My husband and I have been together for 6 years. He has 2 children(teens) 14 and 16 and I have one son 14. First let me start out by saying that our children overall used to get along fairly well up until the past year. My ex husband and my husband have a great relationship, and so do we. My ex has always instilled it into my son that he has to respect his step dad and I think our close relationship has helped the relationship between my son and my husband. My son is also very easy going and very outgoing, and I know all children have different personalities. There was a time where my son would mouth off to my husband and his dad, my husband and I talked about his behavior and it never really happened again. He does the typical annoying teenager things, messy etc. My husbands ex……..That’s another story. She is a downright bad mom in every way, I was once pregnant and she told her children that my child would be nothing to them, on her weekends she lets her daughter sleep over at her friends houses. It’s just about a different friend every week. My husband has express how he doesn’t agree with this but it’s her week and he has no say basically. My husband and his son in particular have always had an up and down relationship. There are no rules when his children are with their mother, so of course when they come here, we are always the bad guy for having them do simple chores etc. When my son and my step son started high school together, my son made me aware that my step son ignores him in school. He flat out acts as if he doesn’t know him. They ride the bus together in the morning and my step son will sprint so he doesn’t have to walk with my son. This really bothers me but my son says he can care less because he says he won’t beg for anyone’s attention. He is truly something else lol the whole situation bothers me honestly. I guess what I am looking for is advice, Is this normal, what would you do? I talked to my son about the behavior and told him to ignore him. My son is aware of the hostile situation between my husband and his ex, and he says I know they probably just do it to make their mom happy??? My husband has also talked to son about his behavior and he says he just doesn’t walk with him because they are in different grades and have different friends. I expected them to have each others backs and treat each other like brothers. I understand my son not bending over backwards, I would probably do the same. I also know that they are teens and this is a hard age.
I will also add that unless his daughter is asking for material things, we do not talk. She will talk to me when Sol de Janeiro drops a new scent and she wants it lol I try to spark conversation with them but they literally will not talk to me anymore and i’ve stopped trying. His son is the same way. The week they are here, his kids are locked in their rooms and there are times they walk into the house and don’t even address me. No Hi hello or anything? For legal reasons my husband can not try to mend the relationship with his ex. She is spiteful and has tried to get him fired in the past so we just don’t interact with her at all. I feel if we all got along and were on the same page, things would be different. I have a great relationship with my sons step mom and can’t imagine not having a relationship with her. I love my husband but at times I am just ready to walk away. I just didn’t expect this to be my life.

I keep reading multiple posts where we are being warned to sell RILY cause cohodes is always right and doesn’t give up. That can’t be further from the truth. Has he had wins in the past? Yes. Has he had many losses ? Yes. Cohodes shorted overstock , was wrong got sued and eventually went long , cohodes was short trex and was wrong it went up, let’s not forget his longs like AMC (where he says he lost a million) and his top pick byon that in the past few months dropped from 33 to 15 and he was making excuses eventhough he hyped it up on hedgeeye multiple times while making things up about RILY. Besides the fact that cohodes&co have been caught repeatedly making things up in order to manipulate the stocks lower and he blocks and threatens everyone who questions him, he also has been sued in the past for being involved in shady practices. Do these short funds have the funds to manipulate the price action as we have seen past few days and many times before? Yes they do. But bigger players have blown their loads and had to cover. Cohodes has posted that RILY has a complex business structure and jumped on short bandwagon with his fellow short funds. The reality seems to be is that they have no clue and just keep making things up as they have done in the past with other shorts and hope their tactics work. The issue is they have been exposed. We all know the scam that’s cohodes&co. Now we wait and see how RILY responds to the “noise”.

Dealing with the mother in law is hard enough, but can you imagine if you also need to deal with his sisters?
His oldest sister is living next door with her husband and her parent in laws. Her husband has a little bro. According to what she said, the brother is spoiled by the parents and she dislike him. Therefore, her front door uses key because she doesn’t want the brother to come so easily and so often. But our front door uses passcode, and she came over to our house every weekends at that time. She stayed the whole day in our house on weekends.
My husbands father has diabetes and needs kidney dialysis. Most of the time, his second sis is the one who took him to the doctor or hospital. But she needs to work, so my husband also needs to help from time to time. However, whenever they ask the oldest sis to help with the dad, she would say, I am married out already. In my memory, she seldom took the dad to the doctor or the kidney dialysis. I am not good at driving, and was pregnant at that time, I picked his dad up from the hospital once (what is ironic here is that his second sis thought it was their oldest sis picked them up from the hospital even though she is the one also complained the biggest never helped), helped his second sis to send his dad to the kidney dialysis ( because she needs people to help the dad get out or in the car), and helped with translation for his dad’s physical therapy when his second sis was not available. In January of 2021, his dad’s situation is very bad and the nurse asked them to make a decision if the hospital should save his life if ….. the chance is only 50/50, and even though he was saved, he would have to do kidney dialysis for the rest of his life, and he also would have to have his leg amputation. Considering his life quality and the care taking part, his mom and second sis agreed to let him passed away naturally if that really happens. My husband had a hard time making the decisions. The oldest sister kept crying over there, and said we should not give up his life. Suddenly, she turned to me and asked about my opinion. Then I expressed my opinion, if you guys decide to save his life then you guys should share the responsibility of taking care of him and help with doctor visit and kidney dialysis, but you guys also need to think about his life quality and the fact that he would lose his legs. His second sis agreed with what I said, and my husband agreed with his mum and second sis at the end The oldest sis also agreed with then after her husband s persuasion. After his dad passed away, the oldest sis is the one cried the hardest, and the mum told one of their aunt on the phone how sad the oldest daughter is, and asked her not to cry so much, otherwise her health might be affected. Mam, you should show your love and contribute more to your father when he s still alive.
After I had my first kid, especially my relationship with my mother in law was like freezing at that time, my husband and I would go to visit my parents every weekend, one reason is that I could escape that prison like house, the other reason is that my parents could help me with the baby there so that I can rest a little bit. However, I accidentally found out she complained to my husband about me in the message why I always showed them bitchy face at home and why would I go back to my parents house every weekend. But the fact is she came over to our house more often when their dad’s situation was bad. And after the dad passed away, she still came over very often, which lead to her mother in law yelling at her at one time(when her father in law was in hospital because of Covid), saying no daughter in law would go back to her mums house so frequently. She’s lucky to have her husband to back her up by then. And she came over to our house to complained about it, and said I was married to her son but not selling myself to his family. My mother in law told her to keep quiet then the situation would become better.
Talking about the message, how I found out she bitched about me and my family is also very interesting. Thats like when my son was like about 8 months old, my husband told me to let his mum to watch the baby a little bit and would go grocery shopping with me after that meeting. I was waiting for my husband in his office room, and his mom was holding the baby to nap. I left my phone in the living room, so I played with my husband s phone. I accidentally went to the message, and saw that the last msg his oldest sis said is if you go bankrupt don’t expect me to help you. I was wondering what would make her say this. Then I went into their msg. The first time I found out that actually she had so many complaints about my family and me. So my husband got my dad a free tablet through promotion and he shipped it to our house for setup. She saw that package with my dad’s name on it. Second sis said it might be sending here for set up. In the text she told my husband that she wanted to get a tablet and ask for suggestion. My husband asked why would u need that, you don’t use that. Then she said is this your father in law s Xmas gift? My husband explained that’s through a promotion, not he buying it. Then she said, I guess he would not get a Christmas gift since you already got him a house! lol my dad paid half of that retirement house. And because my sis and I could not get a good rate, my husband said he could help, but my sis s side will be responsible for half of the mortgage. My husband s name is also on that title! How come this house would become my dad’s Christmas gift? And in the message, she also said she s not as lucky as me, no need to wash dishes at home. But the fact is I am the one who cooked most in our house and did most of the dish cleaning before my baby came out, I am the one who cleaned the house all the time. I didn’t do so many dishes wash after the baby was born because I needed to take care of the baby and power pump is very exhausting for me at that time. For her, she doesn’t cook much at her house, because either her father in law cook or the parent in laws bring food home when they are off work or her mum would cook and ask the second sis to bring food over! And her parents in laws would clean the whole house every Wednesday at that time! Reading this I felt super angry, my face was burning and my heart was about to jump out of my breast! I directly replied bitch to her! I hung up on her when she called my husband s phone. After my husband finished the meeting , I said, “ u r in trouble now, because I just called your sis bitch!” She called my mother in law saying the brother curse her. And MIL came knocking at the door, disregarding if my husband is still in the meeting or my son was napping in her arm. She asked my husband why cursed his sis! I couldn’t stand any more, then I exploded, and questioned her why every time you defend your daughter no matter shes right or not. Do you know what she said about my parents and me in the message. I also directly called her bitch and claimed that it's her who kicked my mom out of our house when she was here to help me! That became a big arguement and I took my son back to my parents house right after the arguement.
Because of my husband, I tried to fix the relationship after half a year, and we had our own house as well.
However, just two days ago (5/14), his oldest sis called him around 10:30pm using second sis s phone because her husband got her a new phone and would like my husband to set it up for her. Her old phone is still usable, why the new phone must be set up now? And my husband is wondering why she’s not using the her husband’s phone to call but second sister’s phone. My husband went to check and found out she moved into our house, where his mom and second sis are living, with her 18 month son . And He traced that she was living there since 3/16. Not sure about exactly when as the history can only go back to two or three months. My husband and his second sis are the owners, and my husband is helping paying the mortgage ( before we moved out, he is the only one paying the mortgage). Why no one telling us about her move in. And we are sure she has no issue with her husband and parents in law because the husband just bought her the new iPhone and she s living in our house on weekdays, but on weekends she would go back to her own house. How hypocritical it is! When my son was about 8 months old she complained we went back to my parents house every weekend. But now she moved into our house even though her house is next door !!! My husband called the second sis and told her about this, expressed his disappointment about not letting him knowing this, telling her this whole shit is basically slapping my face. And also told them we are going to cancel NC trip. BTW, the oldest sister texted my husband asked him to go back to our house help clean the doggie this week, before the NC trip. Why the heck you live there , eat there, free baby sitter there, you can’t clean the dog with your sister?!!!

