Tonight, at 8pm Eastern Goblin Time, Wedji & Gandersnitch face off in a debate of epic proportions! Who will emerge victorious? Who shall dominate the political landscape for the next five minutes?Moderated by the only man mad enough to attempt the task, world renowned comedian and juggler, Paolo Garbanzo! Tune in live, and ask your questions on the air @ www.mixlr.com/gandersnitch
Goblin Talk is going LIVE! That’s right, we are going to broadcast unrehearsed, unedited, and censor free! It might even not entirely suck! And you can be there, in the comfort of your own home, wearing whatever you want, listening in and commenting to your heart’s content on Facebook!
So check it out, click the link, do the thing, enjoy the show!
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So Wedji went to get a cup of coffee… and stuff happened. It’s all better now and we are back, louder than ever! In the first episode of Goblin Talk Season 2 we discuss the biological engineering, the politics of immigration, advances in the culinary arts, and the upcoming Broadway season! You don’t want to miss it! It is pretty dang amazing!
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I think this one is pretty much self explanatory. I mean, who else were you planning on wasting your vote on? Oh, yeah. Other stuff too. Important stuff. Give it a listen, and you will see what I mean.
Whatever.
-G
Campaign Music: “Five Armies” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Deep in the woods of the New York Faerie Festival, where no one could hear her scream, Wedji TuCheeks made yet another attempt at a solo music career. Thankfully, nobody will ever see this video. I have packed it away in a cardboard box, labeled it as “Free Rabid Wolverines”, and dropped it in the river. The world shall be spared the horrors of Goblin Rock. You can thank me later.
-G
Hey guys! I found a box in the river labeled “Free Wolverines”. Stupid box! There were no wolverines… But check out this cool video I found inside!
-Azog
It should of be no surprise to anyone, anymore, that humans seem to place a strange importance on the color of one’s skin. This leads to strife, and turmoil, and bloody chaos; which honestly, we are all for, in the right context. But recent events have really started to get out of hand. So we are here to say: Please, think of the GOBLINS!
It is true, we are oppressed all the friggen time! And it is always over the same silly things you humans are abusing each other for. The color of our skin, the length of our noses, the strange things we eat, our violent destructive tendancies, or that one time we accidentally “borrowed” a child that was already spoken for…
I mean, really, if you don’t want someone to take the baby just lying there sleeping, swaddled in a blanket, secure in it’s playpen, with the front doors locked, the dog on guard, and the alarm system turned on—JUST LEAVE A FRIGGEN NOTE! Seriously, if he was that important to you, why is it so hard to take a few precautions to ensure his safety. Sheesh…
Anyhow, Wedji TuCheeks decided to hit the mean streets of Baltimore to put an end to this oppressive nonsense once and for all. It is time for some Goblin Outreach, the key to combating the stigma in the communities where we live and work. Or at the very least, transferring it over to the trolls. Really, if you want to oppress someone, they are ripe for the position and too dumb to even realize it is happening. As we always say, Trolls Drool & Goblins Rule!
So go Green! (ish… Brown. Yeah, go brown. Green is kinda gross.)
-G
Over the weekend, Mab’s facebook account was turned back on, granting her access to the site again, and to her professional pages (like Wedji TuCheeks and Goblin Talk). She did not receive any sort of official “You are all good now.” notice from facebook or anything, and certainly not an apology, so we wanted to wait till today to see if it was for real or just a glitch of the code.
She is still there today, so we are going to take it as a real thing! And it is all because of you!
The outpouring of support was absolutely amazing, and helped her cope with the fact that she had been effectively cut off from the most important social media tool that she uses. No matter what anyone says about expecting nothing for free – it is a terrible thing to have your voice, and your online identity, suddenly silenced.
We don’t know what it was that changed their minds. Personally, I think it was the over 20,000 people who saw the initial post on facebook, and the hordes of folks who reached out for accountability from FB on twitter, and the 7,000 people who came here to the Goblintalk.com website to read about what was going on. It was the fact that people cared enough about this injustice, granted a small one compared to all the other troubles in the world, but that they cared enough about Mab to spread the word and say “This is NOT right!”
By doing this, just a simple act of sharing, Mab’s story spread to reporters, facebook employees, and people who had gone through this same crap in October of last year. Even though her voice had been taken away by the absurd policy, people took up the call and kept it going. And her story was heard.
Thank you all, so very much, for making that happen! You rock!
Now, uhm… who gets to tell Azog he has to give Wedji her co-host job back?
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We were planning a fabulous one year anniversary episode. It was going to be so awesome that we kept planning and planning and we actually did do a tiny bit of recording as well. And then, this crap happened! Mab Just Mab (and by extension Wedji TuCheeks) was banned from facebook and thus cease to exist.
So instead of celebrating, Azog and Gandersnitch must eulogize. We are not very good at eulogies. Seriously. Please let us have Wedji back.
We are amazed that more than15,000 people have now seen our post and over 5,000 have come to this web site to read more. And thank you all for the outpouring of support. Mab is pursuing official facebook channels (and has been rejected through official facebook channels 3 times now, with demands for the exact identification she has sent them three times over), but the word is that something like this can take months to reverse through normal channels, if ever at all. That is why generating a buzz is so important. And holy crap, you folks are buzzing! (If only we could find a way to make honey from all these bees.)
