synonymous

November Updates

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 16:10:04 GMT

As of approximately two weeks ago (link), Alex Tischer is no longer the Webs chair. Information about the chairs and their respective committees can be found here.

I am aware of the current controversy surrounding AO3. Initially, I had planned to make a write-up, but as the whistleblower is in the middle of compiling full documentation of the incident, I will wait for that to be released before reporting it here.

This blog is against the colonization of Palestine. I will not elaborate further on this. If you take issue with any assumptions you make of me because of this, I will leave you to examine that for yourself rather than making it my problem.

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Resignation of dhobikikutti

Fri, 08 Sep 2023 15:59:35 GMT

This has been cloned for documentation purposes. Please share and support dhobikikutti on their post over here.

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OTW 2023 Election Results

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 00:58:42 GMT

Recount request deadline: August 22

(source)

The Elections Committee would like to thank all of our candidates for their hard work in this year’s election. We are now pleased to present the results of the 2023 Election.

The following candidates (in alphabetical order) have been officially elected to serve full terms (3 years) on the Board of Directors:

Anh Pham
Kathryn Soderholm
Qiao Chu

As previously announced, Heather McGuire stepped down from her position on the Board prior to the 2023 election. Director Natalia Gruber also resigned, in July 2023. We are grateful for Heather and Natalia’s service and thank them for their work and dedication.

To fill these vacant seats, the candidates who placed fourth and fifth in this election, Jennifer Haynes and Zixin Zhang, have been elected to join the Board of Directors.They will serve the remaining two years of Heather’s and Natalia’s terms starting on October 1 2023, so that the Board will be fully staffed until the next election.

Board turnover will formally begin on October 1. We wish the new members of the Board well.

With that, the 2023 election season comes to a close. Thank you to everyone who participated by spreading the word, sending their questions to candidates, and, of course, voting! We hope to see all of you again next year.

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Mon, 31 Jul 2023 05:00:42 GMT

For trackers and subscribers: someone has made a post politically contextualizing and outlining the sequence of events specifically surrounding the mismanagement of Chinese volunteers on Tumblr here.

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Candidate Chat 4 with Kathryn and Qiao.

Sun, 30 Jul 2023 03:49:11 GMT

This is the raw transcript organized for readability.

These answers have been crossposted on the candidates' individual bio/platform posts:

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Candidate Chat 3 with Anh and Jennifer.

Sun, 30 Jul 2023 03:32:16 GMT

This is the raw transcript organized for readability.

These answers have been crossposted on the candidates' individual bio/platform posts:

( Read more... )

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The OTW's mistreatment of Chinese volunteers

Sat, 29 Jul 2023 20:27:23 GMT

ETA 31/07/2023 3:40AM UTC: fandomantiracism has a post politically contextualizing and outlining the sequence of events specifically surrounding the mismanagement of Chinese volunteers. I am not affiliated with this blog.

For context, see also:

Any additional testimonies or commentary about the mistreatment of Chinese volunteers will be added into this post, and the timestamp will be updated accordingly.

azarias, 2023-07-29 18:22: (link)

This is Azarias. I'm signing so that this story can be fact-checked.

What happened with Zixin this week is the SECOND time I know of a volunteer trying or threatening to get mainland Chinese volunteers arrested and the Org responding with "Meh."

Several years ago, there was a PAC volunteer who lived outside of China. They spoke Chinese as a first language themself, but did not like mainlanders. Being on PAC, they had access to AO3 user records in addition to all the info on volunteers anyone with Slack access can get. By design, the OTW doesn't collect much information on users or volunteers, but there's still more information than you want an authoritarian government to have.

Another volunteer who spoke Chinese looked at their Twitter and saw that they were complaining about mainlanders in the OTW and "joking" about how they should let the CCP know about what those folks were doing. They also used ethnic slurs to describe mainlanders. The volunteer who saw this let another East Asian volunteer know (sorry I'm being vague here but I don't want to drag people into this without permission) and reported the tweets to OTW leadership. They were told someone would look into it but the process is really long and difficult so be patient.

