There’s a website where you can learn ASL (American Sign Language) on your own, free and it’s a 31 Day program! The woman on there, her name is Rochelle Barlow, she runs the site and she actually is a homeschool teacher and teaches ASL. I am passing this on to some of you guys cause most of y’all on here is open-minded and curious and it is something important to learn.
I truly believe this site is helpful for some people who can not afford to going to ASL classes, or someone like me that just enjoys learning something new. This site will help with that. Once you sign up you will put in your email address and Rochelle sends you emails on tips on how to sign, gives you practice sheets, and gives you your weekly videos. And its all online. No need to paying for anything. (Unless if you want to she has something very different to this program)
IMO and yes, this site is really amazing and is important because you never know if someone who is deaf or HOH needs help, if you end up losing your hearing ability this is something you will at least have on the back of your head, and it is just like any other language and should be taught.
The title says it all really. So if nothing else, please share and reblog this post to raise awareness for those that might be caught out – both artists and followers.
For a TL:DR, please look at the bottom of the post
What is happening?
Right now, there is at least one person actively impersonating multiple artists across tumblr in an effort to scam their followers into paying for fake ‘cheap commissions’.
The scammer will clone a tumblr, usually using a slight change to the url/account name to look like the real deal. They will then message people directly through Tumblr with messages along the lines of “Hey, i’m doing cheap commissions right now. DM me to get one”. Naturally, this is ends up just being a way to take their money without giving anything back in return.
Who does this affect?
Everyone. Simple as that. As long as the scammer in question works unopposed, they are free to spread their influence and continue to scam more people. Even if you haven’t been targeted yet, it does not mean you are safe or immune.
Several artists have already fallen victim to this scammer, and I encourage any artists that have to reblog this post with the details of their affected account(s) and the ones the scammer has set up.
How can we stop this?
Tumblr, like many other social media platforms, seems to care very little about ‘minor’ occurences like this one, and despite reaching out directly to them over a week ago through multiple avenues of contact – they have refused to comment on the situation, provide a recommended response for users, or take action on behalf of those already affected.
Despite this, there are still tools at our disposal that we can use to make this scam more difficult, and to increase its visibility to those within Tumblr staff that are required by policy to take action.
Tumblr has the following to say on the topic of impersonation:
Confusion or Impersonation. Don’t do things that would cause confusion between you or your blog and a person or company, like registering a deliberately confusing URL. Don’t impersonate anyone. While you’re free to ridicule, parody, or marvel at the alien beauty of Benedict Cumberbatch, you can’t pretend to actually be Benedict Cumberbatch.
They then provide a link to this online form that you can fill out if you suspect someone’s identity is being confused. Unfortunately, this can only be filled out if you are the victim of impersonation. In other words, only the artists can fill this out legitimately.
So, what about the followers and users of tumblr whom aren’t being impersonated?
Our most valuable tool in this online platform is the platform itself. It enables us to spread our word near-virally across all the many sub-communities on Tumblr with remarkable efficiency for a user-driven system. We can take advantage of that effect to increase awareness of the situation. Even if you – the one reading this right now – aren’t an artist or don’t know an artist, the act of reblogging this post or sharing it directly with friends improves it’s ‘ranking’ in popularity increasing its chances to be seen by more people.
We don’t need everyone on Tumblr to see the post for it to be effective, just like we don’t need the entirety of the human population of the world to be immune to a disease for that disease to be rendered ineffective or eradicated. If enough people are aware, the likelihood of pulling off a successful scam increases dramatically reducing efficiency to a point that it no longer becomes profitable to continue.
Why should I care?
It disheartens me to say this, but of the many artists I contacted directly over the past week to warn about this issue many of them refused to listen or dodged the responsibility with lines like;
“I’m not being impersonated, so it doesn’t affect me”
“I’m just one person. I can’t make an impact”
“I need to take care of my community. Other people can look after theirs”
This is honestly disappointing that so many artists or art-rebloggers care so little as to intentionally wave the responsibility of keeping their followers and fellow artists safe from this, that they cannot spare 10 seconds of their time to share an informative post.
I’m not here to bash artists, but it is time that everyone takes responsibility for their own communities, and of those around them.
