Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,Fuck you.
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Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,
Fuck you. Get off Fedi. No one wants you here.Dear Mutual Aid Requesters,
Don't act like scammers, spammers, or bots—otherwise you get treated like them. Instead, build community and friends here. Contribute positively. Then folx will want to help you.Dear Adult Content Posters,
Don't post other folx' nudes without consent. It makes you look like spammers and bots; and it's considered Image-Based Sexual Abuse, as well as copyright infringement—both of which are illegal. Instead, boost local sexworkers / content creators and post your own stuff. Build something positive.Dear Reply Guys, Sea Lions, and Concern Trolls,
Just stop. Also, you used the wrong *their* again.Dear Everyone,
Be kind. Support marginalized communities. Write good alt-text. Report predatory accounts. And keep being lovely 💞Let's keep Fedi from becoming Twitter, together.
We've got a good thing here.
/endRant
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Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,
Fuck you. Get off Fedi. No one wants you here.Dear Mutual Aid Requesters,
Don't act like scammers, spammers, or bots—otherwise you get treated like them. Instead, build community and friends here. Contribute positively. Then folx will want to help you.Dear Adult Content Posters,
Don't post other folx' nudes without consent. It makes you look like spammers and bots; and it's considered Image-Based Sexual Abuse, as well as copyright infringement—both of which are illegal. Instead, boost local sexworkers / content creators and post your own stuff. Build something positive.Dear Reply Guys, Sea Lions, and Concern Trolls,
Just stop. Also, you used the wrong *their* again.Dear Everyone,
Be kind. Support marginalized communities. Write good alt-text. Report predatory accounts. And keep being lovely 💞Let's keep Fedi from becoming Twitter, together.
We've got a good thing here.
/endRant
@alice re #2: I always feel really bad when I have to block an account requesting mutual aid, but I have a clear boundary in my bio, mostly to filter out bots. If you feel the need to tag people in your requests, be careful and make sure it's people who consent to that! Or just use hashtags and groups, and most of us that you might be tempted to tag will still see it
Re #3: if you feel no one wants to see your own body, you're probably wrong! We all have different tastes, and consent is tasty 😋
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@xenophora@mastodon.art @alice@lgbtqia.space But in a capitalist world even sexworkers have to take advantage of the system and protect what they use to earn money. Most of the time people's photos get reposted without consent because people try to gain an advantage for themselves, like scam others or sell that. For all other cases I think its more adequate to explain that by morale, that its wrong to repost them and people need to evolve on a personal level to understand that.
In a socialist world there wouldn't be much of a reason for people to copy them without asking for permission.I mean, sure but also I’m not going to poke the law bear if I can possibly avoid it, especially in the name of grabbing up something that isn’t rightfully mine to promote or propagate.
I don’t do erotic art, but I do have a Creative Commons-tagged page with the old ads I use often for my artwork. The least I can do for interested people is remind them that “I own nothing” aside from the finished works which I assembled and modified myself...
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This rant brought to you by the spam accounts and bigoted trolls I suspended his morning, and the reply guys and death threats I've received since posting it.
Edited for inclusivity.
@alice Well, it's nice you set up your post to provide examples.
I'm busy blocking away (of course then I no longer see the examples, but ya know, I'm ok with that!)
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I mean, sure but also I’m not going to poke the law bear if I can possibly avoid it, especially in the name of grabbing up something that isn’t rightfully mine to promote or propagate.
I don’t do erotic art, but I do have a Creative Commons-tagged page with the old ads I use often for my artwork. The least I can do for interested people is remind them that “I own nothing” aside from the finished works which I assembled and modified myself...
…I do put the “Big C” on my finished works. And I broke the bridge on the hosting site that readily allows people to just willy-nilly dump it all over FB. If nothing else, it reminds people that a real person is behind this thing and maybe think of that when you view.
There’s such an abundance of works out there, erotic and otherwise, that I think it’s easy to forget about the people who actually made it.
