JUST LETTING Y'ALL KNOW WHERE THIS BLOG STANDS.

Reblog every time it hits my Dash

New AO3 spam/scam tactic

Heeeey all. I've posted a lot about the AO3 comments scams that have been going around since late 2024, and yesterday, I shared a well-sourced video that discusses the explosion of long con scams in general since 2020. For anyone who's curious about this kind of thing, those links might be useful for you, but I think they also help explain why this comment I got a few days ago immediately pinged my scam radar:

(Yes, since then, AO3 support has responded to me and confirmed that the account is posting spam. I'm not slandering some random new user)

I think that covers my main reasons for immediately being suspicious. I wanted to explain them because a lot of people I've spoken to about these spam comments don't suspect them right away. And it really sucks having to be paranoid, but here we are ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As I mentioned, AO3 confirmed that the comment was spam, and they took it down. I also saw another comment from the same scam account yesterday, but by the time I got the reply from AO3 this morning, that comment was gone. So it may be that they're mass deleting comments by those spam accounts now? If anyone has insight on this, I'd love to know.

Anyway, just to give another example of the wording of the comment, here's a screenshot of it:

Vague again, and the fic was a one-shot, so mentioning a chapter is fishy.

I hope this helps prevent a few people from getting sucked into these long con scams. I still don't know exactly how they play out beyond the scammers offering to do paid art commissions, but obviously, they're making money with the comments or they wouldn't be flooding AO3 with them.

good morning soft sad freaks on an unprofitable website

We literally cannot let them start charging 80 dollars for video games 70 dollars was already outrageous 60 was pushing it. 80 fucking dollars. ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR DAMN MIND. For MARIO?!?!?!?!?

If we don’t buy it, they’ll lower the price, just like the 3DS. They make more money from 2 million people buying it at $60 than 1 million at $80

Don't even buy the console, don't let them think they can get away with this

I refuse to live in a world where a console cartridge costs eighty fucking dollars

If you live in the USA and you're pleading for donations to pay your rent, bills, or get food then dial 211! Please dial 211 before the last minute!

It's a toll free service with people who will help you find programs in your community to pay those bills, find food, and find housing! They will give you numbers to call so you can get help.

It is not 100% foolproof. Their job is to direct you to a program they believe will help your current issue, but it's still a step up from praying random strangers online will give you enough cash before a deadline! The added benefit of these community programs, which get funded by the local government most of the time, is if there are more people using them then they can get more money to help more people.

You're not taking resources from other people if you use your community services. Your taxes pay for them. Use them.

Dial 211 first to see if they can help, and if for some reason they can't, then make your donation posts!

https://www.211.org/

Hi I work for my state's 211 service. It really breaks my heart how many people only know to call us at the last minute. 211's can provide a whole wealth of resources to use before things ever get to a cut off utility, eviction, or homelessness!

I can't speak for all 211's but most should also have a website detailing all the agencies in their database. if you don't like phone calls, this can be something to reference instead.

If you don't have health insurance but you need to see a doctor, reference 211! We list clinics that provide free or discounted general care, vision, and dental services to low income households and people without insurance! Many hospitals also have financial aid policies that can severely reduce your bill if you had an expensive procedure!

If you're stuck in a dead end job or need educational resources reference 211! There are a lot of programs focused on providing basic adult education as well as trade skills or other high demand fields! State governments are generally more interested in funneling people into work than providing benefits, but you can still use this to your advantage especially if you have some form of disability but are still able to work. That includes if you're neurodiverse or have mental health issues! Most of these programs are extremely underutilized.

If you believe you qualify for public benefits but the bureaucracy of the process is in your way, reference 211! There are agencies specifically geared towards helping people obtain the benefits they qualify for- for free!

If you need help with your taxes-

If you need help finding a pro bono lawyer-

If you need help finding affordable housing/section 8 housing-

If you need help finding food pantries-

If you need help paying for your prescriptions-

If you need help obtaining disability aids or assistive technology-

If you need help finding transportation options-

If you need help following a natural or personal disaster (like a home fire)-

If you need help repairing a home you or your family owns or it needs modifications to be accessible-

If you need Queer resources-

Reference your 211!!!!!

I had no idea what 211 was before working for it but I wish I had. I've learned so much about what resources are actually available to the community even in a ho hum area of the country like my state. I've saved my partner literally thousands of dollars just from the medical resources I've gathered.

Not enough young people know about or utilize these services but they are there for you!

