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belzinone · 6 years ago

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[old] guidelines

// these are my original rules. though they are still generally relevant, my newer, shorter, more concise rules post is here

A love letter from me to you! Please take it to heart.

The Lowdown: mod is an artist & supportive af｜selective｜primarily plot-motivated｜operates on mutual respect｜your friendly rpc fairy godbitch; gimme your wishlists｜zero tolerance for OC negativity & bigotry｜triggers present｜18+ content present｜consistent but occasionally capricious activity｜OOC communication appreciated｜lots of love abound ♡

Mod Sal (they/them/theirs; 24; PST)

I study medicine and social justice with emphasis on emergency medicine and sex work, respectively. In addition to being a writer I’m also an activist, artist, and scholar. I’ve been writing Bel since 2015. She’s a very intricate and highly dynamic character who has gone through many changes over the years via her interactions. I look forward to developing her even more with your muse(s)!

Before I talk about the kind of conduct I’d like on my blog, this is the type of roleplayer and friend I aspire to be. I’ll strive to be as attentive and supportive as I can about your muse, ideas, as well as ooc presence. If we’re mutuals, you can expect plenty of inboxes, tag games, headcanons, relationship tags, to be tagged in & sent posts relating to our muses, general interaction, and emotional support proportional to the depth of our interactions when I’m online. I’m an unapologetic 1-person hype squad at heart and will do my best to spread the love and return the love I get.

If I’m not around here, you can find me on my snk blog and/or discord by request. I muse Eren and Levi as secondary muses, but they won’t be nearly as active as Bel and are only available to established mutuals. I also have untagged resource & nsfw musing side blogs.

Interactions

When it comes to interactions, nothing motivates me more than an eagerness to develop our muses’ relationship. Depending on what works best for you, we can work on this via inbox submissions, plotting, or simply interacting. I have a tendency to write para/novella-length replies, but will strive to match you in length and style. Please include something I can actively respond to in your reply, because neutral replies can be very difficult to build upon, and please do not godmod her based on assumptions and/or stereotypes about her character/profession.

With regards to ask responses, please feel free to turn them into threads by tagging me in a new post and cutting your replies. I’ll turn asks into threads if they inspire me, but you’re under no obligation to continue them if you’re not as motivated. When cutting, please don’t cut me out. Also, please don’t reblog asks with your reply or reblog replies with my tag if I don’t reply quickly enough. I track of all my threads to the best of my ability, so please check there first if you want to know the status of our thread. If I’ve missed a thread of ours, please help me out by sending it to me in a message so I can add it to the tracker. If you lose muse for a thread, please don’t feel pressured to continue it. We can always take a break or start something new. I don’t cap my threads and am always open to new interactions.

Selectivity

Though I run a selective blog, I am not very selective in nature. I do have a preference for original and SnK/AoT characters, especially those that inspire me and challenge me. I’ll primarily look for interactions by checking blog rules for oc-friendliness, reblogging promos, asking to be mutuals in the tags, then follow back after that initial follow is granted. If you don’t want me to follow you, please block me completely because otherwise I’ll think it’s a mistake/glitch and follow you again. On the topic of glitches, they do happen so I apologize ahead of time if that happens above or below my radar.

I don’t tolerate oc-negativity or ooc bigotry and will handle my blog accordingly. If you align yourself in any way with TERF, SWERF, homophobic, ace-exclusionary, racist, and/or xenophobic rhetoric, please do not interact. It’s important for me to surround myself with enriching content and community. I have boundaries and will be setting them for my own comfort as well as respect yours because mutual respect between muns is key to a healthy rpc.

Sourcing

Please don’t do it. This goes for starters, ask memes, wishlist posts, and wanted connections. I understand we might not be the muse/mod duo you have in mind and that we don’t fit every situation, but please don’t fill my notifications with this sentiment, especially if we don’t have any established interactions yet. If our blogs have that much in common, there’s so much we could be musing about. If this happens excessively without us having any interactions, I’ll unfollow and/or block because I am a roleplay blog, not a resource hub. If you’re interested in my musing/resource posts, please show interest in muse interactions as well. The latter is why I’m here and there’s nothing more disheartening and discouraging to my creativity than being used and/or ignored when I present things.

Original Character Disclaimer

It pains me that something like this needs to be said, but Bel wasn’t created to force ship with your muse and/or overpower our threads. I will absolutely under no circumstances tolerate any form of OC negativity. I don’t care if you think they’re “cringey”, “underdeveloped”, “overpowered”, or any other iteration of not meeting your personal criteria of a good character. Opinions are valid but unsolicited bullying is not. It is important to realize that canon characters are still original characters bar their capitalistic franchise. The mods of original characters are a goldmine of free and original content and deserve to be judged by conduct, not content.

If you’d like to support OCs, I invite you to scroll through and reblog a thing or two from my OC positivity tag, as well as follow and engage in meaningful interactions with the OCs in your orbit. Your encouragement could be what makes a content creator’s breakthrough, so please be kind and supportive. Saying you’re OC-friendly while providing an extensive grocery list of double standards OCs must abide by to be considered acceptable isn’t OC-friendliness. Likewise, musing an OC doesn’t automatically make you incapable of being exclusive (unintentional or not) so please be cognizant as well and lets support each other.

Shipping

That being said, I’m just like every other mun. I enjoy shipping and the occasional smut scene given the chemistry is right and both muns are equally invested in the relationship as well as comfortable with it. The more we develop our muses, the more complicated their relationship will be and the more likely I’ll personally gift you with fanart. Above all, your comfort is paramount to our interactions so please communicate with me. Likewise, please respect my comforts when I speak of them. I am much more likely to be enthusiastic about shipping than Bel is, however, so please be patient with us and respect her boundaries as well.

# FREE THE FPN . SFW // ONLY IT’S NOT

This is the tag I will use to mark sexually explicit content. Bel is somewhere on the ace spectrum, but is nonetheless a sensual character and has a couple verses that engage in sex work. Bel’s struggles with her identities are a very big part of her personal characterization, so please be patient with her. [Marilyn Monroe’s hinted asexuality] Likewise, if she’s not into your muse, please don’t push such interactions unless we discuss them as a plot element.

Trigger Warnings

The SnK universe is rampant with violence, gore, psychological trauma, profanity, and grey morality. Furthermore, I enjoy writing dark themes and will provide the disclaimer now that this may be a rather trigger-heavy blog. However, that doesn’t mean you have to be subject to all these themes. If you’d like me to tag things in a certain way, please don’t hesitate to let me know because your comfort is important to me. I’ll gladly create a new tag for you to blacklist/filter and add it to my tag list. Furthermore, this blog will have the occasional explicit content so please don’t interact if you’re under 21.

Activity

I’m finishing up my bachelor’s so classes and coursework will keep me from here sometimes. Furthermore, I struggle with mental illness and domestic abuse in my home environment, so bouts of these may also pull me from activity. I’ll be doing my damndest to keep my issues off the dash but if things are especially severe and I feel the need to post about it and/or reach out, I’ll use a semicolon tag (#;). Nonetheless, musing, roleplaying, and plotting helps keep my spirits up so please keep me updated with your muse and share your discord with me, if you’d like. I’d love it so much if we could continue developing our muses as I slip off of and find my way back to tumblr, and I’d appreciate you very much as a writing partner and friend. ♡

Accessibility

I’m not very savvy with code, but I do try my best to keep my blogging accessible as I tinker and learn. If you struggle with accessing any part of my blog, let it be font size, style, or anything else, please let me know and I’ll do my best to accommodate because I don’t want to perpetuate elitism or ableism in the rpc. As far as reply formatting goes, I’ll usually stick to once small text (particularly in novella length replies via ctrl shift -) and spare use of italics, bolding, and strikethrough text. I may use unicode and/or zalgo for art captions, personal musing posts, crack threads, and other posts that call for it. Every once in awhile, I will blog from mobile and as a result post text in default size, but I’ll still cut my posts and at worst, separate our replies with a symbol or icon if I can’t blockquote text through html.

