely unacceptable - especially over fictional characters in a fictional story. Seriously, what the hell.
To try and shut down discussion, especially from such a fantastic fandom with so many thoughtful and eloquent people with different perspectives to offer, seems like such a waste. As I've seen many people say over the last week, discussion does not inherently equal hate. Black Sails is a television series in particular where there are few easy discussions to be had in any regard. There is also so much that Black Sails intentionally leaves up to the audience to fill in the blanks. Black Sails has a lot of purposeful ambiguity, too, whether it be plot points, characters, relationships, even the ending* itself. To say that things must only be interpreted in one way goes against so much of what Black Sails itself has established.
The very first episode of Black Sails introduces us to our complicated leading men, see exhibits dashing and morally ambiguous Captain Flint and the charming rogue John Silver. By the end of the first episode they've both killed another man to save themselves. We completely understand where they're both coming from, but Black Sails neatly sets up a precedent of what to expect with the characters on the show for the rest of the series. The characters and stories of Black Sails are messy and morally gray, with so many layers and perspectives given for these complicated and beautifully written characters. Again, Black Sails is not a show where there are easy discussions to be had.
I mean, I knew my relationship with Black Sails was going to be fascinating and pretty gosh darn complicated when, as of the second episode, my new fav had sold out my other new fav which also benefited my other fav (er, Eleanor, Max, and Flint, respectively). By the end of season one my fav had broken the neck of my other fav (that one is pretty obvious, still not over it). Eleanor and Vane is another complicated mess of heartbreak and devastation. The S4 finale is just a disastrously complicated mess of favs vs. favs. Sometimes you can let the actions of some characters go, sometimes you can't. It's all good, we all bring our own experiences and perspectives to the table when we watch and discuss something. It's magnified by infinity where it comes to a show like Black Sails, where again from Ep.1 it was established that there are no easy characters, and no easy answers. Needless to say, all of this understandably doesn't always make for an equally easy discussion.
I find it a frustrating to say people can't talk about things, or should only talk about things or interpret things in one way. It denies some really interesting discussions and opportunities, especially when Black Sails' modus operandi is to wallow in complex gray characters and decisions like it is a happy little pig in morally gray mud. Kudos to the brilliant writing on Black Sails, I think there are justifiably so many ways to interpret a decision and characters, whether it be Flint, Silver, Billy, Max, Eleanor, Vane, Jack, so on and so forth.
Sometimes you're not going to agree with all of what you see and read, and that's a-okay. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, but everyone has their own interesting perspective, and I'd rather read discussions I don't agree with than not have them at all. If you don't like something, reply (hopefully politely), or sigh dramatically at the tragic injustice of the world with a mild grumpy swoon, and move on. For there to be harassment, down to people's inboxes/etc over fictional characters, is just truly baffling. I know it seemingly comes part and parcel with anonymity and any community on the internet, but I'll never not be annoyed and completely disgusted by it. Seriously, again, what the hell. How does anyone justify to themselves that this is an acceptable thing to do.
In what also seems to be an apparent revelatory concept, you can really love a character and not agree with all their decisions, or only agree with parts of them, but still understand where they are coming from. I would happily crawl over broken glass for Flint and Silver as the beautifully written characters they are - though if someone would give me some heavy-duty painkillers first, I would be much obliged - but I don't love every decision they've made along the way. I think there is so much delicious, complex, and fascinating discussion to be had on the character arcs and choices of these two men alone, let alone the rest of the cast. For any plot point, discussion, or character to only be allowed to be rigidly seen in one way, and for anything else to be dismissed as hate is really frustrating, and undermines the spirit of Black Sails itself in all its complex tragedy. Again, ambiguity and complex is kinda Black Sails' very long middle name.
And a loud and frustrated drawn out urrggh at discussing characters and plot points and dismissing it as ship wars.** What if - and bear with me - you can discuss characters and plot points and yet still enjoy multiple relationships and dynamics at once! !!!!
Nothing above isn't anything that hasn't been said before in the Black Sails community, let alone any other community/fandom from the beginning until the end of time. That being said, I didn't want anyone to think that by not saying anything, I supported that kind of behavior. I'm still frustrated at the possible loss of interesting discussion about these fascinating characters because people understandably want nothing to do with being harassed. I've already seen it happen at least three times in the last few days, with these users concerned that they're going to be harassed. Again, harassment is unacceptable. Also, the joys of fandom on Tumblr are the a) interesting meta, b) devastating head-canons, c) soul-destroying gifs. I also understand that people are here to relax and not have discussions, and that's fine, too. Positively, thank you to all the cool people on all sides of any discussion for being polite re: the back and forth on any character or plot points. I've seriously seen so many facets to so many characters I'd missed previously thanks to discussions around here, and also had a lot of additional heartbreak over moments or aspects I wouldn't have picked up on.
(...less thanks for that, by the way. Ow.)
*Silver not killing Flint is probably the only plot point in Black Sails that everyone on Tumblr can unanimously agree on, myself included. Ha.
**The fact I just had to type the actual words 'ship wars' makes my fingers want to detach from my hand and run away in horror. What's worse, I had to type it twice. Ew.
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Brexit means clear your cookies for democracy
Brexit looks set to further sink the already battered reputation of tracking cookies after a Buzzfeed report yesterday revealed what appears to be a plan by the UK’s minority government to use official government websites to harvest personal data on UK citizens for targeting purposes.
According to leaked government documents obtained by the news site, the prime minister has instructed government departments to share website usage data that’s collected via gov.uk websites with ministers on a cabinet committee tasked with preparing for a ‘no deal’ Brexit.
It’s not clear how linking up citizens use of essential government portals could further ‘no deal’ prep.
Rather the suspicion is it’s a massive, consent-less voter data grab by party political forces preparing for an inevitable general election in which the current Tory PM plans to campaign on a pro-Brexit message.
The instruction to pool gov.uk usage data as a “top priority” is also being justified internally in instructions to civil servants as necessary to accelerate plans for a digital revolution in public services — an odd ASAP to be claiming at a time of national, Brexit-induced crisis when there are plenty more pressing priorities (given the October 31 EU exit date looming).
A government spokesperson nonetheless told Buzzfeed the data is being collected to improve service delivery. They also claimed it’s “anonymized” data.
“Individual government departments currently collect anonymised user data when people use gov.uk. The Government Digital Service is working on a project to bring this anonymous data together to make sure people can access all the services they need as easily as possible,” the spokesperson said, further claiming: “No personal data is collected at any point during the process, and all activity is fully compliant with our legal and ethical obligations.”
However privacy experts quickly pointed out the nonsense of trying to pretend that joined up user data given a shared identifier is in any way anonymous.
So the "it's anonymised" is a lie. You cannot combine individual visits into a single journey without having a shared user identifier. Even a shared pseudonymisation method is a million miles away from "anonymised". https://t.co/TSv7TGLrK6
— Eerke Boiten (@EerkeBoiten) September 10, 2019
For those struggling to keep up with the blistering pace of UK political developments engendered by Brexit, this is a government led by a new (and unelected) prime minister, Boris ‘Brexit: Do or Die’ Johnson, and his special advisor, digital guru Dominic Cummings, of election law-breaking Vote Leave campaign fame.
Back in 2015 and 2016, Cummings, then the director of the official Vote Leave campaign, masterminded a plan to win the EU referendum by using social media data to profile voters — blitzing them with millions of targeted ads in final days of the Brexit campaign.
Vote Leave was later found to have channelled money to Cambridge Analytica-linked Canadian data firm Aggregate IQ to target pro-Brexit ads via Facebook’s platform. Many of which were subsequently revealed to have used blatantly xenophobic messaging to push racist anti-EU messaging when Facebook finally handed over the ad data.
Setting aside the use of xenophobic dark ads to whip up racist sentiment to sell Brexit to voters, and ongoing questions about exactly how Vote Leave acquired data on UK voters for targeting them with political ads (including ethical questions about the use of a football quiz touting a £50M prize run on social media as a mass voter data-harvesting exercise), last year the UK’s Electoral Commission found Vote Leave had breached campaign spending limits through undeclared joint working with another pro-Brexit campaign — via which almost half a million pounds was illegally channeled into Facebook ads.