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@alice Not that it’s happened to me, but marking NSFW content as NSFW is also a big one. Thankfully, defederating from servers that DON’T enforce this rule is a lifesaver, but it’s good practice nonetheless!
@moshimotsu I'm not a fan of the term NSFW because sex work *is* work, but I do believe folx should appropriately tag potentially upsetting posts and blur anything spicier than a Victoria's Secret ad. Filters are a great way to, well, filter so many things if people are kind enough to put filterable keywords in the post, hashtags, and/or alt-text.
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Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,
Fuck you. Get off Fedi. No one wants you here.Dear Mutual Aid Requesters,
Don't act like scammers, spammers, or bots—otherwise you get treated like them. Instead, build community and friends here. Contribute positively. Then folx will want to help you.Dear Adult Content Posters,
Don't post other folx' nudes without consent. It makes you look like spammers and bots; and it's considered Image-Based Sexual Abuse, as well as copyright infringement—both of which are illegal. Instead, boost local sexworkers / content creators and post your own stuff. Build something positive.Dear Reply Guys, Sea Lions, and Concern Trolls,
Just stop. Also, you used the wrong *their* again.Dear Everyone,
Be kind. Support marginalized communities. Write good alt-text. Report predatory accounts. And keep being lovely 💞Let's keep Fedi from becoming Twitter, together.
We've got a good thing here.
/endRant
@alice There are two (afaik) bots that I deliberately follow, for my own mental well being. The Frog and Toad bot and the Murderbot bot. The rest can get in the damn bin.
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@alice@lgbtqia.space Copyright's only purpose is to protect the capitalist's property.
@nyovaya @alice Modern copyright's primary purpose is to protect the capitalist's property. Ideally, we would abolish it. That doesn't mean we can't take advantage of it while it exists, so long as we don't confuse our means and ends and start strengthening copyright to preserve our abuse-prevention workflows. (You may be familiar with copyleft, which makes copyright eat itself.)
In jurisdictions where image subject rights are weak, (strong) copyrights can serve as ersatz.
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This discomfort has been attributed to a bogeyman, a construct called "reply guys". Guess what? It's quite normal for people to want to share their ideas and reaction to your ideas. That's why it's called "social" media.
So how do we assuage these concerns? Perhaps Fedi platforms, such as Mastodon, should default to a more restrictive setting on who can reply to your toots. Anyone can change the settings in their personal preferences, though newcomers find it too inconvenient.
2/n
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@alice DEATH THREATS????
C'mon, guys! (I dare assume they were all male). Would it kill you to act like actual humans for change???
(I choose to believe "decent person not making death threats at folk" is a baseline human characteristic. Call me naive.)
@Longspeak I tend to get one or two whenever I have a "controversial"¹ post go viral on Fedi.
¹ here, controversial means "one that challenges some small percentage of men to do better in a way that makes them feel bad".
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@alice Well, it's nice you set up your post to provide examples.
I'm busy blocking away (of course then I no longer see the examples, but ya know, I'm ok with that!)
@mlippert it's a public service honey pot.
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@WeirdWriter some folx seem to feel personally challenged and shamed when someone posts negatively about a behavior they engage in. And rather than learning from that example that others' experiences of the world are different, they seek to justify themselves by minimizing the perceived threat—often going so far as to harass the original poster into silence so they can feel like they proved they "aren't like that".
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Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,
Fuck you. Get off Fedi. No one wants you here.Dear Mutual Aid Requesters,
Don't act like scammers, spammers, or bots—otherwise you get treated like them. Instead, build community and friends here. Contribute positively. Then folx will want to help you.Dear Adult Content Posters,
Don't post other folx' nudes without consent. It makes you look like spammers and bots; and it's considered Image-Based Sexual Abuse, as well as copyright infringement—both of which are illegal. Instead, boost local sexworkers / content creators and post your own stuff. Build something positive.Dear Reply Guys, Sea Lions, and Concern Trolls,
Just stop. Also, you used the wrong *their* again.Dear Everyone,
Be kind. Support marginalized communities. Write good alt-text. Report predatory accounts. And keep being lovely 💞Let's keep Fedi from becoming Twitter, together.
