TrekCraft is not an ordinary server. Here at TC we have a friendly community that takes part in events every week and staff that will help you through any situation. We have a large number of game-enhancing plugins, including Towny, McMMO, Mythic Mobs with great custom bosses, ArtMap for creating custom artworks, Jobs, chest shops, crates, auctions and auction house, quests, treasure hunts, business partnerships, etc! These plugins help players have the best experience, whether it's having fun with friends, working hard to level skills or trying to build the best town. Our staff also hosts events like trivia (all with items obtained legitimately), weekly contests and competitions!
We're family friendly, so keep the chat appropriate for children: no swearing, or discussion of inappropriate behavior allowed.
When you find yourself on TrekCraft you feel like you are part of the family, and that's exactly what we want you to feel. We've been around for over 8 years, so you can trust us to last! We reset for 1.18 and will be expanded our map for 1.19, so there's plenty of fresh territory.
We're a no raiding, no griefing server. We rarely have a problem, but in the event of grief, our staff will happily roll it back for you. We allow pvp in the wilds and arena, but almost all our pvp is friendly and agreed upon, and our resource worlds have pvp disabled. Almost all towns have pvp turned off within their borders, and we've got a great friendly community that will gladly help new players get started or old ones find what they need. :)
You can see our full rules at: http://trekcraft.ca/forums/m/37099730/viewthread/26376805-towny-rulesor at /warp rules once you're on the server.
We are fully EULA compliant: our great ranks are obtained through in-game events, contests, treasure hunts and voting.
Take time today and come join us at mc.TrekCraft.net You can also visit our website at http://www.trekcraft.ca/home or view our server trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGH0tEKlqYA&t=2s
We'd also love for you to join us on Discord: just log in and ask for a link. We keep it private to reduce bots.

I recently moved abroad. All my income going forward will be from overseas in a high-tax country. But as a US citizen I still need to file US tax returns.
I have roughly $80k in a US-based rollover IRA (Traditional). The tax rules in my new country treat foreign retirement accounts as taxable brokerage accounts, so I'll be taxed on capital gains, dividends, and interest each year. This largely eliminates the tax advantage, so I want to get the money out as cheaply as I can. I'm thinking Roth conversions followed by a withdrawal of each contribution after 5 years.
I should be able to eliminate most if not all of my US income tax liability through the Foreign Tax Credit. My wife and I have 3 children and a fourth on the way, so unless the law changes we should qualify for an $8,000 Child Tax Credit. However, my understanding is the tax credit is non-refundable, so it does me no good if my tax liability is zero.
But if I make Roth conversions from the IRA, those count as taxable income in the US. So I'm thinking I could use Roth conversions to intentionally raise my taxable income to where I get the full benefit of the Child Tax Credit, while keeping actual tax liability at or near zero.
Does that plan make sense or am I missing something? It seems too easy.

Ever wished a portal would open up and swallow you? Don’t. Trust me.
The Whispering Crystals is a LitRPG series about Emma, a young woman who gets sucked into a portal to another dimension... along with the entire Comic-Con she’s working at.
Stranded in a strange new world—with a very different set of rules compared to the laws of physics she's used to—she’s forced to push herself to the brink and apply all her ingenuity just to survive!
Even if she manages to keep her life through the lethal Trials, the question remains who exactly brought her here... and for what purpose.
With five books out in the series, now is the perfect time to start reading the first one for free.
Get it here: Unnatural Laws: https://books2read.com/WhisperingCrystals1

