lol very cute :)
Gotcha watched there now :)

I've thanked everyone who's followed me so far. What's your username there? Or... is it a seeecret? *giggles*

Touche and DOUBLE kudos for knowing that reference~
I am Artlan :) the one who can always claim (with great PRIDE) to have found you at a con and been your first sketchbook commission ^_^

Oh HO! I remember that! I'd thought I was being asked to doodle in your pad, and when you tried to give me monies, I tried to give it back! *giggle*

And I laughed my tail off at that series. I blame my hubby for introducing me to it.

I love that series :) I should chatter anime with you and your hubby sometime! Do you hit up cons lately? I'd LOVE to see you again - and maybe add a 2nd prized sketch to my collections ;)

I usually only go to FC, but sometimes, if I make hatchy-eyes, we go to Califur. I'd love to do another sketch in your pad. I'll do a better one this time!

I haven't actually seen a lot of anime, but what I have, I've liked. Mushi-shi is just beautiful, and I found Trigun a lot of fun. Cowboy Bebop was neat, too. I really identified with the feral hacker kid, Ed. Fruits Basket was just weird, but well done. I've seen some classics, too, like Princess Mononoke. Full Metal Alchemist is fascinating to me: well-plotted and animated.

Oh, we could spend nights talking about shows then. I used to run a fansub group and have... terabytes of it... so I can help suggest ones :)
I don't think I'll be making it to CaliFur this year - but will aim to catch you at FC 2015!
Need to keep in touch more ;)

Come poke my Weasyl... Wait. That sounded better in my head. LOL

What and whose lack of ethics?

Hiring a certain coder with an ugly reputation who also happens to be a pal of the site owner. Nepotism sucks donkey dong. Rape is worse. Naming the parties involved is considered a "call-out" and this journal would get redacted (it may still). Anyway, I don't know if you've been around the last couple of weeks, but the reasons and discussions are all over FA. Guaranteed, some of the folks you've watched are talking about it.

The whole thing is rather stomach-turning.

Reputation based on rumors and gossip is no reason to not to do something.

As far as hiring, I don't think said coder is getting paid.

Also, I don't know any mention of Rape anywhere other than what people have made up.

Perhaps. My personal jury is still out, but things still don't look good. I also don't think the women involved were lying--it's a very low statistical chance they were lying, sorry (less than 5%, I understand). I suggest doing some reading on the hacker-leak that brought this all to light in the first place back in 2010: it involved a number of private notes where a woman had come forward asking for advice on how to deal with a possible rape-situation and was told to stay quiet because of potential "backlash from fans", as if that fucking mattered at ALL to her plight.

As far as I know, he isn't being paid, true--the term "hired" was convenient to the situation. One "hires" interns, for example, and they are often unpaid. In any case, he seems to have alienated the rest of the team and they've apparently left.

I've seen a lot of stupid comments in my time regarding rape--Todd Aiken is a shining fucking example of that--but you NEVER tell a possible rape-victim who is struggling with the decision to bring it out in the open to keep silent. Too much "slut-shaming" for my taste in that. There were a lot of questions along the lines of "why didn't she and the others report it to the police?" by ignorant people who obviously had no clue how fucking HARD it can be to even tell those closest to you, let alone the authorities.

I was routinely raped by my step-father for years. I had to leave home before I was ready for the world to get away from him, and it took me thirty YEARS, over a decade of therapy and medication for suicidal-depression in order to finally bring a report to the fucking cops. It's not beyond imagination that the women who have been told to keep quiet about the possible nasty actions of a popular artist might have trouble coming forward and chose instead a method they probably thought was tactful, delicate, and above all, PRIVATE, rather than just bluntly coming out and saying it. And they got shot down, then the notes got leaked, and if the event really did happen, the ladies involved were possibly reliving the shame all over again, making them even less likely to come forward because now they just wanted it to STOP. Think about that, then ask yourself if being disturbed, if even just a little, over how this was handled is unjustified. People are uncomfortable with the situation and with the person and this whole thing is a public-relations nightmare.

