altscifi - Tumblr blog

altscifi · 5 years

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Just When You Thought it Was Over: Fighting Back Against Bullying and Continued Harassment Across Social Media (on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and Tumblr)

This story is worth telling because it just keeps getting better.

And by better, the meaning is "worse".

You might want to catch up on the 10 Everyday Information Warfare Tactics You've Already Fallen For - and the case of the AltSciFi zine project (the number has grown to 15 tactics, with examples illustrating how they're used).

Here's a timeline of the past year or so:

Our Tumblr blog reaches ~1,500 subscribers (unlike AltSciFi Twitter, the Tumblr follower count is not curated, so many followers are probably bots). The AltSciFi Tumblr blog has several hundred posts accumulated over at least four years.

A prototype of the AltSciFi gallery/store site is posted to GitHub. Four out of 15 pages have working PayPal links, but the site is obviously not complete. Hint: it's on GitHub -- a site for programming and web development, not e-commerce; 11 pages have no links at all.

The attack begins on Twitter. An artist finds the GitHub site. The artist (we'll call her "MiraKillian") does not contact AltSciFi, but instead creates a Twitter slander/libel attack about how AltSciFi is "stealing art". This attack spreads across social media. Many artists on Twitter use copyright-trolling this way to earn "clout". In this case, MiraKillian is a member of a gang called "The (Twitter) Artist Community" who obsessively Like and Retweet each other's posts to get more magical "clout". Ironically, the Like/Retweet game rewards the best narcisssists and biggest bullies who rise to become "Influencers", some of whom act like megalomanaical miniature Harvey Weinsteins lording their imaginary status over less-popular followers who beg for "signal boosts", prostrating themselves to win the Influencers' favour.

AltSciFi is accused of "promoting" the unfinished site via Tumblr. The Tumblr blog's homepage is the only one that links back to the Github site, since that page was used for testing Tumblr's layout. The Github pages that have PayPal links aren't connected anywhere on the homepage at all -- meaning that no one could find them in any case. (And in case you've ever tried to sell anything via social media, it's a complete waste of time unless you have an extremely specific niche, or ten of thousands of followers. AltSciFi had neither of those, since we haven't publicly marketed, promoted, or launched the zine yet.)

The slander/libel attack reaches GitHub. One sci-fi makeup artist whose work was posted to the AltSciFi Github test site submitted a mostly-false DMCA takedown notice. GitHub never investigates, but rather automatically posts all DMCA takedown notices. This creates the illusion of "guilt" -- but also puts the makeup artist in legal jeopardy for libel based on her own gullibility.

A few months later, MiraKillian's name appears above the title of a cyberpunk webcomic created by a popular artist (we'll call her "Miirai") who has been publicly scammed quite recently. Miirai has built a public persona around being shy and trusting, which makes her the perfect target for yet another scam. This time, MiraKillian has taken over drawing Miira's webcomic along with one other artist, while Miirai herself begs her followers on social media for money to "support" the comic due to repetitive-stress injuries (art is hard work). That is a well-known tactic called a "sympathy scam".

The slander/libel attack reaches Reddit. Nona goes on Reddit and creates a topic to ask, "would you raise funds to help Miirai get proper medical attention for her injuries?" One of Miirai's new "team" appears and lies that Miirai is still creating art for the cyberpunk webcomic herself, which contradicts what she wrote on recent entries of her own blog about being disabled due to her injuries.

The slander/libel attack poisons a Reddit community. A day later, Miirai herself shows up and defends MiraKillian, making up a conspiracy theory about how a fake Patreon account claimed to be her -- therefore it must have secretly been AltSciFi! And the idea about her being scammed is "fake news"! (Note: a key tactic in any scam, obviously, is to gain the confidence and complicity of a vulnerable person.)

The slander/libel attack poisons a subreddit's moderators. The subreddit in which this conversation takes place starts arbitrarily deleting Nona's posts about the topic. Nona quickly narrows down exactly which moderator was likely the culprit based on who was active on Reddit when the most recent post was taken down, and asks a different moderator to deal with it.

