Below you will find a weekly reminder of our Rules and partial FAQ. It's definitely a long read, but it's worth your time, especially if you are new to the community, or dropping by as a result of a link you found elsewhere. We periodically revise our rules, this weekly notice will help keep you informed of any changes made.
NOTE: These rules are guidelines. Some moderation discretion is to be expected.

Community Rules

1. Kindness Matters

Advise, don't criticize.

• Post with empathy, thoughtfulness, and constructive commentary rather than judgment. Don't be an asshole.
• Name-calling, slurs (including gender or race based slurs), and insults towards other community members will not be tolerated. Do not attack others for their personally held values, custody situation, marital status, physical distance from stepkids, or economic status; or on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, age, religion, or ethnicity.
• No name-calling toward children, including the above-mentioned insults or the term "skids", or terms such as "mini-wife" or "mini-husband."
• Comments advocating spanking or any mention of wanting to harm children are not allowed.
• This is a support sub, not a judgement sub, assholes are not tolerated. Comments with terms used in other subs to pass judgement on assholes will be removed.

2. No Drama

This is a support sub.

• Bickering, nitpicking, and thread derailment will not be tolerated and will be subject to removal at moderator discretion.
• Do not repeatedly badger a poster demanding answers, or refuse to acknowledge an answer that's already been given.
• Do not use sensitive issues from past posts (either from this sub or other subs) to attack another user, as we are all discussing vulnerable topics.
• Crossposting anything from /stepparents to any other subreddit might result in a ban and may result in the original thread being locked. Brigading our sub will result in an immediate ban.

3. Report, Don’t Rant

No backseat modding.

• If you see someone breaking the rules, report the post or comment to the mods rather than engaging them in an argument. Failure to do so may be subject to comment removal at moderator discretion.
• No meta posts complaining about rude comments, DMs, or general sub issues.
• If you think someone is a troll or previously banned user, either use the report function or message the mods to direct their attention to the issue.

4. No Naming & Shaming

No userpings or links.

• Tagging/pinging users or other subreddits in an attempt to bully, harass, or complain will not be tolerated. Do not tag other subs, ever.
• If you want to complain about another subreddit being hostile to stepparents, do not name the subreddit. "Other parenting/advice/judgement subs" will suffice.

5. No Platitudes

Nobody knew what they were getting into.

• Comments like "You knew what you were getting into", "Love them, love their kids!", "They're a package deal!" and "You have to love them like your own!" will be removed.
• Comments suggesting that OP is not cut out for stepparenting will be removed at moderator discretion.
• Comments like "This is just a part of parenting, deal with it!" will be removed at moderator discretion.

6. No Trolling

We have zero tolerance for trolls.

• This is a support sub. Our subscribers do not have the time, nor inclination, to provide support to internet trolls. Posts that are suspected to be trolling attempts will be immediately removed, and the poster banned.
• Concern trolling, devil's advocating, gish-galloping, sealioning, and general asshattery are subject to immediate removal and banning without warning or notice.
• Any attempt to circumvent the ban by creating a new username will be reported to reddit admins and possibly result in account suspension.

7. No Personally Identifiable Information

Use discretion when posting.

• We highly recommend using a separate account for support subs to help prevent being doxxed. Do not post any information that may allow others to figure out your identity.
• Do not post photos of children, or any other photo that could be used to identify you or another user on the sub.
• Any image that contains a name or other identifying information should have the name or identifying information blurred out. This includes drawings, notes, and screenshots.
• Do not link to social media or any articles/blogs where you or another user on the sub is mentioned by name.

8. No More than 2 Posts per 24 hours

Use the daily threads.

• We are not a huge sub, but we are no longer a small sub. If you have multiple grievances to air, use the daily discussion threads instead of multiple posts.

9. Follow Reddiquette

Remember the human.

• Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life.
• Read it in full here.
• Downvoting is reserved for comments that don’t contribute, and shouldn't be used to indicate disagreement.
• If you believe someone is in violation of the subreddit rules, please either use the report function or message the mods to direct their attention to the issue.
• Suspected brigading will be reported to reddit admins.

10. No Porn, Spam, Blogs, or Research Studies/Surveys Without Mod Approval

Just don't.

• This is a SFW subreddit. Posting pornography will result in immediate post removal and permanent ban.
• Advertising on the subreddit (outside of Reddit's own advertising) is not allowed.
• No personal blog posts are allowed without express moderator permission.
• No advertising without prior mod approval.
• No asking for money/posting fundraisers/etc.
• For links to parenting research studies or surveys, please message the mods for permission before posting.

11. Disputes in Modmail Only

Don't argue with the mods on the sub.

• Any issues specifically related to how a mod is moderating should be addressed to the full moderating team via mod mail. This ensures that all mods are aware of any concerns and prevents disintegration of the topic thread at hand.
• This means to do not message or send chat requests to individual mods. All discussion and complaints about mod actions need to be done in mod mail ONLY. Failure to follow this rule can result in an immediate permanent ban.
• Comments in threads asking about mod decisions are subject to removal without notice.

12. Moderator Actions

We aren't kidding.

• Users are expected to know the rules before posting. If you are warned or banned for violating the rules, ignorance is not an excuse.
• Moderators will remove posts and comments and/or lock threads in accordance with the rules above. Typically this happens when threads have gone off-topic in a way that is not productive for the OP, or comments overall have become contentious or disrespectful.
• If a poster continues to argue or to willfully violate these rules, temporary and permanent ban procedures will be followed. Any attempts to avoid or bypass temporary bans will result in a permanent ban. User bans will not be discussed in the sub. Questions posted about user bans are subject to removal and the poster subject to warning/ban procedures. The mod team will not discuss a specific user ban with anyone other than the user involved.
• New accounts are subject to manual approval until they are no longer deemed "new" by the mod team. This helps to weed out trolls and ban evaders.
• We rely on Automoderator to scan for specific words and phrases that are not welcome here and notify the mod team to review the comment or post. This includes slurs of any type and platitudes such as "Love them as your own!"
• The mod team uses a combination of blacklisting and banning when dealing with trolls.
• We employ the use of a bot that automatically bans anyone who comments in subs that have historically harassed our users. If you are picked up by the bot for telling trolls to get fucked, reach out via mod mail and we'll get you sorted out.
• The rules above as well as ban procedures are considered guidelines only; some deviation may be necessary on a case by case basis and/or at the mod team's discretion.

13. Ban Procedure

These actions are at moderator discretion.

• Pornography will result in an automatic permanent ban.
• Extremely egregious content will result in an immediate permanent ban.
• You may receive a 7 or 30 day temporary ban for first and second rule violations, depending upon severity.
• Continued rule violations will result in a permanent ban.
• Willful attempts to avoid or bypass temporary bans will result in a permanent ban.
• We recognize the reddit site-wide rules of using alt names to get around bans and will ban those as well as report them to reddit admins.

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FAQ - About the Rules

What does Kindness Matters mean?

• Shortest version? Don't be an asshole. People come here for support and advice, they do not come here to be yelled at or told they are the reason everything is going sideways. There are ways to point out that someone may want to do some reflection on their own actions and reactions without being an asshole about it.
• The purpose of this subreddit is to provide support and a sense of belonging for struggling stepparents. We aren't here to pass judgement, but rather to offer support, empathy, and constructive commentary. That does not include "hard truths" or "tough love." Stepparents get enough of that in every other subreddit, we're not passing it out here. Be respectful.
• Remember, most people aren't going to come to a sub like this when everything is going great and everyone is getting along. People are coming here when they are down, when they are feeling defeated and stretched to the limit. Kicking someone when they are down is shitty behavior and we don't tolerate it.

What about being kind to the kids?

• "Won't somebody think of the children?" Pearl clutching isn't needed here. If you read the Kindness Matters rule closely, you will see that there is a clause in there about name calling children. We don't allow it. We also don't allow people rolling in telling OP that they feel sorry for their stepkids because OP is feeling overwhelmed and overloaded.
• If anyone is advocating slapping, spanking, or any other form of violence, report the comment immediately. We do not advocate violence towards children of any sort. The mod team does not advocate any sort of physical punishment at any time.
• Venting about behaviors is not the same as insulting the kids. However, if you see a post or comment where kids are being name called or dragged to the point of no return, use the report button. We try to catch the posts and remove them before they hit the sub, but we cannot see every comment without your help. Use the report button to bring problematic comments to our attention. Don't engage in a war of words on our subreddit.

Why is this sub such an echo chamber?

• Not allowing contributors to pile on and tell OP that they are a terrible human being who should never be around children does not equate to being an echo chamber. Many contributors here will offer OP suggestions to help them work through their resentments and frustrations, and the most egregious situations are called out. We simply ask that it be called out with respect.
• If you feel that a post is simply too much for you to handle without following the rules, move on to another post.
• If you believe that a post itself is crossing the rules report it. If the mod team has approved the post, it is because the mod team believes that the OP needs help from the community or needs a moment to vent and move on from their vent. That does not give you license to pile on disrespectfully. Unless it is proven that OP is a bot, assume that OP is a human being with real thoughts and feelings and has posted from a place of vulnerability.

Why can't I tell OP that they are an asshole?

• Because this isn't a judgement sub. We aren't AITA, we don't want to be AITA.
• Comments with terms like YTA, NTA, ESH, NAH will be removed.
• Don't start your posts with INFO either. We generally recognize that as a fishing attempt for more information to pass judgement on OP, and again, we are not a judgment sub.

But OP asked if they were an asshole?!

• Their post somehow got past our automoderator. Just use the report button. We will address it with OP.
• If you've asked if you are an asshole, a-hole, a*hole, a**hole, whatever, don't be surprised if your post is removed without warning. This isn't a judgment sub. If you want judgment, you know where to go.

What is a gendered slur?

• While it seems that everyone understands what racist slurs are, people struggle understanding the concept of gendered slurs. Generally speaking, we are talking about derogatory nouns or verbs that are used to negatively describe people or situations based on gendered terms.
• We've gone back and forth on this a few times, and the truth is, we get it, it's your safe space and you want to be able to vent about BM/BD how you want to vent about them, without us telling you how to vent about them. Fair enough. Vent away. What we are going to stick to here how people are referring to other users and to stepchildren.
• Examples that are not allowed:
  • "My SD is such a little bitch."
  • "She dresses/acts like a slut."
  • "My SS acts like a pussy."
  • "My SS is such a beta male."
  • "You are all fucking whores."
  • "Any dude who is raising some sluts kids is a cuck!"
  • "Little Lord Fauntleroy over here thinking he runs the house!"
  • "You're just the bangnanny, get used to it."
• Don't call users here names, don't call stepchildren names.
• Masking the term with asterisks or other neat little tricks might get you around the bot, but if we see it, we're removing it and quite possibly giving you a time out. The intended word is still there and you deliberately tried to skate the rule.
• As there is not enough space to list every term that is offensive and does not belong, nor every situation in which term or phrase may be allowable in context, this rule is enforced based on moderator discretion.

Seriously? You are the language police now?

• We're here to talk about stepparenting. And we would like for that to happen in a respectful way. Attacking each other doesn't help. Belittling stepchildren draws in trolls who don't understand your frustration, all they see is an evil stepmonster talking shit on the internet about a poor, innocent baby. Yes, even if that "poor, innocent baby" just robbed you blind and set fire to the house on their way out the door. That's just how it goes.
• We are aware that this is a relatively new rule and a lot of older posts and comments contain a lot of problematic language, including some from mods themselves. We are growing and evolving, and rules change as the sub grows and evolves.

What does No Drama really mean?

• Pretty much what it says, do not bring drama from other subs into this sub. Do not engage in vote brigades. Do not try to incite other subscribers to riot in a different sub. Don't follow posters into this sub from other subs to continue to harass them. Do not badger someone or derail threads. Do not harass community members because you don't agree with them. There's enough drama in the daily lives of subscribers, more isn't needed.

What is thread derailment?

• When a comment chain has devolved to the point where all you are doing is arguing back and forth with someone about the same thing over and over again, you have derailed the thread. Also known as bickering. It's what children do. We assume if people are in a stepparent role they are adults. We expect you to act like it.
• If you aren't a stepparent, or in a stepparenting role, consider that perhaps this subreddit isn't for you. If you want to participate, do so with respect. Thread derailment, arguing, bickering, and nitpicking are not allowed.

But what if they didn't answer my question?

• No one has to answer your questions. This is a support sub, not an inquisition. Jumping on a bandwagon with "OP is evading the question" in a 20 comment long chain is the epitome of thread derailment. You'll find more information about trolling below and how this might be considered such.

Why am I being silenced? I'm just asking for a back and forth!

• Thread derailment, badgering, and nitpicking are considered harassment. Continued harassment of either community members or mods will get you banned.

Why can't I look at someone's post history and comment about it?

• No mod in the history of this sub has ever once said post histories are forbidden. What we do frown upon is using someone's post history to attack, belittle, or otherwise harass someone.
• Example Post: "My stepkid's mom really hates me. How can I make this better?"
  • Okay: "Based on the timeline and your post history, it looks like this may have started as an affair. Unfortunately there's going to be outstanding issues for a long time due to that. Try focusing on yourself and how you can move forward without worrying about how someone else feels about you."
  • Not Okay: "Holy shit! You were the OW! What the hell do you expect, homewrecker?!"
• Example Post: "I am completely overloaded and feeling very down about myself."
  • Okay: "In your post history you mentioned that your spouse wasn't really helping around the house. Has that changed at all?"
  • Not Okay: "LOL, you already got the answers you need in your post on relationships. You are stupid for sticking with your lazy spouse."

Why can't we crosspost stuff to other subs?

• We can't stop you from doing so. The problem isn't that something has been crossposted, it's when the community that it's been crossposted to feels the need to come over here and harass OP. When we see that happening, we lock the post and start passing out bans. If you did the crossposting, you'll be banned. If you participated in the brigading, you'll be banned.

What if it's my own post?

• Again, we can't stop you from doing so. We prefer that you don't technically crosspost, but rather just copy and paste your post. Why? Because inevitably the above will happen. Redditors from other subs will follow you back to /stepparents and start attacking users here. It just happens.

What is "brigading"?

• Reddit defines vote manipulation and brigading as follows:
• Using multiple accounts, voting services, or any other software to increase or decrease vote scores.
• Asking people to vote up or down certain posts, either on Reddit itself or through social networks, messaging, etc. for personal gain.
• Forming or joining a group that votes together, either on a specific post, a user's posts, posts from a domain, etc.
• We, along with pretty much every other subreddit that has ever had to deal with this nonsense, further define brigading as this: You saw a post on another sub that linked to our sub either via a link in a comment or a crosspost. It was basically saying something along the lines of "OMG, check out these assholes over on /stepparents! They literally hate all their stepkids!" And then you and your friends come over and start hammering on OP and telling OP how much they suck. Congrats, you have just participated in a brigade.

What is this whole Report, Don't Rant thing about?

• If you see a post or comment that breaks the rules, instead of engaging, report it. When you report it, it sends notification to the mod team. We will act on it where appropriate. Engaging with bad faith users may result in your comments being removed. If you repeatedly do so, you may end up being banned.

What if I see an obvious troll?

• Report it.

What if they are being really mean in comments?

• Report it.

What if they are harassing me in private messages?

• Step 1: Report them to admins. You can report harassment to reddit by using this link or send a DM to reddit admins. Include the link to the DM, admins can see your inbox and providing a direct link is helpful for them to weed out bad actors.
• Step 2: Block the person so they cannot directly contact you again.
• Step 3: Send us a mod mail and let the mod team know. Tell us who they are and what they said, send us a screenshot if you can - admins can see your DMs, mods can't. We'll take action where necessary by banning from the sub if they aren't already banned.

What do you mean by No Naming & Shaming?

• Just as we prefer to not be linked to or crossposted from, we do not allow linking to or calling out other subs by name. If you see something you want to share, say it's a hot post that has hit the front page and a stepparent is being absolutely flayed, just refer to it as "that hot post that hit the front page." If you want to complain about other places in general, "other parenting/advice/judgement subs" will suffice. Absolutely under no circumstances should you link to anywhere else.

I can't link to other subs?

• Do not directly link to another sub. (e.g.: "/insertsubnamehere is ridiculously hostile to stepparents!")
• Do not name other subs. (e.g.: "I won't link to it directly, but insertsubnamehere is ridiculously hostile to stepparents!")
• Do not abbreviate other subs. (e.g.: "I know that ISNH is ridiculously hostile to stepparents!")

I can't ping other users?

• Do not summon another user with a username ping/tag. (e.g.: "insertusernamehere was being an asshole.")
• If you are agreeing with someone, it is okay to link to them. (e.g.: "I agree with insertusernamehere, you need to take a couple of steps back and reflect on this.")

What does No Platitudes mean?

• Sanctimonious, overused clichés that grossly oversimplify the stepparenting experience are neither wanted nor allowed here. We have all heard it a thousand times before, we don't need to hear it again. It's not nearly as insightful and wise as some would like to think.

Why don't you people understand it's a package deal?

• Any comment that suggests that OP should have known what they were getting involved with, or that they needed to understand that the kids were part of some package they needed to accept before signing up for marriage is subject to immediate removal.
• This is one of the most insensitive things you can say to a stepparent. Most stepparents were aware of the children, but they were probably not aware of all of the family dynamics.

Why can't you just love them like they are your own?

• Demanding that a stranger you do not know love children that are not biologically theirs as if they were theirs can be incredibly damaging to someone who is already in a vulnerable situation. Any comment that falls along these lines will be removed.

What do you mean by No Trolling? I was just...

• No means no. No trolling. No pretending to be a stepparent and then whipping out the Greatest Hits Bingo Card of The Worst Stepparent in the History of Stepparents. We see you. We've seen you a thousand times.

What does "concern trolling", "gish-galloping", and "sealioning" have to do with stepparenting? This isn't a debate sub, why are you using debate terms?

• That's absolutely right, this isn't a debate sub. And yet, here we are, day after day, having to defend ourselves against this sort of thing. So, enough. No more. Usage of any of these things will get you banned.

What is "Concern Trolling?"

• A concern troll is someone who disingenuously visits sites of an opposing ideology to disrupt conversation by offering unwanted advice on how to solve problems which do not really exist.
  • Example Post: OP expresses concern that she will feel, and possibly act, differently towards her stepchildren after her husband decides that no, he doesn't want anymore children after all.
  • Example Concern Troll pulled from actual mod mail after their comment was removed: "Possible child abuse claims need to be sorted out well before whatever empathy you believe the OP was looking for."

What is a "Devil's Advocate"?

• "I'm just playing devil's advocate here, but have you considered that maybe BM is just really tired and needs a break, too?" BM has dozens of different mom based subs alone on reddit she can complain on, this sub is for stepparents. The stepparent doesn't need to consider that maybe BM is just really tired and needs a break.

"Gish-galloping?" What does that even mean?

