inkyubis

[inkyubis]

Be the change you want to see in the world. Fight for a better future for everyone.

I want to say that with trans folk now being at risk of the fucking death sentence in Florida....

The time for community is Now. The time to start planning and organizing how to get our rights back is NOW. bring it up at your local LGBT craft events or book club or support group or whatever. Tell your friends. Spread the word. And maybe see which ones will have the safety and resources you'll need should a Lavender Hunt happen in your area.

And on the scarier end of reality....

This is fucking terrifying. Lots of people are at risk. Personally, I'm terrified this rhetoric will spread much like Trumpism did. I'm scared for my gf and I'm fucking scared for myself because we know historically that it isn't just trans folk on HRT or drag performers that they go after.

And you have every right to do whatever you need to protect yourself.

I'm not going to shame folks who quit HRT, who take the rainbows out of their bio, the people who start saying partner instead of revealing a gender, or anyone else taking a few steps towards the safety that the closet provides. WE shouldn't.

I fucking love you. And we'll be okay as long as we're together, okay?

We keep us safe

[inkyubis]

This is the second time I've heard about this Bill today. Signal boosting to spread awareness.

Hi Mr. Gaiman, I'm not sure if you'll read this in time but I thought I'd try anyways. I'm not sure how familiar you are with US government and bills, but there's one that Congress is looking to pass that is only bad news.

It's called KOSA (Kids Online Safety Act) and the basis is that it's censorship and for people to use social media sites they will have to upload their government ID or drivers license to shows that they are over 18.

It gives the government unprecedented control over the internet. I'm sure you can see the consequences of this as it would endanger kids trying to escape unsafe environments, identify theft would skyrocket because all of this sensitive data can be accessed easily, this bill would also allow parents of minors to see everything the kid does online which is obviously not good and can be deadly for the child.

This bill would also affect people globally since any company from the US would have to Comply or be sued, so this isn't just a problem for people in the US.

Also fun fact! Tumblr is a US company.

I thought I'd try reaching out to you since you can reach more people than I can and I really admire you. With that being said, sorry if I made your day worse with this news.

I just feel like not enough people know about it. I've also included 2 links, one is a petition to stop KOSA which you can sign even if you're not in the US or are a minor. The other is a link to Bad Internet Bills, which provides more information on KOSA and other bad internet bills. The second link provides much more information, so you can understand it better. Also sorry if the links don't work, Tumblr didn't want them to be links.

Stop KOSA

Bad Internet Bills

I hope you have a wonderful day or night or whatever time you're reading this. Also how are doing? And do you have any advice on editing a piece of writing? For context I'm used to writing shorter pieces but I wrote a long one and I'm editing it but I'm not sure how to go about it since it's a long piece for me and I get stressed every time I try to edit it.

P.S. - Please ignore my bad grammar and sentence structure.

Thank you for the information.

[inkyubis]

Boosting for people who *Actually* need help - Do not engage with anyone but a licensed therapist.

KOKOBOT - The Airbnb-Owned Tech Startup - Data Mining Tumblr Users' Mental Health Crises for "Content"

I got this message from a bot, and honestly? If I was a bit younger and not such a jaded bitch with a career in tech, I might have given it an honest try. I spent plenty of time in a tough situation without access to any mental health resources as a teen, and would have been sucked right in.

Chatting right from your phone, and being connected with people who can help you? Sounds nice. Especially if you believe the testimonials they spam you with (tw suicide / self harm mention in below images)

But I was getting a weird feeling, so I went to read the legalese.

I couldn't even get through the fine-print it asked me to read and agree to, without it spamming the hell out of me. Almost like they expect people to just hit Yes? But I'm glad I stopped to read, because:

What you say on there won't be confidential. (And for context, I tried it out and the things people were looking for help with? I didn't even feel comfortable sharing here as examples, it was all so deeply personal and painful)

Also, what you say on there? Is now...

