Our accounts will continue to post for Pride Month, but purely in support of the charitable initiatives that we have already made a commitment to helping.
With our sincere regrets,
SaveOFMD Crew
We are taking this as a signal that it's time for us to step back before we make any further missteps.
We recognize and sincerely apologize for the harm that we have caused in the fandom, especially to the fanfic artists in our community. It absolutely does not reflect our values and it was an unacceptable message to put out into the fandom.
Understanding why and how this happened is in no way an excuse for it having happened at all. However, this analysis is essential so that we can hold ourselves accountable.
We have been trying to do too much—and as a consequence, we disregarded the rules we set for ourselves when our group was founded.
We know the root cause: we have been overworking and overreaching for some time, focusing on too many projects, at a time when some very active people in our server have had to step back due to various health and personal issues.
Past these commitments, we will be evaluating the future of our SOFMD community, and will also be working to identify exactly where and when we went wrong with this poorly conceived and executed plan.
For the remainder of June, we will be focused on doing right by the charitable efforts we have committed to support: the Fiber Arts Brigade and their auction for SAGE USA, as well as the separate SAGE USA ThriveAsACrew fundraiser.
We at SaveOFMD Crew are canceling the remainder of our Pride month campaign. We have taken down the week 2 CTAs and will not be moving forward with weeks 3 or 4 either.
The post was out for less than an hour, so we would like to reassure fic writers and podfic creators as much as possible that it is unlikely that our negligence resulted in any real action. No one at SaveOFMD Crew sent out any emails, neither with nor without attachments.
The whole call to action was misguided, and should never have made it through our internal planning process.
This plan didn't go forward, and yet pieces of it remained without being removed as they should have been, leaving the only logical conclusion to be that we were suggesting the use of fans’ podfic. Regardless of our intentions, we know that this is the message that we sent.
The original idea was for someone in our Discord server to write and record a podfic specifically for this action, and the "explicit" part was thrown in during brainstorming.
Without going into more detail that might seem like justification, it was never the original intent to call for fans to send other peoples’ work.
Finally, it was even more inappropriate to suggest that explicit works should be used for this purpose.
It was inappropriate for us to recommend that users send large files of any kind to Max. It was doubly inappropriate for us to propose that fanworks—podfic or otherwise—would be suitable for this purpose.
Retracted week two of the calendar from Save OFMD Crew for Pride month. The image was uploaded specifically to show the cause of the retraction, point two in the Calls to Action box, reading 'Send Emails Everywhere: support@max.com. See blog post for more emails! Feel free to include big attachments or silly links: e.g. 10 hours of "Ooo daddy" (which we have provided), or an explicit podfic.' To reiterate, this Call to Action was retracted.
SaveOFMD Crew would like to offer our unreserved apologies to everyone in the OFMD fandom for the harm caused by the poorly conceived week 2 call to action we posted yesterday.
We have provided the original call to action below.
🧵We are going to hit pause on all but our charity posting while we review our comms & approval process, including how we get weigh-in from all members of our server on the details of future efforts, & put steps in place to prevent such errors in judgement from seeing the light of day in the future.
🧵We would like to apologise to the fandom at large, but particularly to podfic artists, for whom our bad messaging has led to distress.
🧵 We should have never suggested sending explicit material to begin with. Moreover, the entire idea of sending large attachments went completely against the spirit of polite menacing that we aim to encourage. It was a huge oversight, and our fellow fans rightfully called us out on it.
🧵The aim was never to have employees listen to or watch any attached files, but rather to send large attachments to slow down their servers. The plan was also for people to send their own work. However, that was not what our post conveyed.
Photograph taken below water.
🧵Yesterday SaveOFMD Crew released a post detailing our Week 2 Never Left CTAs. One of these CTAs includes sending emails to various Warner Bros. Discovery addresses, and as part of this CTA we suggested sending large attachments, such as "explicit podfic."
# Don't Stream On Max. Boost the Petition. Vote up OFMD on Ranker. Rate the show on IMBD, Rotten Tomatoes, etc. Fax Max! Email feedback. Use the feedback links. Woo other streamers and accounts to the cause. Comment on Max’s posts, especially Pride ones! Reach out to local media/radio/Pride groups.
To the right, there is a rainbow colored box of information: 'Any Time! Use # Our Flag Means Death and # Save OFMD. Keep being loud about the show and the movement! Stream OFMD on iPlayer and RTL+. Let’s show Max the numbers they could’ve had.
Boost the Petition: save ofmd .com is an official Change.org Pride petition!' Below the main box is another : 'Fiber Arts Brigade’s Charity Auction: Donations in benefit of SAGE, who provide services and advocacy for queer elders. Auction Friday!'
The main box reads: # Save OFMD. 'Dive Deep Into Max’s Socials: Focus on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Send Emails Everywhere: support@max.com. See blog post for more emails! Fax Max: (818) 954-2409. Send faxes quick, easy, and free with fax zero .com.
•Write Reviews: IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Google Review •Vote up OFMD on Ranker lists
•Use Feedback Links: Max’s + the other target streamers •Boost the Petition: saveofmd.com is an official change.org Pride petition!
Vote up OFMD on Ranker. Rate the show on IMBD, Rotten Tomatoes, etc. Fax Max! Email feedback. Use the feedback links. Woo other streamers and accounts to the cause. Comment on Max’s posts, especially Pride ones!
To the right, there is a rainbow colored box of information: 'Any Time! Use # Our Flag Means Death and # Save OFMD. Keep being loud about the show and the movement! Stream OFMD on iPlayer and RTL+. Let’s show Max the numbers they could’ve had. # Don't Stream On Max. Boost the Petition.
Use Feedback Links: Max’s and other streamers'. Boost the Petition: save ofmd .com is an official change.org Pride petition!' Below the main box is another : 'Fiber Arts Brigade’s Charity Auction: Donations in benefit of SAGE, who provide services and advocacy for queer elders. Auction Friday!'