#mchanzone

[hiwdeux]

I've been sitting on this story for a while now, but in light of the McHanzone Receipts I've decided to bring my own story to the table.

Back in November of last year i won the giveaway that was being hosted by the McHanzone blog. Below you'll find the transcript of what happened and how I ended up waiting over half a year for the prize. At the time I was concerned that posting and complaining about it would bring the wrath of the fandom/blog/etc, and I reasoned with myself that A) it was a free giveaway so I really didn't have anything at stake and B) I would eventually get it and to be patient. I went with the 'kill her with kindness' route as I knew she had a history of deleting things/removing people from servers/etc etc and I figured I'd catch more flies with honey than vinegar. What bothered me the most were the constant excuses as to why a simple task like going to the post office couldn't be done. I even offered to pay for shipping at one point in the conversation. Nothing I did seemed to make the process quicken at all.

I did eventually get the prizes I was promised, although I've lost hope on the 30 or so dollars I'm still owed out of the 60. In the end I figured I could cut my losses rather than keep badgering her for a few loot boxes.

I don't think the runner up ever got their prizes, I messaged them about it as well and they said they never got anything.

I can't say I'm surprised by what has happened. I feel awful for anyone who donated thinking it was going to a good cause, for the talented people who donated time and talent and have been left high and dry, and encourage the fandom and the ship to come together to grow stronger rather than fight or bicker over what happened. We have the facts, we are aware of the situation, and we can move through it like the awesome family that we are.

So uh...yes. That's my bit. :x

[ssaravinter]

Couldn’t decide on one so I’m sharing both! These are my entries for the @mchanzine ‘s cover contest :D Good luck everyone and don’t forget to enjoy

[juneboba]

fandom discourse (specifically fanzines); amidst the mchanzone scam, just thought i’d let people know of other organizers i am personally wary of. they have made unethical choices—not nearly to the same degree as what went on with bullseye but i am cautious not to trust them with my money again.

do not come after them; this was never meant to incite violence—only to inform. remember to use this fanzine guideline to help you in your future purchases.

this is in regards to any fanzine c/harlestan is a part of.

doesn’t post charity receipts. i know this doesn’t matter to many because they just wanna get what they paid for but i’m always concerned about organizers pocketing charity money. he organized an atla fanzine which had beautiful content and was nice quality, but never posted proof of receipt that proceeds were donated to charity despite being asked to.

bio/warefanzine was the latest of transgressions made. launched october 23, 2015 and still no word on whether or not shipments have finished; i emailed them about it a while ago. i and many others still have yet to receive ours and the last news of batches going out was in september.

unprofessional, severe lack of communication, and broken promises. zines were promised to be shipped january 2017, went silent for 3 months and then said april 2017, went silent for 2 months and said may 2017, went silent for 2 1/2 months with no shipping info, and went silent for another 3 months before saying they were finally being shipped in batches (never stated how many batches) late september 2017. they also said layouts would get to printers mid-march and it took until mid-july to receive proofs.

before that, i made every attempt to contact alla/loam and c/harlestan but i was ignored. they were/are active on every platform but they chose to ignore me. i wasn’t rude, i was very civil, and i just wanted answers. others have also done the same with no response.

i contacted some participants of bio/warefanzine and they were also kept in the dark. some of them had forgotten they participated because contact between artists and mods ceased after artists sent their pieces in. i had to resort to posting about it publicly to get them to say anything to us. i understand problems happen but let your buyers and participants know what’s going on. we deserve to know.

c/harlestan is now organizing a kingdom hearts fanzine and i want to implore you to be careful. look for red flags (contact has ceased, social media like twitter becomes inactive, blog hasn’t been updated, etc) or better yet, find organizers who will .

[malevolentmango]

This post contains discourse so. Feel free to scroll past it. I know that’s not what most of you are here for, and I apologize.

This is going to sound like a salt post. I suppose it is. But it’s also information that the people in this community deserve to know. 

