admins removed mods and gave control back

comment from Mod about it

I'll definitely post a more thorough summary later, but here's a direct quote from the admins:
After reviewing this situation based on input from both current and past moderators, we have decided to remove several moderators at the top of the list that were creating instability in the community.
With regards to zjz coming back, that's a question only he can answer!

TL;DR: With what´s going on with Gamestop Stock, wallstreetbets got over 7 million new Users, with Netflix Announcing to make a Movie about it the inactive Mods (OG) at WSB are trying to Profit of of it and are removing active Mods and making New created accounts Mods with Full Permission. Theres even Speculation about a Pump & Dump Scheme
Edit: YouTube Video explaining everything: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ATEn3cm7Us4

Proof of Mods trying to profit from this all:

https://imgur.com/a/6mErVap screenshots of the discord chat to sell out WSB
Thread on wallstreetbets about whats going on The mod is actively deleting comments which ask for proof or post the screenshot above
Its still going on. Over at wallstreetbets everything is getting removed. While the removed Mods created wallstreetbetstest
Proof of removed comments and posts:
Post from u/zjz in wallstreetbets test about whats going on, WHICH GOT REMOVED
What u/Stylus postet before it got REMOVED
u/jamsi about whats going on, which also got REMOVED
WSB own discord gets in the drama link 1 link 2
Even here are posts about it removed link
Comment from u/OlyBomaye about the removal from u/zjz: click
>For any outsiders reading this, Zjz is the mod who has been around the longest, is most responsible for building the subreddit into what it is, has created all the bot mods that police the content of the sub, etc. He's the dude holding the whole thing together. He should have been the head mod in the first place but previous Subreddit Drama in early 2020 left a close personal friend of the original founder, who was removed by the admins for attempting to monetize the subreddit by selling investment classes run by noted losers of money, as the head mod. The actual head mod is generally inactive and has only recently returned to, apparently, personally profit off the recent growth and notoriety of the subreddit. WSB in scrambles. Additional notes/context from u/fufm Only other points I would add.. • ⁠He is really the only true voice that communicates consistently with the people • ⁠He has demonstrated again and again that his motivation is to make the sub a better place, with no regard for personal gain • ⁠His ideas are actually good. Like for instance, his angle on the Twitter thing was to make it an auto-algo generated thing based on overall trends in the sub. Infinitely better idea than the cringe factory bullshit they were posting there initially. • ⁠He actually gets the sub
Removed Mods from wsb from u/DeathHopper:
>Here's a screen shot of the recent mod changes: CLICK
Megathread about the removing from mods in correlation with market pumps from u/brave_potato:
click
From u/frostfall_:
>Zjz statement that was removed by new wsb mods:
CLICK
New Users made mods with full permission from u/MaiClay:
click
u/Tentings explaining whats going on for the uninitiated:
>To try to explain it rather briefly in case you don't feel like reading other sources, the original foundemod of the sub was forcefully removed by admins last year after he attempted to monetize the sub by creating a real "e-sport like" trading competition, and he began shilling a trading group business that was rather shady (which he was found to have ties with).>>Fast forward to now, one of the top mods who has shouldered most of the responsibility for the sub, maintaining bots, interacting with the community, doing most of the mod duties, etc was stripped of his mod powers by the highest ranking mod of the sub. This higher ranking mod is a personal friend of the original founder, has been extremely inactive for the past year or so, and has only returned once the sub gained mainstream popularity. The mod that was ousted made a post that was hastily deleted stating that the highest rating mod and company have been making deals with outside entities in what is another attempt to monetize the sub in the way of movie deals, something to do with the Winklevoss twins, funneling all outside inquiries to private email addresses, etc. > >All in all, just Reddit drama. But the sub seems to have issues with top mods periodically attempting to monetize on recent attention. > >Edit: To add to this, all this occurred late last night when the majority of users were asleep. As of right now the sub is beginning to pick up in terms of activity due to people waking up. The current mod team (that ousted the mod that was held in high regard) brought on a bunch of new mods who have accounts that are less than a week old. These mods are now doing a rather effective job at deleting and banning anyone that brings up this abrupt change in leadership, and any mention of the mod that was kicked. With that said, most users over there are unaware of this change of leadership and unaware that the “captain of the ship” is “selling out” the subreddit. And of course, half the sub just doesn’t care and wants to talk about GameStop.
u/disabledsexrobot (lol) did step down as mod to support u/zjz
>Today has been a really bad day. I took notice at work today that u/bawse1 and u/zjz and other mods hand been kicked out by the old mods who once again has decided to try to attempt a take over and monetize the sub.During my time as a mod I have never even really spoken to them except for replying to grebfar in a thread. I've never really see them mod or run the subreddit in any capacity. It was fun while it lasted. u/zjz as a prevoius subscriber and moderator alongside you in wallstreetbets, thank you for all the incredible hard work you put into the bots that made it possible to moderate a sub of that size. I know you have worked your fingers to the bone tapping away at the keyboard to code those.To everyone else, I want you to know that I always loved wallstreetbets as a community and I in no way, shape or form wish to be associated with jartek and the other old mods. This is the second time they attempt to do a hostile take over of our beloved community. They're nothing but dishonest and deceptive.
TL;DR: With what´s going on with Gamestop Stock, wallstreetbets got over 7 million new Users, with Netflix Announcing to make a Movie about it the inactive Mods (OG) at WSB are trying to Profit of of it and are removing active Mods and making New created accounts Mods with Full Permission. Theres even Speculation about a Pump & Dump Scheme
edited for better Visibility