Whiplash from the lies
Trigger Warning: Pregnancy Loss
I really need to vent. Sorry, kind of long. There's a lot of history here.
There's a girl that I used to be really close with. But she turned out to be super crazy, obsessive and narcissistic. It's irritating though cause she's so good at playing innocent until she gets what she wants. And I just don't see how people don't see through her facade. Anyone that has stood up to her gets a massive smear campaign so much so, that she becomes scary and sends people to intimidate you to your house and even where you work.
Anyway, she loves to make up stories to get attention. She once told me she had 12 miscarriages in year (how do people fall for this?). But she also supposedly got pregnant in high school but her boyfriends best friend beat it out of her. "Coincidentally" it just happened to be the same time when her BF tried to break up with her and his best friend was very supportive of the breakup. I've got many MANY stories of situations with her. She likes to shock people so in high school she "got pregnant" from one time but now that she's married she "keeps miscarrying". It's odd and ironic. And people keep giving her money and gifts. Her then best friend even had a GoFundMe going for her for IVF but then suddenly the GFM disappeared and they were no longer friends. But that's not the only time she's received money for her miscarriages.
She also likes to "Coincidentally" copy and claim other people's struggles as her own. But she's so good at these stories that everyone believes her! It's so annoying! I had lost a baby in my 2nd trimester and ended up hospitalized and sure enough, she posts a story a few months later nearly identical to mine. Many things in her story don't add up. I just need to see I'm not the only one that sees through her and how awful it is to use this terrible experience to gloat and get attention. I've copied and pasted her story (which she posted as a public post) which will make this post a novel, but it's worth it, I promise.
Also note, she can't keep a job, her husband doesn't work and they have no insurance and live rent free under the roof of her husband's parents second house. His family has a little money but not a ton. How is she even affording any of this?
Here it is:
“This is going to be a multiple parts post. As this story is long and word limit sucks.
This past year with IVF and life in general has been one of the most stressful trying times in my life.
Back in 2019 my husband and I suffered our 6th miscarriage. The miscarriage happened in such a way that even though the fetus stopped growing at 6 weeks 3 days, my body still thought that I was pregnant.
We found out in January shortly after my Grandfather Gary lost his 20+ year long battle to cancer. We had so many miscarriages by this point that I was scared to be happy. So I made an appointment with an OBGYN. At our first ultrasound the tech said she found the gestational sac but no fetus. The doctor then came in and told me to get ready to miscarry.
I then went up to UofU for a 2nd ultrasound. There they had better tech and they might be able to tell me what's wrong. They found a small fetus inside the gestational sac that measured 5 weeks. So we just thought that I got my dates off by a week. We went home with happy hearts.
A week later I returned to UofU for a 3rd ultrasound. They couldn't detect a heartbeat. They told me to get ready to miscarry. I was devastated just last week I went through this. And I thought we had overcome it. We went home with heavy hearts.
A week passed and there were no signs of me starting to miscarry the pregnancy so I returned to UofU they did a 4th ultrasound and nothing had changed. The baby measured at 6 weeks but no heartbeat detected. They told me to return 3 days later for a D&C.
3 days later I went back up to UofU for a 4th time this time to have my baby removed from my uterus. But as they were putting me under for the procedure I heard "WAIT THERE IS A HEARTBEAT!"
I came a little while later and the doctor told me that she found a heartbeat and didn't do the procedure. She said the baby's heart rate was 101 which was slower than normal but still there. She sent me home with instructions to rest.
Cont. In post part 2 miscarriage
Part 2 cont.
After sending me home with instructions to rest I returned a week later and a different Dr did my ultrasound. He told me that the heart rate had dropped to 60 beats per minute. He told me that the pregnancy was dying and that I should just do the D&C now. But in my heart the baby was alive as it had a heartbeat so I would wait until we were sure that the baby was dead in all aspects.
It took 2 weeks for the heart to finally stop. When I should have been around 13 weeks on April 5th I went in and had the D&C done. They did not put me under this time. They just lightly sedated me. Worst. Experience. Of. My. Life. I remember every agonizing moment. Every cramp. Every pull. I blacked out a few times from the amount of pain I was in.
They sent the fetus to be tested with the hope we could find out why I had 6 miscarriages with 0 living children over my 7 years of marriage. I can say we were finally able to find answers. Just in the worst way possible. I suffer from a condition where my body contributes to many chromosomes to the fetus. This is called trisomy. Sometimes babies can live with this. Like trisomy 21 is downs syndrome. But my body did 16 which is not viable with life.
After the consultation with my OB and the genetasist we came to the conclusion that IVF with embryo testing called PTG-A would be our best best to be able to have a healthy pregnancy with hopefully minimal hardships.
I was worried about the financial and physical consequences of IVF but I came to find out that my Grandfather (who helped raise me from age 7 to 14) left me an inheritance that was just enough to cover the cost.
Summer 2022 came and the last of my inheritance from the sale of my grandparents house allowed me to pay for the IVF and we started the process.
Cont. In post 3
Part 3 comes with a TW
The summer of 2022 we started the IVF process
To start with we had to get my body ready for the egg retrieval. To do this I had to do 6 weeks of twice daily injection in my lower stomach along with taking oral hormones.
The day of egg retrieval itself was relatively easy as they put me under general anesthesia. So I was OUT. they were able to retrieve 11 eggs. The aftermath of the retrieval? BRUTAL I felt like I was in labor or something similar for the next 3 days. I couldn't walk around without doubling over and having to lamaz breath to get through the pain and cramps. It was awful and I pray that I never have to do the egg retrieval process again as I do not want to go through that again. The thought makes me wanna cry.
The day of the egg retrieval they did assisted fetus hatching. This gave us 9 fertilized embryos from the 11 eggs retrieved. They then scraped the outer part of the embryos then flash froze them and sent the scrapings off to be genetically tested.
Tangent: during this time other things in my personal life imploded and I'm still having to clean up that mess. And the stress from the implosion probably contributed to what happened next...
At the beginning of December we got the results back. Out of the 9 embryos 2 were genetically viable both were little girl embryos. Shortly after Christmas I started a new set of injection hormones. This time to get ready to transfer one of the embryos in January. The transfer itself was the easiest part of this whole process!! I went in laid down they inserted a clear catheter got the embro out thawed it and plopped it into my uterus and then began the 2 week wait. Which sucked as I was on bedrest and the cabin fever was REAL.
The transfer was successful as 2 weeks later I got that much hoped for double pink line and my HCG levels were perfect 💜 The ultrasound pictured was taken when I was around 5 weeks gestation and I couldn't have been happier!
But it wasn't to last.... Cont. In post 4
Part 4
After confirming my pregnancy we couldn't have been more excited to meet our little girl. We started thinking about names and talking about future plans.
I went in for my 7 weeks ultrasound and the universe in its ever sarcastic sardonic dumb dumbness hit the "repeat 2019 miscarriage"button. There was a gestational sac but no fetus. Get ready to miscarry.
A week passed and no signs of miscarriage (see where this is going yet?) Then one night around 9 pm I started hemorrhaging but thank goodness I had a best friend who wasn't squeamish because she drove me to the ER at midnight and proceeded to help me though one of the most traumatic experiences I've been thru bearable. She made sure to make me laugh and was a true friend.
A few days after the ER visit I went back to UofU and met with my Dr where I found out that there was still pregnancy tissue. So she had me take a pill to re-induce the miscarriage to get everything out. With my luck. It. Didn't. Work. So my last option? Another D&C. Yay. Me.
I told the Dr that this time I needed to go into the OR and be put under. She was understanding and that is what we did. So here I am 1 year into the process and preparing to start the transfer process for a second time. This time? I'm bringing y'all with me.”
I just needed to vent. And the story doesn't add up. Please let me know what you think. Thank you!

Tw: CSA, neglect, emotional and mental abuse, poverty
My mom was very neglectful. She was never actively abusive but never did much to protect me from abuse. I was sexually abused by my step sister for years, which she knew about and didn't do anything. Years and years of emotional and mental abuse from her boyfriends. A loss of electricity, water, heat, and food due to her spending all her money on her partners addictions.
We did therapy and I was willing to forgive her under the assumption that she'd grown and changed, but after a bad experience at a wedding back in August, I don't know if that's so true. I now firmly believe that if I were a child in her care now, she'd do the same thing.
I love her, and I've always desperately wanted her to love me too, and she does... But she's not a proactive parent. I think I'm done with her, but I'm struggling to pull the trigger. I want to, but I can't seem to make myself do it, and I'm not sure why. I guess it's because she was never my main abuser, so it's easy to write it off.
I've made small steps. Unfriending then blocking on Facebook, leaving groupchats, I've stopped responding to messages.
Those of you with neglectful parents, how did you do it? What was the final straw? How did you gain the courage to make it happen and how did you do it?
How did you know you were doing the right thing by going NC?