• The Gish Gallop is the fallacious debate tactic of drowning your opponent in a flood of individually-weak arguments in order to prevent rebuttal of the whole argument collection without great effort. The Gish Gallop is a conveyor belt-fed version of the on the spot fallacy, as it's unreasonable for anyone to have a well-composed answer immediately available to every argument present in the Gallop.

And "sealioning?" What's that?

• Sealioning involves jumping into a conversation with endless polite, reasonable questions and demands for answers, usually of entry-level topics far below the actual conversation (e.g. "please prove sexism exists"). This tactic differs little from harassment; instead of discussion, the point is to derail discussion, receive criticism (for their ignorance) so as to look like a victim, or to make someone feel overwhelmed and quit talking.

Who gets to define what is considered asshattery?

• The mod team, of course! If we feel that comments are out of line, are trolling, are leading up to a fight or "just asking questions", we are going to remove them and most likely ban the offender.

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FAQ - Sub Questions

Posting Guidelines for Stepparents

• Body text is required, we suggest you use line breaks between paragraphs as a wall of text is difficult to read. Posts that have only a title are likely to be removed. Instead of using names (even fictitious ones), try to use the sub acronyms. It helps our users to follow along if you use the acronyms and not names.
• Assign a post flair that accurately describes what your post is about and what you are seeking. If you are posting an update from a previous post, include a link to that post.
• Flairs are applied to posts to determine what a person is looking for. When submitting a new post, you should choose a flair that specifies if you are looking for advice, support, etc. The following link flair is available and is color coded with side bar links so that you can search by flair:
  • Advice - For when you are specifically asking for advice or help.
  • Announcement - Mod Use Only, for subreddit announcements.
  • Daily (Formerly TTP) - Mod Use Only, for our daily discussion threads.
  • Discussion - A little advice, a little "How does your family handle this?"
  • JustBMThings - Pretty sure this is self explanatory!
  • Legal - Asking for legal advice? Tag it with this!
  • Miscellany - Just a sort of off topic thing? Use this tag.
  • Resource - Sharing a good resource or asking for one? This is the tag you need!
  • Support - For those days when you want nothing but a good old fashioned cry and some community love.
  • Update - Updating us on something that you posted about previously? Use this one!
  • Vent - We all need to vent sometimes. Respect the tag as a vent. This isn't how OP talks all day every day.
  • Win! - Celebrate those wins with us with this tag!
  • Megathread - Mod Use Only, for large mega threads (typically around major calendar events.)

Posting Guidelines for Bioparents

• Stepparents is a support community for stepparents, by stepparents. As bioparents, you may want to have more insight into how the stepparent in your life feels or thinks. You may have questions on how to ease the transition for your partner. However, please keep in mind that this community was not created for you. It was created for your partner or your ex's partner. If you are seeking support on how to deal with a stepparent, there are other subs more suited for your situation and your post is subject to removal.
• There are some posts from bioparents we will accept:
  • Seeking advice on how to support your partner as they navigate stepparenting
  • Seeking resources to help you better support your partner
  • Seeking resources for your partner
• There are some posts from bioparents we will not accept:
  • Complaints about how the stepparent is too involved in your kids lives
  • Vents about how the stepparent is not involved enough in your kids lives
  • "Cautionary tales" advising stepparents to back off
  • Seeking advice on how to tell the stepparent to back off
  • The Do's and Dont's of Stepparenting
  • How your kid's stepmom is literally The Worst
• Comments from bioparents that are helpful and supportive are welcome and appreciated. Comments from bioparents that are not helpful or supportive are not welcome and subject to removal. There are several other subs that may meet the needs of bioparents better than we can. We recommend /coparenting, /parenting, /parents, /blendedfamilies, and /singleparents as starting points.

Guidelines for Stepkids

• At this time, we do not generally accept posts from stepkids. Comments from stepkids that are helpful and supportive are welcome and appreciated. Comments from stepkids that are not helpful or supportive are not welcome and subject to removal. If you are a stepkid seeking support, we highly recommend /stepkids. It is a very supportive community specifically for stepkids. We also recommend /blendedfamilies as another potential group for support.

What the heck are all these acronyms? I'm confused!

• Check out the Common Acronyms wiki page. We try to keep this updated as new terms are introduced to the sub.

Why aren't my posts or comments showing up?

• New posters and accounts go through a waiting period before their posts will show in the sub and the comments on posts automatically. During the new account approval period the mod team will check posts to be sure you aren't attempting to circumvent a ban with a shiny new account. Please be patient while the timer runs down on your "new" status and the mod team approves your posts and responses.

Why was my comment removed?

• Comments are removed when they do not follow the rules of the sub. These rules are published in several places for your reading pleasure.
• Comments are removed at moderator discretion. In some cases your comment may be removed while another remains up. If you find this to be the case, and you believe the comment to be violating the rules, instead of arguing with mods or demanding they remove the additional comments, just report it.

This comment/post is really offensive! Why is it still up?

• All moderators are volunteers and have busy real lives. Sometimes things get past us. The best thing you can do is report anything you find offensive or inflammatory. It's the quickest and most reliable way of alerting us to an issue.

I've received a hurtful/unwanted PM from someone about my recent post. What should I do?

• If you receive an unwanted/hurtful PM from a name you don't recognize, please report it to Reddit Admins using our handy pre-populated form. Be sure to include the permalink to the message. We've been dealing with a few unhappy folks who like to attack stepparents, and reporting it to the admins is the only way to make it stop.

What are the general moderator guidelines?

• Users are expected to know the rules before posting. If you are warned or banned for violating the rules, ignorance is not an excuse.
• Moderators will remove posts and comments and/or lock threads in accordance with the rules above. Typically this happens when threads have gone off-topic in a way that is not productive for the OP, or comments overall have become contentious or disrespectful.
• If a poster continues to argue or to willfully violate these rules, temporary and permanent ban procedures will be followed. Any attempts to avoid or bypass temporary bans will result in a permanent ban. User bans will not be discussed in the sub. Questions posted about user bans are subject to removal and the poster subject to warning/ban procedures. The mod team will not discuss a specific user ban with anyone other than the user involved.
• New accounts are subject to manual approval until they are no longer deemed "new" by the mod team. This helps to weed out trolls and ban evaders.
• We rely on Automoderator to scan for specific words and phrases that are not welcome here and notify the mod team to review the comment or post. This includes slurs of any type and platitudes such as "Love them as your own!"
• The mod team uses a combination of blacklisting and banning when dealing with trolls.
• We employ the use of a bot that automatically bans anyone who comments in subs that have historically harassed our users. If you are picked up by the bot for telling trolls to get fucked, reach out via mod mail and we'll get you sorted out.
• The rules above as well as ban procedures are considered guidelines only; some deviation may be necessary on a case by case basis and/or at the mod team's discretion.

I've been wrongly banned/Why can't I comment here?

• Due to an influx of harassment from users with specific user histories, we have employed a user history ban bot as described above. If you think this has affected you and wish to appeal, please message the mods.

Why was I banned without warning?

• There are numerous reasons that the mod team might opt to move perm banning without warning. Message the moderators if you have specific questions.

Hi,
I've got a situation that I've struggling to understand how to deal with and Skatteverket's website doesn't really help me unfortunately.
I'm a Brit that owns 10% of a company in the UK. The company was set up in late 2020 and when I lived in the UK I was an employ of it and am one of the founders. For context, there is another foundeemployee in the UK but the remaining 80% of the company is owned by a Swedish company.
I then moved to Sweden in the middle of 2022 and now formally work for the parent company, but my responsibilities are the same with respect to the UK company and I still own 10% of the shares.
This year, the parent company wants to buy out myself and the other founder and we have negotiated a price for this.
So my question is "what am I liable for in terms of capital gains tax?" Things that I've read suggest that I could be liable for capital gains on any overseas income earned whilst I have been resident in Sweden, however much/most of the growth of the company took place before I moved out here. The rules seem to only apply for assets bought/sold oversees whilst I've been in Sweden and not what I already owned before I moved into the country.
Is it possible that no tax is due in Sweden at all but I need to declare it under UK rules? I'm totally out of the UK system now but I guess that could change. Indeed that would be preferable as reading the HMRC rules it sounds like the deduction would only be 10% as I'm one of the founders, whereas in Sweden it might be 30%!!
Or maybe I need to somehow estimate the growth before and after, and pay a proportion of tax in both? No idea how I'd work that out!
Thanks

**Trigger warning for in-depth discussion of the deaths and bodies of children*\*
Many of you probably know the story of the Unknown Child, or Body #4 – the body of a baby boy recovered from the sea shortly after the sinking of the Titanic and buried in Halifax’s Fairview Cemetery. Unidentified for years, he was speculated to be either Gosta Palsson or Eugene Rice, tentatively identified with DNA analysis as Eino Panula in 2002, and definitively identified through improved DNA testing in 2007 as Sidney Goodwin. The Unknown Child has come to represent all the young lives who were lost in the disaster.
However, much less well-known is the mystery of Body #1. Pulled from the icy Atlantic on April 21^st 1912 by the cable ship Mackay Bennett, the body of an approximately 10-12-year-old boy was the first of 337 Titanic victims to be recovered. Officially, Body #1 was identified as Walter John van Billiard, a 9-year-old third-class boy who perished along with his father Austin and 10-year-old brother James William. He was buried next to his father, whose body was also recovered, in the Whitemarsh Union Cemetery of Zion Lutheran Church, Flourtown, Pennsylvania. However, doubt has always lingered among Titanic researchers and enthusiasts over the true identity of the body. In this post, I’ll examine the case for and against the body’s identification as Walter Van Billiard, investigate some other possibilities for its identity, and summarize my findings.
A few disclaimers: firstly, I’m not a professional, just someone who’s been interested in the Titanic (and specifically its child/teen passengers) for a long time.
Secondly, although I’ve never seen a detailed write-up on Body #1 before, others have discussed this topic and arrived at similar conclusions as mine, so I’m not breaking any entirely new ground here.
Finally, this post isn’t meant to disrespect or offend any of the Van Billiard family or to shatter the idea of a father and son resting beside each other. I’m just trying to take a critical look at the identification of Body #1 and suggest some alternate possibilities.
Approximately 115 Titanic passengers and crew under the age of 18 were lost, and very few of their bodies were ever found. In attempting to identify one of them, I hope to honour them all.

Part I: The Van Billiards

Walter and James van Billiard (photo here) were the two eldest sons of Austin Blyler van Billiard and Maude Murray. One or both boys had been born in Paris, France, but spent most of their lives in Africa, where the family was engaged in diamond mining. By April 1912, the Van Billiards had had four more children and wanted to return to Austin’s family in North Wales, Pennsylvania. They travelled to London, where Maude fell ill. It was decided that she would stay there with her parents and her four youngest children to recuperate, while Austin would take James and Walter ahead to America. Austin’s parents had never met any of their grandchildren before, and he wanted them to spend Easter together. Tragically, they booked third-class on the RMS Titanic, and the rest is history. No survivor accounts mention the Van Billiards by name, so it is unknown how they passed their time on the ship or how exactly they met their ends. A newspaper article (Daily Home News, April 23rd 1912) suggests the boys may have refused to leave their father, but it’s equally likely they simply arrived on deck too late to have the option of boarding a lifeboat.
What is known is that two bodies purported to be members of the Van Billiard family were later recovered and sent to Austin’s relatives in Pennsylvania for burial. Body #255, that of an approximately 40-year-old man with a dark red beard and moustache, was identified as Austin. Body #1, allegedly young Walter, was described as such:
No. 1 – MALE – ESTIMATED AGE. – 10-12. – HAIR. LIGHT.
CLOTHING – Overcoat, grey; one grey coat; one blue coat; grey woolen jersey; white shirt; grey knickers; black stockings; black boots
EFFECTS – Purse containing few Danish coins and ring; two handkerchiefs marked “A”.
Probably Third Class.
Furthermore, the “Inventory of the property found on the body of the late W. VanBilliard” adds that the purse also contained one United States cent and “three wooden disks.” This document can be viewed online at the Nova Scotia Archives website. Interestingly, “Unable to identify from clothing or effects” has been written across the middle of the page in pencil. Further down, it says “Remains shipped. See #255.”
Right off the bat, it's unclear why Body #1 was identified as that of 9-year-old Walter, as opposed to 10-year-old James – or, in fact, why a connection with the Van Billiards was made at all. The Philadelphia Inquirer of May 8^th 1912, reporting on the arrival of the bodies in Pennsylvania, states that identification was made “through the Red Cross Society and papers found on their persons.” However, no such papers are mentioned among the effects found on either body, despite this being common practice for the descriptions of Titanic victims’ bodies.
It is also noteworthy that no member of the Van Billiard family was reported as having identified or even viewed the bodies. Identification would, of course, have taken place at Halifax, where the recovered bodies were brought before being buried there or forwarded elsewhere, and I could find absolutely nothing to suggest that any Van Billiard travelled to Halifax to view them. The North American newspaper of May 8th 1912 states quite clearly that Austin’s father, Burgess James van Billiard, was in Pennsylvania when the bodies arrived. Maude and the other children were still in England, and in fact would not make the trip to America until February 1913, almost a full year after the disaster.
Moreover, it must be remembered that none of the Van Billiard family members in America had ever seen their grandsons. They may have seen photographs of them, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that they’d be able to identify a body which had spent six days floating in the freezing ocean. There are stories from other maritime disasters of the era, such as the General Slocum (1904), the Eastland (1915), and the Princess Sophia (1918) of children’s bodies being misidentified (or dubiously identified), even by close relatives. Therefore, even if Burgess van Billiard or another family member had seen Body #1, would that have conclusively proven that it was Walter (or James)? Or would it simply be a case of a grief-stricken human being clinging to the belief that their loved one was one of the few recovered from an icy grave?
According to Judith Geller’s Titanic: Women and Children First, “popular reports” of the time stated that Austin’s body was found with Walter’s clasped to his chest. However, as she goes on to state, this was not the case. This can be seen plainly from the numbers of the bodies, which were assigned in the order that they were retrieved. Body #1 was recovered on April 21^st, while Body #255 would not have been picked up until April 25^th, according to the diary of Mackay Bennett crewman Clifford Crease. Therefore, identification of Body #1 cannot have been made by its proximity to Austin Van Billiard.
The effects found upon Body #1 also do nothing to prove, or even suggest, that the body was that of Walter Van Billiard. It is true that the handkerchiefs marked “A” could have belonged to Austin, but “A” could stand for many other names of those on board the Titanic. The Danish coins are a tantalizing clue, but none of the Van Billiard family was known to have lived in or visited Denmark. (Of course, it’s possible that the coins could have been misidentified – perhaps they were actually Belgian or Boer, as the Van Billiards lived in both the Belgian Congo and South Africa; or Dutch, as Austin Van Billiard is known to have visited Amsterdam shortly before embarking on the Titanic. (Perhaps the “A” handkerchief was a souvenir from the city?) However, these are only theories.)
It has never been conclusively accepted by Titanic researchers and enthusiasts that Body #1 is that of Walter Van Billiard. Walter’s entry on Encyclopedia Titanica contains the footnote: “Because of the effects recovered with the body there has to be some doubt over the authenticity of the identification.” Similarly, Women and Children First states that “the body might in fact have easily been that of another Third Class boy.” That book’s section on the Van Billiards ends with the somber observation that “a monument to [the] husband and two sons … stands in the Whitemarsh Union Cemetery, but only two (and perhaps one) of them lie beneath it.” Whether or not Walter van Billiard was truly Body #1, one hopes that this (mis?)identification brought some solace to his surviving family members.

Part II: Other Possibilities

With it being established that there is no conclusive proof that body #1 belonged to either of the Van Billiard boys, let us examine other possibilities. I have assembled a list of all male Titanic victims between the ages of 8 and 14 whose bodies were never found. The reason for extending this range is that the estimated ages given to bodies were not always entirely accurate. For example, the body of 12-year-old William Sage was estimated to be 14, the body of 16-year-old Rossmore Abbott was estimated as 22, and the body of 17-year-old Ernest Price was estimated as 26.
Our candidates are:

1. Eugene Joseph Abbott, 13
2. Filip Oscar Asplund, 13
3. Clarence Gustaf Hugo Asplund, 9
4. William Neal Thomas Ford, 14
5. Charles Edward Goodwin, 14
6. William Frederick Goodwin, 13
7. Harold Victor Goodwin, 10
8. Frederick William Hopkins, 14
9. Husayn Mahmud Husayn Ibrahim, 11
10. William Andrew Johnston, 8
11. Albert Rice, 10
12. George Rice, 8
13. Betros Seman, 10
14. Karl Thorsten Skoog, 11
15. George Frederick Sweet, 14
16. William Albert Watson, 14

A few possibilities can be easily excluded from this list:

• Karl Skoog had been involved in a railway accident at the age of 7 and had to have his left leg and the toes on his right foot amputated. He used crutches for mobility. It is impossible that such an obvious feature as a missing or prosthetic leg would not have been noted in the descriptions of the bodies.
• Husayn Ibrahim and Betros Seman were from Lebanon. It is unlikely (though not impossible) that a Middle Eastern boy would have had blonde hair or carried Danish coins. Accounts from the era almost invariably describe Middle Eastern passengers as “dark-complexioned,” “foreign-looking,” or “Italian types” – a detail which does not appear in the body’s description.

Several more possibilities can be marked as unlikely, if not ruled out entirely:

• In the only known photo of the Goodwin family, the boys all seem to have had dark hair. The eldest boy, Charles, was also only 2 months away from his 15^th birthday, putting him at the very edge of our age range and making it relatively unlikely that he would be mistaken for a 10-12-year-old (let alone one who could feasibly be 9 years old).
  • However, one point in the Goodwins’ favour is that the body of their youngest brother, Sidney Leslie (the ‘Unknown Child’) was found, meaning at least one member of the family was above decks at the moment of the sinking.
• George Frederick Sweet was one day away from turning 15, and was not permitted (or did not want) to board a lifeboat along with his adoptive mother and sisters, implying that he looked his age and could not have been mistaken for a preteen. A purported* photograph of him circa 1912 also shows him as dark-haired. Finally, he was in second class, while the body was described as “probably third class” (although this is hardly conclusive).
• Frederick Hopkins and William Watson were members of the crew, Hopkins being a plate steward and Watson a bellboy. It is therefore possible, if not certain, that they would have been wearing some sort of uniform rather than the clothing the body was described as wearing. Furthermore, like Charles Goodwin and George Sweet, both were within several months of turning 15.

