Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,Fuck you.

Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,
Fuck you. Get off Fedi. No one wants you here.

Dear Mutual Aid Requesters,
Don't act like scammers, spammers, or bots—otherwise you get treated like them. Instead, build community and friends here. Contribute positively. Then folx will want to help you.

Dear Adult Content Posters,
Don't post other folx' nudes without consent. It makes you look like spammers and bots; and it's considered Image-Based Sexual Abuse, as well as copyright infringement—both of which are illegal. Instead, boost local sexworkers / content creators and post your own stuff. Build something positive.

Dear Reply Guys, Sea Lions, and Concern Trolls,
Just stop. Also, you used the wrong *their* again.

Dear Everyone,
Be kind. Support marginalized communities. Write good alt-text. Report predatory accounts. And keep being lovely

Let's keep Fedi from becoming Twitter, together.

We've got a good thing here.

/endRant

Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,
Fuck you. Get off Fedi. No one wants you here.

Dear Mutual Aid Requesters,
Don't act like scammers, spammers, or bots—otherwise you get treated like them. Instead, build community and friends here. Contribute positively. Then folx will want to help you.

Dear Adult Content Posters,
Don't post other folx' nudes without consent. It makes you look like spammers and bots; and it's considered Image-Based Sexual Abuse, as well as copyright infringement—both of which are illegal. Instead, boost local sexworkers / content creators and post your own stuff. Build something positive.

Dear Reply Guys, Sea Lions, and Concern Trolls,
Just stop. Also, you used the wrong *their* again.

Dear Everyone,
Be kind. Support marginalized communities. Write good alt-text. Report predatory accounts. And keep being lovely

Let's keep Fedi from becoming Twitter, together.

We've got a good thing here.

/endRant

@xenophora@mastodon.art @alice@lgbtqia.space But in a capitalist world even sexworkers have to take advantage of the system and protect what they use to earn money. Most of the time people's photos get reposted without consent because people try to gain an advantage for themselves, like scam others or sell that. For all other cases I think its more adequate to explain that by morale, that its wrong to repost them and people need to evolve on a personal level to understand that.
In a socialist world there wouldn't be much of a reason for people to copy them without asking for permission.

This rant brought to you by the spam accounts and bigoted trolls I suspended his morning, and the reply guys and death threats I've received since posting it.

Edited for inclusivity.

@nyovaya @alice

I mean, sure but also I’m not going to poke the law bear if I can possibly avoid it, especially in the name of grabbing up something that isn’t rightfully mine to promote or propagate.

I don’t do erotic art, but I do have a Creative Commons-tagged page with the old ads I use often for my artwork. The least I can do for interested people is remind them that “I own nothing” aside from the finished works which I assembled and modified myself...

@purrperl wait a sec, did you just spend three replies implying I'm new here, not familiar with the settings available, and explaining away reply guys to me...an admin who has been here for years longer and has over 20x the followers?

Ngl, that's pretty `reply guy` ‍️

@alice Not that it’s happened to me, but marking NSFW content as NSFW is also a big one. Thankfully, defederating from servers that DON’T enforce this rule is a lifesaver, but it’s good practice nonetheless!

Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,
Fuck you. Get off Fedi. No one wants you here.

Dear Mutual Aid Requesters,
Don't act like scammers, spammers, or bots—otherwise you get treated like them. Instead, build community and friends here. Contribute positively. Then folx will want to help you.

Dear Adult Content Posters,
Don't post other folx' nudes without consent. It makes you look like spammers and bots; and it's considered Image-Based Sexual Abuse, as well as copyright infringement—both of which are illegal. Instead, boost local sexworkers / content creators and post your own stuff. Build something positive.

Dear Reply Guys, Sea Lions, and Concern Trolls,
Just stop. Also, you used the wrong *their* again.

Dear Everyone,
Be kind. Support marginalized communities. Write good alt-text. Report predatory accounts. And keep being lovely

Let's keep Fedi from becoming Twitter, together.

We've got a good thing here.

/endRant

@alice@lgbtqia.space Copyright's only purpose is to protect the capitalist's property.