Instead of disciplining the culprit, the moderator starts bullshitting, trying to make the problem about Nona instead. Nona contacted the moderator using a relatively new account to create distance from the attackers who are on Reddit. The moderator used that as an excuse, saying "creating alt accounts and posting about the same thing repeatedly is 'suspicious'." The mod also lied that adding links to further information about the incident was "spamming", and intentionally misinterpreted Reddit's rules (do not post the same comment repeatedly) to mean, "do not post about similar topics more than once".

The Reddit admins do nothing. Nona messages the Reddit admins. A week passes. No response.

Note: on that same subreddit, Nona previously posted a topic about the zine, and a well-known copyright troll appeared, spamming the comments section. After Nona reported the troll's comments, Nona was banned for "spamming the moderators". So Nona wrote a blog entry about it, and two years later, another artist commented on the blog that they were dealing with the same idiot. It's been _two years_ and the moderators of that subreddit are still allowing the troll to use their sub as his personal toilet for trolling. So much for "just ignore the trolls."

So you can see that as this story unfolds, it shows how much of a sham the idea of "free speech" really is on social media. Tribalism by a small, aggressive group of motivated (and mostly illiterate) bullies (the "Artist Community" on Twitter, who are actually just a few hundred idiots who are heavy Twitter users) spreads into an internet-wide disinformation campaign.

TL;DR The fallacy of "free speech" on the modern internet is a question of what is deleted or people who are bullied into silence. You can't know what's missing if you never see it in the first place.

Sounds like the perfect starting point for a dystopian sci-fi story, doesn't it?

The AltSciFi project is now fully dedicated to the fight against misinformation, disinformation, internet bullying and copyright trolling. The AltSciFi concept is only the beginning. We are here especially to support members of maginalised communities online (nonwhite, women, LGBT as well as non-neurotypical and older users). A safe and empowering internet for marginalised users creates a better internet for everyone.

If you want more information about ongoing and upcoming efforts to help independent artists and fans like you to create a better internet, send a DM -- or email altscifi at tutanota dot com.

P.S. Keep fighting for net neutrality. If we stop fighting, copyright trolling will become multinational corporate law, and the open web will effectively cease to exist. In other words, welcome to a real cyberpunk dystopia. The only way to stop that from happening is to create a better future for ourselves, since no one else will do it for us.

#science fiction #altscifi #internet bullying #internet harassment #minsooky #2018-01-18-MinSooKy.md #altscifi dmca 2018 #altscifi dmca takedown #altscifi dmca 2018 github #respectartistspls #respect artists #online harassment #online bullying #independent science fiction #indie science fiction #indie sci-fi

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altscifi · 6 years

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Browse Gallery · Join AltSciFi

Artist: Guodong Zhao

AltSciFi is an informal zine project, created by artists and techies. We're not a profit-seeking magazine; our paying subscribers help defray the cost of time and resources required to build and maintain this project.

Find out more about AltSciFi.

We never ask artists to "work for exposure". The items here are selected to fit the AltSciFi aesthetic, which is dynamic and depends on each artist's style.

Images on this blog are watermarked with the artist's name and website. We search for, properly cite, and link directly to artists' websites whenever possible. This helps readers to easily discover new artists.

AltSciFi has already survived a slander campaign started by one person on Twitter in early 2018. We know who they are, but protect their privacy by not mentioning their name. If you're an artist, don't be a copyright troll. Do you prefer to have your artwork removed (and to be permanently blacklisted from this project)? Simply send us an email: altscifi at tutanota dot com.

Our goal is to help underrepresented artists become visible, and eventually to be able to commission original art for our zine. From firsthand experience, AltSciFi also is here to help artists protect themselves against being taken advantage of online – that includes dealing with copyright issues intelligently without harming other artists or fans, and protecting themselves against being slandered by malevolent groups of trolls. If you need help, contact us and we'll work together to find the resources you need.

Find out more about AltSciFi, and subscribe to help our project grow.

#Guodong Zhao #science fiction #science fiction art #sci-fi #sci-fi art #scifi #altscifi

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altscifi · 6 years

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AltSciFi Dystopian Daily Email Newsletter Issue 0x01[a]

2018.04.20.newsletter.html

AltSciFi is an informal project by artists and techies to help connect independent artists with fans who value their work.

Dystopian Daily pages and email newsletters are free. Send an email to altscifi at tutanota dot com for delivery to your inbox, and to receive the password for the full version of this newsletter on our site.