English isn't my first language, but I'll try to make it understandable.
I (20f) recently lost a friendship of 8 years and I don't know if I made the right decisions. Is it possible to feel so much resentment for someone you loved so much?
I'll call my ex friend Alina
To be honest our friendship wasn't as close as it was before, but I accepted that, people change over time, and with how many years we have know each other our relationship was bound to change, maybe I wasn't her best friend anymore, but I didn't thought that would mean I didn't fit in her life in any way anymore.
It all came to and end when Alina started to date an ex from a mutual friend of ours (I'll call her Sara) (all of us have know each other for the same time), and even if Sara and her ex didn't date for a long time, this hurt Sara deeply, as she considered this action the biggest of betrayals.
I felt icky about it, I wouldn't date the ex of a friend, even if they dated for a short while, and I wouldn't like one of my friends dating my ex either, but they all were friends before any of the relationships took place, maybe feelings between the ex and Alina flourished over time?
Sara cut all ties with Alina and I did my best to be there for Sara, while making clear that I didn't think what Alina did was a good idea, but trying to salvage both friendships.
I told Alina that while I didn't agree with her choice I would like to still be her friend, but she didn't seem to be interested, she told me that all of it was in my hands.
That was the moment were the resentment started to form, why did I have to be the one to make the effort to salvage the friendship? Why did have to be the one to always text her and ask her about her day? Wasn't I important anymore? Even after 8 years?
I tried to maintain contact for weeks but all I received were short answers to the texts I sended, and I was becoming bitter seeing her posting pictures with her brand new boyfriend and her brand new friends, so I stopped seeing them, and I stopped texting. She didn't text me back.
All the situation is so stupid, why was our friendship ending for a man? Something we didn't have to deal with even when we were 15 and dumb.
And even if it's irrational I feel like she chose him over us, over me. Someone she hasn't know even for a year.
Now she is posting about how she is free without our friendship, how she is happier, how she is better.
And I hate her, I hope her relationship crashes and burns so she'll regret it.
But I love her, and I miss her and I wonder why I wasn't worth keeping.
I guess I keep wondering if I made the right decisions, If is all of it my fault somehow, maybe if I had been a better friend, I wouldn't be so easy to be discarded and replaced.

I saw that Devolver Digital are doing an AMA in gaming and they're answering questions about pitches and publishing in-depth. Definitely some interesting bits if you're looking to pitch to publishers.
https://www.reddit.com/gaming/comments/1cterxt/ama_were_devolver_digital_its_our_15th/

Alright, so ive been working on a game but one question is very much unanswered, how far done should a game be before its worth contacting publishers for it? Have the vertical slice with the visual fluff and mostly need to expand now
It'll depend on each project and publisher. Speaking for ourselves only, we typically strongly prefer to have something playable - doesn't have to be a vertical slice because that shit is hard, but needs to demonstrate the fun and potential pretty early (fun being of variable definition depending on genre). Anything placeholder or incomplete should be noted in a one-sheet or in-build, but we'll generally be looking for any USPs mentioned in the pitch to present in the build to some extent.
Other assets that describe where further development is headed are also helpful. Sell us on a clear vision and deliver enough to substantiate on the promise. NB: There are always exceptions. I manage intake of the majority of pitches in our little camp, and every project raises different questions, but we also want to respect your time and resources.
Cutting it pretty close to launch isn't an impossible ask, but definitely poses additional challenges. At the end of the day, we want to be able to support you the best we can and try to ensure there's ample space in our upcoming release schedule. So some magical sweet spot in between. ;) 🍆 Clara
I hope that you get a lot of answers from different members of the team on this one, but for me:
Gameplay needs to feel good, meaning that if it's an action game, the controls should be tight, or if it's more strategy/builder then the systems should be implemented in a way that makes it clear that you know what you're doing. Not EVERY aspect of gameplay needs to already be present, but all of the core aspects need to be.
If you promise something in the pitch deck, it needs to show up in the slice. So many times we get pitches for games that are like, "Here's my game that's just like all these other games, but it has this awesome hook that seems impossible to achieve!" and then we play the slice and that "awesome hook" isn't in the build, and that raises concerns that it is, in fact, impossible to achieve.
Really, whatever you say will make your game stand out should already be present on a small scale in the pitch, whether that's exceptional art, music, gameplay, writing, or whatever. We want to see the game's potential in the game, not just the pitch document. ~JM

It is able to take someone's prexisting emotions, thoughts, feelings, and wants and is able to magnify them and focus them down a particular line of reasoning to get them to what they want, as long as it is something within their nature to do so. It also ranges in difficulty depending on how likely they are, in that moment, to take that suggestion. For example, someone who loves stabbing would only take a few words to get to stab someone, someone ambivalent to the idea of violence inherently may take a minute or two, and someone who is opposed to violence but not entirely against their nature to might need hours or more of convincing to successfully find a line of reasoning that would make them consider stabbing a particular person "reasonable" .
The power considers "reasonable" as their state of mind at the moment of the suggestion, so after say one suggestion of "shouldn't you be angry at someone who has wronged you", which to most would be considered reasonable, they are able to flair up that person's anger towards that person and then, can use that anger to possibly lead them down a line of reasoning and mental changes to make a "reasonable" suggestion for them at that final mental state that they wouldn't have considered to be if they had started with the "stab someone" example.
Depending on the amount of time spent and how easy to convince the person was for the thing, the changes to their mind can be temporary if the time was short or it was difficult to get them to do it, and the changes can be long lasting to maybe even permanent if the person was very easy to convince or enough time was spent on them.

Hey Entrepreneur!
I wanted to share the story of the past year and a half of my life - a tale of challenges, tech innovation, and a whole lot of snacks. This isn’t just about launching a product; it’s about solving a big problem that inspired an entire platform.
TL;DR: My buddy and I sold our previous snack subscription box company and made a cool thing

The Seeds of Discontent

At our previous company, my buddy Mike and I saw how powerful influencer marketing could be. Our business, delivering international snacks to doorsteps, was perfect for social media. But managing these influencer partnerships was a huge headache.
Each new campaign started with excitement but quickly became overwhelming. We dealt with many social media platforms, each with its own rules and metrics. Keeping track of everything felt like trying to solve a puzzle with pieces that kept changing. The tools we used were basic. They helped us send products and payments but didn’t offer much for managing or understanding the big picture.
Tracking our campaign performance was a real pain. With just a small team running our marketing, we were juggling hundreds of influencers at the same time. It was hard to keep an eye on everyone and make quick decisions. Plus, the data we got was often late and messy, making things even more frustrating.
This constant struggle showed us a big gap in our toolkit. We needed a solution that could make managing influencers easier and give us useful insights, something as dynamic and global as our product. This ongoing frustration planted the seeds for what would eventually become our new company.

Market Research: Finding the Pain Points

After selling our previous business, Mike and I took a six-month break. We explored different ideas, from unique apps to a Castle Crashers style game. But our experience working with creators kept pulling us back to marketing. We knew the challenges of influencer marketing needed to be addressed.
We talked to our network in the e-commerce space to see if they had similar problems. The feedback was eye-opening. Many businesses struggled with existing tools, which mostly acted as simple marketplaces, where interactions were brief and not very deep.
Even worse, the few ambassador tools available were expensive and limited. When I searched for an ambassador software tool that worked across all social networks, the options I found required scheduling demos days in advance. They often lacked direct API connections and supported only a few major social media networks. The starting prices were high, often around $5k per month, with costs going up as the program expanded.
This research not only validated our experiences but also showed us a strategic need for our own tool. We realized we needed a solution not just to fill the current gap but also as a key part of our marketing stack for future businesses. We were determined to build something that wouldn’t force us—or anyone else—to pay a crazy amount for effective influencer marketing.

Designing the Dream: Our New Business’ Blueprint

With a clear vision from our frustrations and market research, we set out to create our new business. Our goal was to build a comprehensive tool that would change influencer marketing. Here’s what we focused on:

• Comprehensive Integration: We made sure the tool we created works with the top 10 social networks in the US. This unified approach helps marketers manage campaigns across different platforms easily, without juggling multiple tools.
• Dynamic Engagement Tools: Engagement is key, so we developed real-time interaction capabilities. We built user-friendly native apps for ambassadors on the App Store and Google Play, allowing influencers to stay engaged and responsive. Brands manage their campaigns through a web-based company portal.
• Robust Analytics Engine: While our analytics engine gives deep insights, we know it needs continuous improvement. We designed it to evolve, offering ongoing updates to refine its capabilities and deliver actionable intelligence.
• Flexible and Fun Engagement: The points and rewards system was the most important and fun feature to develop. This gamification of the influencer experience encourages participation and loyalty, making marketing campaigns more engaging.
• Advanced Group Segmentation: We included the ability to segment ambassadors into groups. This allows brands to target certain activities and rewards to specific groups, enhancing the effectiveness of marketing efforts.

Each feature of our tool we were creating was designed to address specific pain points we identified. Our goal was to offer a tool that was powerful, efficient, adaptable, and enjoyable for both brands and their ambassador partners.

Launching Our New Business: Embracing User Feedback

After about 18 months of design and development, we started the soft launch of our new business on May 1st. Opting for a soft launch allowed us to focus on real-time feedback and fine-tuning over making a big initial splash. This approach is crucial - not just for introducing our product but for understanding how it fits into the real world, where actual users rely on it.

Initial Rollout and Testing

Our launch a couple of weeks ago marked the start of our public journey. We released our new tool we created with ambassador apps on the App Store and Google Play, and opened our web-based company portal for business use. This phase is not about mass marketing but about engaging with our professional network and early adopters testing everything in real-world conditions. This includes real companies and creators, ensuring our platform is robust and responsive.

Iterative Feedback Integration

Feedback from these early stages is invaluable. We have set up multiple channels to communicate with our initial users to ensure they feel supported and heard. This ongoing dialogue is critical as it helps us identify and implement necessary adjustments quickly. Each piece of feedback is a step towards improving functionality and user experience.

Continued Development Based on Early Insights

Since we are still in the soft launch phase, our focus remains on refining the platform. A recent development was adding the Creator Hub and Company Center about a month ago—enhancements from recognizing limitations in our initial setup.
Creator Hub: The Creator Hub allows businesses to manage their ambassador relationships dynamically. Companies can discover and invite creators who match their interests and campaign goals, ensuring more personalized and effective collaborations.
Company Center: This feature allows creators to independently discover and apply to various ambassador programs, giving them the freedom to engage with brands that align with their interests.
These features aim to make the connection between companies and creators as seamless and beneficial as possible, accommodating a wide range of marketing strategies and campaign sizes.