"Made up"? Sure. Whatever, man. Believe what you want, but there is too much material on this for me to think it's just a "messy break-up" gone bad or to be sneered at as the usual "Furry drama". Something is rotten in Denmark, and sometimes, it's just time to move on. I don't think this will actually kill FA, but maybe Dragoneer and crew should take a long hard look at how they handle things and consider the possibility that they screwed the pooch in inviting Zaush to work as a coder for the site, if for no other reason than the reaction would be insane. He should have foreseen this: it's wasn't exactly hard to figure out.

Her notes to Dragoneer were an attempt to get Zaush banned considering she wrote the notes almost a year later.

The chat logs tell a different story, she had an ongoing relationship with him, while 'on a break' with her BF, she drove 200 or so miles to see him over new years.

Her BF called her a slut for having sex with him, and things went downhill from there. She was not able to handle an open relationship.

Many months before she wrote the note, she even told me she had a relaxing weekend at his place.

This isn't a case of rape, this isn't a case of slut shaming. This is a case of someone telling a lie and lies such as this do such great harm to those who have actually suffered such as yourself.

As far as Zaush alienating 'the team', there was no team, you had two people who casually talked about maybe revamping the site. Dragoneer said sure okay, and nothing was heard from these people for months. In that one person's chatlog, he even mentions he was working 72 hours a week on his actual job which would not make him a good candidate to get anything done on FA.

Rape is a terrible violent act that should never happen. Rape should be prosecuted and those that commit rape should be jailed/castrated/whatever you like.

One last thing though, if you could, provide a citation for the 5% number. I am doubting the veracity of that statistic.

I overestimated, actually: the incidence is supposedly 3%

Some rape myths debunked: http://www.iup.edu/page.aspx?id=44097

But, if that's tl;dr, point #6 should suffice.

6. MYTH: Most rapes are reported by women who “change their minds” afterwards or who want to “get even” with a man.

FACT: The large majority of women do not lie about being raped.

FBI statistics show that only 3 percent of rape calls are false reports. This is the same false-report rate that is usual for other kinds of felonies. This myth is another variation on the theme of blaming the victim. It serves to increase hostility and suspicion toward women. One can find isolated cases of a woman lying about being raped, but this is not the norm. And such cases should not be confused with rapes that are not prosecuted; a lack of evidence for the district attorney to proceed is not the same as a lack of truth.

Rape is the most underreported crime of all. Most keep it a private nightmare. Reporting a rape is especially difficult because very intimate details have to be shared.

In other words, the span of time passing between the incident and the time she wrote the note is irrelevant, as is the absence of a charge to the court. Tattoo the last three sentences on your brain, would you? At least until you show you understand why the situation might not be the "everything's fine, move along, nothing to see here" you want to believe it to be. Sure, she might have lied. But about which part? The pressure to have sex? Or the friendlier, comfortable weekend?

All I said was that it is statistically unlikely that she'd lied, that there were supposedly more than one person who'd felt pressured by him, that his reputation had suffered as a result and that accepting him as a coder for the site when he hadn't yet been vindicated was a stupid thing to do. The whole thing bugs me deeply, and the cruddy methods being used as damage-control come off as nepotistic and unethical. She described a situation where she felt uncomfortable, said no, then went through with it anyway. That implies a lack of consent, and thus, potentially falls under the category of rape, regardless of whether or not it was violent.

By the by, I looked at your profile out of curiosity. Lawyer, hmm? Cool! What sort? But I also saw this: one of your favourite artists is Zaush. Is he a friend, by any chance? (And yes, I realize I'm hitting the "Damned By The Company You Keep" type of logical fallacy. Doesn't stop me from doubting, though, sorry.)

That particular source is really bad. It contains no actual citations to the data.

From what I have found, that 3% percent number has an origin in the scholarly article (Susan BROWNMILLER, AGAINST OUR WILL:MEN,WOMENANDRAPE (1976)). The statistics here have been parroted repeated.

This article discusses how that number keeps getting recited and recited http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/do/se.....ontext=1609392


The idea that you can measure false claims is a bit insane in and of itself. First you have a claim, is the claim true or false? How do you determine this? What makes it false ? No conviction? If that is the case than a lot more rapes are false claims than that 3%. Do you add in claims that are never prosecuted for lack of evidence? That would increase it even more.