Permissions

One of my favorite things about roleplaying is sharing content and playing tag games. If you come across anything that reminds you of Bel and/or our interactions/plotting, please show me! Even more so, if you’re a content creator, you have complete and total freedom to use her and her inspirations in your work. I only ask to see it! Likewise, if I ever create any art for you, please acknowledge it at the very least. If you send in an art request and I deliver, please reblog it. Failure to do this kills my creativity as well as generosity so... please.

Exclusive to this blog are my own art and edits as well as those gifted by friends. Please don’t ransack our labors of love and re-purpose them as your own. Bel’s Iva & Marie icons were collected by yours truly with a beautiful frame made by Shane. Other people who have contributed their talents throughout the years include madcapraccoon, L, desertbl00m, Eris, Justice, sangre-rebelde, emptyolivejar, desimouse, and the many rp blogs that have interacted with her. I’d also like to give a special shout-out to sjokohama for the boundless enthusiasm given to her development as well as the readers who have enjoyed and left amazing comments on her original fanfiction. She wouldn’t be out here if it weren’t for Y’all ~ ♡

If you feel like something should be added to or clarified in these guidelines, please let me know. I realize I have a lot to say as a consequence of being here for so long, but I still want to keep my conduct as transparent and accessible as possible.

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to like this post and interact ~ ♡

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sparklesandchalk · 7 years ago

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McKayla Maroney’s Dark Journey: Olympic Champion, Abused Gymnast

A cherished American athlete suffered a heavy toll from years of sexual abuse by U.S. team doctor Larry Nassar; powerful institutions failed to protect her

Aly Raisman and Jordyn Wieber were in their bedroom at the U.S. gymnastics team’s house for the 2012 London Olympics when teammate McKayla Maroney texted: Rescue me.

Downstairs, she was alone again with team physician Larry Nassar. That meant his “treatments” would soon begin. Ms. Wieber says she and Ms. Raisman went down to make sure Ms. Maroney “felt more comfortable.”

At those Olympics, Ms. Maroney, Ms. Raisman and Ms. Wieber were celebrated as part of the gold-medal-winning “Fierce Five” gymnastics squad. In private, they were struggling with misgivings about Nassar. During treatments, he would touch their genital areas with his ungloved hand.

Ms. Maroney was Nassar’s favorite, the national-team gymnasts knew. He always treated her last, sometimes keeping her two or three times longer than others. He photographed her constantly. Even after Ms. Maroney talked to authorities about his actions, Nassar continued treating patients for a year.

Six years after London, Nassar is an infamous criminal. More than 200 women and girls have accused him of sexually abusing them. He has pleaded guilty to state sexual-abuse charges in Michigan and to federal child-pornography charges, for which he is serving an effective life sentence. His medical license has been revoked.

Ms. Maroney stopped competing in gymnastics, descending into depression, listlessness and unexplained medical problems, says her father, Michael Maroney. “It was almost like watching somebody get crushed,” he says. The abuse, he says, “ruined something that you thought you’d be proud of for the rest of your life.”

This is the story of those dark years through the eyes of one of America’s most famous and cherished gymnasts, and of how Nassar’s acts—and the failure of powerful institutions—took a devastating toll on Ms. Maroney and left her parents racked with guilt.

Ms. Maroney this week spoke in public for the first time since coming forward with her Nassar allegations in an October tweet. “My team won gold medals in spite of USA Gymnastics, MSU and the USOC,” she said, speaking at the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and referring to the sport’s national governing body, Michigan State University and the U.S. Olympic Committee. “They don’t build champions. They break them.”

“They demanded excellence from me,” she said. “But they couldn’t give it to us.”

The account of what Ms. Maroney endured emerges from Wall Street Journal interviews with people who worked with Nassar and USA Gymnastics, with national-team gymnasts and their families and lawyers, and from court filings, police records and internal correspondence reviewed by or recounted to the Journal.

Nassar apologized to his victims in court but hasn’t publicly addressed Ms. Maroney’s allegations. He is appealing his federal sentence. His lawyer couldn’t be reached, and a former lawyer declined to comment.

As with nearly all of the athletes who accused Nassar of abusing them, Ms. Maroney long kept her concerns to herself, her father and others close to her say. She focused at all costs on succeeding as an elite gymnast and became a global celebrity at the London Olympics, when her “McKayla is not impressed” facial expression became an internet meme.

In 2015, Ms. Maroney spoke to an investigator hired by USA Gymnastics and described for the first time what Nassar did to her under the guise of medical treatment.

Inquiries into her allegations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation seemed to go nowhere for almost a year, while USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee stayed silent. As Nassar continued to treat patients, Ms. Maroney grew even more despairing as each day passed without the doctor’s arrest, her father says.

The FBI says it is “reviewing our role in the investigation of Mr. Nassar. We are unable to comment further.”

When Nassar was arrested in 2016, it had nothing to do with Olympic athletes. It involved his alleged sexual abuse of a family friend’s daughter. Nassar went to prison. Only then did the events Ms. Maroney set in motion begin to have far-reaching impact. Facing lawsuits and the threat of being kicked out of the Olympic movement, leadership at USA Gymnastics was toppled. The USOC head stepped down, with the organization citing health concerns. Michigan State, where Nassar worked for two decades, is under investigation by the Michigan Attorney General’s office.

USA Gymnastics said in a statement that it ��cannot know the depth of McKayla Maroney’s personal experience stemming from the abuse committed by Larry Nassar, but we are very sorry that McKayla and the other survivors were harmed by Nassar’s despicable actions.”

Susanne Lyons, acting CEO of the USOC, said in a statement: “The many brave survivors and their stories are bringing important changes to sports.” Michigan State didn’t respond to requests for comment. It has previously declined to comment on pending litigation.

The Karolyi ranch, the training ground for elite gymnastics run by legendary coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi and where much of Ms. Maroney’s abuse took place, has been all but abandoned. A lawyer for the Karolyis didn’t respond to requests for comment. The Karolyis have previously denied wrongdoing.

In recent months, former national-team gymnasts have started to make sense of their experiences with Nassar as more than just abuse. In lawsuits, interviews, congressional testimony and court statements, they have indicated they see the scandal as the product of a warped culture that prized money, medals and reputation above athletes’ well-being.

As long as USA Gymnastics produced results and had absolute power over gymnasts’ futures, no parent or gymnast would question the means by which Olympic squads were coached, selected or treated medically, they say.

Even if they had recognized Nassar’s treatments as abuse at the time, says Ms. Wieber, Ms. Maroney’s teammate, the gymnasts wouldn’t risk their chances at making the Olympic team. “USA Gymnastics created a culture of silence,” Ms. Wieber says. “We knew that if we spoke out, we wouldn’t have gotten chosen.”

USA Gymnastics in its statement said that it has taken steps “to build a culture of empowerment that encourages our athletes to speak up” and that it is “focused on doing everything we can to prevent this from happening in the future.”

A natural

From an early age, McKayla Maroney demonstrated remarkable athletic ability. She had a 3-foot vertical leap and could out-sprint the boys on the football team her father coached, he says. The vault, her signature event, made use of that speed and strength.

At age 14, Ms. Maroney was on the U.S. national team, under the command of Ms. Karolyi. The semi-centralized system meant Ms. Maroney spent most of her time training at her Southern California gym but reported nearly every month to the Karolyi ranch in Texas for dayslong camps.

Life on the team was isolating, team members, coaches and investigators say. Parents were kept at arm’s length. When the team traveled, USA Gymnastics booked a separate hotel for families. Parents were seldom allowed at the Karolyi ranch. There was almost no cellphone service.

The gymnasts were surrounded only by adults who had a role in preparing them for competition. Ms. Karolyi was notoriously exacting.

Deborah Daniels, a former federal prosecutor hired by USA Gymnastics to review the organization after the Nassar scandal broke, says the subjective judging on which elite women’s gymnastics is based makes athletes especially afraid to speak up and created “a particularly ripe environment for abuse.”

In some ways, Nassar seemed like a friend for the gymnasts—even a “miracle worker,” said Ms. Wieber in a court statement. He brought them food and always made time for them, she said. In lengthy, cheerful emails, Nassar described gymnasts’ injuries to USA Gymnastics officials, coaches and parents.

