Category Archives: Heard Online

YouTube Ejects Some Vox Day Videos

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Vox Day told readers of Vox Popoli yesterday that YouTube has taken down three of his videos [Internet Archive link] for violating its guidelines.

Hi Voxiversity,

As you may know, our Community Guidelines describe which content we allow – and don’t allow – on YouTube. Your video Immigration and War was flagged to us for review. Upon review, we’ve determined that it violates our guidelines and we’ve removed it from YouTube.

Please note that this removal has not resulted in a Community Guidelines strike or penalty on your account. 

Sincerely,
– The YouTube Team

And:

As you may know, our Community Guidelines describe which content we allow – and don’t allow – on YouTube. Your video Voxday Darkstream 04.25.2018 The Problem with Jordan Peterson was flagged to us for review. Upon review, we’ve determined that it violates our guidelines and we’ve removed it from YouTube.

And:

As you may know, our Community Guidelines describe which content we allow – and don’t allow – on YouTube. Your video Voxday Darkstream 04.28.2018 The Culling of the Cucks was flagged to us for review. Upon review, we’ve determined that it violates our guidelines and we’ve removed it from YouTube.

This happened the same day YouTube announced its latest policy updates in “Our ongoing work to tackle hate”:

Over the past few years, we’ve been investing in the policies, resources and products needed to live up to our responsibility and protect the YouTube community from harmful content. This work has focused on four pillars: removing violative content, raising up authoritative content, reducing the spread of borderline content and rewarding trusted creators. Thanks to these investments, videos that violate our policies are removed faster than ever and users are seeing less borderline content and harmful misinformation. As we do this, we’re partnering closely with lawmakers and civil society around the globe to limit the spread of violent extremist content online.

… We’ve been taking a close look at our approach towards hateful content in consultation with dozens of experts in subjects like violent extremism, supremacism, civil rights, and free speech. Based on those learnings, we are making several updates:

…Today, we’re taking another step in our hate speech policy by specifically prohibiting videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on qualities like age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status. This would include, for example, videos that promote or glorify Nazi ideology, which is inherently discriminatory. Finally, we will remove content denying that well-documented violent events, like the Holocaust or the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, took place.

…In addition to removing videos that violate our policies, we also want to reduce the spread of content that comes right up to the line. In January, we piloted an update of our systems in the U.S. to limit recommendations of borderline content and harmful misinformation, such as videos promoting a phony miracle cure for a serious illness, or claiming the earth is flat. …Thanks to this change, the number of views this type of content gets from recommendations has dropped by over 50% in the U.S.

…In the case of hate speech, we are strengthening enforcement of our existing YouTube Partner Program policies. Channels that repeatedly brush up against our hate speech policies will be suspended from the YouTube Partner program, meaning they can’t run ads on their channel or use other monetization features like Super Chat.

The New York Times story about the policies, “YouTube to Remove Thousands of Videos Pushing Extreme Views”, noted —

YouTube did not name any specific channels or videos that would be banned. But on Wednesday, numerous far-right creators began complaining that their videos had been deleted, or had been stripped of ads, presumably a result of the new policy.

…The kind of content that will be prohibited under YouTube’s new hate speech policies includes videos that claim Jews secretly control the world, that say women are intellectually inferior to men and therefore should be denied certain rights, or that suggest that the white race is superior to another race, a YouTube spokesman said.

Channels that post some hateful content, but that do not violate YouTube’s rules with the majority of their videos, may receive strikes under YouTube’s three-strike enforcement system, but would not be immediately banned.

A Google search shows a number of other YouTube accounts represent they still host Vox Day’s banned videos.

Strange Developments in Ed Kramer Case

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Can Ed Kramer’s case get any more bizarre? Yes, it can! Kramer may be the one behind bars, but now he’s also got the authorities investigating each other.

Arrested in February, Kramer appeared in court on March 26 to face charges of taking a photo of a 7-year-old boy without permission. The judge ruled there was probable cause to send his case to Superior Court, and denied bond (Atlanta’s Fox5 News, “Dragon Con co-founder to remain behind bars without bond”).  

