whenwegounnoticed

[whenwegounnoticed]

Last year, the violetvineyard tag started getting some posts from a person asking if anyone was still in contact with Mina, with claims that "the person responsible for driving her off the website has also been harassing me for a while." Any clue what that's about?

Hello!

I'm not sure! Some of us who were around couldn't figure it out or why. I'm not sure if anyone else who was around at the time knows. Uh maybe @time-to-write-and-suffer might know (I'm sorry for tagging you)? The others who were involved in all of this have either deactivated or disappeared - I'm not sure what happened to sapiencenotes, who miiight know or nuwuhorizons.

All I know is what I know of Mina and no one else. Could maybe be a bot?

[whenwegounnoticed]

One year later and some posts are getting notes.

How's writeblr been? Any of those mods left? Has something happened?

[whenwegounnoticed]

Watch Out For Online Cults

A lot of talk about cults and manipulative people in the community is focused on an in-person level. Things that an in-person group will do, how their control extends into your offline life, but cult behaviors and mindsets can absolutely be used online and may not be as visible or as obvious. Here’s a small, incomplete checklist of things to watch out for, red flags and the like. (Note: I’m not talking about any specific group or individuals here. None of these on their own make a cult, but a lot of them together can potentially mark a toxic environment at least. This isn’t intended to be a diagnostic tool, just things to analyze and reflect on. Please always be safe and don’t let yourself stay in toxic environments whether they “count” as a cult or not.)  

The “leader” can do no wrong. They are not capable of truly making mistakes, or any misstep they do make is quickly explained away or defended by their followers. Any criticism is quickly punished, labeled as problematic, or otherwise shut down. Online, people will often sing the praises of or “lovebomb” the leader after these incidents.

It’s Us vs. Them. Anybody who criticizes the group is an enemy. Anybody who chooses not to be a member of the group must have something wrong with them. Critics/people on the outside just don’t “get it” like they do. The “outside” may be painted as threatening/the group as a safe haven, and opposing viewpoints should not be given any attention, even to consider them critically. You’re discouraged from joining other similar groups.

Using social justice lingo as a way to control people. Manipulators can speak the language too. They may bring up gaslighting, gatekeeping, policing, invalidation, and other things and accuse an individual or group in order to either guilt the person into acquiescing or vilify them to the other members. This is a really effective tactic for shutting someone down.

The leader is elevated or enlightened in some way. They claim to be a deity, or at least closer to the divine/enlightenment than you. They have a more effective/direct line of communication with spirits or entities.They have wisdom or knowledge you must stay with them to take part in. 

Dictating parts of your online life. Members must change their names, icons, speech/typing patterns, etc. to conform to the group. The rules for behavior in an online setting go beyond what is needed to maintain order. Members may be asked to do a lot to “prove” they deserve to be/stay in the group. 

You’re scared to leave. You can’t imagine your online life without this group. You feel like you need the community/resources it provides you. You’re worried members will turn against you if you leave. You’re worried that leaving or voicing concern about the group will have negative repercussions on other platforms. 

[whenwegounnoticed]

PSA

People are allowed to talk and discuss with others about their bad experiences. It’s how people heal, especially when they were forced to stay silent or thought they were alone. That is not “dragging something out” or “canceling someone” that is freedom of speech, so please don’t tell someone to just forget about it? Like Jesus Christ have some tact. If people want to forget about it they will, and if people want to continue talking about it to vent and heal so that they can move on that’s their right.

[whenwegounnoticed]

It's pretty telling that people have already moved on and ignored the Mina situation.

Hooooooonestly, anon? I don’t blame people. The tone of this message isn’t aimed at you. Yet, you bring up an excellent post regarding the writeblr community.

I wouldn’t give a shit about a grown woman who spends her time doing shady ass things to get people on the internet to tickle her ego. a grown woman who has convinced people she has “google bots” to watch and report whoever searches her up on the internet. a straight-up-grown-adult who invited minors to a party with adults. yeah, that grown woman who sold traced images on the internet. A woman asking people to give in resumes and professional emails to get in her new server. 

I don’t give a fuck about a woman who uses her wealth and privilege to threaten people with her “army of lawyers” over tumblr bullshit. Take a nap, lmao 

I especially wouldn’t give a shit about a woman who made fun of my PTSD and told people I was crazy because I didn’t have a husband???? Girl, this is 2020. Some of us? Don’t need marriage to validate our lives. Someone who sent her friend ( CJ? is that your name? Idk anways ) to look for info on me. Someone who deadass spoke of sending a lawyer to find information on me and my family. This woman has straight up mocked me, put down my creations and spread misinformation about me for a year. made me feel gaslighted enough to apologize to her ass just to stop the harassment her minions gave out.