If you received this from a friend and have decided now is the time to subscribe, here's the link: altscifi.gitlab.io/gallery/art/join.html

Find out more about AltSciFi.

Read an excerpt from this newsletter issue below...

--[ Contents

0 - Introduction 1 - Blog 2 - Dystopian Daily

|=--------------------=[ I N T R O D U C T I O N ]=--------------------=|

Welcome to the Dystopian Daily newsletter.

AltSciFi is an informal project by artists and techies to help connect independent artists with fans who value their work.

Our core values are human rights -- emphasising the rights of women, LGBT, Native, Latin, Asian, black and biracial/multiethnic populations around the world. We celebrate all humanity and highlight the value of underrepresented voices in science fiction. Although many tend to forget, this includes older, non-neurotypical and disabled people.

This isn't about "inclusion" as a trendy buzzword. It's about not excluding the world's majority as our global culture enters the future.

The most fascinating new stories are ones that haven't yet been told.

In support of human rights, AltSciFi is explicitly anti-nuclear war, anti-police brutality and anti-police militarisation.

We're anti-surveillance (hence, AltSciFi offers suscriptions and never runs intrusive advertising) and strongly support users' right to privacy.

This is the 2018.04.20 issue of the AltSciFi Dystopian Daily newsletter. Hope you enjoy it. :)

---

Dystopian Daily pages and email newsletters are free. Send an email to altscifi at tutanota dot com for delivery to your inbox and to receive the password for the full version on our site.

If you received this from a friend and have decided now is the time to subscribe, here's the link: altscifi.gitlab.io/gallery/art/join.html

P.S. Note that our new website isn't 100% operational yet, so a few links may not be up and running.

[Λ•]

|=----------------------------=[ B L O G ]=----------------------------=|

Non-fiction stories and articles.

Contents

0. An It Harm None: Protect Your Art. Don't Be a Copyright Troll.

..........................................................................

An It Harm None: Protect Your Art. Don't Be a Copyright Troll.

Over the past few months, AltSciFi was targeted by a slander campaign started by one artist on Twitter. Read more about it here (click here).

The experience of online harassment and copyright trolling has added a new emphasis to our project:

AltSciFi is now also dedicated to helping artists protect themselves against being taken advantage of online. That includes dealing with copyright issues intelligently without harming other artists or fans, and protecting themselves against being slandered by malevolent groups of trolls.

If you want to join us or contribute your art, see the Contact page. http://altscifi.gitlab.io/gallery/art/join.html

[Λ•]

|=------------------------=[ DYSTOPIAN DAILY ]=------------------------=|

The future begins now. See the stories that are shaping the world. Get inspired to create science fiction of your own.

Contents

0. The Pentagon is developing an artificial intelligence center 1. Early bird slips the AV: Fileless malware 2. Exploiting Arbitrary File Writes for Local Privilege Elevation 3. The Habitat: six volunteers, imitation Mars, one very real year 4. Login With Facebook data hijacked by JavaScript trackers 5. TESS: A Science Pipeline to New Planet Discoveries

AltSciFi is an informal project by artists and techies to help connect independent artists with fans who value their work.

Dystopian Daily pages and email newsletters are free. Send an email to altscifi at tutanota dot com for delivery to your inbox, and to receive the password for the full version of this newsletter on our site.

If you received this from a friend and have decided now is the time to subscribe, here's the link: altscifi.gitlab.io/gallery/art/join.html

#Dystopian Daily #science fiction #sci-fi #independent science fiction #indie scifi #respectartistspls #cyberpunk #dystopia #AltSciFi

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altscifi · 6 years

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When a snake named "Slander" turns and bites its own tail: ending the online slander campaign against AltSciFi

Every conversation naturally reaches its end, when you realise that you're repeating what you've already said.

Now is that moment for the Twitter-based slander campaign against AltSciFi.

Since the facts have been revealed to show that their claims are nonsense, the campaign’s perpetrators are using desperate last-ditch attempts to distort the meanings of facts themselves.

Thankfully, those distortions are easy to spot, and that's what this blog entry is all about.

Beyond this blog entry, there's nothing else to say about the slander campaign. That snake can only continue to eat its own tail from here on.