Overshadowing that procedural news was a motion filed one day earlier by Kramer’s attorney Stephen Reba which made public for the first time that Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Kathryn Schrader had hired private investigator T.J. Ward last February to see if someone was hacking into her computer, and Ward had used Ed Kramer as his computer forensic analyst. The motion claims they not only discovered evidence of hacking, but that his nemesis District Attorney Danny Porter was the one doing the hacking. (Gwinnet Daily Post, “GBI investigating ‘unauthorized access’ of Gwinnett computer network by convicted sex offender Ed Kramer”.)

“From February 7th to 11th, 2019, various devices obtained solely for the purposes of investigation, including a device called a Wire Shark, were attached by Frank Karic, one of Ward’s forensic specialists, to Judge Schrader’s computer into the Gwinnett County Justice and Administration Center — with the Judge’s express permission,” the filing said. “…to ensure proper analysis, Ward put his computer forensic analyst, Defendant Edward E. Kramer, in charge of monitoring and analyzing the Wire Shark’s collected data.”

DA Porter apparently first learned about this as a byproduct of Kramer’s latest arrest, at which point he asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to look into charges that Kramer had “unauthorized access into the Gwinnett County (computer) network.”

…Officers, along with investigators in Porter’s office, seized Kramer’s computers and cellphone to look for the alleged photos of the boy. That’s when Porter realized Kramer had access to the county computer network.

“In the course of doing a forensic analysis of all of his computers, looking for a picture of a child, we came across data that might have been related to Judge Schrader’s computer,” Porter said. “We took it one step further and looked at the text messages off (Kramer’s) phone, and it became clear that Judge Schrader had contacted Kramer…. At that point, that’s when I called in the GBI.”

Once again, Kramer’s attorney has Porter on the defensive:

Porter — who said he doesn’t know if Schrader’s computer was ever being hacked in the first place — also told the Daily Post that during the course of his investigation, prior to calling the GBI, he “learned that she had had some technical problems but that they were handled by the county and the court IT department — said he has “no idea where she got any idea that I was hacking into her computer.”

“Of course, it’s (ridiculous) to think that I would do that,” Porter said. “I have better things to do than (monitor) what Judge Schrader has on her computer.”

Porter said he is concerned about what Kramer might have done with county computer access.

“There’s no doubt that he had access; they installed a device and they captured information off the network,” Porter said. “I don’t think the county has yet assessed the damage that could have been done, or has been done. I don’t know that there has been any, but the potential for entering in and changing records in my office or changing records at the tax office — he basically was able to obtain credentials that could have logged into any desktop in the county. … I think the possible damage is almost anything you can imagine.”

Atorney Reba is demanding Porter recuse himself from any matters involving Kramer: the District Attorney “cannot possibly still prosecute Defendant in any matter and must be recused, along with said recusal being imputed to his office.”

Porter has recused himself from the ongoing GBI investigation (only) because he might be a witness (Daily Report Online, “Gwinnett DA Porter Recuses From GBI Probe Into Judge’s Computer Hack”).

As of Thursday, area reporters did not know what Superior Court judge will be assigned to Kramer’s case.

[Thanks to Nancy Collins for the story.]

Ed McDonald Called Victim of False #MeToo Charges

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Last weekend’s SPFBO FB group announcement that a reviewer accused of harassing behavior had been dropped attracted comments raising a similar issue about Ed McDonald (not mentioned in the File 770 story). Today several bloggers issued public statements saying they now are convinced the charges against McDonald were fabricated — including two who did much to publicize them.

The Fantasy Book Critic blog today defended McDonald: “Recent Me Too Allegations & Ed McDonald”.

Fantasy Book Critic has now seen irrefutable evidence that the allegations against Ed McDonald have been falsified. 