So it begs the question, How do you determine falsity?

The other issue with this situation is, defining Rape itself. It seems to be very subjective. You have some people who seem to believe that all penis in vagina sex is rape. http://witchwind.wordpress.com/2013.....lways-rape-ok/ (i think the author actually believes this, if it is satire they fooled me)

Most people probably have a general idea of what is it.

I'll use http://www.courts.ca.gov/partners/d.....im_juryins.pdf page 791 for my definition of rape.

To sum up the definition there, (1) The culprit had sexual intercourse with the victim, (2) the victim did not consent, (3) the culprit accomplished sexual intercourse through (a) force or fear ( force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury); (b) future threats of bodily harm (threatening to retaliate in the future against the victim or someone else where thre was a reasonable possibility that the culprit would carry out the threat; © threat of official action (this applies to officers of the state basically)

Going by the legal definition, taking into account the facts known. Rape did not happen between those two individuals.

As far as I go, I do Estate Planning (Wills and Trusts) and Business Transactions (Contracts, Corporate shit).

Because a university page with stats compiled from FBI and police reports just isn't good enough... Oy.

All right, let's try again, shall we? First off, you posted two links that led to pages I needed to download. I don't usually download files from the Net, sorry. If there's a link to that same info that's available for viewing, cool, but when I see the kind of wording that's in the first one; "Legal Dominance Feminism"? Really? C'mon, if that ain't "mansplaining" title-ing...

I don't open executable files (the pdf link you posted), sorry.

As far as the one, single, actual link you sent me to, once I'm done laughing my tail off, I'll reply. WTF did I just read? Seriously? "Intercourse is unnatural?" Huh? Okay, I'm suspecting you think I'm some sort of knee-jerk, over-the-top feminiazi, thus the link to this "rad-fem" page, but holy hannah, what a load of garbage. You're going to have to do better than THAT to prove me wrong, buddy.


From another, more SANE, comment piece about rape:

This brings me to another point: If people have different understandings of consent, desire, and what rape really is, we run the risk of calling credible accusations of rape lies for attention.

If a woman says yes to sex and later says no, but the person she’s having sex with continues, this is rape. But not every court, media outlet, or rapist believes that this constitutes rape.

So while those with an understanding of consent will see a need to investigate, others will dismiss the woman as lying, attention seeking, or over-reactionary, even though the incident she described constitutes rape.

The same can be said in cases of statutory rape, rape that involved the use of drugs or alcohol, rape by a spouse or intimate partner, and the list could go on.

In all of these situations, there are still people who confuse a lack of aggression with consent.

You can read the whole thing here: https://everydayfeminism.com/2013/0.....ie-about-rape/ The article links to pages with stats... with those references you wanted so much. Again, the stats are compiled from police, judiciary and FBI sources.

The idea that you can measure false claims is a bit insane in and of itself. First you have a claim, is the claim true or false? How do you determine this? What makes it false ? No conviction? If that is the case than a lot more rapes are false claims than that 3%. Do you add in claims that are never prosecuted for lack of evidence? That would increase it even more.

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. Need I say it again? Sure. BULLSHIT. Measuring anything with any kind of report attached is possible. True or false? Test it. How do you test? Seek evidence. Compile that evidence and compare to the story? You should get your proof, one way or the other. I know that things rarely fall out quite that easily, but it is still POSSIBLE TO MEASURE VERACITY. There's also the rate of re-cant: I suspect that's in the total. (about recanting, though, some do it under threat of further violence, so that stat might not be measured because of that)

As for no conviction, sorry, no. Since there are far too many judges with some very fucked-up, nineteenth-century views about women, their veracity, their strengths, "what was she wearing?" etc, a lack of completed convictions WOULD NOT be in the total for "false reporting". Besides, you should be smarter than that. A non-conviction is NOT the equivalent of "she fucking lied". See above mentioned judges, law, or juries stuck in the nineteenth-century.