Edited to remove the tables because when I obsessively checked this post on my phone I couldn't read them?? Also I tried to, but was prevented from, editing the title. I know it looks sanctimonious but that's just one small part of my personality I swear. D:
❤️ Section 1: Assets and Debt
Total Net Worth: $30,875 - all equity.
Retirement Balance: $0 for me; $20,500 for my husband in the state pension program for teachers. (My partner, L, has been paying into the state teachers' pension system for 5 years. For most of my 20s, I either worked at very low-paying jobs, or supported myself and others on a teacher’s salary, so no retirement for me. My current job does not have a retirement program, but one of my goals for this year is to either start a Roth IRA or get a new job with a 401k match… or maybe both?)
Savings Account Balance: $23,733 We’re moving this summer to a city closer to our families, and are saving all we can for a down payment on a dreamy spot. After we move, some amount of what’s left over will go into a retirement fund, and the rest will stay in this HYSA as our emergency fund. For us, three months of expenses, including childcare, is about $18,000.
Checking Account Balance: $455
Credit Card Debt: n/a, pay off each month
Student Loan Debt: $80,000 for L’s undergrad and MAT. $18,000 for my undergrad and (unfinished) MAT. (My undergrad degrees were mostly covered by the Pell Grant, scholarships, and a $10,000 529 from my parents. L was a nontraditional student - didn’t start undergrad until he was 24 - so none of his was covered. Most of my debt is for a MAT program I dropped out of after one year. I was trying to find any way out of teaching at the time (it is demanding, all-consuming, and carceral at once) and thought a PhD would be my only route. When I got my current job I promptly left the program and any dreams of a PhD behind.)
Equity: $83,875 (This number is from an online equity calculator, and is for our house in a very popular neighborhood in a very popular city. Our outstanding debt on the house is $295,000. We put our whole savings down in 2019, which was $9,000 at the time.)
❤️ Section 2: Income
Monthly Take Home: My base pay is $65,000, and L’s is $45,000. I worked a side gig last year that totaled about $10k in additional compensation; all of it went to savings so we don't budget for it. My take home is $4096/month for my full time job, and my current side gig income (grant writing) is variable, between $300 and $600 a month. L’s take home is $2262/month. My health insurance is paid in full by work. L’s insurance and B’s come out of L’s paycheck, as does L’s retirement contribution.
Income Progression: I’ve been working since I was 15 years old, moved out for college at 18, and paid my own bills starting that year. I won’t include that money here though (it was like $12,000 a year as a college student, for reference). Income below starts when I graduated with two BAs that had nothing to do with teaching.
Year 1: $15,600 (part time ABA therapist, full time baby anarchist)
Year 2: $32,000 (year 1 teacher salary: I accepted a spot in Teach for America for this giant salary even though I thought it was an obnoxious neoliberal org. Yes, I was also obnoxious at the time.)
Year 3: $33,000 (teacher, step increase)
Year 4: $34,000 (teacher, step increase)
Year 5: $35,000 (teacher, step increase)
Year 6: $15,000 (community organizer; at the time this felt like a dream job)
Year 7: $20,000 (community organizer & cafe worker)
Year 8: $40,000 (back to teaching, felt rich; this includes a side hustle writing grants on the side for $50 an hour)
Year 9: $45,000 (left teaching for my current job, quit the grants side hustle)
Year 10: $55,000 (got a raise, got pregnant)
Year 11: $65,000 (got a raise and promotion, had a baby)
Year 12: $75,000 (was promoted again in January but waiting on the pay increase to hit, hopefully with backdating. This money diary doesn’t reflect this salary as it hasn’t been reflected in my check yet)
❤️ Section 3: Expenses
Mortgage/PMI/Insurance: $2,110
Retirement Contribution: n/a (L’s retirement is pulled out of his check before he receives it: it’s $169 a month. Right now, I don’t have a retirement contribution)
Savings Contribution: $1000 to main savings, $400 to sinking fund (This is a super aggressive goal for us and is only possible because our childcare costs are covered by work)
Debt Payments: n/a right now (We have student loans to the tune of $100k but haven’t been paying a dime since they were paused due to COVID. But then the other day I checked and saw they've gained interest? Should we be paying them then? WWJD? I legit don’t know.)
Electric: $130
Internet: $100
Cellphone: $65 (For L & I both. We are on a bigass family plan with 40 gajillion other people.)
Subscriptions: $45 ($10 Spotify; $10 Youtube music; $2.99 Apple data (Why?!); $22 NYT (for newspaper and cooking app); also have a split subscription to the New Yorker with bestie F but we paid for a yearly deal.)
Car Payment and Insurance: $150 for a car payment; $202 for insurance (Insurance covers both of our used cars and my dad’s used handicap van. Our car payment is for our used Honda. We only owe $6,850 on the car and I’m back and forth on whether to pay it off with savings)
Medical/Therapy: $0 (My therapist is $140 a session, and I just started seeing her again once a month, but this is reimbursed by work. I also get an inhaler at least twice a month - that’s reimbursed too, costs $60 total.)
Misfits Market: $120 (For a weekly box, which really helps us cut down on overall grocery cost)
Gym membership: $30 (For my intense local yoga studio’s app which is so great in the winter. We also run and bike a lot, as long as it’s warm enough)
Donations: $100 (We give monthly to our local Democratic Socialists of America; the Working Families Party; and a small, local org. I’m also on an organizing committee for that org. We’ll give them one big gift of at least $250 this year, probably in May. I support a couple organizations with grant writing and grant-finding support as much as I can, which usually amounts to a few hours a month.)
Childcare: $0 B goes to a very precious Montessori preschool, and we can walk him there. It’s pricey af ($1300/month). The other $200 is to account for some babysitting from my little sister when L or I have to work weird hours. For now, work reimburses this full amount as a COVID perk; if that changes, we will have to cut costs significantly.
House cleaner: $160 (They come twice a month and charge $80 each time.)
❤️ Section 4: Money Diary
NOTE: We are masked and afraid everywhere we go.
✨DAY 1: THURSDAY✨
4:20 am: Good morning world! I shuffle into the kitchen in my panties and my slippers to fill up the gooseneck kettle. I recently got into pour over coffee even though it’s quite a commitment. With a toddler, a full-time job, and a Libra sun, I don’t really have time for meditative morning routines. This lengthy, half-naked coffee regimen is my closest attempt. As soon as I get the coffee brewing, our 18 month old, B, starts making noise. I open the door and see he’s got his pacifier in his mouth and his pillow in his arms. He wants to lay with Dada. I help him get in the bed with my husband, L, as quietly as possible. Last week L was super sick and we thought for sure he had picked up COVID. Blessedly all of our tests came back negative, but on the heels of that, he started having major tooth pain and had to have an emergency tooth extraction, AND he got an ear infection as he was coming down from whatever virus he had. I hate it :(
I get dressed and do some chores while they snooze to ease L's morning. I start the diaper laundry (usually his job - we use cloth), put away the dishes, start the Eufy vacuum, and get B and L’s breakfasts together: sunbutter and a little bit of syrup on some banana pancakes I prepped earlier this week.
6:30 am: B and L are up! The hour before we take B to preschool is kind of a marathon. L eats with B (and supervises his syrup consumption) as I clean out some more dirty diapers, brush my teeth, make another cup of coffee, strip our sheets, spray my hair with water to refresh the curl, return a few group texts, and wash some breakfast dishes. Somewhere in here I also eat two boiled eggs with Everything But the Bagel seasoning, and a bunch of grapes.
I help L get B loaded up in the car, and just as they pull off, my parents Facetime me. They’re calling to see B but are polite enough to talk to me for a few minutes. They live a few hours away, and are divorced, but cohabitating. The full story is long and spiritual for me so I’ll spare you. Anyway, my mom and I talk for a while about this couch she thinks I should buy from one of her friends, but it’s two hours away and we’d have to rent a U-Haul, so I think we’ll pass. I do hate our current couch though. Please drop comfy toddler- and dog-friendly recommendations in the comments!
8:15 am: I set out to walk the dog and listen to the Daily’s recent update on the coronavirus. Donald G. McNeill, Jr., says we’re in this through the summer, which is a bummer on the personal and global front, but I suppose it could be worse??? Maybe?? As soon as they finish talking I switch over to You’re Wrong About. I’m deep in the Jessica Simpson series and highly recommend this pod for any other nerdy, lefty, kinda burnt out millennials, especially those of you that are queer or queer-adjacent. Once home, I take my whole operation onto the front porch to work, since the cleaner will be here soon and I don’t want to crowd her in this time of COVID. I LOVE a clean house and I love paying someone else to do the big stuff, which is a recent luxury for us.
11:00 am: I’ve been working steadily in my email and google docs for a couple hours now, and it’s COLD out here. The cleaner leaves and I am grateful to go back into the heat. I Venmo her $80 for the cleaning (included in monthly expenses). I take a break from work and check out the job boards. My current job is the best, and highest-paying, gig I’ve ever had, but I’m planning to leave some time this year for several reasons. The premier reason: I recently learned that I’m qualified for several positions that pay over $100k at similar organizations. With that kind of money we could pay off our student loans, help our families out more, make sizable donations, and L could explore a career outside of teaching without freaking about a slight cut in his pay for a few years as he finds his niche. Or - maybe he’ll get into Edtech somehow and we’ll join Resource Generation. Who knows.
12:30 pm: I have a quick break and pull together lunch: half a cheese quesadilla, a big bowl of Smitten Kitchen’s roasted tomato soup, and a LimonCello LaCroix. L is on his planning period and asks me to edit his most recent job application, and I oblige. Since we’re both job hunting, I ask him if I can buy a resume template and guide on Etsy. I have sworn off online shopping for the year to curb my impulse spending, but he says we’ll just count this one as his purchase. Great news because I hate the formatting of my resume from 2016 and don’t want to fix it myself! $9.95
3:30 pm: My Zooms are over, my inbox is at 0, and I put up my out of office message because I’m taking the day off tomorrow to work on my resume and do some things to prep our house for sale. My high-functioning anxiety created an ambitious backwards timeline for this process back in December, and that timeline currently runs my life. I work for a few more minutes to tie up loose ends, and then walk O to a nearby shop to buy my favorite candle, curbside-style. When I get there the owner gives me some percentage off because it’s slightly discolored from the sun. Huzzah! $27.25, marked down from $40
4:45 pm: My angel of a baby sister, J, who lives just a few blocks away and is in a pod with us, comes to hang out with B for an hour so L can rest. I head to my good friend D’s place for my investment overalls appointment. She's going to alter their awkward wide leg into more of a tapered, mom jean shape. I have a capsule wardrobe which means I’ll wear these babies at least once a week, and plus I get to pay my friend, so I’m fine with the extra expense. When I arrive, she and her partner have the fire pit going, and we drink a couple glasses of wine together, yet more than 6 feet apart. I learn they are planning to move to the same new city as us in the next couple of years and legit cry happy tears.
Afterwards, I head out to pick up dinner for tonight. We are getting burgers from L’s favorite place as a treat. On my way, the WOLF MOON appears over the water and my stomach does triple flips. Then I pick up our dinner: a veggie burger with eggplant jam and kale for me; a real-meat burger with mushrooms, bacon, swiss, carmelized onion, and horseradish mayo for L; and an appetizer plate with pretzels, pimento cheese, onion jam, pickles, and chips for B. Delicious and unhealthy. The total is $34.54.
6:30: Home and eating dinner. B loves his meal, especially the “chokes.” He calls pretzels “chokes” because when L first started feeding them to him, I worried aloud that he would choke every time. I just couldn’t stop thinking about how a pretzel almost took out George W. Bush. Turns out our toddler is better at chewing than George W. Bush.
After dinner, L gives B a bubble bath while I do my own, very minimal, bedtime routine. Then L and I lay down with B to put him to sleep. He has a floor bed, which is a Montessori thing I learned about on mom blogs. L is a very hot and talented woodworker, so he took my floor bed dream to the next level by building a lovely house-shaped frame. The top beam is wrapped in twinkle lights and fake ivy. It’s a nice place to sleep, and we pass out here all the time.
10:30 pm: L wakes me up and we wander to our own bed.
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 71.74
✨ DAY 2: FRIDAY✨
4:15 am: Wake up and go look at the clock. Decide this is a silly time to get up on a day off, drink some water, and go lay back down. But once in bed all I can think about is how much I want to read the news, organize my resume, and update this money diary. This is the problem with falling asleep at toddler time. So I get up again at 4:45, make my coffee, read a New Yorker article about Biden’s pandemic response on my phone, and sit down to work on this diary.
6:00 am: L wakes up! He works on breakfast for himself and B and I start meal planning for the month. This is one of my best and most recent life hacks. I found that if I chart out our cooking, weekly takeout, and leftovers at the start of the month, we save lots of money and are so much less stressed about the labor that goes into feeding ourselves. I pull out Smitten Kitchen Every Day and use it to inspire the month’s meals. So quaint to cook from an actual BOOK.
6:45 am: B walks out of our room and announces that he drank my water off the side table. He’s so proud! And so ready to eat. While he eats breakfast, I snack on some grapes and, at B’s request, blast 7 Days A Week by They Might Be Giants. This is the consummate children’s song for any household that dreams of a self-determined world. Over the next hour I take B to school; make myself a real breakfast (a soy chorizo and egg taco); and browse TikTok. Eventually I find a series about this Gamestop situation by a smart Irish woman and L and I watch it together. When it’s over we feel like shrewd stock brokers ready to win money, and L gets to work teaching virtually.
I spend the morning painting our front door and our kitchen wall to prep our house to sell, and talking to my (other) little sister on the phone. She’s an HR person with a job that’s taken her far away from our family, and we don’t talk that often. It is so good to catch up on her life. After that I have a fun, day-off Zoom call with longtime bestie and coworker K. We drink coffee and talk about The Future.
12:30 pm: I make lunch (tomato soup with goat cheese on top, and a savory scone on the side) and get a text from another bestie, M, who offers me a little grant writing contract work this week. Yay! I love them and love working with them. Next, I order our groceries for the week. I get baking powder, eggs, cremini mushrooms, vegan sausage patties, oat milk, ginger root, shredded cheddar cheese, plantains, black beans, doggy bags, broccoli, vegan chicken strips, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, capers, ciabatta bread, grits, bananas, avocados, greek yogurt, and on impulse, a pineapple on sale (?!). Maybe B will love it. The total comes to $94.08.
1:15 pm: I do a brief power vinyasa class in B’s room and take a shower. It takes me approximately two Drake songs to shower and dry off, as I don’t have to wash my hair today and I never shave. I work on my resume until L and I leave to pick up B. On the way home we stop at the park to play, and then we all get in the car to pick up groceries.
6:30 pm: We get home later than planned and eat together: leftover tofu ramen for us and veggie lasagna for B, who is so sleepy that he hardly touches his lasagna. L gets him in the bath around 7:15 and I run through my evening routine. There’s a lot going on in the house - preschool lunch and clothes to put up, a mountain of laundry in our room, all of the groceries for the week waiting to be put away, and dinner dishes are languishing in the sink. L starts on chores while I get B dressed.
As I’m dressing B, my mom Facetimes and B shows her several of his board books. While we’re talking my dad texts me a heart emoji - he overheard B and my mom talking from his room. He lives with a disability and a painful illness, so he goes to bed very early. We hang up with my mom and record a video of B making “P” sounds and saying “I love you” to my dad, and send it over. This is the first time B’s ever said “I love you!” Huge news. We read books and fall asleep next to B.
9 pm: I wake up and nudge L but he wants to keep sleeping. I go clean the dinner dishes, put away the food and reorganize the cabinets and fridge, and mop the kitchen floor while I listen to The Daily’s latest reporting on QAnon believers who are at once totally bananagrams and also remind me very much of my aunt. L wakes up at 9:30 because he and Y, my sister’s boyfriend, are gonna game. Cute! He finishes the laundry and I fold a few diapers to help out. Then we lay in bed together until game time, when I fall asleep.
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 94.08
✨DAY 3: SATURDAY✨
5:40 am: Wake up at a ~*~weekend hour~*~!! Start my kettle, clean and moisturize my face, pull out the ingredients for waffles, and pick up around the house while I wait for it to boil. I try to read some, but get bored a few pages in. I’m currently reading How to Do Nothing and it’s good enough, but I think I need to chill on the nonfiction and read, like, saucy romance novels with hot bisexual leads. Send me your recs please!
Waffle time! This recipe is my go-to. I recommend whipping the egg whites first. B wakes up around 7:15 and helps me cook which is cute and very messy. He eats his waffle with honey, peanut butter, and grapes. L wakes up after him - he had a late night gaming!
8 am: I open yesterday’s mail and find an anti-abortion DVD from L’s grandma. It’s Abby Johnson’s “memoir.” Abby Johnson is an opportunistic right winger and documented liar who once moonlighted as a Planned Parenthood clinic manager. L is a preacher’s kid, so we’re not surprised to receive this from his grandma. For example: 10 years ago, when L and I were a couple years into our relationship, her Christmas gift to me was a book about how one can recover from being a slut by getting married and finding Jesus. This particular package really sends me over the edge, though. I decide to write them a short note later that states my own experience with abortion and sets a clear boundary on this kind of propaganda, and includes an article about Abby Johnson’s bullshit life. It’s unlikely this will change their minds - they are septuagenarian Southern Baptists, after all - but at least I’ll be in my integrity.
In the meantime, I group text L’s siblings, and they commiserate with us. His one sibling who is transitioning shares that grandma recently sent them a book about how to tell your gay friends they’re sinning. We agree that’s hilariously dense (and fucking rude) of her, and talk about how everyone under forty is a gay slut living their best life, so really it’s grandma’s loss. During this time I clean the kitchen, finish the waffles, and freeze them for B’s weekday breakfasts.
9:30 am: B asks to use the potty and does a great job peeing on his own! He’s geeked about it and is especially excited to have my parents on Facetime cheering him on. After that we head out on our morning walk. L takes B to the playground and I take O to the dog park nearby. She gets tired pretty quick and we all head to the thrift store. We need chairs for our hand-me-down kitchen table. The ones that came with it are awkwardly wide. L spots two sturdy ones that are just $5 each. Score! $10
11:30 am: B and L are both wiped out once we get home. They eat lunch and go to sleep. I clean up the kitchen, repot one of my plants, water our porch plants, and eat some leftover ramen for lunch. The Marie Antoinette episode of You’re Wrong About keeps me company all the while. 10/10 would recommend.
2 pm: B wakes up and eats some lunch. We watercolor together for a while (he on his big paper, I in my bullet journal), then walk down the street to the local high school while L preps potatoes for our fondue. The high school grounds are open on the weekends, and there’s an amphitheatre on site. B loves the echo in there.
4:30 pm: L joins us in the amphitheatre and together we drag B two blocks back home. I prep the fondue: brie, gouda, and more gouda with white wine. It ends up being a little clumpy but so delicious. My sister, J, and her boyfriend, Y arrive while I’m cooking. Y brings yummy baguettes from his bakery job for the dipping and we prep broccoli, green beans, and tempeh too. We sit down in our new chairs to eat and for the zillionth time I am so thankful we’ve been able to make a pod together this year. Fondue would be a terrifying proposition with anyone else, really.
While we eat, Y tells us he put in his two weeks at the bakery because their COVID protocols aren’t so tight and his coworkers are continuing to go to bars and out to eat. His plan for now is to get back on unemployment and find a virtual job sometime soon. Both he and my sister have worked food service their whole adult lives so the pandemic has been tough on them. Besides the fact that they’re delightful and perfect, this is one key reason we’re planning to move with them to our new city this summer: L and I will be able to easily afford the majority of the rent, deposits, and utilities on a pretty big, and centrally located, house. Living together will allow us to grow our savings and take our time looking for a Forever Home, and will allow J and Y to pay really low rent as my sister goes back to school full time and Y looks for a full-time job. I’m really looking forward to living with them and know it’ll be good for B, too. They leave around 7 pm and we put B to bed, this time without falling asleep ourselves!
8:30 pm: Turn on How I Met Your Mother in bed and the episodes are baaaaad bad. One entire episode casts sex workers as a punch line. Ick. L and I agree to find a new show, and fall asleep around 10.
11 pm - 2 am: B is up and between our two beds. Wahhhh.
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 10
✨DAY 4: SUNDAY✨
6 am: Up and at ‘em! Discover I’m out of my fancy coffee and don’t want to emphasize the flavor of our grocery store beans with a slow pour, so make a french press instead. B wakes up too early so we watch toddlers together on TikTok while I drink my coffee, then read books while L makes us all eggs for breakfast. We head out for our morning walk around 9 am and stop at a coffee shop a few blocks away. I pick up Counter Culture’s Iridescent beans, buy an espresso brownie on a whim, and tip the cashier because she’s so sweet and tipping is good. The total is 23.03. L takes B to the playground and I drop my purchases and O back at the house before I head out for a run.
9:45 am: It’s 65 degrees and my run is glorious. I run to the water and pause Lil Yachty for a minute to take it all in. Once home I shower and put on a black LA Apparel catsuit and a marled black and white cocoon sweater from AA of the past (I like what I like!). We feed B lunch and then L puts him down while I clean up.
Around 11:30, J comes over after to watch B while we remove the storm windows from our whole house and clean the windows underneath as part of our work to prep the house for sale. We’re a solid team: L removes the storm windows and caulks all the gaps in the wood while I follow behind him and wash the windows inside and out. Our sweet neighbor catches us cleaning and offers to let us use her power washer for free next weekend to clean up the front of the house. I resolve to bake them some cookies.
2:30 pm: We are done with the window operation and it’s time for me to water all 57 plants in the house. Along the way, discover that I overwatered B’s hoya last week and it’s rotting. Noooo! I unpot it on the porch to dry the roots, but it’s raining so this might not work. There’s only one surefire solution: buy a replacement plant! I try to convince L we should go to the nursery, but he’s not so into it. I walk around dejectedly with a towel to clean up all the water I spilled, and Zelle J $70 for babysitting even though she insists she would do it for free. Next B, L, and I share a snack: crackers with goat cheese and harissa. Mmm. B skips the harissa but loves the goat cheese. Meanwhile I begin to stress about making dinner. We’d planned goddess bowls but L and I just aren’t feeling it after our marathon of house work. L requests Chinese and is suddenly more amenable to visiting the nursery, which is near our favorite Chinese takeout spot. Score!
5:00 pm: We leave the plant shop with a heartleaf philodendron for B’s room and a giant, lovely, perfect monstera deliciosa just because. The total comes to $53.24. Then we pick up our food: $33.08 including the tip. L ordered a large veggie lo mein to share with B and General Tso’s chicken, and I got family style tofu and vegetables. We start B’s bedtime routine at 6:30 and he’s out by 7:00 - early for him!
After he’s down, L preps his breakfast sandwiches for the week and I do some dishes. Then we take mutual advantage of the extra hour we have together. Even after 12 years it’s always so good with L. I fall asleep around 10 pm feeling blessed.
🌿 Daily total: 179.32
✨DAY 5: MONDAY✨
5 am: I make my pour over and get started on work first thing. I have a couple of deadlines this week and the side gig to balance so I’m already feeling pressed for time! I wrap up an entire grant report before 6 am and feel very accomplished. Then I pause work to start our breakfast, which is all pre-prepped, hallelujah. While L and B eat breakfast, I get dressed in a black turtleneck minidress, busted old tights, black ankle socks, and my Doc Martens.
I help L load up the car with B and all his gear, and tell L to be careful. Today is L’s first day back teaching in person since December, and we’re both nervous since COVID is still running wild in our red state. On the way to work he fills up his car for $18.33.
2:30 pm: After another grant report, seventy gajillion emails, forty Slack messages, and several hours of Zoom calls, I’m ready for a break. I finish eating the quinoa salad I prepped during Zoom call #2 and then eat a pear too. I see our Misfits box has been delivered. It’s $30 a week, and is included in our monthly expenses. I unpack it, clean the counters, wipe down the bathroom sinks, take O for a walk, and sit down to work on my side gig grant report, which is due Wednesday. I set a 30 minute timer because I don’t want to be too late picking up B.
4:25 pm: Worked longer than I meant to! Pack some snacks and pick up B. On the way home we get a giant bag of potting soil so I can repot those plants. It’s $18.52. Come home and engage in B’s favorite winter activity: pressing all the buttons in the turned-off car. Meanwhile, in another car across town, L picks up a big bag of Purina One, butter, maple syrup, and applesauce. That total is $28.64.
5:30 pm: The whole family is home and we kick it inside until it starts to get dark. L and I gather all the things and take the creatures out for a walk even though there’s a light, but very cold, rain happening. B is cranky and so are we, so the walk is quick.
We eat leftover Chinese food around 7 and start B’s bedtime routine. B falls asleep at 8 and I update this diary for a while, then go watch Ted Lasso in bed with L til about 9:30. It’s much better than How I Met Your Mother, for the record.
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 65.51
✨Day 6: TUESDAY✨
3 am: B wakes up and needs a diaper change. I have the hardest time falling back asleep after: I can’t stop thinking about how I left B’s hoya out in the cold with its roots exposed most of the day yesterday and into tonight. But it’s too cold for me to get up again and pull it inside! So instead I toss and turn and hope it’s not dead yet.
6 am: L’s alarm wakes me up! No early morning reading and writing time for me. I get right up, make a giant pour over, and get breakfast together while L wakes up B. Then I actually sit down with them to eat: B and I both eat boiled eggs with everything but the bagel seasoning and some coconut milk yogurt, and L sips his coffee while his breakfast sandwich heats in the oven. I get dressed in my workout gear and walk the dog while L gets B ready for school. They leave, and I finally bring the hoya in, and start work, around 7:30. L buys coffee and snacks from the gas station on his way to work: $6.88.
9:30 am: I grab some crackers and peanut butter from the kitchen and notice a DMV bill on the fridge I’ve been meaning to pay, but don’t totally understand. I call them up and respond to emails while I sit on hold. Turns out I owe the DMV $10 for paying my Dad’s van insurance late. With the “processing fee” it comes to $11.17.
1:30 pm: Been on Zoom calls all morning, and decide to switch over to the side gig work for a bit. Meanwhile I eat that quinoa salad I prepped yesterday. At 2 pm, my longtime bestie and neighbor F comes over and we take O for a walk in the park together and have such a good conversation. While the context is (very) different, I’m reminded of the Toni Morrison quote when I think of F: “She’s a friend of my mind.” Such a gem, and such a smartie. At 3:30 I start a HIIT yoga class and it kicks my butt even though it’s only 20 minutes long. Afterwards, I shower and pick up B.
5:00 pm: L arrives home while B and I are playing, and we get in the car once more to check out a cute couch L scoped out on Facebook marketplace. It’s a sweet vintage brown velvet actually-for-real midcentury situation. Unfortunately we discover it’s also small and very uncomfortable. $200 not spent. Once home, my family goes for a walk and I make dinner - this grits and beans recipe from NYT cooking. It’s blessedly quick to pull together. Meanwhile D texts me and says my overalls are ready! YAY! She’s gonna drop them off in a couple of days. She says the total is $30. I include a tip and Venmo her $40.
7:00 pm: At bedtime, B cannot get enough of his books and we read All The World several times. He finally falls asleep around 8:20 and L and I eat dinner on the couch, with Ted Lasso. I drink a glass of red wine, which is a mistake: my anxiety spikes right after, my stomach hurts, and I can’t sleep. This is very upsetting as I want very much to be a wine mom. Does this happen to anyone else?
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 58.05
✨DAY 7: WEDNESDAY✨
5:45 am: Wake up with B cuddled into my back - L moved him to our bed in the middle of the night after his second wake up. Get my coffee and breakfast together and sit down at my computer to work on the side gig grant while everyone's asleep. Then L and I manage the morning rush together. I eat sourdough toast, two scrambled eggs, and some pineapple along the way.
7:30 am: Take O out for a walk and on a whim decide to listen to one of my favorite easy-listening pods: A Beautiful Mess. Normally the two sisters and co-hosts, Elsie and Emma, chat about things like home decor or craft making or how to balance kids and work. This episode is about the host’s evangelical upbringing, though, and is a real raw and honest tear jerker. Pair it with this, one of my top reads of 2020: “What Does the White Evangelical Want?” It gets me thinking about L’s upbringing in the church. He and all his siblings are all agnostic now.
Finally sit down at my desk and debate taking Adderall. I used it regularly in college and for a few years after in order to Do All The Things. I try to stay away from it now - I’m not trying to live an impossible life any more - but I also really want to pick B up earlier than normal today, and that means I need to meet all my deadlines and make it through two Zoom calls with my direct reports by 3 pm. I decide to take 4 mg. Right after I take it, three different friends text me at once and then, suddenly, I’ve spent an hour catching up via text. Get to work for real around 9 am.
3:00 pm: Wrapped all my calls, answered all my emails, washed all the dishes, ate some lunch, and finished the side gig work! OK Adderall, you beautiful bitch. Spend a few more minutes tying up loose ends and then gather my things to pick B up from school. The plan today is to go “play basketball” in the park near his school because he is OBSESSED with balls, and I’m trying to do more magical things every day with him. It’s cold but I’m ready to brave it on his precious, curly-headed behalf.
At 4 pm J calls and asks to go pick him up with me. Hooray, things just got even more magical! We head to a different-than-usual park together and run around until B sits in, and then drinks from, a puddle. We panic and J googles “What happens if my baby drinks from a puddle?” The search returns lots of stories of babies eating muddy rocks and surviving, so we decide it’s ok.
5:00 pm Head home and L is back from work! We take the smols on a walk and I tell L that I think nighttime screentime is making me anxious. I’m a sensitive creature and I really don’t want to blame the wine. He’s very perfect so he helps me think through an alternate plan for this evening: hot tea and book reading in bed, and maybe sex, too! Fun.
Next, I head home with O to pot the plants we bought the other day, and L takes B to the playground. They get back around 6:30 and I am very excited to reveal my new plant placements. Everyone feigns interest except O. Then we eat leftovers together and B gets in bed around 7:30. L and I promptly fall asleep next to him and don’t wake up again til 11 pm. Guess our new nighttime routine will have to wait til tomorrow!
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 0
❤️ Section 5: TOTALS
Total Expenses: $478.71
Food & Drink: $220.25
Fun & Entertainment: $0
Home & Health: $109.01
Clothes & Beauty: $40
Transport: $29.50
Other: $79.95
❤️ Section 6: REFLECTION
This week reflects a new normal for us, I think! We just set the goal of saving up for another down payment in December, and that’s when I swore off online shopping both to save money and to stop lining the pockets of evil billionaires like Bezos (no shade to anyone who uses Amazon, this is purely a personal goal & I’m not sure I can meet it). This self-imposed rule is helping me reign in my discretionary spending overall. L and I have only been living a two-income, middle class life for a few years, and my lifestyle creep was a little out of control in 2020. That said, I can and do still regularly justify spending money on things that make life more luxurious and beautiful - like a $40 candle or a totally unnecessary but very lovely plant.
There are a couple of things not reflected in this diary that we regularly spend on: gifts (my achilles heel - for example, we spent three! thousand! dollars! on Christmas gifts in December), and medical bills. Both B and I had to visit the emergency room in 2020 and we are still getting random bills in the mail as our insurance company and the hospital duke it out. As I was editing this diary on Thursday, I received one for $787. Wahhhh. I think I’m gonna get on a payment plan, but even so that it will be over $200 a month.
Last thought: this process got me thinking in some detail about the contradiction of organizing for the fall of capitalism (and the rise of a more gentle and just economic system), yet believing everyone - including ourselves and our own families - deserve to live full and abundant lives. This means I compromise my own anti-capitalist values and beliefs every day, in big and small ways. Discuss?