Nassar, an osteopathic physician, developed a reputation for what he called “pelvic floor treatment,” a rare but accepted physical therapy in which a doctor “adjusts” hard-to-reach muscles and ligaments by applying pressure to the vaginal and anal areas. He lectured on the procedure and created videos and PowerPoints to illustrate his technique, which he showed investigators when questioned about it.

Nassar provided medical care to gymnasts at the Karolyi ranch, often in an isolated room. He had unfettered access to gymnasts’ rooms there and in hotels on the road, Ms. Maroney and others have alleged.

In a lawsuit Ms. Maroney filed in December against the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics and others, she alleged Nassar began grooming her for abuse as soon as she joined the national team, using his position to “normalize intimate, inappropriate, and sexually abusive contact.”

Her suit also alleged Nassar “obsessively” photographed her. Nassar was an amateur photographer for USA Gymnastics, providing sideline photos at meets. He also photographed Ms. Maroney, say people familiar with the matter, in everyday circumstances: at airports, at the Karolyi ranch, in practices, walking around.

Ms. Wieber says she initially didn’t think of Nassar’s treatments as abuse. “We weren’t ever in a position to question his treatments,” she says. “It just felt like, at the point in time, that we needed him.”

In fact, as Nassar’s fixation on Ms. Maroney became increasingly obvious, Ms. Wieber says she would complain Ms. Maroney “got more treatment, and it wasn’t fair.”

In October 2011, a squad went to Tokyo for the world championships. On the flight, Ms. Maroney alleged in a victim-impact statement, Nassar gave her a pill to help her sleep. When they arrived in Japan, the gymnasts went for treatments in Nassar’s room.

Nassar climbed on top of Ms. Maroney, who lay facedown on a hotel bed disoriented from the pill, says a person familiar with the episode. He removed some of her clothing and, straddling her hips, reached his hand behind his back and put his fingers inside her, rubbing his erection against her body. In her October 2017 tweet, she said it was the “scariest night” of her life.

A day or so later, on the team vehicle, she said out loud: “He practically fingers me,” say people who were present. A coach— John Geddert, a longtime friend of Nassar’s—didn’t seem to notice, they say. Mr. Geddert didn’t respond to requests for comment. His lawyer declined to comment.

Ms. Maroney won gold on vault. When she returned from Japan, she seemed distant, says her father. “She didn’t hug me anymore.” He figured she was going through a teenage phase. When she appeared anxious before trips to the Karolyi ranch, he figured she was afraid of Ms. Karolyi.

He didn’t suspect sexual abuse and in hindsight is tormented by one moment. In June 2012, at the national championships in St. Louis, Mr. Maroney recalls, Nassar turned to him and said: “I love your daughter.”

“He looked at me,” Mr. Maroney says, “and it gave me the creeps.”

At the Olympics that summer, Ms. Maroney helped the team win gold, landing a near-perfect Amanar vault, one of gymnastics’ most challenging moves. Her chance at individual gold ended with a botched landing. Her pursed-lip expression on the medals stand became the “McKayla is not impressed” meme.

What the world didn’t know: Nassar had abused her the night before, she tweeted in October 2017.

When she landed the vault in the team competition, “it was the greatest moment of my life,” her father says.

“When I think about it now, it makes me want to throw up.”

Nassar’s downfall

After the 2012 Olympics, Nassar’s stature with the national team began to slip. In 2013, USA Gymnastics’ then-president, Steve Penny, began a reorganization of medical services, adding oversight to a program that was informal and inefficient, Mr. Penny says. Nassar had already been told to stop photographing the gymnasts, he says.

Nassar also had a close call. In the spring of 2014, Michigan State opened a Title IX investigation after a patient accused him of molesting her. The university cleared him. State police referred the case to local prosecutors, who didn’t bring charges. The investigations weren’t disclosed to USA Gymnastics, according to the national team and Michigan State.

Nassar still presented himself as the gymnasts’ protector. In July 2015, Ms. Raisman appeared in ESPN magazine’s “Body Issue.” Nassar emailed a USA Gymnastics official: “Really!?!?!?! Can’t they wait until they retire before they take their clothes off!”

At that time, Mr. Penny was scrambling to manage allegations against Nassar. On June 17, 2015, Mr. Penny received a call from a USA Gymnastics executive: A gymnast’s personal coach had overheard two gymnasts discussing concerns about Nassar’s treatment at the Karolyi ranch, the Journal reported in February 2017.

USA Gymnastics has said it didn’t immediately contact law enforcement. Instead, Mr. Penny hired Fran Sepler, an investigator, to speak with the gymnasts.

A USA Gymnastics lawyer emailed Nassar in July that “certain gymnasts had expressed discomfort” with “certain areas of their bodies being touched” and that the matter was under investigation, according to emails the Journal reviewed. Nassar responded that he didn’t intend to cause discomfort, offering to send videos of his treatments, the emails show. The lawyer told Nassar to keep his distance from USA Gymnastics. Weeks later, Nassar announced he was retiring.

Ms. Raisman says she made clear to USA Gymnastics officials that if Ms. Sepler wanted to talk to anybody about this, she had to talk to Ms. Maroney. Ms. Raisman says she, too, only realized she was abused in 2015 and blames institutions she says let her down. “I never should have ever met him.”

‘Broken’ body

By the summer of 2015, Ms. Maroney at age 19 was home in the Los Angeles area pursuing a music career, all but retired from gymnastics.

After London, she had resumed training, defending her world title on vault in 2013. But her “whole body felt like it was broken,” she said in a video interview, aired in February 2016, with Jessica O’Beirne, who runs a popular gymnastics podcast.

Ms. Maroney was struggling with unexplained illnesses, she said in her lawsuit. She had no energy and couldn’t keep food down. “It’s weird what depression can do to you,” she said in the podcast interview.

Mr. Penny had stayed in touch with Ms. Maroney, offering to help launch her music career. On July 22, 2015, he sent her a text with a more urgent request: I need to talk to you.

Two days later, she met with Ms. Sepler in Los Angeles. Afterward, Ms. Sepler told Mr. Penny that Ms. Maroney had described likely sexual assault and recommended reporting the matter to law enforcement, according to emails and a person familiar with the exchange.

Mr. Penny called Scott Blackmun, then the USOC’s chief executive, to tell him about the allegations, the Journal reported in February 2018. On July 28, 2015, Mr. Penny and Paul Parilla —then the vice chairman of the USA Gymnastics board—went with the organization’s legal counsel to meet with FBI officials in Indianapolis.

Mr. Parilla didn’t respond to requests for comment. Mr. Blackmun declined to comment; he previously told the Journal he encouraged Mr. Penny to turn the matter over to law enforcement. In a statement provided by a spokeswoman, Ms. Sepler said her role had been to determine “if certain concerns raised were legitimate, and I determined in just a matter of days that they were.”

So began a nine-month period in which abuse allegations against Nassar languished with federal law enforcement. From July to September, Mr. Penny emailed with FBI agents in Indianapolis, offering to arrange interviews and provide information, and seeking approval and advice on communications with third parties, including Nassar, say people familiar with the emails.

Mr. Penny’s lawyer, Leigh Robie, says he sought guidance because he didn’t want to do anything that would compromise the investigation or the athletes’ privacy.

Mr. Penny tried to arrange FBI interviews with at least two gymnasts, including Ms. Maroney, whom he called “the most aggrieved party,” says one of the people familiar with the emails. A proposed meeting between Ms. Maroney and FBI agents in Indianapolis didn’t take place, Mr. Maroney says.

In September, an FBI agent told Mr. Penny the case would be transferred to Detroit, in Nassar’s home state, the people familiar with the emails say. Instead of an in-person meeting, an FBI agent spoke with Ms. Maroney over the phone, the people say. The agent in charge of the Indianapolis field office wrote to Mr. Penny that “pertinent interviews” had been completed and sent to the Detroit FBI and to a federal prosecutors’ office in Michigan, they say.

Neither the Indianapolis nor Detroit field office opened a formal investigation, say people familiar with the episode. Ms. Maroney didn’t hear from the FBI office again, these people say. Other gymnasts say FBI agents didn’t reach out to them at the time.