One good outcome of this situation is that AltSciFi is now also dedicated to helping artists protect themselves against being taken advantage of online -- that includes dealing with copyright issues intelligently without harming other artists or fans, and protecting themselves against being slandered by malevolent groups of trolls. Both of those are major problems on the web and in social media especially. AltSciFi can now speak about both from the perspective of first-hand experience.

Distortion #0.

Distortion #0: "Your faux intellectualism is a continual self-perpetuating narrative stroking your overinflated ego."

Aside from being a tortuous sentence of near-gibberish, its creator barged into a conversation that was about helping another artist in order to post this little gem of muddled prose. Talk about an overinflated ego.

Here's the more insidious point, though. This frames any attempt at self-defense by AltSciFi as "a continual self-perpetuating narrative." Notice how it not only ignores the fact that this "narrative" exists to fight back against people like him who slandered AltSciFi -- it also pretends that any attempt by AltSciFi at defending itself is due to "overinflated ego". This is a classic tactic used by emotional abusers, called "gaslighting". The term gaslighting has also been distorted and misused in service of slander, as you’ll see below.

Distortion #1.

"Look, we all know you stole and tried to steal art...."

This is a rhetorical gang attack called an appeal to popularity. Whenever someone says "we all know that..." or "everybody knows..." without presenting any evidence, you know they're probably lying (or being manipulated, as someeone has lied to them and they chose to believe it).

Distortion #2.

"The facts were presented prima facie...”

This is an amusing attempt at legalistic jargon that backfired completely. “Prima facie“ means “at first glance, without further investigation“. Facts presented "prima facie" are not evidence until you discover the story surrounding the little bits of data visible at first glance.

Distortion #3.

“...you don't get to backpedal and cite them as rumor because it's convenient in painting your side as just."

The "facts" are detailed at length, here (click here). Read them yourself; that was the whole point of writing the blog entry.

Notice the tactic here: they can't disprove the facts, so they try to distort what the facts mean. AltSciFi has never needed to "backpedal" nor cite facts as rumours. Read the blog entry for yourself. These are the facts.

Distortion #3.

"There was so much evidence presented by multiple parties involved..."

Wrong. There was only one incomplete AltSciFi website, on a site for web development, with four pages that a few people mistakenly believed were "selling art". The rest of the slander story was based on a complete lack of "evidence" (because there was no "evidence" to be found, and never was any). This distortion unintentionally reveals the problem itself: no one knew what they were taking about before trying to slander a project that hadn't even started yet. Even worse, no one bothered to ask before jumping on the slander bandwagon. That was the scary part. Everyone swallowed the rumours and no one asked for the context surrounding the “evidence”. The excuse given was "it's not my job to find facts". Wrong again. That's always your job -- also known as basic adult critical thinking. Facts are meaningless without context.

Distortion #4.

"...and your interactions with them that the public lambasting your project received was justified."

Notice the grandiosity here. "The public lambasting" refers to a campaign that began with a few bored artists on Twitter, starting with one who manufactured a disingenuous "white knighting" campaign -- a borderline conspiracy theory to save the "The (Twitter) Artist Community!" -- that turned out to be factually false and full of nothing but mean-spirited trash-talk.

Distortion #5.

"Be careful what you post AltSciFi, the art community doesn't soon forget."

Yes, darling, thank you for the reminder that these blog posts were written and posted publicly for a reason. Nice little stalkerish implied threat, there, too.

Notice how the person impersonates "the art community" when in fact, his “community” is a few artists on Twitter who took the opportunity to loudly bully a group they knew nothing about. That phrase should read "the art community (of bored idiots on Twitter with deficient reading comprehension skills and too much time on their hands that would be better spent creating art)".

Distortion #6.

"The easy shortcut you could've done is to just say "hey, I was wrong, I'm sorry, I'll fix it." and then fix it. But that's not who you are and not what you did. Quite the opposite in fact. "

As usual, completely wrong. From the very first conversation on Twitter, even before the slander attack began, AltSciFi apologised for mistakes made -- but also held the artist accountable for her decision to send a mob of Twitter users instead of finding out the facts first.

The original tweet is timestamped 7:36am - 17 Jan 2018:

[Λ•]ltSciFi - @altscifi_ - Jan 16

Here's the grown-up perspective: We both made mistakes here. You made a dramatic mess for no reason. And the bit about a strawman is nonsense because you're just misusing the word, along with "gaslight" and "victim-blame" in a victimless situation.