[<< First] [< Previous] [Next >]
​
Synopsis:
Juliette Contzen is a lazy, good-for-nothing princess. Overshadowed by her siblings, she's left with little to do but nap, read … and occasionally cut the falling raindrops with her sword. Spotted one day by an astonished adventurer, he insists on grading Juliette's swordsmanship, then promptly has a mental breakdown at the result.
Soon after, Juliette is given the news that her kingdom is on the brink of bankruptcy. At threat of being married off, the lazy princess vows to do whatever it takes to maintain her current lifestyle, and taking matters into her own hands, escapes in the middle of the night in order to restore her kingdom's finances.
Tags: Comedy, Adventure, Action, Fantasy, Copious Ohohohohos.
​
Chapter 14: Yearning For Stars
Rextros the Black Scar was, incredibly, a man noted for his black scar.
It was his symbol as a survivor. And more importantly, as a winner. He may have a scar, but the man he'd last fought had two broken arms and a big enough gap in his front teeth that he now whistled in between speaking.
Over the years, he'd fought with the best of the worst, turning bars inside out and alleys upside down. As a D-rank pugilist, he regularly left a reminder that of all the mean sods to ply their trade in this land, he was the meanest of them all.
And his reward? His own cozy little forest hideout, complete with a gambling table, a drinks bar and semi-loyal goons. It was everything a good little outlaw wanted. Except that he never wanted to be an outlaw in the first place.
He wanted to be a pianist.
“... Damn … !”
Rextros the Black Scar had no wish to lead his own group of bandits. A cold tent in a damp forest? A dirty camp filled with the stench of a dozen guys who didn't bathe, even though there's a river right next to them?
These weren't the dreams of a normal lad growing up on a farm. But he knew that working the land wasn't for him. His hands were made for more than sowing seeds and milking cows.
It was for playing nocturnes beneath the moonlight, his soul reaching out to gently sweep across the keys faster than his fingers did.
However, that dream wasn't to be.
Once he was old enough that he could no longer sneak his way into fancy bars and ply his budding skills on the pianos reserved for the famous, he knew he had to buy his own. It infuriated him that pianos were the playthings of the nobility. He couldn't even walk into a piano workshop before being tossed out. It was a closed circle for the rich and the few. And that lit a fire in his belly.
So what if the fancy lords and ladies couldn't stomach the thought of a mere peasant like him dirtying their favourite pastime? It wasn't them he'd play for.
Rextros the Black Scar would play for the people.
And he'd play a piano he could move with his heart as much as his hands—a St. Liane baby grand in mahogany red, rolled straight out of the Royal St. Liane Workshop in the middle of the royal capital and onto the bustling street outside.
That was the dream.
A dream which had slid further away with each passing day. The crowns he'd earned from his fights were barely worth the silver needed to hire a sister to stitch himself back up afterwards. And all the callouses on his hands were suddenly around his knuckles and not his fingertips.
Then, like a twisted angel summoned from the lowest abyss, that's when she appeared.
“Rextros the Black Scar. What a dreadfully dull name. It's as if you picked it out from a book of villains. Couldn't you have gone for something more original? The Black Etude, perhaps?”
“Hah? You picking a fight? And what's with that get-up? You hard selling for a casino? I don't gamble, so find someone else to fleece.”
“You say that, but isn't every day a gamble with the law to you? Honestly, however are you going to acquire the funds to buy a St. Liane of all things? You couldn't have picked a more expensive thing even if you tried. Greedy much?”
“... Who are you?! How do you know …”
“Hey, hey, hey. Wanna hear about a get rich quick scheme? Super reliable! Everyone's done it! And don't worry, it has nothing to do with gambling. Unless you want to?”
“D-Don't mess with me, woman! Who are you?! Keep away! I'm no fool—”
Rextros clenched his teeth as he recalled the memory.
He was no fool … Except that he was.
“... Damn … it … all! ...”
He crashed his fist down against his small table beneath his tent.
He'd stopped doing that lately. Firstly, he'd gotten used to the idiocy of his underlings. Secondly, it spilled his crowns everywhere and picking them up from the grass was a pain. If he ever wanted to buy that immaculate St. Liane, he'd need every last crown this rotten venture in poor decision making could get him.
So … how did it all go so wrong?
First it was the type of jobs. They'd started easy. Shaking down couriers and breaking into warehouses. Then they got harder. Not because the couriers got wiser or the warehouses tougher.
It was because he'd pieced together what he'd been stealing—and why.
He'd left in the middle of his last job and never looked back. Not because he had no regrets about running. But because he'd feared he'd see the face of that girl in her casino get-up looking right back at him.
The thought sent shivers running down his spine.
But maybe that was just because of the cold.
A forest. A cold, damp forest. This wasn't much better. But it was easier. Merchants used this road. He left the farmers alone. And the trolls. But the merchants? They took extortion as a business expense. And every now and again, a wandering nobleman and his family would come to hunt, forgetting that they were more likely to be found by the death beetles before they found a deer.
Was it kidnapping? Sure. But he was doing them a favour. The ransom reward was his just earnings. And what a reward they always were.
He was close. So close.
One last gig. One last merchant. One last idiot.
He knew this camp wouldn't last. But it didn't need to. He was so close. Then he could abandon this damp lifestyle and these stinking men and play ballades beneath the acoustic roof of the Reitzlake Grand Bridge.
That girl with a huge gob, haughty expression, fine clothes and dark hair without so much as an inkling of dirt on it was his ticket to freedom. That sword alone looked like it could be traded for any piano he wanted. He was even glad the idiots hadn't taken it from her. If they had, he likely would never have seen it.
Now he wished they'd just tried mugging her and suffered the consequences for it. Their dead bodies weren't likely going to reveal where he was.
“B-Boss … what was that? Who was she? Why did we have to give everything over?”
Rextros smashed his fist against the table again. This time, a cloud of dust came up as a crack appeared.
“Shut up! Shut up, all of you! I'm thinking!”
One by one, his underlings looked at each other with differing amounts of confusion and resentment. They didn't understand. They didn't know.
That girl, that ticket to freedom, was a poisoned bait. She'd come with one purpose and one alone. And that was to remind Rextros that so long as he lived, his obligations remained. He knew it. He'd dreamed it.
And now he feared the consequences of his flight.
But what could he do? That girl's message was clear. No matter where he ran, he would never be allowed to wander freely again. Every crown he stole wasn't his to keep. He wanted an out. But how could he? He'd seen too much. Not on purpose. But that didn't matter. He wasn't as blind as the rest.
And that was a problem.
“Boss! What's going on! That was everything! It was our pay, our weapons, you gave it all away! Who was she?!”
A problem like losing the loyalty of his men.
Forget making back his losses. He'd lose his life if they all turned on him. And he knew for a fact that the knives and daggers they carried were still on them, hidden in their boots and their clothes.
As every pair of eyes turned black, Rextros clenched his fist.
There was only one thing he could do. It was … It was dangerous. But it was his only choice. Not just to make it out of here alive. But to escape with it tomorrow, too.
He had to silence that girl.
Before she could reach her mistress, she had to be dealt with.
That way, he'd have time. That casino girl had to only suspect. Otherwise, she'd be here herself. Despite his fears, he knew she wasn't truly omnipotent. More importantly, it'd mean he'd have the money to flee. Even with just the crowns, he'd have enough to survive. More than enough.
He had to deal with that girl … and yet, if she was anything near as strong as that monster ...
No.
He had no choice. Not if he wanted to survive. Even if she matched him as a fighter, he had to deal with her. Then, he'd get out. Lay low. Flee the kingdom. That St. Liane was beyond his reach. But there were others. A Zelronto, perhaps. Lacking in finishing and incomparable with the tonal brilliance of a St. Liane, but bearable nonetheless.
It was time to leave these idiots behind.
But not without using them one last time.
“Shut up! All of you!”
“But Boss—”
“That girl. She was here on behalf of the Adventurer's Guild.”
“What?!”
The looks of rebellion were quickly replaced by panic.
Rextros smiled internally to himself. It was every outlaw's worst nightmare. Those that weren't him, of course.
The Adventurer's Guild weren't like knights or soldiers, who'd make so much noise looking for them that they could pack up and leave without so much as leaving an empty bottle behind.
Adventurers were hunters. Hunters that got paid absolute jack for the work they did. And that meant they did their jobs for reasons other than crowns.
In short, the worst type of people.
“She wanted to cut me a deal. All our gains for a day to leave. Except that won't matter if she's dealt with first. Go get her. Now.”
A few of the men shifted. Most were just confused.
“B-But if she's an adventurer, why didn't we just jump her already?”
“Fool! I was watching the treeline! You guys can't stand sentry even if I peel your eyelids off! I had to make sure there was nobody else! Now you see why I'm the leader and you idiots are not!”
“B-Boss!! Then, then that means ...”
“She's alone. Probably thinks she's stronger than all of us. Some brat that just got promoted to E-rank and thinks they're hot stuff. You know what to do.”
“Yes, Boss!!”
Rextros sighed as the underlings shot off, their hidden daggers being pulled from whatever sorry part of their bodies they hid them in.
It was going to be close. That girl … the sword she had. Only an extremely capable swordswoman would dare wield such a weapon. To be anything less was to invite every rogue within spitting distance to try and steal it from her, alive or dead.
Even so, she was alone. She had to be. The way these people operated demanded it. He had fourteen men under his command. Idiots to the last, but idiots with brawn and no discipline. If they all hurled themselves at her, there was simply no way she would be able to defeat them all.
And if so few made it back that he could claim all the loot for himself, then so be it.
Rextros smiled. Perhaps this wasn't such an unfortunate meeting, after all. He'd been meaning to consider a way to leave his goons in the lurch. If someone could deal with them for him, then all the better.
He simply needed to be ready to make good on his escape.
BRRROOOOOWWMMM.
It was at the exact moment that Rextros the Black Scar thought this that his feet suddenly left the ground.
“Gwaaaahhhhhhhh!”
Letting out a scream, he flailed uselessly at the air as he was suddenly flung against the back of his tent, taking it and also a tree with him as he went hurtling down the mound he'd pitched his makeshift throne on.
An enormous, ear splitting explosion drowned out his scream. Or at least what sounded like an explosion. He couldn't be sure with the entire forest groaning in pain. Leaves, branches and trees bent wildly as though slapped by the force of a thousand hurricanes. And yet Rextros instinctively knew that it could have been worse.
The source of that explosion was further away. And it was not aimed towards him.
If it had, he wouldn't be in a position to feel breathless with shock.
Sweat ran down Rextros's face as he crawled up from the dirt. He was lucky. He'd narrowly missed impacting with the tree that now had its roots torn from the soil. Looking around, all he saw was carnage. Bits of the camp were everywhere. And the forest was groaning even louder than before, as though it now had to right itself after being struck by the hand of a god.
Or perhaps a goddess.
That girl … it couldn't be ...
His entire body shaking, Rextros thought about the idiots he'd sent after her. They'd only just left. They … They were probably okay. Even so, could it possibly be a coincidence that she'd set the entire forest on its knees the moment he'd decided on his treachery?
What … What kind of power was this?
That was not the power of some D-rank punk like him. It was beyond that. The sort of power that only named legends past the point of being human possessed.
Had that girl lived a warrior's life, in solitude, training her swordsmanship on some distant mountaintop to achieve that level of destruction?
Rextros now knew he couldn't stay. Not even if all the copper, silver and gold in the world was made available to him. It was time to flee. Right now. Away from this kingdom, filled with more monsters than anyone as insignificant as him had the right to know.
And then maybe, just maybe.
When enough time had passed—he'd be able to take over the farm, and go back to milking cows and tilling fields.
​
[<< First] [< Previous] [Next >]