Months went by, Nassar wasn’t arrested, and Ms. Maroney’s depression appeared to worsen, her father says. He thinks she had concealed the abuse even from herself. “You put it in a little place in your brain,” he says. “You hide it.”

In February 2016, Mr. Penny met Ms. Maroney at a Malibu restaurant, along with her mother and a friend of Ms. Maroney’s, for what Mr. Penny recalls as a casual get-together while he was in town. One of the other people at the lunch says Mr. Penny seemed anxious that Ms. Maroney hadn’t done any promotional work for the coming Rio Olympics.

Through Ms. Robie, Mr. Penny says that he had been concerned about Ms. Maroney’s well-being and that they discussed possible musical opportunities for her, including at USA Gymnastics events.

Mr. Penny tried to assure Ms. Maroney change was under way at the Karolyi ranch. “A lot happened” at the Karolyi ranch, she told him, her eyes welling up with tears, says the person present.

“We failed you,” Mr. Penny replied, this person recalls. “And for that I’m never going to be able to apologize enough.” Mr. Penny, through Ms. Robie, says he “didn’t recall his exact words, but the sentiment was consistent with how he felt.”

That spring, Messrs. Penny and Parilla reported Nassar to the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, and agents there opened an official investigation.

In August 2016, the Indianapolis Star began publishing a series of articles about sexual abuse in youth gymnastics, and two gymnasts filed claims against Nassar in a police report and lawsuit, respectively. A subsequent article about those claims surprised some USA Gymnastics board members, who say they hadn’t been told of allegations against Nassar.

In November 2016, Nassar was arrested on state sexual-abuse charges in Michigan. The following month, federal prosecutors charged him with child-pornography counts.

As women came forward that autumn with allegations against Nassar, secret settlement negotiations were under way between USA Gymnastics and Ms. Maroney, whose father had hired lawyer Gloria Allred to go after the organization.

Ms. Maroney and her parents met with a mediator in Los Angeles, according to people familiar with the meeting. For the first time, five years after it happened, Mr. Maroney heard his daughter describe her Tokyo experience.

USA Gymnastics representatives, including Mr. Penny and lawyer Margaret Holm, were in a separate room from the Maroneys and their lawyers, including Ms. Allred, while the mediator moved between the two parties, according to people with direct knowledge of the discussions.

During the discussions, USA Gymnastics representatives asked Ms. Maroney for details about her abuse, while encouraging her to take less money than the family had previously sought and to sign a nondisclosure agreement, several of the people say.

Mr. Maroney says USA Gymnastics told the family, through the two parties’ lawyers and the mediator, that the organization only had up to $6 million in insurance coverage and had to save for other possible settlements. “They wanted to help the other girls,” Mr. Maroney says he was told.

Ms. Maroney felt the discussions were like a “brutal cross-examination,” says a person familiar with them.

Ms. Allred took Ms. Maroney out of the room, and Ms. Maroney called her father. “Dad, I can’t handle this,” her father says she told him. “Money isn’t that important.”

Ms. Holm declines to comment on the mediation process but disputes the description of the discussions. “I take great pride in representing my clients, and showing great respect to parties who have brought suits,” she says.

Ms. Maroney signed a confidential settlement on Dec. 30, 2016, for $1.25 million, the Journal reported in December 2017. By then, scores of women had filed police claims against Nassar. Several had also filed civil claims against USA Gymnastics, Michigan State and others.

The USA Gymnastics board wasn’t told of Ms. Maroney’s confidential settlement, a former board member says. The board learned a year later, when Ms. Maroney asked in her lawsuit to be released from her nondisclosure agreement.

Ms. Maroney said in her October 2017 Twitter post she was abused by Nassar. Including Ms. Maroney, four of the “Fierce Five” have come forward to say they are victims of Nassar.

Ms. Maroney largely disappeared from the public eye, apart from a victim-impact statement read on her behalf at Nassar’s January state sentencing. She remains “fragile,” her father says, and disheartened she might not be remembered as a “world-class athlete” but as a victim.

“In my whole gymnastics career, I was trained to be quiet,” Ms. Maroney said in her New York appearance this week. She said her parents, like those of teammates, are struggling with guilt for having failed to recognize Nassar’s abuse.

“I, at times,” she said, “question whether my gymnastics career was worth it.”

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kyluxtrashpit · 7 years ago

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Writing Meme

So I wasn’t actually tagged in this, but I saw it going around a while back and I was trying to write but it turns out writing + muscle relaxants is not a good combo, thus instead of actually writing I’m just going to talk about my writing because why the hell not

What’s your total word count on AO3?

286801. Which, uh, um, wow, excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor. And that’s not including a number of tumblr only fics for both this fandom and my previous one. I honestly feel like I haven’t written a lot because 90% of my fics are short and I’ve only been writing fic since 2015 (we’re not going to count those fumbles back when I was like 14 on quizilla lmao), but I guess if you write enough short things, they do eventually add up haha

How often do you write?

I make random notes of ideas and such all the time, but as in actually sitting down and writing? It depends on my mood. There are times I write for hours every day for a week. There are times when I haven’t touched a single document in weeks. Writing is, unfortunately, a hobby for me and when irl gets stupid or the brain gremlins are acting up, it’s one of the first things that falls to the wayside because it does take a lot of mental energy. But the groove does always come back eventually. I only force myself when I can take it, mentally, so mostly I’m just floating on inspiration

(The rest is behind a cut because I really rambled a lot here, wow. And if you’re on mobile, I am so sorry)

Do you have a routine for writing?

Not really. I basically sit down, make sure I have a beverage and maybe some snacks (usually something like chocolate chips or m&ms - simple sugars help you think by giving you energy without taking much to digest them. It’s a trick I used for university), and put in headphones with music. For music, I tend towards instrumentals, be that classical or video game soundtracks, just because having lyrics can confuse my brain if I’m not focusing well. Atmospheric (storms, ocean, etc.) also sometimes work. I also tend to have a game of solitaire open in the background, for when I need to pause and think but I need to still be doing something just to keep the flow going

What are your favorite kinks/tropes/pairings?

I mean, I am all about d/s dynamics, sub!Kylo especially, in case you hadn’t noticed lmao. That’s my bread and butter. So mostly I like anything that goes with that (also like, not necessarily orgasm denial proper, but any sexual act where only one party gets gratification out of it is hnng). Here’s random list of other kinks I like in no particular order: begging, desperation, dirty talk, overstimulation, multiple orgasms, weird kinks, objectification, petplay, etc. I love far too many to ever list them all lmao

As for tropes, I love to say I’m a fan of slow burm and mutual pining but in truth I’m suffering the whole time lmao. I think there’s no further proof that I’m a masochist than the amount of them I read. Forced proximity is always fun, especially with unintentional bonding/intimacy. Love love love themes with mental health issues. Hurt/comfort and angst with a happy ending are also like, the good shit. Oooh and let’s not forget touch starvation. Although one of my favourite tropes in the kylux fandom is the ‘overly specific au’ fics that we have. It’s like a specialty here and I love it

As for pairings, I tend to only write one at a time, so right now it’s just kylux. I like some others (finnrey, stormpilot, benpoe, reysma, etc.) but my general fandom experience is one ship grabbing me by the short hairs and that’s just what I do now haha. I have branched out on occasion before, so who knows, maybe it will happen again?

Do you have a favorite fic of yours?

This is... really difficult tbh. There’s a handful that have special places in my heart (as in mostly the long ones lmao; anything 10k+ is a miracle for me). But if I had to choose, I would pick Fractured. Not necessarily because I think it’s my best story or the one that I would most want to read if I hadn’t written it, but because from a storytelling standpoint it is by far the most difficult and ambitious thing I’ve ever done. Because of the way I did it (and I honestly believe the way I did it was the way I had to do it) with the flashbacks basically made it 2 stories in one, except those 2 stories were also part of a larger, third story that combined them both. Editing was a nightmare (reading just the present scenes, just the past scenes, and then the whole thing together to make sure the flow worked after every chapter, plus all the usual nightmares of editing), the subject matter was heavy and hard to write, and the whole thing took me a year to actually get ready to even post. It was gruelling and it was basically just me sitting by myself for a year bouncing ideas around until they congealed enough to actually be a story lmao. I have never outlined so much in my life. But I’m also obscenely proud of how it turned out given all I went through to make it exist, which is why I’m picking it

Your fic with the most kudos?