How The Tool We Created Works: Streamlining Influencer Marketing

Our tool is designed to simplify and enhance the influencer marketing process for both companies and creators. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how our platform works:

1. Signup and Integration

- Companies can quickly create customizable signup forms. They can also invite new ambassadors directly from the Creator Hub that match their interests. This flexibility helps integrate Social Strudel into existing marketing workflows.
2. Ambassador Onboarding
- Creators apply to become ambassadors, download the Social Strudel app, and connect their social media accounts. This ensures that once approved, creators can start engaging with brand campaigns promptly.
3. Application Review
- Companies get notifications of new applicants and can approve or decline them based on their fit and relevance to marketing goals. This step ensures only the best ambassadors represent the brand.
4. Targeted Segmentation
- Companies can segment ambassadors into groups, allowing them to tailor activities and communications. This supports targeted marketing strategies and more personalized engagement.
5. Activity Management
- Companies set up new activities on various social platforms for ambassadors. Examples include:

• Instagram: Create a photo post featuring the brand’s latest snack box and use specific hashtags.
  
• TikTok: Develop a short video showing a fun unboxing of the product, encouraging engagement through likes and comments.
  
• Twitch: Host a live stream where the ambassador tries snacks from the box during a gaming session, discussing favorites with viewers.
  

- These are just examples, and activities can be tailored to fit different platforms and goals.
6. Real-Time Notifications
- Creators get notifications about new activities through push notifications and email. They can browse the app for available activities, ensuring they never miss an opportunity.
7. Submission and Verification
- Creators submit proof of activity completion directly through the app. This makes managing submissions easy and organized for companies.
8. Activity Approval
- Companies review submitted activities, approving or declining them based on quality and alignment with campaign objectives. This maintains high standards and ensures effectiveness.
9. Rewards and Motivation
- Upon approval, creators earn points, which can be redeemed for various rewards. This system motivates creators to produce high-quality content and stay engaged.
10. Custom Rewards Creation

• Companies create custom rewards, ranging from products, discounts, to unique experiences, or even cash. This flexibility allows brands to align rewards with their strategies and ambassador preferences.

11. Reward Notifications and Redemption

• Creators are notified of available rewards and can redeem their points. This keeps creators motivated and engaged.

12. Reward Distribution Management

• Companies are notified about reward redemptions and distribute rewards accordingly. This final step ensures creators are compensated for their efforts, and companies can manage reward distribution easily.

Looking Forward: The Road Ahead for Us

As we continue with our new business, we are committed to not just meeting but exceeding the evolving needs of digital marketing. We’ve only just begun to tap into our platform’s potential, and our roadmap is geared towards enhancing our service and expanding our reach.

Enhanced Integration Capabilities

We aim to expand our platform’s integration capabilities, adding support for social networks like WhatsApp, Discord, Telegram, and Quora, and adapting to new emerging platforms like the anticipated Vine 2. By covering more platforms, we provide our users with tools to engage with audiences everywhere online.

Advanced Analytics and AI Implementation

Understanding the crucial role of data, we plan to enhance our analytics engine with advanced metrics and predictive analytics. By integrating AI, we aim to give users insights that reflect current trends and anticipate future behaviors.

Continued Focus on User Experience

User feedback is key and remains a cornerstone of our development. We are committed to refining the user experience based on real usage and feedback. This includes enhancing our mobile apps and ensuring the Creator Hub and Company Center are intuitive and robust. Both are still in early stages, and we are actively working to improve these features.

Expanding Educational Resources

To help users fully leverage the tool we created, we plan to expand our educational resources. This includes tutorials, best practice guides, and case studies for new users, and advanced content for experienced marketers to refine their strategies.

Final Reflections

If you've stuck with me this long through our story, thank you! Reflecting on this journey, it’s clear that every challenge and setback helped shape our vision and refine our approach. From the initial frustrations to the detailed market research, every step has been a learning experience. We're excited about the future and committed to improving our platform constantly to meet the evolving needs of our users and potential users. If you have any questions or feedback at all, I’d love to hear it! Your insights and support mean a lot as my partner and I continue to grow and innovate.
EDIT: Formatting

First off, congrats to everyone for the past application cycle! No matter what your outcome was, it's a big accomplishment to have gone through the whole process. I'm a non-trad who was accepted to Queen's this year, on my 2nd application cycle. I will be 27 when I start this Fall. It feels surreal and I always told myself I'd write a post about my journey if this day ever came - and here we are.
I didn't decide to apply to med school until after I finished undergrad, and while doing my research, I always wished I could read/hear perspectives from others with my background. Even though everybody's path will be different, I hope that my story can provide some insight (or even hope) for other non-trad applicants out there.
Before we start, here are my stats because that's important:

• cGPA, OMSAS: 3.53
• wGPA, UBC: ~85%
• MCAT: 515 (127/129/130/129)
• Casper: 4th
• IP: BC and ON

I'll go in chronological order, briefly describing some of the major events that led me to today, starting from high school. Please ask me any questions in the comments - (almost) nothing is off limits :)
TLDR: I was a software engineer who quit after a year to go to grad school and pursue medicine. It took me 4 years from when I decided to pursue this to getting accepted at a Canadian school. I did a Masters in stats and applied 2 times. My biggest takeaway is to do a lot of what you are passionate about, do it well, and take it far (for me, that was teaching and research).
Some demographics:

• My parents and I immigrated to Canada from Asia when I was 3
• I grew up in the GTA and did undergrad in Ontario
• I'm the first person in my family to pursue med school. My immediate family and I are the only people in our whole family who live outside of Asia, and nobody in my parents' network of family friends is in healthcare either.

High school, 2011-2015: I was always interested in medicine as a kid, but math was always my favourite subject. I applied to several science and math programs, and was choosing between Western Med Sci and Waterloo Math. I did not apply to Mac Health Sci and looking back, I'm not sure why (perhaps a sign that I didn't believe in myself). I ended up choosing Waterloo Math and giving up on the medical school route in grade 12, for a few reasons: the math program had 6 co-op terms, meaning I'd graduate with 2 full-time years of job experience, and I wasn't particularly good at biology and didn't have strong reasons for pursuing medicine back then. Med school also seemed like an impossible goal, especially since I didn't have any mentors in the field.
Undergrad, 2015-2020: This was honestly a fun time for me. I double-majored in stats and CS and I did 6 co-ops, 5 of which were in software engineering roles. I had originally planned to do actuarial science, but quickly saw the earning potential in the tech industry and made it my goal to get a job at a big tech company. A lot of personal stuff happened during this time as well that affirmed my decision pursue a software engineering career. One part of it was that I didn't want my parents to worry about me, and being able to show them that I was able to do well for myself in tech felt really good.
Halfway through my co-ops, I realized that I wasn't feeling the most fulfilled in software roles, but management roles also didn't appeal to me. I didn't really take the time to fully explore this feeling, and it was easy to put it away in light of the high income and getting to live in big cities for internships. Still, I did well in my co-ops and built up my software skills. After realizing that "grades don't matter for getting tech jobs", I let my grades slip. It wasn't until 4th year that I decided I wanted to keep the door open for grad school, and starting taking classes I liked and getting better grades. I graduated with an 82% average, with my grades all over the place (which I'd later learn was bad for calculating my OMSAS gpa lol).
Throughout undergrad, I still wanted to be involved in clubs and stuff, so here's a list of all my undergrad ECs. All these were only 4-8 months long.

• 1st year: I was a member and president of my first year residence council
• 2nd year: I was in a leadership position at the statistics club
• 3rd year: I was an event coordinator for co-op students in a city away from home
• also 3rd year: I was part of a club that builds software for non-profits

Another activity from undergrad that made it onto my application was a research project I did at one of my co-ops. It was in NLP and I worked on it even after finishing that coop term. It ended up taking 4 years to get published.
Full-time software engineering, 2020-2021: I signed a return offer from one of my co-ops, and had planned to move to Seattle in the summer after graduating to start working. But Covid changed all that. I moved back home with my parents in the GTA and worked at my software job remotely for the full year.
It was during this year that I was really feeling unfulfilled in my job, and did a lot of thinking about how I wanted my career to look. I started to remember that med school was something that I once wanted to do, and I also started reading/watching a lot of content from people in medicine with non-traditional backgrounds. My partner, who is also from Ontario, was accepted to an international med school, and many of our friends were also getting into schools in Canada around the same time, so this reaffirmed to me that it was actually possible. While working for the year, I made a plan to apply to grad school (academia would be my back-up) and take the MCAT. Here's what my 2020-2021 looked like:

• July: started full-time work
• December-January: wrote personal statements and applied to 5 Masters programs in biostatistics
• February-April: acceptances to Masters programs came in, and I was studying for the MCAT
• June: took the MCAT, scored 508, and told my manager that I'd be leaving by August to start grad school

During this year, I also wrote out a 3-year plan that included my masters and 2 application cycles. I wrote out what courses I would take to fulfill prereqs, which schools I would apply to each year, and what my back-up plan would be. I think this was important to do rigorously since it gave me a clear idea of which schools I was eligible for, and how much work it would take me to become eligible for the rest of them.
I will also add that this is a rather objective recount of my process that year. In reality, I completely recognized how insane it was to quit my job to go to grad school, and I'm super lucky that I was able to.
Grad school, 2021-2023: I moved to BC to start my Masters in statistics in August. This choice was partly to gain IP status in BC, but mostly, this was really the best program for me out of the schools I applied to. Even looking back now, I would have chosen this program even without the IP consideration.
Here's a breakdown of everything I did during the first year of my Masters:

• Started a new volunteering role (tutoring) right away. Still doing this today, almost 3 years later.
• Took a first year English class to fulfill the UBC requirement. Side note: it felt very odd being a 25-year-old in a class of 18-year-olds, but I did well in both classes probably because of being older. At first, I dreaded taking these classes since English was never my strong suit. But being older meant that I allowed myself to be truly curious about the topics being taught, and I treated it more as an experience to learn more about the world than to just check off some boxes.
• Took the MCAT again, at the end of my first year of MSc. I had already confirmed a supervisor by then, and thankfully she is/was incredibly supportive of my goals. I took it in June 2022 and got 515.
• TA'd stats courses throughout the year
• Started working on my thesis research with my supervisor

First application, 2022: I applied only to UBC for my first application cycle. In retrospect, I should have just applied broadly right away, but I didn't feel like I had enough references built up by then. And UBC doesn't require references unless you get an interview. I honestly had very high hopes of getting an interview this year, and was crushed to receive a rejection in December with an NAQ of 50-75. I thought that my application was unique, but upon reflection, I realized that the lack of volunteering and community service was a big gap in my application.
So here's a breakdown of everything I did in my second year of my Masters and beyond:

• TA'd stats courses throughout the year, and was the head TA for one of them (I think this showed leadership and commitment to teaching)
• Started another volunteering role at the food bank
• Took another first-year English course
• Continued my research with my supervisor
• Got offered (and started) a lecturer role for an undergrad course at the university, which was such an amazing opportunity. My supervisor helped me a lot with getting this position, since I TA'd for her one semester and she recommended me to the department. This was a class of 150, and I was also in charge of a few TAs. I ended up teaching this class 2 more times after this!
• Finished my Masters in August 2023
• Started working full-time as a biostatistician in September 2023
• A first-author paper I started working on during undergrad was accepted in Fall 2023. I had been working on this on-and-off for the past 4 years so it was incredible for the work to finally pay off!