Again! I am quite tired, but less so than when I last tried to write. I think what put me over the edge for writing this time was watching the combat footage of the Nashville police clearing the school and shooting the shooter.
Power.
If you can conceive of it as a fluid instead of a solid, you won’t trap yourself under the same conversational patterns. Is the population capable of enacting laws to stop school shootings? It, like every question begging the reflexive and same responses, is framed incorrectly. It’s rooted in abstraction and obscurity. Those who ask what “we” or “people” can do aren’t wrestling with reality.
Do you have power?
I do. I prove it to myself every day. I have the power to write and speak the truth of what’s on my mind. I have the power to make myself feel better by doing so, going to shows, and recasting the things I do to occupy my time as opportunities more than financial or guilt-ridden burden. I call my Nazi Senator Braun a Nazi regularly. I vote, regardless of my “belief” about its efficacy, I know definitely not doing so is of worse consequence holistically. I create and build relationships. I listen to people testify to my good advice and encouragement. I feel capable of destroying at least as much as I might create.
I feel it. I practice it. I speak to it. I brag about it. I lay it bare to be scrutinized (ignored). I recognize when I’m hesitant to gain too much of it, and I watch as it shapes, most often for the worse, people I’ve admired. The conversation around power, in my observation, isn’t happening. Power is something relegated to the de facto consequences of Christo-fascist nationalism, ignorance, and fear.
I talk to 100 or more people regularly every week about the things they feel powerless to control. That doesn’t mean they don’t work. That doesn’t mean they don’t have dozens of things I’m excited and proud to hear about and discuss. Not a single person has used the word “powerful” to describe how they feel in service to their recovery or achieving goals. It’s not on their mind or tongue. It’s, of course, powerful to maintain goals, fight, take care of your family, honestly get a deeper handle on how your brain works and what the words you’re using are doing to you. But do they claim it? Do they feel it deep enough to celebrate and speak to it?
We’re culturally addicted, and it’s not to drugs. We’re addicted to abstract notions of how power manifests and how it can be used. We swing between extremes in self-serving narratives about abstract enemies while the knife in our heart continues to turn. Any sentence that starts with “guns” isn’t talking about guns. It’s a nonsense abstraction about “tyranny” or “rights.” It’s a fear for the killing potential, often realized regularly upon children, minorities, or the sad. You don’t know how to deal with your fear of guns or a fascist’s fear of everything. So, from either perspective, it’s all crazy, must be condemned, and no amount of violent coercive demonstration or law, let alone statistic, will be persuasive nor account for the broken heart of the issue.
To recognize the amount of power you have is to court madness. I’ve never been closer to empathizing with religious believers and why they need a god than the more I saw the impact of my power. If you don’t have a rooted “why” for your behavior, it defaults to “because I can.” You can lie, because to you, the ”greater truth” often becomes manifest in a more obvious and consequential way than you, or anyone you’ve been lying to, is going to bother to recognize. Is Trump in prison? Are any insurrectionist Senators being removed? Don’t you “keep the peace” and “pay the bills” by lying a thousand times a day about things big and small? Isn’t it “easier” to pretend that you have simple one-off feelings that aren’t important or “that big a deal” and aren’t worth exploring? You have the power to deny you exist at all.
Every kid will die. There’s literally a war this moment in which the rampant shelling of civilians in schools, hospitals, and homes is the strategy. It’s creeping up into “debatable” to some in the abstraction that is “The West” whether we should bother caring about all that, what with our clear and present series of errant death scenarios playing out at home. Don’t you see? Those in that conversation don’t care anymore about a concrete expression and demonstration of values in service to Ukraine than they do children here. The dance is the point. There’s nothing to win, only an obligation to perform, even as a ragged and exhausted zombie as every other voice collapses around you.
You don’t have power. I do. How’s that make you feel? Angry? Empty? You gonna “argue” with me about it? Your power is memes. Your power is silence. Your power is finding secret nobility in being a self-righteous exhausted do-gooder in service to your extremely personal ethic and cultivated awareness. Your power is to treat yourself as an abstraction at the whims of people like me. You can’t be my cheerleader when we don’t operate the same means of power. I can’t take your advice when your window to the world is coated in sticky fingerprints and stuck open just wide enough to fit a whisper through. I can’t trust and respect what you can’t recognize about yourself with regard to chaos or control. That’s why I have power, and you don’t.
School shooters are the visceral example of the thought process depicted above. You can’t encourage and empathize with their plight because you don’t operate within the horrid reality where they know how “obvious” and “easy” it is to exercise their destructive power, but you act, speak, and legislate otherwise. Those capable and willing to speak honestly about how fucked things are aren’t whispering and still never get heard. They’re screaming, pleading, and arguing articulately indefinitely, and you’re calling them “just the wind.” What is an “innocent child” in a psychological world that can’t acknowledge what a gun is? What is a world that can’t reckon with its fear and lack of control the gun represents?
Everyone has to die until all who are left no longer wish to continue killing themselves. That’s what we’re doing, always. That’s my opposition to the death penalty. It’s not because I can’t or won’t kill someone, it’s because I feel, deeply, just how many I could get a taste for killing. There are many things about me that could stand to die, but my hesitation to destroy someone forever shouldn’t be at the top of my list.
I have power and you don’t because I don’t rely on you as the primary sources of my power. I work to discover and recognize what I need. I maintain my license. You wait for me to act so you can perform a reaction. You look forward to what I have to say, right or wrong, because you’re not engaging with me; you have a fantasy where what I say and do gets situated for you to ogle like an expensive piece of art. Somewhere, you know “my” power isn’t mine at all. My work ethic demonstrates a matter-of-fact set of consequences, obligations, responsibilities, and points of awareness that you believe would drive you mad. You’re too busy. You’re too tired. You have too much on your mind. You’re barely keeping it together, and you don’t really know why or for whom, but you’re absolutely certain whatever it is I’m talking about certainly has nothing to do with “you.”
It's not that you or I have too much or too little power. You either don’t have any, or you have all of it, and the examples you set as a result of either condition dictate the ongoing landscape. I assert again you don’t have any power because your meme is not your voice. I say loud and proud that you do not have power because you don’t do ANYTHING that isn’t on the back of someone else. The celebrity gives you license. The work environment sets the rules. The habit courts justification. You’ll “try” and “hope” and “would like to” and “it’d be nice” and “we’ll see” and “one day” or “I’m waitin’ on” or “if I could just” as if you’ve lived a singularly just day your entire life.
You don’t care and can’t cope. You’re not brave enough to admit it, too lazy to explore what happens after you do, and too guilty and ashamed to account for the consequences of operating that way for so long. So keep watching the kids die, every day. Watch the despots grow in power as your silence and complicity become all-consuming. The nature of your power is as obvious as a bullet through a child’s brain, and yet only shooters seem capable of figuring that out.