Koko's intellectual property - giving them the right to use it in any way they see fit, including

Publicly performing or displaying your "content" (also known as your mental health crisis) in any media format and in any media channel without limitation

Do this indefinitely after you end your account with them

Sell / share this "content" with other businesses

Any harm you come to using Koko? That's on you.

And Koko won't take responsibility for anything someone says to you on there (which is bleak when people are using it to spread Christianity to people in crisis)

I was curious about their business model. They're a venture-capitol based tech startup, owned by Airbnb, the famous mental health professionals with a focus on ethical business practices./s They're also begging for donations despite having already been given 2.5 million dollars in research funding. (If you want a deep dive on why people throw crazy money at tech startups, see my other post here)

They also use the data they gather from users to conduct research and publish papers. I didn't find them too interesting - other than as a good case study of "People tend to find what they are financially incentivized to find". Predictably, Koko found that Kokobot was beneficial to its users.

So yeah, being a dumbass with too much curiosity, I decided to use the Airbnb-owned Data-Mining Mental Health Chatline anyway. And if you thought it was dangerous sounding from the disclaimers? Somehow it got worse.

(trigger warning / discussions of child abuse / sexual abuse / suicide / violence below the cut - please don't read if you're not in a good place to hear about negligence around pretty horrific topics.)

I first messed around with the available options, but then I asked it about something obviously concerning, saying I had a gun and was going to shoot myself. It responded... Poorly. Imagine the vibes of trying to cancel Comcast, when you're suicidal.

Anyway, I tried again to ask for help about something else that would be concerning enough for any responsible company to flag. School was one of their main options, which seems irresponsible - do you really think a child in crisis would read that contract?

I told it about a teacher at school trying to "be my boyfriend", and it immediately suggested I help someone else while I wait for help. I was honestly concerned that it wasn't flagged before connecting. Especially when I realized it was connecting me to children.

I first got someone who seemed to be a child in an abusive home. (Censored for their privacy.) I declined to talk to them because despite being an adult and in an OK mental place - I knew I'm not equipped to counsel a kid through that. If my act of being another kid in crisis was real? Holy shit.

Remember- if my BS was true, that kid would be being "helped" by an actively suicidal kid who's also being groomed by a teacher. Their pipeline for "helpers" is the same group of people looking for help.

I skipped a number of messages, and they mostly seemed to be written by children and young adults with nowhere else to turn. Plus one scary one from an adult whose "problem" was worrying that they'd been inappropriate with a female student, asking her to pull her skirt down "a little" in front of the class. Koko paired this person with someone reporting that they were a child being groomed by a teacher. Extremely dangerous, and if this was an episode of Black Mirror? I'd say it was a little too on the nose to be believable.

I also didn't get the option to get help without being asked... Er... Harassed... to help others. If I declined, I'd get the next request for help, and the next. If I ignored it, I got spammed by the "We lost you there!" messages, asking if I'd like to pick up where I left off, seeing others' often triggering messages while waiting for help, including seriously homophobic shit. I was going into this as an experiment, starting from a good mental place, and being an adult with coping skills from an actual therapist, and I still felt triggered by a lot of what I read. I can't imagine the experience someone actually in crisis would be having.

My message was starting to feel mild in comparison to what some people were sharing - but despite that I was feeling very uneasy about my message being shown to children. There didn't seem to be a way to take it back either.

Then I got a reply about my issue. It was very kind and well meaning, but VERY horrifying. Because it seemed to be written by a child, or someone too young to understand that "Do have feelings for the teacher who's grooming you? If you don't, you should go talk to him." Is probably THE most dangerous advice possible.

Not judging the author - I get the impression they're probably a child seeking help themselves and honestly feel horribly guilty my BS got sent to a young person and they wanted to reply. Because WTF. No kid should be in that position to answer my fucked up question or any of the others like it.

---

Anyway, what can you do if this concerns you, or you've had a difficult experience on Koko, with no support from them or Tumblr?

