A Series Of Problems And A Collection Of Statements About Tumblr User Mina Violet Alzakhm And The Violet Vineyard Discord Community
DISCLAIMER: This post is not a personal story. This post is not a callout. This post is not trying to promote one view of a wider community of people over another. This post is my attempt to do multiple things:
Amplify the voices of those hurt in this situation, especially those who have come to me because they feel they cannot speak up alone at risk to their personal security and safety.
Provide a resource of all statements made regarding the situation for anybody who is confused about what’s going on.
Start a wider conversation about online community culture, especially in relation to oligarchies such as the Violet Vineyard.
I’m going to use deductive reasoning to provide various points on the current situation, and my opinion on it. I’m also going to provide context for all claims stated, and which I feel to be substantiated.
Without further ado, hello! Things have been exploding on writeblr recently. As I’m sure some of the community have noticed, I’ve been cited quite a few times by various people making their own statements as somebody who has been documenting the situation from the beginning. I’d like to provide my side to the story in the most cohesive, objective and sympathetic way I can, as I have a lot of information and a lot to say. I appreciate anybody who reads and accepts with what I have to say, because I would like to use this situation to start a broader dialogue about what tight-knit, creative communities like this can do to people, and how to spot the red flags.
HOW IT STARTED:
In early 2019 (February or March, if I’ve got the dates right), Tumblr user @mvcreates joined the site, going by the penname Mina Violet Alzakhm. She claimed to have started art and creative writing in October of 2018, though her accounts related to this varied. Mina was a self-proclaimed author, artist, musician/composer, wellness expert, STEM PhD, outbreak responder, published scientific practitioner and athlete.
Soon after joining, Mina had already shown the community her apparent artistic chops, filling her blog with excerpts from her writing (beginning with two works in progress, Devida and Goliath and Retrocognition, which I would caution anybody interested in this case to remember into the future), art, music, graphics and reblog reviews of others’ work.
She very quickly bloomed to become one of the most well-known names in the community. There are conflicting reports about why this was - in general, it is my perspective that much of it had to do with the allure many older women have in fandoms to younger members, especially when playing up a ‘Tumblr Mom’ (or, as Mina called herself, ‘Vodka Aunt’) persona. Mina went to great lengths to make herself as personable, likeable and friendly as possible.
Shortly after joining the community, in early April, Mina began a Discord community she referred to as her Writeblr Family, called the Violet Vineyard. It boomed quite early in its lifespan, and by summer of that year, it had hit over a hundred members. It was primarily based around the prospect of ‘reciprocity’ - in order to have your work shared by other members, you were heavily encouraged to share the work of those others in return.
Thesis Statement: Mina joined the writeblr community just over a year and a half ago, and became an immediate household name. She quickly began her own discord community, which rose in its first few months to become one of the most well-known discord servers in the community.
THE ‘ARTWORK’ PROBLEM:
Her art existed in some form on her blog for as long as her blog was running - however, over time, more and more of the community became disillusioned to one very, very important (and increasingly obvious) fact. Almost all of the artwork was not freehand, but photoedited or traced.
I will give a few reasons why this is significant: - Here is Mina referring to her artwork with the word ‘lineart’, with the implication that it it, to an extent, freehand, without disclosing that it is incredibly obviously just a ripped photoedit. - Here is Mina admitting to her art being traced, with the implication that people should not be surprised and that none of this involved a level of secrecy. - Here is Mina advertising her open artwork commissions and her online artwork store, on neither of which did she ever disclose that her artwork was just photoedits. - Here is some more evidence that this artwork was all extremely obviously just photos with filters on them. - If you didn’t catch it in the other screenshots: here is a whole gaggle of Mina’s friends ganging up on and being transphobic towards a person who dared to call her out. Mina did not once call these people out on their transphobia, and I’ve spoken to a trans moderator who confirmed that when they and the only other trans mod on the team tried to voice their discomfort about this, they were spoken over and not listened to in the mod chat of the Violet Vineyard.
In addition, at least one of the pieces of artwork Mina was commissioned for was in the triple digits. Somebody paid over $100 for artwork the artist was not disclosing to be anything other than freehand, and has not been refunded.
Thesis Statement: Mina traced and photoedited her artwork and was immensely duplicitous about this. This would be a null point, but she actively charged people money for her works, and none have been refunded.
THE ‘WORKSHOP’ PROBLEM:
Behind the scenes, seemingly from the beginning, trouble was brewing in the Violet Vineyard. I’m going to split the statements I have here into two sections: allegations I have seen proof of and I know to be true/allegations I consider to be refutable through corroboration despite an (understandable) lack of screenshot evidence (see below), and allegations I feel uncomfortable stating to be true or false, due to a lack of evidence or corroboration.