Weeks later this was still going on. The two volunteers who had reported this happened to mention it to me. I was alarmed, so I DMed some Org leaders on Slack and made my own report, reiterating what the original reporters had said.

Within 24 hours of a complaint from me, a white woman, this person was fired from the OTW. After weeks of the East Asian volunteers' identical complaints not being addressed. I don't even read Chinese, y'all. I had to use Google translate to get the gist and ask a literate person what the idioms meant. The first complaint was made by someone who could read exactly what was happening, but the Org didn't consider it important when they said it.

/azarias

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Candidate Chat 2 with Jennifer, Qiao, and Zixin.

Sat, 29 Jul 2023 18:59:59 GMT

This is the raw transcript organized for readability.

These answers have been crossposted on the candidates' individual bio/platform posts:

( Read more... )

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Candidate Chat 1 with Anh, Kathryn, and Zixin.

Sat, 29 Jul 2023 04:43:44 GMT

This is the raw transcript organized for readability.

These answers have been crossposted on the candidates' individual bio/platform posts:

( Read more... )

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Controversy surrounding a targeted question during a candidate Q&A

Sat, 29 Jul 2023 03:40:28 GMT

About 48 hours prior to the candidate chat on 28 July 2023, on 26 July 2023 there was an anonymous leak about a "malevolent question" targeted to Zixin.

Note: While most of the questions asked during the candidate Q&A are by anyone active in the chat, questions for specific candidates that they received during the general Q&A period (18 June - 25 June) get asked first, as they are unable to answer them in their official Q&A responses.

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The redacted question

Zixin has changed her mind and decided to publicize the redacted part of the question and her response to it, in the internal OTW chat, and has given permission for it to be shared. dhobikikutti has shared it on her entry here. (Italics are dhobikikutti; bold is the redacted anonymous question; unformatted are Zixin's words).
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Note: As of 29 July 2023 9:29AM UTC, I have elected to attempt to block outside search engines from indexing my journal.

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Emyn's response to dhobikikutti, and dhobkikutti's response to Emyn

Sat, 29 Jul 2023 03:06:41 GMT

Emyn a., the candidate who dropped out of this year's election on 26 June, publicly posted on Tumblr at 7:24AM on 28 July 2023 UTC about the conditions around his withdrawal, tying them to dhobikikutti's behavior.

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dhobikikutti's response

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Emyn has not made any followup comments at this time.

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Alex Tischer has officially resigned.

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 20:30:13 GMT

Discussion on FFA here. It is unclear whether this was a resignation from the Board, or the org as a whole, as Tischer is also the standing Webs chair, a staff member on the Translation and Support committees, and a Tag Wrangler.

The message that prompted this knowledge, according to FFA, was: (posted 27 July 2023) (link)

Alex T has just said on Chat Platform: Guys, I am not even home at the moment but I resigned yesterday [26 July 2023]? So can you maybe stop freaking everyone out.

Because Antonius and Natalia had already begun the resignation process, their resignations were announced first.

ETA: The announcement has been made official on the OTW site and on the AO3 site. (Twitter)

ETA 2: Per a comment on FFA:

Natalia and Antonius had both been on hiatus for over a month due to both being overwhelmed with RL issues. Per Michelle, they had both already begun the process of resigning prior to the incident with Alex yesterday (but hadn't made an official announcement because they were still getting all their ducks in a row).

Then the stuff with Alex happened, and as the nonny above me said, volunteers were telling them to either come off hiatus and begin the process of expelling Alex from the Board, or, if they were unable to fulfill their duties, resign. They both decided to make their resignations official at that point - which apparently was after Alex had also already decided to resign, but it's not clear if either of them knew that.

(Natalia did condemn Alex's behavior in Kutti's post and in the internal OTW chat, but given her previous inaction in other circumstances when Alex was being racist and/or an asshole, I wouldn't give her too much credit.)