P. S.

This isn't an intended use of 211, but I like to reference the agency listings when I look for jobs. Many of the agencies listed are non-profits which, while they certainly are not perfect, generally have lower barriers of entry to decent paying jobs with benefits. The work environments tend to be much kinder and at least pretend to be forward thinking. You're more likely to find jobs without as many people applying as well, especially if they're only advertising their positions through their own website.

Hey i’m a fashion design student so i have tons and tons of pdfs and docs with basic sewing techniques, pattern how-tos, and resources for fabric and trims. I’ve compiled it all into a shareable folder for anyone who wants to look into sewing and making their own clothing. I’ll be adding to this folder whenever i come across new resources

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16uhmMb8kE4P_vOSycr6XSa9zpmDijZSd?usp=sharing

Updated just now with new hand sewing resources (mainly buttonholes) and textbook pdfs on fashion history, fashion illustration, and thinking through designs!

OP I owe you my life

OP you are the greatest person currently in my life. You beautiful, thoughtful creature.

You are a saint thank you so much

@thiamma look!

Companion colour palettes from the official cosplay guides

Found myself needing the colours for everyone's outfits for reference more than once, so I finally sat down to pull myself together and make these. You can find the full guides on EA's official website.

Taash

Neve

Lucanis

Harding

Emmrich

Davrin

Bellara

via @swatercolor [insta]

This is the best tag I've ever received on a post, I think

pacific rim fucks severely for a lot of reasons but my favorite is that it opens with "the lizard aliens are unionizing so we built robots running on the power of love to fight them you got all that right" and before you have time to really process that concept bam gunshot body on the floor and the movie goes "now consider the vast power of grief in this setup" it never really stops considering

For anyone who hasn't been up to date on the clown show that is the American news, I'll give a quick recap because oh boy.

So Jeffrey Goldberg is the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. One day, he gets a notification on his phone from the messaging app "Signal". He sees that he's been added to a group chat called "Houthi PC small group". He thinks nothing of it at first, until a couple days later he sees on the news that the U.S. is bombing Yemen. He takes a look and sees that he has been added to a group chat by the National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.

Plenty of government officials including vice president JD Vance were in this conversation, and they were discussing their bombing on Yemen. And Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was added by mistake.

So Goldberg approached the White House, who confirmed that he had been accidentally added to the chat. He then posted part of the conversation in a news story on the front page of his news website, omitting any classified information as to not get arrested for that level of security breach.

The response from the administration has been wild. They're all smearing the journalist, obviously, but their responses at first varied from "he made it all up" to "he must've hacked is way in" to "big deal, people add people to group chats on accident all the time". Eventually, they were put in front of Congress to testify under oath, where they said that nothing in the conversation was classified information like military hours or types of weapons used.

In response, Goldberg said "Oh, so it's not classified? Okay then! That means I can do this," and then he released the full unedited conversation. The conversation was nothing but classified information like military hours and the types of weapons used.

Not only are they communicating on private phones on third party apps as a way to circumvent the Presidential Records Act (the chat was interestingly set to auto-delete messages after 4 weeks), but it really kinda highlights the incompetence of America's leadership right now.

They're not going to win.

Note: one thing was redacted- the name of an active field agent. But other than that? Yep.

Which means the editor of The Atlantic is more careful with agent identification than those fucking clowns.

Ingellvar Rook learning their speech patterns from Vorgoth, they've learnt to speak "normally" but every know and then when they are tired or emotional they slip back into "THE PORRIAGE WILL BE COOKED"

i had a 4 hour drive today so i put on the revenge of the sith audiobook and the part where palpatine tells anakin to kill dooku came on right around the time that i saw a cybertruck and for a brief and beautiful moment when he said "do it" i had the urge to ram my honda full on into that shitty ass car

Local dragon takes secret showers to avoid suspicion

Holy god. It’s the bomb of all Drama at work today.

Okay it might be less insane than previously thought.

Basically I got in and there was an email that there was a new policy on lunch breaks which is that we are required to clock out for 30 minutes for a meal break. Which wouldn’t be a problem except we’re often staffing stores alone. And the company was like “You’re not allowed to close the store, though, just clock out and don’t get paid for 30 minutes.”

This made a lot of people very unhappy and was widely regarded as a bad move.

So our manager was trying to go over the changes and I was like, “So I’m required to clock out for 30 minutes even if I’m alone in the store for the day.” Yes.

“I am going to leave the store. I am legally allowed to leave if you are not paying me.” You will get written up.

“That violates the labor laws and this company has had to pay for these violations previously. I will leave and look at birds.”