We are now aware that Ed McDonald has been targeted for online harassment and abuse, and there is also irrefutable evidence of this. The evidence proves beyond all doubt that one or two individuals have utilized multiple social accounts with the express purpose of spreading malicious rhetoric against Ed McDonald, and making it appear that ‘reports’ are coming from numerous sources, where in fact they all come from a single source. This source has never met Ed McDonald….

At The Fantasy Inn a blogger known as Book Wol apologized for spreading the allegations, and also claims to have participated in uncovering their falsity: “BookWol: Regarding Ed McDonald Allegations”.

I am writing to publicly retract any allegations that I have been party to against Ed McDonald, and to offer my apologies to him for any distress this has caused him.
Myself and another member of the community were sent allegations against Ed McDonald by a number of social media accounts. These allegations made their way onto the internet and social media.I have been provided with hard evidence that proves beyond doubt that the allegations were falsified. 

…With this knowledge, for the purpose of the investigation, I was expressly instructed to behave as normal, continue to show public and if necessary, private support for the individual being investigated. I was to allow public conversations about Ed McDonald to continue and to allow and encourage the individual behind the allegations to feel emboldened by public support for them as evidence was gathered….

…Ed McDonald also provided me with this statement that I may share with you:

“The hurt that was done to me, and the attempt to attack my career and persona has been incredibly hard to bear, but I am glad that the truth has finally come to light. Where people have been deceived and lied to, I ask that they be treated with sympathy, and it be acknowledged that given the extreme nature of the levels of deceit, falsehood and misrepresentation that have been plotted carefully over the period of a year on a scale that nobody could possibly have imagined until the evidence came to light, I bear no ill will to those that were deceived in this way. Please be kind to one another and continue to promote a message of positivity.”

Esme at The Weatherwax Report, who had solicited #MeToo stories from readers, explains in ”About Ed McDonald” why she was deceived:

I was led to believe over a long period of time that Ed McDonald had repeatedly preyed on women he perceived as vulnerable, then discarded them and defamed them afterward. I believed this in its entirety because I was told this over, and over, and over again from seemingly different accounts from totally separate people. They had family histories. They had different profile pics. They had different personas and webpages dedicated to them. They were active accounts that truly appeared to be different entities. I was contacted by a third party investigator several days ago and after listening to what they had to say, I decided to cooperate and hand over evidence I had of these allegations. I no longer believe I was contacted by multiple women, and the feeling it gives me is horror.

The person who’s done this has made a mockery of real victims. One of the HARDEST parts about getting justice for those who have been victimized is just how emotionally straining it is for those who have been hurt to come forward and name someone. When BookWol and myself sent out that tweet asking for your stories, we weren’t inundated with dozens of names with just one or two accusers each. We had two names. With many, many people behind each name. It looked so genuine. One was real. The other was not. This does such terrible, terrible damage to the image of people coming forward. The fact that it was so elaborate and over such a long period of time is nothing short of mind-blowing….

Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off founder Mark Lawrence, gave the news a signal boost on Reddit, but also cautioned —

It’s also important not to let the fact that this was a hoax make us deaf to others who speak up about such things in the future.

Esme added there that she will be shuttering her blog for awhile in anticipation of being doxxed, and concerns about her personal safety.

I’ve actually just made my public statement that I’ll be closing down for at least a few months, possibly permanently.

From what I understand Ed’s involvement with this person was only 3 weeks of online talk… and they took years out of their lives building this web of lies around him. I can only imagine wtf they will try and do to Wol and myself for exposing it all.

I’ve made the statement on my blog about having the financial means to take them to court if they try anything – and I will also pay for Wols legal fees if she needs any assistance. It would be very unwise if they tried anything but I’ve been told that someone is sniffing around for our real names. We are both preparing for a doxxing event. I’ve been advised it would be wise to lay low for a while, and so I shall. In a few months, maybe after the summer passes, I’ll decide if it’s “safe” for me to pop back up.

[Thanks to Dann for the story.]

Ed Kramer Charged with Parole Violation, Back In Jail, Computers Seized

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Ed Kramer, Dragon Con co-founder, has been arrested and jailed on a parole violation, accused of taking a picture of a child without the parents’ consent. Some news sources describe the child as a boy, another as a girl.

