Tuesday Thoughts: June 6
Not great, Bob!
Today’s issue covers the latest on the blog, the Camp Maui mess, why in the heck are people lighting children on fire and a Tuesday Tip!
Thanks to everyone for subscribing! If you have any suggestions for future issues please let me know. I’m also happy to do a Q&A section here if anyone would be interested.
See you back on Thursday for another deep dive into a past thief.
On the Blog:
ICYMI this weekend I outed another thief on the blog, and as of this writing the photos are all still up. The difference in the photographer’s actual work vs. that they stole is… striking to say the least. She even had her daughter DO one of the setups she’s selling (strawberries and cream) and continues to use the stolen image for ads. She seems to be new but allegedly has been told quite a few times you cannot use images off Pinterest in this way.
Current Gossip:
Camp Maui continues to deliver. Lordy.
There has been a half-assed apology apparently posted in their group (which many of the attendees left). Allegedly it’s more of a “sorry you feel that way” type of apology and if they were earnest they’d have at the very least emailed it to everyone from the workshop and not posted it to a group that some that attended had left.
One of the instructors posted an hour and a half rambling video defending herself against the reviews about Maui (other attendees of Nashville and Las Vegas have also stated they were unhappy with how theirs was run too).
Basically the summary is that she allegedly is neurodivergent, shy and a baby educator (meaning new, not actual of babies) so she needed to rely on psilocybin and cannabis to get out of her head during the trip [note, both are illegal in Maui]. She is very upset that the clients didn’t come to the instructors and instead posted about everything publicly.
The video to me sounded like a big reverse Uno card being played: you thought you guys were the victims? It’s really us and YOU are the Mean Girls! [Can you hear my eyes rolling?]
When it was brought up that the drugs she talked about were illegal in Maui she doubled down basically saying that rules are silly constructs so she ignores them. Since she says we and there’s rumors about others partaking I think it’s fair to assume the stories about allegedly more than one instructor partaking could be true.
I was raised by a hippie that went to Woodstock (the original, none of that MTV produced crap). Drug use really doesn’t phase me in the proper place and time. Even one notable WTF platform class by Jesh de Rox who seemed under the influence at a convention was kind of a whatever since it wasn’t a paid class (and sure the hell was memorable bc of it). Maui’s Camp Boudoir just doesn’t strike me as the time/place to imbibe (especially during the ‘working’ hours).
Other Gossip:
Oh, there’s also the whole “lighting kids on fire” debate heating up. Some people think it’s fine, others (me included) think that it’s not great, Bob. When you can easily Photoshop something that looks pretty real why on earth would you want to take the chance on fire and children? Oh yeah, that’s right, viral. I always forget about the thirst to go viral.
I also worked in an ER for far too many years to do many things people think isn’t a big deal so that could be a me thing too.
Where do you fall in this debate?
Tuesday Tip:
What do you do if you find out that your image has been stolen? Of course this list is endless but I’m going to give out tips for this over the next few issues.
Today’s advice is to DOCUMENT THE SHIT OUT OF IT.
I’ve had my images stolen a few times and the first thing you do before you even tell your cat is to make sure you have proof that it was there.
Screen capture the image. If you don’t know how google it but make sure to screen cap the use of the image. Don’t crop out the date and time on your computer or phone, that will help prove when the image was there.
PDF. Maybe this is overkill but I also PDF the page it’s on. If you’re on a mobile device get on the computer and print to PDF to have another copy showing the image use.
Throw it on the Wayback Machine. This tool is great to preserve a capture of a website in a moment of time and you want to make sure to capture THIS moment in time.
Once you’ve done this you can then move on to DMCAs but make sure your booty is covered before you tip your hand that you’re aware because thieves will often delete and deny as soon as the hand is tipped.