Please continue to share the original blog post: http://www.goblintalk.com/2015/03/mab-just-mab-aka-wedji-booted-off-facebook/
And the twitter post: #facebooklied @Facebook Reinstate @mabjustmab on facebook! http://wp.me/p4jBPm-3N #mynameis Mab, Just Mab! Please Retweet!
And most importantly, sign the petition (a new one we were directed to): https://www.change.org/p/facebook-allow-performers-to-use-their-stage-names-on-their-facebook-accounts
Thank you!
Gandersnitch, Azog, and the ghost of Wedji
Update: (Mon. 11:54am) – Mab’s back! Thank you, thank you, thank you! To see the full story on her return, and more heaping of praises on those who took up the call, see: http://wp.me/p4jBPm-4i
Update: (Fri. 9:28am) – We still need your help! Please retweet this: @facebook Why ask for ID if you just refuse it? WTF? #facebooklied Turn @mabjustmab back on, she is real! #mynameis http://wp.me/p4jBPm-3N
Mab just received her fourth rejection of her appeal to turn her account back on. She has provided 4 different types of ids that prove she is who she says she is, and this is the name she uses everyday in real life. Still, her PERSONAL facebook account is blocked, and a form letter is sent saying: We are unable to verify your identity with the id provided. Please provide identification from the following list… Which she has done. 4 times over.
At this point it is clear – Facebook won’t stand behind their promise from October, they are all about the money and not about their users or their word. They set up a pathway to prove your identity, and then refuse to follow it. They blew smoke in the media and continued to ban drag queens, performers, Native Americans, and anyone who does not fit their mold. They don’t care what name you use in real life, or why you use it – all they care about is sticking to their policy that everyone must have a “real name”, but lets call it what it is – everyone must have a “normal” looking name. They are on the attack again, booting swaths of people who do not conform. We need to fight back. We are trying to be heard, but we need to keep shouting. This is harassment, plain and simple.
Update: (Thurs. 12:26pm) – Some folks have expressed concerns about the first petition we were told about, and thus directed people to sign. We understand those concerns, and have just been linked to another petition that may work better for folks: https://www.change.org/p/facebook-allow-performers-to-use-their-stage-names-on-their-facebook-accounts
Update (Wed 7:18 pm) – There is a petition going to repeal this absurd policy. Not just for Mab, but for everyone affected. Please add your signature at https://www.change.org/p/facebook-stop-forcing-users-to-display-their-real-name
Update (Wed 3:15pm) – A bit more digging makes it seem like we might have the wrong twitter handle for Mark Zuckerman. If anyone knows a better one, please let us know!
Disclaimer: The following is my understanding of events. I may be wrong. It happens, though rarely. – Robert/Gandersnitch
It seems that the fb account of my dear friend and creative collaborator Mab (aka Wedji) was marked as abusive and deleted while she was away performing in New Orleans this past weekend.
A few weeks ago (if even that long) she had run afoul of the “real name police” and was forced to change her name from Mab Just Mab to Mab J’Mab, pending documentation – which she duly provided.
Anybody that knows Mab, knows her only as Mab. Hell, I only know her birth name because of a credit card receipt. She does not use her birth name in real life. That just exists on a piece of paper. She uses the name Mab. Her reasons are her own.
Not only was her account closed, all of her posts, pictures, videos, and private messages were wiped and replaced with this message:This message is no longer available because it was identified as abusive or marked as spam.
Mab is also locked out of the Wedji fb page and the Goblin Talk fb page.
Years of private communications between Mab and myself (and others) regarding performing, planning, etc – are now gone. Comments and posts she made on the goblin talk fb page – gone. Pictures she posted from festivals of us performing – gone.
All over a stupid policy that facebook said in October, after an outpouring of outrage, that they were backing down from. Well, no surprise – FACEBOOK LIED!
I get wanting user accountability, but every other social media platform allows anonymity without compromising user accountability. All facebook’s ill thought out policy does is allow thugs, bullies, and hate mongers to run free and harass people they disagree with without repercussions.
This “real name policy” doesn’t protect anyone. It endangers people who should be able to be secure in their chosen real world identity. It promotes racism and intolerance towards people with traditional or strange sounding names. It puts some customer service person behind a desk somewhere in charge of deciding if another person, who they have never met, is real enough. It puts the burden of proof on the accused, something that is completely backwards to the basic structure of our values in this country. In the end, it really just enables the asshole behavior that facebook pretends they are trying to stop.
Maybe someone disliked something Mab said. Or maybe they just disliked the fact that she performs burlesque. Someone complained. And because of that complaint, Mab’s online identity is wiped. Years of social media contributions are wiped. She is turned into a victim, while her aggressor remains hidden and running free.
This is wrong. This is garbage. This is abuse.
#mynameis Mab, Just Mab.
That is good enough for the rest of the world, and that should be good enough for facebook.
So, the question has been asked: What can you do to help? Mab/Wedji has requested that her case be reopened with facebook. Maybe they will, maybe they wont. In the meantime, the best way to help is spread the word. In the past, people have successfully overturned facebook’s zealous ass-hattery via twitter. It is worth giving it a try again. If you have twitter, please post this tweet:
@facebook Why ask for ID if you just refuse it? WTF? #facebooklied Turn @mabjustmab back on, she is real! #mynameis http://wp.me/p4jBPm-3N
Thank you. (And if you need to contact Mab directly, please do so via email: Mab@Mabjustmab.com)