I'm graduating high school soon. I have fairly high grades, only having one grade below a B, (Its a B- so who cares anyways), and its always been this way. Even before letter grades were given to me, I was told I was "Gifted". That I was smart, insanely attentive, and had a drive to do just about anything. In middle school, I joined AVID, and college options started getting shoved down my throat.
"This college offers amazing law programs!"
"This college is close, and not as expensive as XYZ college!"
"Go here and you'll be paid more as a doctor in prospect!"
But.. why is that all they seem to care about? I know high schools get cool kid points for the more college enrollments they spit out, but... did any of these teachers ever stop to look at what I was actually doing all this time?
I draw. I bake. I sing. I don't want to prove a murderer guilty, I don't wanna look at peoples hearts and tell their families they wont live past 50, I wanna put a stupid Pikachu drawing on a cake and sell it to five year old's parents for their kids birthday. I wanna wake up at 3 am, excited to put 15 batches of baked goods into an oven. I wanna sketch out waffle designs and put up decorations in my own Bakery that I worked to buy and achieve. But any time I tell a teacher or counselor, they look at me with distain, almost, and always ask;
"But what about XYZ college?"
"What about the A-G track? Why not reconsider college again?"
"You're so much smarter than that, (Name), do better than baking. That's a hobby."
Im so done with education. I received back my state test scores last week, prior to spring, and along with them came a note from my counselor saying. "Congratulations for receiving the HIGHEST Language and Reading comprehensive score amongst your grade! Cant wait to see what the future holds!"
I never responded. Maybe I'll bring her a cupcake I frosted before writing this. They came out better than my entire education did.

Dominating any sport is an admirable achievement, but rarely thrilling to watch for the neutral. Crushing brilliance can seem, in the moment, dull, so it’s no surprise the arguments for rules being tweaked to create more of a fight at the front are starting to surface among the Formula 1 chatterati.
Almost everybody wants to see a ferocious fight at the front between at least two teams, ideally many more than that. From that perspective, Ferrari and Mercedes – the outfits that should have the resources and wherewithal to be up there with Red Bull – have let F1 down badly. But it’s not for want of trying. So why not find a way to give them a leg up to make the fight more interesting?
It would be naive to claim that rulemakers haven’t wielded such power in this way historically, just as it would be wrong to claim that regulations haven’t been used as a political weapon. If it makes for a more exciting hour-and-a-half of racing, what’s the harm?
Setting aside the law of unintended consequences that can mean such interventions either fail or have the opposite effect to the one intended, there’s another problem. And it’s a philosophical one.
If you want a sport to work as a genuine competition, you must be prepared for an entity to dominate. Any sport is simply a regulatory framework designed to measure some set of performance parameters and in this case that means getting to the end of a 300km race ahead of the rest, so for that to work you have to be willing to let a team do that better than the rest. Otherwise, it’s not a sport.
With that comes the risk that a team might do that for an extended period of time. In the 21st century, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull have all had extended periods of supremacy, the latter now seemingly in its second. That reflects wider problems, ones that are being tackled through long-term measures such as the cost cap, but endlessly adjusting regulations to create disruption shouldn’t be used as a shortcut.
Other motorsport categories have embraced this as part of the regulations in the form of performance balancing. But while this has its place in some categories, it’s not right for F1. In its worst manifestation, it shares around the success in a way that sometimes seems arbitrary. Worse still, it robs championships of a strong narrative.
The story of F1 right now is of Red Bull reigning supreme and its rivals finding a way to get on level terms. That’s always been the tale of grand prix racing and always should be.
Domination may be ‘bad for the sport’, as it’s always put. But if it were made impossible, it would be no sport at all.
Source: https://the-race.com/formula-1/red-bull-dominance-must-be-allowed-for-sake-of-f1-integrity/

In the high-powered world of BigLaw recruitment, there are striking parallels to sorority rush. Meticulously planned outfits, calculated conversations, and the pursuit of lifelong bonds echo the very essence of Greek life. The term "BigLaw" itself seems to invite a comparison to the Big and Little system in sororities. So, why not adopt this model, adding a new level of camaraderie to the legal field?
Picture this: law students, eager to pledge their loyalty to a prestigious firm, would not only compete for a coveted spot in the BigLaw hierarchy but also secure their very own "Big" - an experienced partner or seasoned associate to guide them through the tumultuous journey ahead. In turn, these incoming first-year associates would be referred to as "Littles," creating a sense of familyship within the firm.
By adopting the Big and Little system, BigLaw firms could foster a nurturing environment that transcends the traditional mentor-mentee relationship. This approach would not only strengthen the bonds between lawyers at different stages of their careers but also create a supportive and tight-knit family.
In this new world, BigLaw would truly live up to its name, fully embracing the essence of the Big and Little dynamic found in sororities. And as these legal professionals navigate the challenges of their demanding careers, they can take solace in the fact that they're part of a supportive community, bound together by their passion for the law.