Followed by:

[Λ•]ltSciFi - @altscifi_ - 7:41am - Jan 17 2018

Your reaction was valid, yes. As a professional, it makes you look like a bitter spoiled child to act like a Twitter bully, misleading hundreds of people, instead of simply finding out what was actually happening. Are you adult/professional enough to accept your responsibility?

And:

[Λ•]ltSciFi - @altscifi_ - 8:27am - Jan 17 2018

Don't pick a fight, and you'll get a very different response. When you talk about being a professional, does a professional send a Twitter mob against people? Or is that a juvenile thing to do? Ask yourself what response you intended to get.

Unsurprisingly, she gave no answer to these questions.

Since the perpetrator is a narcissist (and quite likely a sociopath, given recent events involving another artist), the mere possibility of her not being seen as "saviour of The (Twitter) Art Community" only enraged her further. She couldn’t admit her own mistake, and instead dug herself in deeper.

---

So now you see the tactics behind this game of rumours, distortions and lies.

For the artist being taken advantage of by the perpetrators of this slanderous mess, AltSciFi only has one note of caution. It applies equally to all indie sci-fi artists and writers, perhaps including you:

Be careful who you call "friends" -- especially if you paid them before they befriended you.

Beyond that, the slander campaign is now eating itself; AltSciFi will play no further role in it. There are more important things to do, and hopefully you'll join us. In the meantime, enjoy creating art. We’ll have more exciting news to share soon. :)

#respectartistspls #altscifi #online harassment #internet harassment #online bullying #internet bullying #independent art #indie art #indie scifi #independent science fiction #prima facie

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altscifi · 6 years

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What is AltSciFi, anyway? Welcome to the AltSciFi Timeline [GRAPHIC]

It all began in sometime around 2014...

(This was originally going to be an infographic, but there’s wasn’t enough time. Here is the story. All names have been changed to protect everyone’s privacy, as always.)

Nona: "How can I promote my stories and art? I'll post to Reddit." Nona posts to Reddit and gets a few upvotes.

Nona: "Okay... now what?" As all Reddit posts do, Nona’s link slides off the homepage and quietly slips into oblivion.

Nona: "I know. I'll create a newsletter! And post it on Wordpress! And offer subscriptions on Patreon!" Nona gets busy making things.

Nona: "Okay.. now what...?" Mysteriously, no one finds the newsletter. The net is vast and infinite.

Nona: "Okaaay. There are so many artists on sites like Twitter and Tumblr -- I'll create accounts there and build a zine! Maybe we can help each other get paid for our art without needing corporations like Amazon, Google and Reddit! We'll do it ourselves! That’s what the web was built for, after all.Yay!"

Nona spends the next four years trying different ways to build a zine. Gradually, it grows from "just another Wordpress blog" into a complete infrastructure for independent artists to sell their work. Nona also keeps writing and creating art.

The Twitter following slowly grows. A few paying subscribes sign up.

Our name is AltSciFi. We stand for independent art, and the potential of the web to connect artists with fans who want to pay for high-quality work.

This is an informal project by artists and techies.

We use sci-fi to teach about user privacy on the open web, anti-militarisation of police, anti-nuclear war, and celebrating the human rights of women, people of all religions (and no religion), LGBT people, neurodiversity, and global culture.

This is the human future. This is AltSciFi.

Summer 2017

Nona: "Now we have a zine and social media presence, but no one can actually sell or buy anything. Wait! An idea! The ultimate dream is to create indie films, like an authentic live-action Ghost in the Shell and sequel to Tank Girl, right? Awesome!"

Nona creates a store site. It has become clear that Patreon sucks, so Nona tests a few PayPal links to see if it’s easy for visitors to use. Nona posts more prototypes to Reddit. No one buys anything because the site is unfinished and there’s obviously nothing to buy (or maybe they just didn’t like the art enough to try to buy it?), but people seem to like the store site concept overall.

"Great! We’re getting closer... but there’s still more work to do."

(Links were added on the Tumblr blog, too. Scroll past the first page and you'll see no other links anywhere -- for over two years of blog posts. Isn't that interesting? Half the links don’t even work, as someone recently pointed out. The design testing obviously wasn’t complete, which is why nothing has been officially announced anywhere.)