I wanted to create a post to document the market events/forces surrounding GME and why the buy restriction imposed by American Retail Brokers is disgusting market manipulation, not just affecting investors on their platforms but world wide. This is for educational purposes, so that we can have something to point to when explaining to others what transpired. Please add relevant information and post links to news articles as sources if you'd like to contribute.
GameStop is well known video game retailer that was suffering losses over the past several years, reducing its stock price as it was considered to have a failed business model. Several hedge funds want to profit on the company’s failure started shorting the stock.
Short Selling ELI5: You think to yourself hey this stock is overvalued, so you borrow it from someone who owns it and sell it getting money today in the hope of buying it back at a later date at a cheaper price pocketing the difference (minus borrowing fees). Hedge funds are greedy, they will hold out until it goes to zero because why leave money on table.
GME stock was heavily shorted, over 100% of the shares available. This means that the shares that were shorted, were shorted again. Everything is finite in this world, and hedge funds thought they had a sure thing that GameStop could not recover. The stock price stayed low and flat for a long time, but some investors saw value in the company, notably Ryan Cohen who started accumulating shares to develop a minority stake in the company. This also happened at the same time that GameStop signed a deal with Microsoft which included a cut of digital sales. When the media/analysts report that the price rise has nothing to do with fundamentals they are half right. First the media is looking at what the company is today not what it can be tomorrow. Secondly, they are ignoring other market forces that can drive stock prices.
Cohen and MSFT are not enough to drive the price up in the short term, what is driving the price up was an amplifying feedback loop of an over shorted stock and retail investors learning a new trick. The year 2020 saw many things, including a rise in option trading among retail investors.
Options ELI5: A Call option specifically is a contract that gives you the option to buy shares at a predetermined price (strike) at a future date (expiry). Options are not a new thing, been around for decades along with futures (do a quick read how many big investors hit home runs on futures back in the day). They serve a legit purpose in portfolio planning and risk management, but also have a way to supercharge returns because the initial investment can be small relative to large payoffs if the stock rises. However, options are risky as they will expire worthless if the stock is below the strike at expiry. Each option contract is for 100 shares. For example, if a stock is trading at $5 dollars, and you buy a call option with $10 strike prices which was trading at $0.50. Your investment will be $0.5 * 100 * 1 option = $50. Now if the stock goes up because of some market forces to $12, you basically made ($12-$10) * 100 = $200 - $50 for the initial investment = $150 profit. There are some time value effects but not important for the ELI5.
Why do the options matter, and how does this create a feedback loop? The best way to protect yourself as the person who sold the option is to buy the stock. So, let's game play this out a bit, you don't think the stock is going to up so you sell an uncovered call (you don't already own the stock) laughing to yourself that the option is going to expire worthless and you just pocketed the premiums. However, the small up ticks from retail investors buying up stocks makes other retail investors think "Hey theses options are cheap, and I think the stock is going to go up" so they buy up options. Now enough of these "worthless" options are out in the market that just the sheer volume requires some stock purchases to hedge the risk. Which causes and uptick in the stock price. Which then drives up the hedging requirements. Rinse. Repeat. This is what was labelled on WSB as a Gamma Squeeze, as the stock price rose, more options became valuable, which increased stock buying, which increased the price making more options valuable. Limited Supply for increasing Demand.
The Gamma Squeeze was one market force that drove up the price, the other is the the hedge funds that shorted the stock. As the price goes up, they are losing money, remember they were hoping to buy the stock back at a lower price, but now it is higher. As the loses start to increase, they will be hit with a margin call, basically saying "you are in the red a bit too much ante up". Working through a simple example, you short $1m of stock. Now the value of the stock has gone up to $2m, so the people who you borrowed the stock from are going to say, "how about you put up 50% of that just incase you go bankrupt" (margin call) which now the hedge fund has to find that money by either selling other stocks or borrowing that money. The other option they have is to close out their short position by buying shares in the open market solidifying their losses. This large scale buying will further cause the stock price to rise, increasing the losses for other hedge funds. Limited Supply for increasing Demand.
The price rise was just beautiful efficient supply and demand of a finite commodity in a free market, retail investors were saying no to hedge funds "This company is not going zero, you were wrong, now you have to pay me for your mistake". This created fear of a "short squeeze" that hedge funds would have to franticly buy back shares (from retail investors) at high prices to close of their positions, losing billions in the process. This happened with VW stock in 2008.
Jan 28th 2021 the market wasn't free. By brokers restricting the buying ability of retail investors, the market was no longer operating efficiently. Market prices are determined by a bunch of random people saying, "Hey I'm willing to pay X for this because I think it's worth Y", and when two people agree on price X a transaction is made. Another transaction will be made when two people agree on Y. The buying restriction took out the ability for retail investors to have their say what the price should be, having the price now dictated by the funds who were still allowed to trade and had the most to lose. Any investor who had stop loss set would have been doubly screwed. The stop loss would have forced shares to be sold, while not having the ability to buy back as the prices was falling. When investors set stop losses, they expect the market to be operating efficiently, meaning the price reflects the true market sentiment of all participants.
Stop Loss ELI5: When you buy a stock, you can tell your broker that if the prices fall below a certain threshold sell, limiting your losses. Good practice so you do not get wiped out because you are not sitting at a trading desk all day. That is if the market price is efficient.
I do not want to put my tinfoil hat on, but the ones who had the most to gain from the restriction were the hedge funds. This has nothing to do with protecting the average retail investor from market volatility, if anything it did more harm than good. We make our own decision to risk our money.
Wall Street created this beast, trading apps made it easy to trade commission free but with some sketchy filling practices (not always at the best price for the investor). The rise of option trading by retail investors was due to people having more time on their hands due to the pandemic, and to be honest, people who are down and out looking at it as a lottery ticket.
I fear that these events today will dissuade working class from investing, they have been shown that the game is rigged.
That is all I have right now, if this post gains traction I will do my best to incorporate feedback.

It started yesterday when I was in the car picking up our take-out dinner. I don't get outside much because my parents are the only people who work and do shopping, but every now and then I'll ask or they'll offer me to ride along just to see some sunlight.
It also, as I've come to realize, gives me some smblance of private conversation in this pandemic. With everyone home so often, and with my house being relatively small and acoustic, it's very difficult to have truly private discussions with anyone.
As we were driving back, I just spat it out and said I was tired of being lonely, and that it's embarrassing because I'll be 23 soon and I haven't even held hands. He started going off by saying stuff like "There's plenty of douchebags with girlfriends so you can get one too." or "You're smart and you look great." etc, but I got really angry at his response to me saying I felt like I was falling behind.
"What timetable are you looking at?" he asked, "Who said you have to have a girlfriend by now?"
Being a rather hardened FA, I threw all our arguments at him, including an original one of my own: I told him that my inexperience is embarrassing because I don't want to be a grown adult having to discover emotions most people already understood in their teens (i.e. first kiss), that it's just a brutal, statistical fact that I'm almost a decade behind everyone else, that the prime of my life was wasted away in loneliness, etc. His response to this was "So what?", and I was just insulted.
At the end of the argument he basically said something to the effect of "Just go get a girlfriend!" or something like that. Of course, it's pretty much the ultimate normie thing to say (as if finding a partner were that easy) and I didn't respond back: my dad truly didn't understand what it was like to be so alone.
Partly out of spite and partly because I just can't take it anymore, I've decided to throw myself into trying to find people. I figure I somehow actually succeed, or I fail and prove my dad wrong. So basically either I get a partner or I win an argument. Not a bad outcome either way.
Currently, there are a few prongs I see in this effort:

1. Online dating: I've read all your posts and know how horrible online dating can be, but if nothing else I want to confirm the awfulness for myself instead of just hearing second-hand complaints.
2. Reaching out to people I used to know: While I don't have a lot of friends from my past, there are a few I could try contacting again.

I plan to update you guys weekly on my journey, but here's my report for today:
Today is Day 1 of my Girlfriend Quest. I set up a Coffee Meets Bagel profile because it seemed like a relatively "normal" dating app i.e. it's not really just a "hookup app" like Tinder, nor is it some super-ultra niche thing like FarmersOnly, and it seemed legit and not like some scam.
Setting up my profile was a mix of the obvious and confusing. Some things like whether I was into women or men, whether I was a woman or a man, how tall I was, etc were easily filled in. For my profile picture I basically just took some photos on Facebook I thought made me look good. Employment was a little awkward, since while I've gotten a job offer it won't start for several more months. It took me forever to come up with 3 fun facts about myself, and writing a discussion prompt on my profile was almost impossible too. I'd write something simple like "My favorite food is pizza." and then delete it because what if someone sees that and dismisses me on that? I wrote "I used to be a Boy Scout", but what if they think it means I'm too straight-laced and don't want to have fun?
Filling out my preferences, I sought to err on the broad side i.e. I figure it's the details that will make or break someone when I meet them, and not broad stuff like height or religion. In addition, I hoped that perhaps someone unexpected might like me, and I didn't want to shut out any opportunities like that. I set my search radius at 50 miles: big enough to net me more matches for online conversation during the pandemic, but not so far away that an in-person meetup during this fall or winter would be too difficult.
After that, I was presented with a list of 10 suggestions, and I had 3 options: an X button, a heart button, and a chat button. I think I hearted maybe 7 of the 10. I didn't know how the chat feature worked or if I had to pay for it, so I skipped it.
After I was done, I looked up how CMB makes money so I could know how to not pay money for it (really should have done this before setting up the profile). Anyway, after doing some research and exploring the app it seems like it works on a freemium model, where basic features are free but you have to pay for others. Or more accurately, you pay for them with an "in-game currency" (Beans) which you purchase with real money. As one example of usage, you get new "Bagels" (suggested matches) every day at noon, but you can look for people on your own and send them "Discovery Likes" for a certain amount of Beans. This is pretty standard freemium tactics: arbitrarily lock the player into using the service for a limited time each day (i.e. think energy meters) and make them pay to make full-time use of it.
Anyway, I don't want any company getting money from my loneliness, so I'm sticking with the free route for now.
I also admit I don't fully know exactly how CMB still works (i.e. how I reach out to people, how I know someone has reached out to me), so if anyone has previous experience with the app I'd be happy to hear what you have to say.
Of course, I know online dating is only mixed-successful at best given others' experiences, so this is where the second prong comes in: trying to text or chat with people I haven't talked to in a while, using Facebook to identify friends and friends of friends, etc.
Wish me luck!

Hello everyone, welcome to the world of NFTs.
You may be new to blockchain and crypto, or you may have been in crypto for years at this point - but you in both cases - you probably are just now learning about NFTs.
This will be a guide that is ever living/changing to help introduce NFTs, what gives them value and how you can get started in the NFT space.

What exactly is a Non-Fungible Token or NFT?

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique, individual token existing on a blockchain such as Ethereum. Unlike cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, each NFT token contains unique data meaning non-fungible tokens are not interchangeable with each other. This non-fungible nature of the tokens means their use cases differ greatly from their fungible counterparts.
A normal token can be exchanged for the same type of token equally without any difference.

A good example is a dollar - if you and I both have a dollar — we can swap dollars and it doesn’t matter, neither of us lose out they are equal. Whereas, with non-fungible tokens they are both >unique, meaning if we both have an NFT, mine could be a baseball card, and yours could be your Birth Certificate — obviously we cannot exchange these two >equally. Therefore making our tokens non-fungible.

Non-fungible tokens are used to create verifiable digital scarcity. NFTs are used in several specific applications that require unique digital items. This has initially proven popular for blockchain games and collectibles like CryptoKitties on the Ethereum blockchain. NFTs can also be used to represent in-game assets, which are in control of the user instead of the game developer. One exciting benefit of this arrangement means the non-fungible tokens or digital items, may actually outlive the game they were initially created for and find incorporate into separate future games. Yet another potential use is in digital art, by helping prove authenticity and ownership.
Artwork is another example of how powerful NFTs can be. By allowing artists to create artwork on the blockchain as NFTs, it means their content now becomes sellable globally, on decentralized marketplaces. Providing a means to collect, earn, and make a living off crypto.
NFTs are one of the best ways to actually earn crypto over time, without needing to invest in it directly. (unlike scams that say the same thing, NFTs are legit. Its like opening a store on ebay or etsy, your trading your time and work for money).

What gives an NFT its value?

There are a ton of reasons to buy NFTs.

1. Unique - Each NFT is unique, its the only one of its kind. You cannot make another NFT that is the same token number on the same smart contract. Meaning there will only ever be one of that token. This is verified by the blockchain and can be seen by anyone.
   
2. Copyright - Your NFT might come with copyright if you are using Mintable.app. If the seller chooses to do so - it means that its on the blockchain that the owner of that token would have complete commercial copyright to use that image and asset.
   
3. Rare - Since they are unique and cannot be copied, they are rare. Most of the time, there are very few NFTs from an artist or seller - very rarely do they have 1000s of NFTs. Therefore, you can safely assume you would be one of the few people in the world that owns an collectible item, that can be resold.
   
4. Collectible - These NFTs/items are collectible. You can hold onto them, and their value will only go up in price since there are little ways to dilute the collection. Buying them to resell them can earn you thousands of dollars. There are plenty of people who do it everyday and earn a living from it.
   
5. Downloadable - If on Mintable.app, only the current owner of the NFT can download the file attached to it. Making it unlockable to the owner. If your NFT has something like, game assets, music, a PDF, or more locked inside it, you might want to buy the NFT just to download that song/PDF/etc.
   
6. Immutable - No one can change the metadata on the token, no one can remove your image, or the name of the token, etc. This means it will never change, it will never be removed, it cannot be taken down off the blockchain. This is what gives it so much value and collectibility
   
7. Forever - NFTs are forever. Because the data doesn't change, and because the blockchain is forever, you will always have that token if you buy it. You can always resell that token if you want. Its like buying a bar of gold - you own it, and you can do with it what you want.
   