These are the kind of people who run the popular mchanzo blog. These are the people who run mchanzo week and who are running the Bullseye mchanzine that I’ve seen so many people I follow talk about contributing to. I’m not telling anyone to unfollow, or leave the server, or to not participate in these events. Your support of the mchanzone is entirely of your own volition. But you should make that decision knowing who you’re contributing your art, fic, and valuable time to.

I want to start off by saying that I would not be making this post if I hadn’t been unjustifiably banned from the mchanzone discord server. I was perfectly content to let the whole thing go - and did so, for about two months prior to this - because I value the community on that server and the people who have reached out to me about my fics there, and didn’t want to cause drama for them. I made my peace with it and was happy to chill in the background, talking to people about my fics and theirs. I was silent because I thought that was the right thing to do. I’m not going to be silent anymore.

I was a mod on mchanzone for several months. When the call for applications came around, the comment was made that they were looking for people who weren’t afraid to voice their opinions, especially opposing ones. And when I was accepted, that’s exactly what I did: I was active in mod chat and on the server, I gave my opinion on every decision that the mods were included in, and if I didn’t agree with something, I spoke up.

And that’s the sticking point: Lynn/Trash doesn’t like people who stand up to her. Made it kind of hard to do my job as a mod when she says things like this: 

The “hurtful, condescending shit” in question was a teacher voicing their opinion about the fact that Lynn writes essays for students for money - which is highly unethical and, understandably, would make a teacher upset.

And the real kicker? Up until that point, that person was a favorite to be promoted to mod during our next round of applications:

But her name was immediately tossed out because of her disagreement with Lynn. Poptart is probably one of the nicest people I’ve ever met and would have absolutely made a great mod, precisely for the fact that she’s not afraid to voice her opinions when she sees something’s wrong.

If you’re wondering what else you could possibly get in trouble for on mchanzone, it really doesn’t take much if Lynn’s involved:

So here’s the thing about mchanzone: it has two admins. One who's hardly ever around, and the other who’s power-hungry, exceedingly paranoid, and is incredibly fond of playing the victim when something doesn’t go her way. That’s not just me making random accusations either - that’s me, a former mod, someone who interacted with Lynn on a daily basis for several months. And the people who use that server deserve to know that.

Here’s some more awful shit that Lynn and co. have done that people deserve to know about:

Routinely banned people she saw as a “threat” - myself and all the others who were banned today included. This particular screenshot is what really gets me, because I personally know all of the people she’s referencing. They’re good people. Incredible people. People who have, quite literally, brought me back from the edge on some of my worst days. They’ve never “bullied” or “harassed” anybody, and certainly not Lynn, unless your definition of bullying and harassment includes “having a rational discussion about topics like adults”. Hell, some of the people who were banned have never even spoken to her before. (Shout out to @ivoughrieand her post about this topic) One of them was banned for replying to the post in this screenshot with “LMAO.” That’s it. Just “LMAO.” (Shout out to @djlemmiex)

She’s routinely striked/banned or ordered mods to strike/ban people for expressing their concerns about the blog and mchanzo week on their personal twitters/tumblrs...or just because they didn’t want to be friends with her anymore:

She regularly deleted conversations from the server that she didn’t agree with - and one time, the entire archive of our mod chat so that new mods wouldn’t be able to go back and see all the shit she’s pulled. These deleted conversations include posts made by a PTSD survivor, who was doing nothing more than expressing her opinion. It just so happened that her opinion was different from Lynn’s.

This is not what I signed up for when I applied to be a mod. This is not the kind of behavior that a rational adult displays, and certainly not one who’s in charge of a community as large as mchanzone. This is not what a good admin does when faced with challenges - this is what a child does when they don’t get their way.

Anyway, I think you get the idea. This post has gone on long enough. I won’t be making anymore posts about this - I just want to ship mchanzo and reblog great art like everyone else. But this one had to be made. If people have questions about this I don’t mind talking about it, but please do it off anon or message me so that I can respond without clogging up my blog with more discourse.