This award goes to Touch which, while I’m not really surprised by that, is a fic I still have a complicated relationship with. It was my second ever kylux fic and the first with smut and also my true introduction to the absolutely insane amount of feedback you can get in a big fandom (as compared to my previous one, at least). However, it was also the fic where I had accidentally copied another writer in a few sections. Even though we worked it out, I apologized, both publicly and privately, and made some edits as well as giving credit to the author, I still feel bad about it nearly 2 years later. It’s the one fic of mine I really don’t think about often as a result, despite it’s success

Anything you don’t like about your writing?

I wish I was better at holding the flow/continuity. This is a large part of why I don’t write a lot of long fics, but I just have so much trouble with it. As a result, you may have noticed that I do a lot of timeskips, which leaves my longer fics as basically just all the scenes I thought where important with nothing between them except horizontal lines. And I know a bad scene transition is worse than just doing a jump, but damn, I really wish I could get things to flow better in that specific regard. Inside a scene? Easy, I can do that. But getting my scenes to link together into a coherent narrative with an overarching plot? Eh, not confident I pull that off very well. I think the way I do it does work, but I also think the stories would be better if I could find a way to not do that

Now something you do like?

I really do think I do a good job at writing in character and particularly in getting inside the character’s heads. From what I can tell, I tend to write more like an rper than I do an actual author in that I’m basically getting into the character’s heads and letting it evolve organically from there. Sure, I have a basic plan as to where things are going, but the little details and the introspection tend to be more gleaned in the moment from what the character wants. I love getting into deep POV and I think I do a good job of it. I’ve had some people tell me my writing is too introspective but like, that is what I enjoy in fic, both reading and writing. And also that is how I experience the world; my ultimate goal is to make the reader really understand what it’s like to experience the world as the character who’s perspective I’m writing from. And I think I am moderately successful at that, though I’m sure I still have more to learn

#stealing memes because this is my blog and I can do whatever I want lmao #I'm sorry my mood is very Weird right now #but on the bright side my jaw has finally relaxed for the first time in about a week #anyway here's a ramble because no one was around to stop me #also not tagging anyone because I stole this #now let's see if I can actually manage to get something done on this consentacles thing that has stolen all my attention #shut up nerd #kylux #things I am tagged in #not really but that's the meme tag

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buttonholedlife · 5 years ago

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Over a decade later, I'm still fascinated by Techno Viking

More than a decade after its own launch, I'm still captivated due to the notorious Techno Viking online video.

There is actually something indescribably fascinating regarding it. I discover myself watching the clip at the very least numerous opportunities a year. I can easily try to detail it, however its own enigma steers clear of writing. Every little bit of information in the online video just falls perfectly in to spot, as if it was presented. However it had not been.

Where perform I start? Bear along with me throughout this review-- or even scroll up to see the actual video first.

The video clip opens along with a girl in a bright, cyan hairpiece awkwardly dancing to a techno keep track of ("Sat nav" through Can-D-Music) in broad daytime. She is actually certainly not the only subject matter visible-- she's dancing following to a crowd of ravers-- but she is actually undoubtedly the concentration of the acton approximately that factor. Out of nowhere, a noticeably drunk guy enter the structure as well as quite aggressively run across her.

It is actually unclear if his actions are actually willful, however he promptly starts strolling away after running into the female. This is when the actual protagonist of the video clip come in: the guy currently notoriously called the techno viking.

Shirtless, the techno viking grabs the intoxicated man through the wrist, and promptly captures his various other hand, too. The techno viking, who's completely mounted as well as wearing denim shorts, mean-mugs the intoxicated guy, tells him off, as well as releases him, directing in a direction past the frame. The intoxicated male starts walking in that direction, and also leaves the structure.

The techno viking maintains mean-mugging him, gazing at him for a great 10 seconds. He then elevates his hands again as well as-- I take up-- keeps directing at the intoxicated man for one more 6 secs a minimum of.

Then, virtually as if on hint, an arbitrary person strolling in from the history pulls a canteen away from his bag, approaches the techno buccaneer, as well as floats the bottle-- which somehow he stores bottom-side-up-- right facing the techno viking's face. Without even switching his head, the techno viking grabs the bottle, and only then acknowledges the male by glancing in his direction.

He opens up the bottle as well as arises to drink from it. A few gulps later on, he returns the bottle to the fella.

There's no saying to if there is actually something in the water, however the techno viking appears refreshed. He instantly begins dance in an ahead motion, every move of his sticking right to the rhythm of the track in the background. The group that was lethargically dancing currently follows him as he marches ahead.

An additional random gentleman surfaces from the group and also hands the techno viking a leaflet. Again, without even switching his mind, the techno buccaneer grabs the leaflet, still softly dance. The men departures the framework. The monitor in the history modifications ("Save Modifications and also Departure" by Winstan vs. Noia). The techno viking pauses momentarily to take a peek at the brochure. He then closes it, points at someone out of view and mumbles one thing indistinctly, as he at the same time tears the leaflet apart and also drops its to the ground. He's dancing throughout all of this.

The cameraperson briefly switches their lense to the left behind to expose the techno buccaneer was talking with the guy who initially ran across the female in the cyan hairpiece. They then flip the lense backto the techno viking who's still dancing. At some time, one more guy moves toward the techno buccaneer, that shifts to engage in discussion, and also ignores the cam.

The video clip fades to black and our company see an intertitle reading "Fuckparade, 2000." Fin.

Numerous have tried creating the video clip in several parodies, however none of them pretty capture the state of mind and characteristics of the online video with the same credibility as well as proximity. You may immediately tell they're-- at ideal-- low-priced duplicates of the authentic.

They are actually clearly considered and also choreographed, yet still seem to be much less staged and also choreographic than the real online video. Gone is actually the bizarre dynamism and changability. They also underdeliver as apologies, considering that there's nothing at all specifically comical concerning them.

Techno Viking: the beginning tale

The video recording, which was initially tape-recorded through performer Matthias Fritsch at the Fuckparade in Berlin in 2000, was very first discharged in 2001. It failed to, having said that, obtain interest until a user re-uploaded it to YouTube in 2005, and also it subsequently went virus-like in 2007 after carrying out the spheres on different notification boards.

For those strange, Fuckparade was conceived as a counter-demonstration to Love Parade-- a large electronic songs dancing event which originated in 1989 in West Berlin.

As Affection Procession turned into a mainstream sensation, enticing thousands of guests, it removed certain more speculative noises that were actually when important to the festival. This didn't sit well along with some hardcore supporters, so they booted off Fuckparade to commemorate these "forbidden" styles.

The techno viking was actually, presumably, some of these followers.

According to reports from 2010, the Techno Viking footage has actually amassed over 20 million views, however the actual amount is actually much higher today. Definitely, the 1st handful of end results on YouTube have virtually 40 million sights combined. Fritsch claims the video clip has even more drawn in over 700 "remix" models and also reaction video recordings.

Despite all this focus the video clip has actually created, the identification of the techno viking remains a mystery. A lot of have ventured the techno buccaneer made a look in a German body building series referred to as Raab in Gefahr in 2009, yet the proof isn't really effective. Some have advised the male in the video recording is in fact former UFC boxer Keith Jardine.

Still, an attorney embodying the undisclosed techno viking insurance claims he has actually certainly never been a public body, nor possesses he ever meant to turn into one.

All we understand is actually the techno viking had not been a large fan of the Techno Viking video clip. That is actually likewise why there's a legal representative entailed in this story.

Shortly after the online video went viral, Fritsch was actually come close to with some deals to profit off of the notoriety of Techno Viking. Along with placing adds on the clip, the musician also crafted as well as sold a small volume of Techno Viking merch.

In overdue 2009, a lawful agent delivered Fritsch an end as well as end letter on account of the techno viking. The letter asserted Fritsch's use the video recording breached the techno buccaneer's civil rights, and also required it be removed right away. It additionally forbid the performer from marketing merch (he had actually only sold an overall of regarding $14,000 really worth of products during the time).