8. Resellable - You can always resell your NFT. You SHOULD resell your NFT and trade it. You can make some serious cash trading NFTs. Some NFTs have gone for 20,000 USD + when the original buyer only bought it for a few thousand dollars. Making them over 15,000 USD in a short time in ONE trade!
   

NFTs are valuable

How do I get started with Buying/Trading NFTs?

You need ETH and an ethereum wallet to get started. The most common is Metamask.io - then you add some ETH into that wallet. This is required by all sites in order to interact with an Ethereum application.
Step 2: Find a marketplace.
The top NFT marketplaces are currently:
Mintable.app
Opensea
SuperRare
Rarible
there are more NFT marketplaces but these are the leading open marketplaces, others may not be open to all NFTs and only select items
Some of these let you create your own NFTs (if your a creator) and some of them are closed like SuperRare, where only approved artists can create items.
Below we will discuss creating NFTs.

How do I get started minting NFTs?

If you are a content creator, whether its artwork, graphic designs, 3D models, videos, PDF, research - it can all be turned into an NFT using platforms like Mintable.app. Mintable is the most flexible and has the most possibilities so we will be using it and discussing how you can use it.
Note: there are plenty of places to make NFTs, but they either are: more expensive, have file size limits below 50mb, don't let you control your contracts, or do not offer decentralization.

Minting on Mintable.app

On Mintable you can sign up for an account and then its free to start Minting NFTs. You have three options to select from when you choose to mint:

1. Your own store
2. Mint in Mintables store
3. Gasless minting

Your own store:
When you create your own store, you are making a smart contract on the blockchain - that you own, you control, your the only person who owns it. This is the preferred method for creating NFTs but there is one single downside....
Deploying a smart contract COSTS a ton if gas prices are above 50 gwei. Around $100 initial investment to deploy the smart contract - but after that, you can mint hundreds of NFTs for as little as $10 using Mintable's batch minting.
If you think of it as an 'operational cost' to get an online business going, $100 isn't that bad. But if your struggling to pay that - then you can mint under Mintable's store, where everyone shares the contract and can mint NFTs (that still are owned by you!) but don't need to worry about deploying your own store.
When you create your store you can choose where the data is stored:
Most Flexible: Let Mintable handle it
Decentralized but no batch minting: Data is on IPFS
Complete control: Your own servers or other locations you can pick
Mintable is the only place that lets you pick where the data is stored, and so this is one of the big reasons people use it
Mintable's Store
You save on transaction fees when you use Mintable's store as you don't need to pay the initial overhead of deploying your own store to the blockchain. Everyone can use Mintable's store for free, and can mint thousands of NFTs in a single transaction doing so. This is one of the reasons Mintable.app is the most flexible platform for creating NFTs, no where else can you make so many NFTs for so cheap.
Gasless Minting
You are able to mint directly on Mintable's store without needing to submit a single transaction, meaning no transaction fees from the blockchain.
This is the best way to get started. You can do it at https://mintable.app/gasless

Minting the NFT

Once you've decided what store your NFT will be minted on - the next step is actually Minting!
There are a ton of possibilities when minting on mintable, so here is a more in depth breakdown of everything that is happening Creating an item
Once you click sell - you will be taken to a page to create your listing for your NFT and the mint it on the blockchain. Its very similar to listing an item for sale on ebay, etsy, or amazon.
You can create your title, the subtitle, add a description (make it good and tell a story behind your NFT!)
Uploading your content
Mintable has huge file limits, 3gb for the private unlockable file, and 200mb for the preview images.
This is great as it means you can upload huge 4k mp4s, high res photos, zip files, or more.
Unlockable private file
This file is a private file that ONLY the current owner of the NFT can access, so if your selling a video NFT, you may upload a low res, short clip as the preview image that anyone can see - but once a buyer purchases your NFT, they can download the full, 4k resolution video.
Preview images
You then can upload the image for the NFT itself, and the preview images for the listing. The first image you upload is the NFT image that shows in wallets, and the other images are shown on the listing page. Think of it like Amazon, the first image is the image people see when browsing amazon, and the other images are the extra images shown when they click on the item page.
Set your price for the item, select a few other options like transferring copyright or making it non-resellable, and then list it for sale!
After your transactions are submitted thats it, you just created an item on the blockchain that you own, you control, and you can sell. Congrats!

More info

Over time, we will update this to add more info, fix typos, and add new sections. For now, here are some links to where you can learn more about NFTs
Mintable Guides
NFT blog
What are NFTs
NFT info from opensea
Have questions? Need help? Want some guides added? Leave a comment and discuss!

Andy Freer is the former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Dash who is now taking the lead on Dash Incubator. Andy's contributions have been instrumental to Dash's technological progress over the years and now he's creating quite a buzz within Dash development via Dash Incubator, which is a bounty program for incentivizing development on the Dash network. It was a very interesting read which deserves to be posted here before the comments are buried in Discord chats. Andy is usually quite active chatting with other developers at the Dash Devs Discord, so this was an opportunity for the overall community at Dash Discord to get an insight into where he sees Dash going this year and his idea on strategies to drive utility and adoption. In short he is very optimistic of Dash's future, says Dash is working on "(what I consider to be) the best and most disruptive forthcoming innovation in this space", and expressed full confidence in the DCG team and their technical capabilities.
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I have consolidated his recent Discord comments which took place over a few hours, and added context in bold.
​
Andy was asked to share his opinion on how he anticipates driving growth for the Dash network in 2021.
I see the key to driving network growth as reaching a broader market of users through making Dash easier to use and providing new use cases outside of the current crypto market which is what Usernames & Dapps enable us to do. The key to achieving that will be driving traction and engagement across 2 new groups on the new features: driving mainstream users to signup to Dash (something which is not possible today in any crypto effectively) and secondly driving developers to create trustless end-user applications monetized with Dash (again not possible in any crypto today) and driving the users to those Dapps. For example, Dash.org landing page should be a signup page to Dash itself and one team focus and are measured on the number of signups we are growing. Secondly we need a dev landing page to onboard new devs (mainly Javascript and Mobile) and furnish Dapp devs with the examples, tools and guidance they need to create great and engaging use cases. For example, payment use cases for retail, subscriptions, social media use cases, games/NFT, ecommerce, kickstarting, video, gaming, any kind of apps that will drive engagement and are monetized via Dash, it all feeds back to increased economic activity on our blockchain, and we need to incentivize both groups, e.g. $10 to legit new signups, and dev funding programs such as Dash Incubator... either way, we need to be growing both groups in tandem and we should be incentivizing people who help achieve that growth.
A Discord user makes a statement comparing this type of activity to airdrops.
It's not an airdrop of tokens in anonymous wallets... we're talking legit unique users signing up to Dash itself. Thats something we want to grow as much as possible, because those users are the customers for what the Dapp devs are building (and potential customers for our money chain off the back of that). Giving the credits removes the friction for that on-ramp within the onboarding and will increase Dapp traction, that should be the focus. The whole point here is to remove friction to onboarding and using crypto. Giving unique users a leg-up to try Dapps (that are driven by economic tx) is a no-brainer. It gives us engaged users that didn't need to learn about wallets, exchanges and withdrawals as their first step. At the end of the day for this to work (and going back to the whole point Evan started this) there needs to be a seamless / frictionless process between telling your normie friend 'hey try Dash', giving them a URL and them actually using Dash for something useful in the same time they do the same on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc. Having a signup on the homepage (or some homepage), onboarding to DashPay and receiving small amount of credits, then trying some of the best Dapps all with a few clicks to that is the key. That is where our funding / mindshare needs to be routing right now, not some of the stupidity going on about marketing and 'high level decision making'. Once we have seemless integration with Dapps into DashPay, this will provide some very compelling use cases that anyone can onboard and use, without needing to understand crypto or jump through ton of hoops. We'll start from a great position... new use cases, frictionless onboarding, signup and use Dash with named account from any device. It's hardly something to be negative about. The value will come from mindshare / funding / incentives put into growing that. Marketing can play a part, just not an important part, same as it doesn't with any disruptive startups (and anyone who legit has a background in this knows already).
When asked about Dash's data on Google trends.
Google trends of the search term 'Dash' is meaningless. Dash (the crypto) is a tiny fraction of the market of Dash products (and no I don't think this is an issue in the long term). Second... Google search for alts isn't the main driver or any kind of significant driver at all. People google for 'bitcoin' - but they learn about other cryptos from social media from people already in the space. Within Crypto... anyone around the last 3 years knows about Dash already. The issue is we haven't delivered any innovation with a differential significant enough to drive adoption within the space (which is what then drives new users) since 2016... and because our segment is already saturated with coins with much higher network effect and social presence, but we're about to change that by offering users new features they're going to enjoy and that our competitors don't and we need to focus on that to grow it. This is a tech space... disruptive tech... the innovation is the marketing. The space ranks itself via markets and influencers... new users come in based on the social media of those people and word of mouth and based on what's new and interesting and whats go the buzz / viral uptake. You cannot fake that with marketing in this kind of space. Every Dash spent on traditional 'marketing' right now is a Dash that could be spent on (what I consider to be) the best and most disruptive forthcoming innovation in this space, and the kicker is this... yes we can flip Dash back to a leading crypto... but we need to unify around how to do that... as I said we need to:
a) grow signups (a new feature in crypto) and;
b) grow Dapps for those signups to use directly in browser / mobile and within use cases they already like (social media, video, p2p commerce, e-commerce etc).
Anything else is going to continue sending our ranking in the wrong direction, so please lets all focus and get our game together (and stop trying the same non-innovation strategies that have failed us and get behind the devs who are working real hard to make this happen). We need traction on Dapps... But the core dapps are actually just helpers for existing transactional use cases. For example DashPay is c2c - if we add in Payment Requests (which I know Quantum Explorer etc are planning) then that covers b2c. We've also been working on retail Dapps at PoS etc. So actually uptake of Dapps doesn't have to depend on the advanced ones like decentralized Twitter.. they can make existing Dash cases lot better, username based and frictionless onboarding, usage, both for end-users and merchants. Underneath that our existing features, which although didn't keep us at the front for the reasons I mention so far, when we fix the last mile of removing end-user friction / seamless onboarding and usage, sure they will be indispensable to actually scale and remove delays for users. What I'm saying is whether you think Dash should be allowing decentralized apps or not, the core use cases are actually very simple and very close to what most people are focused on: growing Dash as an easy to use digital cash with the best usability, speed, security in the space...The original point of Dapps was just removing pain-points in the pre and post payments process. For example the exchange of addresses / tx construction between 2 parties (local or remote) before the tx broadcast, then after confirmation the exception handling of oveunder payments, refunds, and meaningful/persistant histories between named parties to make auditing / CRM etc lot easier. What happened was the way this was implemented opened the door for a lot more advanced scenarios... but this is really the core use cases of Dash Dapps... they make transactions easier. Again, rather than counter to our core strategy, surely this is something we should be investing in as much as possible and integrating into all our existing core operations of integrations, biz dev, marketing.
In response to a comment by a Discord user (shortened): "I believe Dash can reach to $500 or $1000 in a very short time if right steps are taken, just think about how much this price increase allow us to spend more on innovation and improving the product."
I mean this is the problem with our decline in rankings, we get this kind of low-end pump and dump talk to dazzle 'investors'.... you should really check out some of the pump and dump groups or start a YT trading channel you might have more luck. Dash is a coin of innovation... we've deprioritized that for lot of failed strategies. Good news is that innovation is soon to launch and all the great devs who are the ones really doing the work here can come forward and make Dash great again. My work is helping our devs to innovate... thats the real driver here and what the market is valuing as it has/does for any leading decentralized crypto project. The less we spend on development both protocol and ecosystem, the longer things are gonna take...people should check how many devs are working on our biggest features and compare this to the total budgets here to understand... anyway we'll get there with patience so no problem from me. The core payment dapps for c2c and b2c would improve our existing offerings a lot - be fully username based and very simple to use (no need to construct tx, manage a wallet, exchange addresses, automated payment requests, subscriptions, recurring payments, invoicing etc). But as I've been saying I think due to the current crypto market we can offer more reasons to adopt Dash than simpler payments to non-crypto users... one obvious market right now is decentralized social media, whether thats messaging, video, there's lot of demand for alternative solutions. But essentially any existing Web 2.0 application that uses fiat for monetization (whether thats paying creators, advertisers, p2p commerce) can be built as a Web 3.0 app monetized with Dash on Platform... so its whatever developers decide to create and my strategy is just to attract and incentivize as much of them as possible, to provide use cases for the new users we want to signup.
You can see some of the use cases community devs have created already on the Incubator: https://dashincubator.app/output
Also there's a doc with ideas that weren't started yet here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NQbRk38I-43FIGcy2FyK4DW_Er_FknpMB2IQprul-Ec/edit?usp=sharing
And more ideas in the first column 'Concepts' on the Trello here: https://trello.com/b/FPJzDcok/dash-incubator-app
Discord user (shortened): "I agree with focusing on development right now but the market does not care. LLMQ's, chain locks, etc. Have limited to no impact on our price. A useful Dapp actually will though."
LLMQ / Chainlocks / DML don't provide anything really new / disruptive for end-users. Evolution is entirely focused on radically changing the experience for the end-user - crypto is really hard to onboard (understand wallets, addresses, concepts, blockchains) so lets just let them signup with an account they can access from any device with a single password (12 words) that contains everything they need. Paying people is really hard because you need to exchange 'addresses' which are stupidly long numbers - lets just make that another username you can connect with one-time then you don't have to trust anyone your payment is going to the right place. You want to buy a burger in a store, the customer doesn't need to mess around typing in addresses and the price, they just connect to the merchant via QR scan and the merchant pings them the invoice they click 'yes' on when it pops up. Then leading to the Web 3.0 use cases where you don't need to signup to a site with an email, you just scan the QR with your DashPay Wallet, and you're logged in. When you tweet and it wants you to pay credits, your DashPay wallet just signs that silently in the background for you and you don't. I think largely the crypto market itself values innovation based on disruption i.e. how does new feature X give crypto Y an advantage in gaining future market share like most new tech markets - recently that's been Bitcoin as kinda reserve currency status within backdrop of dollar devaluation / inflation of asset & commodity prices / bond yields and it already innovated enough for that with its positioning / network effect, then you have DeFi which is providing advanced decentralized financial products like lending, derivatives, dexes and Ethereum as the platform underneath it. For Dash our strategy derived from our new tech is really ease of use - giving all the mainstream users who donperhaps t understand how to get into or use crypto to do that really easily, and bring crypto closer into the apps they already use (through web 3.0 enabling them and using Dash for the underlying monetization where possible). LLMQ / Chainlocks etc are critical to the underlying working of that as is our scalability and instant confirmations... but i've always said I think we need to complete deliver of the ease of use side then market that when its marketable. I don't really want to be spending time getting vocal on issues that don't really concern me and with my obvious undiplomatic / no filter style which I'm fine with (hence how I don't usually come forward on anything). Obviously I'm passionate about our strategy but I'm confident that our new tech will drive the right strategy and actually from my perspective, both on the tech side and interaction with DCG from top to bottom, I'm super happy / aligned and things actually going better than ever for the goals we've been set. I just get frustrated when I see diversion from that and things that with my own experience don't add up.. which translates to essentially less funding for developing the innovation I think we need to achieve the right strategy which is DashPay / Platform backed up by our leading backend features, and more being spent on things that don't achieve that. That's all it boils down to. My opinion will always be deliver and grow Evolution through support and funding, drive signups, drive use cases (Dapps) and hold back the rest until that baby is born and happily toddling around the market as I'm sure it will be soon thanks to DCG coming through on that and bunch of really smart community devs. I'm around here if anyone wants me anyway I'm just gonna keep focusing on development.
A Discord user suggests that maybe we should be getting more communication from DCG leading up to the launch of major developments.
I think with DCG you have to give them leeway prior to mainnet, because I don't think community understands the pressure they're under internally and actually how hard they're working behind the scenes (like 16 hr days). From the outside they can seem kinda aloof and don't care sometimes actually internally its the opposite (time spent talking about mainnet delivery is time taken away from that delivery).. I think once they deliver they'll have more time for community interaction because the hardest part (first mainnet launch of L2 which is a massive deal for them especially) will take off a lot of pressure. For me I'm super happy with their performance these days... we can all measure them by the testnet releases / beta products and clearly they've become a well-oiled machine in terms of development on both L1 / L2 and sure lot of exciting things to come as they launch, mature it, add features. (obviously they have other areas outside of development which I'm guessing have matured too but I don't follow personally). Plus, actually they do manage to answer basically all the dev community questions and there's a lot of interaction going on there as new devs are working on evonet / dapps etc and that's been really important in fostering the dev community growth this past year. But yah I'd say once they have the main pressure off and Evo is on mainnet it would be healthy to open up a bit. For example was really good to watch the stream with Quantum yesterday, lot of technical info / insight actually some stuff I wasn't aware of, and there's lot more devs like Quantum you don't see from the outside. I think their official community interaction needs to be kinda managed though, because too much could easily get counter-productive (like volume of questions, different people wanting certain features or change things or justify things and that can get repetitive and especially devs don't work well when distracted). I think structurally it doesn't help too that DCG is kinda entirely opaque from community perspective... thats natural because of how it was constructed based on corporate structure. We avoided that in the Incubator by starting with full transparency as an experiment which actually is working pretty good, but iIs hard to retrofit that. My own opinion though is we can see that DCG is consistently delivering on the new features since EvoNet launch and the best thing is just support as they complete each step to mainnet which is transparent process in itself and also feature-locked so bothering them with asking them to communicate more right now side or justify their existence is gonna hinder not help what we're all working for. If people want more communication from DCG Im sure that's gonna be more likely after mainnet than before fingers crossed anyway. I know Ryan works flat out and when he has time he's represents us with media, interviews or whatever is needed. Bob has my old job and I can confirm thats not an easy one or one where you have lot of free time to say the least. Im guessing Bob would have more time after mainnet but you'd have to ask him. Dana joined after I left, it would be great if he had more time to interact with the community but again i'm guessing his day is filled up with helping the devs launch. You can say they need to improve on community interaction but you can't say they're not super busy / working flat out thats for sure.
I think there's lots of things that could be improved structurally and with transparency / decision making /scope etc and communications obviously. But the work ethic and dedication going on in DCG is super strong and from technical perspective so is the organization / knowledge / experience they've accumulated, really we couldn't really ask for smarter bunch of people building / delivering Dash at this point. If that's not apparent from the outside right now, once they deliver mainnet and as they work with the dev community to grow the ecosystem and add features on Platform I'm sure it will be.

