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The problems with GSFTW are not with isolated individuals who can be ejected. It's the entire board operating it as a magnet for the worst of the community, attracting others who do too, all the way from Florida. Supporting it going forward would make the community more toxic with less solution.

GSFTW chair Shy has brought in an extremely victim-blamey manipulator to shield the management. bsky.app/profile/cray...

Cray Wolf@craywolf.org

Sotalo's rhetoric is extremely authoritarian. The people in charge aren't the problem, you all are! Think of what you're doing to the poor volunteers! If you want change, you can leave! New Jersey won't have a convention anymore if you don't all stop it right now! Makes me want to puke.

There's those alternative facts! After GSFTW management mass-purged dissent from their chat, Sotalo, Shy's white knight from Florida, is denying it ever happened and pretending everyone left after they got real sowwy. Unreal to lie so brazenly.

Corporate record implies GSFTW had a period of operating as legally suspended. This says bad things about how they handle pre-registration, money and taxes. bsky.app/profile/boxo...

Boxo McFoxo@boxobark.ing

I previously assumed that Garden State Fur The Weekend's original non-profit business entity was still legally operating up until at least the point the LLC was founded, because it still has a business ID number. This is incorrect; it was suspended on 16th September 2023.

Sotalo, the white knight for GSFTW's management has been a focus of complaints about bad relations with others. Tippers sent a screen of one incident with his advocacy for showing porn to minors that caused such uproar in a California chat group, it had to pause posting.

Above screen shows "wrong place, didn't ask." Parents with children had not been asking for sex positivity or complaining about any problem in a general furry social chat that had nothing to do with kids or adult content.

As tippers are scrutinizing the management of GSFTW, we're getting a mix of corporate records, screens of authoritarianism in their chat, and background about poor judgement by their remaining supporters. What a ride.

Wew, I took a few hours break and it's been wild. In GSFTW chat, Shy Matsi's imported Floridian white knight Sotalo has now caused yet another meltdown with his walls of text, full of blame-shifting excuses. It ended with Sotalo accusing critics against nazis of being the real nazis.

Sotalo's Manipulative Firehose of Lies (2/9) Sotalo: "Show him some respect as your con chair and make him feel welcome in this chat... I have a book of weasel words, not a single one helping us"

Sotalo's Manipulative Firehose of Lies (3/9) Chat: "I recommend listening people and not telling them what their opinions should be" - "and not be condescending about it" - "lose the attitude of superiority" - "you flood out the criticism the con has rightfully earned, you need to sit down"

Sotalo's Manipulative Firehose of Lies (4/9) Sotalo: "then make a new con" - Chat: "Right, then get out of the way" Sotalo: "I don't think you need to be here any longer" Chat: "There are a lot of furry cons. Ones who operate this way don't need to exist."

Sotalo's Manipulative Firehose of Lies (5/9) Sotalo calls everyone protesting: "exclusive, discriminatory... People who despise this convention's leadership, and Furries". Sotalo says protesters are full of "hate" because they don't love Furry, and wouldn't give Dashing another chance.

Sotalo's Manipulative Firehose of Lies (6/9) Sotalo says after WWII, everyone had to live together, and it could happen here, but not with people who don't bring the fandom together. Chat: "Guess how WW2 ended. They got rid of the Nazis first, and the people who enabled them were denazified"

Sotalo's Manipulative Firehose of Lies (7/9) Chat: "saying WW2 ended happily ever after... the most tonedeaf, insulting, infuriating thing you could possibly say... confirming everyone's contempt... You have no idea how fucking livid I am" Sotalo: "this is not furry fandom, you guys aren't fans"

Sotalo's Manipulative Firehose of Lies (8/9) Sotalo: "I've seen worse behavior in this chat that I can possibly imagine a supremacist being capable of... What about all the hatred I received... Go somewhere else" Chat: "he's lecturing us after lying to us and not getting it sold"

Sotalo's Manipulative Firehose of Lies (9/9) Chat: "when the guy in charge of PR basically says 'Nazis and those that like them aren't bad your bad for saying they are bad' things aren't looking good" - "'antifa are the real nazis'" "You don't deserve to run a con period"

If someone wants to pay for a con run this way, you know what they say about a fool and their money.

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This is actually a somewhat common kind of bad leadership, but the followup was uniquely awful. It just usually scares off better heads and then continues sucking. It rarely has the gory details laid out so exquisitely by staff and management running from consequences like chickens without heads.

At this point GSFTW appears to be a walking dead con without consistent leadership, policies, community support, competent staff or GOH's after a third staff exodus in protest. Of course with the bad bet of sunk cost and contracts, the board will hang on to the last thread. Watch how things crumble.

In GSFTW chat, there's been yo-yo whiplash from repeatedly closing/reopening, to throw off criticism and ban anyone with a spine. The turmoil led to briefly appointing new mod Ethan, who didn't last a morning until he was identified as author of numerous hate slurs and owner of an art theft group.

Content warning: Slurs by Ethan, mod for a morning in GSFTW chat. Picking him shows how deep over their head the management is. Ethan shushing fellow mod Sotalo was funny, though. Sotalo lied that mods found Ethan's posts and removed him instead of being forced by watchers. bsky.app/profile/dogp...

Dogpatch Press@dogpatch.press

In GSFTW chat, today's meltdown ended with a new admin appointed. The admin told Sotalo, the PR guy from Florida, to quiet down.