Artists: You have a responsibility to ensure that your followers and fans aren’t being abused by someone who may impersonate you. If they succeed, your reputation will be damaged, and your followers will resent you. Your followers are also almost guaranteed to be following other artists meaning your efforts can spread beyond your own circle of influence, so don’t be naive when you think you have little effect.
Followers: You have just as much responsibility to be aware of those that might try to scam you or your fellow followers. Don’t just sit in silence when you see something wrong: Ignoring the issue only makes it more resilient to our efforts to stop it. You are the vocal majority if you just use your voices to be heard!
TL:DR
A scammer is impersonating artists and scamming money from their followers under the guise of ‘cheap commissions’. If we ignore the issue, it will get worse.
Every single person that reads this can afford to spend just 10 seconds to reblog and share this post. Those 10 seconds can save others from being scammed for hundreds of dollars.
Reblog & Share
Spreading this just in case someone impersonate me. I never had to randomly go and tell to my followers that i’m open for commissions.
Just in case.
i will never dm you about cheap commissions because im stingy as fuck.
but then again if i offer deals, they will be announced on my blog , not personally or with dm’s
I work on a “you come to me for art” kind of thing. If for whatever reason I come to you for stuff I’m doing, well there you go. That ain’t me.
Not sure how true this is, but full disclosure:
I never contact people in order to advertise my commissions. My commissions are strictly advertised through my own personal posts and my commissions page. I don’t send DMs, I don’t send asks, I don’t send submissions or anything like that. I don’t solicit people directly for commissions, and I don’t contact people about flat rates. First off, you have explicitly to fill out an order form before I ever contact you personally about a commission, and it will be via the e-mail you provide on your commission form and not via a social media platform. Second, I haven’t charged flat rates in years; I wouldn’t be able to tell you up front if a commission is going to be cheap to advertise it that way anyways, as I price on an hourly basis. I don’t charge upfront as a result of this. Additionally, I send constant WIP updates to my clients before I EVER have you send even so much as a penny.
So, if you receive solicitation from “me” prior to having filled out one of my order form whether it’s asking if you want a commission or if it’s talking about flat rates/cheap prices, it is NOT me.
This article contains the phone numbers and links to Twitter accounts of the eight undecided senators. Get in touch with them and make your voice heard, even if you don’t live in any of their states.
quick protip: if someone is crying or freaking out over something minor, eg wifi not connecting, can’t find their hat, people talking too loud, do NOT tell them how small or petty the problem is to make it better. they know. they would probably love to calm down. you are doing the furthest possible thing from helping. people don’t have to earn expressions of feelings.
I’m just gonna put it out there that if someone’s freaking about something small, they’re really freaking out about something big that they’re trying to deal with, or something long term that’s been building up, and that little thing is the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I don’t know, try and give people the benefit of the doubt. Don’t be the next straw on their broken back.
Needed this today.
People don’t actually go from 0 to 60. If you think they did, you have failed to notice how long they’ve been at 59.
People don’t ‘overreact’, they react in exact accordance to how unable they are to cope with something. If how upset/angry they are doesn’t seem to be in line with how objectively small the problem is, there’s two things to consider:
1. As per the previous post, the small thing that’s happened is the straw that broke the camel’s back. They’ve barely been able to manage coping with everything else in their lives, and this ‘tiny’ thing is something they just don’t have any energy left to cope with.
2. You haven’t understood the weight of what has gone wrong. Maybe their wifi isn’t connecting and they won’t be able to speak to the one person who is able to comfort them. Or their phone is out of battery and now they won’t get a call about that job they wanted. Or maybe they’ve been genuinely triggered by something.
Remember: no one ‘overreacts’. You’ve just made a personal, subjective judgement that their reaction to something should be more like your personal reaction to it, which is unfair. People are all different and have different experiences. Instead of being judgemental and unhelpful and telling them to calm down and not overreact, try to understand why their reaction is so strong. Then perhaps you can actually help them.
