#shady practices

[netscapenavigator-official]

So umm… anyway… I think I might be moving to Pillowfort. Not really a decision I’ve made voluntarily, but apparently Tumblr has decided to start throttling VPN traffic (at least for me, anyway). And like… I’m not turning off my VPN just to use Tumblr, so this platform has become a paperweight on my home screen.

Images fail to load, and manually asking them to reload does nothing. Eventually the dash just stops loading new posts. And on desktop, the entire website just times out. This ONLY happens on Tumblr, and it happens no matter if I’m on Mobile Web, Mobile App, or Desktop (I’ve tried every operating system). I’ve tried on and off WiFi and Cellular, and the only time my Tumblr dash becomes unaccessible is when my VPN is turned on.

Idk if it’s a correct assumption, but the writing seems pretty clear. Either way, I’m not turning my VPN off to use Tumblr. So for the time being, I’m posting shit to Pillowfort. I like their post creator better anyway. I don’t expect people to come running (this place was always just kind of a rambling journal where a peanut gallery could form and comment if it wanted to), but I just felt like disappearing wasn’t the best. 🥴 My inactivity on all my blogs lately isn’t of my choosing. Tumblr is just nickel-and-diming us as usual, but blocking and/or throttling VPN traffic is my limit. So if you want to find me elsewhere, the hyperlink is where I’ll be trying to use. If you don’t, oh well. Thanks for reading this far.

Hopefully I’ll be back. But who knows. This has been going on for weeks, so I’m not holding my breath. Posting doesn’t seem to have an issue, so this should go up without complication. Why everything else refuses to load, I do not know. However, it’s not my problem. It stresses me out to use Tumblr when it functions the way it currently is, so I’m just not gonna bother.

[peartato]

(English) Signature by @jellymlk

(All reposts and translations done with consent of the artist. Original link here: https://twitter.com/PeartatoDraws/status/1363297306523615234?s=19)

[marigoldwitch]

So my upstairs neighbor is my property manager’s niece. The maintenance man is my property manager’s brother.

The woman who has spent the last 2+ years terrorizing me, threatening me, damaging my (and the apartment’s) property and selling drugs and using her apartment as a drug den — she’s been getting away with it because her aunt is the property manager

The maintenance man who stole hot water from me on Christmas morning and cat calls me when I check the mail. — he’s been getting away with it because his sister is the property manager.

Also, her other niece (my upstairs neighbor’s sister) also lives in these apartments.

Just to be clear, these are government subsidized apartments. These apartments are intended to be homes for people who don’t make enough income or who are on disability or social security. This isn’t a regular apartment complex. And the manager is not the owner (she isn’t a “landlord” in the sense that she owns the property) she just works for the company that owns the property.

A company that I can’t seem to get this manager to tell me anything about. Not their name, their phone number or even an email address. I believe the email she gave me for the so called regional manager was fake. Seeing as the email is just a random gmail account that’s linked to about 7 dead social media accounts (that have all been inactive since 2014ish). I’ve also emailed this person over half a dozen times and have never heard back from them.

When I look up the tax records for this place it’s under an LLC of the same name but there’s no information on the actual company that owns this place. Because it was supposedly LLC in 2016 but new people bought this place in like 2019.

I knew some shady shit was happening.

[thelastlynx]

People are taking money for translations of fanfics? Seriously??

[mayalaen]

There’s a supply shop owner back in the area I used to live south of here, and he has a 5-star rating at his shop with hundreds of reviews even though he only opened 2 years ago and the shop is tiny with not a lot of variety in supplies.

I checked out his shop via the pictures people took of his place and put on Google Maps. Not only is the shop dirty and messy, he breaks down inks from several big name manufacturers and sells it with his own printed labels. It’s obvious enough I can see it in the pictures. His friends probably didn’t realize people looking at the pics would be able to tell.

Breaking down ink is unsafe because most people break the seal on the legit ink bottle, water it down with tap water, and put it in a non-sterile bottle.

That’s a big no-no.