After a very long very aggressive meeting it turns out we might be able to waive the break and still get paid but calls are flying and we still have the right to clock out and close the store if we are working alone all day. The company loves to pretend that we do not.

Step-by-step walkthrough of how to push back on wage theft! Make them spell it out!

my cat hates taking his pills. the only way we can get him to eat them is to turn it into an elaborate pantomime - we take the packet out of the cupboard slowly and hold it up, saying “oh!! what’s this? what’s this? a TREAT? a TREAT for louis????” while making surprised faces. we offer him a pill… then, before he has a chance to sniff it, we wag our fingers at him and replace it in the packet so it becomes a Tantalising Forbidden Mystery. we continue doing this until he’s so confused and excited that he will eat the pill as fast as possible, just so he can find out what it is before we can take it away from him again. as soon as he’s eaten it he looks utterly disappointed and betrayed, like a child who just ate a delicious sweet only to find it was a chocolate-coated brussels sprout. it never gets old

Op this is the funniest thing I’ve ever read

op how could you just hide this from me in the tag this makes this objectively 10000000% funnier

50 First Doses

You trick Louis? You trick Louis like a common fool? Oh jail, jail for owners ONE MILLION YE-oh what’s this? A treat?

Not just any paper maps, they had textbook sized atlases of the entire delivery area with each street meticulously mapped out.

These were insanely handy and a new edition came out just about every year to stay up to date on construction and road changes. I remember stocking my car with these for any of the cities I tended to travel to because they were the only way to actually get anywhere unless you wanted to call a friend and get very in depth instructions on how to get there.

AAA is now mostly known for roadside assistance, but at one time their primary business was MAPS.

For a few bucks a month you could become a Triple-A member and yeah, roadside assistance was one of the perks. BUT ALSO you could pick up the phone, call their 1-800 number, and tell the human operator who answered that you were planning a road trip.

They'd get your starting and destination address. Ask a few questions: what kinds of hotels you liked, preferred gas stations, any interest in touristy things?

Then in 7 to 10 days you'd get a thick package in the mail of carefully customized maps. Each map was the size of a paperback book cover, perfect for holding in the passenger's or driver's lap. Each was enumerated starting at #1 and ending at #whatever number of minimaps the trip required, with a hand-drawn highlighter path drawn on the map marking the route from one edge to another; entrance & exit points for that section of the route.

Motels, gas stations, and (if requested) tourist traps were indicated in color coded ink -- again, by hand. Sometimes detours were drawn in red marker, overriding the printed map because AAA kept up to date on road closures & regional disasters.

These maps were customized for your particular trip, and were invaluable since GPS did not exist. Unless you were familiar with the local region, the alternative was buying a map at the next gas station and guessing.

GPS is amazing and I wouldn't want to give up the ease & simplicity of Google Maps, but my god the old tech was miraculous too in its own way.

I don't see people talking about this so today is the 110th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, in where the factory owners locked working women and girls inside to "eliminate the risk of theft" (in reality it was too keep them from taking breaks), which resulted in the gruesome deaths of 123 mostly immigrant women and girls and 23 men, many of whom jumped to their deaths from the ninth floor either in a panicked attempt to escape or in order to die quickly. There were reports that some of the workers were on fire already as they jumped.

The eighth floor of the building was able to telephone the tenth floor to warn them about the fire, but the factory on the ninth floor where these women and girls labored had no such communication and such warning.

The factory owners were criminally charged with manslaughter for actions that contributed to the mass deaths but acquitted. However, this tragedy led to mass sympathy to the labor movement, and unions spurred on safety regulations that passed in New York state and eventually the entire country, and activists were able to reduce child labor in the process.

This tragedy is a reminder that has been forgotten in the 110 years since: every safety regulation-- every scrap of paperwork contributing to the hundreds of pages of red tape people like to complain about--every word of it was written in the blood of a laborer.

111th anniversary

They were discouraged from breaks because they were actively trying to unionize, and bosses felt that keeping them from unsupervised contact would prevent them from joining the garment workers' union.

This is why unions are important. This is why today, right now, the biggest companies in America are trying to squash unionization of their laborers and why those workers are fighting so hard to unionize.

@tikkunolamorgtfo did a great write-up a few years ago about the aftermath of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, and I highly recommend reading it (and anything else you can about the fire). It is painfully relevant still and it's incredibly important women's, Jewish, immigrants', and workers' history.

#most of the girls working there were either jewish immmigrants or southern italian immigrants #two of the more exploited immigrant groups at the turn of the century particularly in nyc but elsewhere too #the labor history element of it can't be overemphasized tbh (x)