“Writing gives me my voice, which is why my stories are in a constant state of flux. Even if I don’t change a word or a single letter, they move with me down corridors of memory, through seas of emotion, and into worlds both real and imaginary. As I change, they change, but even after days or months or years I can still find a version of myself (a time traveler from the past, present, or future) sitting there in the text and waiting to speak to me.” – Blaze
Just wanted to give a PSA that the @fandomtrumpshate auction is live for 2018! Bidding ends January 14th at 11:59 EST. There’re a ton of people offering fic/art/vids/podfic/betaing/etc for the MCU. And I noticed plenty of people saying they were poly-positive, if you’re into that! 😉
I bid on a few auctions last year; Mistakes Like This by seratonation and Becoming Real by iwillnotbecaged are two fics that made it on this blog (and hopefully another straggler will be coming in sometime soon!). I’d say it was overall a pretty good experience–the money goes directly to charity and not the people you bid on (you just provide proof of donation receipt to the auction organizers), so even if there was a case where an author didn’t come through with the final product, I didn’t feel too bad. At the end of the day, it’s about doing something good for the world–the fanfic is just a super-awesome bonus. ^_^
I’m getting excited for the bids this year, so I wanted to spread the word! If donating to charity and getting sweet, sweet fandom goodness at the end of it sounds fun to you, consider giving it a go!
You never know if someone needs this. Reblog this, even if its not your ‘blog type’. Just do it.
Yes, please reblog
Do it. Now.
i sat here and thought about reblogging this or not but then i realized how many peoplefeel suicidal, and i have too its not dan and phil but i could honestly care less, bc i rather have someone not die then make sure i strictly stay to my ‘blog type’
Blog type doesn’t matter. Caring for people does.
Please, I care about each and every one of you!!🌷You’re amazing and I love you!!⚘
This is Mason. He’s my mother’s cat and like another child to her. We took him from a druggie when he was a kitten, hardly even two months old, because she wasn’t feeding him properly (dog food) and leaving him alone for hours at a time with no water or biscuits.
Recently he’s started peeing a mixture of blood and urine after several days of limited tray use. He’s eating sort of regularly, and is well-hydrated to boot, but we’re honestly so worried right now (my mother was in tears because this cat is literally a child to her and I don’t know how she’d handle him being ill).
We called up PDSA today to ask for help with vet fees but we are apparently “outside the catchment area” for them to help us and Cats Protection doesn’t provide financial assistance for anything other than neutering. The vet we’re going to is not our usual one since our usual are generally considered to be shit (we’ve had several dogs die on us with them and it really doesn’t breed much trust).
Right off the bat we have a £30 consult fee to meet which we can sort of cover (moving money around, not paying this bill or that bill, limiting how much we buy for food etc) but we’re more concerned about any medication or, gods forbid, surgeries we may need to pay for afterwards.
If our financial situation was better and we could afford to actually
do this ourselves, believe me, we would. I am having to coast on what
I’ve already been given by those of you who have kindly given me money
for the past month and I’m still stuck until mid-February at the
earliest before I can be of any help in the household financially. My
mother isn’t much better off and neither of my brothers can help us out
with this (one of them has racked up a debt that is best not discussed
lest I hit him with something for being so darn stupid).
My Paypal is in my blog description but I’m also adding it here [https://www.paypal.me/kathryncowle0] to save time. I don’t really use any other means of money transaction because I don’t know any, so sorry if Paypal is a problem for anyone.
If any of you can help us out, please do. Even a pound will help in the long run. Please. I don’t want to lose another cat and I certainly don’t want my mother to lose hers because, honestly, this cat means everything to her and I’m so worried about how she’ll handle losing him.
Reblogged with the link FIXED. I didn’t even realise tumblr was trying to make this an internal blog link wtf (is this a conspiracy???)
Please stop giving away so much personal information about yourself.
It doesnt seem like it but your blog is visited by hundreds of people with hundreds of different intentions weekly (or hell daily if ur a popular blogger). And posting your height, age, gender, privileges, all of your triggers, gives away a lot of information that you may regret posting later on.
The internet is a very scary place. Full of people who could do you harm with that sort of information.
You all have to understand that nothing on the internet is ever truly deleted or gone. So you REALLY have to be careful about what you post and say.
A lot of you are keen to posting opinions online and as we all know on the internet opinions are going to anger a lot of people.