@alice

This discomfort has been attributed to a bogeyman, a construct called "reply guys". Guess what? It's quite normal for people to want to share their ideas and reaction to your ideas. That's why it's called "social" media.

So how do we assuage these concerns? Perhaps Fedi platforms, such as Mastodon, should default to a more restrictive setting on who can reply to your toots. Anyone can change the settings in their personal preferences, though newcomers find it too inconvenient.

2/n

@alice DEATH THREATS????

C'mon, guys! (I dare assume they were all male). Would it kill you to act like actual humans for change???

(I choose to believe "decent person not making death threats at folk" is a baseline human characteristic. Call me naive.)

@alice Well, it's nice you set up your post to provide examples.

I'm busy blocking away (of course then I no longer see the examples, but ya know, I'm ok with that!)

@purrperl @alice But I have a rather revolutionary concept. Why do you need to reply at all? Why not just refrain from typing if the original poster is not looking for input? I will never understand this need to reply to everything

Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,
Fuck you. Get off Fedi. No one wants you here.

Dear Mutual Aid Requesters,
Don't act like scammers, spammers, or bots—otherwise you get treated like them. Instead, build community and friends here. Contribute positively. Then folx will want to help you.

Dear Adult Content Posters,
Don't post other folx' nudes without consent. It makes you look like spammers and bots; and it's considered Image-Based Sexual Abuse, as well as copyright infringement—both of which are illegal. Instead, boost local sexworkers / content creators and post your own stuff. Build something positive.

Dear Reply Guys, Sea Lions, and Concern Trolls,
Just stop. Also, you used the wrong *their* again.

Dear Everyone,
Be kind. Support marginalized communities. Write good alt-text. Report predatory accounts. And keep being lovely

Let's keep Fedi from becoming Twitter, together.

We've got a good thing here.

/endRant

Dear Scammers, Spammers, Bots, and Trolls,
Fuck you. Get off Fedi. No one wants you here.

Dear Mutual Aid Requesters,
Don't act like scammers, spammers, or bots—otherwise you get treated like them. Instead, build community and friends here. Contribute positively. Then folx will want to help you.

Dear Adult Content Posters,
Don't post other folx' nudes without consent. It makes you look like spammers and bots; and it's considered Image-Based Sexual Abuse, as well as copyright infringement—both of which are illegal. Instead, boost local sexworkers / content creators and post your own stuff. Build something positive.

Dear Reply Guys, Sea Lions, and Concern Trolls,
Just stop. Also, you used the wrong *their* again.

Dear Everyone,
Be kind. Support marginalized communities. Write good alt-text. Report predatory accounts. And keep being lovely

Let's keep Fedi from becoming Twitter, together.

We've got a good thing here.

/endRant

I feel I should clarify something from my original post; I *want* Fedi to be a place of support and mutual aid. We're all better when we help each other.

My issue is with accounts whose only contributions to Fedi are photos of suffering children and pleas for urgent assistance. I have reported so many Gaza mutual aid scam accounts from folx using the same photos with different names across dozens of accounts.

It's a needle in a haystack problem; *some* of these accounts are real people in need, but *so many* are scams. I'm sure there's *someone* out there on Fedi that desperately needs $300USD for their 6 month old child's insulin his month, but it seems unlikely that there are several each day, and that they're all asking me using the same post template.

So what I'm saying is: if you need mutual aid, please differentiate yourself from the scams and bot accounts. One way to do that is by engaging with folx like a normal person, and not by jumping on trending posts or into my DMs with mutual aid requests that look like *every* search result for a profile with "chuffed.org" in the bio that's been suspended for spamming folx mentions.

I want to help, but if your plea looks like a scam, I can't. I don't have the resources to thoroughly research every person who asks me to support their Chuffed campaign, and if I promote accounts and campaigns that exhibit bad behavior on Fedi, then my followers stop believing in my ability to point them at good causes...and when that happens, no one gets the aid they need and deserve.

The best way to convince me that you're not a scam is by treating me like a person, not a collection of followers that can boost your reach.

Queer issues are where I typically focus my resources, but I do stand with Palestine. The ongoing genocide surrounding Gaza is horrific.