Late 2017

Nona: "There's this great piece of art on Twitter by some artist named Stan, but it has a caption that might be seen as unintentionally racist. Hmm... I'll re-post it and attach the creator's @username to give Stan credit for her work."

Stan sees the post in her Twitter mentions.

Stan: "Whaaat! Someone re-posted art of mine! How dare they! Should I ask them to retweet instead? No! I'll quote-tweet them and make up a story about 'stealing' art so my followers get angry and harass them! That's how artists like me do things on Twitter, after all!"

Nona’s Twitter mentions start buzzing with angry noise.

Nona: "What is this bullsh*t about 'stealing art' in my mentions?!" Nona clicks Block on the noise. It works. Nona goes back to building the store and zine, and making new art of her own, including a 53-page dystopian novella completed in 2017 December.

2018 January

An artist named Dick finds the unfinished store site. A few of her images are there as part of the store prototype. Her page is one of four with PayPal test links, out of about twelve pages that don’t have links at all.

Dick: "What's this? My work is on a website somewhere? And there are PayPal links? That's weird -- what should I do? Should I ask them to take my work down? The site looks pretty cool. Should I find out what it’s all about?" Dick sees an opportunity. "No... I'll go on Twitter and whine to my fellow artists! Maybe I can start a Twitter rage-mob and make myself look like a saviour of The Twitter Artist Community!"

Dick goes on Twitter -- and who's there? Stan of course! And Stan is still angry that her own attempt at sending a Twitter rage-mob failed.

Dick: Hey Twitter followers! Have you heard of AltSciFi?

Stan: Yes! And I’ll gladly slander them for you! <bullsh*t about 'stealing art'> Hey followers, jump in!

Stan's Twitter followers: <more bullsh*t about 'stealing art'>

Stan makes a mistake, though. She includes AltSciFi's username in a tweet, and AltSciFi sees it.

AltSciFi: "Are we going to do this every few months, Artist Twitter? *sigh* Okay..."

AltSciFi decides to deal with the bullsh*t head-on, while moving forward to complete the zine and store sites. Several blog entries chronicle the harassment campaign while AltSciFi blocks a few hundred trash-talking idiots on Twitter.

2018 March

Nona finds that Dick has attached himself to Mirai, one of Nona’s favourite cyberpunk artists. Nona tries to warn Mirai, but to no avail. It's a sad moment, as Mirai has been taken advantage of before very recently -- but hopefully things turn out better this time. At least some of Mirai’s fans are now paying close attention to Mirai's new "team" (including Dick), so at least that’s better than nothing.

Moving on...

AltSciFi has finally (almost) completed the zine, store sites, and...

...has begun something completely different and new.

Now, AltSciFi is ready to do something that just might change the world, even if only in some small way.

Stay tuned. :)

#respectartistspls #internet bullying #internet harassment #AltSciFi

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altscifi · 6 years

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AltSciFi DMCA Response: 2018-01-18 Github DMCA Takedown Notice for altscifi.github.io

We are an informal group of artists and technologists online who collectively go by AltSciFi.

This message is long. It is easy to repeat unsubstantiated rumours and lies mistaken as facts. It takes substantially longer to write explanations that adequately refute those assumptions and misstatements. This blog post addresses specific mischaracterisations and unfounded claims as clearly and thoroughly as possible.

---

The DMCA request was a result of a mistake (not a misidentification). The content has already been removed, and the artist will be blacklisted from this project unless she requests to be included from this point onward.

---

The incident here seems to be an honest mistake by the artist based on incorrect information, rather than purposeful misuse of Github's DMCA system due to bad faith or malicious intent.

The worst comes first:

This part in particular, quoted verbatim from the original DMCA request, is simply a paragraph of lies based on slanderous rumours that began on Twitter and circulated via social media sites like Tumblr and Facebook:

Other artists have also commented that [AltSciFi] has taken their work and is selling these works as prints on this website - while I cannot obviously file a DMCA takedown on their behalf, you should also be aware [AltSciFi] is trying to make money off prints as well.

This is a blatant falsehood. Again, it was probably an honest mistake, but the lie is now on public display. This blog post is a response to it.