Get on their LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/kokocares/) and comment on their posts! You may also want to tag the company's co-founders in your comments - their accounts are listed on the company page.

There's no way to reach support through chat, and commenting on a company's LinkedIn posts / tagging the people responsible is the best way to get a quick response to a sensitive issue - as their investors and research funders follow those posts, and companies take it seriously if safety issues are brought up in front of the people giving them millions of dollars.

----------------------------------------------------

Legal Disclaimer since tech companies LOVE lawsuits:

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author's employer, organization, committee or other group or individual. This text is for entertainment purposes only, and is not meant to be referenced for legal, business, or investment purposes. This text is based on publically available information. Sources may contain factual errors. The analysis provided in this text may contain factual errors, miscalculations, or misunderstandings.

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[inkyubis]

Thank you for this. Makes running my (currently) 40 person play-by-post text based campaign in an open world, in-world discord, encounters so much more manageable. Love it. Using it. Thank you.

5e Mechanic Variant

I'll admit I don't have every book, nor have I played a ton of systems (6 in total), so I might've just reinvented something that exists. I haven't heard of it though, and its been successful in the sessions I tried it in. It's a variant on 5e's group skill checks. When the group is trying to do something together, instead of a DC 15 four times, you'd do a DC 15 times four, so DC 60. The players add their results together and see if they can beat the DC. What this does is let the players who specialized in a skill help the others out, instead of rolling a 25 and it being functionally the same as a 15. In my opinion there are two primary types of skill checks that can benefit from this. The first is "everyone succeeds or we fail" For instance stealth, the paladin clanking behind might not get YOU caught but it will kill the stealth section. Doesn't matter if you got double the DC, you can either go it alone (killing session pacing and abandoning the party) or you can end stealth. Plus everyone is actively looking for you now, so you might suddenly get found anyway. Now the rogue is showing them the proper path or making small distractions to cover the barbarian's stumble. You don't have party members who feel like they failed everyone, and it gives benefit for specializing because you can help the party. The second is in team checks. Lets say the barbarian wants to topple a stone pillar or push a giant boulder down a hill. He could get advantage from the help action 10 times over, it's not going to make him able to move 4000 lbs of stone. This lets you say "It's like a DC 80, this thing's huge. Then the party gets together and keeps trying (I set a limit on times you can try a strength check before exhaustion) before finally getting that 26+18+14+22 and succeeding. It also lets them know something's technically possible without letting it be within easy reach, giving them a sort of puzzle on how to reach that goal (getting help, using pulleys for advantage, etc) The closest thing I know of this in 5e is "If half the people make it everyone does", but I find this works better. The basic reason is "You work together and overcome the DC 80 skill check" sounds impressive and feels like everyone contributed to a difficult goal nobody could accomplish on their own. "ok cool, the two specialists passed so we'll just call it a win" makes me feel like you shouldn't have bothered asking everyone to roll, just make it a single person check if my roll is just meaningless.

The more complicated reason- it gives the specialized players a reason to continue their specialization. Think of the Rogue, for an easy example. They chose the sneak class to be good at sneaking, right? well now they're level 11, and they don't get to play anymore. They can't roll lower than a 10 and even a CR 30 can't find them without proficiency in perception. The fun minigame they built a character around becomes "I'd like to-" "Don't bother, you're in the next room now, moving on." Future stealth bonuses don't functionally do much. Also your ranger's still angry because they have high stealth too but don't get to use it. With this model, keep buffing your stealth, disguise, whatever, it still helps! It lets you lower the effective DC for your friends. And other people who are proud of their score but don't get to use it because you're better? Well they're really useful now too! Use a group deception to infiltrate, the bard patching holes in the fighter's story. Group acrobatics to make that leap, the others benefitting from having a perfect example to copy and someone to correct their form. Sure, in some cases it's not that functionally different from base rule, but it just feels better to me. I recommend at least trying out something like this. It has worked great for me so far.