Hi all looking for legal advice on how to handle this bizarre situation that happened today.
My dad found someone’s pet parrot hanging around in a random parking lot. He assumed it was a lost pet, put it in his car, and took it to a vet to see if they could find the owner. He eventually had to call animal control to take the bird.
While he was waiting for animal control, the police showed up at my family’s home and asked if the owner of a blue Toyota was at the home (the car my dad was driving around with the bird). My brother asked if it was about the parrot and they said yes. We let them know the situation and apparently there was a video of my dad picking up the parrot from a security cam near the parking lot he found the bird at and the owner reported his pet was stolen. My brother let them know that our dad was waiting on animal control to come take the bird but they told us not to wait for animal control and to just bring it down to the sheriff’s office. The cops were laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation as were we. We let our dad know and he went to the sheriffs office to drop off the parrot. Once he got there and said he was dropping off the parrot he was arrested. The police told him the owner wanted to press charges. My dad is currently still in jail waiting to be released and it looks like he will have to go to court.
What the hell are we supposed to do here? Do we need to hire an attorney? Would he be protected by any Good Samaritan laws? The dude was just trying to help someone find their lost parrot and now he has to spend tonight in jail.
This is in California btw.

So I’m in a dilemma. When I was 5 my mother gave me to my uncle, she was poor and my uncle had the money to take care of me and put me in school. When I turned 7 years old my uncle gave me to his wife sister to go to the Uk. So I could have a better future and education. I spent 10 years with the sister. When I turned 16 my uncles sister in laws husband molested me. I had just finished school and received my British citizenship. So that summer my uncle paid for my ticket to go back to my home country. When I went back I told a family friend that I had been molested by my uncles in-laws husband. It got back to my uncle and his wife and his in-laws. My uncles wife and in-laws didn’t believe me and said I was doing this for attention. My uncles wife actually said “have you never been touched by a man before”. She then stole my passport. And I had to stay in my home country for a year. When the whole molestation thing came out my mum did believe me but she wasn’t there like I needed her to be. When the year ended I returned to the UK and stayed with some friends for a few months. When I turned 18 I had to go into a homeless shelter. Time was tough for me. I had no one. I started going out more and getting drunk.
One day I went to another city to meet with my friends I ended up getting raped. Through all of this my mum was no where to be. No support. She doesn’t know about the rape thing. Anyways when I started making some money. My mum would ask me for some money. And I would send her money and every time I would go back home I would bring gifts. Through out my 20’s my mum would tell me all the negative things other people would say about me. Like why would I want to know this? 🙄 And start arguments with me. Saying really nasty things. And just tell me how her life is so hard. And that I don’t respect her because she’s poor. Not even acknowledging how hard it was for me to be taken away from my family at such a young age.
Anyways I turn 30 this year last November I found out I was pregnant. When I was about a month pregnant. My mum messaged me telling me I should stop smoking and drinking. She didn’t know I was pregnant. And I wasn’t doing those things. She started saying that people have seen me smoking and drinking and I should stop. A week later she messaged me saying she and my sister dont have money for toothpaste and she needs money. I spoke to my sister and my sister was shocked that she even said that. I told her that what will she do if I have kids, will she continue asking me for money. And told her that her whole life she’s depended on other people. That’s when she started saying that I have demons in me because my behaviour is not normal. if I ever go back to my country she will fight me. And that my cousins don’t drink and I’m wasting my life. And I’m smoking weed which am not. Saying how my friends are bad. My friend have been more of a family to me than my own family. She also said my sister never asks me for anything because I’m rude to her which was a lie. Because off all these messages I got mad and told her about herself.
So after all of this being vulnerable and pregnant I decided not to tell my mum about my pregnancy and just blocked her. When I turned 5 months I unblocked her. She then messaged me saying let’s just forgive each other and move on.
I’m kinda pissed off because why does she need to forgive me? I’m 6 months now. And I just want to decide if I should block her out of my life for good. It hurts I’ve never had a mother. And now I’m becoming a mother myself I never want to treat my daughter the way she’s treated me. There’s loads more stories but I had to summarise it.

Once you get a decent amount in your bags, and it becomes more than what you want to leave on an exchange, you may have to start dealing with managing your own wallet and your backup seed phrase, which you have to store securely.
That's those 12-24 random words that serves as a way to recover your wallet.

The don'ts:

1- Settling for just paper.

We have a lot of papers, mail, cards, etc, passing through our daily lives. Another piece of paper can get lost in the mix. It's crazy how pieces of papers we think we've stored securely, sometimes just vanish.
Worse....paper is not durable. If your house is flooded, burns down, that paper could get easily destroyed.
If you have thousands of dollars, do you want it to be backed up on something that can easily burn away?
​

2- Printing your seed.

Most people know better not to store their seed online, on their computer, phone, or any device with an online connection. But many don't realize that printers have a network connection to their computer.
Printers are a weak point of entry for an attack. It's typically one of the weakest point in a network.
On top of that, everything you print gets temporarily stored on your printer, long after you've finished and turned off your printer.
The last thing you want stored on your printer is your seed phrase.

3- Putting your seed in a portable safe.

Safe make it obvious where you store your most valuable stuff. But that's OK, as long as no one can break in, or worse just pick it up. There's nothing worse than a safe that someone can just lift and carry, even if it may take two people.
The only case where you would do this. Is if where you live, there is very little risk of burglary, and greater risk of fire, but the funds are too small to be worth investing into a proper safe.

4- Creating too much mental gymnastics.

It's not just the flimsy security that can turn against you, too much security can be your biggest enemy.
You still need to be able to access it, and figure it out easily. That means a year from now, you still need to be able to figure out how to find it, access it, decode it.
You don't want to have so much security that it locks you out, and you can't recover your key.
Only have the level of security you need, and accessible enough for you.
You aren't guarding the nuclear codes. So you don't need to give yourself insane mental gymnastics to access your funds.