CATEGORY ONE: IRREFUTABLE OR BROADLY CORROBORATED ALLEGATIONS - - In a general sense, the Violet Vineyard massively encouraged a worshipper mindset towards Mina. @whenwegounnoticed, @radley-writes, @time-to-write-and-suffer and others have gone into detail about this. @radley-writes in particular, an ex-mod leery of older women in fan communities, went into detail on how Mina cultivated an environment in which she was seen as wise, knowing and unarguable. - Mina offered her ‘legal support’ to various users of her discord community, including one called Castor (a member of one of Mina’s previous ‘creative workshops’ that later evolved into the VV), better known as @sapiencenotes. Castor has spoken about her gruelling experiences with Mina here, but to sum it up: Mina offered Castor full legal support regarding her PSDs and whether credit was being given for them. Mina then instigated an attack on Castor’s partner at the time for using said PSDs that culminated to the point of Mina insinuating that she had legal rights to Castor’s works due to their status being from her ‘writing workshop’, scaring Castor out of writeblr (and out of writing) for months. - There have been three corroborated instances of bullying of a minor in relation to the Violet Vineyard that have been reported to me - one involving a minor, a member of the Violet Vineyard, who was, by Mina’s proclamation, misrepresenting one of their Jewish characters and was then publicly lambasted in the Violet Vineyard to the point of tears and panic (this minor is, to my knowledge, still on writeblr under a different name, more details below), one involving a Muslim minor who was publicly called out and sent anon hate for allegedly being homophobic towards Mina, and one involving an eleven year-old who was sent anonymous hate and harassed by various Violet Vineyard members for not sending Mina ask games. I will not be including links to posts involving any of this individuals, as they are minors and I would feel uncomfortable doing so, but I will be attaching relevant screencaps below). - Three separate individuals have independently told me that an individual in the Violet Vineyard was being ‘waited on’ by Mina for them to turn eighteen, in order for her to be able to send them her NSFW content. - Mina told a trans person in the Violet Vineyard that having the genitals to match their gender as they wished would be negative, as it would afford them privilege. - Mina would keep screenshots of people to ‘ruin their careers’ later, and publicly ridicule individuals in the Violet Vineyard along with other members of the chat when she did not like them. - Mina made members sign a contract that they would not take screenshots in any part of the server, no matter what, when joining. This is, as I’m sure anybody with any level of critical thinking can discern, very, very, very dangerous when applying to a server in which minors and adults can interact - no predatory or problematic behaviour can be documented, and this was enforced by the fact that, at least for a short while, Mina’s husband, a lawyer, was a moderator, and members were regularly given the impression that legality would be called into question if they ever shared any of the goings-on of the server outside of it. This manner of legal threat is unacceptable, and should not have been tolerated by anybody involved. Abuse of process legislation, come get your boy.
CATEGORY TWO: SINGULAR OR UNSUBSTANTIATED ALLEGATIONS (+ the number of people who have reported this activity to me) - - Violet Vineyard mods have been privately contacting individuals since the server went down to tell them not to discuss it or its ‘migration’ elsewhere. (One account) - Server members would excuse harassment of minors by saying that either they weren’t that ‘mouthy’ at that age, or that (x) server member, also a minor, isn’t so ‘rude’. (Two accounts) - Mina would imply in the NSFW channel of the Violet Vineyard that asexual people would ‘experience (sexual) attraction someday’. (Two accounts) - Mina would add individuals to beta, alpha or gamma reader chats without their consent, as well as tagging them without their consent. (Three accounts) - Members of the Violet Vineyard were threatened with screencaps and, more generally, blackmailed when not in Mina’s favour. (One account) - Members of the Violet Vineyard would regularly make fun of other authors for grammatical mistakes. (Conflicting accounts) - Mina brought law enforcement (specifically federal American law) into the picture when threatening a member of the Violet Vineyard over their intellectual property. (One account) - Mina exhibited TERF-like behaviour. (Two accounts) - Mina called asexuality ‘over-represented’ in the writeblr community, as well as a variety of other aphobic microaggressions. (One account) - Mina used the Violet Vineyard’s NSFW chats to go into graphic, uncomfortable levels of detail about her sex life, and while this was behind an age gate, it’s extremely irresponsible to do this in a community in which individuals can easily lie about their age. (Two accounts)
Thesis Statement: While not commonplace among most casual members, among an amorphous ‘inner circle’ of the Violet Vineyard, harrassment wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, especially of minors. This was under the presumption that, being older, Mina ‘knew better’ than many younger writeblrs, a mindset that the Violet Vineyard consistently cultivated. In addition, when mods attempted to speak up on this - especially trans mods - they were talked over and ignored.
THE ‘MIRROR SITE’ PROBLEM:
In the days following the fallout of Mina’s tracing scandal (if I remember correctly, in the day after it happened, Tumblr user @hyba made a post ringing the alarm about ‘mirror sites’. Here is a post debunking it all as alarmist and unnecessary. None of this is particularly pertinent to the situation. Moving on.