According to the Gwinett Daily Post’s story “Convicted sex offender, DragonCon co-founder Ed Kramer back in jail” —

Kramer was arrested by Lawrenceville Police Department officers on Tuesday, five days after he was accused of taking photos of a boy believed to be seven years old, an incident report said.

According to the report, officers were dispatched to Gwinnett Pulmonary Group after receiving a call that Kramer, after leaving a doctor’s appointment, remained in the check-out area and was watching the boy.

“He was later seen watching the child and holding his cell phone in a manner that suggested that he was photographing (the) child,” the report said. “The complainant stated that she observed the flash of the camera and she stated that (Kramer’s) eyes never left the boy.”

Atlanta TV station 11Alive aired a report with police bodycam video showing the arrest.

Gwinett County District Attorney Danny Porter, who’s been involved with Kramer’s case for years, spoke to WSB TV reporter Tony Thomas (“DragonCon co-founder took pictures of child inside doctor’s office, police say”):

Porter… said he’s not surprised Kramer has been arrested again. 

“It’s the case that never ends,” Porter said. “I knew it was never going to end.”

Kramer was sentenced years ago, but Porter has kept the files against Kramer nearby. 

In the past, Kramer was sentenced to five years of house arrest on three counts of child molestation. He was released in December.  

… Authorities are now trying to revoke his probation and a judge could resentence him on his original conviction. He could face up to 55 years in prison.  

Porter said police found several computers and storage devices in Kramer’s Duluth home and are still going through them. 

“Any indication there are other instances out there?” Thomas asked Porter. 

“There isn’t at this time,” Porter said. “I think once we get into a forensic analysis of the computers and the storage media, there may be something there.”

Kramer will be back in court Thursday as authorities try to quickly schedule a probation revocation hearing to get him moved into state custody.

Kramer’s bond for the most recent charges is set at $22,200. As of Wednesday afternoon, he remained in jail.

Kramer pleaded to three counts of child molestation in 2013 as trial was set to begin in Gwinnett County, entering an Alford-type plea as provided under Georgia case law in which he agreed to the conviction even though he still claimed innocence. Kramer agreed to pay damages to the victims and was sentenced to serve a term of confinement at home.

In December 2017 the state of Georgia’s Sexual Offender Registration Review Board (SORRB) designated Kramer a “sexually dangerous predator,” the ranking with the highest perceived risk for recidivism. Georgia law requires “SDPs” to be monitored by GPS for the rest of their lives.

Kramer co-founded DragonCon in 1987 but has not been involved in the operation of the convention since 2000 when he was arrested for the alleged molestations. However, he retained part ownership of Dragon Con until July 2013, when he was bought out by the organization, four months prior to his guilty plea.

[Thanks to Nancy Collins for the story.]

SFWA Names Candidates for Office

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The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) have posted the candidates for its leadership positions.  

In 2019, the President, Secretary, and three Director-At-Large positions on SFWA’s Board of Directors are up for election.

Candidate for President

• Mary Robinette Kowal

Candidate for Secretary

• Curtis Chen

Candidates for Director at Large

• James Beamon
• Tobias Buckell
• John Chu
• Andy Duncan
• Walter L. Fisher
• Jeffe Kennedy
• Kevin McLaughlin
• Sarah Pinsker
• Eric James Stone
• Peng Shepherd
• William Alan Webb

Those with access to the SFWA Forum can read their platform statements.

[Thanks to JJ for the story.]

Liu Cixin Didn’t Quit His Day Job – and That’s the Problem

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Liu Cixin never let his day job keep him from getting his writing done. Did anyone know that when Jason Heller tweeted this message last week and got a lot of sff writers in an uproar?

Of course, Heller and everyone else is assuming that someone with a day job will actually be working at it. Not in this case.