ETA: Per a comment by azarias in dhobikikutti's journal as of 2023-07-28 19:28 UTC:

Alex is still a committee chair at the moment, so still quite powerful within the OTW.

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Official resignation of 2 Board members

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 19:07:30 GMT

Antonius Melisse and Natalia Gruber have stepped down from the OTW Board of Directors. Antonius's term was ending this year, so this has only opened one slot for the election, not two. However, as there are five open seats, and five candidates, the election is currently uncontested.

The official OTW channels have not made an announcement. This information comes from fail_fandomanon.

Elaboration (link):

To elaborate: they are the two Board members who had been on hiatus, which meant, among other things, that the Board wouldn't be able to hold a vote to kick Alex out, since you need a 2/3 majority.

This now means that Kari and Michelle could vote on their own to kick Alex out, if Alex doesn't resign on their own (though it would take at least two weeks, per the bylaws).

It does also mean that the election is uncontested - there are five open slots for the next term, and five remaining candidates. Some of those slots are partial slots, so the election will still be held, and the order of the winning candidates used to determine who gets a partial term and who gets a full term.

To clarify: they resigned from the Board, not from the OTW as an org. Both resignations were prompted by them being unable to dedicate the time needed to fulfill their responsibilities due to RL stuff.

A number of volunteers were telling them to get off hiatus to vote Alex out, or resign.

They resigned.

ETA: The announcement has been made official on the OTW site and on the AO3 site. (Twitter)

ETA 2: Per a comment on FFA:

Natalia and Antonius had both been on hiatus for over a month due to both being overwhelmed with RL issues. Per Michelle, they had both already begun the process of resigning prior to the incident with Alex yesterday (but hadn't made an official announcement because they were still getting all their ducks in a row).

Then the stuff with Alex happened, and as the nonny above me said, volunteers were telling them to either come off hiatus and begin the process of expelling Alex from the Board, or, if they were unable to fulfill their duties, resign. They both decided to make their resignations official at that point - which apparently was after Alex had also already decided to resign, but it's not clear if either of them knew that.

(Natalia did condemn Alex's behavior in Kutti's post and in the internal OTW chat, but given her previous inaction in other circumstances when Alex was being racist and/or an asshole, I wouldn't give her too much credit.)

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Alex Tischer's pervasive racism, and a call by volunteers for Tischer's suspension

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 22:21:28 GMT

The context of this post: Alex Tischer has been discussed in passing, in previous discussions about the OTW's cultural issues, for being a missing stair and for their racist comments as a Board member. A recent incident has prompted this post as a compilation of commentary on Tischer's behavior in the org.

Tischer was on the board from 2016-2018, and again from 2020-2022. This can be found here. Prior to being a board member, Tischer has been a volunteer for the OTW since April 2008. The OTW was founded in May 2007.

Alex Tischer is white and German, residing in the UK. Their Slack profile lists their pronouns as "IDGAF", and their bio says "Not nice."

dhobikikutti has called for Alex's suspension due to them recently doubling down on their racist behavior. This incident, as well as dhobikikutti's call to action, is documented on this post and can also be found here.

dhobikikutti has since stated that the vaguer claims on this post are "broadly accurate, albeit confused in some minor details".

I am allowing comments on this post if any previous or current volunteers would like to provide further commentary on Alex Tischer. This is to minimize the need to link back and forth, while providing a space safe for anonymity. Any attempt at wank will be frozen or screened.

( Previous Incidents )

( Recent Incidents )

( ETA: 27/07/2023 Transcript of a 2020 Slack conversation with a black volunteer )

( ETA 2: 27/07/2023 OTW Reprimand )

( Alex's Resgination )

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Candidate Withdrawal: Audrey Richards

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 20:35:56 GMT

Audrey R has resigned from candidacy due to alleged harassment.