Our list is thus reduced to:

1. Eugene Joseph Abbott, 13
2. Filip Oscar Asplund, 13
3. Clarence Gustaf Hugo Asplund, 9
4. William Neal Thomas Ford, 14
5. William Andrew Johnston, 8
6. Albert Rice, 10
7. George Rice, 8

Now, let us look at each of these boys in turn and examine the evidence for and against them being Body #1.
Eugene Joseph Abbott:

• His last name starts with A, meaning the handkerchief could be his.
• He was originally from (and was returning to) the U.S., so may have carried American money.
• He was just 2 weeks past his 13^th birthday, meaning he could likely have passed for 12 (within the estimated age range for the body).
• He and his family were known to have been on deck right at the time of the sinking, rather than belowdecks in the steerage areas. His mother, Rhoda, was the only woman to be rescued alive from the water, and his older brother Rossmore’s body was found (#190).
• He may have had fair hair – his brother’s body is described as being “very fair,” though it’s unknown if this refers to skin or hair. An alleged* photo of him from the Pigeon Forge Titanic Museum shows a light-haired boy. However, both his mother and brother appear to have dark hair in photos taken of them.
• There is nothing to suggest he would have had Danish coins.

William Neal Thomas Ford:
Little is known about Ford, an English youth emigrating to the USA with his extended family and a family friend. None of their bodies are known to have been recovered (although they may be among the unidentified). He has no known connection to the letter A or to the nation of Denmark. Therefore, I see him as among the most unlikely of these boys to be Body #1.
William Andrew Johnston:
William Johnston, a cousin of William Ford, is a slightly more likely candidate for two reasons. Firstly, his father’s name (and his own middle name) was Andrew, providing a connection to the letter A. Secondly, in the one photo of him provided by the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge,* he appears to have had light hair.
Albert and George Rice:

• The Rice family is known to have been on either the boat deck or A-Deck on the night of the sinking (reported by family friend Bridget Mulvihill, who survived), and their mother Margaret’s body was recovered. In fact, her body was #12, meaning her body was presumably located far closer to #1 than Austin Van Billiard’s was. (Though this doesn’t necessarily mean much given how far apart the bodies might have drifted, how they might have been flung around by the ship’s foundering, etc.)
• They were originally from the U.S., having only lived in Ireland for about a year following the death of their father.
• Albert’s first name, of course, starts with “A.” One may imagine that, perhaps, Margaret Rice might have given handkerchiefs to all her sons with their own first initials embroidered on them.
• Their hair colour is difficult to determine from photographs – it looks on the darker side to me, but this may simply be due to poor lighting.

Filip and Clarence Asplund:
I believe the Asplund boys are the strongest possible candidates for body #1, due to the following evidence:

• They have, by far, the strongest association with Danish coins out of all the boys I have examined. The Asplund family was of Swedish descent; most of their 5 children had been born in the U.S., but they later returned to Sweden and had been living there about 4 years before deciding to return once again to America in 1912. Their home in Sweden was Alseda Village, Småland, located relatively far south in the country; they certainly lived closer to Denmark than anyone else on this list, and very likely passed through it on their way to England to board the Titanic. It is even possible that the coins were not Danish but Swedish – someone more knowledgeable about early 20^th-century Scandinavian currency would have to tell me how similar they looked.
• Furthermore, as they had once lived in the U.S. and were travelling back there, it makes sense for them to have been carrying American money as well.
• Obviously, the “A” on the handkerchief could be for Asplund.
• As Swedes, the boys could very well have had light hair. It’s hard to make out their hair colour in the only known photos of them (Filip, Clarence), but surviving siblings Lillian and Felix appear to have had light hair in some photos (1, 2)
• The entire family was known to have been on one of the upper decks (Boat or A) at the end. As third-class passengers, they arrived there quite late in the sinking. Mother Selma managed to board one of the later lifeboats (I have seen boats 10, 15, 4, and Collapsible C all suggested) along with children Felix (3) and Lillian (5), but somehow the three other children – Filip, Clarence, and Lillian’s twin Carl – were left on board with their father, also named Carl. Furthermore, Carl Sr.’s body was recovered (No. 142), further proving that the Asplunds were up on deck during the final plunge.

If I had to choose between the two Asplund boys for the true identity of body #1, I would suggest that it was 9½ year old Clarence, rather than 13-year-old Filip, due to the fact that those identifying the body clearly deemed it likely to belong to a 9-year-old. However, I think either boy is a likely option.

Part III: Conclusion

None of this is to say that I think the body couldn’t have been one of the Van Billiard boys. After all, there had to be *something* that caused Walter Van Billiard to be singled out amongst all the other possible candidates. Any of the clues I pointed out in this post may have been red herrings.
Maybe the “A” handkerchiefs were a parting gift from a friend whose first or last name started with that letter, or a souvenir of some city the boy had visited. Maybe the Danish coins were simply picked up off the deck, or given to this boy by a Danish passenger for whom he had done a favor. Maybe the age estimate was far off, and the boy was actually a tall 7-year-old or a very young-looking 15-year-old. Maybe Walter really is resting alongside his father in Union Cemetery, Flourtown, Pennsylvania. In the end, unless DNA analysis is ever done, we will never know the true identity of body #1.
My personal ranking of likelihood, out of all the boys examined, is:

1. Clarence or Filip Asplund (in that order), aged 9 and 13
2. Walter or James Van Billiard, aged 9 and 10
3. Eugene Abbott, aged 13
4. Albert or George Rice (in that order), aged 10 and 8
5. William Andrew Johnston, aged 8
6. William Neal Thomas Ford, aged 14
7. Harold, William, or Charles Goodwin (in that order), aged 10, 13, and 14 – I might even bump Harold (and possibly William) up higher than William Ford due to their younger age.
8. Frederick Hopkins or William Watson, aged 14
9. George Frederick Sweet, aged 14 (almost 15)
10. Husayn Ibrahim, aged 11, or Betros Seman, aged 10
11. Anthony William Sage, aged 12 – borderline impossible as Will Sage’s ticket was found on body #67, meaning that was almost certainly him. Perhaps an onboard friend of his had stolen his ticket as a prank, or they had switched tickets to keep as mementoes of each other, but I find this quite unlikely.
12. Karl Thorsten Skoog, aged 11 – impossible; his missing or prosthetic leg would certainly have been noted.

The true tragedy of Body #1 is the fact that there are so many possible candidates for its identification. In memory of all these boys and their families who were lost on the morning of April 15^th 1912.
^\I have some doubts about the veracity of some photographs from the Titanic Pigeon Forge Museum, but the vast majority of the photos I've seen from there are genuine. I can elaborate further in the comments if anyone is interested.)

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THE WAR WITHIN ALPHA AND BETA TESTS.
Hello all, first time poster here.
I’ve had some thoughts and questions that might be really out there because I’m not an expert with the lore but it’s been on my mind for a while now. But here we go.
Okay, so Remix was obviously made as a business decision (this is not to hate on Remix, because I love it) to entice players to stay subscribed until the launch of TWW. However, my thought was, why choose MoP? At first I thought it just made sense because it was an awesome expansion with a ton of unique rewards that really don’t exist anywhere else in the game (I.e. cloud serpents) I know, I know, all expansions have unique rewards but MoP really had a super unique theme IMO that isn’t really close to any other xpac.
With that being said, I still feel like there was an another crucial reason that they chose MoP. It might have been just coincidence or convenience, but I think it ties into the World Soul Saga as a whole. This was an opportunity for some potential foreshadowing by letting players (veteran and new) re-experience the lore of this expansion that might lead into some important plot points of the WSS.
Below are points I’ve listed that I believe tie MoP and TWW/ WSS together:

1. Y’Shaarj

- as we know, Y’Shaarj was the main antagonist of MoP (debatable still, Garrosh was the one we fought though he was ultimately corrupted by the heart) - Y’Shaarj was the greatest of the old gods according to some - According to chronicles, Aman Thul ripped Y’Shaarj out of Azeroth, leaving behind its heart. My theory here is that the Black Blood we see in Azj’Kahet is not Azeroth’s corrupted blood, but in fact Y’Shaarj’s blood left behind from that cataclysmic event. That’s what eventually turned the aqir located there into Nerubians. - There is mural that has been posted around from Alpha that looks very similar to the ones from the Klaxi in reference to Y’Shaarj. Ever 100% confirmed, but very probable. 

1. Xal’atath
   
   • There is still not a lot we know about Xal I’ll admit
   • Theory: Xal’atath (the blade) was made from a claw of Y’Shaarj. I can’t back this up with evidence, but I’ve heard it mentioned numerous times.
   • We know Xal has a strong connection with the void.
2. The Dark Heart and Galakdrond
   
   • We know Iridikron infused Galakrond’s essence within the heart, who was the greatest most terrifying of all proto dragons. Is that essence powerful enough to create a new “Heart of Y’Shaarj”?
   • As far as I have read, not much is known of Galakrond and his creation or birth. All that is known that it is the “progenitor or dragon kind”. Could Galakrond been a spawn or creation of an Old God, particularly Y’Shaarj?
3. Geography and Ra-Den
   
   • the Klaxi, Qiraji, and now Nerubians all appear on the south west portion of Azeroth. The Southern part of Kalimdor, Western Pandaria, and now Khaz’Algar positioned right in between those two continents. Could that be the ancient residing space of Y’Shaarj?
   • Obviously we have the Nerubians in Northrend but I believe that will play an important part in The Last Titan.
   • Ra or Ra-Den was the Titan keeper in charge of the southern portions of Azeroth.
   • Ra was in charge of Uldum and the Vale which is where both portals to Ny’Alotha opened, where we confront N’Zoth. This is another connection with Y’Shaarj and Xal. [see below]
   • While the geography of it all might sound insignificant, I believe it was intentional.
4. BfA and MoP
   
   • There is a subtle link here between between Y’Shaarj and N’Zoth with Xal’atath being the bridge. We know Xal strikes a deal with N’Zoth to free her “spirit” from the blade. This is based on the assumption that while the Old Gods fought with each other in ancient times, that they are now begrudgingly in league with each other to survive. I assume Xal’atath (either a servant of Y’Shaarj or a fragment of Y’Shaarj itself) was able to convince N’Zoth to make a deal because “N’Zoth is the weakest of the four old gods” according to her.
5. Loose ends
   
   • Locus-Walker How does the Locus-Walker recognize Xal’atath almost immediately?
   • Archmage Drenden This might not matter at all, and it might have been a super convenient plot point for Metzen, but where did Drenden go all those years ago, and how is he welcome back to the Kirin’Tor so quickly?

I believe Xal’atath is trying to do one of three things:

• Resurrect Y’Shaarj to dominate all life on Azeroth and control Azeroth’s world soul in order to rule the universe with the void.
  
• Empower herself with the essence of Y’Shaarj and the world soul, to defeat the titans, and rule the universe with the void.
  
• Bring about the corruption of Azeroth’s world soul and its heroes to defeat the titans and create a new universal order under the void.
  

There are so many possible outcomes from what I have listed out here but I think one thing is clear in my mind: MoP Remix was not just a coincidence. I think it was intentional and we are going to see it play out in one way or another in the World Soul Saga. It’s very exciting and I can’t wait to hear what y’all think.
*this is my first time posting here and I’m really not a lore expert or historian but very passionate about the game. I hope y’all give this an honest response. Disagreement is of course encouraged but I don’t want to cause any animosity here.

🥒Most all the states require that you get a business license to operate any type of business, including a food business. For example, you need a permit to sell food from home in Arizona and New York. Even if your state doesn't require that you get a business license, your county or your city may require one and you better watch yourself because at this point you are now in the health hazard zone. In order fo sell your DING DANG NASTY ASS PICKLES correctly you would have to do alot more than just set in bed all day. 🥒
📍 Business license!! Most US states require that you get a business license to operate any type of business, including a FOOD business. For example, you need a permit to sell food from home in Arizona and New York. Even if your state doesn't require that you get a business license, your county or your city may require one.
📍 Sales privilege license!! AKA sales tax license. Most states require this license from businesses that sell retail goods and, thus, must collect sales tax. Most food items are exempt from state sales tax. However, many states still require that you obtain the license. THAT INCLUDES EVEM THE ONE'S YOU RECENTLY SAID YOU WERE SENSONG OFF AND NAMED ALL THE PEOPLE ON YOUR LIVE STREAM!
📍 Food handler's license!! This is an individual license, not a business license and each person who handles food in your business must pass a test about food safety and proper handling INCLUDING YOU TABITHA.
📍 Some type of kitchen inspection!! Every state requires that the kitchen where you make your (cottage food items) which in YOUR CASE TABITHA would be those unfinished pickles be inspected. However, every state goes about it somewhat differently. Common themes include no pets allowed in the kitchen area, adequate refrigeration and acceptable counter and flooring materials (e.g. no butcher block counters or carpeted floors).
📍 Zoning permit!! In many areas, you'll also need a variance or a permit from the local zoning board to operate a business from your home. No matter how big or small it is. Your homeowner's or condo association may also have an issue with your cottage food business. It's best to get approval from them before you start cooking.
📍 Food labeling! In addition to all of that, you'll need to create labels for each of your food products and it's contents that follow your state and city rules.
📍 Also I'll add one last detail for Tabitha: Each state has different laws about how food can be SHIPPED. But most importantly you have to have a STANDARD SHIPPING LICENSE for the states you’re doing business in to be able to ship any food. That means your pickles too.
🥒 This is for human consumption and it is not taken lightly due to people's HEALTH. We know you have none of that I have listed above. Therefore what you are doing IS NOT OKAY. Just like every other illegal ass way you have tried to get money off of people like raffling that you called entries for a drawing which is the sake damn thing as a raffle, and them also your THEFT BY DECEPTION. 🥒
🤬You are trying to hide your gift and fabricated life story under all these ideas and clearly it's not gonna work for you. Just admit you been lying all this time, get off your ass, and get a damn job. You haven't been in a burnout and you know how to do adult stuff just fine. Stop stealing other people's life stories and making it yours, and stop trying to use God as a way to target the good Christian folk when you are far from godly. I know SEVERAL adults that were late diagnosed and not a SINGLE ONE OF THEM ACTS LIKE YOU when it comes to how you use and talk about this autism diagnosis you can never prove. Hell those same real adults with some sort of autism diagnosis have some of the best work ethics I have ever seen. So I hope you know the entire internet talks about you and wants to cancel the shit out of you because.... WE ALL SEE YOU FOR WHAT YOU ARE TABITHA! YOUR A PREDATOR PREYING ON THE GOOD HEARTED PEOPLE FOR MONEY, AND A LYING PIECE OF SHIT. YOU WILL SAY AND TRY ANYTHING TO KEEP THIS LONG TERM VACATION OF YOURS GOING!! 🤬
😬And you know what's even more pathetically obvious about you? Thousands of people have watched you on the internet FOR YEARS collect money from others, while saying the same looped and regurgitate story for sympathy, and you have LITERALLY NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT! YOU HAVEN'T DONE NOT A SINGLE THING TO BETTER YOURSELF OR YOUR SITUATION and we are all seeing it! This is why your time is about up and YOU know it too. 👏🏽
SINCERLY - 💋Kiss my ass! I can't wait to see this all come to an end and crash and burn!🔥

Feminists demonize masculinity and describe hypermasculinity as bad for men and deadly. Well, that's all bullshit. Being masculine actually can be a great thing for men.
In fact, research shows negative perceptions of masculinity is linked to worse mental health in men, and the phrase toxic masculinity could contribute to men perceiving masculinity that way. A meta-analysis of 58 studies from 1978 to 2021 found that while androgyny was the biggest protective factor against depression for both men and women, being undifferentiated (i.e.: normative) was the least likely to be a protective factor. Masculinity was a strong protective factor against depression for both men and women and femininity was slightly a protective factor against depression for women and both male and female college students, but that protective factor from femininity only began to emerge with the slow increase in the national education and income index from 1990 to 2019. However, as life expectancy has increased, this negative correlation between masculinity and depression has become less significant, but it's still moderately correlated and thus still a moderate protective factor against depression. They believe it's possible that back when life expectancies were lower, masculine people were less likely to admit to depression, but this might not be plausible given that masculinity was associated with less depression not only for men, but women, too, and women's feelings receive more empathy. The traits of masculinity measured include self-confidence, perseverance, standing up for oneself under pressure, competitiveness, independence, etc. Research has often overlooked that masculinity and femininity were positively correlated because social support and help seeking was labeled as feminine traits to be measured, and these traits were associated with a protection of a confident, masculine outlook backed up by social support and help seeking behaviors. Nonetheless, this doesn't mean men need to just get therapists. Men prefer doing something about the problem, whereas women prefer talking about the issue. Group therapy between men with goal-oriented tasks and activities tend to be more helpful for men than talk therapy and this is often due to evolutionary/biological reasons rather than socialization.
That can also be why masculine men don't seek social support alongside society being dismissive towards men suffering and these men dealing with society's mean gender roles toward men. It's not that they're refusing to get help when society offers help just to be manly. Femininity was measured as gentleness, helpfulness, etc. Among male college students, femininity was a protective factor against depression and was correlated positively with masculinity for this reason. People who scored low on both masculinity and femininity (undifferentiated) was more likely to be depressed. Androgynous people, however, were not actually androgynous. They scored high on both masculinity and femininity and I already elaborated on how they measured masculine and feminine traits and how they both help when these traits are combined together.
This study found that certain masculine traits, like winning or emotional control was associated with health benefits for men but other traits, like self-reliance, recklessness, playboy behavior, and power against women) were associated with health-risk behaviors. This study found men who perceived themselves as more masculine were far more likely to have better mental health, have better emotional control, have high high confidence, have high ability to take risks, be married, have a college degree, lack depression, have good relationship quality, have a good body image, be happy, be satisfied with life and be rich. They also were more likely to have been aggressive, take advantage of others, take charge, or enjoy fights. There's some negative aspects but far more positive aspects. Nonetheless, these men were talking about whether they view themselves as masculine rather than objective masculinity. This study found 4 categories: extreme hypermasculinity (characterized by medium dominance/aggression, somewhat higher sexual identity, and very high anti-femininity or devaluation of emotions), traditional masculine (characterized by medium dominance/aggression, and somewhat lower anti-femininity attitudes and somewhat lower sexual identity), traditional hypermasculine (characterized by higher dominance/aggression, higher sexual identity, and somewhat higher anti-feminine attitudes and somewhat higher devaluation of emotion), and non-hypermasculinity (low scores on all of those traits). Non-hypermasculine scored the lowest on hostility toward women and depression. Traditional hypermasculine and extreme hypermasculine scored higher on hostility toward women and depression. Traditional masculine men scored in the middle of the two measures. Extreme hypermasculine score higher on self esteem whereas the other 3 were similar on self-esteem. The traditional hypermasculine group had a disproportionate rate of fraternity members.

Handgrip strength associated with better life outcomes for men.

