Today I will be badging everyone who donated (except for those who told us not to). When you donated, you were asked to enter your Voat username in the description box. If you did not do this for whatever reason, and still wish to receive your donor badge, please wait 24 hours and then if your donor badge is not visible on your profile page, send an email to [email protected] and mention your donation transaction ID and your Voat username. Since the badging process is currently not automated, I will be spending a large chunk of this Sunday on this task.
I would like to use this opportunity to THANK YOU all who donated as your donations are what keeps Voat online and what keeps us motivated to fight our way forward. I wish I could say thank you to each and every one of you personally, but the number of people who donated it just too big to manage.
Anyways, I hope to be able to make another announcement soon with more information on our monthly operating costs. I'd love to do an ama-type thing with Putt and answer any questions you guys may have, but I can't promise anything at this point.
Requests
We have received 0 NS/FISA requests.
snus-stain ago
Love my hoody, any chance we can order some more soon?
CommonOrGardenGoat ago
He's completely crazy. Amalek crazy. Might be amalek himself.
Lost a debate with me weeks ago, and has been following me around downvoting without commenting since then. Well, guess what, two can play that game.
He also likes to create alts and ping you from them.
This latest episode is just forum sliding at its best. He wants to scare off new users with the story that Voat is a honeypot. Any wonder why an account shillpot suddenly showed up?
If not amalek, it's a fat retard from SRS. Just the kind of autistic insanity that they do.
Plastered_Patsy ago
Shill alt here. Ignore the common goat
6188968? ago
Mr Colo I'm sorry voat.co has become such a burden.
Mr_Wolf ago
Atko thanks for the post the spam over the weekend was obnoxious hopefully it quiets down a bit.
There's only two of you and sometimes you get overwhelmed or life happens and you just need to drop off for a bit. I know the feeling I used to help manage a social website and some days you just didn't want to turn your computer on.
bareknuckledragon ago
A bit off topic but are you guys going make a proper Android app? The once I usually use are dead in the water because they don't have access to the newer API
SaneGoatiSwear ago
was hoping this response was atko.
thanks for the cinnamon roles, juice!
6187221? ago
What about when we donated bitcoin in mid 2015 with only a comment in the transfer?
HomerSimpson ago
Still waiting for you to respond to qn email inquiry i sent you weeks ago. Kind of offended. Thought we had something.
jobes ago
I spent way too long making my SDBH ad. I'd be down for a badge :)
bdmthrfkr ago
I bought an ad too (the one with Apocalypse on it) and would love an advertiser badge, it would be great motivation for more people to buy ads too!
diodine ago
I nominate /u/highly_paid_orgy_pro
TH3_1D10T ago
Is there any way we could help you, other than donating? Cause I'm poor
SaneGoatiSwear ago
hahahah
put in a subverse request
6186201? ago
I'm really glad to see you, Atko, and I love the prospect of an AMA with you and Putt.
It saddens me thinking of the amount of work you two put in and the lack of reward you get out of it (mainly money). I'm sure upholding the principles of freedom/free speech mean as much to you as they do to me, and surely that's some justification for your time, but it's still not pay!
That said, I want to say that I personally (and I'm sure many other voaters) understand your guys' absences. You have lives yet you still do what you can for this site when you can. Despite pressure from users if you ever need breaks or vacations, please take them without guilt.
Many of us, myself included, were just worried that potentially something had been compromised or perhaps there were bad things going on in your lives. Just concern for you two, who are some of the foremost fighters and supporters on freedom in the entire digital world. You two are revolutionaries and heroes. Though I had no doubt you had not compromised these values by selling Voat, I was afraid for your personal well-beings. As always I am glad to hear from you. I patiently await the appearance of the One True Putt.
Keep fighting the good fight. I'll continue to do what little I can via donations when I'm able.
SaneGoatiSwear ago
also, reach, seriously, all this weird shit happening, and nothing being directly said on it?
someone's gotta sift through the bullshit and find the truth.
why aren't YOU doing it? "first and last on the watchlist" but not on this one, then?
or do you genuinely have no concern at this stage?
indiglo_girls ago
I've donated a few times but specifically don't want a badge because I just see that as pointless busy work for @Atko & Putt. They've got enough on their plate with this site alone, not to mention their day-to-day lives.
SaneGoatiSwear ago
atko, i completely forgot, so instead of editing or adding another comment down below,
i've put this here:
if you won't make a dedicated warrant canary, can you just add this text to the canary that is put in announcements? it would put us at ease (even though we're still worried about u/puttitout the state of voat, it's future's security, finances, employees, and more...