The Vote Leave campaign was fined £61k by the Electoral Commission, and referred to the police. (An investigation is possibly ongoing.)
Cummings, the ‘huge brain’ behind Vote Leave’s digital strategy, did not suffer a dent in his career as a consequence of all this — on the contrary, he was appointed by Johnson as senior advisor this summer, after Johnson won the Conservative leader contest and so became the third UK PM since the 2016 vote for Brexit.
With Cummings at his side, it’s been full steam ahead for Johnson on social media ads and data grabs, as we reported last month — paving the way for a hoped for general election campaign, fuelled by ‘no holds barred’ data science. Democratic ethics? Not in this digitally disruptive administration!
UK watchdog eyeing PM Boris Johnson’s Facebook ads data grab
The Johnson-Cummings pact ignores entirely the loud misgivings sounded by the UK’s information commissioner — which a year ago warned that political microtargeting risks undermining trust in democracy. The ICO called then for an ethical pause. Instead Johnson stuck up a proverbial finger by installing Cummings in No.10.
The UK’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport parliamentary committee, which tried and failed to get Cummings to testify before it last year as part of a wide-ranging enquiry into online disinformation (a snub for which Cummings was later found in contempt of parliament), also urged the government to update election law as a priority last summer — saying it was essential to act to defend democracy against data-fuelled misinformation and disinformation. A call that was met with cold water.
This means the same old laws that failed to prevent ethically dubious voter data-harvesting during the EU referendum campaign, and failed to prevent social media ad platforms and online payment platforms (hi, Paypal!) from being the conduit for illegal foreign donations into UK campaigns, are now apparently incapable of responding to another voter data heist trick, this time cooked up at the heart of government on the umbrella pretext of ‘preparing for Brexit’.
The repurposing of government departments under Johnson-Cummings for pro-Brexit propaganda messaging also looks decidedly whiffy…
Duty-free shopping with the EU is coming back, if we leave without a deal.
People travelling to EU countries will be able to buy beer, spirits, wine and tobacco without duty being applied in the UK.
Read more
https://t.co/a46CvaE8lJ pic.twitter.com/uqvzPtoFbO
— HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) September 10, 2019
Given Cummings' focus on data science in the Vote Leave campaign the sudden urgent need for big data collection is extremely concerning. We need immediate clarity about how citizens' data will be protected and won’t be misused for party political purposes.https://t.co/1qtyI6fUJ4
— Tom Watson (@tom_watson) September 10, 2019
Asked about the legality of the data pooling gov.uk plan as reported by Buzzfeed, an ICO spokesperson told us: “People should be able to make informed choices about the way their data is used. That’s why organisations have to ensure that they process personal information fairly, legally and transparently. When that doesn’t happen, the ICO can take action.”
Can — but hasn’t yet.
It’s also not clear what action the ICO could end up taking to purge UK voter data that’s already been (or is in the process of being) sucked out of the Internet to be repurposed for party political purposes — including, judging by the Vote Leave playbook, for microtargeted ads that promote a no holds barred ‘no deal’ Brexit agenda.
One thing is clear: Any action would need to be swiftly enacted and robustly enforced if it were to have a meaningful chance of defending democracy from ethics-free data-targeting.
Sadly, the ICO has yet to show an appetite for swift and robust action where political parties are concerned.
Likely because a report it put out last fall essentially called out all UK political parties for misusing people’s data. It followed up saying it would audit the political parties starting early this year — but has yet to publish its findings.
Concerned opposition MPs are left tweeting into the regulatory abyss — decrying the ‘coup’ and forlornly pressing for action… Though if the political boot were on the other foot it might well be a different story.
Among the cookies used on gov.uk sites are Google Analytics cookies which store information on how visitors got to the site; the pages visited and length of time spent on them; and items clicked on. Which could certainly enable rich profiles to be attached to single visitors IDs.
Visitors to gov.uk properties can switch off Google Analytics measurement cookies, as well as denying gov.uk communications and marketing cookies, and cookies that store preferences — with only “strictly necessary” cookies (which remember form progress and serve notifications) lacking a user toggle.
What should concerned UK citizens to do to defend democracy against the data science folks we’re told are being thrown at the Johnson-Cummings GSD data pooling project? Practice good privacy hygiene.
Clear your cookies. Indeed, switch off gov.uk cookies. Deny access wherever and whenever possible.
It’s probably also a good idea to use a fresh (incognito) browser session each time you need to visit a government website and close the session (with cookies set to clear) immediately you’re done. And use a good tracker blocker.
When the laws have so spectacularly failed to keep up with the data processors, limiting how your information is gathered online is the only way to be sure. Though as we’ve written before it’s not easy.
Privacy is personal and unfortunately, with the laws lagging, the personal is now trivially cheap and easy to weaponize for political dark arts that treat democracy as a game of PR, debasing the entire system in the process.
If you want to make it more difficult for Dominic Cummings and The Charlatan to scrape data from Government sources to help them turn our democracy into a Turkey-on-the-Thames can I suggest you turn off cookies here? https://t.co/czXnmNtTaj
— Jo Maugham QC (@JolyonMaugham) September 11, 2019
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I'm really sad about something I don't understand and was hoping you could explain. Why do people block without giving a reason to? I don't why it first seems like it's all going so well then the next you're blocked and you don't know why or what you did or said wrong? It's happened twice now and to say it hurts is an understatement.
Oh, my precious Kabby babies. Circle up, it’s time for some firm butgentle life advice from Mom.
First of all, unless I personally am the person who blocked you (whichI’m obviously not since we’re having this conversation!), in a very real sensethe short answer to this question is that you know I can’t actually answer thisquestion. You’re asking me to tell youwhy a person I don’t know did a thing for which I have no context, and forwhich there could be a thousand reasons. So in a concrete, specific sense, my answer is: I do not know.
However.
(You knew there was going to be a however.)
Social media is a deeply personal avenue for self-expression and it’s also aworld where many of us spend a great deal of our time, which means that we havethe full and free right to customize it into exactly what we want it tobe. The things that you post are personal reflections of you, which is why it bums you out when someone mutes or blocks or doesn’t followback; it feels on some level like a personalrejection. But the space you curate is also a personal reflection of you. You have the rightto post anything you want and other people have the right to choose not to seeit. Both of those rights are equal, eventhough you’re only on one side so naturally the other one feels like it’s insome way “wrong.”
I’m speaking with zero context for what your preexisting relationship withthese people was beforehand (like obviously if it was a close friend and theyblocked you out of nowhere, you’re going to have to sort that out with themdirectly, I can’t advise you there), but it’s important to remember that theremay be no “right” and wrong” in this scenario. It’s fully possible forboth of these things to peacefully coexist at the same time:
1) your absolute right to feel a little bit rejected and hurt that astranger on the internet made the choice that they didn’t want your socialmedia sphere to overlap with their social media sphere,
and
2) that other person’s absolute right to say “if something or someone makesme feel even the tiniest bit ‘nope’ I am purging it out of this space so it isexactly what I want and need it to be.”
They don’t need to have a reason. That sucks, when you’re on the receiving end of it, which all of us have been - it truly and genuinely sucks - but it’s also reality. One of the hard truths that incidents like this make us sometimes have toface - and we don’t want to face these things, because they can feel reallyicky and vulnerable and ping all the little gremlins in our brain - is this:
nobody on the internet owes you their time or attention foranything you do or say.
This sounds mean and brutal, and I don’t mean it to be, because you know mom loves you, but it’s incrediblyimportant, so I’m going to say it again to make sure that if nothing else, thisgets through:
nobody on the internet owes you their time or attention foranything you do or say.