And if the manufacturers found out he was doing that, they’d not only pull his ability to buy, they’d sue him.

So I started reading the reviews and looking at the names and pics.

This dude has a HUGE family, and they all gave him 5-star reviews. I looked up the family on Facebook, and all the other reviews made sense once I looked at the names of the family friends.

Shit like this is so frustrating.

I’m antisocial, don’t have a huge family, and I wanna do the ethical thing of not asking friends to review me. I want organic reviews from people who have actually used my shop and liked it.

But something like 1% of the people who use and like your place will leave reviews while most of the people who don’t like how things went leave a bad review.

I’ve even got 2 regulars who have been coming to my shop for years who had never left a good review before and during the pan/demic they left 1-star reviews because they didn’t like that we were being so safe and were only letting 1 customer in at a time with a mask on. They still come in and buy from me, but they won’t change the reviews.

I *could* ask friends and family to review me. I could PAY for reviews if I wanted, but that just feels wrong and like I didn’t earn them.

But when everyone else is winning with bad practices, it’s hard to stick to your guns.

This is why I’ll never be super successful and a billionaire. I want to earn stuff the right way and not screw anybody over  🤣

My whole family is like this.

[fromkenari]

Facebook ads are terrifying these days. I just saw one that was not a drug company or a pharmacy, just some random company, and some hand model holding up a vial of who knows what because it was entirely covered by a label and a skinny syringe that was obscured at the other end, but I'm assuming that implied a hypodermic needle was involved with text over the image that said "one payment, 12 months of weight loss." The internet is a scary fucking place, man. No stranger has ever offered me free drugs, but guess what I see commercials for ALL THE FUCKING TIME?

[shinygoldstar]

I. AM. SO. PISSED. OFF. AT. SHOPEE. RIGHT. NOW.

(disclaimer: I'm not sure which countries are affected aside from mine so this might not be applicable to everyone)

1. adding sellers to the affiliate program without seller's consent (by the way there's no opt out, only shopee can remove you from the program)

2. auto adding all the seller's products to be affiliate-promoted campaign "Open Campaign" at default 7% commission rate

"automatically add new shop products with default commission rates for easy promotion"

7% commission paid to affiliates, charged to sellers' account

(all without informing the seller)

7% of *sales price* which cuts heavily into seller's profits because this is on top of the regular Shopee commission fees, etc. etc.

(some shops seem to not be automatically added yet as of the time I checked this, however their sales volume seem to be lower than the shops that got automatically added)

3. hiding everything about affiliate marketing solution from shopee mobile application so that app user sellers are unaware of what's going on (as of June 18 2026 it's not visible on the mobile app, updated to latest version)

if you're not tracking your income carefully you might be spending more than you're earning by selling here

you also wouldn't know why unless you check your seller's platform *on desktop browser*

*and you have to click consent to their campaign terms before you can remove your products from the campaign*

Opt out:

You can't leave AWS unless Shopee removes you but if you're products were auto added to the affiliate campaign you can remove it from the campaign (I'm not sure whether this is the same for every country but this was how I removed mine for Open Campaign)

1. on computer web browser go to their seller platform for your country

2. under Marketing Center go to Affiliate Marketing Solution

on landing page (Homepage) you should be able to see whether you've been charged affiliate commission fees or not under the Affiliate Sales category

3. under Campaign go to Open Campaign

(unfortunately you might have to click consent to their terms first which makes it more difficult to sue them for doing this without your consent)

4. under Added Products tab, click remove on all the products you want to take out of the campaign

[miheadlines]

Know Your Rights Concerning Shady Towing Companies

Know Your Rights Concerning Shady Towing Companies

LANSING, MI – Following several complaints about shady towing companies in Michigan, Attorney General Dana Nessel today issued an updated consumer alert to better educate Michiganders on the state’s towing laws.

The updated alert includes information and how to file a complaint about unlawful towing and unreasonable fees.

“Having your car towed without your knowledge is not only disruptive, it’s…

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