I got sucked into the hype too. I always loved to follow wallstreetbets. But never joined a play. But this play was definitely legit. The squeeze did happen and mightve even reached slightly higher(700/800) in a fair game. But everybody was too greedy to see it when it happened. They shorted right back at the top and made all their money back + more from people who are still in denial.
I got delusional and too greedy too. Shouldve definitely seen it Monday. But it hit me on Tuesday and sold for a small profit.
There are a bunch of interesting lessons though. 1) It was scary too see how easily misinformation spread. After the weekend people were just shouting at a conspiracy type of level and no other information was allowed. It was very easy to get sucked into that.
2) The amount of information we have on the stock market compared to them is ridiculously low. For the retail investor there is absolutely no way of knowing what's happening.
3) They definitely were able to plant stories in the media for whatever reason and get buying blocked. They still tried to bankrupt a company to make some money. But as it seems the financial fight is long gone.
4) Don't trust a word from a billionaire lol. That they are still clinging to Cuban when he almost said: I sure don't have any, but if you can(want) to lose your money hold. Chamath bought calls and sold them 2 days later while rallying the troops and promoting his app.
5) WSB will be dead and a laughing stock for a while, although the play was legit. It happened. But people who poured in way too late got hurt and still can't see it. A shame because the community was very fun before I felt.
6) The movie won't be a fun watch lol, HFs must be laughing out of their asses reading the posts now while they make bank.

Game Balance

• Just because your dad is an asshole and called you a failure and cast you out of the family doesn't mean no one anywhere in the world will ever let you inherit anything. I mean, he was probably right about you but if you get on a boat to India they probably won't know or care yet.
  
• If you spend hundreds of ducats of your own money building a fabulous new church, God's not gonna just be like "sure fine whatever I guess"
  
• Lower-rank clan rulers won't get penalties for failing to have an entire harem anime going on.
  
• If you are below the waifu quota for your rank, though, God is gonna be twice as mad about it. He tunes in to this show to ship you with various hotties and nothing on heaven or earth will save you if you fail to deliver.
  
• Partition was all kinds of fucked up and would often explode from even momentary contact with certain other game mechanics. We're sorry. We're working on it.
  
• Courtiers who you had an illicit love child with are less likely to dump the baby in your lap and disappear forever and not even pay child support.
  
• Refusing a call to arms now does something, up from basically nothing.
  
• It's now much harder to make literally everyone in the world love you just because you read a lot of books on rhetoric. Sorry political youtubers.
  
• Characters should now experience a gradual decrease in fertility instead of knocking up all three concubines with quadruplets one day and suddenly having their balls turn to dust and blow away in the wind the next.
  
• Greedy characters will no longer gain stress from giving away a city or temple, because as we all know, administering anything that isn't a castle gives poor feudal lords the hurty brain and it's just not practical to expect them to do it.
  
• Heresies should no longer replace like 90% of all Catholic counties by two weeks in to every 867 game.
  
• Inheritance succession can now go up to 6 generations upwards to find a distant relative rather than just 3 in case, say, you ended up getting the first 20 people in line for the throne killed because you keep forgetting to go click Forbid on the Knights screen.
  
• It's now much harder to murder someone you're at war with and practically impossible to abduct them because they've seen the exploit videos, too, and they're not falling for that bullshit again.
  
• Knights who are constantly swinging swords around and not getting killed will probably get better at it over time.
  
• The Emperor of the HRE or any similarly impressive realm is probably not going to immediately prostrate himself and accept your weirdo naked incest religion even if you declared a holy war and are somewhat stronger than him.
  
• You can no longer ask the Pope for money while at war with the Papacy. Just sack Rome and take it. Asking is for schmucks.
  
• Tribal leaders who have massive armies that get paid in exposure will no longer have a harder time becoming famous for some reason.
  
• That dumbass Radulf is now somewhat less likely to somehow get himself maimed multiple times in battles where you had a 3-to-1 numbers advantage.
  
• Being in debt now does something, up from basically nothing.
  
• Lustful characters will no longer lose stress every time they fail at No Nut November.
  
• The Mongols are legit scary now and they heard you've been talkin' shit.
  
• Weak realms are now much more likely to agree to subjugation by the Mongol Empire, unless you're the Shah of Khwarazm and have a nail in your brain or something.
  
• Telling your failson to go shave his head and live in a dark building he's not allowed out of where he can only eat bread and sing hymns no longer gives you piety, because never having to see him again is its own reward.
  
• That mission in KCD was pretty cool though, huh?
  
• The AI is now reluctant to betroth boys to old women, even ones that have been described as total QILFs.
  
• AI rulers should no longer recruit claimants to their court who are like, fifth in line for some desert village they've never heard of clear over on a different continent.
  
• AI rulers who are bankrupt and facing rebellion should no longer froth at the mouth and scream from the parapets that they refuse to so much as discuss a white peace until you hit 350% warscore.
  
• We've introduced a cap to living dynasty member Renown gain so you can't just rush all the perks by having 5000 stupid, ugly babies.
  
• The Inbred trait is now less likely to be passed on as long as you don't take an already Inbred character and continue to inbreed them. We know you're gonna do it anyway, of course. You're all gross.
  
• Successful Crusaders should no longer fold to a faction demand and convert to Islam 100% of the time.
  
• Clan vassals who aren't allowed to bang at least one of your kids are going to be way more angry now, especially if they're powerful.
  
• Partition succession should now look mostly at splitting up the total number of base level counties evenly, rather than saying Louis gets less land because he gets to keep the fancier hat, leaving him with like a third of the levies of each of his brothers to defend a realm that is now on the express train to disaster.
  
• Björn Ironside has sat down with all of his vassals and explained to them that he probably can't protect them if they go conquer like, fucking Cyprus or something and they should prioritize grabbing counties that are at least within a few months' sailing distance of Scandinavia.
  
• Said vassals should also concentrate on conquering counties in a single, contiguous geographic region now, instead of trying to, I don't fucking know, have at least one outpost in every de jure kingdom on the map? What exactly was your logic, there? It's not like you're grabbing centers of trade. This isn't EU4. Calm down and finish your Wales before you start trying to dominate North Africa.
  
• When you win a Crusade, some of the Crusaders who came with you should stay around and help you man the fortifications instead of being like "gg c ya"
  
• Wandering characters with absurd amounts of gold will now tend to spend it all on improving themselves booze and hookers so you can't invite them to dinner and then accuse them of witchcraft and seize all of their wealth.
  
• AI spouses are finally getting over their netorare phase. Like, we get it but jeez. Find a new tag to follow.
  
• The Alans in 867 have no longer somehow completely forgotten how to do horse archery.
  
• The Pope will no longer let Catholics form the Empire of Germania. You'll have to create the HRE instead, unless you wanted to maybe Protest his authority.
  
• Dynasty of Many Crowns now rewards you with something more than a shitty intramural soccer trophy that probably cost like $12
  
• Peasant leaders may now pay their rabble in exposure.
  
• You can no longer get the living legend achievement by simply starting a game as Haesteinn. It was simply OP to allow him to be as cool as we all know he was.
  
• Characters whose religion involves reincarnation are less likely to reincarnate from a really shitty ancestor.
  
• Alexandria is no longer a holy site for an East African religion practiced mainly by people who have never heard of Alexandria.
  
• The AI will no longer go nuts writing long facebook posts about how all of your children are illegitimate that your dumbass vassals will read and believe in.
  
• German vassals with Stammesherzogtum unlocked should now realize they can wield more power squeezing the desiccated corpse of the empire than they could claiming independence from it.
  
• The Restore the HRE decision requirements are now Kinda Reasonable, down from Fucking Ludicrous.
  
• You will now get ticking warscore against independence factions for holding any land in any of the rebel territories, not just the capital of the asshole who started it.
  
• Brutally killed North Korea Mode. You're bad for using it and you should feel bad.
  

AI

• The AI should no longer decide in the middle of a war that a boat trip would be fun when the wargoal is like a kilometer away by land.
  
• Vassals of a cowardly liege will no longer pretend to be cowardly when he's in the room to make him feel better.
  
• Allied AI ultra-doomstacks should no longer roll up like "hey wyd" and try to have a chat with you while you're doing a siege if it would cause both armies to lose thousands of hapless souls to disease and starvation.
  
• Varangians have been reminded that they're river vikings and they should stop trying to appropriate ocean viking culture.
  
• The AI should no longer nope out with their 4000 troops, leaving your 3000 to fight a 5000 stack and get half your court killed when it would have been an easy win if they could have pulled their pants up and stayed still.
  
• AI characters are less likely to join a claimant faction for a one-eyed, one-legged 90-year-old with leprosy and brain cancer.
  
• AI understands that "matrilineal" marriage doesn't actually mean anything if you're keeping it in the family like a proper Crusader Kings player.
  
• Your freaking worthless father-in-law should no longer call you into three consecutive offensive wars for one shitty tribal county when you're trying to desperately defend against a full-scale invasion of bloodthirsty foreigners.
  
• AI characters who aren't of the same religion as a holy order will no longer be chill just letting the Templars hang out in one of their cities sharpening their swords and singing songs about how all heathens must die.
  
• Lower-tier Norse rulers will be less likely to decide it sounds fun to sail all the way to Sri Lanka or something to raid when there is plenty of pillage to be had nearby.
  
• Allied AI armies now have object permanence and understand that just because we can't see the enemy right now doesn't mean you can safely fuck off across the kingdom to siege some worthless barony and leave the player's army alone to get rekt the next time the bad guys show up.
  
• The AI has been reminded that this game doesn't have naval combat so you don't have to row full-speed away from an approaching enemy fleet. Poseidon will rise from the seas and make sure no one is allowed to hurt each other's boats or anyone on them.
  
• A whole bunch of other AI changes that could be at least partly solved by adding an "allow attachment" button to player armies.
  
• AI will no longer treat enemy armies marching through neutral territory as "out of bounds" and therefore completely unable to be attacked.
  
• AI will no longer park its second army right next to a relatively even battle in progress and kick back like, "I think you guys got this handled."
  

Interface

• The little suggestions widget thingy will now let you know when a vassal is mad because you're not his rightful liege, and his rightful liege is mad because you're giving immediacy to his vassal, and it would have been really nice if someone had brought this to my attention before you both went and joined the independence faction because it's extremely easy to fix.
  
• Added explanation for the Unreformed Pagan Combat Bonus, which there's like a 60% chance you didn't even know existed until right this second.
  
• Clicking a region in a cultural innovation tooltip now highlights it on the map, which I guess is okay but I'm still unsure why we don't have a regions mapmode.
  
• You can no longer include an "OR ELSE!" clause in a vassal contract that is fair and both of you already agreed upon amicably.
  
• Fixed the " has no reason to stay at court" message claiming the child is your stepbrother or sister rather than child. Although knowing you lot, it's very possible that they're both.
  
• Fixed the Find Concubine window in some cases showing someone who is already your concubine. Listen, he just reinstalled the app as a joke. Why are you getting so upset about this?
  
• The little icon that tells you how likely you are to win a battle should no longer be completely full of shit most of the time.
  
• Fixed the game sometimes claiming a marriage has no chance of children despite both parties being fertile. Like, yes, she is way out of your league but I think her sense of duty is at least sufficient to lay back and think of the realm.
  
• Victory screen for Crusades in which you didn't get any land should now tell you exactly how little your sacrifices mattered instead of simply saying it didn't.
  
• Fixed unpause tooltip in single-player sometimes saying "Game is Paused by U̵͈̳̠̼͉̲͙̣̎̓̍̆͋͛̋͋͘͜͡N̸̨̲͈̗̱͎͂͋̿̿͒̕͢͜ͅK̨̛̙̙̮̻̯̫̙͒͗̀͘͜͞͞Ņ̹̗̗͙̳̫̈́̽̒̔̌͒͆́̕͞ͅO̷̡̧͙̖̮͉͂̈͒̾̓̇̈̚͘͡ͅŴ̸̡̢͓̜̠̫͙̙̩̀͆̋͊͗̐̉͡Ǹ̵̛̞̟̼̑͗͊̂̏͘̚͟͜"
  
• Fixed you in some cases getting a "your child can marry" notification for someone you have no power to marry off, so you can call them and bug them about it repeatedly.
  
• Hovering over options in the dropdowns in the Barber Shop will now show the resulting change on your character model so you don't have to spend twice as much time trying on hats as you do actually playing the game.
  
• Made it clear in the Knight game concept that Knights represent both the character and their retinue of troops, even though everyone's head canon is going to say that they did personally cause 30 casualties because that's way more metal.
  
• Made sure the friends panel can be expanded if at 8 or more, even though you will never have that many friends.
  
• The "Pending Crusade Participation" alert now only shows up if the head of faith would actually be upset at you for not participating. You've disappointed him enough by now that he probably doesn't care.
  
• The game will no longer claim that your guest's claim on a title that's already in your realm, or which has no holder, is useful
  
• You now get a notification in the lower-right corner when a part of your realm gets sieged by someone you're hostile to, which is information that I guess your marshal didn't think you needed to have until just now.
  

Art

• South Indian/Dravidian characters no longer look like they were dunked in flour.
  
• Also added Slavic, East African, and Arctic visual ethnicities. Remember when we would charge actual money for this and half the time it looked like they escaped from a haunted wax museum? Rejoice that we now live in more enlightened times.
  
• Improved teenager animations to not be neutral and really get across the VIOLENT STORM OF PAIN AND ANGER IN THEIR SOOOOOOOULS
  

Localization

• Added an alternative text for holy war if one has the pluralist doctrine to explain that it's like, you know, just kind of a chill holy war, dude.
  
• Added description for Parliament Special Building explaining that this one structure which grants some passive modifiers meant to represent an entire sea change in the understanding of the role of a monarch is hopefully just a placeholder for adding real council mechanics back in later.
  
• Changed the "Consolamentum" tenet to "Ritual Suicide" for anyone but Catholics so non-Catholics don't have to go look up what the fuck that word even means.
  
• Children who are believed to be the reincarnation of a really shitty ancestor will no longer act super stoked about it.
  
• Fixed a scope mis-match in the lover reveal event which caused the event to describe people having affairs with themselves. We all do it but the entire court doesn't need to hear about it, okay?
  
• Re-named the 'West African' culture group to 'Guinean' to get everyone speculating about if we might add the Kongo later.
  
• Renamed the Wendish Empire to the Southern Baltic Empire, which is a monumentally less cool but I suppose more inclusive name.
  
• Updated the tooltip for Divine Marriage to clarify how it works even though we thought the memes had explained this pretty well by now.
  

Game Content

• Added a notification toast when your liege changes to inform you who your new liege is and why they became your new liege. Which, again, you'd think someone on your council would have thought to inform you about this rather important piece of information before now.

Databases

• Broke up some of the ridiculous turbokingdoms at game start in freezing, pastoral Northern Scandinavia.
  
• Made the Guiyi Curcuit an independent realm in 867 to help ease the pain of waiting for the inevitable China expansion.
  
• Aquitaine is sexist and has been cancelled
  
• We made up some extra Cumans specifically to prevent bordergore so don't say we never did anything for you.
  
• Kashmiris no longer start with elephants because it's honestly not a great place to raise elephants.
  
• Socotra is now part of the Duchy of Socotra. Aswan is still not in the Duchy of Aswan for some reason but we're getting around to it.
  
• The Aghlabids are no longer independent in 867 because they weren't.
  
• Volga Bulgaria is now feudal in 1066, because all the other steppe khanates had already labelled them as lame asses by then.
  