Second application, 2023: This time, I applied to UBC and every school in Ontario that I was eligible for: Queen's and Mac. I was rejected by UBC pre-interview again. Same NAQ, and my total score didn't change. I was totally crushed and thought it was over for this year. I was very honest with myself about the Ontario applications - Mac was a total throwaway application and Queen's felt like a complete gamble. I was rejected from Mac pre-interview but one fateful day in January, I received an email from Queen's. It had a very generic "Application Status" subject line and I opened it fully expecting a rejection. I was totally shocked when it said I was invited for the MMI! And a few months later, I was also invited to the Panel.
Some of my thoughts and preparation for the interviews:
MMI - Aside from the usual resources that are posted here, I also took advantage of the following:

• Support system: I had a lot of support from my partner, who had gone through MMIs from non-Canadian schools, and many of my friends who were already in med school.
• Resources: I paid for a prep session on AcceptedTogether and had a positive experience there. I also used the BrightStudent question bank and although the questions were good, the explanations and overall experience were mid. But their YouTube video was extremely useful.
• Mindset: Throughout my whole MMI prep, I was honestly very interested in exploring each prompt, and I think this mindset was extremely beneficial for making my answers both unique and genuine. During my Masters, I also took a class that covered topics in social determinants of health, and I semi-regularly enjoy reading about current events in this area, so both of those pieces of background were super helpful for me.

Panel - I was so happy to receive a panel interview, and knew that I could not mess this up. I prepped with a few different friends of mine who were in med school, and another friend who was going through Ontario interviews too. Going in, I felt very prepared, and in the days leading up to it, I even felt like my answers were on autopilot and a bit over-prepared. So I really tried to relax and "be myself"/answer genuinely during the panel. The real panel felt quite cold - I didn't get any feedback from my interviewers, and was a bit thrown off by some of the questions. I was also cut off by the Kira Talent timer at the end, and didn't get to say goodbye or thank you. For the rest of the day, I ruminated on all my answers. The content of my answers felt somewhere between "why would I say that" and "just fine" and "great", but I was definitely feeling a bit bad about the whole experience.
Decision Week, 2024: That brings us to this week! In the week leading up to the decision, I flip flopped between "My panel hated me, there's no way I passed the vibe check" and "My answers were good, my MMI felt good, why wouldn't they accept me". I opened the email at 6am (Pacific time) with zero expectations - I truly had no idea what was waiting for me on the other side. The first word was "Congratulations!" and I didn't read much farther than that before I started celebrating :)
So that's it. I told a lot of people I work with, my Masters supervisor, my parents, and my friends, and it felt amazing to deliver this good news. My closing thoughts about my whole journey are that even though I do think my application was great, I still got incredibly lucky. At any point in the process, I could have gotten an undesirable outcome, and there was nothing I could do to control that (other than my efforts prior). I also relied a lot on my support system, and was so lucky to have had + made friends who are in med school or were practising already.
I just feel so grateful to be starting this Fall, and I'm happy to say that my high school self would be in absolute disbelief if she could see where I am today. That statement is a sign to me that I'm on the right path, and I'm just so excited to be starting this long, hard career that is medicine.
If you've made it to the end, thank you for reading!! If you can relate to any part of my journey and have questions, please send me a comment or DM - my inbox is always open.

My(27F) older brother(he's 44) has been really ungrateful regarding gifts people get him for awhile, not just gifts I get him, any gifts from anyone - a few days after one Christmas he made a facebook post of everything he had gotten from me, our brother and our mom, selling it all, shoes, shirts, hoodies. Including some stuff I had got for him for previous birthdays - such as a pair of sneakers he told me he wanted, I got them in the exact colour that he said he wanted. Never wore them. Just sold them. He wasn't struggling for money I don't think, he's not shy about asking for money from our mom, or our brother, or posting essays on facebook about it so as far as I could tell, he wasn't struggling for money around then. Anything that wasn't sellable(mom got him a funny mug), he "forgot" to take home with him. He left the mug, telling mom to keep the mug so he can use it when he comes to visit.
Last year I saw he made a post on social media post basically saying "anyone want to buy some brand new crocs? I was never gonna wear em anyways. Fuck crocs. I want to get rid of this birthday gift I really don't like. I'll burn them." ...Even though he said he liked crocs before I bought them for him. 🤦🏻‍♀️
I no longer want to buy him any gifts for holidays. I tried once more after he made the facebook post selling everything everyone got him, only to see the nasty posts about how he wants to burn the crocs I got him for his birthday. Mom thinks I should just give him gift cards so he can buy what he wants, but I don't want to. I buy what he says he wants, and then he either sells it, or makes posts acting like a 12 year old who got the wrong colour iphone or whatever.
WIBTAH if I stop buying him gifts? Or should I just buy him gift cards like my mom suggested.... Orrrrr, should I buy myself a pair of crocs, but use the box to put his gifts in, which will include one of those "Burn this after writing" journals and leave a nice note telling him "Here's something that's actually meant to be burnt!" ...i'm kidding, I won't do that lol.

Background : I've been playing for about 2.5 years (38 years old now), shooting in the low to mid 80s. Decent knowledge about clubs. I've had about 6 different sets of clubs from different fittings done at club champion, PGA superstore, Golf Galaxy, Local course, and original sets bought on facebook marketplace and finessed by my first coach/teacher. (Northern California)
I've also spent over 10k on lessons from pretty much all the coaches from local golf course. Local coaches I've found online, coaching from golf shops, you name it. I wanted to improve fast.
So this is my rant, I feel like as a player, everyone here is to exploit and make their living from a game we love. A breakdown of each topic below.
Coaching:

• Korean academies ( subscription based) - It was $500 a month for unlimited range and the instructor would walk around and give you a pointer here and there, practically useless, like 3 mins of actual coaching.
• American style coaching - There is an inherit conflict of interest with golf coaching that doesn't make too much sense to me. Local coaches from golf courses typically only offer bandaid fixes to what you are struggling with and very much assume you are a beginner. It is fairly hard for them to gauge and access how much you know about the swing within the one hour period. Typically people go see them for a 1 hour lesson here and there and they don't really have a strong client-tell. There are coaches that I work with more frequently and they are always booked, but if you are a coach and you need clients, do you AT HEART really want to help you get better. Wouldn't you always want to just find a goldilocks zone where you are always booked.

Fitting:

• Retail stores - Trust me, a lot of these guys are utter garbage at big retail stores like golf galaxy and pga superstore, unless it's like a fitting van studio. There are the knowledgable ones but they are seasoned and just want to sell you shit. It's like going to a car dealership but for clubs. A free putter fitting means having a college student looking at your swing for 3-4 shots then when you make a putt, he goes wow.... that's a great fit. He doesn't care if you know about lie angle, loft, toe hang, length, stroke type. Doesn't know how to probably set up a SAMs Puttlab. Then when it comes to actual club fitting, I don't even know where and how to start, but it's probably some generic corporate training of recommending the latest clubs from different manufactures.
• Club Champion - Fittings are decent, but something about them. They know more generic numbers on trackman forsure. They are constantly trying too hard to upsell you into exclusive shafts, and their build prices are just way to expensive, but if they know you just want the fitting only, they won't spend much time with you. The $300 dollar fitting fee is realistically not worth it for them. They forsure care more about you buying their SST puring services and breaking each component down and charge you separately. A awkward moment is when I went in and just wanted to test out all the shafts, but already had one in mind. When the build came out, I played dumb and showed the guy the same build for $1200 cheaper. They broke down the head, shaft and grip down as individual components. Their rebuttal was they were the ones building it, and their tolerances are much better than stock manufacturer. As if it's really hard to get the loft, lie, length, swing weight checked anywhere else. Anyway, I just did the math infront of him and paid him $175 for the fitting.
• Golf shops - Don't be confused, the point of having a shop is to make revenue, you will get recommended to different brands that they have the most association with, and with the highest margin. They will try to sway you in a certain direction, especially when you are a newer player and don't really know exactly what you want.