5- Sharing your seed phrase.

A seed phrase is not something you'll ever need to share with anyone.
A seed phrase is not something people need to send you funds, or send you a prize, or reward.
Much less is Ledger, Trezor, or any company you've dealt with for crypto ever need your seed phrase.
Same when you store it. You don't want to share it with the entire internet. So don't leave it in the cloud. Even if it's password protected, you are still leaving on someone else's server. There's no way to ever be sure if those servers have a backdoor vulnerability.
​

5 good tricks:

1- Engraving your seed.

There's 3 ways to store your seed in a fire/flood proof way. Engrave it with a stamp, engrave it with a pen, or use pre-made letters.
From my experience, pre-made letters is the worst. It's still costly, and if the trap door gets loose, you lose your seed. And the letters don't seem to be impressed too well.
​
Engraving pens are actually not expensive. You can get good ones on Amazon for $30. And you can engrave it on anything. You can control better how deep the impression will be.
​

2- A proper safe.

Obviously, this is a bigger investment, so it's only gonna be worth it if there's big funds to safeguard behind those private keys.
No need to buy a $1,500 safe to protect $1,000 worth of crypto.
While a safe will let a burglar know where all your valuable stuff is, knowing won't help much if they can't break in.
Or at least, take too long. Every safe can be broken into. Some just take muuuch longer.
Make sure you have a safe that's hard to break into. Don't get a cheap SentrySafe. Get a good brand. Locks using keys are the easiest to break into. Get one with a keypad.
As I said before, don't get one that a burglar can just carry off. Nor a wall safe that's easy to pull off from your drywall.
More importantly, get a safe with a strong fire delay rating.
​

3- Getting creative with your storage.

If you can't afford a proper safe, or don't have enough funds to make it worthwhile, or are renting a place and can't bolt anything to the ground, then you can always get creative at storing hiding your seed.
Hiding a seed phrase in accessible places, requires the help of tip #5 on my list: encryption.
A good rule of thumb, a good hiding place usually involves having to unscrew something.
But you don't necessarily have to hide your plate. You can also engrave parts of your seed on things.
That could be any metal part in your house, or anything with any chance of resisting a fire.
​
But not all metals have the same degree of fire resistance.
You'll likely lose a lot of fire resistance doing this.
If you are worried about fires, you'll sill want to stick with a more fire resistant plate.
​

4- Consider using multiple locations.

You can have parts of the seed phrase in multiple places in your house, or at entirely different locations. But if you do that, losing one portion means you lose it all, so be careful.
You can also use multiple locations if you want multiple backups. You could give an encrypted version with a family member to put in their safe.

5- Encrypt or cypher your seed.

You don't necessarily have to write your 24 words in order from 1 to 24, nor even write the actual words.
This is getting into a little bit of mental gymnastics, so be careful. But if you can keep it simple and have a method of recovering the process, it's fine. Don't rely on your memory to decode it a year later.
Basically, it's scrambling or coding your seed. So even if someone finds your seed phrase, it will be jumbled.
With encryption, you don't even need to split your seed phrase into multiple locations in your house. You can keep it all on one plate, with probably still a lot more security.
Just be careful where you store the decoder, or the method of decoding.
If all it takes is for someone to have the decoder to get your seed, then your seed is only as secure as your decoder.
There's a ton of methods around this. Look into different cyphers, different types of encryptions. Find one that suits you.
Encrypting your seed opens up the door to how you can more easily and safely store your seed phrase.