Bloomberg’s report “Chinese Sci-Fi Writer Sparks Debate on Slack in State Economy” carries news of a revealing 2015 interview with Liu Cixin that’s made a recent splash in Chinese social media:

China’s most prestigious science fiction novelist revealed that a lot of his work was written during work hours at a state-owned power plant, sparking debate about the level of slack in the nation’s vast state sector.

The comments from Liu Cixin, seen as China’s equivalent to Arthur C. Clarke, come from a 2015 interview that began circulating widely on social media recently after the film Wandering Earth, which is based on one of his novellas, took in 2 billion yuan ($300 million) in just a week.

“Everyone was sitting in front of a computer, and nobody knew what anyone else was doing,” Liu said in the interview. “You have to be in the office. But when you’re there, you are free to write.”

Liu worked as a software engineer at a power plant in Shanxi province from the 1980s and identified himself a worker there in interviews until as late as 2014.

However, this week Liu tried to walk back what he said in the interview (Sixth Tone, “Chinese Sci-fi Author Sparks Work Ethics Debate”).

But on Tuesday, the writer told the state-run Global Times that there’s “no time to write while on duty,” while also admitting that on rare occasions he would write on his office computer. “As an engineer at a grassroots power station, there’s constant work. Where is the time to write?” he said.

And officials also jumped in to do damage control, crediting themselves for making changes that are already taking effect:

On Monday, China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission also stepped in to address Liu’s comments on company culture at state-owned enterprises. Liu worked at the power station in Shanxi until 2014, two years after the company’s reforms.

“Mr. Liu, this phenomenon you mentioned — more workers than available work — is exactly why we are deepening reforms,” the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said via Weibo. “The reforms are good, so the enterprises can focus on their business, and you can focus on writing novels.”

Fans long ago discovered that one worker sitting in front of a computer typing looks like any other, as long as you’re not reading over his shoulder. But they also discovered a second truth which seems to have escaped the Hugo-winning author — that if you brag about what you’re really doing, then you get in big trouble.

[Thanks to JJ for the story.]

48 Hours Later Vox Day Pulls the Plug on SocialGalactic

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Announced only two days ago, Vox Day’s Twitter substitute SocialGalactic is already being shut down (“Another curve ball” [Internet Archive link].) The team that works on InfoGalactic, his alt-right revision of the Wikipedia, had joined forces with OneWay to build SocialGalactic on Fediway’s distributed network engine. The platform claimed 2,500 users after the first 48 hours of operation.

Vox Day did not go into detail about the decision. However, in comment a few hours after the initial announcement he had written —

Note that if you’re in the EU, you’re not going to be able to use it until we can resolve the GDPR compliance issue. 

The General Data Protection Regulation  (“GDPR”) regulates data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA), and also addresses the export of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas.

Since Vox himself lives in the EU, such a ban would be no small problem for him.

Day’s Finnish confederate Markku Koponen wrote some more revealing comments. When someone asked how soon people in the EU could gain access he wrote —

Not at this point. Could be never. We’ll have to have a lawyer take a serious look at GDPR. Then we’ll know what it takes, do we need data protection officers, and so forth. There is a chance that the simplest thing is to just block EU altogether (I will of course have backdoor access). We shall see.

…Yes, but that notice is only a small part of it. Blogger [where Vox Day’s blog is hosted] can afford to have the bureaucracy required to allow access, and just nag you with the notice. You still need to comply with the entirety of GDPR and it’s so complicated that there are companies whose whole business is to explain it to you.

…No, I’m just a moderator. But since I’ve had to think about GDPR myself, I tipped Vox off that this is going to be an obvious attack vector for SJWs and it’s best to plug it right from the start.

…There’s always going to be some Soros-paid troll who will spend all his waking hours trying to find some small mistake somewhere in GDPR compliance. Better to just shut it down.

Being unprepared to comply with EU rules may have been the new platform’s Achilles heel.