Men experience scored lower on fear, anxiety and emotional dependence than women, and the reason had to do with differences in physical strength.
Two studies found that differences in physical strength accounted for why men are less fearful or anxious than women. This study by Nicholas Kerry and Damian Murray found that because women score higher than men on neuroticism (a big 5 personality trait), it was due to differences in grip strength between men and women. They found that gender differences between men and women on the anxiety facet of Neuroticism was explained by differences in grip strength. This means that it did not account for differences in overall neuroticism, but the anxiety facet of neuroticism. This other study also found that the gender differences between men and women in anxiety were explained by grip strength differences. Cross-national research has shown that women in all countries scored higher than men on all 4 facets of emotionality, and the gender difference was bigger in rich, egalitarian countries except the honesty-humility facet. In a study of 1,399 undergraduates at 4 universities, the researchers found that grip strength accounted for more than half of the gender difference in fearfulness. In fact, the 8% of women who were stronger than the average man were less fearful than the 22% most fearful men. In two of the 5 samples, grip strength completely explained the gender experience, and when controlling for it, the gender difference was entirely gone. It did not explain the difference in sentimentality, but explained a considerable portion of the gender difference in anxiety and emotional dependence.
Handgrip strength tends to be evolutionarily beneficial for men.
Another finding is that differences in handgrip strength was correlated with promiscuity, shoulder-to-hip ratio, age at first intercourse, and aggressive behavior in men but not women when studying college students. In a meta-analysis, handgrip strength in men was correlated positively with facial attractiveness, self-perceived mate value, walking style attractiveness, dance quality attractiveness, hunting reputation (among hunter gatherers), number of sex partners, male typical body morphology (shoulder-to-hip ratio), self-reported popularity, number of children, self-reported aggression, self-perceived fighting ability and facial dominance/facial aggression. Handgrip strength in men was negatively correlated with being victimized by others and handgrip strength was associated with earlier age of first intercourse. This study found among Spanish teens that fighting ability and physical aggression were associated with each other for boys, but this relationship decreased with age. By late adolescence, fighting ability and anger become linked together for boys, which means their aggression strategy shifted from physical to nonphysical with age. Among late adolescent girls (ages 17/18), fighting ability and aggression have no association together.
Muscularity leads to better mental health for men.
A study of 9,000 adults had them squeeze a gripper to measure their maximum strength. For every additional 5kg that a man can grip, their risk of suicidal ideation decreases by 16%. A meta-analysis of 21 studies from 26 countries and past 80,000 participants found that muscular strength is associated with less depression among adults.

Jocks in high school and college tend to fare better in life, debunking the "peaked in high school" myth.

Contrary to popular belief, it's not the jocks who fare worse in life. It's the outcasts and bullying victims. A 2001 study found that young adults who were jocks in high school, despite higher levels of drinking, had less social isolation, lower suicide attempts, low depression and high self-esteem at age 24. The people who identified as the princess in high school (i.e.: popular girl) had neither worse nor better outcomes in life than others, but the smart people and jocks fared the best and criminal teens fared the worst. This study also found that sports involvement had more associated with drinking but better academic achievements, and that jocks and popular girls did not fare worse academically, and many went to college. The criminal students fared way worse than anyone else. Jocks also were more likely to be fit and in shape as adults, had better jobs in the future, earned more money as adults than band geeks and yearbook staff, and had lower self-harm or suicidality rates. College athletes also had better wellbeing and job success later in life, but less physical wellbeing if they played football/basketball, presumably due to concussions, joint issues, diabetes, etc. This study also found that college jocks earned more than their peers, including the nerds, and had more prestigious jobs, even if they came from socioeconomically diverse sports teams or joined teams with lower academic thresholds. The only disadvantage is they were slightly less likely to be picked for research/data analysis skills. Jocks in high school also self-harmed less and had less suicidality whereas teens in alternative subcultures (like goth, emo or punk) were more likely to self-harm or have suicidality. Middle school and high school jocks both had better grades, too. In fact, being an athlete without labeling oneself as a jock for boys was only associated with the winning masculine stereotype, whereas identifying as a jock was associated with most of the 5 masculine stereotypes measured (including being a playboy).

Conclusions

Hypermasculinity can be good for men. This doesn't mean we should force it on men or ridicule them for defying masculine traits, but we should not demonize masculinity either. Masculinity can be about being aggressive to protect others and be assertive and fighting back, or being able to handle life struggles (although we shouldn't condemn people if they continue to suffer due to their struggles in life), or being muscular, or being able to get a relationship. Nonetheless, men who fail to conform to these traits should not be ridiculed, and if they experience distress from being able to achieve these goals, we can help them figure out how to achieve them.
Masculinity is not necessarily about being a violent person in general or being a womanizer or being reckless or being mean.

The highest honors I got in elementary school was 2nd honors in second grade. Our parents were always comparing us to the smart kids who were consistently in 1st and 2nd place on the honors list.
I wasn't able to duplicate my success after that quarter and it frustrated my parents. They were both consistent honor students as well in their youth and they couldn't understand why I wasn't performing well.
Their remedy was to have my mom tutor me in maths and science with a plastic ruler (she only struck my hand once though, every other slap was suffered by the desk) and frustrated screams at the ready if I couldn't memorize a science fact or get the right answers in division.
On top of that, since kindergarten, I was struggling with low-key bullying with my classmates calling me fat. I was taller than my age and bigger than them. I hated being called fat and being yelled at for being a slow runner during group games. It was true that I couldn't outrun kids smaller and lighter than me. I still feel horrible thinking about it.
Back to topic: one particularly stressful evening, I was shouted at for not being able to memorize a particular set of paragraphs for an upcoming test. It was bad enough that I was already sobbing at my study table. My flabbergasted mother told me I would not sleep until I had commited whatever that was to memory and gave me an hour. In that hour i was so distraught that I couldn't read anything through my tears and swollen eyelids.
When my mother returned to check on me I was still crying and she gave up and sent me to bed angrily.
After that night, I lost all motivation to excel. I would be content with an 80% grade (which in our country was considered average) or barely passing.
If I was motivated by myself, I could succeed, but whenever outside expectations or pressure showed up, I would fold.
I developed a strong dislike for studying science and mathematics. I preferred studying English, reading, writing, and art because they weren't as rigorous as STEM.
My teachers and professors noticed I had a lackadaisical attitude towards academics. I was intelligent enough, but not interested in honors at all.
This attitude has affected much of my life. Leading me to make bad decisions under pressure that have cost me a couple of jobs.
I found a job I adored as an art teacher in another country, but have struggled after the company that hired me fell apart after 5 years working for them. Bad business decisions on the part of the owner ended a job that made me feel fulfilled.
After a few years of struggling including a few more failures (still struggling for now) I'm a SAHM. In a way, I'm relieved to have that pressured to succeed off my shoulders. But when I see my classmates so and so successful and going on nice vacations, I feel some regret.
If you've read this far, thank you. This thought has been on my mind for years, and only now have I had the guts to type it out anywhere.
I'm breathing a bit easier now that I've got it off my chest.

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In an alternate history where Joseph Smith survived and continued to lead the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), the trajectory of Mormon history diverged dramatically, leading to a series of events that culminated in a dystopian society influenced by both Japanese and German occupation.
Continued Leadership and Doctrinal Development
After narrowly escaping death, Joseph Smith doubled down on his efforts to consolidate power and expand his influence. While he preached a vision of Zion, a utopian society, his actions often contradicted his teachings. Smith's revelations became increasingly erratic, and his authoritarian leadership style led to growing dissent within the church.
Confrontation with Brigham Young and Splintering Factions
Brigham Young, initially one of Smith's loyal followers, grew disillusioned with Smith's leadership. Young's desire for a more militant and isolationist approach clashed with Smith's increasingly autocratic rule. The ideological rift led to a significant confrontation between Smith and Young, resulting in a schism.
Young and his followers, the "Youngites," splintered from the main body of the church, establishing separate settlements. These settlements adopted a more aggressive stance, often engaging in violent confrontations with local populations and federal authorities. The schism exposed the deep flaws within Smith's leadership and the instability of his utopian vision.
Polygamy and Social Structure
Smith's practice of polygamy became more controversial as he continued to marry multiple women, including young girls and already-married women. His actions, justified by his revelations, created significant internal conflict and public outrage. Despite efforts to regulate the practice, polygamy became a source of exploitation and abuse, further undermining Smith's credibility.
In contrast, Young and his followers continued to practice polygamy with even less restraint, leading to increased tension and conflict both within their communities and with outside authorities.
Race and Gender Relations
Smith's later revelations addressed race and gender relations, but his actions often fell short of his teachings. While he declared the equality of all races, racial restrictions persisted within the church. His progressive stance on gender roles also faced resistance, and women continued to struggle for meaningful participation in church leadership.
Young's faction maintained more traditional views on race and gender, contributing to their increasing isolation and the eventual decline of their influence.
War Between Factions
The tension between Smith's followers and the Youngites escalated into open conflict. The struggle for control over key territories in Utah and neighboring regions erupted into a full-scale war. Both factions mobilized their followers, leading to violent skirmishes and battles that devastated communities on both sides.
The internal Mormon war reached its peak in a brutal, decisive battle that saw the annihilation of Young's forces. Nearly a century passes with uneasy peace, However, the victory for Smith's followers was short-lived as a new, external threat emerged.
Invasion by Japanese and German Forces
Amid the chaos of the factional war, Japanese forces, seeking to expand their empire during the height of World War II, saw an opportunity in the fractured and vulnerable Mormon territories. Launching a surprise invasion, the Japanese army quickly overwhelmed the war-weary Mormon factions, bringing the entire region under their control.
Simultaneously, the Eastern half of the United States fell under the control of Nazi Germany. The Germans, having conquered Europe, set their sights on the Americas. By forming a pact with Japan, they divided the United States between them, with the Germans controlling the East and the Japanese the West.
The Japanese occupation was brutal. The invading forces suppressed all resistance with ruthless efficiency, executing leaders from both Mormon factions and imposing harsh martial law. The population was subjected to severe restrictions, forced labor, and cultural reprogramming.
Dystopian Society
Under Japanese rule, the remnants of the Mormon community were forced to adapt to a new, dystopian reality. The occupiers exploited the religious divisions, merging aspects of Smith's and Young's doctrines with elements of Shinto and Bushido to create a syncretic, oppressive state religion. This new religion, characterized by a rigid hierarchy and strict social control, became the foundation of the dystopian society.
Polygamy was strictly regulated by the state, used as a tool to control the population and reward loyalty. Racial equality, once a cornerstone of Smith's vision, was distorted to serve the occupiers' purposes, while gender roles became even more rigidly defined, with women relegated to subservient positions.
Education and independent thought were suppressed, with propaganda promoting the state's version of history and religion. Resistance was met with brutal repression, and the once vibrant and hopeful vision of Zion was replaced by a bleak, authoritarian regime.
German Influence and High Command
In the Eastern half of the United States, the German influence created a society based on Aryan supremacy and strict adherence to Nazi ideology. The German High Command established puppet governments and enforced their racial and social policies with brutal efficiency. The Eastern states became a mirror of occupied Europe, with concentration camps, forced labor, and pervasive surveillance.
Cultural Examples of German Influence
The German occupation brought a wave of cultural changes that deeply impacted the Mormon society in the East. German language and customs were imposed, with all public and private schools teaching in German. Traditional American holidays were replaced with Nazi celebrations, and Mormon religious practices were co-opted to fit the Nazi agenda.
Mormon doctrines were twisted to support Aryan supremacy, with scriptures selectively interpreted to justify racial hierarchy. The concept of "pure blood" became intertwined with religious purity, creating a hybrid ideology that combined the worst aspects of both belief systems.
Art and literature were strictly controlled, with only state-approved works allowed. German propaganda filled the airwaves, extolling the virtues of the Aryan race and the infallibility of the Führer. Monuments to Nazi leaders were erected alongside Mormon temples, symbolizing the forced union of the two ideologies.
International Isolation and Legacy
The dystopian Mormon state remained isolated from the rest of the world, its society a dark combination of religious dogma, military discipline, and authoritarian control. The legacy of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young was twisted beyond recognition, their teachings used to justify the harsh rule of the occupiers.
In the East, the German-controlled states fostered a climate of fear and repression, with a society rigidly divided along racial lines. The once united United States was a land of division and suffering, controlled by two of the most oppressive regimes in history.
The Second Coming of Jesus Christ
In the midst of this dystopian nightmare, a cosmic event occurred that changed everything. One day, a blinding light filled the sky, and a figure descended from the heavens. It was Jesus Christ, returning to Earth.
Jesus walked among the people, witnessing the twisted remnants of his teachings and the horrors inflicted by both the Japanese and German occupiers. He saw the suffering, the oppression, and the corruption that had taken root in the hearts of men.
But instead of bringing peace and redemption, Jesus' return heralded a new era of terror. His teachings, already distorted, were now used to justify even more extreme measures. Jesus demanded absolute obedience and loyalty, enforcing his rule with an iron fist. Those who opposed him were met with swift and brutal punishment.
A New Dark Age
Under Jesus' rule, the dystopian society plunged into an even deeper darkness. Theocratic laws were imposed with ruthless precision. Any dissent was crushed, and the people lived in constant fear of divine retribution. The occupiers, both Japanese and German, found in Jesus a powerful ally who amplified their control and oppression.
The population, once hopeful for salvation, found themselves yearning for the days of Joseph Smith. Smith, with all his flaws and contradictions, seemed almost benevolent in comparison to the tyrannical Jesus. The memories of Smith's teachings, though imperfect, became a source of nostalgia for a time when hope and reform seemed possible.
The Rebellion
In the shadows, a resistance movement began to form. Comprising disillusioned followers of Smith, Young, and other oppressed groups, the rebels sought to overthrow the tyrannical Jesus and his allied occupiers. The resistance was united by a common goal: to restore some semblance of the original vision of Zion, flawed as it was.
The rebellion was marked by fierce battles and acts of sabotage. The people, driven by their longing for a better past, fought with desperation. They reclaimed territories, freed prisoners, and slowly began to turn the tide against the oppressive regime.
Final Confrontation
The final confrontation took place in the heart of the dystopian capital, a city where monuments to Jesus, Japanese, and German rulers stood as symbols of oppression. The rebels, bolstered by their growing numbers and determination, launched an all-out assault.
As the city burned, Jesus himself confronted the leaders of the rebellion. The ensuing battle was epic, with divine power clashing against human will. In the end, the rebels managed to overpower Jesus, his defeat symbolizing the end of an era of tyranny.
A New Beginning
With the fall of Jesus and the withdrawal of Japanese and German forces, the survivors emerged from the ruins to rebuild their shattered society. The memory of Joseph Smith, once marred by his flaws, became a symbol of hope and resilience. His vision of Zion, though never perfect, provided a foundation upon which the people could rebuild.
The new society, born from the ashes of dystopia, embraced the lessons of the past. Equality, justice, and compassion became the guiding principles. The people worked together to create a world where the mistakes of history would not be repeated.
In this alternate history, the return of Jesus brought not peace, but further oppression, revealing the deep flaws in human interpretations of divine will. The eventual rebellion and overthrow of the tyrannical regime marked a new beginning, where the lessons of the past were used to build a better future.

I recently spent 2 weeks with my sister and niece in their home. It was great to be able to spend time with my niece because i hadn't seen her in a year and because she hardly gets any social interaction. The experience broke my heart at many points as the reality of my sister's strange lifestyle came into focus with each passing day. I spent a lot of time making lists and ordering household items & groceries via Walmart delivery. I didn't have a car while I was there but i was determined to stock the apartment with items that are normally found in a home and things that would make their life easier. I taught my niece how to cook a few things in the microwave, how to open doors with keys, I taught her the different coins (penny, nickle, dime, quarter), I got her taking showers instead of baths, brushing her teeth (she didnt know how to do it properly at all), bought her some clothes, hydrating and spending time outside each day. We played Truth or Dare, we prayed, we beat-boxed, we watched SpongeBob, we went to Lion Country Safari and we practiced swimming in the pool. At the end of the two weeks, when it was time for me to leave, it was painful for us both. We both knew that after I left, their life would revert to what is normal for them: Mom in bed all day on her phone and my niece ignored in the adjacent room, glued to her ipad.
My sister is mentally ill, but I am furious with her for disrespecting herself, her child and our family like this. There are multiple other family members who can and will help in taking care of my niece properly, but my sister refuses to let anyone help. On top of that, my sister is extremely rude, manipulative and psychotic. Shes been this way her whole life and she refuses to get treatment. Typical narcissist! My whole family has been forced to endure the abuse of my sister for about 25 years, sonwe are kind of desensitized to it generally, but lately it is apparent that her behavior has gotten even worse, and only now, after my 2 week visit, are the rest of the family members realizing exactly how depraved she has been acting as a parent, and we are all extremely concerned.
I don't care how hard it's going to be or what it's going to take but I'm going to fix this problem, and I'm committed to fixing this problem ASAP.
Please review this timeline of relevant events in order to come up with strategies for getting my niece into a healthy living situation:
Father of the child got a restraining order on my sister in 2016ish, while my sister was pregnant.
There were violent interactions between the mother and father. I'm not sure if any are documented in terms of police records.
1st CPS case [Oregon]: My sister had custody temporarily taken away directly after she gave birth. Why? Positive hospital drug test while pregnant, domestic violence incident while pregnant, the restraining order id imagine and ber behavior at the hospital when giving birth. I flew to the state they were in (Oregon) and served as a family supervisor for about 4 weeks, told CPS that my sister was a fit parent, and my sister got custody back.
2nd CPS Case [California]: My sister was supposed to return home to her daughter and the babysitter after a night out when the child was 1 year old or less. This resulted in a CPS investigation. My sister moved out of state before the investigation could be completed. Apparently this resulted in a warrant for her arrest in CA and maybe a few surrounding states. California CPS has tried to reach out to her and my family members many times over the years in an attempt to identify her location.
3rd & 4th CPS Cases [Florida]: About a month ago, 2 CPS reports were created for neglect, injury of the child and my sisters mental illness. My sister did not answer the door and pretended not to be home when DCF went there with the police. She then moved out of her apartment ASAP and out of the jurisdiction.
Other info:
My sister is now in New York where my father is an attorney. He has always enabled my sister's irresponsible behavior and also he is the one instructing her how to handle each CPS interaction. His awful advice has led to my sister and niece having to move around a lot because my sister and dad are very paranoid about people figuring out her location. My sister avoids doing things like taking my niece to the doctor or enrolling her in regular school for this reason. She also avoids therapy and mental evaluations for herself personally for this reason.
Both my sister and my niece (who is now 7) urgently need mental health evaluations. I took care of my niece for 2 weeks last month (before they went on the run) and my niece seemed to be experiencing visual hallucinations, "voices in her head telling her to do violence", & violent intrusive thoughts. She expressed the voices in her head comment verbatim to one of her teachers at the end of a Zoom meeting to assess her progress in school. She also expressed ideas of self harm frequently, as does my sister. My sister has seld diagnosed herself recently with borderline personality disorder and has decided to make it part of her "brand" as an aspiring TikToker. She is proud of it and openly refuses to get therapy or medication. She's also posted a threatening video recently on TikTok, telling someone that they need to "get their mom's gun because they are going to need it this week" when she comes to their town.
The guy my sister was dating recently petitioned for a TRO against my siater very recently as did his housemate.
When the first TRO was granted, the FBI called the Petitioner and asked if they could meet to discuss a matter involving my sister (apparently not CPS related but a separate criminal matter). The Petitioner was informed that there are BOLO (be on the lookout) alerts, whatever that means, for my sister in 3 US states, and that the TRO petition triggered something with NCIC which led to the fbi agent reaching out.
There's SO much more to this story but I'm trying to keep it as short as I can.
I'd say the other most relevant pieces of information are:
My mom and I are hell bent on getting my niece into a stable, safe situation, ideally under custody of my mom. My sister can get custody back if/when she meets the demands of a judge demonstrating that she is fit and able.
My dad has dug his heels in even deeper in his morally bankrupt plan to have my sister evade CPS forever. He has a lot of experience with family court matters as an attorney so I guess he thought in the beginning that my sister could utilize the tricks he knows about the system to circumvent it entirely. He didn't plan on me "turning against" my sister I suppose. So now it's like a family battle of my mom and I vs my siste and dad. (My parents are divorced)
Two days ago I found out that I have an eviction on my record and $6k+ in debt from a 2017 eviction in LA County under my name. I've never lived in LA or even California, but my sister has! I wrote to my dad saying basically, "this is obviously name-related. Do you happen to know anything about this?". His response was, 'sorry, that's just old landlord stuff from when niece's name was a little baby." His next message dorectly after this was "how are you?" my dad pretty much admitted right then and there that my sister used my identity to rent an apartment in order to move out of the jurisdiction of either her 1st or 2nd cps case. My dad's response also shows that he knew about this. From the "sorry" part, I confirmed my suspicion that this was all his idea.
I sent my sister and dad an email yesterday with a blank temporary custody agreement telling them that it would be a really great opportunity for my sister to sign over temp custody to my mom for the summer at least. I said that my other sibling would also be an acceptable candidate for custody, if they should so choose.
I also included the case information for the LA eviction & debt owed, careful to state that I was bringing this case to their attention as a totally separate matter.
I ended it with "I hope we can figure out this temporary custody issue voluntarily without court intervention"
My sister is not going to sign it but i figured I might as well throw it out there.
My sister has been living in FL for over a year and my niece participated in online school this past year thru florida but my sister gets her mail in NY (at my dad's place) and her health insurance for her and her kid are thru NY state. I bet my dad set things up this way so he could always say my sister is a NY state resident so that he can represent her in any legal proceedings.
I have researched florida options regarding conservatorship/guardianship/Custody. Going through florida would be the correct way to go but my dad is going to say she's a resident of NY, so it really depends on where the court proceedings start as far as I can tell, regarding what jurisdictioncis correct.
I'd like to wrap my head around the legal proceedings in NY that I, or my mom, or our other sibling, or a lawyer can initiate in order to achieve the goal, which is simply for my niece to be healthy and to thrive and to be safe.