Tuesday May 7th 2024
Wolstein Center, Cleveland, OH
WBW Presents: Tuesday Night Spectactle
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This theme plays as KO comes down to the ring. Kevin grabs a microphone and says “CLEVELAND! 2 nights ago I had a classic match with my best friend Sami Zayn.. Then the Nemeth Brothers decided to get involved and for whatever reason chose me to win. Now tonight I am in the main event against Drew Mc-”.This theme plays and Drew McIntyre comes down to the ring with a microphone. Drew says “Kevin would you please stop worrying about my friend Nic. This is going to be your downfall my friend. Focus on our match tonight. We are supposed to have a 5 star classic but instead you're worrying about a cheerleader. But if you want to keep focusing on the Nemeth’s they are here!”. Drew exits the ring much to KO’s confusion. Nic and Ryan hop the barricades and surround KO on both sides of the ring. KO throws a strike at Ryan first but the number’s game catches up to him fast. Sami runs down but is intercepted by Claymore from Drew. Drew hits Sami with a Futureshock DDT on the ramp and throws him into the ring. Drew says “Get a referee down here. I got confirmation already its Sami Zayn vs my boy Nic Nemeth next!”. A referee comes running down to the ring as Drew gets on commentary for the match.
This segment takes 10 minutes (2:50 left of show time)
Sami Zayn w/ Kevin Owens vs Nic Nemeth w/ Ryan Nemeth
Sami is still down after the vicious attack from Drew McIntyre. Nic hits his 10 Elbow Drops going for the pin right off the bat. Sami kicks out at 2. Nic hits the ground in frustration expecting an easy win. Nic sets up in the corner for a Sweet Chin Music connecting! Nic falls into a pinfall. Sami kicks out at 2 and a half. Sami finally begins to fight back with a few strikes and goes for an Exploder Suplex. Nic lands on his feet. Sami turns around right into a superkick. Nic sets up in the corner connecting with another superkick. Nic then climbs the turnbuckle and goes for a big Elbow Drop. Sami gets to his feet and connects with a Blue Thunder Bomb out of nowhere going for the pin. Nic kicks out at 2 and 3/4 much to Sami’s shock. Sami lifts Nic up and hits a Exploder Suplex into the corner. Nic stumbles into the corner and Sami backs into the other corner for a Helluva Kick. Ryan grabs his legs and drags Sami into the turnbuckle. The referee was busy checking on Nic! KO grabs Ryan and hits him with a powerbomb onto the apron. KO turns around right into a Claymore Kick from Drew. Drew taunts KO and Sami as Sami turns his attention to Drew upset at him. Nic sneaks up behind Sami and hits him with a Zig Zag going for the pin. Nic gets the 3! Nic slips out of the ring as Drew joins him on the ramp. Ryan holding his back joins them laughing. KO checks Sami, staring up the ramp at Drew pissed off.
This match takes 10 minutes (2:40 left of show time)
Sami is seen backstage with KO. KO is pissed off saying how he is going to make Drew pay for this. Sami calms KO down and tells him to just be prepared for his match. KO agrees and walks off. Sami walks up to Mark Steel’s office door and knocks. Mark yells “Come in”. Sami walks in and Mark ushers for him to sit down. Sami says “Mr Steel you have to realize that if nothing is done the Nemeth Brothers will get involved in the main event”. Mark looks at Sami and says “I've already dealt with that. They were asked to leave the arena. And as such you will too. That way neither Drew nor KO will have unnecessary help tonight. Do I make myself cl-”. Drew bursts into the room and says “Mark I don't care if the Nemeth Brothers are there or not. Unlike Kevin I don't need their help to win”. Drew walks out as Mark and Sami stare at each other in shock.
This segment takes 5 minutes (2:35 left of show time)
Seth Rollins vs Carmelo Hayes - Round 2 of Winners Bracket for World Title Tournament
Seth and Carmelo begin circling each other. Seth offers a handshake and Melo takes it. Seth quickly rolls Hayes up for a quick kick out at 1. Melo and Seth both get to their feet at the same time and Seth laughs. Hayes throws a right fist sending Seth right to the ground. Hayes lifts Seth up and hits a Suplex into the Spinning Back Elbow combo. Hayes climbs the turnbuckle and hits a Fedora Frog Splash going for the pin. Seth kicks out at 2. Hayes climbs the turnbuckle again going for a Nothing But Net. Seth gets to his feet and hits Hayes with a Revolution Knee in mid air. Hayes hits the ground with a thud and Seth takes advantage with a Pedigree going for the pin. Hayes kicks out at 2. Seth backs into the corner stomping and preparing for a Curbstomp. Hayes throws Seth up into the air and hits a Samoan Drop on the way down. Hayes follows up with a Fedora Frog Splash going for the pin and getting a 2 and a half on Seth. Hayes doesn't stop as he climbs again and hits Nothing But Net going for the pin again. Seth kicks out at 2 and 3/4 which makes Hayes hit the ground in frustration. Hayes backs into the corner with his eyes glazed. He sets up to hit Seth’s curbstomp. Seth rolls out of the way and Hayes turns around right into a Spinning Elbow. Seth drops into the corner and hits a Curbstomp. Seth connects and goes for the pin. Hayes kicks out at 2 and a half. Seth hits the ground before throwing Hayes up the Turnbuckle going for a Falcon Arrow followed by a second Falcon Arrow. Seth climbs again going for a Frog Splash but Hayes rolls out of the way. Hayes quickly climbs the ropes going for a Nothing but Net but Seth rolls out of the way before connecting with a Superkick to Hayes while he was on his knees. Seth climbs to the second Turnbuckle and hits a super curb stomp right then and there going for the pin and getting the 3. Seth sits on his knees as the announcer announces his victory! Seth is going on to Round 3!
This match takes 15 minutes (2:20 left of show time)
Austin Theory and Grayson Waller ambush Seth from behind. MJF jumps the barricade and joins the assault when Laredo Kid, Myzteziz and Artemis come running down to the ring. They chase off MJF and A-Town Down Under before helping Seth to his feet. Seth grabs a microphone and says “Hey Max. I'll see you next week”. Seth stands tall with the Air Riders as MJF and A-Town Down Under retreat up the ramp!
This segment takes 5 minutes (2:15 left of show time)
This theme plays and out comes AJ Styles. AJ grabs a microphone and says “Last Sunday in Pittsburgh I lost everything. The Judgement Day attacked me before my match and broke my arm. Now I make no excuses cause at the end of the day I am the one who tapped out. But now I must focus on whoever wins next week to decide who will face me next week as well in the Second Round of the Losers Bracket. Whoever it is just know I will walk through the fucking fi-”. This theme plays and Finn Balor comes down to the ring with JD and Dom. Finn says “Next week I have to face the winner of the main event but before that. Thought I would pay you a visit. To make sure you remember.. THE JUDGEMENT DAY RUN WBW”. Out of nowhere AJ is attacked from behind by Chris Ridgeway. Judgement Day has a new member! This theme plays The Calamari Catch Kings theme plays and Chris Brookes runs down to the ring with the Lykos Gym. The Lykos Gym and Chris Brookes even the numbers and chase the Judgement Day up the ramp. AJ puts out a Bullet Club forever sign and CCK joins him! Judgement Day has bigger worries now as Chris Ridgeway’s first round opponent in the Battleground Tournament is in the ring with Judgement Day’s biggest rival!
This segment takes 10 minutes (2:05 left of show time)
The Riott Squad vs Shafir and Duke - Qualifier for 6 team Ladder Match for Women's Tag Titles
There are currently 3 titles without champions crowned. The World Championship, The Battleground Championship and the Women's Tag Championship. The latter is the only one not in a tournament. Instead there will be 6 qualifiers, 2 per spectacle. Where the winners are added to a 6 team ladder match. Tonight we get the first of 6 qualifiers as Liv Morgan and Ruby Soho team up once more in WBW to take on 2 enforcers of the ring in Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke. It starts with Liv Morgan and Ruby Soho on top. They have slightly more chemistry and experience allowing them to take the early edge. However as the match goes on it gets more balanced as the technical duo begin to roll in the later half. The match reaches its boiling point when Shafir locks Liv in an arm bar. Liv manages to get out, tossing Shafir into the ropes. Duke tags in but gets off the apron. Liv doesnt know as she hits a ObLIVion followed by a tag to Soho. Soho sets up and hits Shafir with the Soho Kick going for the pin. Duke comes out of nowhere and hits Liv with a German right onto Soho. Liv and Shafir both roll out of the ring as Duke drops into the corner. Soho stirs to her feet and Duke connects with a spear. Duke falls into the pin and gets the 3 on Soho. Shafir joins her in the ring as they celebrate one step closer to the Women's Tag Titles!
This match takes 15 minutes (1:50 left of show time)
After the match The Riott Squad attack Shafir and Duke from behind clearly upset about their loss. Lola Vice runs down to the ring with a steel chair and chases them off. Liv and Ruby retreat up the ramp as Lola grabs a microphone. Duke and Shafir stand at either side of her and she says “WE ARE THE HORSEWOMEN” to a massive cheer from the crowd!
This segment takes 5 minutes (1:45 left of show time)
This theme plays and the Rated R Superstar makes his WBW debut! Edge comes out to a loud pop. He enters the ring with a microphone and says “CLEVELAND OHIO! I HAVE BEEN ALL AROUND THE WORLD. I HAVE BEEN IN COMPANY AFTER COMPANY. AND NOW I'M HERE IN WBW. Man it feels good to be here. A Lot of great men in that locker room. The Judgement Day, Seth Rollins, Matt Cardona and Brian Myers. All these men I have history with. And all these men I suspect I will have a match with at some point in my tenure here. But enough talking cause I'm itching to step in that ring once again. So if anybody in the back wants a shot at beating one of the greatest to ever step in the ring, come out right now.. THIS IS AN OPEN CHALLENGE!”. This theme plays and out comes WBW’s newest star, A little less massive but still a great get, the ever talented Cara Noir!
This segment takes 10 minutes (1:35 left of show time)
Edge vs Cara Noir
Edge offers his hand for a handshake but Cara bats it away. Edge looks shocked and before he can react Cara hits him with an uppercut. Cara Noir begins hitting aerial offense in hopes to put Edge on the back of his feet. It works at first until he goes for a springboard knee and gets speared out of mid air. Edge stomps into the corner and prepares hitting a second more impactful spear going for the pin. Edge gets the 3 over Cara and stands tall after a 5 minute match!
This match takes 5 minutes (1:30 left of show time)
Edge stands up after getting the 3 on Cara Noir to a load of cheers! His head then turns to the ramp as This theme plays. The crowd pops once again as Randy Orton slowly descends down the ramp. He begins circling the ring like a shark. Edge prepares for a fight as Orton reaches the front of the apron. Orton acts like he's gonna jump up but backs off laughing at Edge. Orton turns and returns up the ramp and the only question of Edge, and the crowds, mind.. What is Randy Orton up to?
This segment takes 5 minutes (1:25 left of show time)
The System are backstage celebrating their title win when The Premiere Athletes walk up to them. Woods says “Moose I could care less what you think I want my rematch”. Moose just starts laughing at him and then says “You just lost the Scramble Match you're gonna have to earn that rematch”. Woods responds with “Oh don't worry i'm well aware which is why I came back here to inform Brian Myers. It's me vs him next, sanctioned by WBW Owner Mark Steel himself. Cya out there Champ”. Josh Woods puts his hand on Brian’s shoulder for a second before walking off. Daivari and Nese follow him out.
This segment takes 5 second (1:20 left of show time)
Josh Woods vs Brian Myers w/ Eddie Edwards
Josh Woods and Brian Myers circle each other as the bell is rung. They quickly get into a technical lockup which Woods gets the better of pushing Myers into the corner. Woods backs up as the referee tells him too and Myers takes advantage with a low knee. The referee yells at him but Myers doesn't care going for an early pin. Woods kicks out at 1. Brian continues his assault for a little bit before climbing the ropes going for a Heat Seeking Elbow. Woods rolls out of the way and tries to lock in a Knee Bar. He cant get it in properly and Myers escapes with a Enzuigiri followed by a Roster Cut going for the pin. Woods kicks out at 2. Myers climbs the turnbuckle and hits a Heat Seeking Elbow. He climbs up one more time to hit a second one once again going for the pin. Woods kicks out at 2 and a half. Myers hits the ground and is frustrated. He then lifts Josh up looking for a Taste the Danger. Woods drops down behind him and catches him in the Knee Bar. Myers screams in pain as he's in the hold for well over a minute before finally tapping out. Woods has just gotten a massive win!
This match takes 10 minutes (1:10 left of show time)
After the match Moose hits Woods from behind with his belt. Daivari and Nese try to intercept but the tag champs get in their way and the 2 teams begin brawling through the crowd and out of the arena. Moose now has Woods all to himself as he sets up Game Changer. This theme plays and the Monster Among Men runs down to the ring. He hits Moose with a shoulder tackle sending him flying. Moose quickly slides out of the ring and retreats up the ramp as Braun helps Woods to his feet. Braun and Woods stand tall as Moose stands at the top of the ramp outraged.
This segment takes 5 minutes (1:05 left of show time)
Mark Steel is backstage talking to KO. KO says “Why did you tell Sami to go home, It was the Nemeth Brothers and Drew getting involved not him”. Mark responds with “It is my job to focus on safety and wellbe-”. Moose interrupts him, as KO storms off, “Wellbeing my ass. Braun just showed up and attacked me. I demand retribution”. Mark says “That's funny cause he only came out to protect Josh Woods who you attacked first. Instead i've decided it's going to be Josh Woods and Braun Strowman next week to decide who will be the #1 contender for your WCW Intercontinental Championship. Oh and if you or any other member of the System show up.. You will be forced to vacate your title immediat-”. Josh Woods walks up interrupting “Next week I'm gonna beat Braun Strowman and then I'm going to make you regret attacking me tonight”. Woods walks off as Mark takes a deep breath clearly annoyed about being interrupted yet again.
This match takes 10 minutes (0:50 left of show time)
Stupid Youth Project vs Paige Sisters w/ Ella Envy - Qualifier for 6 Team Ladder Match for Women's Tag Titles
Alice Crowley and Billie Starkz team up to take on Pretty Empowered’s Kylie and Kenzie Paige. Alice and Kenzie have a powerhouse display while Billie and Kylie use their high-flying ability. Both teams wanted to win badly. In the end it comes down to a last second ditch effort from Billie to connect with a frog splash and pin Kenzie for the 3 count. They will be joining The Horsewomen in the 6 team Ladder Match!
This match takes 10 minutes (0:40 left of show time)
Drew Gulak and Alpha Academy w/ Maxxine Dupri vs Legado Del Fantasma w/ Elektra Lopez
This match is a very chaotic match so like the Women's Tag Qualifiers I decided to just give it a basic description. All potential encounters happen as everyone from each team fought everyone from the other team. In the end Maxxine and Elektra argue and Elektra lays Maxxine out. This takes Otis’ attention for one second and the Los Lotharios take advantage with double chopblocks. Garza forces Otis to his feet and hits a Wingclipper as Humberto hits a Suicide Dive wiping out the rest of the Academy. Garza goes for the pin and Gulak attempts to get involved when he's hit with a Canadian Destroyer by Aeroboy. Gable gets to his feet and attempts to slide in but Escobar grabs his legs as Garza gets the 3! Legado Del Fantasma stood tall together in the ring celebrating.
This match takes 15 minutes (0:25 left of show time)
Chad Gable begins yelling at Otis. Drew Gulak gets in the way and tells Gable that's not how you treat your student. Gable shoves him and Gulak delivers a stiff kick before locking in an arm bar. Otis gets to his feet dejected as Gable yells out “Remember No Matter What”. Otis mutters under his breath “No Matter What” before lifting Drew off Gable and sending him crashing through the barricade. The rest of Alpha Academy meet them on the ramp as LDF watches the chaos in awe.
This segment takes 5 minutes (0:20 left of show time)
Drew McIntyre vs Kevin Owens - Round 2 of Winners Bracket for World Title Tournament
We finally reach the main event. Sami Zayn isn't allowed to show up, nor are the Nemeth Brothers. It's just Drew and KO. The match starts with KO lunging at Drew with a stiff kick before hitting him in the back sending him to the ground. Drew rolls out of the ring but KO follows persisting on the attack as the count starts. KO bangs Drew’s head off the announce table before throwing him into the steel steps. KO follows and Drew manages to get to his feet connecting with a Claymore. Drew quickly ducks in the ring looking for an easy 10 count. Kevin gets in at 9. Drew persists on the attack hitting a Futureshock DDT going for the pin. Kevin kicks out at 1. Drew looks shocked and backs into the corner. Drew begins counting down from 3 and goes for the Claymore. Kevin catches him mid air and hits a Powerbomb on the spot going for a pin. Drew kicks out at 1. KO hits the ground in frustration as Drew stumbles into the corner. KO kicks Drew in the midsection before backing up. He turns around and goes for the cannonball but Drew moves out of the way just in the nick of time! Drew connects with a Claymore going for the pin. KO kicks out at 2. Drew gets in the referee's face and asks him why it wasn't a 3. KO takes advantage pushing Drew into the referee knocking the referee out. KO then hits Drew with the Stunner followed by a Powerbomb. KO goes for the pin but Drew kicks out at 2.. Not that the referee was up anyway. KO climbs the turnbuckle and goes for a frog splash. Drew rolls out of the way and connects with a second claymore as the referee gets to his feet. Drew goes for the pin but KO kicks out at 2 and a half. Drew hits the ground in frustration, confused how it wasnt a 3. Drew lifts KO up for a Futureshock when KO reverses into a stunner. KO then lifts Drew up but his knee gives out and Drew lands in front of him connecting with a Glasgow Kiss followed by a Futureshock DDT going for the pin. KO kicks out at 2 and 3/4 and Drew goes absolutely crazy dropping back into the corner and connecting with another Claymore. Drew isn't done as he drops into the corner a second time hitting yet another Claymore. Drew doesn't care as he drops into the corner for a third time and begins counting down from 3. KO gets to his feet and hits a pop up powerbomb out of nowhere going for the pin. 2 masked men jump the barricade with “3MB” shirts on and pull the referee out of the ring. KO gets the 3 before he realizes the referee is gone. The 2 men remove their masks and climb onto the apron on both sides, thus revealing themselves to be Heath Slater and Jinder Mahal! The crowd pops as Drew’s buddies enter the ring and go after KO. At first KO does alright but then the Numbers Game catches up to him when Drew gets involved. Drew drops into the corner and begins counting down from 3 as Jinder and Heath force the referee up and toss him into the ring. Drew connects with the Claymore for a 6th time in this match going for the pin. This time Kevin cannot answer the 3 count! Jinder and Heath join Drew in the ring as 3MB celebrate together!
This match takes 20 minutes (Show Finish)