Amazon Reopens Castalia House’s KDP Account

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Castalia House’s Amazon Kindle Digital Publishing account was restored yesterday within hours after Vox Day told readers it had been taken down (see “Amazon Terminates Vox Day’s Castalia House Account”.) The problems were caused by Castalia’s Collapsing Empire parody Corrosion by “Johan Kalsi” with the look-alike cover, which has brought Day’s business into conflict with Amazon’s rules many times since the book came out in 2017.

Collapsing Empire author John Scalzi seems to have had this news in mind when he tweeted on Thursday —

Although the Amazon account was reopened, Markku Koponen of Finland, where the Castalia House entity is based, told readers of Vox Day’s blog that the “Kalsi” book will no longer be sold on Amazon.

But the sales had dropped so low on it (because people seem to connect it only with the Scalzi events, which isn’t really fair. Again, it’s an actual, serious book) that removing that tool from them had more value than having the title there. And it’s still available on our own site, from which we keep 100% of the revenue instead of 70%.

And he said they have asked Audible to take down the audiobook.

Vox Day also contacted File 770 “to set the record straight,” saying —

  1. CORROSION by Johan Kalsi was cleared of being “misleading” no less than 7 times by the highest-level managers at KDP. The previous time it was depublished by the Quality Assurance employee, in September 2018, it was republished before we even received the email telling us it had been depublished.
  2. The reason we were given for our account was terminated was a claim of copyright infringement. This claim was incorrect and was subsequently acknowledged to have been incorrect when our account was restored.
  3. What Amazon did yesterday affected more than 60 authors, and any author who was feeling schadenfreude would do well to keep in mind that not every employee at Amazon with access to their account is fully in agreement with them either. We are very far from the first to have our account terminated, even if it was only for 20 hours in our case.
  4. We sold more copies of Corrosion via our direct store yesterday than we had sold in the previous three months on Amazon. We’ve sold even more copies of it today. That is why we decided not to republish it on KDP and why we will remove it from Audible as well. It’s simply not worth the potential conflict.

When one of his fans encouraged him to initiate legal action against Amazon. Vox Day replied —

No. We’re already in a significant legal battle with Indiegogo. We will not take on any additional conflict unless it is forced on us. Nor are we interested in going to war against our own distribution channel.

Day was referring IndieGoGo’s action last October, shutting down Arkhaven’s current fundraiser for Alt-Hero: Q, and refunding backers’ money (see “After Bleeding Cool Interviews Vox Day, IndieGoGo Axes Latest Alt-Hero Comic Campaign”.) Arkhaven is Castalia’s comics imprint.

Amazon Terminates Vox Day’s Castalia House Account

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Update: Vox Day says his Amazon KDP account is now “Reinstated” [Internet Archive link.]

Amazon told Vox Day they have shut down his Castalia House Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) account because of the latest issues about its goon book Corrosion (The Corroding Empire Book 1), a parody of John Scalzi’s The Collapsing Empire which Castalia markets with a look-alike cover.

Castalia House book cover
Scalzi book cover

Castalia House’s efforts to sell the book have repeatedly brought it into conflict with Amazon rules since the work first appeared in March 2017 (see “Amazon Yanks Castalia House’s ‘The Corroding Empire’”). According to Vox Day (“Amazon Takes Down Castalia House” [Internet Archive link]): “This is the second attack on that book this month, as ten days ago, they pulled the book itself down for the sixth or seventh time due to claims that it was ‘misleading’.”

Day says he received the following message from Amazon on January 21. At that time they only removed the one book from sale on Amazon.

From: Amazon.com [kdp-quality-assurance@amazon.com]
Sent: 21 January 2019 21:59
Subject: Notification from Amazon KDP

While reviewing the following books we found the title, cover image, descriptions and/or authors of the following book(s) are misleading to our customers:

Title: Corrosion (The Corroding Empire Book 1)
ASIN: B06XFQ24QC

As a result, the book(s) have been removed from sale from Amazon.

However, today Amazon shut down the Castalia House KDP account and banned Day from opening any others. Not only that, Day was told he will not receive any unpaid royalities that he may be owed on sales.