Then we come to "not prosecuting because of lack of evidence": again, I call bullshit. "Historical" cases are tried all the time (kids-now-adults coming forward after decades to report what daddy liked to do in their family basement), for example, and physical evidence is nearly impossible in those cases. Not only tried, but fucking convicted, like what is likely to happen to my step-father. (BTW, I only mentioned my case because of the lengthy time-stamp on it, not seeking sympathy. I've had therapy, thank you, and I'm doing fine. It was to illustrate the commonality of the tale, and to show that it CAN take years for someone to be able to report. You had asked "why take so long to bring it up?" That was my answer)

I know folks sneer at Wikipedia in terms of veracity, but since linking to their sources is EXTREMELY important to the site, I doubt that sneering has any merit, so here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_.....pe_accusations Read the whole thing, I dare you.

Oh, just to bring it up, I was accused of lying on another case (attempted rape, not completed). Why? Because I wasn't a weeping mess or freaking out. I was FURIOUS, instead, and I had physically fought him off and got away without injury. The cops dared to ask stupid bullshit like "did you kiss him?" As if that had ANY relevance. Again, why? Because I had chatted with the guy in an apartment lobby for a while, he invited me to a "party" (which wasn't: it was just him and his brother, no other people, and he tried to force me to drink booze. I don't drink). Well, as soon as I realized this was not what he said it was, I tried to leave. Sensible, no? But I had to fight to do that, and the cops just didn't get that a woman who had just been attacked didn't always have to break down into tears and cringing. Jeez. Idiots.

Lastly, I suggest reading this, then reassessing your views on false allegations and how common they might actually be and whether or not those compilations of data might not be skewed, somewhat because of rape-culture (and insensitive cops): http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostd.....ion-statistic/

To me, what is described by Ferality is sexual assault or at least coercive sex. It is still a form of rape, to my mind. Physical violence, such as being beaten into submission, isn't always part of it. A person can be overwhelmed by physical size, threats against one's person, job, status or family, what have you, in order to get what they want. Still rape.

Oh, just because I'm a completist, let's add this stuff in, too (yes, these are mostly comments from only a couple of blogs, but I post them because of how COMMON these experiences are, even in my own life and that of SO many people I personally know to make "false accusations" the lie and not the other way around):

It links to a comment carrying a link to a PDF research-paper (download it if you'd like) but the cited paragraphs are interesting, as is the rest of the comment-thread AND the article they're attached to: http://freethoughtblogs.com/entequi.....#comment-55318

A comment from a lawyer: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyng.....comment-676426
By the way, P Z Myers is a scientist who writes the blog: his blog is often more wordy than this, but he's still worth reading.

Another comment (also links to a PDF research-paper): http://freethoughtblogs.com/entequi.....#comment-55319 The comments directly below are fun.

Sometimes, the rapist has power, making reporting it a problem (now, I realize an attorney has MUCH power than Zaush ever will, but the fear of "what will the community think?" is real enough): http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyng.....comment-676482

Recanting is sadly common (anecdotal comment): http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostd.....comment-264885

From a completely different source (with citations): http://www.balloon-juice.com/2013/0.....think-they-do/

And then, to partially play devil's advocate for your argument, I present this because I thought you might find it interesting: http://www.theforensicexaminer.com/.....e/spring09/15/

To sum up, it doesn't seem to matter which studies you look at, if you were to average any or all of them, the percentage of actual accusations vs false (or "unfounded" <--that category is a problem, because it includes both false reports and ones that go unresolved, either by the opinions of the police or by the court), STILL outweighs by a large margin that of any amount of false accusations (personally, I disregard the 'study' with the 90% tag because it seemed utterly ridiculous).

Also, just to be clear, I haven't "decided" Zaush is guilty OR innocent. I've made NO personal decision on that matter whatsoever. My beef is with how the situation was handled by the admins, nothing more. Here, this might show my views a bit more clearly where I make a distinct point of saying that I have NO right to judge Zaush or Ferality, only that being told to keep quiet about it was terrible advice by any road and that Dragoneer fucked up in how he dealt with it: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1957053/ I had decided not to leave back then, and I'm frankly undecided now, but believe me, I'm definitely leaning toward bailing.

