iquey

[iquey]

I’M A MEW MEW!!!! 😭😭😭

[iquey]

SCAM ALERT

TLDR: If a commisioner ignores your instructions, sends you a ton of money upfront via a check asking you to deposit and send back a portion of money- DO NOT. So back in Nov 10 I got an email commission which started okay: "I hope this message finds you well. I am reaching out to you because I am impressed by your portfolio and believe your artistic style would be a fantastic fit for an upcoming project I am coordinating.

I am currently in the process of assembling a team and I need a talented illustrator to collaborate on the title, Pandemic: Precaution and Prevention. Your work stood out to me due to its vibrant colors, character choices and attention to detail.

If you are interested, I would love to discuss the project further and provide more details about the scope, timeline, and compensation. Please let me know if this opportunity aligns with your current availability and if you would be open to discussing it further.

He wanted to create 6 group illustrations that would be printed and handed out for students 18-25 that would equate to $6000 at a 9 week turnaround. This raised an eyebrow but thought they were just a generous client. I gave him my procedure pipeline, starting with a min deposit upfront as a show of good faith. Also told him holidays are busy so will we start next year? He says that's fine. So far okay. "Considering the amount to be paid for the job, cashiers check or bank certified checks is our best bet. My sponsor doesn't use online payment platforms. He's an old-fashioned businessperson. The check will be issued and mailed to you and you should receive it within 5 days. Please get back to with your details in the format below:" Another raised eyebrow in this digital day and age but I've done previous freelance work that used mailed checks so I was alright with this. Only released my contact info and bank name.

Now the red flags pop up: On Nov 19 he sends this: "How are you doing today ? I'm so sorry for this, sincerely I do not find it easy to write this to you this moment , I have been so busy lately, the check is been made out for $6,000.00 which is cover for both phases. The sponsor asked for immediate refund for the 2nd phase as soon as the check clears your bank then you could proceed with the first 1-3. The 2nd phase is been postponed until further notice due to the sponsors personal issue, I will provide you the tracking information via USPS as soon as I have it so you could have it tracked yourself to know when exactly it will be delivered. My sincere apology for the inconvenience and do have a great day." So my requests were completely ignored, tells me a check is on the way with the full lump sum and I have to return half that amount. This is one method I've heard scammers get access of one's bank account with the poison check and you end up paying that half with your own actual money. Checked with friends and my own bank, sounds like a scam. Check arrives, and doing 30 minutes of Googling reveals so much warning stuff:

-So the names on the client email (Nicholas Jarry), and this name on the USPS (Christopher Williams) revealed on the first results are both famous sports players. One is a funny coincidence, two is suspicious. -quick Google of what a Keybank check is like, get an old warning about what to look for in legit checks, also tried calling Keybank on how to verify a check and explaining the scenario. -the address on the USPS belongs to a residential house that had another business also registered to it before that has gone inactive. -The Ace Cafe is real, but everything is inconsistent. The Hillcourt Dr address leads to a residential house, there is no LLC, and the logo belongs to a legit Orlando location that had closed last year and is opening in a new location, the address not matching whats on the check and names do not match either Jarry or Williams.

I've already reported this issue to the FTC and while they can't help me do anything with this particular scammer I'm now passing this around to new artists to know what to look out for when too many little suspicious things add up.

[iquey]

I hate how people will look at popular indie artists who had one or two songs go viral on TikTok and start making fun of anybody who listens to them. "Oh you listen to Lemon Demon, Will Wood, Jack Stauber, Glass Animals, and Mother Mother? Tsk, don't you know that is stupid TikTok neurodivergent white transmasc preteen music? It's so mid and bad you should listen to real music–" you are a pit of misery

[iquey]

Well..seeing Emberlynn in Helluvaboss gave me some serious cringe nostalgia to say the least.

bigger version here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jm9weuwyj59fzic/Verna-No-Hangouts.jpg?dl=0

[iquey]

Damn I forgot I drew these!!!! I'm so glad they are not lost!

just some scenes from stories i’ve written / am writing.