OH BTW!!! all those people who made fun of me for changing urls so much prolly were the anons stalking me. 

so, yeah. 

i wouldn’t care either : ‘ )

[whenwegounnoticed]

I think I dodged a bullet for not joining the VV discord, given all the drama that went down

Yeah you and me are like Neo up in this bitch

[whenwegounnoticed]

I honestly don’t know why I didn’t realise the ray tracing sooner, because I recognized the exactly photo she used once. It was of Freema Agyeman in a sense8 photo shoot, and I remember looking at it and recognizing it and thinking she must’ve just drawn a copy of it.

Freehand drawing something with a reference is a-ok. Studies based on real people are a-ok. Tracing photos and other people’s art? Also ok. UNLESS YOU SELL IT OR TRY TO PASS IT OFF AS YOUR OWN ORIGINAL WORK.

[whenwegounnoticed]

I honestly got banned from the VV server for interrupting conversations accidentally. It was never on purpose, as someone with impulsivity issues caused by mental health I’ve always kind of struggled to pay attention, but sometimes these conversations were actually hours old. Still got banned for it, which struck me as hella weird.

It’s almost like a second general channel would’ve been a great solution to that sort of thing. If only someone wasn’t such an old bag and added one. But I guess that’s a hard ask from someone so ancient who already lords over a highly organized server with channels they created.

[whenwegounnoticed]

Regarding the whole Velvet Vineyard thing, I can’t help but notice that people who have only been critical of the mods and have only mild criticism of Mina don’t appear to be saying anything about receiving legal threats (though I could be wrong on this) whereas the ones that are mainly targeted at her are. I’m wondering if she is not as loyal to the mods as they are to her (not that I have any sympathy for them either)

I wonder that too, sometimes. They go after anyone who criticizes her, definitely but I have never seen her really go to bat for anyone else in VV. As long as it's not her name being dragged through the mud, who cares, in her mind, anyways. It would definitely track for her, with her comments about people not being worthy of her time and everything. I agree it is sus.

They may realize it sooner or later.

I mostly have sympathy for the younger mods -- especially those who are minors. They’re under the influence of someone who has shown to be quite toxic thus far and that’s definitely not something that helps positive psyche growth.

[whenwegounnoticed]

It's so weird knowing that M ina and her friends are gone. It honestly just feels very freeing? I still can't believe she's gone lmao I hope she, nor her friends, come back (I know one is still around, but the rest are gone). But there are two mods I worry about, for different reasons but I wish them luck in finding happiness, it won't be with a woman who says people are beneath her.

Yeah the thing abt that comment is how blatantly untrue it is lmao.

Imagine bragging about how you’re better than all your haters but then (allegedly) threatening random tumblr users with legal action because they rightfully exposed the weird shit you’ve been up to behind doors that weren’t even closed lmao.

The ego is big but the confidence is lacking.

[whenwegounnoticed]

Don't know if this counts but in Violet Vineyard reciprocating was big in regards to reblogs, but most people just reblogged Mina, the mods, and a few larger blog's work. If you were a smaller blog, you didn't get much attention. Someone complained about people only reblogging work from their friends, but that comment was dismissed by the mods. You had to reblog stuff in to promote your work, which sounds great in theory, but if only the same handful of blogs get attention, how is it fair?

Yeah! That's what I never got either! Sure, in theory, it sounds great but way more people got ignored in favor of the Clique or more popular blogs. I noticed smaller blogs would share her work but she wouldn't do the same. At least make an effort?

It's awful. Art communities like writeblr rely on people sharing others' works to stay alive but yet. It happened maybe 20% of the time.

[whenwegounnoticed]

Everything, 100%.

I'm compiling screenshots now of reprehensible behaviors. And am feeling well enough to listen to experiences people had, so send 'em my way! And stay safe y'all.

the fact that everyone who's tried to comprehensively speak out against mi/na has been lost to the void is honestly the most damning evidence against her imo. i wonder the validity of suing someone over tumblr (i dont think its much) but still. i don't blame people for being scared and deleting. (also @ the other anon i think someone archived nuwu's post on wayback machine)

I’m honestly waiting for this thing to land on r/HobbyDrama. People on reddit are far harder to scare than people on tumblr are. If that shit gets spread elsewhere on the internet, it’ll be even harder to contain. Would be a shame if that happened 👀

[whenwegounnoticed]

[whenwegounnoticed]

@ladytauria​ here you go!

hi, i can’t access nuwuhorizons full post on the mvcreates thing? is there a place it was archived or saved before their deactivation?

Yeah, it seems that the mvarchive blog got sniped, too.

I think multiple people saved most of nuwuhorizons’ VV posts, but I can’t find them right now, sorry :/

That being said, I’m sure people will drop them in the notes here or maybe they’ll show you where to find them!