The celebs you stan don’t owe you a response to your tweet, justbecause you want one. The people you tag in meta don’t owe you rebloggingit to continue having that conversation with you forever, just because you wantto prove you’re right. The fans of the fic you write for your mostpopular ship don’t owe you crossing over to give you hits on yourrare-pair fic if they don’t feel like it. Nobody owes you a certainnumber of followers, nobody owes you a response to every anon you send them,nobody owes you finishing that fic you like in time for them to read it whenthey feel like reading it. We owe each other one thing and one thingonly: basic human decency. That’s it. Everything else is freelyoffered to the world, and freely taken by the people who want it. It’snot a transactional exchange. If you make art or write fic and you put itout there into the world, you’ve done a cool thing, and whether it gets tenhits or thousands it was still worth doing. There will be people whoaren’t interested, but if you get hung up on feeling rejected by that, it willparalyze you.
Social media is personal. That’s unavoidable. It’s an extension of ourselves. When someone is cruel to you or to one ofyour friends on the internet, even if it’s an anonymous stranger, it feelsshitty. When you express an opinionabout something and a ton of people reblog it and the tags are full of “OMG YESTHISSSSS”, it feels great. We all experiencethat in different ways. Society has always selected arbitrary measures for young girls and women tolive up to in order to feel like they’re popular or they’re approved by thecool kids, and right now it’s things like “how many followers do you have” and “didyou get an RT from a celebrity” and “how many likes on your posts”. So ona primal level, maybe having someone you thought was a friend block you on Twitter or Tumblr hits you in the same deep coreplace as having the cool kids not come to your birthday party. That feeling is super real! It brings upalllllll that deep stuff we try to hide and pretend that we’re aboveexperiencing, but we all have those squishy vulnerable inner selves that justneed the cool kids to like us and we feel bad when they don’t.
I had this exact conversation with my therapist a few weeks ago when she wasgiving me a hard time because my book has 60 reviews on Amazon, of which likethe majority are 5 stars with two negative ones, and I have both the negativeones like memorized. And she was like “CLAIRE. WHAT THE HELL. WHY DO YOU DO THIS? 58 POSITIVE AND YOU CANNOT QUOTE A SINGLEONE. TWO SHITTY ONES AND YOU KNOW THEMVERBATIM. THAT IS NOT HEALTHY BEHAVIOR.” And I was like “… . okay fine when youput it that way, yes I do sound like a crazy person.” So like my advice to you – advice which I havejust proven I am absolute garbage at taking myself, so like I may have justeroded my own credibility in my efforts to help – is to remember that you probablyhave a lot more than two followers so honestly this is probably not a badcollective ratio, and there may be lots of people who are very interested inwhat you have to say but you’ve focused a lot of your energy on these two people andit’s worth giving some thought as to why that is.
My question for you is this: what is the net negative impact of having thesetwo people block you on social media? Like in an actual, concrete way, separate from those sort of core gut “Ifeel unloved in this moment” feelings, what is the effect on your life? You might be surprised. It might be zero. In which case, let yourself feel thosefeelings, experience them as valid, and then breathe through them and move onand keep on doin’ you.
I’m pushing backon you a little bit here very gently because it feels, reading this anon, likeyou’ve made a determination of hurtful intent on the part of the person whoblocked you, or at the very least a certainty that this choice that made wasabout you and not about them. That the fact that things seemed to be going fine and then they blocked you means you were somehow intentionally misled or mistreated. Be really, really, really carefulabout deciding the cool girl didn’t come to your birthday party because she’s abitch who wanted to make you feel terrible and is sitting somewhere cackling atthe thought of your sad lil’ face waiting by the front door; maybe she didn’tcome to your birthday party because she has depression and it’s hard for her toleave the house sometimes and she knew your party would be loud and wild and crazyand too much for her brain to handle right now. Be careful about presuming negative intent with no proof it exists. The internet makes this so easy, the internetconditions us for this, and itconditions us to respond in kind. The worst thing you could do here is to, like,make a callout post or subtweet in the hopes that it will get back to them andthey’ll feel bad, or to sic your other followers onto them, because that turnsthis into a situation that really doeshave a right and wrong; and since you don’t know if they were trying to makeyou feel shitty, or just went on a big block/mute purge to whittle their listdown for mental health reasons that are totally their own, once things escalateyou can’t put the horse back in the barn. It’s too late. Now it’s A Thing,when maybe it never really needed to be A Thing. And in almost all situations for almost allpeople in almost all ways, Kabby Mom’s advice is going to be, “please thinkcarefully before you make this A Thing.”
This got long, I’ve been having a lot of thoughts lately about theconversations I’m always having with fandom folks the way we let social mediapermeate and shape our sense of self, in good ways and bad, so I apologize formy verbosity but also not really because that’s how things roll over in KabbyMom’s Advice Corner. But I will sum upin bullet points for those of you who have been skimming, to bring you up tospeed:
Everyone has the right to curate their own social media spacehowever they see fit, and they don’t have to explain their reasons.
They aren’t obligated to include you in that space even if you want themto.
None of that is an objective measure of your worth as a person or a signthat you should stop being you on the internet.
Your feelings of rejection come from a real place and you get to feelthem, as long as
You are striving to move through them without permitting them to paralyzeyou, and finally
You never use someone else’s choice to curate their social media sphere as ajustification for treating them like crap.
Focus on your positive interactions instead of negative ones – your friends,creating stuff and putting it out into the universe – whether it be art, fic,opinions, a podcast, gifsets, crackposts, whatever – and your social mediaworld will be a better place.
In the immortal words of the great Michael J. Fox, “What other people thinkof me is none of my business.”
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Pouring Cyanide on an Open Wound
I’ve been feeling very lonely these days. I have lost contact with any of the friends whom I used to talk to here in Indonesia. And the problem is that, as I have bitched so many times in so many of my posts before, it’s so hard to find a friend here. I need to find someone who at least has some form of critical thinking ability, someone who doesn’t think that being gay is a disease or a sin, someone who won’t mind if I talk about sexual stuff. On top of such rare quality to be had by individuals here, I also need to find someone who is not an asshole, who is not a social-climber, who is not egoistic, who actually cares. After my writing rigorous Mortis in February, those lonely, unworthy feelings were and, to a certain extent, are worsening the already mountainous screwed-up feelings which I had and, partially, have, be it the pandemic, be it, the fear of the future, or the unresolved, life-threatening conflicts I have been having with my parents. So, after a couple of weeks, I’ve decided to do something about it. I decided to download anonymous chat apps so that I can talk to strangers, or maybe to develop friendship between us, heck I don’t mind another virtual friend. After a couple of apps, I landed on this app called “Antiland”. I think the chat feature is great, it did not lag at all when I sent a text, it was fast in finding new persons whom I can chat with, I swear I’m not trying to do a native advert rn. And Antilland is where I chatted with him.