The morning before the Violet Vineyard was deleted, Mina reblogged the original thread, along with some of the more reactionary commentary added to it. A day later, the Violet Vineyard was gone. Members say that this was cited as an issue of security, and that the server was to ‘migrate’ to a new platform. However, no such new platform has arisen since to anybody’s knowledge (though it is worth mentioning that around a dozen of Mina’s closest friends all deactivated in the 2-7 days following Mina’s own deactivation.
There was a final announcement posted in the server before Mina left. Mods state that family problems were cited as the true cause to them of the server’s deletion. No final post or statement was made to the mvcreates tumblr account before it was deactivated. Mina only ever reblogged one post about the mirror sites issue, and the mvcreates instagram account deactivated two days before this, and all of the related content on Mina’s professional twitter (more on this later) had also been deleted before the mirror site problem but after the art tracing scandal.
In summary: the mirror site scandal unwittingly provided Mina with a sufficient reason to leave the site after being accused (by me!) of being a scammer and an art tracer. She originally planned on restarting elsewhere, and also allegedly discussed abandoning the Mina Violet penname in the Violet Vineyard chat before deactivating (two accounts), but since the controversy has picked up steam, she has been silent.
Thesis Statement: Mina used a widespread writeblr panic about an issue she likely knew to be inconsequential, in regards to her apparent legal knowledge, to cover up her controversy and leave the platform for good while she still could.
THE OVERARCHING PROBLEM:
I’m going to be frank in this part. Because I’ve spent far too long researching all of this to be objective for much longer.
Mina knowingly spent over a year cultivating a community in which harassment, particularly of minors and trans people, was not only unchallenged but actively condoned. She also spent this time scamming well-meaning commissioners out of their money online, for art she was not honest about the creation of. When called out, she would sic her lackeys on anybody who dared criticise her, and said lackeys would then complain that Mina was always being ‘ganged up on’.
I’m going to be very, very frank in this next bit, too: in my research, I’ve come across Mina’s professional twitter account, in which she uses her real name, states her real credentials and displays her (somewhat) true self. And I want to be honest. She is a thirty year-old woman with a highly-paid career, a blue check mark on twitter and tens of thousands of followers. She regularly makes it into news articles (as far as my research has come up with, she is publicised in various scientific commentary publications once or twice a week) She’s very, very well known in her circle. She is, as I can best sum it up, a public figure. And this upsets me the most, because the implication is this: a middle-aged woman with a thriving career, a husband, a family and a lot of notoriety, agency and money felt the need to actively hide her true identity in order to spend time posting NSFW serialised writings on Tumblr (which is one of the most teen-saturated sites on the internet), talk about her sex life in her minor-inclusive discord server, pray on minors and harass them, keep screenshots of other people’s Tumblr posts to blackmail them with, condone transphobia and encourage harassment, and fake her art to make unneeded money from innocent buyers who she was not honest with.
None of this is okay. Nobody should have allowed this. I refuse to be nice about this. Anybody who allowed this to happen needs to stop and think about the sort of person they are online, and the way they’re willing to treat people to get what they want, be it validation, reblogs/likes, or a community they see as loving and accepting. It doesn’t matter what the reason was. None of this is okay. None of this is okay.
A note: do not try to track Mina down. Leave her be. I stumbled on her entirely incidentally, and I felt that what I found merited discussion, but I do not condone doxxing and I can say two things now: almost nobody else knows who she is in real life, nobody is planning on going public with it, and nobody who is unaware should, under any circumstances, attempt to find out. Leave her be. Let her carry on. If she wants to be done with this, it’s better for everybody.
Thesis Statement: She was a rich, well-known public figure who used her power and knowledge to shame, harass and hurt people.
A MORE PERSONAL PROBLEM:
Hi, Mina. I know you’re reading this. I’m going to list some things that I am:
A trans teenager trying to move away from home
Broke
Not living in America
Unaffiliated with your server - I never signed your contract, so don’t pull that on me
Working at a grocery store
Did I mention that I’m broke?
I’m not going to disclose whether I’m a minor or not, out of fear it might lead people to my identity. This should make it evident enough what I am in this regard.
Not willing to quarrel with you on this, and incredibly scared of you from what I’ve seen of your legal threats and blackmailing
Previously affiliated with you under a different name, but aside from that, not particularly connected to you
Only posting information I believe to be proven - and, when posting information I deem unsubstantiated, disclosing that these are just allegations
I do not want a fight with you. I do not want to be sued. I do not want you to ruin my career. I do not want you to track me down. Leave me alone. Let me be, as I have let you be. What I’m doing with this post is shedding light on a situation I deemed to be inappropriate, by using information others have given me. None of this information is firsthand. I could bring firsthand stories into this. You’ve been unpleasant to me in the past, too. But this is not about me. This isn’t about you. This is about the people you hurt.