There are a lot of missing-nins and rogues in Naruto from all the different villages. As I have seen, many of them become independent mercenaries or join mercenary bands. This is an idea I shall be listing below-
Due to the raging civil war, many shinobi from Kirigakure flee the village and go rogue, forming a mercenary/pirate band. They are also joined by some Amegakure ninja whose country was devastated by the Second Great War, and some other rogues from various villages.
Suppose you've carefully observed the Naruto World map. In that case, you may see that the ocean Kirigakure sits upon is vital for trade, as it connects virtually all the northern countries (Lands of Earth, Lightning, Rice paddies, etc.) with the ports in the Southern Countries (Lands of Fire, Water, Wind, Rivers, many others). The villages refrain from using land routes due to the near-constant conflict and fear of brigands. I also propose this is why Kirigakure (Or the Land of Water as a whole) can maintain itself financially. Being islands, the country might not have any notable resources or industry aside from fishing, there isn't even good land for Farming like the Land of Fire.
Due to this, they have taken to mercantile activities. Taxing ships and convoys passing through their harbors surely generates massive revenue. Kirigakure ninjas might be used to extort foreign traders, but that isn't common.
Taking advantage of their former country's strategic location, the rogue group captures a small island on the nation's fringes amidst the raging civil war (hence nobody notices their activities -or acts upon them). They build ships and start attacking ships, capturing, destroying, or looting them. As the group's size increases, the activities also intensify. They even capture some other islands, the Land of Waves, an island belonging to Kumogakure, and an outpost on Whirlpool Island. Gato is a member of the organization, although not a shinobi. He is given reigns over the island and rules with an iron fist. The outpost on Whirlpool Island is intended to excavate the Uzushio ruins and potentially find some new sealing formulas. Konoha is currently recovering from the Kyubi rampage and thus overlooks this endeavor.
The capture of an island belonging to the Land of Lightning does trigger some retaliation from Kumo, who sends a platoon to recapture lost territory. However, they are driven back by the pirates. Recognizing so much effort isn't worth a small island, they form a pact with the pirates; giving them regular tribute in exchange for not attacking convoys of the Land of Lightning.
The pirates use ships of various sizes, usually small, which are designed to be fast and easily maneuverable. You might be wondering, 'They're shinobi, why do they have to use ships when they can walk on water?' Well, we must recognize the sheer expanse of the Naruto world, you're asking a shinobi to continuously run hundreds or even thousands of kilometers over water. Yes, they might have the stamina to walk the distance across nations, but it is unrealistic that an average ninja can walk/swim across oceans, given both his stamina and chakra is depleting quick. As such, the pirates only use ships to travel and use chakra when engaged in combat.
This piracy reaches a boiling point when the Daimyos and Kages recognize the hit their revenue and imports have taken, and decide to act upon it. The first to retaliate was Sunagakure who sent platoons into the Southern Ocean to protect convoys. As strong as Suna might be, they are COMPLETELY inexperienced with naval warfare, sending their shinobi in merchant ships. The pirate vessels are modified and result of the latest shipbuilding, making them faster, and tougher, and are fitted with various weapons. The majority of rogues belong to Kirigakure, as such their elemental affinity is water -decisive in a naval battle. The entire Suna platoon is wiped out; killed, captured, or drowned in the distant waters.
This is a hit on Suna's reputation and The Land of Wind's economy, as the pirates become bolder after their victory and start attacking coastal towns. This forces Sunagakure to garrison shinobi near the coast, stretching their logistics and already fragile economy.
The second nation to try is The Land of Earth, who have already started to consider using land routes. Another naval battle, another decisive pirate victory, but Iwagakure isn't one to give up. They send platoon after platoon, squad after squad, most of them defeated or repelled, and some managing to protect their designated vessels the entire way. The hidden stone village has iron resolve. The village's knuckleheadedness determination causes many losses to the pirates (although Iwagakure was also busy counting the dead) and their activities cease, for some time. Onoki considers this a victory.
The Land of Lightning recognizes the profits of this business and decides to take part. Kumogakure ninjas begin to join the raiding/pirate expeditions under the guise of rogues and bring considerable revenue to their village (60% of the loot is guaranteed to the group, and the rest shifts depending on how many Kumo ninjas participate. Still, considering their regular expeditions the income is huge). Pirate ships are allowed to dock in Kumogakure harbors, even resupplied under the guise of civilian ships.
It is only a matter of time before the pirates gain a spotlight on the world stage, and essentially give all the villages a common enemy. It is also inevitable that Kumogakure will make an enemy of the other villages if their dealings with the pirates continue. Can this cause a global coalition? Yes. Can this cause a world war? Maybe.
Author's notes XD
The entire purpose of this prompt is that I wanna see naval warfare in Naruto, which is evermore exciting with chakra and shinobi. Who knows? Maybe they'll develop cannons in this naval arms race. Any ideas and polishing is appreciated, what are your thoughts?

Getting organized to sit down and write a major term paper is such a daunting task for us folks with ADHD. As a student I would have vague ideas of what I want to write, but lacked the executive function to get to the job done. I would stare at a blank Word doc, type a sentence, delete a sentence, repeat. Unexpected for a writing major, I know. Are you looking for a way to break out of this cycle?
May I present: the Index Card Method.
As a high school student in the 1990s, I was forced to use this method to write a ten page senior thesis. Nearly all senior level English classes in my school used this method. Prior to that year, I had seen students carrying around fat stacks of index cards, protecting them like their ability to graduate depended on them. It did. I begrudgingly followed this methodical approach even though it wasn't "the way I write." Ironically, I found it so helpful I continued using this method throughout college, and admittedly even in grad school 25 years later.
What is it?
It's a low-tech system of organizing your sources, topics, details, citations, and anything else that goes into your paper.
Why low-tech?
It is a hands-on process loaded with sensory actions. Physically handling and arranging the index cards helps me focus on a task. Filling out an index card and setting it aside and then picking up another FEELS productive. Seeing a growing pile of index cards as you move through the project LOOKS like productivity. These sensory activities boost my momentum.
The best part of this method is how it breaks down a mountain of a project into smaller tasks without requiring me to create a big plan before I can start working on it. The size of each task is literally the size of an index card. Plus, it is an opportunity to use those cool pens you bought the last time you said you would start journaling.
The Index Card Method cannot be done the night before a paper is due, at least I wouldn't try it anyway. If you don't like writing outlines or drafts, give this method a try - but if you're cramming, do give yourself a week to get it done.
How does it work?

Step 1: Cards

Get some 3x5 index cards. For a 10-page, double spaced paper, you will need around 300 cards.
Do not get 150 4x6 cards. They must be 3x5.
For this post, I will assume anyone following this method is using lined index cards. It does not matter if the cards are lined, but know that when I say "On the top line write..." I mean where the actual top line of the card would be. This also means you will be writing across width of the cards in landscape orientation, meaning a full line of text on a 3x5 card runs 5 inches, not 3 inches.
There are two simple, but vital rules to remember when creating cards.

1. Only write on one side of the card. Leave the other side blank. You will need to see all of a card's contents at a quick glance.
   
2. If you make a mistake on a card, immediately tear it in half so it doesn't get mixed up with the ones you want to keep.
   

Step 2: Thesis card

You will only have a thesis card if you are writing a thesis (argument) paper.
In the center of the top line of your thesis card, write "Thesis Statement."
Now write your thesis statement below that.

Step 3: Topic cards

In the center of the top line write "Topic." Below that, write the name of a topic related to your thesis statement.
Topics should be broad, written as one or two words. Create as many topic cards as you think you will need. You can always create more later, so don't get stuck on this part.
Example: topics related to a thesis on the healthcare industry may include: Insurance, Costs, Medicare, Medicaid, Prevention, Prescription Drugs, Hospitals, etc.

Step 4: First Layout

Spread out your topic cards on a table. Select the broadest topics and line them up in a row in the order in which you would like them in your paper. Now arrange the narrower topics in columns below the broad topics in the order that makes sense to you. Using the example of the healthcare industry in the previous step, "Costs" may be a broad topic with "Insurance" and "Prescription Drugs" listed beneath it.
Split a topic if you need to. "Costs" could also be split into "Consumer Costs" and "National Costs", then "Insurance" and "Prescription Drugs".
Don't expect to have a lot of topic cards at this point. You may only have one or two subtopics for each broad topic. This is fine. You can always add more as you go along.
Take a picture of your topic cards in this arrangement.
Congratulations, you just made an outline!
Now type it out. Title it "Preliminary Outline."

Step 5: Sources

Go find sources you would like to use for your paper. When you find a source you would like to use, create a bibliography card.

Step 6: Bibliography cards

In the center of the top line write "Bibliography".
In the upper left hand corner of the card on the top line, write the number "1", as it is your first Bibliography card. This is your source ID.
Now write the complete and proper reference of your source, formatted according to your citation style. Include doi links, if applicable. Where italic font is used in a citation, underline it on your card.
Open a new document file. Title it "References", "Works Cited", etc., depending on your citation style. Type out your bibliography cards in the order appropriate to your citation style. Most likely they will be alphabetical by author. As you find more sources and write out bibliography cards, add them to this document.
About citation styles:
A citation style is a way to reference your sources, specifically how you list them out and how you identify where you found a fact or quote.
If you are in highschool, your teacher will tell you how to write write and format sources and citations. If they don't, ask.
If you are an undergrad, most professors don't care which style you choose, but they want it consistent. If this is the case, I recommend using APA or MLA because they use simple, in-line citations.
If you are a graduate student, use the appropriate style for your field. If your reference style uses foot notes or end notes, please be aware you may need to create citation IDs later to help you stay organized.

Step 7: Read and Highlight

As you read through your sources, highlight anything that stands out to you that you may want to use in your paper.
This is where I would normally say it does not matter if your sources are printed or digital, but for many of us it does matter. Stepping away from technology is one the reasons I find this method so effective. I encourage you to print articles or photocopy sources when possible.
Your school likely has access to full-text articles online that can be downloaded as PDFs and printed later.
If your source is text from a website, right click on in the body of the text and select Print. When the print window pops up, select PDF (or Adobe PDF) as your printer. In the next pop up, select where you would like to store your file. Your source is now saved as a PDF. By the way, printing to a PDF is the easiest way to save a file while maintaining its formatting. Try it from any program. Now when you print it to paper, it will look like the PDF.

STEP 8: Detail cards

In the center of the top line write the topic related to the highlighted text. If you do not have a related topic card, make one.
In the upper left corner on the top line, write the source ID that matches the one on its respective bibliography card.
In the upper right corner on the top line of each card write the page number(s) from your source as "p 87" or "pp 87-88". If your source does not have page numbers, write your source's equivalent as it applies (act/scene numbers, time stamp, etc.). Look up a style reference guide for requirements.
Now in your own words, write about an area you highlighted. If you want to directly quote the article, make sure you use quotation marks. Otherwise, simply paraphrase it. Use complete sentences.
If you are copying a long quote and run out of room on a card, write the topic, source ID, and page number on another new card and continue writing your quote. In the bottom right corners write "1 of 2" and "2 of 2" respectively.
Create bibliography and detail cards for all your sources. Find more sources as needed. For a 10-page double spaced paper, expect to have around 150-200 detail cards.

Step 9: Second Layout

Lay out all of your topic cards in the same order as your preliminary outline, only this time line them all up in one row.
By this time you may also want to combine or eliminate topics because your project took a different direction from when you first wrote them. This is fine.
When you think you have enough detail cards, sort them into piles by topic. Now arrange your detail cards in columns under their topics in a way that makes sense to you.
Take a picture of all your cards in this arrangement.
Congratulations, you just layed out your final outline!

Step 10: Type Your Outline

Save a copy of your preliminary outline and title it "Final Outline." Fill in the text from the detail cards. Each detail card should be a separate bullet point on your outline. After typing out a detail card, add the citation at the end. You already know the source because you wrote the source number in the upper left hand corner of each card.
You should not have anything in your final outline that is not written down on an index card.

Step 11: First Draft

Save a copy of your final outline and name it "First Draft." Now arrange your bullet points into paragraphs. This is your draft.
Now print it . Proofread it. Ask a friend to proofread it. Mark it up and make any necessary changes on paper. Don't change any quoted text because quotes are ...well ...quotes.

Step 12: Final Copy

Save a copy of your First draft and name the file "Final Copy." Type the edits you handwrote on paper. I realize with today's technology a lot of proofreading and peer editing is done electronically. This is fine. If you're using Google Docs, be sure to use Suggestion Mode. If using Word, turn on Track Changes.
Your paper is done.
High school students, if your teacher doesn't think you've made enough changes between your draft and your final copy, hand over your stack of index cards, both outlines, and your highlighted sources. They will know you didn't use ChatGPT or copy someone else's work because you can't fake what you've just handed to them.
Edit: See my other post for a technique that harnesses your ADHD to help you organize a project or to present new ideas to a group.
https://www.reddit.com/TwoXADHD/s/Y4pUfQR0R3

This deconstruction agenda - This comes from the elites, they are the ones pushing these agendas to the general public, it is social engineering. By modifying the behavior of men and women, they will be able to dominate societies more easily.
Promiscuity (Libido Dominandi - Read the Book by E. Michael Jones) + promotion of Hedonism + Corroded relationship between man and woman + Disintegrated families (they destroy the alienated cattle family, but theirs remains whole, with political-economic power through decades) + Destruction of Christianity + Ideological indoctrination in schools (so that the cattle only know what is useful for them to know - so that they do not offer opposition to the plans of the ruling elite - (Bill Gates - they really think there is a rich man concerned about the education of the cattle that he wants to dominate? - His success and social dominance depend on the failure and destruction of the people) + Propaganda passed through series, mainstream media and games (Soros invests in Activision Blizzard) + Deconstruction of cultural symbols that refer to a traditional past (or that may represent some value that they want to eliminate) = Facilitation of political dominance by an organized minority.
All the ruling elites have a dynastic mentality, while cattle families remain unstructured and chaotic, theirs remains firm and "traditional", because they know that the traditional family model is the best (and in fact the only way) to pass the power and money across generations. With this chaos, they will have an open field to pass their elitist reforms without the family structures of the lower classes wanting to interfere in decision-making. This is all about power, they don't really care about this "Wokeness", they just use it to dominate people. This crazy gender ideology and identitarianism are part of this chaos. It's the same people financing the same destructive agendas that completely undermine society, go to InfluenceWatch and also research who is involved with the creation and running of the UN (UNESCO and other aggregated crap), Fabian Society, Planned Parenthood, WEForum, SIECUS, World Government Summit and so on.
Warren Buffett has Malthusian ideas and funds abortion, especially for the poor https://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/buffett-billions-for-abortion/
Mark Zuckerberg finances drug legalization and other metacapitalists are doing the same.
As a result, NPCs get into fruitless relationships that last 5 months and still acquire some trauma because they have a relationship with a slut or an addicted man. They end up completely devastated and without the generational power they could have had. "Don't have children" - Elon Musk has 11 children, Bill Gates (Microsoft and Xbox) has 3 children, George Soros has 5, Larry Fink (from BlackRock) has 3, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads and Metaverse) has 3 and Warren Buffett also has 3.
The Rothschild family gained their power when Mayer Rothschild sent each of his sons to a different part of Europe to lead banks in each of the respective countries that the patriarch chose. The same goes for other families of bankers and tycoons that dominate countries and determine the direction of the world for decades and centuries. Just look at the Arab families that dominate the East and the Traditional European clans. They want to ensure the consolidation of their own dynastic families.
Maybe most people (especially young hipsters and Millennial idiots) are so pathetic that they don't even care about having their lineage erased (since they won't have children) and in the end still leaving all their money to the state. As these people have no transcendental purpose, they prefer to 'throw themselves into the abyss'.
They managed to eliminate the basis that supported the style of society that allowed social ascension - this was a system that threatened the elite. Now without religion, traditional morals, healthy relationships in a marriage between a man and a woman and the accumulation of wealth, they can easily dominate the people, as individuals are atomized and without a protective structure, without family ties, these ties that previously allowed new 'clans' to emerge, the only clans allowed will be theirs. They will completely control science, the flow of information and the economy, as cattle will no longer be able to earn money due to automation and artificial intelligence controlled by them and used to manipulate the alienated.
With the advent of transhumanism and under-the-skin-surveillance, which Yuval Harari talks about so much, the dream of some elitists of determining who is born and who dies will finally be realized, and vulnerable groups will be eliminated (sub-Saharans). We will live in a Brave New World (Huxley) in which the entire destiny of people will be in the hands of some members of the elite, there will be a system of slavery completely legalized and accepted by cattle. It is widespread slavery.
They will create the rules of the game. To earn some income, the atomized individual will have to sell his soul to these elitists by placing chips in his own body (Ghost in The Shell style), pruning his free expression and fulfilling all the requirements to become an exemplary NPC. The companies of these trashy metacapitalists are already trying to control the behavior of employees even when they are at leisure outside the workplace, as happens in the Chinese companies.
This is “metacapitalism”, it is what elites have been promoting since the beginning of the 20th century. They finance everything that goes against Christian Civilization.
With the advent of transhumanism, the social credit system will strengthen, and will even encompass your thoughts and sensations. Imagine those crazy dictators like Kim Jong Un knowing people's emotional state and even their thoughts.
Read Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, Brave New Word and the books that Klaus Schwab and Yuval Harari wrote.