TLDR: FINRA has access to what in any other organization would be considered massive amounts of insider information. It also has a massive conflict of interest in the form of a 1.6 Billion dollar investment portfolio. The portfolio of the Self Regulatory Agency is largely unknown and is largely (if not completely) unmonitored by any other regulatory agency(s). I would be really, really curious to know how much of that portfolio is short?
In addition to massive conflicts of interest and minimal supervision from the SEC, FINERA does not appear to be directly accountable to Congress, rather than direct accountability FINRA instead invests a lot of money in lobbying. In 2012, it spent $960,000 as it pushed for legislation that would allow it to expand its regulatory reach to include RIAs, who are now primarily regulated by the SEC.
FINERA should have no ability to halt any stocks or securities while it is invested in the very markets it purports to regulate.
https://www.mercatus.org/media/46396/download
”LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY”
”By law, the SEC is in charge of Finra and has the power to approve or reject any rules Finra wants to adopt. But it applies little more than a rubber stamp to Finra’s rules, critics say.”
“In practice, Finra operates with substantial independence from the SEC,” Hester Peirce, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, noted in a 2015 paper. “Finra rules do not typically attract close attention from the SEC commissioners.”
”Finra operates with substantial independence from the SEC.” - Hester Peirce
(Source deleted)
”The Government Accountability Office likewise found that the SEC could be doing a better job of overseeing Finra in a 2012 report and a follow-up report in 2015. In the follow-up report, the GAO said the SEC had improved its monitoring of Finra but that it still needed to develop specific performance goals and measures for Finra oversight, formalize documentation of oversight determinations and perform an assessment of Finra’s internal risks related to staffing and priorities.”
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/how-does-finra-differ-sec/
“Although it has regulatory powers, FINRA is not part of the government. It is a not-for-profitentity and the largest self-regulatory organization (SRO)in the securities industry within the U.S.”
”FINRA stands for "Financial Industry Regulatory Authority" and is a not-for-profit organization overseen by the SEC that seeks to protect investors by primarily overseeing all brokers in the securities marketplace. It lays out specific laws and requirements and provides certificates for individuals to be able to operate in the securities market.”
”FINRA is responsible for overseeing virtually all U.S. stockbrokersand brokerage firmsand providing avenues and legal certifications for those individuals to appropriately operate in their specific marketplaces.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/wall-street-regulator-is-also-an-investorwith-meager-returns-1507195803 ”Finra's $1.6 billion portfolio has returned 3.4% annually, versus 6% for a half-stock, half-bond portfolio.”
https://www.investmentnews.com/finra-denies-wsj-report-that-regulator-has-underperforming-portfolio-72391 ”Finra denies WSJ report that regulator has underperforming portfolio. Regulator says Journal's analysis makes improper comparison of returns.”
”From Finra’s origins in 2004 through 2016, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s actively managed $1.6 billion investment portfolio has returned 3.4%, or $440 million less than a 6% return had the self-regulator invested in a balanced mix of global stocks and U.S. bonds, according to Wall Street Journal calculations of figures in Finra’s annual reports.”
https://www.investmentnews.com/finra-whos-watching-the-watchdog-72102 *”Finra wields enormous power over the lives of brokers and broker-dealers. Last year alone, it issued more than 1,400 disciplinary actions and barred more than 500 brokers from the industry.
And yet people in the industry know little about how Finra operates, how it spends the millions it collects in membership fees and fines, and how it sets its regulatory agenda. Finra writes its own rules, meets behind closed doors and releases information if and when it deems necessary.”*
”Finra is the watchdog that no one is watching. “It is largely unaccountable to the industry or to the public,” David Burton, a senior fellow in economic policy at the Heritage Foundation, wrote in a February report. “Due process, transparency and regulatory-review protections normally associated with regulators are not present, and its arbitration process is flawed. Reforms are necessary.”
”In an InvestmentNewssurvey of 363 readers who are regulated by Finra, nearly half — 48% — said the organization is not doing a good job of regulating brokers, compared with 29% who said it was. Meanwhile, 61% said Finra is not transparent about its finances, and the same percentage said the SEC’s oversight of Finra is inadequate.”
“Is it [Finra] a government or not a government agency? As long as there’s not a choice for brokers, it’s a monopoly – and monopolies need to be regulated.”
*”Jim R. Webb, CEO, Cape Securities Inc.
Jim R. Webb, CEO of broker-dealer Cape Securities Inc., is frustrated that Finra acts like a government agency but does not have to follow the laws that govern public agencies. For example, it is not subject to laws that would allow the public to attend its meetings, nor is it subject to the Freedom of Information Act, which allows anyone to request information about any matter from a federal agency.”*
”Finra protects itself from lawsuits from members by claiming that as an SRO it has absolute immunity from private lawsuits challenging the conduct of its regulatory mission.”
“There needs to be definition,” Mr. Webb said. “Is it a government agency or not a government agency? As long as there’s not a choice for brokers, it’s a monopoly — and monopolies need to be regulated.”
From a seeking alpha article that I cannot link due to Reddit blocking the site. (just search for the title, top result) Why Does FINRA Have An Investment Portfolio?
Oct. 11, 2017 12:10 PM ET By Roger Nusbaum, AdvisorShares ETF Strategist
”FINRA has an investment portfolio with a long track record of underperforming a 50/50 portfolio.”
”So, here’s a weird one involving FINRA that you might have picked up in the last few days. Apparently, it has a large, $1.6 billion investment portfolio, and the returns have been weak, according to the Wall Street Journal, underperforming a 50/50 equity/fixed income portfolio for quite a few years.”
”The WSJ article is woefully incomplete. It doesn’t say what the purpose of the portfolio is, it is unclear how it can even have a portfolio, and there are no specifics as to what the portfolio is benchmarked to other than a reference to a custom benchmark. The origin goes back to 2004, and it came out of the blocks trying to emulate the college endowments, which back then were revered. As a side note, the tide may have gone out some for quite a few of the endowments, but there is still plenty to learn about asset allocation from them.”
”As the story goes, the FINRA portfolio decided to significantly reduce its equity exposure in, um….2009. The article provides no details on how much equity exposure it had back then, but the portfolio underperformed a 50/50 in 2008, or how much it has now, but there is a quote from a spokeswoman about targeting a “much more conservative approach than a 50/50 benchmark.”
The rolls and activities of our regulatory agencies needs to be seriously examined and heavily re-evaluated.

So for context, I have a stepkid. Stepkids mum was physically abusive to my partner when they were together. They were a toxic relationship, competing and arguing, she just took it a step further and beat him with crutches, scissors, smashed things on his head. Yeah, unpleasant.
Anyway, coparenting has been up and down, seemingly getting easier over the years as they keep contact minimal and only for the sake of their kid. But he still has unprocessed trauma, and after being abused by his mother then his ex, he is still unlearning a lot of fear and survival behaviours.
Sister in law. She is her mother's flying monkey. Mother in law has a problem? She forces Sister to cut off contact and react disproportionately. Essentially, and I have said this to her, it isn't fair on her either but she can't and won't see it.
ANYWAY so there was a big family argument because my birthday was mother's day and because there aren't any buses on Sundays we couldn't go to see his mum and plus we had to collect stepkid etc. Yeah we are evil for that apparently. So Sister in law joined in and has said we are dead to her etc. We posted cards to his mother because God forbid she drive 10 minutes to see us.
Sister in law then has invited Stepkid, her mum and stepdad, and her brother (we don't say half, but her brother on mums side of no relation to me or my partner, sister in law etc) to see her new house and do an Easter egg hunt, leaving out our son. Her blood nephew that she claims to miss and love and posted pics of on his birthday without asking, sent her fella and her kids and didn't bother to come herself on his birthday (his birthday day before mine), she hasn't invited. Instead, after pushing my partner into courts against his ex for custody and abuse years ago, after making him relive it all and filling out his paperwork about the abuse, after playing number one supporter, she is now besties with his ex. Oh well. I just wonder if said ex knows that once upon a time sister in law was telling everyone who would listen that my now stepkid called her mum, because she was better than her real mum. Man when I first started dating my partner she said to me that I'll never replace her mum, I said that's not my intention, and she said no not her real mum, she calls me mum instead of auntie, you can't replace me.
So yeah. lol. I wonder if stepkids mum who hates me so much knows that I aren't the one she should dislike 🤔
I've cut contact, not kicked off, because this is so clearly only being done to upset me and my partner and a reaction will just spur them on lmao. But yeah. Sister in law is well and truly out our lives 👍

Hi, I'm 17- Turning 18 in a month, Looking for an rp partner for an adorable craving I had. Current craving is Fnaf Security Breach- Specific characters would be Sunny/Moon
I use an OC, she is aroace so it's more of like a best friend/found family plot. I'm also open to playing any other fnaf character if YOU have an oc you would like paired up with a character.
Rules- No one liners, give me something to work with
No godmodding/Overpowering
Tell me your triggers
Put equal effort into the rp, Especially if doing double plots, when doing double plots I'd like equal effort. There are cases where I will give your plot/oc more attention than my own given the situations don't make that the whole rp if we've agreed on doing double plots.
I may not be good at single plots, if you want me to only play Cannon and for you to be the only oc I will struggle quite a bit since I'm used to having multiple plots going on at once, it helps me keep consistent and detailed replies and helps me know what to really put so I don't get stuck.
OC- Her information will be provided along with photos of her, if there is anything in her file that is triggering, tell me and I will change it for the rp.
Genres- Angst, Drama, Comedy, Fluff, SoL, Adventure and (Sometimes-Depending on if you want it) Romance.
Thats about it! DM me!