It was made aware to the public on 24 July 2023, after members received test ballots with the candidates' full names on them, that Audrey had previously run for a position in the United States House of Representatives as a Republican candidate in 2022. In 2020, she had run as an independent. Her political history can be found on Ballotpedia here. This page also associates her with the Organization of Transformative Works, confirming that she is the same Audrey R on the test ballot.

This information was primarily circulated on Twitter and Tumblr, from various sources. After this circulation, she posted a thread clarifying her stances: (link)

A 🧵To clear up misinformation spreading about me online:
1) I ran for office once as an Independent candidate, and once as a Republican.
2) I am not and never have been pro-censorship. I have been more vocal in my support for freedom of speech in schools than any candidate who has run in my elections. Public schools are the backbone of our society and I will support them until the end of time.
3) When I say in my Q&A responses that I do not understand a question, I spoke about it with fellow candidates, one of whom is a Fanlore member, and still did not understand the question.
4) Regarding EOTWR, I never said that they don’t have members who are also volunteers. I said they did not recruit people who are volunteers to run for the board. At the end of my statement I suggest that they do so and further engage with those people who are in positions to mak
e change at this moment.
5) Regarding the criticism of my political choices, that is perfectly valid. There is not much you can say that has not been said to my face.
6) Accusing me of homophobia and transphobia is absurd. I worked within the party to push acceptance and a revision of the party platform to remove the language that marriage is exclusively between one man and one woman.
I stand in solidarity with queer Southwest Missourians and will continue to do so regardless of my party affiliation.
7) The harassment and vitriol and misinformation being spread about my workplace is untenable. You can insult me, call me names, whatever helps you sleep at night. At the end of the day, I work for a research institute that is one of the few places advocating for children to lead
healthy lives in a digital world and working to protect their access to information in states like mine. Their work is important to me, and it should be important to all of you as well.
8) I am not withdrawing my candidacy. I will not concede to the loud voices who are insisting I am “pro-censorship,” “another Tiffany G,” or in any way homophobic / transphobic etc. If you care so much, volunteer.
If you care so much, run against me. Don’t vote for me if you don’t want to. I have no qualms about losing; I’ve done a lot of it. I know how to take an L, but I will not allow my workplace to take potshots on my behalf. Your beef is with me, not the Institute.

This is not meant to defend or condemn her in any way; I am reposting this here for accessibility, as she has since locked her account.

She announced her withdrawal from the campaign as well as possibly resigning from the organization on 25 July 2023, with this tweet, which is now locked:

I resigned from the org. Congrats to the witch hunt.

To any prospective volunteers and 2024 board candidates, just know that this organization will not protect you, your mental well-being, or your job.

To everyone in SWMO who reached out with kindness, thank you. 💔

The OTW issued a statement on the same day, titled "Election Committee Statement on Harassment". The comments on this post, both on the Transformative Works site and on AO3, are locked. This was accompanied by a Twitter announcement:

Elections Committee Statement on Harassment
The Elections Committee would like to condemn in the strongest terms the recent harassment campaign aimed at one of our candidates.

While all OTW Board election candidates are prepared to run, and if elected or appointed, serve under their legal name, the intense harassment of Audrey goes well beyond what is appropriate during the candidacy period. We do not condone the harassment of the candidate or their employer.

For the second year in a row, an OTW Board election candidate has been subject to a campaign of harassment and misinformation. We regret that we failed to step in last year when another candidate was harassed, and it is on us that both candidates were exposed to such harassment without an official response. Historically, we’ve tried to make minimal public statements to ensure that the committee as a whole stays neutral and impartial in public discussions about a candidate’s suitability for the OTW Board of Directors.

The OTW is committed to holding elections that are fair and contested. This is necessary for empowering OTW members to vote for Board Directors that best represent their interests and help manage the OTW as a whole. As part of maintaining a fair and contested election process, the Elections Committee will support all eligible candidates who declare candidacy. Our candidate eligibility requirements are publicly available on our website, and we welcome candidates who hold varying perspectives and aims for the OTW’s future.