[iquey]

i saw you use cohost. would you recommend is as a good/active twitter alternative? im getting tired of the hell hole that this bird website is

i really love cohost and the community there but it is absolutely NOT a twitter alternative. if anything it's a tumblr alternative.

here's my small speech about cohost and why i like it

it's a mix between tumblr and livejournal which is fun

the community is very fun and active! when i made my intro post i had a dozen people leaving a comment welcoming me to cohost which is a very nice feeling

it is very much NOT about likes and follower counts. in fact, there is no way for anyone to know how many likes a post has, or how many followers someone has. YOU dont even know how many followers you have

the only visible number is the number of comments on a post, which is where the community comes from: if you want people to know a post is great, you gotta leave a comment saying so!!!

you can have as many links as you want on your profile, AND you can have links be only visible to logged in users, only to people following you, or only visible to pages you follow... so it's a great way to have your discord only be visible to certain people for example

if you DO want a more twitter-like experience, there is a tag that's The Global Cohost Feed, so you have a bunch of posts from a lot of people

when you first join you will have a few days where you can't post anything, but you can still look at posts and share them. a lot of it must be so cohost can prepare code to bring you in or whatever, BUT it also means you get those couple of days to get to know the culture of the website a bit more! it's lovely

chronological feed my beloved

no algorithm my beloved

cohost does have some issues (adding images is a PAIN), but the staff is working really hard to fix them and is always listening to people's feedback! i like cohost a lot. join me

[iquey]

Those are his hooves

[iquey]

YES.

(i just saw the trailer for Monkey Man on TikTok and I was watching the trailer like ---------------- omg who is that guy. He looks like Magnus archives Jon.

My mental face-canon for Jonathan Sims is IN AN ACTION MOVIE?!? 🤩😱 )

Jonathan Sims is Dev Patel but with Charlie Kelly energy send tweet

You can't change my mind

[iquey]

Long posting what I wanted to make my TikTok post description but I know it's just gonna get hate if I write a novel in the description on that platform.

...

just because I have the day off, and you have the day off, doesn't mean I'm "free" for you to plan stuff for me. I know my family wants to be nice but when you have lived my life, niceness often is the sugar that coats a poison pill of control and coercion. "I was hoping we could..." is not the same thing as asking "when would YOU like to...?"

#pdaprofile this stuff is why autistic girls get labeled BPD because when an afab wants ANY boundaries and control over their time, whatever kind of day it is, a holiday a birthday or the day before, they get called "difficult." stuff like this is why feminine rage content exists and why the transmasc to terf pipeline exists. society refuses to loosen its patriarchal grip on people who are still considered their family's property, consciously or subconsciously. it manifests as the little things and then girls women and enby are told we are crazy for overreacting to the microaggressions. patriarchy is a disease like smallpox (not trying to make a barbie reference, but hey..) and a clay mask and green juice won't rid yourself of its papules (the visible symptoms) It requires stronger medicine.

[iquey]

A Letter from Julia Baritz

To the Pillowfort Community, 

Transparency from myself and my Staff is part of the foundation that makes Pillowfort so great. The news I am about to share is not easy. But it is important for you, our community, to know what is going on.

Pillowfort has always relied on the generosity of our users. We are proud to be user funded. Over the years we have been able to operate using the funds from our 2018 Kickstarter campaign, which raised over $60,000, in addition to ongoing payments and donations from you.  I am extremely grateful for the support we continue to receive. 

However, despite cost-cutting efforts, we have struggled to break even in revenue since 2021. The funds from the 2018 Kickstarter have been depleted to cover operating costs and to ensure our Staff receives the compensation they deserve.  I will never ask my Staff to work without being compensated.  

We are now at a point where Pillowfort is in danger of exhausting all current finances in the next six months if we continue the current funding/spending trajectory. This is not hyperbole. This is the unfortunate reality of what the platform is facing. If we do not change course now I will have to end contracts with our entire team soon and, eventually, Pillowfort would no longer be able to operate. 