As last communicated in the message on January 21, 2019, we have identified the submission of content for which you did not have the necessary rights. Due to this and previous violations, we are terminating your account and your Agreement effective immediately.

As part of the termination process, we will close your KDP account and remove the books you have uploaded through our channels from sale on Amazon. Note that you are no longer eligible to receive unpaid royalties for sales that occurred prior to this termination.

Additionally, as per our Terms and Conditions, you are not permitted to open any new KDP accounts.

Despite the message, Day sounded confident the account would be reopened.

Of course, there were no previous violations that internal SJWs did not invent as we’ve been repeatedly cleared of the “misleading” charge for that book. Needless to say, we will not be taking this latest SJW attack lying down. I won’t be surprised if the account is rapidly restored once we contact the manager who has been repeatedly dealing with this issue, especially since we were promised that it would never happen again after the last time.

Or he did before he updated the post with this calamitous discovery —

UPDATE: Amazon can’t even find the account information. It looks like whoever was responsible actually wiped all the data.

[Thanks to rcade for the story.]

Financial Problems and Deceptive Practices Ground FurFlight

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FurFlight won’t be leaving the ground again soon, if ever.

FurFlight is marketed as a way for furries to fly as a group to selected conventions, and travel in their fursonas.

Yes! Enjoy being an animal before you arrive at the convention! We have officially sanctioned costuming permitted post-security and onboard from both SFO, Boston and Seattle.

 

Dogpatch Press says the arrangement was successful for a group that flew to Midwest FurFest last year (“A financial fuss about FurFlight – can it fend off a fandom fiasco?”)

FurFlight bundles furries together for group air travel from highly-active fandom regions to highly-attended conventions, most notably from Seattle and San Francisco to Midwest FurFest. The idea is to improve the boring parts and the endpoint arrangements. It happened successfully in 2017.

Unfortunately, Mike Folf, the organizer and principal of Canis Vulpes LLC, which operates FurFlight, couldn’t meet expenses and reportedly was selling 2019 events to try and fund FurFlight’s remaining obligations for 2018.

Now those who signed on for the group trip to Midwest Furfest (Nov. 29-Dec.2 in Rosemont, IL) will be scrambling to cancel their reservations and make other plans.

When the story came out last week, Folf did not respond to contacts, something he has now explained in an apologetic post “Regarding Midwest FurFlight, Mental Health, and Future Trips” which says in part —

I have wronged you all and I’m sorry. This isn’t how I wanted it to be and I want to make things as right as possible for you all.

Long story short: I will work hard in early November to salvage what we can of the flights to ensure you all can go to Midwest Furfest. If this isn’t logistically possible, I will refund all guests and then some to ensure you all can book a flight to the con. If this can’t be done in time, I’ll add an extra sum to cover the damage of a lost convention time. This isn’t ideal, but it’s better than silence and doing nothing.

Also until further notice, all 2019 trips are suspended and everyone who signed up for TFF, BLFC, or FWA will be refunded ASAP.

A little transparency as to what has been going on these past few days:

On Wednesday October 24 I got an email from Alaska Airlines saying that the flights were suddenly unpaid for. That evening, the journal post came up. Overwhelmed, I spoke to the exec team about the issue and my own stress before being forced to remove telegram and social media for my own personal well being. At 11:30 that night, the police came and I was placed on Psychiatric Hold, isolated from society, until Friday October 26 due to concerns about suicidal thoughts. At that moment, I felt I had lost everything and was an emotional mess. That Friday, I was taken to a safe location for the weekend and was otherwise disconnected from the online world while I figure out with close persons what to do about the situation.

There is the idea that no matter how much good you do in the fandom, one bad slip and you’re forever reviled as an enemy. This is a mentality that I have held close to myself and have done as much as I can to cover my tail and prevent any kind of darkness from going public. Needless to say, this also prevented me from asking for help when it came to FurFlight, as I’ll detail below….