Factors deviated for the even worse when the techno viking took Fritsch to courthouse in 2013. Later on this year, the courtroom regulationed in benefit of the unnamed techno buccaneer, ordering Fritsch to pay EUR13,000 (nearly $14,400) in loss as well as an extra EUR10,000 ($11,050) in courthouse charges.

The musician was actually additionally ordered to stop making use of the techno viking's photo.

Life after "death"

While the undisclosed techno viking efficiently blocked Fritsch coming from utilizing his photo in his art, that didn't deter the artist coming from more working toward the story.

Fritsch later on ran an Indiegogo initiative, seeking to bring up funds for a film entitled The Story of Technoviking, which he ultimately discharged in 2015.

In the documentary, Fritsch observes the folklore of the Techno Viking coming from its birth at Fuckparade in 2000, to its surge as a virus-like phenomenon around 2007, and its own succeeding commencement into the meme empire. The film also looks into the ethical as well as lawful conundrum of that owns the photo of the Techno Viking: the anonymous lead character, the performer, or even the we, the net.

I'm certainly not one of these individuals to comment, "Who's enjoying it in 2020?" under online videos, but there is actually a single thing I recognize for certain: the magnetism of the Techno Viking video is infinite, and also I do not doubt I'll discover myself watching it in 2020-- and in 2021, in 2022, as well as so on.

Due to the fact that Techno Viking is going to for life stay on in the kingdom of memes.

This content was originally published here.

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theteenagetrickster · 5 years ago

Text

Over a years later, I am actually still fascinated by Techno Viking

Greater than a years after its own release, I am actually still captivated through the notorious Techno Viking video.

There is actually something indescribably eye-catching concerning it. I locate myself enjoying the clip at least numerous times a year. I can try to reveal it, however its own mystery dodges creating. Every little bit of detail in the video clip merely falls flawlessly in to location, as if it was organized. It wasn't.

Where do I begin? Bear with me throughout this synopsis-- or even scroll up to check out the real online video first.

The video recording opens along with a woman in a promising, cyan wig unclearly dancing to a techno keep track of ("Sat nav" through Can-D-Music) in wide daytime. She is actually not the only subject matter in view-- she is actually dancing upcoming to a group of ravers-- however she's undoubtedly the concentration of the acton around that factor. Away from no place, a noticeably drunk guy steps in to the framework as well as relatively boldy bumps in to her.

It is actually not clear if his activities are deliberate, but he swiftly starts leaving after running across the lady. This is when the genuine lead character of the video come in: the male now once called the techno viking.

Shirtless, the techno viking grabs the inebriated man due to the hand, and also promptly records his other arm, too. The techno buccaneer, who's completely jacked as well as putting on denim pants, mean-mugs the drunk guy, informs him off, and releases him, pointing in a path past the frame. The inebriated male begins strolling in that path, and leaves behind the structure.

The techno buccaneer always keeps mean-mugging him, staring at him for a really good 10 secs. He then lifts his hands once again as well as-- I take on-- keeps directing at the drunk guy for yet another six few seconds at the very least.

Just about as if on signal, a random fella walking in from the history takes a water bottle out of his bag, undertakes the techno viking, as well as hovers the container-- which for some reason he keeps bottom-side-up-- right in front of the techno viking's face. Without also turning his mind, the techno viking grabs the container, and merely then recognizes the man by glimpsing in his path.

He opens liquor and also arises to consume coming from it. A couple of gulps eventually, he returns liquor to the guy.

There is actually no telling if there is actually something in the water, yet the techno viking seems invigorated. He promptly begins dance in a, every step of his sticking right to the rhythm of the track behind-the-scenes. The group that was lethargically dancing right now observes him as he marches onward.

Yet another arbitrary men emerges coming from the crowd and also palms the techno viking a leaflet. Once again, without also turning his head, the techno viking grabs the brochure, still gently dancing. The men departures the structure. The monitor in the background adjustments ("Save Adjustments and Leave" by Winstan vs. Noia). The techno viking stops briefly for an instant to take a peek at the brochure. He then folds it, aspects at an individual hidden and mumbles one thing indistinctly, as he all at once tears the leaflet apart as well as falls its to the ground. He's dancing throughout all of this.

The cameraperson briefly turns their lens to the delegated to disclose the techno buccaneer was speaking with the fella who actually encountered the girl in the cyan hairpiece. They then flip the lens backto the techno viking that is actually still dancing. At some aspect, an additional man moves toward the techno buccaneer, that shifts to talk, and also leaves the video camera.

The online video vanishes to black and also we view an intertitle analysis "Fuckparade, 2000." Fin.

Many have tried taking on the video in different apologies, yet none rather grab the mood and aspects of the video recording with the same credibility and also proximity. You may instantly tell they're-- at greatest-- economical duplicates of the authentic.

They are actually precisely considered and also choreographed, yet still seem to be much less staged as well as choreographic than the genuine online video. Gone is actually the strange dynamism and unpredictability. They likewise underdeliver as apologies, because there's absolutely nothing particularly comical regarding them.

Techno Viking: the source story

The video recording, which was originally videotaped through musician Matthias Fritsch at the Fuckparade in Berlin in 2000, was first released in 2001. It didn't, nevertheless, receive focus until an individual re-uploaded it to YouTube in 2005, and also it subsequently went viral in 2007 after doing the spheres on various message panels.

For those unfamiliar, Fuckparade was actually become pregnant as a counter-demonstration to Affection Procession-- a big electronic popular music dance event which came from 1989 in West Berlin.

As Passion Procession turned into a mainstream phenomenon, drawing in countless participants, it eliminated certain much more speculative sounds that were actually the moment indispensable to the festivity. This really did not agree with some hardcore fans, so they started Fuckparade to celebrate these "restricted" genres.

The techno viking was, presumably, some of these fans.

According to files coming from 2010, the Techno Viking footage has amassed over twenty thousand perspectives, yet the actual amount is actually considerably greater today. Undoubtedly, the initial few end results on YouTube possess almost 40 million views mixed. Fritsch professes the video recording has actually better enticed over 700 "remix" versions and reaction videos.

Regardless of all this focus the video has created, the identification of the techno buccaneer continues to be a secret. Many have actually speculated the techno viking made a look in a German bodybuilding show referred to as Raab in Gefahr in 2009, but the proof isn't definitely effective. Some have actually recommended the guy in the online video is really previous UFC boxer Keith Jardine.

Still, an attorney representing the anonymous techno viking cases he has never ever been actually a somebody, nor has he ever before meant to end up being one.

All our company recognize is actually the techno buccaneer wasn't a large enthusiast of the Techno Viking online video. That is actually also why there's a legal professional associated with this account.

Shortly after the video clip went viral, Fritsch was actually come close to with some deals to profit off of the notoriety of Techno Viking. Along with putting advertisements on the clip, the artist also crafted as well as offered a tiny amount of Techno Viking merch.

In late 2009, a lawful agent sent out Fritsch a cease and refrain letter on account of the techno viking. The character firmly insisted Fritsch's use the video breached the techno buccaneer's civil rights, and also demanded it be removed promptly. It also forbid the musician coming from offering merch (he had actually just marketed a total amount of about $14,000 worth of items at that time).

Traits took a turn for the even worse when the techno viking took Fritsch to courthouse in 2013. Later on this year, the court reigned in benefit of the anonymous techno viking, buying Fritsch to spend EUR13,000 (virtually $14,400) in loss as well as an additional EUR10,000 ($11,050) in court fees.

The musician was likewise ordered to cease using the techno viking's image.

Lifestyle after "death"

While the undisclosed techno viking successfully obstructed Fritsch from utilizing his picture in his art, that failed to hinder the musician coming from additional seeking the tale.

Fritsch later operated an Indiegogo initiative, finding to bring up funds for a documentary labelled The Account of Technoviking, which he ultimately discharged in 2015.

In the docudrama, Fritsch complies with the legend of the Techno Viking from its own birth at Fuckparade in 2000, to its blast as a viral phenomenon around 2007, and also its own subsequent launch in to the meme empire. The motion picture also looks into the honest as well as lawful quandary of that has the image of the Techno Viking: the unmarked lead character, the performer, or the our team, the net.