For the past two years I have not compensated myself for my work on Pillowfort. My commitment to Pillowfort is not for personal gain. I was fortunate enough in my privilege to have adequate savings to cover my own personal expenses for a while. I sacrificed what would have been my own compensation in order to ensure my third-party contractors (Staff) could be paid. 

I take full responsibility for the current state of Pillowfort. It has been challenging being a first-time business owner in such turbulent times. Looking back now there are ways I would have managed things differently with the knowledge I have now.  If we can recover from this, I will continue applying what I have learned these last several years to make sure we do not reach this point again. 

I knew Pillowfort was going to be a difficult enterprise due to the very things that I believe make us great: we don’t have shareholders or venture-capital investments (which often leads to shifts away from a company’s primary mission as they are directed to achieve revenue and profit growth to benefit investors); we don’t compromise your privacy by selling user data to third parties; and we don’t host third-party ads that would disrupt your experience. We also pay much higher payment processing fees because we host adult content. Compared to other social media sites that have millions of dollars in corporate investments backing them, things are much harder for us. 

In spite of every hurdle we face,  I truly believe  Pillowfort deserves to exist. I believe in Pillowfort’s mission and I am determined for this platform to succeed. I am not going to abandon this platform until every possible option is exhausted. That is why I have decided it will be necessary to initiate another, more ambitious fundraiser. Our goal will be to raise $25,000 by December 31, 2023. 

This amount is based on the following: We are at risk of the IRS reclassifying Pillowfort as a hobby instead of a business because Pillowfort has not been profitable for several years. If we are reclassified as a hobby this would prohibit us from deducting expenses which will make our financial situation more dire.  The $25,000 amount will make up for our existing year-to-date losses as well as cover our projected expenses (Staff Compensation & Operating costs) for the remainder of the year. 

Raising this amount will also buy our staff the time needed to complete the following projects geared toward increased long-term revenue: 

Finish Progressive Web App development to allow Pillowfort to reach a much broader audience on mobile platforms.

Add the ability for users to pay to promote their posts.

Add the ability for users to gift Pillowfort Premium to other users. 

Once these features are in place, Pillowfort will be in a better position to bring in reliable revenue than we have been recently and will hopefully be on the road to continued self-sustainability.

If you appreciate that Pillowfort is beholden to its users instead of shareholders– if you believe in Pillowfort’s core principles of user privacy control and freedom of expression and creativity–  then I ask you to consider supporting this fundraising effort.

We will post more information soon regarding rewards for reaching our goal (yes, we will be offering a profile badge to donors, and more!), so stay tuned for details. This time around we are also planning to have rewards geared toward users who help spread the word about us too. We understand that not everyone can support us financially right now.

If you can’t donate to the fundraiser there are still many ways to help us. Here are some examples: 

Talk about us to your friends and family.

Write about or make a video about us. (Psst: Use #Pillowfort on other platforms like X, Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, and Bluesky so we can find your posts!) 

Invite your friends, family, and colleagues to Pillowfort using your Invitation Keys to allow them to join immediately. 

I am forever grateful for your past and continued support. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read this message. Let’s work together to make Pillowfort a robust site for years to come.

Best Wishes, 

Julia Baritz Founder & Lead Architect

[iquey]

can't get over the phrasing of this actually

[iquey]

[iquey]

Robotic animals by Hajime Sorayama

[iquey]

thought they needed a little reminder that they still have far more to lose if they double down on this stupidity. spread the word, it seems they're... very forgetful about this.

[iquey]

I slept in and just woke up, so here's what I've been able to figure out while sipping coffee:

Twitter has officially rebranded to X just a day or two after the move was announced.

The official branding is that a tweet is now called "an X", for which there are too many jokes to make.

The official account is still @twitter because someone else owns @X and they didn't reclaim the username first.

The logo is 𝕏 which is the Unicode character Unicode U+1D54F so the logo cannot be copyrighted and it is highly likely that it cannot be protected as a trademark.

Outside the visual logo, the trademark for the use of the name "X" in social media is held by Meta/Facebook, while the trademark for "X" in finance/commerce is owned by Microsoft.

The rebranding has been stopped in Japan as the term "X Japan" is trademarked by the band X JAPAN.