READ THIS BIT, IT'S IMPORTANT: I don't EVER say I think Zaush did it. I do not EVER say anyone is lying, either. I DO say that the two should deal with it in whatever way they think will settle the problem (I'm thinking that's been done, at least on some level), and I DO say that whether or not the accuser is lying is irrelevant when it comes to reporting something until it goes to the testing of evidence. We do not KNOW if the accuser is lying. That's not our job-we have no place in the discussion, period. We're just geeks on the Interwebz weighing in on something we're not technically involved in. We DO know that other women have described some uncomfortable situations with the person in question, and to me, that speaks to something hinky on the part of the person they're accusing (that unsavoury rep I mentioned) and not to any kind of "conspiracy" to ruin the guy. It certainly makes me wary about ever getting near him, though, sorry to say. Personally, I hope for one thing: all parties to tell the truth and that he is either charged and vindicated, or charged and proven to be what he's been accused of being.


I'm done, no more discussion.

Sorry to hear this. I hope you stay on both since im not moving nor do i really want more sites to manage (its ridiculous now ugh).

I hear ya. I haven't made the final decision, yet. I'm sick, right now (delayed Con-crud), and can't think straight for the damned room wobbling around. Ugh.

Hope you decide to stay here.... I won't have anyone to pester! *hugs*

Come, be with the Weasyl... LOL I might remain, I haven't entirely decided, but Weasyl's features already have me impressed. They have a functioning commissions-info page. You can make folders and there's a separate section for one's characters. I'm still not quite sure how to access that, yet. I think you have to go through the submissions page. And written pieces aren't just jammed at the bottom of the home-page, either--they rank with all the other submissions. Pretty cool, so far.

Well, if you do, I suppose I can give you an IM address if you use it or one of my emails if you wanted to keep in touch. I'm not all that active artwise lately, just no ideas so I'm on a break from art sites anyways

Aww, but I'm not on there. I won't be able to see you anymore!

*clings*

We'll see how this latest mess shakes out... What's stopping you from making a Weasyl account? But I'll still be here for at least a few more months, anyway, and I'm sure I'll know by then whether or not I want to remain.

Well I've already got an Inkbunny, and this one, I hate having to sign up for too many things. Everything on the internet is "sign up for an account if you want to explore this site!" now.
Too many logins for everything! Gah!

Yeah, no kidding. It's impossible to keep up with them all. I just ha FA, Etsy, DA and now Weasyl. I do have a Facebook page (two, actually) for my business and to stay in contact with my family.

I can't get on Facebook. Too much dodgy scripting on there. First time I went on it, my malware blocker nearly exploded, lol.
Really not my kind of place either...

I might make a Weasyl one then if you leave here

Link's not working. Says user doesn't exist.

It should be working now. The link did work originally, but 'cuz my name was spelled wrong, I asked them to change it and they did. <3

I've fixed it in the journal, too.

So how can I find you on there if the link won't work?

It should be working now. The link did work originally, but 'cuz my name was spelled wrong, I asked them to change it and they did. <3 I've fixed it in the journal, too.

*hugs* If you do leave here, how're you going to keep in touch? Not that I hear from you often, anyway... *grmblegrumble* *giggle*

*glomps and hugs ya* Happy New Year, ya lovelysilly opal, ya! And to that sexy gold of ours, too

Come pet my Weasyl. Seriously, though, you have several ways to get a hold of me. True, I often don't email or pester people--just too busy with life, really. I barely have time for the few websites I actually frequent. Doesn't mean I'm ignoring anybody.

Happy Gnu Ear 2 Ewe too. >^___^< I'll give  kanis a hug for you.

Oooh baby. Pet your weasel? Oooh, it's all soft and furry. *petpetpetpetpet*

I know what you mean about being too busy with life. I'm almost never on FA or most places, either, these days. But I do miss you, whole bunches, and I -am- gonna come out there to Calif. and chew on your sofa someday soon, I swear! :-D

I will treasure the teethmarks after you're gone, hun. LOL Hmm, soft and furry weasels...

LOL

Enlighten me: just what are you finding amusing?

The title, it made me chuckle.

Yeah, I was being a Weeble dork. LOL >^___^<

Oh baby, I'll pet your weasyl all night long

*cough* I mean.. whoo, new account to watch! :D

*giggles evilly* Careful, my weasel nibbles!