I am actually not one of these individuals to comment, "That's viewing it in 2020?" under videos, yet there is actually the main thing I know without a doubt: the magnetism of the Techno Viking video is eternal, and I don't doubt I'll discover on my own enjoying it in 2020-- and in 2021, in 2022, and more.

Due to the fact that Techno Viking is going to for life live on in the kingdom of memes.

This content was originally published here.

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makeitwithmike · 8 years ago

Text

The Things Brands Do on Social Media That People Hate

By Evan LePage

Having your brand on social media is a no-brainer. With enough how-to and best practice documentation out there to exceed Gmail’s current inbox capacity, the vast majority of organizations know what they need to do to build an active and healthy social media presence.

What isn’t so obvious, however, is what not to do.

We asked our Twitter followers what they felt are the biggest social media no-nos that brands commit. This is what they told us.

Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence with Hootsuite.

Too much focus on self-promotion over engagement

@hootsuite Those who have one-way communication with viewers. Never responding to concerns or comments, where negative or positive.

— Austin Fisher (@Stuxain) May 15, 2017

Of all answers provided by our Twitter followers, this was the most common. People are frustrated by brands that treat social media as a firehose for one-way promotional material rather than two way conversation—essentially removing the “social” aspect of social media.

Social media has the power to connect you with your followers for personal interactions. To miss out on this isn’t just a waste, it’s actually damaging to your business. The users who follow you on social media are expecting this type of engagement, and when all they get is your latest sales pitch, you’re going to end up building negative sentiment around your brand.

On social media only the best content survives. By only creating content that focuses on your brand, and your brand alone, you’re wasting your efforts and missing opportunities to engage and delight. This content won’t get shared or make an impact. Creating content that is shareable, memorable, and provides followers with some sort of value is the way to succeed on social while not annoying your audience.

Jumping on any and every trend

@hootsuite Posting absolutely unrelated memes, especially those you’ve seen a million times before.

— Casey Telford // (@CaseyRecklessPR) July 20, 2015

One of the ways brands try to reach audiences on social media is by tapping into cultural references, news stories, and memes. This approach can make brands more relatable and add a personal feel to corporate social profiles.

When done right, the impact can be fantastic. Poorly executed, it turns into trend-jacking that almost certainly damages your brand. It annoys users who think you’re trying to capitalize on a piece of news or cultural tidbit that has nothing to do with you.

So how do you avoid all of these risks and use trends in the right way? Here are a few rules to follow.

Remember, stick to your brand voice. Don’t ditch your normal tone in order to fit in. Instead, choose trends and references that will interest your audience and apply to your product.

Next, consider the meaning behind any trending event or hashtag. Is it a story that incites debate, or has passionate people split into two sides? Then it’s probably best to avoid it unless the debate is light (like #thedress).

Is it a political or sensitive subject? We recommend sidestepping it altogether, unless you want your business to take a stand (#LoveWins, for example). Is there any reason your brand would associate itself with the story? Your accounting firm will seem out of place talking about the MTV video awards, but might offer a helpful perspective when talking about why presidential candidates release tax information.

Finally, try and join in the conversation, not be the conversation. If people are talking, strive to contribute to that discussion. Don’t co-opt it and try to shift focus to yourself. Just like in real life, it’s annoying. People will ignore you—or worse—they might go out of their way to bash your efforts.

Don’t be afraid of trends, just approach them the right way considering all of the above rules. Doing so will open you up to a massive potential audience and help your brand make an impact on social media.

#way #too #many #hashtags #and #emoji 🤕

@hootsuite When they use too many hashtags. It’s a cry for recognition.

— Lennon Cihak (@LennonCihak) May 15, 2017

Thankfully, the trend of using a bajillion hashtags on every post is nearly dead. Most brands have gotten wise to the annoying hashtag racket, and know to focus on a few thoughtfully chosen and relevant ones.

Unfortunately, following in that trend’s place is the excessive use of emoji—small graphical icons used to visually express a thought, feeling, idea, or event. They are being overused as much as hashtags used to be, and seemingly without any real reason.

Emoji are a great way to add a visual element to your message. But, please, for the love of all things good on the internet, use them sparingly.

Silence, especially in response to critical comments

Don’t ignore your users—especially when they’re being critical of your brand. Social media gives you the chance to gain control of a situation, and being silent isn’t the right way to handle it. Address concerns to the best of your ability, apologize if necessary, escalate if required, and move on.

We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: never, ever, delete a reasonable complaint on one of your social properties. This is a sure-fire way to create bad buzz around your brand and hurt your reputation. When you respond, regardless of the issue at hand, at least people know that you’re listening.

In fact, silence is a bad approach on social media all around—not just in the face of criticism. People follow you for a reason, and it sure isn’t for that one tweet you publish every three weeks. You should be posting on a consistent schedule, even if it means curating content from other sources.

Bad customer support

In a similar vein, customer support issues being ignored are a regular source of frustration for social media users. If your business is on social media, you should be prepared for customer service questions.

Having a customer service strategy in place will help you avoid many of the issues that arise from a simple lack of preparation. A good social media dashboard will allow you to assign messages to your support staff or other employees who might be more knowledgeable on the subject.

Either way, make sure people’s questions get answered and concerns get addressed. Ignoring them will put your reputation at risk.

We want brands to succeed in social, and that comes with being a good netizen. Above are some clear cut examples of what not to do as a brand on social media. However, not every scenario will be this obvious. If in doubt, err on the side of caution. Because managing fallout is infinitely more difficult than simply not posting in the first place.

This post was original published in July 2015. It was been updated with files from Andrew Pressault.

The post The Things Brands Do on Social Media That People Hate appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management.

The post The Things Brands Do on Social Media That People Hate appeared first on Make It With Michael.

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unifiedsocialblog · 8 years ago

Text

The Things Brands Do on Social Media That People Hate

What isn’t so obvious, however, is what not to do.

We asked our Twitter followers what they felt are the biggest social media no-nos that brands commit. This is what they told us.

Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence with Hootsuite.

Too much focus on self-promotion over engagement

@hootsuite Those who have one-way communication with viewers. Never responding to concerns or comments, where negative or positive.

— Austin Fisher (@Stuxain) May 15, 2017

Jumping on any and every trend

@hootsuite Posting absolutely unrelated memes, especially those you've seen a million times before.

— Casey Telford // (@CaseyRecklessPR) July 20, 2015

So how do you avoid all of these risks and use trends in the right way? Here are a few rules to follow.

Remember, stick to your brand voice. Don’t ditch your normal tone in order to fit in. Instead, choose trends and references that will interest your audience and apply to your product.

#way #too #many #hashtags #and #emoji 🙄 🤕 😒

@hootsuite When they use too many hashtags. It's a cry for recognition.

— Lennon Cihak (@LennonCihak) May 15, 2017

Emoji are a great way to add a visual element to your message. But, please, for the love of all things good on the internet, use them sparingly. 🙏

Silence, especially in response to critical comments

Bad customer support

Either way, make sure people’s questions get answered and concerns get addressed. Ignoring them will put your reputation at risk.

This post was original published in July 2015. It was been updated with files from Andrew Pressault.

The post The Things Brands Do on Social Media That People Hate appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management.

The Things Brands Do on Social Media That People Hate published first on your-t1-blog-url

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pressography-blog1 · 8 years ago

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These Failed Apps Discovered a Hidden Rule of the Net

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These Failed Apps Discovered a Hidden Rule of the Net

our days after the election of Donald Trump, the previous CEO of a failed nameless social media app tweeted: “Mystery V2 is coming. It’s too crucial for it to now not exist.” Approximately a year and a 1/2 in advance, Secret had shut down, beaten by means of a plague of cyberbullying and competition from Yik Yak. However, as America awoke to the fact that polling and facts had did not seize the political leanings of the use, the power of the unstated turned into extra apparent than ever. Shell-stunned Democrats have been viewing their extra proper-leaning buddies and circle of relatives with newly skeptical eyes, thinking in the event that they had saved quiet on mainstream social media for worry of being attacked.