We've got a good thing here.
/endRant
@alice from here it seems I've given you your 451st boost on this, so, congratulations I suppose on reaching a literarily significant number.
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Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,
Fuck you. Get off Fedi. No one wants you here.Dear Mutual Aid Requesters,
Don't act like scammers, spammers, or bots—otherwise you get treated like them. Instead, build community and friends here. Contribute positively. Then folx will want to help you.Dear Adult Content Posters,
Don't post other folx' nudes without consent. It makes you look like spammers and bots; and it's considered Image-Based Sexual Abuse, as well as copyright infringement—both of which are illegal. Instead, boost local sexworkers / content creators and post your own stuff. Build something positive.Dear Reply Guys, Sea Lions, and Concern Trolls,
Just stop. Also, you used the wrong *their* again.Dear Everyone,
Be kind. Support marginalized communities. Write good alt-text. Report predatory accounts. And keep being lovely 💞Let's keep Fedi from becoming Twitter, together.
We've got a good thing here.
/endRant
I feel I should clarify something from my original post; I *want* Fedi to be a place of support and mutual aid. We're all better when we help each other.
My issue is with accounts whose only contributions to Fedi are photos of suffering children and pleas for urgent assistance. I have reported so many Gaza mutual aid scam accounts from folx using the same photos with different names across dozens of accounts.
It's a needle in a haystack problem; *some* of these accounts are real people in need, but *so many* are scams. I'm sure there's *someone* out there on Fedi that desperately needs $300USD for their 6 month old child's insulin his month, but it seems unlikely that there are several each day, and that they're all asking me using the same post template.
So what I'm saying is: if you need mutual aid, please differentiate yourself from the scams and bot accounts. One way to do that is by engaging with folx like a normal person, and not by jumping on trending posts or into my DMs with mutual aid requests that look like *every* search result for a profile with "chuffed.org" in the bio that's been suspended for spamming folx mentions.
I want to help, but if your plea looks like a scam, I can't. I don't have the resources to thoroughly research every person who asks me to support their Chuffed campaign, and if I promote accounts and campaigns that exhibit bad behavior on Fedi, then my followers stop believing in my ability to point them at good causes...and when that happens, no one gets the aid they need and deserve.
The best way to convince me that you're not a scam is by treating me like a person, not a collection of followers that can boost your reach.
Queer issues are where I typically focus my resources, but I do stand with Palestine. The ongoing genocide surrounding Gaza is horrific.
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I feel I should clarify something from my original post; I *want* Fedi to be a place of support and mutual aid. We're all better when we help each other.
My issue is with accounts whose only contributions to Fedi are photos of suffering children and pleas for urgent assistance. I have reported so many Gaza mutual aid scam accounts from folx using the same photos with different names across dozens of accounts.
It's a needle in a haystack problem; *some* of these accounts are real people in need, but *so many* are scams. I'm sure there's *someone* out there on Fedi that desperately needs $300USD for their 6 month old child's insulin his month, but it seems unlikely that there are several each day, and that they're all asking me using the same post template.
So what I'm saying is: if you need mutual aid, please differentiate yourself from the scams and bot accounts. One way to do that is by engaging with folx like a normal person, and not by jumping on trending posts or into my DMs with mutual aid requests that look like *every* search result for a profile with "chuffed.org" in the bio that's been suspended for spamming folx mentions.
I want to help, but if your plea looks like a scam, I can't. I don't have the resources to thoroughly research every person who asks me to support their Chuffed campaign, and if I promote accounts and campaigns that exhibit bad behavior on Fedi, then my followers stop believing in my ability to point them at good causes...and when that happens, no one gets the aid they need and deserve.
The best way to convince me that you're not a scam is by treating me like a person, not a collection of followers that can boost your reach.
Queer issues are where I typically focus my resources, but I do stand with Palestine. The ongoing genocide surrounding Gaza is horrific.
i literally thought gaza-verified was a scam due to so many scammers using the tag (now that i know where the horse's mouth actually is i'm pretty sure it's legit)
i hate scammers so fucking much. eroding trust among good people is the worst crime
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@Longspeak I tend to get one or two whenever I have a "controversial"¹ post go viral on Fedi.