We are looking for 11 more users (for a total of 25) to run an online dynasty on Xbox Series S/X.
I'm a (wanna be) creative who loves NCAA Football and is excited for the new game as anyone. Like many people in this subreddit, I like to have head cannon and storylines for my players, assistant coaches, rivals, etc. During the early days of the pandemic, I joined up with an NCAA 14 OD for awhile where most of us made up funny coach names/personalities which we then used as our Discord server names.
As we came up on the new game's release this summer, in my boredom, I went about making up a coaching resume using real teams/players/stats for a two-person dynasty my friend from college and I will be doing. I genuinely had so much fun perusing NAIA, FCS, D2/D3 programs of the last decade or so to create a coherent backstory that I thought it would be fun to set up a bigger dynasty with more D&D character coaches.
For an example of what these would look like for each user, here is the one I'll be using:
Jessie Osteen (Air Raid/Tactician)
2015: Baylor, SA
2016: Texas Tech, GA
2017: Oklahoma, QC
2018: Oklahoma, OA
2019-20: HBU (FCS), OC/QB
2021: Stephenville HS (TX)
2022-23: DeSoto HS (TX)
2024: Sam Houston, OC/QB
Career highlights:
• ⁠As the black sheep of the Osteen dynasty, Jesse refused to enroll at Texas (the fam’s fav school), opting instead to go to Texas Tech to drink and shoot feral hogs with his friends for course credit. • ⁠Transferred to Baylor as a senior to serve as Student Assistant under Art Briles. • ⁠GA under Kliff Kingsbury for 2 years at Texas Tech. Stood next to Patrick Mahomes as he threw for 5000 yds with 53 total TDs in ‘16. • ⁠Pissed off the fam even more by going to arch rival Oklahoma. Quality Control then Offensive Analyst for Lincoln Riley at OU in ‘17 and ‘18 working as an assistant QB coach. ⁠• ⁠2017 - Baker Mayfield: Heisman, 4900 total yds, 49 TD ⁠• ⁠2018 - Kyler Murray: Heisman, 5300 total yds, 54 TDs. • ⁠OC at Houston Baptist. In 16 games, Bailey Zappe: 5600 passing yds, 50 TD passes to 16 INTs. In ‘20, lost at Texas Tech by 2. • ⁠Took 1st HC job at Stephenville HS in Texas in ‘21. Followed up previous coach's 6-6 record in 2020 with 16-0 perfect season capped off with a 4A Division 1 State Title. ⁠• ⁠QB Ryder Lambert: 133.4 QBR, 4,275 pass yds, 52 TD-8 INT, 64%; 831 rush yds, 11 TD ⁠• ⁠WR Coy Eakin: 93 catches, 2,140 rec yds, 31 TD; 231 rush yds, 4 TD (3-star Texas Tech commit) ⁠• ⁠WR Reece Elston: 94 catches, 1,352 rec yds, 11 TD • ⁠HC for national power DeSoto HS in TX. In ‘22 and ‘23, won 6A Division 1 State Titles. ⁠• ⁠QB DJ Bailey: 7700 pass yds, 98 TD to 6 INT, 600 rush yds, 10 TD in 2 years as starter (3-star Sam Houston State commit) ⁠• ⁠WR Johntay Cook (‘22 SR season): 85 catches, 1,530 rec yds, 22 TD (4-star Texas commit) • ⁠After compiling a 46-2 record and 3 State Titles in 3 years as a TX HS coach, took SHSU OC job and brought Bailey with him Position • ⁠Position Specialties: QB, TE • ⁠Favorite bands: AC/DC, Guns 'N Roses, Iron Maiden, Olivia Rodrigo • ⁠Aliases: El Bandito Gringo, Clit Eastwood, The Wang From Waco, The Prodigal Son, The Big O, The Lakewood Lobo, The Houston Habanero, Art Briles 6.0
Restrictions on coach resume:
• ⁠CANNOT be a current IRL FBS/NFL coach OR take on the specific resumes of current IRL FBS/NFL HCs (ex. CANNOT have been the OC at Indiana when Kalen DeBoer was, but CAN be a GA/analyst/position coach under him at that time to say you worked with Michael Penix) • ⁠Resume should make sense leading into being a low-level coordinator
I will send each person a list of questions to help them create a dynasty avatar including their fictional coach's name, coaching resume, backstory, personality, etc.) up until the game drops on July 19th. If you have any specific ideas such as the position your coach specializes in, the marquee coaches they have worked undesystem they run, or which NAIA/lower division school they got their start in coaching with, write it down.
Dynasty Rules:
• ⁠Heisman difficulty • ⁠6 minute quarters • ⁠Custom playbooks are allowed (cheese and game exploits not allowed) • ⁠Twice-a-week advance schedule • ⁠Start as coordinators with non-P5 programs who had losing records in 2023 (must be AAC, C-USA, MAC, or MWC) ⁠• ⁠AAC: Charlotte, East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Navy, North Texas, Temple, Tulsa, UAB ⁠• ⁠C-USA: Florida International, Kennesaw State, Louisiana Tech, MTSU, Sam Houston, UTEP ⁠• ⁠MAC: Akron, Ball State, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Kent State, Western Michigan ⁠• ⁠MWC: Colorado State, Hawai'i, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State • ⁠Additional rules will be discussed/voted on as necessary by the whole squad once more details come out about settings, sliders, etc.
If this sounds like something you want to be a part of, I'd love to hear from you via DM so we can discuss. If you have an idea of how you want to design your coach, great! If not, I will gladly help you figure out the character based on the scheme you're plan on running, position specialties, etc.
On the eve of game's release, we'll have a reveal show via Discord introducing each coach. If there's anyone interested in joining who is also proficient in PhotoShop or AI art, please let me know as that will make our reveal show even better.
Our chatting and user-game coordination will also occur via Discord. Among the features that will make this dynasty unique:
Hall of Fame for user players: At the end of the career of any player on your team who you believe should be immortalized for their achievements on the field, you can nominate them for induction into our HoF to be voted on by all users. A two-thirds majority vote will land that player in our Discord channel HoF.
Annual awards show for user players/teams: On Week 12 of every season, I will send out a Google Form for the nominations of 15 categories like Offensive/Defensive Players of the Year, MVP, and Coach of the Year. At the conclusion of the season, ballots will be sent out (once again via Google Forms), tallied up, and winners revealed in our Awards Show. Winners will be recorded for posterity in another channel within our Discord.
If you're looking for a moderately-paced but active dynasty with a little pizzazz, please DM me with your gamertag, Discord username, and team selection. As the team picks come in, I will edit this post, adding in each one till all slot are filled.
Teams taken: Sam Houston State, Florida International, Hawai’i, Temple, East Carolina, Navy, UTEP, Florida Atlantic, Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Kennesaw State, Ball State, Charlotte, New Mexico

Build Help/Ready:

What is your intended use for this build? The more details the better.

• Light programming.
• CPU demanding games (from Paradox Interactive like EU4, Stellaris, etc,.), some AAA at lowest setting. As long as the games run smoothly with no stuttering I'm fine with bad graphics.
• Productivity works: around 100+ tab in Firefox, Slack, Gchat, Excel, Zoom, etc,. all running at the same time all day.

I'm working from home so this is for work + gaming, and I constantly switching between working and gaming all day so I usually just leave stuff running in the background. Some question that I need help with:

1. Is 32GB DDR5 sufficient for my need? Currently my gig is 16GB DDR4 and I'm constantly running in to out of memory problem.
2. Is RX6600 overkill for my use case? I'm not gonna update GPU in the future so I want it to last around 5 years and still be able to run games smoothly at the lowest setting.
3. If RX6600 is overkill, should I get a cheaper one and spend more money on a better CPU than 13600KF?
4. Should I worry about the motherboard? I'm getting he cheapest one I can find that supports the CPU
5. Any other suggestion is welcome. Thanks.

What is your budget (ballpark is okay)?
Under $1000. But I'm in Asia so price and availability will vary greatly. My pick here are what are available in my country at the cheapest price.
Post a draft of your potential build here (specific parts please). Consider formatting your parts list. Don't ask to be spoonfed a build (read the rules!).
PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel Core i5-13600KF 3.5 GHz 14-Core Processor	-
CPU Cooler	Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler	-
Motherboard	Asus B760M-AYW WIFI Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard	-
Memory	Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL36 Memory	-
Storage	Western Digital Black SN850X 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	-
Video Card	ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 6600 8 GB Video Card	-
Case	Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case	-
Power Supply	Corsair RM750x (2021) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	-

Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-06-08 22:44 EDT-0400
Provide any additional details you wish below.
I'm planning to use this build for at least 5 years with no upgrades in between.
NOTE: You do not have to follow this format, but please be sure to answer these questions. Please do not ask to simply be given a build. You are welcome to delete this section.

Newbie here, hello! I'll be summiting the Grand Tetons with Exum guides in late July, and I currently live in the Southwest where it's very hot and close to sea level. I've got a training plan (long walks, weighted walks, squats, step-ups, indoor climbing, etc) but can't really recreate what it's like to hike/scramble at altitude in the actual clothes I'll be wearing.
I will be using Exum's safety gear (harness, helmet, etc), but need to put together my wardrobe for 2 days of training at base + 1 day hike to Lower Saddle (5000 vertical feet; 9 miles; 6-8 hours) + 1 day summit and descent (12-16 hours; I believe this is via OS route).
I want to crowdsource some opinions since many of Exum's original clothing suggestions are expensive (e.g. Arc Teryx Squamish Hoody, Arc Teryx Alpha SL or Venta AR gloves). Here's what I already own or found for super cheap/used so far.
Owned/Bought used:

• Craft Active Intensity base layer pants (like this one)
• Under Armour fleece 3.0 base layer pants (like this one)
• REI lightweight base layer short sleeve
• REI quick dry tee shirt
• Nike running shorts
• Marmot Olden Polartec square grid fleece half zip (like this one)
• Columbia Sun Trek hoodie
• Nike quick dry hoodie
• Patagonia rain jacket (like this one)
• Marmot rain pants
• Eddie Bauer First Ascent Climbing/Hiking pants
• Patagonia Down Sweater (like this one)

Bought new:

• Black Diamond Mission approach shoes
• Black Diamond Crag gloves (for rappelling)

What would you take/leave from this list? What would you add (items that don't break the bank)? Thanks!

DAY JUNE 8 2024
6-8-2024

‘WE CANNOT SIMPLY GO, GO, GO.’ WHAT IS ‘GIRL MOSSING,’ THE WELLNESS TREND THAT REJECTS HUSTLE CULTURE?

On TikTok and Instagram, people are “girl mossing”: lying on a forest floor, staring up at a leafy canopy or caressing moss. The United States National Forest Foundation even borrowed the term to kick off its 2024 Instagram account. Girl mossing recognizes a need to step away from the pressures of modern, urban life, promoting spending time in nature as a restorative practice. The fast pace and pressure of neoliberal capitalism take an enormous toll on well-being: not just personal, but social and planetary.
6-8-2024

FIVE WAYS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CAN IMPROVE YOUR DATING LIFE

Artificial intelligence is going to transform how we date. The question is: will it be for better or worse? It’s already causing some real problems, especially related to “romance scams” and other fraud. But it’s not all doom and gloom. Used in the right way, AI can actually make dating better. It can help write profiles and find matches, provide dating advice and coaching and, if all else fails, become a date companion. I have spent the last few years studying the impact of technology, and especially AI, on our
6-8-2024

STUDY ASSESSES ‘THE DANCER PERSONALITY’

“Tell me if you dance and I will tell you who you are!” A study led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, has shown that both amateur and professional dancers are less neurotic than people who do not dance. They are also more agreeable, more open, and more extraverted.
6-8-2024

ONLINE SHOPPERS BEHAVE DIFFERENTLY AFTER CHATTING WITH STAFF OF THE OPPOSITE GENDER, RESEARCH SHOWS

In a digital world where people are mere pixels on a screen, gender bias can show up in unexpected forms. When people are online, anonymity and physical detachment embolden them to behave in biased ways
6-8-2024

INVESTORS BET BIG ON SUNNY DAYS, STUDY FINDS

It’s often said we can’t control the weather. But what if the weather controls how and when we invest our money? More specifically, what if the skies control how much we’re willing to gamble in the stock market? New research by the University of South Australia has found a connection between pleasant weather conditions and higher investment in lottery-like stocks. Lottery-like stocks are cheap compared to other stocks and, like lottery tickets, they can be seen as an opportunity to make a substantial gain. However, the chance of a higher
6-8-2024

TEENS TREATED UNFAIRLY BY TEACHERS MORE LIKELY TO HAVE POPULIST ATTITUDES

Perceived unjust teacher behavior is strongly and positively associated with populist attitudes among children and adolescents. Populist attitudes consist of ideologies including anti-elitism, people-centrism, and a dualistic perception of good versus evil, and where the foundation of political decision-making should be based on the general will of the people. In contrast to the association with teacher behavior, the correlation between young people’s relationships with peers and the development of populist attitudes is less strong, and the correlation between young people’s relationships
6-8-2024

MICROINCLUSIONS IMPROVE WOMEN’S WORKPLACE BELONGING AND COMMITMENT

New research shows how “microinclusions”—brief instances of positive treatment, especially from members of the dominant group—help women feel valued at work. Imagine your first day at a new job. You probably feel nervous, wondering how you’ll fit in with the team. It’s natural to worry if your co-workers will be supportive, or if they’ll take your contributions seriously. This experience is amplified for women in technology companies, who often face underrepresentation and
6-8-2024

BURNT OUT? HOW YOUR EMPLOYER CAN HELP YOU RETURN TO WORK FOR THE BETTER

The working world can be a pitiless one, as competition in the marketplace can put significant pressures on employees. Relentless deadlines, shrinking resources and shifting priorities all take their toll on employees’ well-being and mental health. In my home country of Belgium, more than two thirds (66.4%) of individuals on disability for psychological reasons had cases related to depression or burn-out. These worrisome statistics reflect broader trends across OECD countries, where nearly half (47.6%) of workers with mental-health problems have been absent from the office in the past year, compared
6-8-2024

FAMILY-FRIENDLY WORKPLACES BENEFIT EMPLOYEES, BUSINESSES

Paid leave and employee well-being are the focus of a three-part policy series on family-friendly business practices put together by the Brown School’s Clark-Fox Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis. “Creating a family-friendly workplace benefits both employees and businesses,” said Gary Parker, associate dean for external affairs and director of the institute. “For employees, it enhances work-life balance and job satisfaction,” he said. “For businesses, it leads to higher retention rates, reduced absenteeism and improved productivity. Policies such as paid leave, flexible work arrangements
6-8-2024

HOW TRUMP’S DEFINITION OF A ‘REAL’ AMERICAN HAS GRABBED HIS AUDIENCE—WHAT OUR RESEARCH SHOWS ABOUT WHY

Donald Trump has recently doubled down on his derogatory depictions of undocumented migrants in his bid to win the 2024 presidential election. In an interview with Time magazine, published on April 30 2024, Trump referred to migrants as “criminals,” who “come in and they steal our jobs, and steal our wealth, and they steal our country.” Trump was especially disparaging towards migrants from China, who he said are a “major force that’s forming in our country.” In short, according to Trump, undocumented migration is “an invasion of our country.” Trump’s
6-8-2024

NEW STUDY SHOWS MARKETING A BRAND’S SIMPLICITY CAN BACKFIRE

Irritability is a common side effect of heat. When companies tout the simplicity of their products, they may unknowingly invite customer dissatisfaction, new University of Oregon research finds. For decades, “simpler is better” has been accepted as a universal truth in marketing. Nick Light, assistant professor of marketing at the UO’ Lundquist College of Business, has tested that assumption. He found that most consumers prefer offerings that appear to be easy to use and understand. However, trumpeting simplicity can have a hidden, costly downside. “When marketing convinces consumers that things
6-8-2024

RESEARCHERS CREATE WINNING STRATEGY TO COMBAT VACCINE MISINFORMATION ON X

A new in-depth analysis shows that users who reply to misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine on X, formerly known as Twitter, with a positive attitude, politeness, and strong evidence are more likely to encourage others to disbelieve the incorrect information. Researchers from three Georgia Tech schools found the most
6-8-2024

STUDY SHOWS DISENGAGED STUDENTS MORE LIKELY TO USE AI TOOLS FOR ASSIGNMENTS

A Swansea University psychology study has found that disengaged students are more likely to use AI tools—particularly ChatGPT—for academic assignments, raising questions about academic integrity and the need for proactive interventions. Launched in November 2022, ChatGPT is an AI program capable of answering questions in detailed, human-like ways. Researchers surveyed 160 undergraduate students, aged between 18 and 24, in March 2023 to assess their attitudes towards and past usage of AI tools such as ChatGPT in academic coursework. The study is published in The Internet and Higher Education journal. Thirty-two
6-8-2024

HUMAN CULTURE IS CHANGING TOO FAST FOR EVOLUTION TO CATCH UP—HERE’S HOW IT MAY AFFECT YOU

Research is showing that many of our contemporary problems, such as the rising prevalence of mental health issues, are emerging from rapid technological advancement and modernisation. A theory that can help explain why we respond poorly to modern conditions, despite the choices, safety and other benefits they bring, is evolutionary mismatch. Mismatch happens when an evolved adaptation, either physical or psychological, becomes misaligned with the environment. Take moths and some species of nocturnal flies, for example. Because they have to navigate in the dark, they evolved to use the moon
6-8-2024

YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE UK SAY THEY ARE LESS LIKELY TO VOTE IF THEIR PARENTS REPORT DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS

With a U.K. General Election approaching, new research has found that parental history of depression can predict whether a young person is likely to intend to vote. The research, led by the Department of Politics at the University of Liverpool, found that, at age 26, people were less likely to intend to vote if they had grown up with a parent experiencing high levels of depressive symptoms. Published in the journal Electoral Studies, the research used the British Cohort Study (BCS), which followed more than 16,000 babies born across a
6-8-2024

WHO GETS TO DECIDE WHAT COUNTS AS ‘DISORDER’?