Bugfixes

• You can no longer farm Devotion by telling your court architect to start building something that costs a bunch of piety and then kicking it over and telling him to go home on the second day.
  
• You no longer have to change at least one thing when reforming a pagan faith to prove that you're hip and modern.
  
• Fix unnecessarily handling controller input and rotating/zooming the camera, which is something 90% of you didn't know you could do until just now.
  
• If your religion requires approval for divorce but has no religious head, guess what asshole, I'm the queen so I'm the one that gives approval. Now get out of my sight before I have to have you dragged out of it.
  
• Fix war participant tooltip not listing the number of knights but just repeating the word knight
  
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• Fixed an issue where, as a prank, you would tell some rando that came along on the Crusade that they were getting the county of Jerusalem just so you could immediately laugh in their face and take it away.
  
• Fixed excommunication being available for faiths with Communion but non-spiritual heads. Malcolm is just up there chugging the blood of Christ and scratching his ass but there's nothing we can legally do about it.
  
• Listen closely. I know he's well-spoken but no matter what the prince tells you, word of his father's death and his ascension to the throne does not grant him a "Get Out of Jail Free Card," you oaf.
  
• The Reclaim Britannia decision no longer changes effects based on dejure drift. It's a damn island and it all belongs rightfully to the Celts.
  
• Children should no longer run away from home purely out of boredom.
  
• A faction will no longer courteously greet you before calling you a tyrant. It's called sarcasm but you spend your days torturing small animals and banging your sisters so we probably shouldn't have expected you to get it.
  
• It is no longer possible to farm guardianship events by repeatedly encouraging your child to engage in animal abuse. I can't believe we're actually having to patch this but I guess nothing should surprise me at this point.
  
• "Know Thyself" will no longer result in you getting daily texts from the reaper telling you the number of days until the Big Day and how excited he is.
  
• Added an alert for when you have no player heir to your titles but there's someone landed in your dynasty still alive somewhere because of a marriage you totally forgot about arranging like 200 years ago. So anyway I hope you like Siberia.
  
• Made it easier to kill grandma.
  
• Added triggers to notifications so that marshal vassals don't gain opinion of themselves when they do something good. That asshole is already full of himself enough as it is. Yeah, yeah, tell us about the Battle of Acre again. We're not tired of that story at all, you old fuck. Get back to work. I don't want to have to fight another populist rabble.
  
• Babies will no longer be assigned commander traits through a yearly event. I know everyone wants to brag about how smart your kid is but I'll believe he can pull off a double envelopment when he stops shitting in his pants.
  
• Blocked Vlach rulers from taking the Unite the Slavs and Unite the Southern Slavs decisions after realizing that our Somewhat More Arbitrary new way of doing non-linguistic culture groups has some drawbacks.
  
• Blocked the seduction of characters who are imbeciles or incapable. Again, not necessarily surprised we had to do this. Just disappointed.
  
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• Rad ass hats are now mandatory in the Byzantine Empire.
  
• Characters who become wanderers are now less likely to just nope out of any relationships and vanish, leaving confused loved ones behind.
  
• The Adamites have finally made a ruling on capes: Funny but no.
  
• Children under 4 should no longer be lecturing their peers about theology.
  
• You can't force someone in your prison to educate your shitty kids. Torture them. Maim them. Anything but that.
  
• Children will no longer demand you hold a feast even though that seems like exactly the kind of thing your shitty, spoiled kids would do.
  
• Courtiers of Theocracies and Mercenaries will no longer wear inappropriate clothes. We're trying to sell this as an honest operation, Helgi. Gods dammit take that ridiculous thing off.
  
• Crusader Helmets will now always show up when appropriate, which is at all times.
  
• Devouring people will now have a clearer impact on your stress level. I still have several questions.
  
• Tribal MaA who are paid in exposure won't give you a discount on the amount of exposure based on traits you have that normally decrease upkeep.
  
• You can now tell a vassal who is mad that you're "not their rightful king" to sit down and shut up because you're the damn EMPEROR.
  
• Taking someone as a concubine against their will might upset their family. You know, just a little.
  
• No longer possible to farm divorces for personal profit. sigh
  
• Fixed an error which caused the event 'Differences in Faith' to trigger for counties of your own religion even though that's basically what was going on everywhere all the time.
  
• Fixed an inverted value that caused children with a 'bad' education affinity to do better at their education than children with a 'good' affinity even though everyone who has ever been labeled "gifted" relates to that pretty hard. (Credit for this joke goes to Rowan)
  
• Fixed being able to send multiple Blackmail interactions to the same character while waiting for their first response because you keep coming up with even more fucked up things to threaten them with and just can't wait to talk about it.
  
• Fixed broken god reference in a death transition text.
  
• Y̼͍͉̞̱͖͎̰͒́͂͊̃̐͛͘͞Ő̪͖͇̹̜͕͛͐̔͗̄͋̍͜͜U̷̢̟͚̤̤̯̠̤̐̓͋́̿͠ͅ Ḿ̧̟̖̥̟̀̔̓̂͑͡U̧̧̠̻̗̪̽͒͒̀͂̒̍̚͞S̢̡̭̝̗̙̠̠̥̜͋̔͋͂̾̓̋̚͘͘T̸͔̳͍̫̃̐̀̓̈̀͢͢͠͠ Ņ̶̧̢̡̘̩̫̼̫̰͂̾̌̐͆Ë͇̠͚̝́́̾͐̀͑̕͟͠V̛̫̹̦̖̱̮͂͊̉̎͒Ȩ̶̹̬̠͖̀͌́͑͠R̥͔͂̅̒̔̏̌͟͜͟͡͞ͅ R̸̮͍͈̞̓̔͊̈́͜͞E̢̳͔̖͉̔̑̀̍̀̀F̢̹̯̱̹̦͎̞̏̔͒̌͝Ě̱̳̯͙̻̦͈̇̃͡͞ͅṞ̡̮̙͍͎̮͂̊̎̽̐͞͝ͅĘ̵̧̮̮̻͕̜͎͓̼͊͆͐̽̊̂͡Ṉ̬̬͇͙̄̓͋̒̀͟͠C̴̗͍͙̯̗͚̼̿̆̔̀͑̓̓͜͝Ę̳̹͈̖̫̱̺̅̈́̒͌̎̅́̈́̕ T̛̟̱̼̻̪̻̈͑̈̈̒̇̃̿͘H̴̢̖̬̥̹̤̗̺̔͆̓̋̐̾͗̀͟E͖͍̦͙͇̔̔̎̾͆̄ B̴̨̧͍͇̐̄͐̊̔̔͌̊͜R͙͚̣̠̃͊͂̏̏͂͘̕͘͟͡ͅȎ̢̢͕̙͇̖̽̋͂̓͑͝K̡̡̧̛̞̭̮̜̦̙̤̂͋͌͋͌̎͐̚Ę̸̗̖͈̫̓̂̉̓̌͗N̨̡̛͖̭̦̺͔͔̈́̔̇̒͌̚ Ǧ̺͕̙̦́̆̅̑ͅŐ̸̹̳̪̣͍̳̙͖̓͋̆͋͌͢͜D̵̥̤̳̖̮̯̥̱̣̀̊̈́͗́̐̚͞ͅ.̯̻̺̻̗̘͔̀̿̏̽̓̐͜ T̨̡͎̫͇̦̗̻̦͂̈́͋̉̾̓̀͡͞H͈̫̩̯̳͖̑̑̉͋̋̈̚͞ͅE̜̻̹͎̫̣̒̅̋͋͂̅̐̆͐͝ B͓̭͉̟̄͌͛͆̎̚͞͝ͅR̷̫̪̝̜̳͇͂̿̂͐͂͠͝͠͡O͎̰̲͕̩̊͌͛̋͌͘͢K̢̢̢̛͚̥̙͇̝̥̂̾͋̏̀̅͢͝E̡̻͖̪̞̦̤̼͍͒̌̄̀͜͝N̸̨̗̳̜̭̱̘̯̄̎͋͊́́̈͘ Ğ̨̢̗͓̞̖͚͇̘͗̍̇̂͂͑̚ͅO͎̱͈͍̲̳͙̥͆̋̽̀̚͠͝D̷̡̥̹̖̔̄̂̕̚͜ Ĩ̢̢̱͉̞͒͑̈́̓̌̀͡Ş͕͍͙͈̲̩͓̹̊̀́̀̿́̏̕̚̕͢ É̟̜͖̭͔̍͘̕͞͝V̝͎͎̙͇̜̅̉́̈́͋̃̽͞ͅË̵̹̜͓̺̯͕̹̗́̒̃̊̕͟R̴͕̞̯͍̯̱̲̬̟̰͂́̎̌̽͘̚Y̶̧̘͇̗͊̏̈̆͌͡ͅW̷͈̠̘̪̘̆͗̒̊͐͂̈̈̚Ḩ̳̘̰͔̱̖̥̈͛̿̓͡Ȇ̡̡̗̰̭̟́̌̀͛͂̽͠R̷̢̖̭̬̦̻͇̳̓͆̌́̊͆̌͜͞Ḙ̸̢̛̺̘̠͔͚̙͐͐̒̂͋͟͡.̪̘̮̣͇͗̌͐͝͝ I̡̨͚̖͔͚̘̻̎̅́́̈́͆̇̄̐͟T̰̬̗̺̮͓̝͖͌̓͑͂̐̅͜ W̢̢̟͎͍̦̜̞͑̃̅̉̄̒͊͢I̱͈͍̩͇͚̤̎̆̾͋̽̆͛̒͠͝L̡̲̖͓͓̺͙̞̋̅͆̽̍̒L̢͎̳͙̞̠̏̊̊̀̀̉̽ Ḧ̵̪͇̖̠͔͎͍́̌̌͢͡͝E̶̮̲̝̝̦̥̎̽́̚̚͟͠A̘͈̜͓͔̪̻͖̔͋̀̀̄͝R̷̡̟̠̘̞͓̪̫͕͂̅̍̿̕̕͝͠ Y̧̘͇͖̼̻̙̞̾͌͋̍̔͋̑̈́͊͜͜͝Ò̪̩̫̥̬͖̤͓͋̅͐̓͐̕͟͝Ù̸͈̥͙͕̖̱̼̲͈̏́̌̃̽͘.̧̝̟̪͙̞̠̰̼̑͐͆̽͑
  
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• Fixed embracing English culture sometimes converting landed spouses or family members without their consent, even though that would be pretty accurate to English history.
  
• Fixed lowborns getting kinslayer traits when murdering other lowborns. The proper trait for this is "Class Traitor".
  
• Fixed the kingdom of Pontus capital being set outside its de jure area. The capital is now set a-WAIT WHAT THE FUCK PONTUS IS IN THIS GAME??
  
• Guardians will no longer keep teaching your kids after fleeing the realm. We just didn't have the technology for distance learning in 867.
  
• Guests with claims on your vassal's vassal's titles will no longer show up at your court and then be like, "Oh... well this is awkward."
  
• Head of Faith looks at incest as a divorce reason based on faith's doctrines, so you can be like Henry VIII but with your own siblings. Don't pretend like you weren't already thinking it.
  
• Historical characters will no longer be their own parent. But we're sure you would be if we gave you that option.
  
• If you promise a vassal to educate their child they will now be miffed if you try to return the child after it turns out that they suck and you don't want to deal with it.
  
• You no longer get tyranny for putting someone in horny jail if the secret is known and adultery is criminal in your faith.
  
• Many achievements are now possible, up from impossible.
  
• It's now possible to negotiate an alliance even if your family is very inbred. So all of you can finally use the alliance mechanic now.
  
• Secret lovers should no longer expose themselves at a feast by trying to copulate through the bars if one of them is in prison.
  
• Lowborn bastards no longer try to belong to a House. They dun wan it.
  
• Lowered the amount of gold the recipient needs to have to unlock the Demand Payment interaction. Apparently my landlord worked on this patch.
  
• Married couples will no longer be exposed as if they have an affair if they're also lovers, as shocking and scandalous as it must be that a married couple in the middle ages more than tolerates each other.
  
• People that are terrified of you are now more likely to agree to marriage, as long as they don't have to marry you. I'm more than willing to sacrifice one daughter if you leave me alone forever. She's not even smart.
  
• People will no longer judge you harshly for breaking a betrothal to an Eunuch. Except, I guess, said Eunuch.
  
• Pilgrimages no longer come with a bunch of hidden fees they didn't tell you about when you booked it.
  
• If someone you really don't like recovers from illness or injury, instead of losing stress you might be like, "Ah, fuck..."
  
• Rebuffing the advances of a romantic interest now correctly ends their scheme instead of forcing you to become soulmates anyway. I tried that dating strategy at one point and it definitely does not work.
  
• Reforming to Feudalism no longer involves setting your entire seat of power and everything in it on fire.
  
• Rum now no longer takes dynasty names, always retaining its title name regardless of the holder's culture, so you'll never be left wondering why is the Rum gone
  
• Sick characters now dress the part. That gambeson is fuckin' sick bro!
  
• Split the Take Vows decision into two, one for "I hope you bleed out on the uncaring sands of the Levant" and one for "I just want you to go lock yourself in a room with some manuscripts and never talk to me again."
  
• Spread Assyrian culture a little. ASHUBANIPAL IS PLEASED.
  
• Svend II of Denmark now spawns as either bisexual or heterosexual, and either way I'm into it.
  
• The Mongol Empire will no longer destroy itself when winning a war, as happened historically.
  
• The Pope can no longer publicly accept cannibalism.
  
• Publicly.
  
• The elope scheme will now run smoother than it did for those two Italian kids.
  
• The game will no longer tell you to take more concubines when you've had enough, which makes it more polite than most dating apps.
  
• Two players having a child together will no longer have a screaming competition about the name. At least, not in-game.
  
• If a vassal refuses a title revocation, you can't pretend it was just a joke and avoid the tyranny hit.
  
• Unlanded characters will no longer be able to drag prisoners around in a big cage on wheels.
  
• The stupid little widget will no longer constantly remind you that you can declare war when you're in debt and literally can't.
  
• You can no longer tell a pregnant admirer to get her prenatal ass out there and kill a wild animal for you. Unless that's acceptable in your culture.
  
• Women in equal or female-dominated realms with concubinage will get the same penalties as men for not meeting their Himbo Quota.
  
• You can no longer attempt to find dead people's secrets even though I think that's the plot of at least half of all thriller novels.
  
• You can no longer lose a friend you didn't have. So if you're reading this: look on the bright side!
  
• You can no longer owe a favor to yourself because of a necklace. I think that was also the plot of a movie though.
  
• You can't just constantly fire your child's tutors, Karen.
  
• You don't have to break up with your concubines before asking them to marry you. It would still be pretty funny though.
  
• If your spouse leaves the realm because you're an asshole, you get to keep the kids because you have castles and armies and they don't so suck it.
  
• If your spouse really sucks you will not be sad when they die.
  
• You will no longer think less or more of yourself depending on how good you are at romancing someone else, which is highly unrealistic.
  
• You will now be told why you can't debate people 24/7: Because it's fucking annoying. Log off. Go outside. Have a real life.
  
• You will now only be notified of the establishment of Norman culture if you're in Europe. The Maharaja of Bengal doesn't know or care what you're talking about.
  
• You'll no longer get events in third person about how virtuous you are. You'll have to keep doing that in the mirror every morning before you load your save.
  
• You can no longer Promote Christian Settlements in Hungary if Hungary has been Christianized for over 100 years.
  
• Made Aethelred I significantly more unlucky whilst Alfred is alive and heir so maybe the English at least have a fucking chance.
  
• Spouses can no longer be both happy and unhappy with their spouse even though that pretty accurately describes every marriage ever.
  
• A beacon of the faith who is discovered to have a bastard child will only lose one level of devotion instead of being immediately yeeted directly into the deepest circle of hell with no appeal.
  
• Having concubines no longer protects you from becoming a concubine. I think this means you can have polycules now but I'd have to test it out.
  
• Seduction compliments now only has two outcomes, good or bad, as is true historically.
  