I just grinded up to 6.2k beh score (and in the meantime gained like 1k mmr). Now i can chat again. This is a problem. Removing the hotkey for chat is just 2 clicks and it's back there.
I would like to have an option to ban myself from chatting for the current game. Or for the next x games. When i realise im about to get mad, i would activate it instantly.
Offcourse, most of normal day Dota players can't relate to it. I understand this.
But hey, us low beh score players are also just humans, with flaws, obviously. Most of us are not proud of it, i would assume. It's controll loss. The lvl of madness can get insane. I know for certain many players like me would welcome this feature and make use of it. It is indicative that the quality of games becomes way worse on the beh. score treshhold above the chatban (6k).
I want to elaborate somewhat further why a strictly (self)imposed chatban is something entirely different than "just not using chat":
When you have the option of using chat, you are aware of that. When things go wrong in the game, and the madness starts to increase, the urge of releasing the pressure by "venting" about how bad a teammate just did, increases to a point where you literally can't controll it any more, until you rage type something. The entire process, starting from the simple state of being aware of the option to use chat as a vent, lets you experience bad things in the game entirely different. When a chat ban is imposed, it is WAY more easy to just keep focussing on the game and your own game related actions, since there simply is no way to chat. Offcourse, there are other ways to vent, which is griefing. But the threshhold to actual griefing is a lot higher than just venting in chat.
Give us ways to prevent us from the selfharm. I see no downside to this.
[I would actually even go further and ask for self imposed timed play bans. Or self imposed daily game limits. But i realise this proposition, which i actually already asked for 10 years ago in the Dota Devs forum, will probably be rejected, since it might "hurt business" in some way. I actually think this argument is crap, and anything that helps create a less toxic envoirenment in this game improves business in the long run. Installing external controll mechanics to moderate humans weaknesses obviously does help tackle the issue of overall toxicity. I mean, you literally have a system for that already (Overwatch, Beh score, etc.). How could it be a bad idea to also give that controll to the affected players themselves?]