His profile only said that he’s 21. And by the stars of the profile, I thought that he might be a great person to chat with. His username was “beleaguered castle”. So, I asked him about the username to open up the conversation. He didn’t seem to want to answer my question, so we moved to another topic, we talked about our uni experiences and our respective job aspirations. We talked about being gay in each other’s environments. and we talked about great landmarks to see in where we live, he talked about Manila, and I reluctantly said anything about Jakarta since there’s no safe open gay bars/clubs here. then he said that he’s not much of a night person and okay with daylight destinations. We never realised that 3 hours have passed by since we first talked. and that shitty app, crashed after I used it for 3 hrs non-stop. So, I suggested to him to move to an internet-based chat app called “WhatsApp”. Since Antiland doesn’t allow you to share personal info, I struggled a bit to tell him of my suggestion and after so many censored texts, I just sent him a screenshot of my number on WhatsApp, and we moved there. After we moved, we have been constantly talking, with less than 3 hrs of a lull between each text. And on the second day, we moved to the sexting arena. We role-played for almost 4 hours. And after it was done, he asked me whether he can return the favour, I told him I didn’t want to and told him that I was going to bed. I felt very guilty all of a sudden. He told me that he had never done what we did before. I was very afraid if there was anything that I said throughout the day which might make him think that he needed to that with me. I stayed up until 3 AM, bcs of it. and in the morning when we chatted again, I made it very clear to him again that he never needs to do anything with me. that if he ever feels uncomfortable to do something new with me, I’d be okay with not doing it. and that I want him to be open and clear whenever he has these doubts. he said that he didn’t feel forced for doing what we did last night and he said that he’d tell me if he ever feels uncomfortable doing so. he asked me whether I felt forced doing what we did, and I replied no, and I made clear that I just don’t want him to think that he needed to do things with me just because he’s afraid of being boring, not to make a rushed decision. After we cleared things out, we chatted again. until the topic of sexting came up again. and I just told him that it’s hard for me to type and at the same time dong pleasuring myself, so I told him that it’s okay for me if I don’t cum if we ever sext again. I told him that when the time comes, I think we can explore sex calls, but in the meantime, what we had was fine. then he told me that he couldn’t do it for now since he’s living with his relatives and the walls are thin, and, uh, he’s afraid of moaning my name. So I said, yes, it’s okay, I’m just saying we can explore that at a later time of our relationship. we moved to other topics. then in the afternoon, the topic of wanting to hear each other’s voices came up. And I suggested to him that I can leave a voice note for him. he didn’t want voice notes. so I said, we can call each other when we’re free. he said that he’s free, and I said that I was also free. but he was afraid that I made a rushed decision to make this phone call. so I assured him, that this is not something that I’ve just thought to do. and that I’ve imagined the scenarios of us talking through the phone several times. I also promised to him that I won’t make it and will try my best effort not to make it a sex phone call. So, he called me. and I picked it up immediately. we did a soundcheck to see whether the connection was good. his voice sounded so good, I guess I should have told him that. he told me that my voice sounded good. I laughed. and we talked about a lot of stuff, my thesis supervisor, the working condition in the Philippines, cultures in Java and in the Philippines. And after more than two hours talking I needed to break the call since I needed to pee so badly. I steered out from using any insinuating words, from making any suggestive statements, I tried my best to make him comfortable. after dinner, we got on the phones again, and after more than an hour of talking about our past problems, we ended the call, since it was nearing his bedtime. he sent me a voice note saying good night, and I sent him one. While I was dozing off, I looked up how much the flight will be for a trip to Jakarta to Manila around the day of his birth. Seeing that the price is still in the range of which I can afford, I was very optimistic. He really made me want to finish any problems that I’m having with my uni, graduate, get a job, and surprise him on his birthday.
On the next day, around noon, he talked to me about how I made him felt kilig. and that he had been looking up how much it’d cost him to fly here, Jakarta. I said what a coincidence, I was also looking up for a flight to Manila for his birthday. and he told me that he couldn’t believe what he wrote. he said that no one had ever done this to him before and that he was just speechless. I just told him, don’t meet here. I hate this place, it’s a monument of how I have been oppressed. He said okay, but he said, that it’d be much better if we meet halfway and that we take things slow. I said yes. I have prepared planning to meet with him in Singapore if this topic ever came up again. After that, he told me how he wanted to cuddle with me. and how he could caress my body and feel my jawline and just be next to me. That statement triggered me. we have not shared our photos before. and so we didn’t know how each of us looks. and when he said that, I just wanted to make it clear that I’m not that. I replied to that statement by saying that I’m fat. I’m not some chiselled up body-builder, I’m fat. my jawline is not that well defined. I know and I understand that this is my body issue problem, but I just want him to know that I’m not what he’s imagining off, and if he doesn’t like that, he can end the chat and leave me. he replied by saying that it’s okay. and that was very triggering to me as well since when I had Grindr or Tinder, these matches I had who would even talk to me always said on how it’s okay, that they don’t mind, but when we met, they immediately ghosted me after that, heck they even showed their disinterest during the meet-up. and so, he and I had a fight. it culminated in me sending him my pictures and said, this is me, this is how fat I am. and he just replied that I’m not fat, I’m chubby, and he’s fine with however I look. and he sent his pictures, he just has these very captivating eyes. and I told him that he looks beautiful. he said thanks, and he wanted me not to doubt his words again. I said okay. but while all of these are happening, I was also doing some games with my little sister since we both feel very cooped up because of the quarantine, and I told him that. but, after I was fully back on my phone, he became not present. He was in this on-and-off mode, I figured, maybe he was just preparing for a deadline the day after, but when I asked him that, he said no. So, I pushed that to the back of my head. The next day came, we chatted in the morning, I wished him good luck on his report, and I said to him that he could just chat me when he’s available after finishing up his report. I knew that he’d not be available to chat as frequent as the days before. so, I let him be. During the afternoon, he seemed to be available, so I chatted with him. However, he seemed unavailable, he didn’t answer my question correctly, which I perceived as him not focused on the chat. So, I let him be. I didn’t initiate any chats. I let him chat me when he can eventually have some time for himself. Before nighttime, I became irritated on how he was just unavailable, while I was making an effort to be present even though I really wanted to sleep. then he asked, why is it that I seemed not to want to chat, despite my better judgement, I let all the things that I have bottled up out. I talked about his inability to just say that he didn’t have the time to chat with me, prefer to chat at another time and just let me not have the feel of obligation to chat with him thinking that he’s waiting for my chat. he didn’t reply much. he said that he wanted to talk things over and he wanted me not to go apart from this. I said, it’s late, and I don’t want to catch a cold, especially during this pandemic. and he agreed to talk about it the next day. the next day came, and he didn’t reply to any of my texts. I waited for 12 hrs for a response, but he still didn’t even open his WhatsApp, there’s a feature to know your partner’s “last seen on the app“. On the next day after that, I still saw that he hasn’t opened the app and I became very worried. I was worried if I had done something irreversible to him. I called him, twice, no answer. So, I contacted my psychologist and I told her that I wanted to continue our session again. During the session, she told me that I might have put too much stress on whatever it is that we had. that I was putting unreasonable standards for him.
so, I just want you to know. If by bizarre chance, you read this, I just want to tell you that I’m sorry. I was a coward for not telling you how I was just feeling annoyed and instead chose to just bottle it up and explode. I was a coward for not choosing the right time to air all of these. I was stupid to move too fast. I saw that you have opened your WhatsApp several days ago, I hope that you’re doing fine. I know that we’re just some 5-day chat relationship, but it really meant a lot to me when you told me your deep dark problems, and it meant a lot for me when I told you my frustrations. tomorrow will be three weeks since we last talked, if we ever have the chance to talk again, I just want us to air how we’re feeling. if you don’t want to talk to me after that, it’s okay with me. all I need right now is to know that you’re fine.
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At the Times, a Hesitance to Hyperlink
There's a joke in the journalism industry: It's not news until the New York Times says it is. This is because the Times often reports stories that other outlets already have without any acknowledgment that they’re doing so.
Angry journalists regularly tweet (and sometimes write) about the bizarre practice, which comes up all the time. For instance, the Times recently wrote about how Kickstarter is unionizing. This was an important piece about an important topic; the main problem with it was that Slate’s April Glaser wrote an in-depth investigation breaking news about the exact same topic a month earlier, to which the Times didn't bother linking until after Glaser publicly criticized them for not doing so.
This week it was Slate (and BuzzFeed); at other times it's been the Guardian and Gawker; several times, it's been VICE. It goes on and on, with the Times running stories that other people already have and not acknowledging them for seemingly no better reason than the paper’s institutional belief that a thing does not exist until the paper has deemed it noteworthy.
Probably not that many people in the real world care about how the Times’s linking and crediting practices affect the reputations and careers of journalists whose work is scooped up, without credit, by America’s most prestigious news operation. Those practices affect readers of the most important journalistic outlet in the U.S., though, for reasons perhaps best explained in a memo written by the paper’s standards editor, Phil Corbett, and shared with the newsroom in January. The memo, which was obtained by Motherboard from three Times employees and has seemingly been ignored all year, explains why the company's journalists should always link and credit.
“Linking is the ultimate win-win-win situation. If a reader is interested in the topic of your story, it’s just common sense that she would value a signpost to others’ reporting on the same subject. (Don’t worry about sending readers elsewhere; if we’re consistently providing value, they’ll come back.),” Corbett wrote in the memo, which is still live on one of the company's internal websites, according to sources at the Times.