TWO MONTHS AGO : it has been a year since my husband died. We fell in love with each other in college and wer together ever since. My world turned upside down when I got the call from the hospital that day. I was left a single mother of a 6 year old son. Our relatives chipped in to help with some money, but my life was getting no easy. I worked as a teacher in the local college lived in a small one bedroom apartment with a kid's room but made ends meet. life seemed to be getting slightly easier untill one morning, I heard the door bell ring. I pace from the kitchen and open the door. It was my father in law standing there with a bag in his hands.
ONE MONTH AGO : what was supposed to be a one week stay now was getting longer. I started to think if he had any plans of going back to his village. He brought groceries every week, played with my son till I got back home. I felt like he was easing into my life without my permission. He was sleeping on the couch in the hall and would join me in the kitchen every morning as I made breakfast lunch. I couldn't ask him to go back, I would be rude. He was afterall helping. "I'm thankful that you stayed this long", I said one day " I know you must be wanting to go back to your Village. But you've been of great help". He smiled at me, " Bahu, I don't want to go back. I'm happy to take care of my family. Afterall this house needs a man. Doesn't it. I mean your son needs a father figure.." he looked away as he got back, "and you too need a man to help you out". One morning, as I was running late for work. I forget to close the door while getting dressed up. As I was in my bra and petticoat, wearing my blouse. M hair still wet , the door swung open. "Uh - oh.. im sorry I'm sorry" my father in law said. "I .. I just want to say im taking the kid to the school bus. Since.. since you're still busy". The door was open the whole time.
ONE WEEK AGO : even my relatives and friends were beginning to thank my father in law for being so nice and supportive in his age. Still taking care of his family. My son got used to playing with his grandfather. I didn't know how to end this. My father in law was complaining of back pain for a few days now. For some reason, I felt something was suspicious. We went to the doctor a couple of times but of no help, until one day he said he was barely able to walk without pain. As we were having dinner that night, he nonchalantly asked me if he could sleep in the bedroom with me. Infront of my own son. " I think it's the couch. It's too small for me and my back is hurting. If you think it's okay". What kind of a daughter would I be if I said otherwise. "You can sleep on my bed grandpa" my son days. " Your bed is good too, but I think I'll be more comfortable in your mother's". I smile and nod yes.
TODAY: sleeping in my bed has become a normal thing for him. He never made any passes, not that I know of. He has become part of our family now. My family. Even my parents didn't think it was weird that he was staying with us. Ofcourse they didn't know about the sleeping situation. Nobody did. That remained our secret. Just like all those times I caught him staring at my cleavage, or when I got back home and my panties felt misplaced in the wardrobe , or a few other times that he "accidentally" saw me changing clothes. Something was bound to happen soon. I could sense it.

Back in July, my old D&D group got together for one last game with all of us together.
We hadn't seen each other since college ended, although we had gamed weekly while we got our bachelors and masters degrees. A great group of friends, but as usual, we moved on from our college days; and the emails grew less frequent, the calls stopped, and our lives separated. It's the way of things, really. Shared experiences are what make friends. Child or adult, once you stop having shared experiences, you start to grow apart. Everybody promises to keep in touch, and we do for a time, but then it stops.
In our case, one of our group was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and he wanted one last game together with all of us, just as we used to do back in the day. So we all got together and spent a weekend - laughing, telling stories, rolling dice, arguing rules, and all the things that keep us coming back to this silly game. And if Jeff (not his real name) fell asleep every hour or two, or needed to take his meds, we didn't mention it. We were all together one last time, and that was enough.
I just got back from Jeff's funeral. Our game was at the end of July, and he moved into hospice in mid-September. His family brought him home just before Christmas, and he never left his room after that. I talked to him over the phone in January and we promised to talk again, but circumstances didn't permit. His wife told me that his last few days were peaceful. Morphine is a hell of a drug.
I don't really have anything to say in this post. Just... treasure your friends, and cherish your time together. Try to keep in touch.
Life is what happens while you're making plans, and too soon, it's over. Hopefully, later rather than sooner, but you never know. I wish I had picked up the phone more over the last 40 years. I wish we had thought to have annual games or gotten together occasionally. I wish we'd all stayed in touch.
We all showed up for Jeff's funeral, and we all promised to get together every year from now on. I hope we do.
o7

Although Alex Murdaugh has been tried in a court of law and convicted by a jury of his peers for the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, the Daily Discussion will continue in the sub as a way for members to stay connected.
We want this to be a safe space to engage with each other as we reflect upon the trial, process the seemingly endless amounts of information and the aftermath, and unravel the tentacles of Alex Murdaugh's wrongdoings that remain entwined throughout the Lowcountry... together.
Please stay classy and remember to be very clear if you are commenting and the content is speculation. If something is presented as factual and you are asked by another sub member to provide a source, that is standard courtesy and etiquette in true crime.
We have faith that the mutual respect between our Mod Team and our sub members will be reflected in these conversations.
​
Much Love from your MFM Mod Team,
Southern-Soulshine , SouthNagshead, AubreyDempsey
​
Reddit Content Policy ... Sub Rules ... Reddiquette

Our community threads are the heart of our subreddit and operate much like a specialized support group – we share our experiences and strive to collectively support one another on the topic at hand.
Please use this space for sharing and discussing any type of treatment or family building measures. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Advice / Updates on current treatment cycle or planned/future treatment cycles
• Questions / Discussion about medications, treatment, diagnostic tests, and lab results
• Any measures taken/evaluated to improve treatment outcomes – supplements, diet, exercise, etc
• Seeking emotional support related to upcoming treatment, treatment outcomes, infertility diagnosis, and confirmed loss
• Commiseration and venting related to treatment
• Supporting and cheering on fellow members as they run the gauntlet of infertility treatments

Essentially, if you mention treatment – it goes in this thread.
​
A few notes:

• Positive HPT or Beta Results (including Beta Hell) should only be posted in the Results thread as per the rules (except for confirmed loss): https://www.reddit.com/infertility/search?q=flair_name%3A%22Results%22
• We recognize that the AM/PM distinction doesn’t match up with every time zone in our global community, we ask that you pick the most recently posted thread wherever you are.
• Standalone culture here is saved for complex topics, usually including detailed conversations around scientific studies, or asking multi-part complex questions around treatment plans. We strongly recommend posting in the community threads first. If you aren’t sure, ask in the daily threads first!

Above all - Science minded perspective and respect for others is important here. Please treat your fellow peers with compassion.