Elon had workers taking down the "Twitter" name from the side of the building. He did not have any permits to do this. The building owner called the cops who stopped the crew midway through so the sign just says "er".

He still plans to call his streaming and media hosting branch of the company as "Xvideo". Nobody tell him.

This man wants you to give him control over all of your financial information.

Edit to add further developments:

Yes, this is all real. Check the notes and people have pictures. I understand the skepticism because it feels like a joke, but to the best of my knowledge, everything in the above is accurate.

Microsoft also owns the trademark on X for chatting and gaming because, y'know, X-box.

The logo came from a random podcaster who tweeted it at Musk.

The act of sending a tweet is now known as "Xeet". They even added a guide for how to Xeet.

The branding change is inconsistent. Some icons have changed, some have not, and the words "tweet" and "Twitter" are still all over the place on the site.

TweetDeck is currently unaffected and I hope it's because they forgot that it exists again. The complete negligence toward that tool and just leaving it the hell alone is the only thing that makes the site usable (and some of us are stuck on there for work).

This is likely because Musk was forced out of PayPal due to a failed credit line project and because he wanted to rename the site to "X-Paypal" and eventually just to "X".

This became a big deal behind the scenes as Musk paid over $1 million for the domain X.com and wanted to rebrand the company that already had the brand awareness people were using it as a verb to "pay online" (as in "I'll paypal you the money")

X.com is not currently owned by Musk. It is held by a domain registrar (I believe GoDaddy but I'm not entirely sure). Meaning as long as he's hung onto this idea of making X Corp a thing, he couldn't be arsed to pay the $15/year domain renewal.

Bloomberg estimates the rebranding wiped between $4 to $20 billion from the valuation of Twitter due to the loss of brand awareness.

The company was already worth less than half of the $44 billion Musk paid for it in the first place, meaning this may end up a worse deal than when Yahoo bought Tumblr.

One estimation (though this is with a grain of salt) said that Twitter is three months from defaulting on its loans taken out to buy the site. Those loans were secured with Tesla stock. Meaning the bank will seize that stock and, since it won't be enough to pay the debt (since it's worth around 50-75% of what it was at the time of the loan), they can start seizing personal assets of Elon Musk including the Twitter company itself and his interest in SpaceX.

Sesame Street's official accounts mocked the rebranding.

[iquey]

Trans Day of Visibility 2023

Hi Pillowfolx. We want to wish our Trans, Nonbinary, and Two Spirit community a safe and affirming Trans Day of Visibility. We encourage you to find a moment of Trans joy today. 

We can’t continue this writing without acknowledging the transgender genocide currently occuring. In the United States alone 44 states have introduced anti-trans bills. These bills will cause irreparable harm to trans youth and trans adults. 

Transgender people deserve to exist and have equal rights. They deserve healthcare. They deserve to not live in fear. 

Now more than ever Trans, Nonbinary, and Two Spirit community members need your support to stay alive. Consider advocating for Transgender rights by contacting your local elected officials. Consider donating to organizations such as Point of Pride, TransLatin Coalition, Trans Lifeline, National Black Justice Coalition, The Prism Foundation, and The Trevor Project. 

As a reminder, Pillowfort does not tolerate hateful rhetoric. Trans, Nonbinary, and Two Spirit people are valid and welcome here. Any hateful comments in this post will be removed.  We are offering a space for Trans, Nonbinary, and Two Spirit Pillowfort users to request aid on the official Pillowfort Staff Blog.

[iquey]

https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/irs-complaint-process-tax-exempt-organizations

3. Nature of violation

Directors/Officers/Persons are using income/assets for personal gain

Organization is engaged in commercial, for-profit business activities

Income/Assets are being used to support illegal or terrorist activities

Organization is involved in a political campaign

Organization is engaged in excessive lobbying activities

Organization refused to disclose or provide a copy of Form 990

Organization failed to report employment, income or excise tax liability properly

Organization failed to file required federal tax returns and forms

Organization engaged in deceptive or improper fundraising practices

Other (describe)