“In most cases, though, it’s not a question of ethics or obligation—it’s just good journalism to link. If you’re asking whether we’re obligated to provide a link or other reference in a given story, you’re probably asking the wrong question. Linking should be the default,” he added. “It’s free and easy. Readers like it. It deepens our journalism and may increase our audience. Our journalistic colleagues appreciate it. Why wouldn’t we do it?”
(“I think that memo you mentioned pretty much covers my thoughts on this,” Corbett told Motherboard when asked for comment on this topic.)
"I wish you great luck,” a current Times employee said, “in shaming people out of this policy."
As early as 2014, linking was considered a "work in progress" at the Times by then-public editor Margaret Sullivan, who noted several high-profile instances in which the publication didn't link. For that article, Corbett told Sullivan that "a broader point that we’ve been emphasizing more and more with reporters is the importance and value of linking." The Times has since eliminated the public editor position.
To be clear, the problem isn’t that the New York Times literally never links; it's that it somehow manages to continually mess this up. This frustrates a lot of people who work for the paper, according to several current reporters and editors at the Times who spoke to Motherboard. (These people were granted anonymity to discuss newsroom practices.)
"I think that a big problem is that there are still editors who like…do not get the online etiquette of linking," one employee said. "They didn't come up in a world where it's both incredibly easy and just considered the right and normal thing to do to credit early and often. But in my opinion the more insidious thing is the idea that it's not a story until the Times does it. Not everyone thinks this but from my vantage that still emanates from higher-ups at this place."
“It’s a disservice to readers to not credit work that other outlets have done,” said another Times employee.
Do you know anything we should know about the Times, or anything else? You can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or email [email protected] or contact Anna Merlan at [email protected]
Corbett's memo apparently didn't make too much of a splash—some employees had a vague memory of it, and one said that it was in their email inbox as "read," but that they didn't remember it. Nonetheless, getting constantly dragged on Twitter by competitors for not linking is a common source of stress for many reporters, especially those who came from other publications—and so is taking heat for decisions you had nothing to do with.
“There’s no such thing as the New York Times” is a pretty common response to criticism from inside the newsroom, and if that’s a bit defensive, it’s also true; the paper is not a monolith. Just as the paper runs Astead Herndon’s incredibly astute reports from the trail alongside the very Cletus safaris to which they’re a necessary corrective, some Times journalists and desks are fastidious about linking and crediting, and some aren’t. Some reporters and editors at the paper say that individual instances of not properly crediting are attributable not to a policy of not linking to rival news outlets, but just to harried journalists not getting around to doing so, green reporters not knowing to do so, and editors not being aware of previous reporting and not doing the research needed to add links. Others just throw their hands up.
"Social media is full of complaints by fellow journalists who claim we refused to acknowledge their work, or worse yet, pilfered their idea."
What everyone seems to agree on is that the wildly differing standards across what is less a single newsroom than dozens of them make it impossible for a policy of generous, reader-serving crediting to be enforced.
All of this doesn’t just disserve readers, but journalists at the company, who say that they feel like their work is devalued because competitors are so often dragging them on Twitter for not doing what most every other news outlet does: give credit when someone else has broken a story. This is a key point of Corbett's memo:
"Linking routinely to the work of others can erase the perception—often exaggerated but not altogether wrong—that The Times can be aloof, self-obsessed, and ungenerous in acknowledging the work of others. That perception feeds on itself with each oversight or missed opportunity. Social media is full of complaints by fellow journalists who claim we refused to acknowledge their work, or worse yet, pilfered their idea."
"Failing to link might suggest, to some suspicious minds, that we are concealing our reliance on others," he added.
A Times spokesperson, for their part, offered this explanation of all of this to Motherboard: “Our policy, as described in Phil’s memo, is to credit and link to other outlets on stories they break. The Times publishes around 250 stories a day, many on deadline. Sometimes we make mistakes such as not properly crediting other outlets. When that happens, our staff tries to correct the oversight as soon as they become aware of the issue.”
“Tries” is doing a lot of work here. VICE has had multiple experiences with the Times running stories that we've broken without acknowledging us, and mixed experiences with getting them to do so. For example, a Times reporter tweeted that he had published the "*definitive* account of the In-N-Out burger that appeared on a random street in Queens. You're all very welcome for this act of public service." But a day earlier, VICE's Munchies cracked the mystery in a report that went viral.
In that case, the Times added a link after we asked. In others, its staff is much more combative.
Several months after we published an investigation about Facebook's content moderation practices, the Times published its own article about the same topic, running some of the same internal Facebook documents we had already published, without acknowledging we had done so.
Digging in ground others have is fine—it's how the internet and journalism work. Glaser's Kickstarter story built on earlier articles by The Verge, Gizmodo, and others. Our Facebook story followed previous investigations by The Guardian. By not linking to Slate or the Verge or VICE or BuzzFeed or The Guardian, the Times makes it seem like its own reporting has emerged fully formed from the institution’s forehead. But of course it hasn’t done so, and the Times is essentially lying to readers by pretending it has—a terrible thing for the most important news operation in the U.S. to be doing.
One of the biggest bad-faith criticisms of the Times—and thus journalism as a whole—is that it's nothing but an ivory tower that doesn't understand how the world really works. This isn't true in practice, but at a time when the powerful people of the world have more avenues to attack journalism than ever, the Times's insistence that the world isn't real until the Times says so is a legitimately destructive force within the journalism industry—not least because no one within the Times seems to be able to do anything about it, even if they’re willing to acknowledge the problem.
Max Fisher, the reporter who wrote the Times's Facebook article, told us in a DM at the time that he "definitely saw [our] story, which was great, no reason you should care about this but we plugged it pretty prominently in our bullshit email newsletter […] I read your story very carefully and learned a ton from it and was really careful to cover different ground in it, which I think I did."
"I do know that the Times has a well-earned terrible reputation for this kind of thing," he said, while declining to link to our story. "I've only been here 2.5 years and prior to that was on the wrong side of it many, many times."
After that conversation, we asked the editor of that article for a link to our previous work, after the author of the article acknowledged that he had read our piece while researching his. We were told by the editor in an email that "it’s going to [take] a while to read 9,000 words," referring to the length of our earlier investigation.
The next day, he said, "We are looking at a way to link. Noting Motherboard explicitly—and I understand why [sic] would want this—is more complicated, however. Are we then obliged to note that The Guardian had some of the documents, too? If half a dozen other publications got a piece of the Facebook material, as well—for 'internal' documents, they do seem to get around—would we need note them, too? Where does it end?" The Times never added a link.
Seemingly everyone in journalism has stories like this; as far as anyone can tell, the only thing that does get the Times to link is a good public shaming. After Glaser's tweet about not getting credited by the Times went viral in journalism circles, it added a link to her story, and links to other journalists in several others.
"Well, the good news is that after my sincere kvetching more reporters got cited proper. Didn’t intend for anything to blow up, but sincerity all the way," Glaser tweeted. This may not be how the system should work, but it’s how it does, and it’s not just people outside the paper who have noticed.
"I wish you great luck,” a current Times employee said, “in shaming people out of this policy.”
Anna Merlan and Joseph Cox contributed reporting.
At the Times, a Hesitance to Hyperlink syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/
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Let’s Talk About How CPA Canada Totally F*cked Up Last Week’s CFE
Many years ago in another lifetime, I dated this total loser. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Adrienne, what the hell do your dubious dating choices have to do with accounting?” Bear with me, we’ll get there.
So, this loser. He was an adorable if grungy scamp with tattoos dotted across his body like scribbles on my middle school notebook covers and dirty blonde hair that managed to be both greasy and perfectly-coiffed at all times. Young me, not yet schooled in the fine art of red flags that subsequent years of dating would teach me, was weak to his charms despite the fact that he brought little to the table other than a killer smile and the occasional bottle of Remy, the latter of which impressed young me since I was too young then to buy my own and too lazy to stand outside of the liquor store waiting for some 30-year-old dorky sap to buy me one.
As I’m sure you can imagine by this point in the story, this guy came with more issues than National Geographic, not least of which being his attraction to substances — both licit and not. This generally wasn’t a problem as he was clever enough to weasel out of most predicaments his unfortunate choices got him into, and I clever enough to avoid him when he was on a bender. But every now and then, he’d find himself face-to-face with some cop who was sick of having to drag his drunk ass in every other week.