So I got this Ticket for Sleep Token in Boston for a friend, as a backup in case they couldn't get their hands on one. They got lucky through Ticketmaster a few weeks ago when a seat opened up. So I figured I'd just resell the StubHub ticket. At first, there was no "sell this ticket" option on my order. And their chat support told me to List it as a regular listing, sent me some links and some forms and said they'd do some background work on their end to make it work? Idk. Anyway, it got rejected.
NOW....there IS a link on my order page that says "can't make it? sell your ticket" that wasn't there before. When I click it there is a warning that says "the venue requires the seller to accompany the buyer to the venue". I called StubHub, they said since I listed the ticket once, I am now considered the original buyer, and yes the venue has that restriction in place so I'm screwed unless I can meet the person there. Which I absolutely cannot.
Anybody have any idea how I can get rid of this ticket? It will be completely wasted for a very popular show.

For anyone who has a Prime Chase Visa CC for the 5% cashback on Amazon orders, you probably have noticed by now that recently Amazon made a teeny tiny change where your cashback rewards points aren't automatically applied to orders like they used to be. You have to manually check a box on the checkout page to use them.
This has gotten me too many times now and it's really leaving a sour taste in my mouth. I'm sure I'm not alone. I know this may seem like an "individual-oriented" complaint, but it's an obvious anti-consumer tactic that affects at least 21 million people according to Forbes in 2017.
This especially messes up "buy now" orders because it easily goes unnoticed. You used to be able to hit buy now and your points would be automatically used - easy and convenient as it should be. But now you have to tap the payment method link, wait for that to load (because it takes a couple seconds for some reason...), then an extra tiny little speed bump if you're on mobile because they conveniently make the slide-up dialog just one line too short to hide only the "more payment options" link even though the box takes up no more than half of any phone screen so you have to scroll or you might not even realize it's there, and then clicking that has to redirect you to a separate checkout page where you can check a box or flip a switch to apply your points, completely defeating the purpose of the buy now button being a one-tap convenience. One-tap turns into six taps over three pages with a lot of slow loading times between each step.
Can anyone give me one reason why anyone would not want to use their "free" cashback points instead of actual cash? You could make the argument that a company didn't think to make it the default when launching the system, but it was already the default, so this is obviously a change intended to make people spend money instead of points.
And yes, you can just cancel your order and redo it and apply the points, but that is a frustrating thing to have to do when this used to just automatically work the way any customer would want it to.
It's also tricky and uncertain with some orders like the one I just placed for an Amazon Warehouse Deal, where there's only one in stock. Forgot about this BS and my mind went on autopilot through the checkout and only realized my points were available and unapplied right as I hit the place order button. Now I'm not gonna go through the hassle or risk it because in the past I've canceled orders for used listings or warehouse deals and seen the specific one not return to being available/in stock after or at least not immediately.
Without a doubt, Amazon knows all of these little things add up to more money being sent to their pockets. Many people surely will just concede, "I'll use the points lateeventually because I buy so much stuff on Amazon anyway".... and I'm sure I don't need to further explain why this benefits Amazon and not the customers.
How can Amazon be called out to change this back? They really ought to.

So basically im a little depressed and just came here to mainly vent. I (26m) have been single for probably 7 years, main reasons probably being there just isnt anything to interesting about me and anytime time i match with anyone they ghost me within 2 days. Im not really very good at social interaction at all and dont do any socialising in my spare time. Ive probably spent 90% of my life being a pretty insecure guy and because of that I guess i just locked myself away for most of it. Its gotten to the point now where i dont think i can actually connect with anyone, and if im being true to myself i never really have. I have 0 motivation to do anything about it because i just think whats the fucking point. Im too nice to people to a fault & im probably seen as quite boring - well i guess i am boring. It doesnt just stop at dating, either, I dont really make friends with people. The only thing I focus on is doing my job, coming home, then doing a whole lot of nothing. I cant explain this overwhelming feeling i have to anyone, but its kinda like I just feel like im the only person on thiis planet like me and i just wont ever connect with another person. Im actually just sick of my life to be fair and i dont know what to do about it. Im sure theres some of you probably going to say "theres someone out there for everyone" or something along those lines, but honestly I am fucking useless i cant talk to people, ii have no interest in anything, and my life is pretty miserable. How the fuck am i suppose to sell myself to someone.
Anyways, wasnt really looking for advice, just looking to vent. And to anyone that feels anything similar to this, mostly men, i share your pain. Dont worry.

Yesterday I was drinking at the park alone. I don’t have any friends(because of my drinking) and drinking alone is usually my mode of fun- I guess this time I just decided to “enjoy the weather” too.
I eventually got to talking to a vendor there. He eventually sat down and we got chatting casually. I wasn’t into him or anything, all friendly. He eventually says he’s going to make a few more rounds at the park and leaves me. No hard feelings - go make your money dude. Then I hear two gay guys behind me saying how “awww look her little boyfriend left” “I guarantee you she’s NOT getting posted anywhere” and some other comments.
It made me feel so hyper visible and uncomfortable I was just frozen as these random people hurled whatever weird thoughts they had about me. The drunkenness amplified these feelings and I felt tears welling in my eyes as I stared into space. I feel so weirded out as it’s a place I looked for a lot of comfort(maybe the wrong kind of comfort) I’m pretty overweight(as a consequence of my drinking) so I get I can be an easy target, but I’m honestly just so uncomfortable by the whole situation, and I know it shouldn’t affect me but it just hurts a lot knowing how misogynistic people can be even if they are queer too. They see it as fun as a “read” or “drag” but no my dude you’re just bullying a stranger. Afterwards, I was so shaken up and sad I went to go pick up more alcohol. I decided it against it though because I fast forwarded the tape and KNEW I would call out of work the next day and just have the boxes(wine) staring at me in my room right now.
I’m pretty depressed and I feel like I can’t even exist in the world without people side eyeing me or straight up making fun of me. Why wouldn’t I be a reclusive, alcoholic ? I hate this shit I wish people saw me beyond silhouette and I wish didn’t have to turn to alcohol so often

Dear FIAT USA:
Last year I purchased a used 2014 FIAT 500L with less than 60,000 miles on it. In the year I’ve owned it, I’ve experienced the following failures that have needed repair:
· Turbo failure
· Headliner sag / adhesive failure
· Exterior paint clear-coat failure
· Neutral safety switch Failure
· Rear hatch latch failure
· Alarm system programming failure
· Tire pressure monitoring system module failure
· Multi-air brick failure
· Driver sun visor failure (stalk became brittle, snapped)
· Passenger sun visor tension failure
· Rear license plate light assembly failure
· Coolant system component failure
The last of the latter listed failures (I’m sitting here thinking there HAS TO BE at least one other thing I’ve missed on that long distinguished list) required radiator replacement as well as upper and lower radiator hose replacement. Unfortunately, the upper radiator hose, part number 68261751AA, is on indefinite backorder as it has been for months. My car has likewise been undriveable for months as it requires said part to be operational again.
It’s one thing to make vehicles that are of low-quality, such low quality that the cost of repairing this vehicle far exceeds the (roughly) $10,000 I paid for it in only a year’s time. But, it’s another thing to manufacture vehicles…of any quality standard…but particularly those of FIAT standards where it’s well-known that replacement parts WILL BE NEEDED and OFTEN…..and NOT STOCK REPLACEMENT PARTS SUCH THAT DEALERSHRIPS MAY AVAIL THEMSELVES TO SAID PARTS WHEN THEY ARE NEEDED.
Are you surprised you sold a total of 602 new FIAT vehicles in the United States during the entirety of 2023? That’s a far cry from the 46, 999 units you sold in 2012. People thought back in 2012 they could trust FIAT again; surely they were not the same build quality as they were in the 1980s when you withdrew from the United States entirely, right? But, apparently, as stupid as the average consumer is, even they understood how bad FIAT quality still was and it showed by 2017 when sales began dropping to a tune of 26,492 units. Source: https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/fiat-us-sales-figures/
When I talk to FIAT dealers, few and far between as they are in the United States, I see no new cars being offered. The sales reps say they are by special order only because the demand isn’t there. The truth of the matter is that not only consumers don’t want them but the mechanics at FIAT dealerships cringe whenever anyone brings a FIAT in for service and repair because even the factory authorized dealers have a hard time figuring out what’s wrong with these things. Places like Jiffy Lube won’t even touch a FIAT, not even for a simple oil change! Some extended warranty companies won’t even sell a policy covering these vehicles; is it a wonder why?
I had to go out and buy a second car while still continuing to may payments on this 2014 FIAT 500L, thus mandating I make two car payments in lieu of one that I can barely afford (thus why I bought the car in the first place, as valuation on used FIATs are understandably depressed as compared to other makes here) just so the 500L can sit for God knows how long in the dealer’s satellite lot and rot away under a tree while it futility awaits FIAT to ship a radiator hose. You’d think one would be able to use a generic radiator hose but no: that hose was made to be specific for that car such that I cannot even substitute a generic because of a fitting specific to the model! You have to be kidding me!
You all should be ashamed of yourselves, first of all. Second of all, I hope you pull out of the United States market altogether. Why stay here in the States if you are not wanting to put forward effort in stocking even the simplest of parts for the cars you do offer here? Even the parts that were available in the long list of those that failed that I previously enumerated only numbered less than a handful in availability, such as there having been one sole neutral safety switch that the dealer was able to see available in national inventory when that failed. As the dealership’s service manager put it: “It’s almost like they want these things off of the road”. I don’t think you all want these things off the road. In fact, I don’t think the cars you sell to U.S motorists even cross your mind after they drive off of the sales floor. FIAT simply does not care about FIAT owners and the cars they are attempting to maintain!