This is about the people who have come to me to tell me that you scared them away from writing for months. This is about the people who have been swarmed by relief for weeks since your server went dark. This is about the minors you condoned the harassment of. If you have a shred of good in you, leave me alone, and I’ll leave you alone, and we can both let every victim in this situation live.
If you, reader, feel I’m being dramatic about this, I would suggest you read @aquiniawrites’ post on the topic for my perspective. She sums it up very well.
Thesis Statement: Leave me alone, Mina.
CONCLUSIVE SECTION - A COLLECTION OF STATEMENTS:
Mina joined the writeblr community just over a year and a half ago, and became an immediate household name. She quickly began her own discord community, which rose in its first few months to become one of the most well-known discord servers in the community.
Mina traced and photoedited her artwork and was immensely duplicitous about this. This would be a null point, but she actively charged people money for her works, and none have been refunded.
While not commonplace among most casual members, among an amorphous ‘inner circle’ of the Violet Vineyard, harrassment wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, especially of minors. This was under the presumption that, being older, Mina ‘knew better’ than many younger writeblrs, a mindset that the Violet Vineyard consistently cultivated. In addition, when mods attempted to speak up on this - especially trans mods - they were talked over and ignored.
Mina used a widespread writeblr panic about an issue she likely knew to be inconsequential, in regards to her apparent legal knowledge, to cover up her controversy and leave the platform for good while she still could.
She was a rich, well-known public figure who used her power and knowledge to shame, harass and hurt people.
(Leave me alone, Mina.)
THE REMAINING PROBLEM:
So, where can we go from here?
We, as a community, can work to be more compassionate towards each other in every regard. If somebody hurts you or your friends, stop and consider their perspective. If they’ve seriously upset you, DM them and hash things our privately. When your friend is hurt by another individual, don’t be an attack dog - be a shoulder.
Recognise red flags when you see them. When older women in your online community act like they know better than you, consider why feeling superior might give them their kicks. Don’t trust that they know better than you just because of their age. Trust your instincts. If an adult is making you feel uncomfortable, it doesn’t matter if they made you sign a contract saying you wouldn’t take screenshots of their misbehaviour - screenshot that shit. Report them. Don’t let them speak over you.
Call out transphobia, bullying and misinformation when you see them. It doesn’t matter if the transphobia is from your friends. It doesn’t even matter if it was in a bid to defend you. Call it out. Don’t ever let it fester.
Don’t trace art. Especially don’t offer commissions for your traced art.
Older women in fandom and creative spaces: you’re not exempt from being predatory or bullying because you’re a woman, or because you’re older. Grow up and take some responsibility.
RESOURCES:
A post from @sapiencenotes summarising her experiences (HERE)
Two statements from @gingerly-writing and @nectargrapes on the harassment of an eleven year-old (HERE)
A statement from @rrrawrf on their experiences (HERE)
A statement from former mod @radley-writes on their experiences (HERE)
A statement from @time-to-write-and-suffer on the bullying of a fifteen year old (TW: SELF HARM) (HERE)
A statement from @lilquill on her experiences (HERE)
A statement from an anonymous VV member on their experiences (HERE)
A previously linked post in response to certain narratives about this situation that I deem important and compassionate (HERE)
SCREENSHOTS:
Here are a few screenshots I’ve been able to salvage that, in my opinion, provide necessary context to the situation. Bear in mind that almost all of these are second or third-hand, due to the ‘unlawful’ nature of screencap-taking in the server.
A message sent to a then-fifteen year-old in the Violet Vineyard regarding their alleged misrepresentation of a Jewish character. This was not sent by Mina, but I can find no evidence that she or any mod ever called out this reprehensible behaviour. This was said to a teenager who was actively crying and panicking.
Mina claiming that if anybody on writeblr knew her real identity, they would ‘use her for her fame and connections’, especially to Chris Evans.
Mina actively working to establish herself as ‘better’ than all those around her (she is not joking here, I checked).
An anonymous user discussing aphobia in the community.
All other screenshots I have either not been given permission to post, or include incriminating information on others I do not want to get out. Please understand and respect this. If you or anybody you know has any evidence to add, don’t hesitate to contact me. I intend to keep this post updated for as long as I can.
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Footnote: thank you for reading, if you got this far. This took a long, long time to put together, and if I got anything wrong, I’m sincerely sorry - and if you have anything to add or redact, please contact me! I’m going to take a nap and go back to doing what I love: writing, playing animal crossing and ignoring the existence of Mina Violet Alzakhm indefinitely. <3
Deleting this blog and archiving this post via a friend’s archival account, @mvarchive. Some of the legal threats Mina is making are too much for this kid’s anxiety. Goodnight, lads. Spread the word. Take care of each other. <3