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Meanwhile, on Reddit, a network of diehard Trump supporters had swelled to a few 270,000 subscribers—now almost 380,000—sharing memes, discussing their fervor for Trump and dislike of Clinton, and, yes, penning a few loosely coded bigotry below the shelter of anonymity. There, legions of Trump supporters felt unfastened to explicit their opinions. However, a liberal voter who didn’t realize to visit /r/The_Donald may in no way see those points of view. That type of disconnect raised a question in the thoughts of Mystery’s former CEO, David Byttow: Would the sector look substantially one-of-a-kind to us if the people in our social networks didn’t feel like they had to censor their mind?

The unique Mystery app, which released in early 2014, allowed customers to publish anonymously and think about anonymous posts from their buddies, in what Byttow expected because of the “anti-Facebook, wherein you may clearly say shit that represents your most true self, as opposed to your first-class self.”

At their top, Mystery and similarly anonymous apps like Yik Yak and Whisper have been hailed because of the future of social media — an antidote to the actual call controversies on Fb and the quite polished, hyper-curated look of Instagram. anonymous apps harkened lower back to the bare-bones message forums that added early internet way of life to lifestyles, However, reinvented them for the social community age. But in spite of a collective $2 hundred million in funding, anonymity has remained a form of kryptonite for social apps. The purpose is simple: An online social community serves one motive, to attach people. Without names attached, humans’ words emerge as both mean — or meaningless.

After they first showed up, identification-loose social media apps were a viral hit—together with on my own university campus. For most of my time at university, the nameless discussion became constrained to the “anonymous confessions board,” a rudimentary forum moderated by using, to the pleasant of every person’s information, an unmarried student. The ACB wasn’t wildly famous, and it carried a positive stigma; it becomes the kind of web page you’d delete from your “pinnacle sites” to keep away from getting appears out of your pals in the library. Once, I used it to discover a misplaced coat.

Then in the fall of 2014, Yik Yak took off — and the ACB went quiet. All at once, it seemed like every scholar was on the app, filling it with snarky one-liners, observations, birthday party promotions, and, at instances, malicious gossip. My friends and I gleefully texted every different screenshot whilst certainly, one of our Yaks made it onto the “hot” web page and earned masses of upvotes. It was the correct procrastination device — the ACB long gone mainstream and gussied up with a slick layout. Yik Yak, of course, had even loftier targets, envisioning itself as the Twitter of the more youthful technology.

In the meantime Mystery exploded in its very own right, gaining notoriety as a hub of insidery, Silicon Valley gossip — the sort of area wherein one might visit unfold rumors of an Evernote acquisition, or discuss which startups use marijuana as an interview intimidation tactic. Secret and Yik Yak grew speedy, elevating $35 million and $seventy-three.five million respectively of their first seven months. They have been distinctly addictive: Byttow says that to this present day, people inform him they Could compulsively delete and reinstall Mystery, their preference to forestall losing hours at the app at struggle with their FOMO. He was hoping to build Mystery right into an authentic rival to Instagram and Facebook, and for a time it regarded that his dream might come true: After scoring its first taste of virality in its birthplace of Silicon Valley, Mystery went on to snag the #1 app store down load spot in eight international locations. However with recognition got here a more risk of mistakes — and greater scrutiny. As Yik Yak unfolds throughout college and high faculty campuses, dad and mom and directors grew involved that it was facilitating cyberbullying. Schools commenced banning the app from their networks and begging college students to delete it from their phones. The secret, too, proved extraordinarily tough to slight as its consumer base accelerated. Byttow says the group “couldn’t comprise it, could not manage it, and it caused us to lose sight of that authentic vision.” The bad posts, no longer the apps’ different attributes, got here to shape their reputations. “Abruptly you had numerous humans spending a splendid quantity of time accomplishing activities on These anonymous apps,” says Karen North, the director of the College of Southern California’s digital social media software. The discovery of the apps’ dark content material kicked off a flurry of bad press. “It changed into the complicated behaviors that made it newsworthy, instead of the anonymity of it,” says North. Both companies scrambled to clean up their posts. Mystery built out a crew of ninety full-time moderators, But nevertheless observed that effective moderation demanded sources it couldn’t muster. Due to the fact the app targeted around buddy businesses, abusive content might be nuanced or coded, and moderating it required knowledge the context of the social group wherein it changed into posted. Yik Yak made greater drastic layout adjustments—and Discovered that its actions alienated users. In August of 2016, Yik Yak made its previously non-obligatory “handles” mandatory, underneath the idea that pseudonyms Could make users more liable for their posts, curtailing trolls. customers protested, arguing that handles had been “contrary to the whole idea of Yik Yak.” The corporation backtracked in November, apologizing and making handles elective yet again, but the harm has been achieved. The app’s middle customers, who’d flocked to it in component for the salacious content material only possible beneath overall anonymity, had misplaced hobby. Once I checked in on my alma mater’s Yak scene currently, the posts at the “warm” feed, As soon as adorned with loads of upvotes, topped out at About 30.

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Whisper, In the meantime, neither rose as excessive nor fell as some distance as either Mystery or Yik Yak. It aspires to be a social network that doesn’t depend on a social graph. The app has capabilities for locating people nearby or forming companies, but the feed defaults to displaying users famous posts from all around the world. The end result is far less deeply offensive fabric—which can be the motive for whispers staying power. “In case you need to imply to someone, it’s vital to you if they see it — there’s no point in it in the event that they’re never going to see the submit,” says Jeremy Liew, a accomplice at Lightspeed Ventures, which led Whisper’s $3 million series A funding round. It’s a whole lot much less pleasant to be a bully if your sufferer doesn’t ever word. Whisper has tackled its own moderation demanding situations the usage of a system gaining knowledge of system it’s dubbed “The Arbiter,” which automatically gets rid of posts that violate its hints. A big safety team of over 130 human beings is also available to address better-level flags that the AI would possibly omit. However Without links to friends or applicable groups, Whisper has the main trouble: It receives uninteresting, speedy. The app is smooth, civil — and wholly inappropriate to the general public. In April 2015, Secret folded. with the aid of December 2016, Yik Yak had laid off 60 percent of its body of workers, and last month The Verge pronounced that the employer is pivoting toward a non-anonymous university direction collaboration chat app. Whisper, In the meantime, has rebranded as a “media organization of the future,” and is currently the 86th-most-downloaded social networking app inside the iOS store — proper underneath a difficult to understand app that says to assist customers to advantage loose Snapchat fans.

From the bulletin boards of the early internet to the subreddits of these days, anonymity has continually had a place on the line. However, as Mystery, Yik Yak, and Whisper all Located, nameless social networks are something of an oxymoron. An anonymous app that relies on social connections to be applicable all too effortlessly breeds foul conduct, and speedy turns into antisocial. A nameless app that lacks actual-international social or geographical ties, In the meantime, struggles to be addictive. What do paintings, greater or much less, is a nameless or pseudonymous institution that forms round an interest, where someone’s identity subjects less than their willingness to interact on a shared passion. In Byttow’s view, a fatal flaw of nameless social media is that using the apps doesn’t pay dividends. users can’t construct relationships or burnish their own reputations even as running Without names. Occasionally, human beings may have a few statistics they’d like to proportion with the arena With out revealing their identity, But that’s no longer enough to maintain a community. What makes an app sticky is effective reinforcement: more fans, greater pals, greater retweets. “For the maximum element humans need to speak with a target market,” says North. “human beings need a credit score for what they’ve stated and accomplished. Anonymity flies inside the face of humans’ need to have acknowledgment.”

Epic Fail

nonetheless, Byttow is making an attempt once more, with the second one coming of Mystery. He’s now growing it as a facet assignment, so among the demanding situations continue to be unsolved. He plans to make it invite-most effective, to preserve it intentionally small and conceivable. That might surmount the moderation venture, and maybe assist it to keep an experience of network—in the mean time, Byttow says he’s “interested in quickly as a minimum using it with my friends, and seeing what takes place with it.” In setting their attractions on turning into the anti-Fb or Twitter for technology Z, the builders of nameless social media apps made some of the miscalculations. The largest might well be the truth that their reward systems, consisting of upvotes, don’t expand to real-global identities. as a minimum that became the case for me: After enough of my college-era Yaks made it onto the recent feed, I were given bored with texting my pals screenshots…and started tweeting, rather.

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