People could potentially track and harass you. It is a very dangerous world full of messed up people. And as minors you should all be very wary of who you trust online and think twice before you post something. Just posting “please dont follow if youre _____” isnt going to help from that.
ALSO
@ 14 year old side of Tumblr
Please stop posting your skype address.
I know it’s tempting to make new friends. And I know that faceless people are easier to talk to. But it’s dangerous. And we’re not trying to parent or berate you. We just want you to be safe.
Trust me.
Down the road you’re gonna realize you made a lot of dumb mistakes trying to be friends with the world. The world isn’t made of all friendly people. And I truly adore your optimism. I’m the same way.
But I’d rather you learn in a safe setting then after putting yourself in harms way.
Love,
the 21 year old side of Tumblr.
Signal boosting the hell out of this.
Protecting your privacy is a learned skill. It doesn’t come naturally, particularly on a media designed to allow you to connect with others. And we all want to connect with others.
But it’s an important skill. Gain awareness early, make good choices, do not put yourself in a position where days, months, years, or decades down the line someone will use your own data against you.
This is not about stranger danger, this is not about the older tumblr generation “not getting it” and adopting a helicopter parenting approach to their younger tumblr siblings’ online shenanigans.
This is about the older generation having experienced rapid changes in technology first hand and knowing that none of us can know what to expect next, that none of us can predict what uses people, businesses and governments will come up with next for your data.
We don’t know. You don’t know. And in many cases, they don’t know. Yet.
Look up the term “precautionary principle” on Wikipedia and aim to apply it. Protect your data, protect yourself, protect your future self.
For any of my younger followers.
And another big thing. The fact that you mutually follow each other means nothing. By all means talk to people but you’re NOT automatically friends. They’ve done nothing to earn your trust and you don’t know what they actually want. Don’t assume that everyone is automatically good and trustworthy.
I need all of my followers to see this. I don’t want y’all hurt.
Now that I’ve successfully sucked you in with that hilarious title, I want to get serious for a moment.
I need help.
Specifically, money-wise.
As many of you that frequent my blog know, a series of financial difficulties hit me last year, and they have only gotten worse with the start of 2018. I’ve been trying to keep on a strong face about it, but it’s been difficult, anxiety-inducing, and terrifying. There is a very real possibility that I may even have to quit school, because it is becoming more and more difficult to pay for it and I have nobody in my family that can afford to help me (in fact, more often then not, I have to help them). I am in the process of trying to get as many scholarships and grants as I can find, but the process is slow and often fruitless. I have also recently found out that that the company I work for could go out of business before the end of the year, so along with juggling my home life, school life, personal life, and mental health, I’m also going to need to find another job. Possibly more.
I can no longer help my Mom save up for her leg treatments, I can’t afford therapy, I can’t afford to pay for my meds, and one of my dogs can no longer walk on her own but there’s nothing I can do to help her. Basically, I’m up shit creek in a sinking boat with a smile on my face, because I promised myself that despite anything that happens this year, I’m gonna remain hopeful. No matter what, I’ll still be smiling. No matter fucking what.
So, I’m taking a chance. I’m doing something that I hate doing, and asking for help. Any sort of help, whether it be reblogging this post, donating, or even just offering me a kind word.
If every single one of my followers were to give me a dollar, just one, I would be fine. I’d have enough to properly get on my feet again and then some! But considering that’s a rather vague goal, I’ll go with this instead:
$1500
If I could get this much out of this post, it would be perfect. I would be stable in my finances (for the first time ever), I could begin saving again, I wouldn’t have to worry about having to quit school, I could start helping my Mom save up for her treatments again, I could afford therapy and meds, and I’d be able to help my dog.
I realize that this is asking a lot. That is a very large sum of money, and times are exceedingly difficult for everyone right now, but if you can spare anything, it would mean the world to me. Below are a few links:
I would also like to say that I will keep you all appraised of how it is going. If I manage to get to $1500, I will make an announcement and any further donations would be donated to others in need. It’s the least I can do.
Thanks for reading *hugs you*
Reblogging to help someone up Shit Creek without Paddle.
Steel Phoenix Studios 