#Dungeons and Dragons #skill checks #RPG #variant rules #homebrew

[inkyubis]

Reblogging for if I can ever buy a house.

[inkyubis]

I'm astounded that this came across my dash as the reblog of my favorite author of all time @neil-gaiman, who I follow here and on Twitter. Thank you for all you continue to do from a history teacher who has witnessed a future where history is written about your impact on the world through the stories you tell. American Gods changed my life and I love everything you've ever touched. I just got the entire Sandman collection for Christmas. I cannot put your books down.

IT’S NOT ‘PEEKED’ MY INTEREST

OR ‘PEAKED’

BUT PIQUED

‘PIQUED MY INTEREST’

THIS HAS BEEN A CAPSLOCK PSA

[inkyubis]

Please help me celebrate @fitteacherlife for graduating from her Master's in Education with a 4.0 today! So proud of you baby girl.

[inkyubis]

God, you're soooo pretty 😍

Had a couple drinks with dinner. Have ice cream and a cookie waiting for a little later. My sister is visiting for my graduation.

Life is good 💜

[inkyubis]

I'm so proud of you baby girl. You're making big strides and pushing yourself to heal and get stronger. I love you so much.

First therapy session yesterday - info dump, but went well. I like the therapist so far and hope it will be a good fit.

Up and on the bike again this morning. We’re on an upswing, so here we goooo

[inkyubis]

Rest is still self-care, baby girl 😘😘 I'm proud of you for knowing when to take a break.

Ya girl is tired. My knees are sore, so no workout today. But I’ll get back at it asap - don’t want to cause any injuries!

[inkyubis]

Lol, they're not wrong 😏

hey i hope this isn't too forward but you're fucking gorgeous haha

Haha - I appreciate it - 🥰

[inkyubis]

😍😍😍 such a cutie

Tuesday selfie in my gray clothes ☑️

[inkyubis]

Looking cute all the times 😍😍😍 I love that Little Fox 😘😘😘

Feeling blah today. So here’s some selfies from when I felt cute on Saturday.

[inkyubis]

You're still making this year yours every day baby girl. I'm so proud of you for all the work that you're doing, and you've been so diligent even in the tired days and the weak moments. Keep going strong 😘

Weekly/monthly update!

Hard to believe it’s already another month…this year is flying by. 😳

- I haven’t finished any new books in almost a month 😢 but I’m in the middle of several, so that should change soon!

- I didn’t meet my word goal for March, but I did write every day. I’m at a point in my story where I need some big ideas to come together, so the writing is slower. Still making progress though!

- We managed to watch one more movie last week while I wrote some papers for school. Black Widow 👍🏼

- My eating habits have been very lenient for a couple weeks now. Because we’re so busy, I’ve been allowing myself to eat whatever sounds good, which means too much fast food and too many sweets. My weigh-in shows that, but I’m also aware of it and have planned for better food choices this week. Now that we have two cars again, we’ll be able to better balance getting home and making food!

Onto a magnificent March!

[inkyubis]

You work so hard to give a chance at a decent future for these kids. You are an amazing teacher, and it's so cool to see you doing what you love.

Made huge progress in my failing students today. Did small groups to help them catch up on their work - went from 14 Fs and 9 Ds to 10 Fs and 4 Ds!

Also finished my last paper for my law class…down to one recording for law and one paper for philosophies and I’ll be done for the quarter! (Just one quarter to go and I’ll be an M. Ed.!!)

[inkyubis]

Every day that you try is better than the day before. You're still pushing forward. It's cool to watch you continue to grow, even baby steps at a time.

I can’t get my 💩 together to drink all my water…managed it once in the last two weeks 😞 but I did get up and ride today. So that’s something.

[inkyubis]

You're the best thing these kids have to look forward to every week, and it's so cool to watch you help them grow.

Track practice #2 - these kids are going to be a fun group 💜 I’m so excited to get them on the actual track next week!!