As a scholar of urban governance and data policy, I viewed the responses to protests on U.S. campuses as about more than threats to academic freedom and freedom of speech. They are also threats to the fundamental rights of people in public spaces. The protesters’ tactics, particularly their use of tents in encampments, have brought debates around definitions of public order and disorder to the fore. Over the past couple of months, students in universities across the country, from the University of California, Los Angeles to the Massachusetts Institute of
6-8-2024

STUDYING VIOLENCE TOWARD WOMEN AND ANIMALS CAN HELP US DEVELOP STRATEGIES TO PREVENT BOTH

We live in a world where not everyone feels safe and respected, especially women. Sexual violence and abuse are significant global health issues. Intimate partner violence continues to be a problem in Canada. According to Statistics Canada, of the 117,093 victims of police-reported intimate partner violence in 2022, almost 80% were women and girls. More than half of women in the United States have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact. Given these high rates of sexual abuse, it is imperative that we improve upon what we currently know about violence
6-8-2024

WHY THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY COULD DEPEND ON YOUR GROUP CHATS

I became newly worried about the state of democracy when, a few years ago, my mother was elected president of her neighborhood garden club. Her election wasn’t my worry—far from it. At the time, I was trying to resolve a conflict on a large email group I had created. Someone, inevitably, was being a jerk on the internet. I had the power to remove them, but did I have the right? I realized that the garden club had in its bylaws something I had never seen in nearly all the
6-8-2024

NET ZERO IS NOT JUST GOOD SCIENCE—IT’S ALSO A GOOD DEAL FOR ORDINARY PEOPLE

As the UK moves into a general election, a misinformed debate over the country’s climate transition and legally binding net zero targets risks further dividing people. Much of this debate in the UK focuses on the “cost” of net zero. For instance, energy secretary Claire Coutinho recently stated the government did not want a “net zero leviathan” to crush the nation’s “brilliant enterprise economy,” while the Labor Party had to backtrack on its own headline climate investment pledge, citing “affordability” and “fiscal rules.” But the true “cost” is tricky to
6-8-2024

THE FASCINATING PSYCHOLOGY BEHIND ‘DINE AND DASH’ AND WHY IT’S ABOUT SO MUCH MORE THAN A FREE MEAL

Sometimes when I read the newspapers, I think that going to a restaurant and leaving without paying has become something of an epidemic. My research into lying has taught me that the psychology behind acts of deception is often deeply complex. Let me start with a confession. I was guilty of dine and dash a very long time ago before it had a catchy name. I was in a group that hung about a chip shop at the turn-of-the-road in north Belfast, a poor and troubled area. I had a
6-8-2024

YOU CAN NOW BE FROZEN AFTER DEATH IN AUSTRALIA. IF YOU’RE REVIVED IN THE FUTURE, WILL YOU LEGALLY BE THE SAME PERSON?

In recent weeks, Southern Cryonics—the southern hemisphere’s only cryopreservation facility, located in rural New South Wales—announced it had successfully cryopreserved its first patient. There are only a handful of cryopreservation facilities across the globe—two in the United States, and one each in Russia, China, Australia and Switzerland. If the claims made on their websites and in the press are accurate, these facilities likely have no more than 600 patients in cryonic storage in total. Media reports however suggest interest in cryopreservation has risen since the onset of the COVID pandemic,
6-8-2024

ENGINEERS HAVE A DUTY TO PROTECT PUBLIC WELL-BEING, BUT LESS THAN HALF LEARN HOW TO DO SO EFFECTIVELY

Engineers who received public welfare responsibility training in classes are more likely to consider the societal impact of technologies they design and to take action when concerns arise, according to a study by University of Michigan researchers published in The Journal of Engineering Education. While engineers are professionally obligated to protect the safety and well-being of those their technologies impact, the study found that nearly a third of U.S. practicing engineers have never received any training in public welfare
6-8-2024

HIRING PRESSURES TO DIVERSIFY ARE INFLUENCING PATTERNS OF DISCRIMINATION IN UNEXPECTED WAYS

In 2004, a pair of economists published a landmark study to measure discrimination in the labor market. In the study, the researchers applied to real job openings with fictitious applicants but changed the applicant names to reflect a different gender or race. They found clear evidence of discrimination: White men and women received 50% more callbacks than Black men and women. More recently, Berkeley
6-8-2024

STUDY FINDS RACIAL BIAS IN TRAFFIC STOPS BY CHICAGO POLICE

Black drivers in Chicago are significantly more likely than white drivers to be stopped by police regardless of where the drivers live or are going, according to a new study led by a Cornell city planning expert that maps the racial composition of roads by using mobile phone GPS data. The study confirms a racial bias
6-8-2024

DO WE HAVE MORE EMPATHY FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE SIMILAR TO US? NEW RESEARCH SUGGESTS IT’S NOT THAT SIMPLE

How do people successfully interact with those who are completely different from them? And can these differences create social barriers? Social scientists are struggling with these questions because the mental processes underlying social interactions are not well understood. One recent concept that has become increasingly popular is the “double-empathy problem.” This draws on research looking at people who are known to experience social difficulties,
6-8-2024

HOW CAN WE MAKE GOOD DECISIONS BY OBSERVING OTHERS? A VIDEOGAME AND COMPUTATIONAL MODEL HAVE THE ANSWER

How can disaster response teams benefit from understanding how people most efficiently pick strawberries together, or how they choose the perfect ice cream shop with friends? All these scenarios are based on the very fundamental question of how and when human groups manage to adapt collectively to different circumstances. Two recent studies on collective dynamics by the Cluster of Excellence Science of Intelligence (SCIoI) in Berlin, Germany, lay the groundwork to promote better
6-8-2024

OTHERS’ WORDS, NOT FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE, SHAPE SCIENTIFIC AND RELIGIOUS BELIEF FORMATION, STUDY FINDS

Three proposals explaining the differential confidence. (A) Intuitively, one might assume that confidence in scientific entities (e.g., germs) is higher than confidence in religious entities (e.g., angels) because scientific entities are observable in principle whereas religious entities are not. (B) The Dual- Pathway Model proposes separate information pathways for scientific versus religious beliefs; belief in scientific entities is primarily driven by direct experience of causal outcomes whereas belief in religious entities is primarily driven by testimony. (C) Contrary to these two models, the Unified Model proposes that belief in both
6-8-2024

TRYING TO SAVE MONEY? RESEARCH SUGGESTS PAYING IN CASH—WHILE YOU STILL CAN

Cash is in crisis. In Australia, it’s now only used for 16% of in-person transactions, down from about 70% in 2007. The situation is so dire that on Monday, independent federal MP Andrew Gee introduced a private member’s bill that would force businesses to accept cash or else face big fines. The reality is that over the past decade, technological advancements have utterly transformed the way we pay for goods and services. Phones and smartwatches can now easily be used to pay by card, and buy-now-pay-later
6-8-2024

MESSAGES CAN TRIGGER THE OPPOSITE OF THEIR DESIRED EFFECT—BUT YOU CAN AVOID COMMUNICATION THAT BACKFIRES

The best graduation speeches dispense wisdom you find yourself returning to long after the graduation tassels are turned. Take the feel-good life advice in Baz Luhrmann’s song to a class that graduated 25 years ago. Only on a recent relisten did I realize it also captures one of the research-based strategies I teach for avoiding communication that backfires. The tip is hiding in plain sight in the song’s title, “Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen).” Communication aimed at promoting a certain behavior can have the opposite
6-8-2024

DIFFERENCES IN EDUCATION, VALUES BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN CAUSE MISMATCHES WHEN SEEKING A PARTNER, FINDS SPANISH STUDY

The educational expansion of women has led to changes in the differences in educational level of men and women when looking for a partner. Research conducted by the UAB Center for Demographic Studies (CED-CERCA) has examined for the first time the role of discrepancies in gender role values and education among potential spouses. According to the study, about a third of women in favor of gender equality and with a higher education would not be able to find a homogamous male partner. The work is published in the journal Perspectives
6-8-2024

‘FUZZY’ MAPS OFFER INSIGHT INTO LOCAL PERCEPTIONS OF THE VALUE OF VOLUNTEERING

In the global South, volunteer programs are framed by policymakers and scholars as an effective vehicle for empowering women living in poverty. But this narrative often rests on scant knowledge of the perspectives and experiences of a key set of local stakeholders: the volunteers. A new study co-authored by Yale anthropologist Catherine Panter-Brick addresses this knowledge gap by engaging with Syrian refugees and Jordanian women from poor households in Amman, Jordan,
6-8-2024

EXPERTS SAY USE OF POLITICAL MEMES ARE A PREDICTOR OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE

In a study of social media activity prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, researchers at the University of Notre Dame say a sharp increase in politically salient imagery online—visual content designed to influence, dehumanize, manipulate and motivate audiences—was a predictor of the conflict. With collaborators at Colby College and Kennesaw State University, the researchers collected post history from a select group of 989 Russian milbloggers—a term used for “military bloggers”
6-8-2024

PROGRAMS TO PREVENT SEXUAL VIOLENCE SHOW NO EVIDENCE OF CURBING ASSAULTS, ANALYSIS FINDS

Sexual violence prevention programs effectively change ideas and beliefs that underscore assaults, but show no evidence of reducing their actual occurrence, a new comprehensive analysis shows. The findings are published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest. Researchers led by behavioral scientist Roni Porat of Hebrew University challenge the assumption that changing people’s thoughts about sexual violence will change their actual behavior. They call on scientists to study more behavior-centered approaches to reducing sexual
6-8-2024

DIVERSE FRIEND GROUPS PROMOTE BETTER SOCIAL COHESION AND WELL-BEING, STUDY FINDS

New research featuring more than 24,000 people has found that having diverse groups of friends improves well-being and social cohesion, despite people’s tendency to gravitate towards people more similar to them. Led by researchers at the University of Birmingham and published in Psychological Science, the study used data from 24,726 adults from over 10,000 English neighborhoods to examine the composition of people’s social networks according to age, ethnicity, income, and education to understand the implications of homophily (preference for similar people) on social cohesion subjective well-being. Dr. Miguel Ramos, lead
6-8-2024

STUDY SHOWS JUSTICE FACILITY DOGS BENEFIT WELL-BEING FOR CHILDREN FACING COURT

A new Edith Cowan University (ECU) study has revealed that having a four-legged friend at Children’s Court significantly reduces stress and anxiety for young victims, witnesses, and their caregivers. ECU criminology researchers Dr. Suz Rock and Associate Professor Natalie Gately have published the first Australian study to evaluate the impact of introducing a justice facility dog to a Children’s Court. The study “Kids, Courts and Canines: Evaluating the Justice Facility Dog Program through a Therapeutic Lens
6-8-2024

SEXUAL MINORITIES EXPERIENCE MORE EXCLUSION IN EVERYDAY SITUATIONS, FINDS STUDY

Lesbian, gay and bisexual people experience exclusion more frequently than heterosexual people. This is the finding of a recent study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin by researchers from the University of Basel and the RPTU University of Kaiserslautern-Landau. According to the study, people who are perceived as less gender-conforming are more frequently socially excluded. This could also affect heterosexual people if they deviate from traditional
6-8-2024

STILL RIDING LA’S METRO AFTER THE PANDEMIC? YOU PROBABLY THINK IT’S SAFER THAN THOSE WHO DON’T ANYMORE

As Jon Regardie wrote last year in Los Angeles Magazine, “Metro’s raison d’etre is to get hundreds of thousands of people each day across Southern California.” But the COVID-19 pandemic sent the numbers of riders plummeting to a low of 13%, and ridership still hasn’t fully rebounded. The reason may now be clear, thanks to the latest USC Dornsife LABarometer survey, conducted by the Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR) at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. The survey found that although public transportation ridership in
6-8-2024

CAN VAGUE GO VIRAL FOR GEN Y?

Generation Y, Gen Y, is commonly referred to as the millennial generation. It usually includes individuals born between the early 1980s and the mid-to-late 1990s or early 2000s. This generation follows Generation X and precedes Generation Z. The millennials, it is said, grew up during the transition to digital technology and the rise of the internet, and this has shaped their perspectives, behavior, and the way they use technology and media. They are often characterized as tech-savvy, adaptable, and socially conscious, with a strong affinity for social media and digital
6-8-2024

ITALIAN MOMS WITH 3+ KIDS WORK FAR FEWER YEARS THAN DADS, WHILE FINLAND SHOWS EQUALITY

Over the past century, the number of working women in Western countries has steadily increased. However, numerous studies show that it is still primarily women who have to manage the balancing act between parenthood and working life. Compared to fathers and childless women, mothers often have a less straightforward career path and face greater hurdles to career advancement. Little research has been done on what happens to women’s employment trajectories from midlife when childrearing efforts are
6-8-2024

TOP IT INDUSTRY MANAGERS ARE DIVIDED ON THE NEED FOR FACE-TO-FACE COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE

Many managers are currently seeking a balance between digital and face-to-face communication. A recent study from the University of Eastern Finland published in Information Technology & People shows that top IT industry managers have different views on when and for what purposes face-to-face communication in the workplace is needed. “Some top managers felt that all work tasks can be performed remotely with the help of digital communication. According to them, face-to-face communication is only necessary for maintaining interpersonal relationships and a sense of community,” says Doctoral Researcher Lotta Salin of
6-8-2024

STUDY FINDS SIMPLE HEADLINES ATTRACT MORE ONLINE NEWS READERS

The competition for online attention in today’s news environment is fierce. High-quality news from credible sources must compete for attention with misinformation and a rapidly increasing amount of partisan content. How can a news organization stand out as a reputable and trustworthy outlet while driving readers to its site? The answer is simple: literally. According to research from Michigan State University, news readers engage more with simple writing, suggesting journalists should write simply—clearly and without ambiguity—to attract attention online. The study was published in the journal Science Advances. “Newsrooms want
6-8-2024

STUDY SHOWS BANNING FALSE INFORMATION TRAFFICKERS ONLINE CAN IMPROVE PUBLIC DISCOURSE

When Twitter banned more than 70,000 traffickers of false information from its platform in the wake of the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the impact went beyond the silencing of those users. A study co-authored by UC Riverside public policy and political science scholars published in the journal Nature on June 5, found that the crackdown by Twitter (now called X after it was acquired by billionaire Elon Musk in late 2022) also significantly reduced the number of misinformation posts by users who stayed on the
6-8-2024

YOUNG ADULTS SAY STEADY SUPPORT FROM CARING ADULTS MADE DIFFERENCE IN TRANSITIONING FROM CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM

Young people who have exited foster care generally fare better—in work, school and relationships—if they get consistent support from adults who care about them during their teen years. My research team reached these findings by interviewing 21 people, now in their late 20s, who had aged out of foster care when they turned 18, had spent time in foster care as children or grew up in families that had active child welfare cases. These young adults relayed the degree to which they received support from
6-8-2024

HOW THE 1901 DISCOVERY EXPEDITION’S POLAR EXPLORERS STAYED HEALTHY DURING THEIR ANTARCTIC JOURNEY

Antarctica is the most inhospitable continent on earth. It’s dry, cold, and completely dark for months of the year. Edwardian explorers were some of the first to brave the Antarctic winter, developing new knowledge still drawn upon by scientists today. The Discovery expedition (1901–4) played a key role in the history of polar exploration. It was led by the Royal Navy commander Robert Falcon Scott, a pioneering polar explorer who died in 1912 after attempting to reach the south pole. The expedition’s third lieutenant was Ernest Shackleton, who led three
6-8-2024

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODELS INFUSED WITH AGRI-INNOVATION SYSTEMS CAN REDUCE POST-HARVEST FOOD LOSS AND WASTE

developing sustainable business models that are multi-actor networked for integrating them with agricultural innovation systems initiatives can enable a systemic approach for reducing food loss and value loss at the post-harvest
6-8-2024

WILL THE 2024 OLYMPIC GAMES BECOME THE PLAYING FIELD FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE PROTESTS?

Yannick Kluch, a professor of recreation, sport and tourism at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, studies sport as a platform for promoting social justice. Kluch has worked with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, U.S. Diving and the National Collegiate Athletic Association. He spoke with research editor Sharita Forrest about the history of Olympic athletes’ social justice protests and governing organizations’ efforts to avert them with Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter.
6-8-2024

STUDY FINDS WE SPEND MORE WITH CASHLESS PAYMENTS

A study found support for the existence of a positive “cashless effect,” which is when consumers spend more when using cashless payment methods in comparison to cash. The study suggests the cashless effect leads people to spend more when purchasing products that are typically used to signal status, such as jewelry. However, the
6-8-2024

LAWS MEANT TO KEEP DIFFERENT RACES APART STILL INFLUENCE DATING PATTERNS, DECADES AFTER BEING INVALIDATED

If you are single and looking for a romantic partner, chances are that you have used a dating app. But the likelihood that others will like, or even see, your profile may depend on your race. Studies have found that all people on dating apps, regardless of their own race, are more likely to contact white people using the app. And all people using dating apps are least likely to contact African American women and Asian American men. Until recently, some popular apps, including OkCupid, Match, Hinge and Grindr, provided
6-8-2024

VIRTUAL LABS IN PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH BOOST DIVERSITY

University of Oregon psychologists are breaking down barriers to include underrepresented populations in research by bringing laboratories online. The researchers are trying to address a longstanding issue in psychology studies, which often rely on undergraduate students to volunteer as research subjects.
6-8-2024

ATTENDING LOCAL EVENTS STRENGTHENS NEIGHBORHOOD BONDS, SURVEY REVEALS

how often people visit and actively participate in local events and how this affects their sense of place or their connection to their community. A survey of almost 400 households in the state’s coastal council area of the City of Holdfast Bay found that people who frequently attend local events or participate as volunteers, organizers or exhibitors, have a stronger
6-8-2024

STUDY SHOWS ONLINE PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION WORKS FOR COMPLEX TOPICS

“COVID-19 forced educators to adjust their educational best practices to an unfamiliar virtual classroom, and professional development was no different,” said Karen Jo Matsler, assistant professor in practice for UTeach at UTA
6-8-2024

EYE-TRACKING STUDY REVEALS THAT SIMPLY LOOKING AT THE NATURAL WORLD IN URBAN AREAS CAN REAP WELL-BEING BENEFITS

Integrating more natural features into city landscapes can play a crucial role in enhancing the mental well-being of residents. A study by Bangor University and Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, published in the scientific journal People and Nature, involved city dwellers and showed how paying visual attention to greenery, rather than human-made structures, can alleviate anxiety and enhance restorative feelings. The 117 urban residents who took part in the study, were guided on a
6-8-2024

ADVERTISERS MAY BE INADVERTENTLY FUNDING MISINFORMATION

Companies in industries such as health care, technology and insurance have been found to advertise on misinformation websites, according to an analysis published in Nature. In a related experiment, consumers who were made aware that a company advertised on a misinformation website were likely to reject an offer of a gift voucher to spend with that company. The majority of digital advertisement placement on the internet is done via an algorithm-based distribution
6-8-2024

STUDY SUGGESTS EVOLUTIONARY BASIS FOR MALE RISK-TAKING BEHAVIORS

why we associate risk-taking with males rather than females, from an evolutionary standpoint. Study author Hannah Goodman, from UWA’s School of Human Sciences, said researchers found men engaged in riskier behaviors when crossing a busy traffic intersection, supporting growing evidence that risk-taking is predominantly an androcentric behavior. “Males

Project Africa, Meet: Project Eurasia
… Don’t settle for one continent, when you can run the length of two… or even The Three Americas.
What’s up, you extraordinary freaks of nature:
I hear Reddit is the place to make things happen.. A small task is afoot
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ultra marathoners: will no one best the King, Russ?
Or is he a generational talent?