The lie quoted above began as a petty whisper campaign on Twitter after a completely unrelated disagreement with an uninvolved individual that ended months ago. As such issues tend to become a form of entertainment for some people on social media, the petty whispered lies aroused an exaggerated response of tribalistic rage among a small group of heavy Twitter users. It quickly snowballed into the culmination that is this DMCA complaint.

At no point in time did anyone contact AltSciFi for clarification. The typical excuse was "it's not my job to contact you! You have to contact me!"

Yes, when the project is officially ready for the public, AltSciFi will make a reasonable attempt to contact all artists.

And no, if the intention of a person who feels wronged is to bully or slander others based on unsubstantiated rumours, it is always necessary to contact the potential target for clarification first.

What began as a misunderstanding based on false rumours became a Twitter slander campaign. It then transformed into a face-saving attempt at rage-filled bluster after contradictory facts emerged, and finally resulted in a full-blown mindless Internet gang attempting to destroy a project by artists, designed to help artists.

Yes, it is always your job to hear both sides of a story. There are no exceptions, especially when the only "facts" you have are rage-filled rumours (ones that are ultimately turn out to be mistaken assumptions and lies).

You can read more about how events unfolded in three blog entries on the topic. The blog entries were written as an attempt to clarify and counteract the bullying and slander as it was happening in realtime, over the course of more than a week. Hopefully anyone who stumbles upon this series of blog posts will read more and decide for themselves:

1. The real reason why most indie artists are starving: overcoming (and preventing) community drama as AltSciFi evolves.

2. How Artists Starve, Part 2: Lessons to Draw From Ongoing Drama

3. AltSciFi Drama, Part III: How Distorted Language Transforms False Rumours into Bullying and Harassment

---

The so-called "offending material" was contained on one page, not several pages.

The DMCA notice incorrectly inflates the apparent number of pages by citing several regions (called "anchor tags") on a single page. The mistake is understandable, but it still makes the allegations of "illegal (for-profit) use of work" unnecessarily inflated, on top of being false in the first place.

The artist is right to reserve permission for use of her work. That's not in dispute here.

Here are the relevant facts that no one bothered to find out:

- the AltSciFi project began several years ago as a hobby for finding inspiration and sharing with others online. Over time, it became an idea for helping artists using the principles of the open web, and as an alternative to intrusive advertising models prevalent on most websites today. The concepts and designs for the site, and the project itself, have changed over time. What you might dig up online from seven months or three years ago likely does not represent the project today.

- the site, as of 2018.02.06, is not yet complete, and has never spent funds toward marketing or promotion to the public as a completed business or professional entity. AltSciFi has always been an informal project by artists, for artists and fans, and will continue this way for the forseeable future.

- of those few artists and fans who asked for feedback during development of this project, all pre-subscriptions were offered on the basis that the project is incomplete. Subscriptions help defray the hundreds of hours of skilled work necessary to build this project thus far, and toward expenses necessary to officially launch. Pre-subscriptions were always received as a vote of confidence and investment in an idea -- not "profit from a business."

- What exists at Github, as of 2018.02.06, is a test site for web development only. Artists' pages were not listed on the first page of search results using the DuckDuckGo search engine (a popular privacy-oriented search engine), as the site was not optimised or intended to be found by search engines. Search engine optimisation and visibility are questions that will wait until the site is complete.

- we will contact artists when the project is complete. This project is not a typical approach that fits as "weblog" or "store" or "artist management". From past experience, having visible examples to show artists tends to be easier to understand -- with explanation as well -- rather than using description or example alone. This is why our test/development site exists on Github in the first place, and why it's important to communicate rather than blindly assume.

---

The Github site contains three or four pages with functioning PayPal links. Those links were for testing purposes only. AltSciFi was not "selling these works as prints on this website" for the following reasons:

1. AltSciFi does not maintain inventory of any kind. After we officially open, our system will enable artists' existing sites to connect to our site, or we will help them open their own store elsewhere. This is literally the entire purpose of our "store" concept, as reflected in its structure and design.

Again, we literally can't sell anything because we have no inventory to sell.

AltSciFi has never, and does not currently have, any interest in dealing directly with anyone's inventory, and will not for the foreseeable future.

2. AltSciFi has not officially launched yet. A miniscule number of people have ever seen the site. If you look at the source code, the site is clearly not optimised for search engines. And if we were "selling" anything, we certainly would not keep an incomplete store website hidden away in a corner of Github where practically no one would find it on their own.