In one whiskey-and-who-knows-what-else-fueled incident I can recall, he called me from the drunk tank to inform me that A) I was a bitch for ditching him earlier in the evening, and B) he was in jail, possibly facing an actual charge for fighting or stealing or who the hell can remember, it doesn’t matter now. Given that I lacked both the bail money to get him out and the will to do a favor for someone who just called me a bitch, I let him sit there. A few short hours later, he was out. The time from arrest to his release couldn’t have been more than maybe three or four hours.
So why did I just tell this story? To put into perspective the fact that CPA Canada just treated the country’s future CPAs worse than police treated my loser ex-boyfriend who definitely deserved to be locked up for being an absolute waste of carbon.
Let’s get caught up on this, likely the worst professional examination debacle I think we’ve ever covered in our 10 years here on Going Concern. Because we’re a mostly American-based rag, I feel obligated to explain what the CFE (Common Final Examination) is and how it’s administered, if briefly. Unlike here in the good ole U. S. of A. where future CPAs can schedule exams with relative flexibility, Canadian accountants have to endure a three-day exam that is usually administered just once a year, though sometimes like next year they get lucky and have two chances. This year, the CFE started on Sept. 11 and, according to many reports, was already off to a bad start. But by Sept. 12, the shit had totally hit the fan.
9:15 in Vancouver on day 2 CFE. No one can load secure exam. from r/Accounting
On Monday, a tipster caught us up on the drama which we missed because A) we regrettably forget about our friends up north sometimes, and B) at least for me, I was too busy with Borderlands 3 to waste my time trolling r/accounting for something to write about last weekend and totally missed the complaining.
Hi there,
I am reporting on CPA Canada’s negligence in carrying out this year’s Common Final Examination (“CFE”) last week. This is a very important 3-day examination that prospective accountants must pass to obtain the professional licence to practice accounting in Canada.
There was a massive breach of integrity of the exam because of CPA Canada’s negligence to carry out their job properly. This resulted in many students (i.e. Edmonton location) where they were forced to sit inside the examination centre for 4 hours before the exam started. In other words, when the exam was supposed to start at 9AM, they started at 1PM. They were starved and asked to stay inside the examination centre.
Jesus, even my loser ex-boyfriend got a moldy bologna sandwich in the holding tank.
CPA Canada’s failure to administer the exam and treat candidates with the minimum of dignity while they waited to take what is quite possibly the most important test of their lives has been picked up by all sorts of media, including the Financial Post.
FP writes:
Another online poster, who spoke to the Financial Post on the condition that he would not be identified, described seeing people in Edmonton in emotional and physical distress on the second day of the exam, which was delayed for five hours, and which ultimately proceeded without access to a crucial digital handbook.
“Everyone was tired, exhausted and seemed in no shape to write” by the time the exam started, the poster said on Reddit, adding that a series of delays left the candidates in the examination room for about 12 hours and facing huge lineups for access to limited food and water.
“We study our butts off and stress for 8 weeks only to experience this?” the exam-writer wrote.
A statement we received from an anonymous collective consisting of Canadian Big 4 employees operating under the name Wayne Gretzky (LOL) details the CFE failures, disappointments, and plans to hold CPA Canada responsible. It also explains the situation far better than I can with far fewer tangents about greasy ex-boyfriends, so let’s check it out:
After a poorly administered examination took place last week, Chartered Professional Accountant (“CPA”) candidates across Canada are left to question the integrity and competency of their governing bodies. More than eight thousand CPA students wrote the annual Common Final Examination (“CFE”) from September 11, 2019 to September 13, 2019. The CFE is a three-day examination which requires students who have completed certain post-graduate programs to write four to five hours of simulated business cases each day, testing their competencies to be licensed as a CPA. The CFE is known to be one of the most challenging examinations to write—arguably on par with other professional examinations such as the bar exam for lawyers or qualification exam for doctors—with the majority of candidates sacrificing weeks of time off from work in order to prepare and perform at their best.
What students could not prepare for, however, was the myriad of unexpected technical and administrative issues during this year’s examination. These issues severely disrupted their ability to perform and compromised the validity of examination results. This is the first year that new examination software, called Surpass, was rolled out, and it appears that CPA Canada—the organization which governs the profession and administers the examination—had not adequately prepared themselves for the issues that would come along with this rollout.
This led a number of test centres across the country to delay the examination for up to five hours with limited access to food, drinks, and washrooms. It was likened to being held hostage, and those students ended up writing from 2PM to 7PM when they should have been writing from 9AM to 2PM. One student writes, “I came in that morning ready, […] but the fatigue from sitting and waiting for hours plus unnecessary stress resulted in what I believe to be a clear fail. I’m a good student, I studied like my life depended on it. In a normal exam condition, I’d have passed without any issue.”
In addition, some students were handicapped by being forced to write responses by hand as opposed to typing, with no access to reference material on their computers during the “open-book” examination. The examination was supposed to be written through the Surpass software, which saved typed responses and allowed students to view certain reference material, while locking down their computers from opening other applications. The software was ultimately used by only a fraction of students, and even so, these students faced slow response times and periodic glitches. There are also students falling in the last category of being told to write on Microsoft Word and access the internet for reference material, because the software did not work for the entire centre. To this point, one student wonders, “The test was going to be written at one point with three different groups having various resources […] How can you mark a test three different ways and make that fair?”
Not only are there issues in the fairness of marking, but students are convinced that examination results were also compromised due to the opportunities that opened up for cheating. A student from the West coast wrote, “Our start time was after when Eastern Canada [sic] would have finished their exam and there was no measure taken to ensure that there was no exam information leakage across the country.”
Indeed, some students from the Eastern time zones posted details about specific questions on social media despite having accepted a confidentiality agreement prior to the examination, and their posts benefitted users in the West who had unsupervised access to the internet during the delays.
The inappropriate handling of the situation by CPA Canada only made matters worse. Proctors appeared to not have been trained or communicated with properly because they made last-minute decisions and provided inconsistent instructions. One student recalls that “the staff in the room were very disorganized and clearly had no clue what to do.” To add on, another student expresses, “I’m mostly upset with the time it took to resolve the issues, and the lack of communication provided to the candidates.”
Social media sites such as Reddit were flooded with comments after each day, from students sharing their “disappointing”, “horrifying”, and “disastrous” experiences while expressing their thoughts surrounding the “lack of professionalism” by CPA Canada. The issues mentioned in this article make up only a small number of many more outlined by the accounts of hundreds of students. Even individuals who did not write the examination had something to say about the series of events: “As a mentor to a student, and a current CPA profession member, the way the CFE was handled and carried out this year was blatantly unacceptable. I’m ashamed of my profession for the way this was carried out. There is no excuse for this.”
The Surpass software mentioned in the statement was first used for last year’s exams and is supposed to offer “enhanced functionality and flexibility for examination writers and administrators.” It’s unclear at this point what part if any Surpass played in this debacle. That said, I’ve got a PDF of hundreds of candidate comments in front of me with countless complaints about the software, leading a reasonable person to assume it had a lot to do with last week’s drama. Since this is already running long and I know you guys, like me, have the attention span of a gnat, I’ll only share a choice few.
Surpass has been a nightmare. I wasn’t even able to upload my exam today. Day 1 they kept us for an extra hour after the exam due to technical difficulties with the software. We were advised not to use the cut function because it would freeze the software. The whole rollout of Surpass seems very poorly planned and basically exactly what they are teaching us not to do, as CPAs. I certainly expected better, considering the amount of money I paid to write the CFE.
And:
Surpass froze on me roughly 3 hours into the exam. A proctor took my computer and spent 30 minutes working on it without telling me what he was doing. I saw him with a back-up laptop and a USB key, so I assumed he was transferring my work, but when I asked him about it, he told me that the work I did was saved on the USB, and that I would have to finish the exam by hand.
And:
Please note that this is not the first time that there have been issues with the new software. I wrote my elective exam in December, 2018 and experienced the same issues (actually worse, because my computer crashed multiple times and I lost 20-30 minutes).