• Russ Cook opens the international “eye” of human capability?✔️
• Runs all of Africa like a Tuesday fkn morning?✔️

This remarkable achievement left the world stunned and at least one person motivated to find those who are dedicated to match or exceed this accomplishment:
Shock the world: surmount these odds and rewrite the rulebook. I seek to ignite this pioneering spirit once more, to help contenders achieve the unthinkable…
I offer new stakes:
Shanghai to Lisbon (Yes, it is possible)

• 20-23 countries, 16,000km

Similar objective; entirely different story.

• Indeed it is the same distance to run the width from Asia to Europe.
• Yes, I understand it’s not ‘furthest east’, if it were, you’d probably die— I’m up for it— However, nobody has done our proposed distance yet.. Let's start there.
• Geographically speaking point to point is only 8,191km, almost exactly Africa’s 8,061km
• And wouldn’t you fkn know it, Shanghai is 861.2377km (535 miles) DUE south of Cabo’s true east along the latitudinal line, as in exactly in line with Shanghai as its furthest east point! These numbers are starting to come together..
• Europe’s entirety will be crossed.. Cabo Da Roca was made to look like a finish line anyway..

I certainly acknowledge that this mission has the potential to become a groundbreaking documentary. I am very excited to watch as it unfolds its powerful message to the world.
Diluted by our own self-imposed limits, we humans are a remarkably capable species.. We’ve been doing this for hundreds of years.
Though I consider myself to be in phenomenal condition & an extreme limit pusher— I’m in no way capable like Russ and these others to endure that run— however, that’s not why I am compelled to write my first post in 29(M) years.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Russ & co. have set the bar high for the rest of the under-funded and highly “un”qualified lunatics.
They’ve shown there’s always room to redefine what’s “possible”..
At this moment I am seeking to assemble a capable and committed team to donate 8 or more months of their lives towards the task at hand. ⏳ that’s all— what else have we to do anyway?? Maintain the image we’ve spent our whole lives masquerading?
Or must we prefer to wait in line through Americas underfunded and overcrowded/ever-expansing parking lot system, inching our way towards the “American Dream” and ultimately that final day...
Which was the dream again?
Take your life back.
We intend to honor the world through impossible stories, still remaining to be experienced & uncovered: showcasing the grit, resilience, and sheer audacity of those who dare to undertake this relentless pursuit of the extraordinary—a journey that will leave us all forever changed.
Separate yourself from the crowd.
I believe us to be underestimating our opportunities and the great potential of this story: The Life changing ones, forget the instant global recognition coming on day one..
Here’s an opportunity to embrace and spread cultures,
The potential to make a difference in your life and that of others,
To transcend border.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As executive producer and logistics manager: I volunteer my leadership services and resourceful intuition/travel instinct, including the assistance of planning and organizing this expedition and routes associated. I will help assure the success, safety and effectiveness of the expedition.
Passionately-skilled as an adventurist, photojournalist & travel videographer, they tell me I have “it”. The goal isn’t monetary compensation, but instead— a global impact. The type of shit you’d do for free
Though Russ’ crew were not “professionals” by the Hollywood definition of the word, you’ll soon remember the power of a great story and a lens!
Furthermore, I’d have no hesitations documenting this expedition: offering a pivotal perspective behind the camera as well as a pen. Similarly, I’ve no objections to acting as director in such cases. I’d just prefer to focus more on the logistical side: I will recruit people better than me.
Show me the runner and I will do all I can to help turn this into reality. I’ve no choice now..
I live for the journey and its story, You can send us in a Toyota Corolla, I will accompany the runner on a bike, I don’t give a single fuck. This has to get done.
What I have:

• All the above necessary qualifications
• Like you, A life worth living.
• Mavic 3 pro Drone (yessir!)
• Newest iPhone & iPad Pro
• Go pro
• Potential funding opportunities

What we need:

• Like-minded people equally as daring and motivated
• A confident runner that is experienced and knowledgeable
• A Vehicle (inconspicuous please)
• Additional talented film crew

After sleeping on Russ, sponsors are ready & eager to jump on that next opportunity. Show the commitment. Fortunately, in this limelight we’re gifted with little resistance attaining their attention. The market is proven and it is susceptible to our impression.
Redbull, I don’t even like your shitty drinks— but isn’t this like exactly the opportunities you search for? You basically sell “ideas” in a liquid form.
Go pro? Where did you go?
A team makes all the difference, which is why I stress to possess the same desire, commitment and determination towards this goal- just as the “goal achiever” would.
It’s a story waiting to be told.
I will promptly, and without hesitation, quit TFOO my job and drop it all to buy a flight to Shanghai when a determined team is assembled for this. I swear on ALL mothers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Proceeding forth:
Charitable causes provide the leverage. It seems to be the best course of action. (Y’all don’t understand how fuckin’ strong my wife is)
*It includes dangers beyond our preconception— tis not a death wish, but a once in a lifetime experience.
*Don't expect a cute vacation or comfort. A price to pay in order to break records and achieve the unthinkable. I for one do not wish to limit our possibilities on our search for the “impossible”.
*Burn the boats at shore, we’ve no choice but to succeed. 80% of the journey is adapting in the field, the other 20% is simply getting yourself there.
Eurasia carves its own path.
-Offering unique perspectives in new environments, with new culture, and new hurdles to overcome.
People love watching others achieve these goals; they feel they are right alongside you, similarly achieving theirs. After all, it is you who is in their pockets.

• “Day one of….” -Shut up, I am already completely invested.

Through this triumph, we garner worldly attention, shedding the illusion of “borders”, connected— all cheering one person: united as one team. Isn’t a “movement” simply when a goal is achieved simultaneously by the whole?
What is evident is that the opportunity of its expanse hasn’t been fully explored, recognized and realized.
(Thanks for paving the way, Russ!)
You see, Eurasia is primed to happen.. The hints began to amass since Russ’ completion of the goal just nearly a month ago.. One might infer it’s on its way to be somewhat of a trend, but at the very least: a statement.
Must we sit out again? Project Earth is upon us:
*Alexander_campbell- currently walking the world now.
*Liamtheimpaler- biking from Alaska to Argentina.
*France: entirety biked.
*Germany: In the midst of being run.
*Lambros running Australia.
*Several are traveling the width of the US; one biking Alaska to Chile, others running barefoot?
*Katherine Lowrie ran the totality of South America. Over 17,000km with her husband.
***Countless in Asia.. but no runners..
(Edit): the list keeps expanding..
Perhaps this is an opportunity to compete for the finish line involving two or more teams? Fuck it, bring in the sport of competition for the great world race.
Dream big.
This your call to action
Understand the TREMENDOUS amount of work put into planning and ensuring the arrival of the goal— the athlete will also have to be physically prepared as well as mentally. But when the right pieces of the puzzle are brought together, we could do this ASAP.
May this message not fall on deaf ears — Our dreams remain as dreams until first action is taken. There’s no limit to our possibilities as a species. Let’s step into that world.
because i think that’s the whole point of this..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this thread… offer your schemes, comments or productive critique:
If you aspire for something extraordinary and think you’re up for this task, come forth and tell us why you make a good fit. Hell, if you would even like to help fund or sponsor, I won’t stop you. Make your voice known.
Project_Eurasia is on Instagram, you can tell me I’m delusional there.
Let’s make it happen.
No "influencers".
No sellouts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This message unto the realm of universal possibility. Awaiting to unfold and materialize as it will
and all it takes is a single moment to change everything.
. . . -Andy

This thread will be posted by the automoderator every 48 hours at 6:00 PM PST.
Hi all,
This thread will attempt to limit the amount of low-effort posts we get in the subreddit. Yes, we all started somewhere at some point, and being new can be difficult and scary, but that is no excuse to not do any research and think that every question that pops into your head warrants a brand new post.
This post will initially be made by me, but will subsequently become a recurring automoderator thread.
Most questions can usually be answered with the following guides:
Basic, Commonly Used Replica Terms Defined (QC, GL, RL, Batch Names, Batch Tiering, etc)

Agent Basics

"I have never used an agent - how do I learn?"
In the current landscape, it is difficult to recommend any agents. Once an agent arises that seems trustworthy and efficient, a How-To Guide may be written. At this time, this group does not have a How-To Guide for agent purchases.
"How can I order this pair? The website (Weidian/Taobao) is in Chinese."
Web Browser's such as Apple's Safari or Google Chrome have built-in translation features that you can use to translate the page. Additionally, copy-pasting the link into an agent website translates the page for you.
"W2C?" "Do you have a link?"
I see these comments underneath posts at least daily, and I fear those of you commenting these things will not read this post either. All QC posts are mandated to have W2C links. All W2C links are either in the caption of the photos or in the comments section. Please check these two areas before posting "W2C?"
"I don't know what size to purchase"
If you've never ordered from an agent, you may not have ever referenced European sizing. Weidian listings are most commonly listed in EU sizing. I am a US 8.5, and that is an EU 42. Convert from your US or UK size to find the appropriate size! There are multiple size charts online, but the one I use myself is this one from N1k3.
In my experience, most shoes and batches are true to size, or at least fit like their retail counterparts. Order whatever size typically works for you in that silhouette. If it's your first time buying a certain silhouette, you can ask for insole measurements, though this isn't something I typically do.
"Wait - but X Middleman in another subreddit charges double the price for these! Am I being scammed by purchasing of Weidian?"
No, you are not being scammed. In short, middlemen do not produce pairs - they source them from the same places Weidian sellers do. Middlemen mark up the price as they are profiting off of user laziness and desire for maximum convenience, as well as providing usually faster UPS/FedEx shipping (a ~$55 value to the US). Some middlemen will lie and say Weidian is scamming you - this is not true. These sellers are simply trying to instill fear in ignorant, usually newer rep buyers in order to maintain business. These sellers also usually pay off other group moderators in order to be given the "trusted seller" status. This status was not earned, but bought. Keep this in mind when perusing other subreddits with weaker moderation.
As stated in my guide, batch is what matters, not seller. If you buy the same batch from a middleman as an agent, it will be the same exact quality. Please do not discuss overpriced middlemen from other groups here as that is against subreddit rules. Please try to do your own research on any outside information prior to bringing it into this subreddit as it may be unreliable. The only discussion regarding direct shipping allowed in the group is for Weidian sellers in the community as they offer the most competitive prices and have maintained a good reputation.
"I bought a pair in another subreddit from a middleman and want to know what they sent me! Can I post here asking for the batch identity?"
That is unfortunate that you purchased from a seller in another subreddit where sellers are not upheld to standards for transparency and putting the seller first. This group was not made to be a crutch to these other subreddits. We here encourage you to purchase from sellers who have gained their reputations organically, and who will be held to consequences if they breach that trust. You are welcome to post in other groups asking for batch identities, though that is not allowed here in order to maintain our ecosystem and not help maintain other, shadier subreddits.
"But middlemen said that if I use an agent, I can't get QC pictures or RL pairs?"
This is false and again, an attempt to keep your business and keep you from saving money. You can see all of the QC pictures in this group. Being able to GL or RL pairs depends on the listing. Certain sale listings or B-Grade listings are non-refundable, so you will get QC pictures, but you won't be able to return them except for severe circumstances (seller sent wrong shoe, seller sent wrong size).
"What is a B-Grade pair? How do they differ from regular products?"
B Grades or B Versions have imperfections that prevent the pairs from being sold at regular price - it’s impossible to know what imperfections will be present, though typically for top-tier batches, the imperfections are relatively minor. The flaws can range from scuffs to loose stitching, differences in tumbling to wrinkled leather. Sometimes, but not always, do the sellers state what types of flaws to expect on the pairs. I typically avoid any pairs where the sellers warn about mold, as that is not something I want to deal with or put on my feet.
"Well, do you recommend B-Grade products poncecatchemall?"
If you can’t tolerate minor flaws, do not purchase. These pairs are typically non-refundable. If you’re willing to compromise minor flaws that you’ll likely acquire rapidly anyway from wearing your shoe, pick the B-Grade pairs up and enjoy the discounted price - I personally recommend B products from top batches as I’m not bothered by imperfections that quickly come from wear.

QC Questions

"Which post flair should I use, Agent or DIRECT, and which price range should I select?"
Because the group will temporarily allow direct shipping from our Weidian sellers, QC Post Flairs were split for each price range into Agent Purchases and Direct Shipping Purchases. Please use the appropriate flair for how you purchased the item.

1. If you are purchasing through an agent, use the QC Post Flair that captures the price of the shoe on the Weidian Listing. For example, a 470¥ pair of GX Batch Jordan 4s would use the Agent QC 400¥ - 499¥ flair.
2. If you are purchasing the same GX Batch Jordan 4s pair directly from a Weidian seller, without an agent, you should use the DIRECT QC post flair that captures the total price (including direct shipping). If that GX Batch Jordan 4 pair comes out to $119 shipped, or 861¥ (470¥ + 390¥ Direct Shipping), you should use the DIRECT QC 800¥-899¥ post flair.

Using the appropriate flair helps keep the group organized (good for me) and more importantly, places prices in the direct view of all buyers in order to compare prices across sellers and ensure that no one seller is price gouging anybody (good for the community).
"Can I post screenshots of my QC pictures instead of downloading the pictures and posting the actual QC pictures?"
No. Posting screenshots of the QC photos reduces the picture resolution and makes actually providing any accurate QCs much more difficult. On your agent site, download the QC photos the agent has provided. Users should post the actual QC pictures with the appropriate title format.
"Wow, the pair I ordered using an agent looks like the colors are all off - why is that?"
Warehouse lighting is terrible and often distorts colors. You cannot QC color shades or saturations through warehouse lighting QC pics. Either 1) ask for natural lighting pictures (though not all agents do this) or 2) look up in-hand pictures of the batch you are purchasing, as in-hand pictures typically have better lighting. The latter tends to be easier unless it is a brand new batch on the market. Remember, colors typically do not vary within a batch. For example, all LJR TS1 Highs have a yellow midsole, and that does not change from pair to pair unless the batch is updated. The midsoles might picture differently among different agents or purchases, but they'll all look the same in person.
"I think I may have been bait and switched - what should I do?"
If you post asking if a pair you received is not what you purchased, your post must include specific reasoning as to why you believe that is so.
Acceptable reasoning includes specific characteristics of the shoe (leather cuts, wings logo placement, colors, etc) that differ from known pairs, different production dates from known pairs, sellers with confirmed recent history of bait and switch, etc. The most important part is to include some sort of reasoning. Posts without reasoning will be deleted, as these posts are typically made from newer members to the replica community, and the posts lead to unnecessary fearmongering and damage to seller reputations.
Please order a QC picture of the size tag so that we can see the production dates. Production dates on size tags can help rule out a batch identity. However, matching size tags does not guarantee a batch identity and requires some additional information. I order size tag pictures by asking my agent for additional "Detailed Photos" with the following statement in the request comment: "Complete picture of inner white size tag clearly showing both production dates."
"There are so many differing opinions! I don't know who to listen to. What do I do?
Being new in the rep game is hard - it is difficult to know who is a credible commenter, and who is not. For this reason, certain members in repweidiansneakers have been given User Flairs to distinguish them from the crowd as reputable, knowledgeable members of the community. They have earned their flairs, and if there are conflicting opinions on a QC, I personally would give their opinion more weight.
"What is the best batch for X shoe?"
Oftentimes, and especially for very popular shoes, these questions have already been asked and discussed in detail. Recommendations for navigating this are:

1. Check poncecatchemall's batch guide if available
2. If the shoe isn't listed on there, utilize the group's search bar to search for the shoe in question to look at QCs. You can also utilize the group's search bar to search by the Rep vs Retail Flair in order to see comparisons of batches on the market.
3. You can also check the comments history of any of the group experts to see if they've discussed these shoes in the past.

These 3 methods answer most questions. Please do some research prior to making a new post.

Shipping Questions

"How much will it be to ship X amount of shoes using an agent?"
There are often too many variables to give a blanket answer. Which agent? Shipping to which country? Using which shipping method? The most optimal way to use an agent in terms of cost is to make a haul of at least 4kg in my opinion, which is about 3-4 pairs of shoes. Previously, I myself typically shipped out 8kg-10kg hauls using my agent through GD-EMS, the haul typically arrives in 2 weeks, and the shipping cost per shoe is usually around $30.
"How much should I declare for the value of my package for Customs?"
This varies by country. For the US, I declare $12/kg. For 10kg hauls, I thus declare $120. Other countries have different guidelines. Hopefully members from different countries can state what they declare for their hauls per kg in the comments.
"Is my package seized?"
Does your tracking say your package has been seized? If yes, then yes, your package has been seized. If no, then no, your package has not been seized. Patience is a virtue and is the name of the game. Read your tracking information. Whatever it says is what the current status of the package is. That is the purpose of tracking information.
"But my tracking information hasn't updated in 3 days? Should I panic?"
No. Again, patience is key.
"Should I post a generic picture of my boxed haul about to ship out with a corny caption?"
No.

Miscellaneous

"Wow I saw a hilarious meme on another subreddit, can I post it here?"
No. Please keep the low-quality spam in other groups. Posting memes, "Fire up the rep machines" posts, or anything similar will result in a 14-day temporary ban from the group.
"I threw together a list of low-quality items in a spreadsheet and called it THE ULTIMATE FINDS LIST, just trying to get people to use my affiliate link for an agent - can I post it?"
Do not spam the group with low-quality "finds" spreadsheets. The majority of you doing this don't even know how to QC or make solid, informed recommendations. If you actually have good recommendations, I will make an exception. However, the majority of your "1:1 spreadsheets" are terrible, and thus are not allowed in this group.