This Tune Really Grew On Me, After A Few Years Finally Seeing The Video Tonight Got Me Liking It Even

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Because the excuse to infodump about storytelling is the best thing in the world.....

Here's your excuse to infodump anything and everything, or something really specific and small, about your story :)

The story I worked on last was the most I got in a NaNoWriMo attempt, over 10k words! Sorry, this has taken a while to answer.

It's a space saga. I love Star Trek and spent the last year getting through the Orville. My story dreams up a world where space travel is a thing to the scale of Star Trek. I've got a main character finishing up her final year at the academy training school on a moon base. She's got friends and competition. This is one of the few times I thought of a cast instead of a main and supporting characters. It's a challenge to give multiple characters growth and story. I'm still working on it, but had to take a hiatus because of life. I would really love to self publish this one some day.

2001

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.

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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.

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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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Sometimes you just don’t know why you are sad.

My first Utada song and video. I still love this jam to this day. Yay for HD update!

UnitedHealthcare Speech | Dr. Glaucomflecken @ Chicago Improv

POW

Losing the centricity of the main community sucks. But there are other groups starting something. I follow the reddit as the next big community and from there people post discords or other sites. I was actually hoping to find some community on Tumblr too.

I think after participating on and off every year since 2008, I'm OK growing out of it. Then getting into my daily word count year round phase to really embrace writing as a hobby.

This month has been a little weird, because in the past it's been the point of time where me and a few others ramp up for NaNoWriMo event planning.

I decided not to be an ML this year - I'm one of the many breakaway regions forging ahead with an independent event for our writers - but several people had been hoping to work with HQ again, and seeing the chatter around that is sad because it looks like NaNo isn't letting it happen.

Last year at this point, everyone who had volunteered to be an ML had been given instructions for this year, and links to order ML kits (usually the annual stickers). We'd get instructions in Aug on how to update digital spaces for the new year, and were encouraged to start scheduling events.

But it's Aug 1st and HQ has never even asked if anyone wants to volunteer this year. It's looking more and more likely that they have canned the entire Municipal Liason program, and if you don't have MLs what's the point of regions? If the community aspect of NaNo is going away, is it just a website now?

What made NaNo awesome was the other writers I'd hang out with on zoom or coffee shops.

I thought i had already grieved my time with NaNo, it had headed down a path I didn't want to follow and I had put so much energy into it. I'm building something new now even! But it's still so, so sad to think that it's just not my participation that has ended, but an entire program. And soon, I suspect, an entire organization.

NaNo is running on fumes, spiraling down and alienating so much of its old user base due to poor management and communication. Will it even run in November, I'm not entirely sure. I don't know if the donations they've received coverage servers fees.

Writers might have to do NaNo, or just write a draft in November, solo and that sounds so sad. I've only ever won because of my community (my region had at least 20 events scheduled in November).

I'd encourage people to reach out to old regions if you can - see if there's a grassroots community it morphed into. Or just any writing community - mine is hybrid now and all our writing events in November will have zoom options.

I hoped maybe the new HQ would build something that would work for someone, but i have a sneaking suspicion that it won't. NaNoWriMo might just become something like NoShaveNovember or Dry January. A thing you do, but no official community.

Feeling real bummed about this, because i volunteered with NaNo for 5 years and wrote for 12.