And my favorite comment of all:
As I said, the thing goes on for comment after comment. We’d be here all day and probably piss off our benevolent overlords at Accountingfly for all the server space we’d have to buy just to host every single complaint if I posted every single one. Let’s just say Surpass isn’t looking good at this point.
Like damn. As some of y’all know, I’m a day one Fallout 76 player and even Bethesda isn’t this bad when it comes to glitches, good Lord.
Oh hey, Mr Glitched Ghoul Guy
Of course CPA Canada was forced to make a statement, the entirety of which we’re including below because why not, this thing is already long as hell.
During the administration of the three-day Common Final Exam (CFE) there were technical delays resulting in a challenging exam writing experience for many students. We extend our sincere apologies to everyone who was affected as we know how much work goes into preparing and writing this important examination and how stressful it has been for our students.
In response to issues caused by technical problems with the CFE, CPA Canada is retaining a third-party expert to conduct an independent, comprehensive review. The mandate includes evaluating the integrity and reliability of the September 2019 examination process.
To inform our review, we are actively gathering information from students, proctors, and others to understand what happened and how it impacted the exam-writing experience. We are committed to maintaining the integrity of the profession and the Common Final Examination.
An independent board of examiners oversees the CFE evaluation process. Over many years, they have developed a robust system for taking into account extenuating circumstances that affect exam-writers. Given what occurred during this year’s exam, this CFE evaluation process will be supplemented by the third-party review.
We will proceed as quickly as possible, but our main priority is to provide the time necessary for a fair, accurate and equitable outcome.
At the same time, we are also immediately reviewing the technical issues that arose across the country and are working with our service providers to do everything possible to avoid a future reoccurrence.
We recognize what a difficult time this has been for many and we want to reassure exam-writers we have the people and processes in place to resolve the situation as quickly and effectively as possible.
Yeah, tell that to the poor bastards holed up in a gymnasium for hours on end last week.
This disaster comes just after CPA Canada released a likely multimillion-dollar advertising campaign on “The New Face” of Canada’s CPAs, making for an awkward discussion about CPA Canada’s priorities when they’re burning the future new faces this hard.
The post Let’s Talk About How CPA Canada Totally F*cked Up Last Week’s CFE appeared first on Going Concern.
republished from Going Concern
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VPN Providers Defy Order to Connect to Russia’s Internet Censor
Russian regulators have once again moved to expand oversight of the online space in an attempt to ensure compliance with various restrictions Moscow is trying to impose. But as in other cases, their efforts have been met with resistance. Over a dozen VPN platforms, popular among crypto enthusiasts and other privacy-conscious users, have refused to join the state-run system for blocking banned websites. Some of them have already announced they are moving abroad. The game of cat and mouse continues, with Roskomnadzor vowing to block nine of the refusers within a month.
Also read: Russian Prosecutors Fail to Block Crypto Website
VPN Services Move Out of Country
In March this year, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media, Roskomnadzor, demanded from 10 VPN service providers to connect to the Federal State Information System (FSIS). The register keeps information about websites, the access to which has been restricted after they were blacklisted by Russian authorities. Roskomnadzor wants to confirm the VPN services do not allow their subscribers to access these sites.
The telecom watchdog sent out notices to Tor Guard, Vypr VPN, Open VPN, Nord VPN, VPN Unlimited, IP Vanish, Hide My Ass!, Hola VPN, Express VPN, and Kaspersky Secure Connection. Seven companies have refused to collaborate, including four that have moved their servers out of the country, and another two have not responded at all. Six more platforms, which have not been notified by the agency, also indicated they won’t connect to the FSIS. So far, only Kaspersky has agreed to cooperate.
Roskomnadzor
Alexander Zharov, head of Roskomnadzor, stated last week that nine VPN platforms which have not fulfilled the watchdog’s requirements, may be blocked within a month for not complying with the law that prohibits the provision of services facilitating the bypassing of government restrictions. “It seems Roskomnadzor has recently compiled a second list of VPNs and asked them to filter traffic,” Sarkis Darbinyan, lead legal expert at Roskomsvoboda, a Russian NGO fighting internet censorship, told news.Bitcoin.com.
Darbinyan also shared that another provider, Avast Secureline VPN, has just announced it’s withdrawing from the country in connection with Roskomnadzor’s actions. The company believes compliance with such requirements would violate its own principles and the right to freedom of the Internet. And because it won’t be in a position to bring any benefit to its Russian users, Avast informed them they will not be able to renew their subscriptions in the future.
The Battle for the Runet
A database maintained by Roskomsvoboda contains over 173,000 websites, forums, messengers, news outlets and other online platforms that have been banned at some point. The restrictions have been mandated by various state institutions including several government agencies, ministries and the Prosecutor’s Office. Many of them are still offline but some, like the crypto exchange aggregator Bestchange.ru, have been taken out of the blacklist.
Another encouraging example comes from the case with the blocking of a VPN service provider called Hidemy.name. The platform was taken offline by a ruling of a regional court in the Russian Mari El Republic in 2017. The owner of the website sought help from Roskomsvoboda and in May of this year, the organization’s legal team managed to successfully challenge the court’s decision.
Sarkis Darbinyan noted that Russian judicial authorities did not dig deep enough into how VPN technologies work and the lawyers were able to identify many procedural violations. This led to the cancellation of the original ruling and the unblocking of Hidemy.name by Roskomnadzor. However, “this battle is not over yet, so we will continue to fight for the rights of Russian users to VPNs and to protect companies that provide such secure and safe services,” Darbinyan commented.
Hidemy.name
According to amendments made to the Federal Law “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection” in late 2017, VPN providers and anonymizers are expected to register with Roskomnadzor and connect to the FSIS within 30 working days. One of their key obligations is to limit access to internet resources that are banned in the Russian Federation.
The same applies to search engines and the Russian internet companies Yandex, Sputnik, Mail.ru, and Rambler have already complied. Earlier this year, Google was sanctioned for failing to meet this requirement. Roskomnadzor now claims the internet giant has already paid the 500,000 ruble (approximately $8,000) fine imposed by a Russian court and is now filtering searches in accordance with the FSIS rules.
Roskomnadzor’s Next Move
If Russian regulators find that the law has been breached, they may adopt a decision to restrict access to the VPN providers who have violated its provisions. Roskomnadzor is now expected to take measures aimed at blocking the VPN services which have refused to comply with its requirements as well as those that have not replied to its notices. It remains unclear, however, what the watchdog’s next step will be.
Various approaches have been employed in the past regarding other non-compliant companies. For example, it took the watchdog almost a year to act against Telegram, the messenger founded by the Russian-born entrepreneur Pavel Durov, which enjoys great popularity in the crypto community. Other messaging platforms such as Blackberry, Imo and Line were banned much faster.
“It does not look like Roskomnadzor and Russian ISPs [Internet service providers] are really technically ready to block VPNs. For sure, they can block websites where users can download apps. That’s the easiest thing to do. But they absolutely cannot make Apple and Google remove a mobile app. Of course, the most difficult thing for them would be to actually block an application and break connectivity with the servers of these operators. And they understand it,” said Darbinyan. The activist added that this will become a huge problem for Russian regulators after the epic failure to block Telegram.
Government agencies are now trying to improve their blocking capabilities. “The Main Radio Frequency Center, an entity subordinated to Roskomnadzor, requested in March the development of an automated blocking system. It should be available by December 2019. The system will monitor how search engines, VPN services, proxy servers and anonymizers comply with the requirements of Federal Law № 276-ФЗ [the one that affects VPNs]. Maybe after supplying learning DPI [Deep Packet Inspection] tools to all ISPs to recognize VPN traffic by patterns, they will be more effective,” Roskomsvoboda’s representative pointed out. “It looks like it is going to be a long game of cat and mouse,” Sarkis Darbinyan said and elaborated:
Let me remind that most of the VPN services that have received notifications from Roskomnadzor already have a fairly rich experience in working in China and bypassing the Great Firewall. So they can easily adapt to work in Russia in these new circumstances.