¹ here, controversial means "one that challenges some small percentage of men to do better in a way that makes them feel bad".
@alice Yuk. Sorry you have to deal with that shit. I propose a different word for them. Or a different word for me. I would just rather not identify with people like that.
"Whiny, Hateful Insecure, Pathetically Partisan, Egregious, Recalcitrant Sexists of No Particular Potential or Emotional Resilience."
That's a mouthful, so I'll just call them W.H.I.P.P.E.R.S.N.A.P.P.E.Rs
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I feel I should clarify something from my original post; I *want* Fedi to be a place of support and mutual aid. We're all better when we help each other.
My issue is with accounts whose only contributions to Fedi are photos of suffering children and pleas for urgent assistance. I have reported so many Gaza mutual aid scam accounts from folx using the same photos with different names across dozens of accounts.
It's a needle in a haystack problem; *some* of these accounts are real people in need, but *so many* are scams. I'm sure there's *someone* out there on Fedi that desperately needs $300USD for their 6 month old child's insulin his month, but it seems unlikely that there are several each day, and that they're all asking me using the same post template.
So what I'm saying is: if you need mutual aid, please differentiate yourself from the scams and bot accounts. One way to do that is by engaging with folx like a normal person, and not by jumping on trending posts or into my DMs with mutual aid requests that look like *every* search result for a profile with "chuffed.org" in the bio that's been suspended for spamming folx mentions.
I want to help, but if your plea looks like a scam, I can't. I don't have the resources to thoroughly research every person who asks me to support their Chuffed campaign, and if I promote accounts and campaigns that exhibit bad behavior on Fedi, then my followers stop believing in my ability to point them at good causes...and when that happens, no one gets the aid they need and deserve.
The best way to convince me that you're not a scam is by treating me like a person, not a collection of followers that can boost your reach.
Queer issues are where I typically focus my resources, but I do stand with Palestine. The ongoing genocide surrounding Gaza is horrific.
@alice I got too many of that :c
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I feel I should clarify something from my original post; I *want* Fedi to be a place of support and mutual aid. We're all better when we help each other.
My issue is with accounts whose only contributions to Fedi are photos of suffering children and pleas for urgent assistance. I have reported so many Gaza mutual aid scam accounts from folx using the same photos with different names across dozens of accounts.
It's a needle in a haystack problem; *some* of these accounts are real people in need, but *so many* are scams. I'm sure there's *someone* out there on Fedi that desperately needs $300USD for their 6 month old child's insulin his month, but it seems unlikely that there are several each day, and that they're all asking me using the same post template.
So what I'm saying is: if you need mutual aid, please differentiate yourself from the scams and bot accounts. One way to do that is by engaging with folx like a normal person, and not by jumping on trending posts or into my DMs with mutual aid requests that look like *every* search result for a profile with "chuffed.org" in the bio that's been suspended for spamming folx mentions.
I want to help, but if your plea looks like a scam, I can't. I don't have the resources to thoroughly research every person who asks me to support their Chuffed campaign, and if I promote accounts and campaigns that exhibit bad behavior on Fedi, then my followers stop believing in my ability to point them at good causes...and when that happens, no one gets the aid they need and deserve.
The best way to convince me that you're not a scam is by treating me like a person, not a collection of followers that can boost your reach.
Queer issues are where I typically focus my resources, but I do stand with Palestine. The ongoing genocide surrounding Gaza is horrific.
@alice So. Much. This. Thank You.
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i literally thought gaza-verified was a scam due to so many scammers using the tag (now that i know where the horse's mouth actually is i'm pretty sure it's legit)
i hate scammers so fucking much. eroding trust among good people is the worst crime
@matildalove yeah, Aral and the Gaza-verified program are great.
Unfortunately, being verified as a real person doesn't mean you don't also come with some spammy habits.