[whenwegounnoticed]

Was the classism thing recent?? I remember a university conversation happening and one of the mods??? seemed to be arguing or something with Mina? (that's how I took it anyways, I was so lost about the conversation). Or did this take place way earlier?

checked my DMs, I found out about the Naughty List™ in January so the actual conversation was probably last year sometime. however there was also a suuuuuuper weird vibe in general about university education and education in general which I know bothered @rrrawrf-writes and I sometimes because it came off like ‘if you don’t go to university and/or ~educate yourself~ you’re an ignorant peon’ which is what made the classism accusation EVEN FUNNIER like MA’AM you think I’m the classist one? outta here

[whenwegounnoticed]

Writeblr Red Flags

The posts coming out about VioletVineyard really shows how quickly a good thing can turn sour. I joined it in January of this year because of all the good things I heard about it. It was suppose to be a small community that made it easier to give and receive feedback. Unfortunately, the behavior coming from Mina and many of her mods/friends quickly made it a toxic environment that people were too afraid to talk about and/or leave.

While there’s nothing that can be done about how VV was dealt with, I want to list some red flags that were noticed.  If another server begins to act in a similar manner, especially if you are a minor, please for your safety and health leave.

Focus on Experience

Mina was constantly using her age and position in life to put herself on a pedestal. She is a thirty year-old woman well into her career at an Ivy League school, and she made that clear on countless occasions. She had strict expectations on what people should do, even when those opinions were well outside her actual knowledge.

(I was going to link a post here, but unfortunately they had to delete their account. Apparently Mina and her friends are now going around threatening people, including minors, if they talk about what happened.)

Hero Worship

There was also a tendency to make the group seem more close-knit, in a way that put the members below Mina and the mods. We were the VV family. Mina was the Vodka Aunt. Mods called themselves Auntie [Name] and Mafia Mom (please note this is from memory, and I am not one hundred percent sure I am remembering the last name right). They were supposed to be looked up to, and for a server where the majority of members were minors or young adults, it was very easy for it to seem like Mina could do no wrong.

This attitude, as well as the way she acted, made it very easy for people to start defending her every action. While there are certainly better ways of describing it, there is a reason why people called VV a cult. You were not allowed to disagree with Mina, unless you wanted a dozen people to bombard you. Even when what she was doing was inappropriate.

Them/Us Attitude

This leads to the third flag. There were multiple times when Mina would complain about a person outside VV for what were usually very minor offenses.  I saw her get mad at people for tagging one of her posts the “wrong” way. At times it would even extend into her personal life. She once said that a coworker who had been rude to her had to have her hand amputated. Mina and multiple of the mods claimed it was karma. It was easy for her to encourage others to attack along with her and see nothing wrong with it. It was to the point that there was at least one conversation about why people didn’t like VV that basically concluded with them deciding they were just bad people and that the server was fine.

But if someone didn’t follow her rules, they were attacked. It was either always agree with Mina, or have to deal with the gang. Gingerly and Radley gave some examples of this here. And for anyone hearing about the art tracing/transphobia that occurred recently,  you can go here to see a screenshot of the post. (Unfortunately, this account was also deleted due to threats.)

It isn’t surprising why so many remained silent. There was one incident where I tried to speak out. Mina had a tendency to post longer posts, with a short paragraph at the end saying to like or interact with the post to join the tag list. It was not unusual for people to not see the notice, and then get confused about why they were being tagged. She mocked one such person’s reading comprehension for not understanding. And a few weeks later, she was mad at them again for changing their mind and wanting to be on the list after all. All of this happened without the person knowing they were being attacked on a server they weren’t even a part of.

Within a half hour of saying that wasn’t right, there were at least half a dozen mods pinging me. One just straight out starting swearing at me. I have a severe anxiety disorder so I quickly backed up after that, but was told that I was policing the chat and to message Mina if I wanted to talk more. Another server member noticed, and told me that this type of reaction was common, and that it would be a bad idea to try to continue the conversation. (I doubt that was the first warning she gave either.)

Hiding Information

Even when considering how poorly Mina and her friends would react to people speaking out about their actions, I feel like this is the strongest reason why they were able to pretend for as long as they did. Mina never would have dared to badmouth people on her Tumblr account the way she did in the server.

We were not allowed to screenshot anything, unless we were okay with being banned. The channel where most of these issues came up was regularly deleted, often after something controversial occurred. Anyone who tried to speak up was either pushed down quickly or forced to leave. And if they were no longer in the server, they were regularly belittled. They ridiculed a person named Sophia multiple times, but I still don’t know who she is or what she did.

Despite no longer having a Tumblr presence, they are still trying to threaten people into remaining silent. People shouldn’t have to be afraid of a grown woman threatening them over a post, especially when they are a minor. But if everyone has only a fraction of the information, it is easier for them to control how they are viewed.

[whenwegounnoticed]

Sooo...I see people following this blog. A small handful, hello! Thank you for the follow! Hopefully you read my pinned post, and for those of you who had negative experiences with VV / MVCreates, I am sorry you had to go through that and I hope you find peace.

On that note, I do want to use this blog for something that’s more constructive and helpful than just reblogging the current situation. If you have suggestions, you can let me know! I’m also willing to collaborate with people.

I am still willing to listen to people’s experiences with VV / MVCreates. Anonymous is still on until it can no longer be on.