Financial and Management Transparency

Canis Vulpes, or FurFlight, was in the red from the get go. I was still paying off the $5k debt from last year and initial set up costs would inevitably bite into the income. If we had zero operational costs, Midwest FurFlight would only garner $2.5k in profit. In reality, marketing (twitter ads and physical items that unknowingly cost upwards in the thousands) and additional set-up costs (funding for SkyCollies, setting up the network infrastructures and other formalities) took a severe bite on the funds. We had zero capital so I assumed that I could keep this within the $2.5k margin. I was wrong, and again was afraid to ask for specific help and loans due to the aforementioned furry drama mentality. I was promised a capital investment over the summer that failed to materialize which also had an effect on the marketing spending.

Prior to getting the notice from Alaska Airlines, Folf borrowed over $35,000 from Robert Johnson (“Alohawolf”), ostensibly to secure the tickets. When he recognized FurFlight’s financial situation and his own exposure, Alohawolf went public:

I wanted to ensure that the event was successful and that everyone would still make their flights. In doing so I made the mistake of trusting him; I processed $35,631 in airline tickets on two credit cards to cover all of the flights from SEA (Seattle) and SFO (San Francisco) to ORD (Chicago – O’Hare). This payment was made directly with Alaska Air and Mike supplied account information needed so I could process payments to cover the transactions.

After realizing the extent of this situation over the weekend, I realized that this is not sustainable. I began reaching out to other furs over the weekend to determine the best order of operations to proceed to start unwinding this transaction on the very next business day, which was Monday, October 22.

Currently, I’m out over $35,000. If I’m very lucky, I’ll come out whole. I have disputed the charges and made both the airline and card issuers aware of the details of the fraud. As a result, they may have begun to act to cancel the transaction and the tickets for the 2018 MFF FurFlight date.  As this case includes such a large amount of money, on the advice of a lawyer, the police and FBI both were also contacted and informed.

I am making this public statement to make those affected aware as soon as possible. For those who purchased FurFlight 2019 tickets, I highly recommend you reach out to your credit card issuer and request a refund (or use travel insurance if your card has it), as the company that sold you flights is insolvent.

And the incident prompted the Boozy Badger, a lawyer with a blog, to write a study of all the California regulations that Canis Vulpes LLC may have violated — “FurPlanet’s Furry Friday: FurryAir – At Least It’s Not Pet-Screwing” – an effective advertisement for start-ups to hire legal counsel. BB’s analysis leads to this conclusion —

So…they’re crooks?

I’m not saying that.

I am saying that there appears to be a situation where an LLC was formed for the purpose of selling travel, including travel to residents of California. That this LLC took a substantial amount of money from people to obtain flights to a specific event, both in and outside of California. That for some reason, whether it be exemption from the law or ignorance, this LLC did not submit a legally required registration as a Seller of Travel to the State of California. That now it appears the same LLC has confirmed that they reached out to another party to pay the debt for the travel which should have been paid with the passenger funds already submitted, as those funds are technically trust funds (not property of the seller of travel) until the travel is actually paid for entirely. That as a result, and individual paid $35,000.00 on assurances the money existed, and it apparently did not from what has been revealed. And that, in these circumstances, there is a very specific California law that, if applicable, makes this a very serious criminal and civil penalty.

I’m also saying that, while out of compliance with the law from what I can see, Canis Vulpes customers who reside in California may be able to seek restitution from a fund specifically created for this…but they may not. Likewise, customers in other states (Including, I should note, Washington) are or may be protected by similar

I am not, however, saying that money was “stolen” or anything of the sort. Idiocy and ineptitude is not the same as malfeasance, and people starting businesses screw up all the damn time.  Especially when they rely on LegalZoom instead of a real goddamn lawyer to give them advice.

Which really leads to my last lesson:

It is so fucking important top understand the legal requirements and ramifications of what you do that a lawyer, at least one to help you form and start-up your business, isn’t optional.

Alohawolf says that the other people working on Furflight were kept in the dark, too:

FurFlight has released its own message of apology, telling customers to request refunds of their airline tickets.

This may not be as simple as it sounds:

[Thanks to ULTRAGOTHA for the story.]