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Link to official notes:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/ck3-dev-diary-42-1-1-patch-notes.1428193/
These take a very long time to make. If you got a good laugh and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee:
https://ko-fi.com/leana

Greetings, you likely don't know me, but some of you might. I'm FardHast, an anagram of 'hard' and 'fast' (don't mind me on simplicity I was a schoolboy and did everything at the last moment, very hard and very fast). I was getting high legend regularly on EU wild/standard of years 2018-2020. Posting combo decks results on twitter. Creating end-of-week TB posts. Twitch lurker, mostly been chatting on BoarControl streams, on FenoHS after Boar got a job. Anyway. I'm monogamous, and in games too. If I pick one I will play it for years. There can be the others, but they are super brief. The first computer game I had was the CS:S, then Minecraft and then Hearthstone was the longest one.
How I got into the HS? The Journey.
In 2013 I was watching the Russian youtuber Eligorko, because of his Minecraft let's plays. Then he starts uploading videos about HS, it looked like some Wow shit, so I wasn't interested and just skipped like 20 of his Arena videos. Then I'm like "fine, let's take a look". And I really got into it that I re-watched all previous 20. It looked very easy to understand. He liked to pick Paladin and tried to draft as many Truesilvers and Hammers as he can (the most premium arena cards at the time). And then I start picking up. Found Trump who was doing arena too and who lost to double Dust Devil t1. And Noxious. OMG. His Randuin Wrynn was so much fun to watch I couldn't stand it anymore: "I need this beta key right now, whatever it takes." At the closed beta you needed a key to enter the game. Don't remember, but I think you could either buy it, ask for it from Blizzard and potentially receive in a month or 2 or never haha, or win in a giveaways. There was a group in Vkontakte (Russian Facebook), which posted 1 key every 24 hours. I wasn't fast enough to take it on first 2 tries, the 3rd one was lucky. I immediately started tutorial and only played arena for a year, because to afford junky stuff like Randuin in constructed you need money and I was a teenager to have any.
In 2014 I saw Day9 on the Molten Giant OTK (Warsong granted ALL your stuff charge), how Reynad got legend with Aggro Warrior, how he invented the Zoo (lol), 5 mana Gadgetzan Miracle Rogue, Forsen, the birth of a cancer dank meme hs music, gachi, Alex the Seal, Radio Kappa. Nerfs to Sylvanas, Tinkmaster, Buzzard, Leeroy, Gadget, Soulfire, etc. All changes to Unleash. And why Dr.Boom is not Troggzor.
In 2015 I gained some gold from arenas to homebrew. For a short moment the interaction between Poison Seeds and Explosive Sheep was different (Sheep's dr activated after Treants) and that inspired me to build a Malorne Fatigue Druid. Not amazing, but I liked it. Also there I started to watch Kripp's gameplay on that deck and joined the subreddit for the news. Saw nerf to Undertaker, how a Patron Warrior didn't get traction in reviews and then it warped the meta with 9 card 70 dmg OTK's here and there with his iconic "Everyone, get in here!" in everyone's head. The first ever tavern brawl: Rag vs Nef. Mysterious Challenger didn't impress everyone until release and then "Who Am I??? Dr. 1-8" gave another portion of meme compilations. Reno Jackson w/ explorers ofc. The infamous "Soul of the Card" by Ben Brode on Warsong annihilation.
Met 2016 with the fork of constructed format. Posts of phenomenal street-arts of different Old Gods cards around the world. Nerfs of Classic. Introduction of Yogg. C'Thun, C'Thun, C'THUN!!! 4 mana 7/7. Shamanstone.
I invented Risky Skipper back in 2016. The idea was that you play Wild Pyromancer and Commanding Shout with some cheap spells to swing the board and draw cards with Battle Rage or Acolyte. Then you OTK the opponent with Raging Worgen, Inner Rage, Charge, Faceless, reduced by Emperor. I got the first legend with it and it became my first favorite deck. After that I noticed I'm HUGE fan of combo blowout decks (where you swing the board just enough to win or OTK). I don't remember exactly how I spread it out, I think it's through twitch telling legend players to try it out. People started picking up on it. It was especially fun watching Neviilz losing his mind and getting rank 1 legend in the meantime with it. At the end Charge card got annihilated.
In the middle after high school I went to university just because everyone were. The moron me still didn't think about his proper future.
Of course Ben Brode never ceases to amaze with his Purify and "Unicorn Priest that no one is playing". Infamous "The Purity of the Cards" video came after. Saw how Pavel got his Poly from a Book live. Captured Pirates vs Reno vs Jades meta, "Who Goes Thaaarrrrr?!, I'm in charge now!". Made a post after Raza got revealed that the effect should be nerfed to (1) to prevent the broken hero power OTKs now and in the future.
In 2017 Purify Priest actually became a legit deck as well as the new "1 star" Quest Rogue, the most cockroach deck of HS, only disappeared after 3 major nerfs. At the time Disguised Toast was the lord of bugs and inconsistencies. At his usual stream I tell him to check the Mirage Caller + PW: Glory glitch I found that seems to DC both players. Turns out with the right timing it can only DC your opponent. He showed a really major exploit and that got him banned from the game for 3 days. I'm glad that at the end he still gained much much more from an incident than lost. Butterfly effect at it's finest. Druidstone with their "Must feeeed!!!" on turn 5. The famous Hex nerf to 4 when Shaman was at the bottom.
Insane powercreep came at the Kobolds "In the dungeons I go deeper", that even after Witchwood in 2018 the meta hasn't changed, and the May nerfs did more than a rotation with a new set. Also some guy I believe still waiting for Shudderwock animations to finish. And, oh yes, the Naga ad was the only way for Blizzard to make change for the wild. In the middle of year AK-47 Druid became really oppressive in wild. Basically 1 card OTK through Melon drawing everything. At least nerfed Aviana still sees play. This is the year, where I started to get high legend in both standard and wild and I thought to myself "maybe this is the future".
In 2019 I got the first rank 1 legend with Sniplock. And after Blitzchung incident I had strong worry about Russia's standard of living. It's just getting worse and worse. Some people demanding their rights and I'm doing nothing, that's wrong.
2020 was weird and passed very quickly. I graduated from the university. And I still don't really like the direction it gave me, but anyway, I got the Covid-19 in November. It was the worst feeling, at the same time it helped me realize how big of an addition I have. With the new HS structure "rewarding time", I'm spending less and less of it, cause I have a job now and about to start a personal life. I had to drop the NA server entirely that I started a year ago (regular legend in both formats only on 1 server wasn't a challenge). And I felt relief. Hearthstone just doesn't bring the same emotions it used to be and I can't believe I was kept being excited every time for the past 7 years. That was truly amazing.
So this month the mini-set comes in, as usual I'm brainstorming all the combos I want to try, looking at what others coming up with. It releases, I'm trying it and have a smile. Smile of exhaustion. My enjoyment has been vanished into nonexistence. Finally I decided to quit. And to cure the addiction I just started to remove everything Hearthstone related from my vision. The app, deck tracker. Unsubbing/unfollowing from all the yt/twitch channels (except ChumpHS, because that would be a true miracle moment when he starts the stream). All hearthstone resources from quick tabs. Dunno what to do with twitter, cause my acc is full of HS. Reddit will be the last one.
If everything was fine with Russia I definitely would've chosen the route of HS competitostreamer. But with the situation we have I just can't continue spending any time on this game. My route holds in a duty to creating a fine future for my country. And it's not the military, I can't say here what exactly. I hope you understand me.
If you've seen this game from the start, please reply. We are interested to look at your perspective and how are you keeping up still.
I will definitely revisit this sub in the future, maybe in a year or 2 or 5. Just to get the nostalgic vibes and to see what the game has become.
Farewell ;)

Gonna cut to the chase... Feel free to contribute here if you have seen a scam I have not listed here that should be!
Privacy preface: Don't post about bitcoin or crypto on your social media if it contains your personally identifiable information. Consider making "alt accounts" to post about crypto on twitter or reddit.
1. No one will send you 2 bitcoin if you send them one first. Someone is pretending to be a celebrity on twitter (or YouTube / or another social media platform) or someone has hijacked that celebrity's account. 2. I can't get on an exchange. I'll buy the altcoins being sold in this telegram group at a 10% price premium. The idea is first you trade 10 or 20 USD of bitcoin for an altcoin in question. Then you do a second, larger transaction, and the trader takes your altcoin and won't send you bitcoin. He steals your money. 3. I have 0.3 bitcoin on _____ exchange. I need 0.4 BTC to withdraw from the exchange. Can you help me? Don't do it. Just don't do it. This requires you to trust someone you (most likely) never met face to face. 4. Hey check out this new exchange! Zero fees and you get 0.1 BTC for signing up! Use new exchanges at your own risk, especially if you can't find reputable people promoting that exchange. A nice way to verify whether or not the exchange has traffic is to use similarweb.com 5. If you are getting DMs from a stranger on the internet (reddit, telegram, discord, any platform) without prior conversation with them, just ignore them or take them with a heavy amount of skepticism. 6. I want to set up an escrow bitcoin account with you on _____.com. Someone will make an account for you on an exchange website and provide you with a username and password. The exchange websites in question may not be scams, but this is where things get REALLY dangerous: eventually they will tell you to enter your personal information on the website. If they have that information, they could potentially simswap you. Don't do it. strangers on the internet won't spend months making money with you when they could steal thousands from your ignorance in just a few minutes. 7. Celebrities / Crypto Celebrities DM'ing you about premium investments or how you won their giveaway. I would love to be held as a a VIP to the winklevoss twins, but that just isn't going to happen. 8. Bad actor Telegram bots offering airdrops. You get invited to random Telegram channel for new amazing crypto coin. It’s an automated thing, do XYZ tasks, get free crypto, automated responses from telegram chat bot - requests public address (fine), bad actor will request private key (NEVER give this out!!) 9. Free Cloud Mining. At best an ad serve app on your phone that never actually generates you crypto income (but does for the app dev in ad revenue!), at worst clipboard spyware or something much nastier - especially avoid unsigned/non App Store/Jailbreak required apps. There are NO ‘free’ legit cloud mining operations I’m aware of personally on phone or desktop, and paid ‘managed’ cloud mining accounts are dubious at best and should be intensely researched and verified. 10. You just won 0.XX BTC! We've deposited it in NO_NAME_EXCHANGE. Just go and pick it up! Then you'll be told by the so-called "exchange" - "You cannot withdraw until your account is verified. To prevent money laundering and funding of terrorism, please send some BTC to your account." You send the BTC and game over. It is long gone.

Hello there folks. I'm a relative newcomer to this case, and have spent the last several days having fallen down the rabbit hole. I've emerged with a solid theory that I would like to share with you all here, and perhaps hear what others have to say.
*EDIT* Updated my original article to include links to sources that I've relied on to come to the conclusions alone. I'll mark each addition with an *EDIT* for clarity.
As mentioned in my title, I believe there's a bit of a combination going on with this case. I firmly believe that the girls suffered an accident after getting "lost" - and the resulting minimal remains and oddities surrounding their belongings, are the result of tampering by the locals. Occam's Razor - the simplest solution is usually the correct one. Bear with me, because this is going to be a lengthy post. I'll make an attempt to go chronologically so it's easier to follow.
First, in everything that I've been able to find about both of these girls - aside from them both being intelligent - they weren't well versed in outdoors skills. This doesn't mean that they hadn't previously done hikes or things of the sort, but, for example - they weren't girl scouts. Sure, they knew how to use a compass and likely knew how to orient themselves directionally in relation to where the sun is rising and setting (more on this later) - but they weren't what could be termed, as wilderness trained or knowledgeable. Not saying they were dumb, just some things we don't inherently know to do until we've learned that information. What may seem to be common sense to some, is a completely alien thing to someone else. This is evidenced by their own journal entries - both girls were young, idealistic, arguably having the time of their life at the first portion of their trip, but faced a pretty harsh reality check upon arriving in Boquete and realizing just how difficult it was to converse with their host family. In reading their diary entries, their youthful naivete is apparent. Again, this is not a slam against them in any way - hell, I was the same at their ages.
*EDIT* First indication of their lack of wilderness knowledge and experience: they brought 1 water bottle, looks to be store bought, no bigger than a Dasani bottle between 2 of them, on a day hike that was clearly marked/estimated to be around 4-5 hours in full length. They also only brought one backpack of supplies. Kris' backpack and their compass were left in their room. While this does NOT indicate that they were dumb, it does demonstrate that they under prepped for the trip. This could be due to mistakenly believing it was a very simple walk, or due to the nature of this hike being a last minute "on a whim" type scenario. Given the weather that day, it would have been more appropriate to bring 2 water bottles minimum - a quick google search reinforces this. Albeit there's evidence to demonstrate that their belongings were tampered with, there's no evidence of a first aid kit either.
This, is the key: their Spanish was elementary at best.
*EDIT* Their journal entries found on Juan's archive expose this. They began taking Spanish classes in Bocas and were getting better at understanding words and phrases, but their level of direct communication was broken.
At the time they were there, the minimal information about Il Pianista available online would have been written in Spanish. And the phrase for turning around at the summit and returning along the same path, is easily misunderstood. The literal translation to English can be "make a loop". To someone with a tenuous grasp on Spanish, it's very easy to think that the information was telling them that the path itself looped back around to town. Not to turn back at the mirador and return along the same path. Further evidence of this potential for misunderstanding, is the fact that the sign clarifying this has now been erected at the mirador for the benefit of tourists specifically. Placed there after Kris and Lisanne's disappearance.
The reason I put lost in quotations above, is because I don't believe they got lost in the traditional sense or understanding of the word. They were following the path in the direction they thought they needed to go, and kept on following it. I don't believe they wandered off the actual path until much further into the jungle, when following the actual path became increasingly difficult as it wends deeper and deeper into rural territory. Another interesting thing I came across, is the optical illusion/directional trickery in Panama, that makes it appear as though the sun rises in the West and sets in the East. This is a phenomena that I knew nothing of until recently, and upon further investigation appears to be 100% legit, and similar flipped appearances can be observed in various other places along the equator, ranging from Florida to Hawaii.
*EDIT* see here for directional trickery for confusing which direction the sun is located in Panama. There were some other sources, and of course I didn't save those :(
*EDIT* There was also no compass with Lisanne's backpack. Yes, there was the compass app on the iphone at the time, but given the need to conserve battery power, and the reports that they had a compass, but left it with Kris' backpack, all points to them not using the compass app.
There's 2 main reasons for them to continue along the same path and are as follows:

1. They fully believed that the path would loop around and lead back to Boquete.
2. Upon spending the first night in the wilderness, they attempted to orient themselves directionally using the sunrise, and given the above mentioned illusion, fully believed they were heading south on the path back to Boquete, when in fact, they were going north and continuing deeper into the jungle.