The implementation of advanced technical means to control the Russian online space is part of package of measures introduced with the new “Digital Economy National Program” legislation, also known as the Runet law. It was adopted in April by the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, and according to its sponsors, its goal is to protect the Russian segment of the Internet from external threats turning it into a “sovereign” space. Critics say it will not only limit internet freedom but also affect negatively many businesses that rely on the World Wide Web, including crypto platforms.
As news.Bitcoin.com reported, some of the law’s key provisions include the building of a system that will channel Russian internet traffic through government-controlled routing points as well as granting unlimited powers to Roskomnadzor – the agency will be able to cut off non-complying internet providers at will. It’s been estimated that the system will draw more than 30 billion rubles (almost $500 million) from the state budget, an amount that has raised some eyebrows. But, financial costs and security concerns aside, the question many Russians are asking themselves is if the Runet will after all remain ‘Internet’.
Are you using a VPN service? What’s your opinion about Moscow’s requirements toward VPN providers? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Express yourself freely at Bitcoin.com’s user forums. We don’t censor on political grounds. Check forum.Bitcoin.com.
The post VPN Providers Defy Order to Connect to Russia’s Internet Censor appeared first on Bitcoin News.
[Telegram Channel | Original Article ]
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Russian regulators have once again moved to expand oversight of the online space in an attempt to ensure compliance with various restrictions Moscow is trying to impose. But as in other cases, their efforts have been met with resistance. Over a dozen VPN platforms, popular among crypto enthusiasts and other privacy-conscious users, have refused to join the state-run system for blocking banned websites. Some of them have already announced they are moving abroad. The game of cat and mouse continues, with Roskomnadzor vowing to block nine of the refusers within a month.
Also read: Russian Prosecutors Fail to Block Crypto Website
VPN Services Move Out of Country
In March this year, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media, Roskomnadzor, demanded from 10 VPN service providers to connect to the Federal State Information System (FSIS). The register keeps information about websites, the access to which has been restricted after they were blacklisted by Russian authorities. Roskomnadzor wants to confirm the VPN services do not allow their subscribers to access these sites.
The telecom watchdog sent out notices to Tor Guard, Vypr VPN, Open VPN, Nord VPN, VPN Unlimited, IP Vanish, Hide My Ass!, Hola VPN, Express VPN, and Kaspersky Secure Connection. Seven companies have refused to collaborate, including four that have moved their servers out of the country, and another two have not responded at all. Six more platforms, which have not been notified by the agency, also indicated they won’t connect to the FSIS. So far, only Kaspersky has agreed to cooperate.
Roskomnadzor
Alexander Zharov, head of Roskomnadzor, stated last week that nine VPN platforms which have not fulfilled the watchdog’s requirements, may be blocked within a month for not complying with the law that prohibits the provision of services facilitating the bypassing of government restrictions. “It seems Roskomnadzor has recently compiled a second list of VPNs and asked them to filter traffic,” Sarkis Darbinyan, lead legal expert at Roskomsvoboda, a Russian NGO fighting internet censorship, told news.Bitcoin.com.
Darbinyan also shared that another provider, Avast Secureline VPN, has just announced it’s withdrawing from the country in connection with Roskomnadzor’s actions. The company believes compliance with such requirements would violate its own principles and the right to freedom of the Internet. And because it won’t be in a position to bring any benefit to its Russian users, Avast informed them they will not be able to renew their subscriptions in the future.
The Battle for the Runet
A database maintained by Roskomsvoboda contains over 173,000 websites, forums, messengers, news outlets and other online platforms that have been banned at some point. The restrictions have been mandated by various state institutions including several government agencies, ministries and the Prosecutor’s Office. Many of them are still offline but some, like the crypto exchange aggregator Bestchange.ru, have been taken out of the blacklist.
Another encouraging example comes from the case with the blocking of a VPN service provider called Hidemy.name. The platform was taken offline by a ruling of a regional court in the Russian Mari El Republic in 2017. The owner of the website sought help from Roskomsvoboda and in May of this year, the organization’s legal team managed to successfully challenge the court’s decision.
Sarkis Darbinyan noted that Russian judicial authorities did not dig deep enough into how VPN technologies work and the lawyers were able to identify many procedural violations. This led to the cancellation of the original ruling and the unblocking of Hidemy.name by Roskomnadzor. However, “this battle is not over yet, so we will continue to fight for the rights of Russian users to VPNs and to protect companies that provide such secure and safe services,” Darbinyan commented.
Hidemy.name
According to amendments made to the Federal Law “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection” in late 2017, VPN providers and anonymizers are expected to register with Roskomnadzor and connect to the FSIS within 30 working days. One of their key obligations is to limit access to internet resources that are banned in the Russian Federation.
The same applies to search engines and the Russian internet companies Yandex, Sputnik, Mail.ru, and Rambler have already complied. Earlier this year, Google was sanctioned for failing to meet this requirement. Roskomnadzor now claims the internet giant has already paid the 500,000 ruble (approximately $8,000) fine imposed by a Russian court and is now filtering searches in accordance with the FSIS rules.
Roskomnadzor’s Next Move
If Russian regulators find that the law has been breached, they may adopt a decision to restrict access to the VPN providers who have violated its provisions. Roskomnadzor is now expected to take measures aimed at blocking the VPN services which have refused to comply with its requirements as well as those that have not replied to its notices. It remains unclear, however, what the watchdog’s next step will be.
Various approaches have been employed in the past regarding other non-compliant companies. For example, it took the watchdog almost a year to act against Telegram, the messenger founded by the Russian-born entrepreneur Pavel Durov, which enjoys great popularity in the crypto community. Other messaging platforms such as Blackberry, Imo and Line were banned much faster.
“It does not look like Roskomnadzor and Russian ISPs [Internet service providers] are really technically ready to block VPNs. For sure, they can block websites where users can download apps. That’s the easiest thing to do. But they absolutely cannot make Apple and Google remove a mobile app. Of course, the most difficult thing for them would be to actually block an application and break connectivity with the servers of these operators. And they understand it,” said Darbinyan. The activist added that this will become a huge problem for Russian regulators after the epic failure to block Telegram.
Government agencies are now trying to improve their blocking capabilities. “The Main Radio Frequency Center, an entity subordinated to Roskomnadzor, requested in March the development of an automated blocking system. It should be available by December 2019. The system will monitor how search engines, VPN services, proxy servers and anonymizers comply with the requirements of Federal Law № 276-ФЗ [the one that affects VPNs]. Maybe after supplying learning DPI [Deep Packet Inspection] tools to all ISPs to recognize VPN traffic by patterns, they will be more effective,” Roskomsvoboda’s representative pointed out. “It looks like it is going to be a long game of cat and mouse,” Sarkis Darbinyan said and elaborated:
Let me remind that most of the VPN services that have received notifications from Roskomnadzor already have a fairly rich experience in working in China and bypassing the Great Firewall. So they can easily adapt to work in Russia in these new circumstances.
The implementation of advanced technical means to control the Russian online space is part of package of measures introduced with the new “Digital Economy National Program” legislation, also known as the Runet law. It was adopted in April by the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, and according to its sponsors, its goal is to protect the Russian segment of the Internet from external threats turning it into a “sovereign” space. Critics say it will not only limit internet freedom but also affect negatively many businesses that rely on the World Wide Web, including crypto platforms.
As news.Bitcoin.com reported, some of the law’s key provisions include the building of a system that will channel Russian internet traffic through government-controlled routing points as well as granting unlimited powers to Roskomnadzor – the agency will be able to cut off non-complying internet providers at will. It’s been estimated that the system will draw more than 30 billion rubles (almost $500 million) from the state budget, an amount that has raised some eyebrows. But, financial costs and security concerns aside, the question many Russians are asking themselves is if the Runet will after all remain ‘Internet’.
Are you using a VPN service? What’s your opinion about Moscow’s requirements toward VPN providers? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Express yourself freely at Bitcoin.com’s user forums. We don’t censor on political grounds. Check forum.Bitcoin.com.
The post VPN Providers Defy Order to Connect to Russia’s Internet Censor appeared first on Bitcoin News.
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