3. Of all the galleries on the site, only a few pages had any links at all. This is because they were used for testing purposes only. If we were "selling" anything, we would have created functioning links for all pages, not an apparently random few. Nor would we try to sell images copy-and-pasted from Instagram or anywhere else on the web.

Our intentional obscurity, current in-development status, and lack of printing-quality images, makes notions of "selling art" logically nonsensical and empirically unsupportable. It simply doesn't make sense. We are not selling artists' work without their permission, because that violates our core philosophy and more importantly, we quite intentionally have nothing to sell (ironically, this decision was made in part to help avoid entanglements about who sold what to whom).

If you were an artist or writer, ask yourself:

Would you spend years creating a project designed to help independent artists, only to throw it all away by trying to sell low-quality prints from an incomplete, hard-to-find website without the artist's consent?

It's mind-boggling that anyone could believe that, even for a moment.

Rumours, lies and misplaced rage are very, very powerful things, especially in combination.

Again, the incident here seems to be an honest mistake by the artist based on incorrect information, rather than purposeful misuse of Github's DMCA system due to bad faith or malicious intent. This blog post seeks only to clarify and correct the rumours and lies on which the artist unfortunately based her DMCA notice. Now that you know the other side of the story, you can make up your own mind.

#2018-01-18-MinSooKy.md #altscifi dmca #altscifi dmca 2018 #altscifi dmca 2018 github #altscifi dmca 2018 takedown #altscifi dmca takedown #altscifi dmca takedown notice #dmca #dmca takedown #dmca takedown notice #github #github dmca #github dmca takedown #github dmca takedown notice

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altscifi · 6 years

Text

FYI

Our project, AltSciFi, is being targeted across several social media sites.

Someone (we know who they are but will protect their privacy) has incited a mob to falsely accuse AltSciFi of "stealing" and "selling" art. That person did not request information about our project or contact us before deciding to harass and incite an Internet mob against AltSciFi.

Our project is nearing completion after years of development, and is now contacting artists who might want to participate. If your art is featured here and you have questions about our project, contact us for more information.

Two blog entries on our Wordpress account describe the ongoing situation in detail:

1. The real reason why most indie artists are starving: overcoming (and preventing) community drama as AltSciFi evolves.

2. How Artists Starve, Part 2: Lessons to Draw From Ongoing Drama

Our project is designed to help independent artists. We are not "selling" anything yet, as we have not formally announced our existence.

We're "growing up" from being an artist-run site for other artists, and becoming a business to help fellow artists break our dependency on corporations like Amazon.

These are our growing pains, it seems.

We haven’t opened our doors yet. Our website is in final testing phases right now, so we have not yet contacted any artists about participating. The gossip about "stealing art" is based on a malicious rumour that someone re-started, harbouring a grudge after a Twitter argument months ago. As happens with gossip, the rumours are wrong and have incited a mob to attack us over the past week.

This project has not been marketed or promoted anywhere, and no one had attempted to buy anything.

See those “Buy Prints“ links on some galleries? Most of them don’t work yet; no one has tried to use the few that do. And we have nothing to sell in any case. When that changes, we’ll tell you.

We're here to help artists, so this is a doubly strange situation -- some members of Twitter, based on rumours and misinformation, are trying to gang up and destroy this project before it even has a chance to begin. The "artists" are trying to destroy a project designed to help them. They are taking action based on gossip that they wrongly believed, and didn't bother to confirm with the target of the rumours.

We’re contacting artists now to ensure there are no concerns related to copyright issues, answer any questions about our project, and hopefully find our first participants.

If you want more information, or want to participate as an artist, get in touch.

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altscifi · 6 years

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Artist: Andrea Fanelli

#Andrea Fanelli #science fiction #sci-fi #science fiction art #sci-fi art #photography #cyberpunk #ghost in the shell #seoul #tokyo #south korea #japan

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altscifi · 6 years

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Artist: 김병관

Kim Byungkwan

“The habitual vision or visual habit makes us go by the routine ways. It stops us from having adventure and checking out the wonders out there. My work is trying to destroy, tear up, and reconstruct this habitual vision so that our vision can be expended to other images.“