Bear in mind here, Il Pianista is a simple day hike. Not overly treacherous, potential for injury is always there, but it's a simple day hike that two amateur hikers could have easily navigated themselves, with a clearly demarcated path that in the first half is wide and well travelled between locals and tourists alike. Hell, I've done similar day hikes in my area on a whim without telling anyone where I was going - and realized in retrospect that that was a dumb move if anything had happened. They also had the benefit of ideal weather conditions and a warm dry season that year, so the path itself was not overly muddy or difficult to navigate until passing the mirador and going down into the other side of the divide - as evidenced in photo 507, where you can clearly see that Kris has already had a minor wipe out at this time. There's mud up the back of her lower legs and a spot of mud on her left buttock. Not a bad accident, clearly a minor whoop and down on the butt due to the mud and semi steep terrain. Could also certainly explain the change in her facial expressions that people get caught up on - I'd wager, given how fresh the mud looks, that her slip had happened a short time prior to these photos.
*EDIT* This blog has extensive information, including the chronological order of the photos taken during their trip. Picture 507 can be viewed here, as well as pictures of the earlier portions of the hike. Also to note, some people point to their hair being down and up in different pictures, and bracelets appearing/disappearing from their wrists as "evidence" of photoshop tampering. Every woman has worn a hair tie on her wrist. Given earlier photographic evidence from the start of their hike, Lisanne is definitely wearing a bracelet on at least one wrist at the start of the hike. When their hair is down, once they've reached the mirador, "new" bracelets can be viewed - which are simply their hair ties. Moving past the mirador, it's apparent they put their hair back up.
I'd like to take this moment to echo what some others have also stated: I highly doubt the dog Azul (Blue) was actually with them. That would have made for some very quaint and adorable photo opportunities, and would have also assisted them with returning properly since the dog was well known to accompany tourists up the trail. There's much contradictory statements from the locals. I believe they all meant well, their intent was in the right place, but after a local commenting "all Europeans look alike - tall and blonde" it certainly lends a questionable air to whether they were recalling the right European girls, since they weren't the only ones in the vicinity, and notably, 14-15% of the population living in Boquete are European and American expats. And, we've all played the game of telephone in one form or another, and misremember details. This is why eye witness testimony isn't the smoking gun it was once considered to be - our memories aren't as reliable as we would like to believe they are. This is noted in the locals who misremembered the time when Kris and Lisanne began their hike, when the pictures on Lisanne's camera clearly contradict these statements.
I believe the explanation of the 2 attempted emergency calls later in the afternoon on the 1st were due to them realizing that they had not yet looped around back to Boquete as they thought the path would do. They were concerned that they hadn't yet reached town, but still believed that the path would eventually lead them back. I see the first calls as being concerned, but not that something extremely dire - such as an injury or attack - had happened. That's also why the first two calls were spaced roughly 12 minutes apart. They were worried, but not entirely hitting the panic button yet, but definitely approaching scared as they also had lost cell connectivity. They decided to press on.
Video I've watched of several different people - their parents included - hiking Il Pianista and beyond the divide, show that the appearance of cow fields on the other side of the divide, would certainly give one unfamiliar with the area the impression that the path had indeed started to loop back around to Boquete. The Pianista trail begins with a walk through and past farmlands, and the other side of the divide has a spot in the middle where you go past several farmlands. It definitely would have looked like they were almost back to town. The emergency calls would have come shortly after passing these farms and realizing that they could not yet see Boquete and beginning to realize perhaps they were lost. Furthermore, other videos of people hiking this same trail clearly demonstrate that there's no way that Kris and Lisanne would have made the 1st Monkey Bridge on the first day. They would have been a couple kilometers away from it, if not more. So that rules out an accident on the first day. They simply were coming to the realization that they may in fact be lost.
*EDIT* See Answers For Kris and Lost in The Wild - Hike Into Hell for video images of the Pianista trail itself. The koude kass blog also contains much detailed pictures for the trail itself, and gives a clear indication of the weather that day. Further details as to the weather on that day is easily searchable on google.
People that are lost most commonly do one of 2 things: backtrack, or continue walking in one direction. I even made a point of researching wilderness rescuers that are familiar with the psychology of people that get lost. Rarely do people actually do what is the best thing to do when you are lost: stay put. As Kris' mother herself said, you'd have to really try in order to get lost along the Pianista trail on either side of the divide because it's a singular path, with no visible trails leading off of it (except into some farmlands) - are you actually lost if you don't believe you're lost? Or think you're going in the correct direction? This would explain their multiple attempts to call emergency the morning of the 2nd - notably Lisanne making 3 calls to Kris' one. This is where the differing personalities would come into play. Lisanne being more shy, introverted, and liking things pre-planned would certainly have been starting to hit the panic button by this point. Kris was clearly more "go with the flow" (which she literally said in her journal). To note, the weather when they were on the trail would have put the temperature around 12-18 degrees celsius overnight - not overly cold on the warmest night, quite pleasant even, but certainly bordering on a bit chilly on the coldest of nights, but not hypothermia inducing.
*EDIT* One source for the psychology of getting lost. There's several, including a great article from Weir, one of the outside investigators brought into the investigation into Kris and Lisanne's disappearance. We all do strange things when we get lost, add dehydration, starvation/chronic hunger, emotional upset, fear, and being in a foreign place and you've got a recipe for foggy thinking.
As we all know, both Kris and Lisanne had only packed for a simple day hike. They had one water bottle between them, and some snacks. All resources I've been able to find state that the water is generally safe to drink, but at some points there's potential for dysentery-type illness inducing microbes/bacteria in the water - mostly deeper into the jungle. So as far as water goes, we know they had plenty - but the water could have potentially made them ill, exasperating their condition. Their immediate concern would have been lack of food. *EDIT* See the video Answers For Kris - one of the local guides drinks from one of the streams on the other side (north side) of the divide.
It's my belief that, instead of just staying put, they continued to press on. Believing that the information they had misinterpreted, that the trail would eventually lead them back to Boquete - if they had decided to back track but became confused and disoriented after spending a night in the wilderness, it's entirely possible that the optical illusion with sunrise would have messed with their ability to navigate properly, thus lead them in the wrong direction.
The first of the Monkey Bridges, is certainly not the death trap that it has been made out to be. A fall from this bridge would not be immediately fatal, unless you manage to hit your head on a rock as the first point of impact and rendered unconscious, be swept downstream. It's also important to note, that due to another video I watched, that there's in fact a point just prior to the 1st Monkey Bridge where you can safely walk across the river at a sort of marshy land bridge. With the weather in April of 2014, it would have been entirely possible to not have to attempt the monkey bridge at all, and resume the path on the other side. *EDIT* See Kinga and JJ's documentary Lost In The Wild - Hike Into Hell.
Everything I've mentioned up to now, would certainly explain the lack of picture taking. If you're beginning to think that maybe you're lost, or can't understand why the path you're on isn't leading back to town when you believed it would, that doesn't exactly make for the right emotional state for touristy picture taking. As for the missing picture 509, I believe it was either a camera malfunction or that it was unintentionally deleted. It's pretty apparent that the government authorities didn't exactly do a stellar job with their investigation, not collecting fingerprints is just one huge blunder, so it stands to reason that they mishandled the camera as well. *EDIT* Sloppy handling of this case is evident from the publicly released information, already available on the sources previously listed.
The above explains the continued shutting off of their phones, then turning them on, attempting to call emergency again, and then shutting them off again. Conserving battery power for as long as possible - considering neither phone had a full charge when they began their hike - and hoping that a connection could be made. Once Lisanne's phone died, this certainly would have increased the tension between them. On the second day, Lisanne made several attempts to call emergency and Kris only made one attempt. By the 3rd day, they definitely would be panicking and freaking out more, especially if their snack supplies had dwindled or were gone entirely, especially considering that they had lost all signal by midday. The 4th day, with Lisanne not powering on her phone at all, I believe was her attempting to conserve what little of the battery remained, given that her phone died the next day after attempting to check for a signal. By all accounts, these girls were typical millenial/gen z'ers and glued to their phones. Their lifeline. In this case, literally. *EDIT* this information is gleaned from profiling the girls themselves, combined with the records taken from their recovered phones.
I believe that the incorrect PIN entered into Kris' phone on the morning of the 6th was an accident on Kris' part. Perhaps, by this point in time, the girls had devolved to arguing with each other (*EDIT* to note, I'm not talking about them screaming at each other. I'm talking about emotional exasperation and being testy with each other. This is 100% normal in a situation such as theirs). By this point, they were 5 days in the jungle, no sign of Boquete or anything that was remotely familiar to them, confused why the path wasn't leading them back, hungry, potentially thirsty, perhaps in the early stages of dysentery from drinking water deeper in the jungle, and under a great deal of stress. Mental confusion coincides with this time period of lack of food and water, which would exasperate their situation. No need to attempt to re-enter the correct PIN when she could clearly see that there was still, no signal.
Then we come to the Night Pictures. This analysis of the Night Pictures is very very well done, and gives a pretty damn clear indication of what Lisanne was attempting to photograph that night - and yes, I believe it was Lisanne who took these pictures. And I believe I understand what happened, and what she was attempting to do. Every professional investigator who has gone over the Night Photos in sequence, all have come to the same conclusion - that whoever was taking them (most likely Lisanne, also agreed upon by them) was clearly attempting to document something.
I believe that on April 6th, the girls quarreled, resulting in Kris typing in the wrong PIN on her phone. They didn't bother to further attempt to check her phone after this day, because it was apparent that they weren't going to get a signal. They were determined to push on and hopefully come across someone or some shelter. By the night of April 8th, they very likely were dealing with chronic hunger, stress, panic, fear, confusion, and potentially early onset of dehydration symptoms. Early dehydration would include dry mouth, intestinal upset (on top of potentially having a dysentery type illness from bad water), headache, mental confusion, low blood pressure. All of these are not conducive to continuing physical activity in a tropical setting that is becoming increasingly difficult to traverse. It would also further cloud their judgement.
*EDIT* This picture is the one I'm referencing below.
It's my belief that in the early morning hours of April 8th, Kris slipped and fell to her death from a steep ledge they had settled on, either for the night, or were attempting to navigate. Picture 542 is where Kris slipped and fell. You can see that the rock slopes downwards slightly towards a steep drop off, and specifically there's an indentation in the middle of this rock, which would be the perfect place to slip in the dark, while it's raining. I believe that Lisanne was attempting to find where Kris had fallen using the camera and the camera flash in an attempt to illuminate the darkness - this is the reason for the burst of images initially. As Kris failed to respond to her calls, the pictures are taken less frequently. I believe that Lisanne carefully made her way down to where Kris lay and that this is what is pictured in the infamous picture we all know of - the picture of the back of Kris' head. There's no blood in this picture. There's no obvious sign of injury. It's entirely possible that Kris is laying face down in this picture. As there's no discernible background to the picture, it's disorienting to say the least. It's also notable that some of the Night Pictures have been withheld from the public - indicating that there is a good possibility that there is photographic evidence of some sort of injury to Kris.
The above referenced break down of the Night Photos clearly demonstrates that Lisanne was definitely, desperately, attempting to photograph where Kris had fallen and find her, in the darkness. At this point in time, they would have been too far out to hear the search parties going on - all of which never actually made it to the 1st Monkey Bridge in their searches, as they didn't fathom that the girls had gone that far. No other explanation for the reason for the pictures makes sense. If there were animals spooking them, there would be other night pictures of them attempting to use the camera flash to scare them off then too. If there was a third party, flashing a camera desperately in the darkness is a great way to get recaptured.
As for the strange 'marker' of the 2 plastic bags and twigs - I feel that this was their attempt to mark the path they were taking. Why wouldn't they think to make markings earlier on? Remember, they weren't wilderness trained. Denial is an ugly beast, and it's easy to not want to believe that you're actually lost. As for why they never recorded any videos, or wrote messages to family - it's entirely possible that they never actually believed that they would die. Not many of us would willingly face that reality, never mind two young women. It's easy for all of us, sitting in the comfort of our houses, to loudly declare what we would do in their situation. Yet we've never been in their situation. It never crossed my mind that something could happen to me, on those multiple "on a whim" quick day hikes, until having safely returned to the car and were on our way home. It's also entirely possible that they didn't have anything to say, because their parents and family already knew that they loved them. Read Lisanne's diary entry of the day before their Pianista hike - she was already nursing feelings of feeling like she had made a mistake, like she had bitten off more than she could chew, expressed even a little fear of being in a strange country far from home. Being lost in the jungle was the icing on a particularly shit cake, and something that she certainly would not have wanted to admit to her parents. She didn't even tell them that she was homesick, and specifically wrote that she didn't wish to tell them this. We've all done some dumb or hairbrained things in our youth, and certainly never told our parents out of the internalized shame at our own foolishness. Now imagine recording it on video?
As for what happened after the 8th, leading up to the discovery of Lisanne's backpack and what remained of their bodies. Here's where my combo theory really comes into play. I believe, after confirming that Kris had indeed passed, that Lisanne forged onward, determined to get help. She was likely experiencing the earliest stages of starvation, complicated by onset of dehydration. She would be weakening, be experiencing painful muscle cramps, diarrhea is a symptom of starvation and dysentery, quite possibly have a headache, likely have the chills or the shakes from low blood sugar resulting in cold intolerance (even the slightest temperature fluctuation would be intolerable and 'register' as cold), confusion, dizziness, fatigue. She would have been in a bad state emotionally after the realization that Kris was dead. I believe that Lisanne also met with an accident - whether it directly caused her immediate death or not is certainly up for speculation. Her broken metatarsals indicate as such. Now, you don't typically break your metatarsals in a fall.
Allow me to nerd out a bit on anatomy of falling. For example, when you fall on an outstretched hand (FOOSH), you break your carpals. Specifically you break the scaphoid carpal when you fall and break that fall with your outstretched hands. Physics is what determines this, the force of the fall abruptly ends higher up than the initial impact point (hand), which results in the force breaking the bones higher up (scaphoid, and sometimes the head of the ulna or radius). The same thing happens in your feet. When you fall from a height and land on your feet, specifically a height/fall that would result in breaking something, you break the bones higher up in your ankle and the lower leg - the tibia and fibia. You don't break your metatarsals in a fall, unless you smash them on something (think head over heels, feet flailing and hitting a rock). And given that the medical report indicates at least one oblique fracture of Lisanne's metatarsals, again this seems unlikely. Oblique fractures of the metatarsals are more common in severe lateral rotation injuries of the foot - laymens terms, you roll your ankle/forefoot as you fall, or fast pivot on a stationary, firmly planted foot. Otherwise, the most common way the metatarsals are broken is something falling on the top of the foot - like a large rock for example.
*EDIT* information on types of foot fracture
It's my belief that Lisanne was found by the villagers of Alto Romero - either dead or very near death. They also found Kris' remains as well. If they found Lisanne still clinging to life, I believe she was too far gone for their abilities to nurse her back to health. Looking up the village of Alto Romero and the people living there - they're quite poor. The indigenous people rarely have an education beyond 6th grade because they cannot afford schooling. The very school that Kris and Lisanne were to teach at, shuttles indigenous children in from outlying rural villages. They have no modern conveniences or technology. There's no power. They don't even speak Spanish - or very few of them anyways, and most of those that do are male - their common tongue is an indigenous language. I believe that despite being found by the villagers, that Lisanne succumbed to her injuries - I certainly believe she also suffered a fall similar to Kris, but wasn't immediately fatal. The last power up of Kris' phone wasn't Lisanne at all, but the villagers who had found her incapacitated and nearing death.
*EDIT* Information on Ngabe people in the region see also Lost In The Wild - Hike Into Hell for an interview with the villagers of Alto Romero, and the woman who supposedly found the backpack - their body language and how they respond certainly casts doubt as to the story they're sharing.
In the research I did, which from what I've seen is common knowledge amongst those of us with an interest in investigating this case - the farmers and indigenous peoples used lye to replenish the soil and to assist with decomposition of animal carcasses. I believe that the villagers buried Kris with lye, while tending to Lisanne. Once Lisanne also perished, they buried her with lye as well and decided to keep their belongings - which would have been quite the boon to such an impoverished people.
A lye burial would explain the variance in decomposition between the two girls - having died at different intervals. It would also explain the natural disarticulation of their remains. No tool marks were found. No teeth marks. No evidence of foul play or scavengers - with what little of their remains were found at least. Lye certainly would speed up decomposition and the joints will naturally de-articulate as decomposition occurs. Kris' pelvis for example, wasn't broken. It was de-articulated where the bones naturally come together. The pelvis is comprised of three bones joined together at the pubic symphysis and at the sacroiliac joints. A lye burial would also explain the partial bleaching and findings of phosphorous on Kris' remains.
Everyone assumes that the backpack was found where the indigenous woman claims it was found. I personally don't believe it one bit. As everyone has already argued, there's no way that backpack was carried downstream. It was never in the water. It was with Lisanne when they found her. The documentary Lost in The Wild visited Alto Romero, and the body language of the villagers is pretty blatant. Their main concern is that they feel ripped off by not being awarded with the reward money for bringing the backpack to the authorities. I believe that, initially upon the death of the girls, they kept their belongings in hopes of selling the items - the money certainly would have been welcome. Until all the media attention and uproar back in Boquete forced them to stay quiet about the girls, their fate, and having their belongings. It wasn't until word of the reward money that it was decided to bring the girls' backpack to the authorities. This would explain the neatly packed presentation and the multitude of fingerprints found on their belongings. An argument about the morality and ethics of what was done can certainly be made, but they're not guilty of an outright crime. They're certainly guilty of withholding information, giving false or misleading information, but I don't believe there was deliberate intent. I firmly believe that the story of finding the backpack was made up to hide the discovery of the girls, and would also explain the positioning of the girls' bones. It's also clear from the Lost in The Wild documentary, that the villagers of Alto Romero are attempting to distance themselves from Kris and Lisanne by claiming that some of their later pictures (507/508 for example) were not taken on their side of the continental divide, when its been repeatedly demonstrated that they were in fact, taken on the north side of the divide. The villagers collectively expressed their frustration at having not received the reward money for turning in the girls backpack. That money would have gone a very long way for their community in a time when it's becoming increasingly more difficult to maintain their living in traditional ways.
As for the local guide that much speculation has been made about, I believe that he's covering for the villagers of Alto Romero. It's been stated that his coffee farm is not too far from Alto Romero and ultimately where Lisanne's backpack and some of the girls remains were 'found' - and he was, in fact, the one who 'located' their remains. I suspect that he directly assisted the villagers, but that his involvement was no more shady than theirs. Speculation about him being creepy could very well come down to cultural differences and misinterpretation. What is commonplace and passable in one society and culture would be blatantly offensive or rude to another. I'm in no way excusing improper behavior, merely making a point that the people that all complained about him were indeed foreigners, and the vast majority of others hold him in very high regard, especially locally. I believe he was the one who decided to scatter the girls' remains along the riverbank to lead investigators away from the villagers of Alto Romero who were likely feeling very guilty about the whole situation.
*EDIT* See Answers For Kris, at 5:18 F clearly says "No les digas nada" which means "Don't tell them anything" - this is also noted by others that understand Spanish in the comments section. It's to be noted that the other guide with him, is from Alto Romero.
Occam's Razor. The mental gymnastics that has to be done to make any other scenario fit, also illuminates the unlikelihood of those theories. A lot of assumptions have to be made to prove direct foul play or a third party. A lot of assumptions and wild fantasies have to be made to prove organ harvesting or cartel involvement.
*EDIT* Occam's Razor definition - it's a problem solving principle.
*EDIT* My belief is that Kris and Lisanne were at/closer to the 2nd set of Monkey Bridges, deeper into the jungle. Not the 1st Monkey Bridge. This would have put them way out of range of the official search, which surely would have located them had they been at/in the vicinity of the 1st Monkey Bridge on the night of April 8th. There's certainly enough information to merit further investigation of F and the Alto Romero villagers.
While the narrative of two foreign girls getting lost on a commonly traversed indigenous trail, and ultimately suffering tragic accidents leading to their deaths is far less romantic or "entertaining", it's more likely the truth. Our species loves to tell stories, to speculate, to dream and create. Our curiosity demands it. We seek to question, to understand. We also seek to blame when we can't find an understanding, because blame feels better than a tragic accident. Blames gives you an active target for your emotions.
If you've managed to make it all the way through this post, thank you for taking the time to read the whole thing.