If an OTW member has concerns about a candidate, then they can choose to not rank that candidate on their ballot. The Elections Committee employs an adapted IRV voting system in our elections, which allows members to rank candidates and requires elected candidates to have majority support from our membership to be elected. It is the Election Committee’s position that only OTW members should determine who serves their interests on the Board of Directors.

If you are not an OTW member, you can still ask the candidates questions or campaign for/against a particular candidate or candidates on social media. We do not seek to discourage civil and appropriate discussions about our candidates’ opinions. Instead we ask members of the public to be considerate of all candidates and to carefully consider the information being promoted on social media. We encourage members of the public to read candidate election materials, submit questions to candidates and be an active participant in the election process.

Per a recent announcement, the Elections Committee will be hosting chats with our candidates next weekend. Please consider attending if you are interested. This year’s election will be held August 11-14. It will open at 12:01am UTC on August 11 and close at 11:59pm UTC on August 14 (What time is that for me?).

The volunteer alluded to who got harassment the previous year was Tiffany G (archived) from 2022. Many comments about those expressing wariness about her candidacy are still visible on the Elections post.

The OTW issued another statement announcing Audrey's withdrawal on 26 July (link; Twitter announcement):

Effective July 25, Audrey R. has withdrawn her candidacy for the 2023 OTW Board election. The Elections Committee wishes Audrey all the best.

A comment from samjohnsson on petra's post reads: (link)

I can't speak for any other reasons, but one of the reasons they said something is that I voiced my very unhappy position the Org chat tool that they're setting up a wonderful pattern of leaving candidates hanging - first Tiffany, now Audrey - and that at this rate, they'd not get candidates in future terms.

I'm still beyond unhappy with how they handled Tiffany's situation. I am fucking livid with how they handled Audrey's, because they had seen this before and were still sitting on their damn thumbs. (This org has like zero crisis planning. Zero.) And yeah, that there hasn't been any retroactive "we done fucked up" is telling.

Her platform and Q&A will remain on this journal for archival purposes.

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Letter to dhobikikutti from the OTW chairs re: CCAP + responses

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 05:07:24 GMT

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otw_news News

Sun, 16 Jul 2023 06:51:47 GMT

On 10 June 2023, otw_news made a post concerning the usage of the OTW Dreamwidth community, and asked readers for feedback: (link)

The post accrued 59 comments.

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A week later, on 17 June 2023, otw_news made a post to address concerns and questions: (link)

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On 25 June 2023, otw_news posted an update in the decision that had been made: they would be making the account inactive, and post news through a Feed account instead: (link)

The ensuing response was negative, and the post accrued 78 comments.

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2 days later, otw_news made a post with further explanation on this decision: (link)

It received 71 comments.

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On 10 July 2023 around approximately 12:24PM UTC, the AO3 servers faced a DDoS attack, causing the site to be down for a little over 24 hours: (link)

At 5:59PM UTC on 10 July, approximately 6 hours after the initial DDoS announcement on Twitter, otw_news posted about the Dreamwidth community closing, and hid and disabled all comments: (link)

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Hiding all comments reported by FFA: (link)

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Comments were visible and enabled again soon after.

On 11 July 2023 at 5:58PM UTC, following the closing announcement, otw_news made a post regarding AO3, and the inaccessibility of the OTW website and donation forms: (link)

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A comment by samjohnsson pointed out that the RSS feed, which is supposed to be the replacement for the otw_news Dreamwidth account, is hosted on the same servers that were under attack: (link)

The RSS feed is hosted on the same servers that are under attack. If they're ddosed, there's no way to get to the feed, either to update it or to read it.

No new posts have been made to otw_news since.

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2 July 2023 board meeting chatlog, accessed 16 July 2023

Sun, 16 Jul 2023 06:18:00 GMT

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