"we have had 0 (zero) gag orders, National Security Requests, FISA orders, injunctions, super-injunctions, publication bans, nor any other free-speech prohibiting action against us nor against voat to the date (of the last dead man's switch press) [[of the last posting of this notification]] - - as well, up to that point, voat has been neither a trap of any kind nor has it up to that point been a honeypot. if this notification is not posted or no announcements are made (one) month to the second after the previous announcement, consider voat compromised and act accordingly."
i know between 8 and 10 months ago there was a greater than one month span between announcements. you could make that canary requirement 2 months, but that's a long time to wait to know if all that time was secure (on your end!).
i appreciate your time, thank you for voat, and want to make it into the front page of the net full of free speech!
and thank you in advance for answering our continued questions and clarification requests to your previous answers.
Lord--Gaben ago
@Atko
SaneGoatiSwear ago
so you know, this is in response to a comment response by atko to me, and within it he says 'he will not be making a page nor a dead man's switch for the "canary"'. (which i lament) but also that 'the manual nature of the current canary is functional as a dead man's..' (to which i agree)
to me more important than HOW it's deadmanned, as i believe for now, the manual posting serves the purpose re: "compel to lie" but isn't standard, as in, 1wc/announce a month at minimum posted? (no standard)... a while back they went 2 mo without an announcement, so, it's still got that issue. the biggest and most pressing is that it's incomplete: it doesn't cover a half-dozen other gag-types and thus could be compelled as a truth in the situation of a non-fisa/ns gag situation.
frankly, a larger internet discussion need be had about getting down a standard full format canary that could be adopted by all those wanting a canary. the standardization of a robust canary would lend to it's authenticity, and increase the probability of precedence being set on it, which could lead to it's credibility (or wreck it lol).
why not start with voat? the "have your say" place for freespeech* (*except for dvd accounts?? ave-user-block self-bubbles, check, and edge-of-legal-content subs, check.).
Cynabuns ago
So glad to hear from you!! Your appearances now and again renews our faith that you're going to keep this place going. I'm sure that this place can be a drain and I don't blame you for taking a break now and again; thanks for all your efforts. Please remember that there are many of us here who are ready and willing to help you and Putts ♥
Anchy ago
Check your fridge dude ;)
TH3_1D10T ago
Oh wow, actual communication with the admins.
SaneGoatiSwear ago
https://voat.co/v/Conspiracy/comments/1246080
so little gathered, it surpassed the 10,000 character limit by 6k and went into comments and was shortened.
then an entire second post with more information was posted.
oh look it's that one month retard who doesn't add anything meaningful to voat!
ShineShooter ago
It's great to see you back Atko! I betcha we can be of some help writing code for new features in /voatdev , just make a post of what you need.
Atko ago
Thanks, much appreciated! We just need to merge a few feature branches into master and publish some sort of a roadmap. I think develop branch is not up to date, but as soon as we merge everything, I'll definitely stop by /v/voatdev and ask for help, as I'd hate to reject a pull request due to merge conflicts...
squataclops ago
Nice to see everything is going well. I'll donate soon!
SaneGoatiSwear ago
Atko you say "question everything"
so i question
three(edit did i say three things? lol wow like i'm ever concise) NINE things:why won't you and putt show us timestamped photos of yourselves with newspapers from today and my username written on the paper? i think it'd put a lot of goats' fears to rest.
can we talk about the warrant canary? a lot of goats feel that it's just not enough (incomplete), and that it needs it's own place with a full dead man's switch ( a page linked next to the about section, requiring to you to press a button once a month or the page disappears).
where's @puttitout, @atko? and what happened this past month and a half?
what's going on with the silence? some goats have some crazy theories about what's going on.
is there a code commit on the voat code that is not showing on the source on git?
have you sold vote?
are there agents with you now?
has @puttitout given up, @atko?
and finally, are you @technician90 ?
Atko ago
Sigh. No, we haven't sold Voat and I don't plan to ever do anything which affects the users without first talking to you guys. The canary is as good as it gets. I don't want to implement a dead man switch as I can't guarantee that I will be able to maintain it. I don't work full time on Voat and I'm on the road a lot, sometimes without internet access for days. Our current canary is manual, if it stops showing up in our announcements, it means that we are under surveillance. Also, Canary Watch project is shutting down and the whole Warrant Canary idea seems to be pointless as it doesn't really work in practice. Where's Puttitout? I spoke with him shortly yesterday and I don't have a definite answer to what he's been up to, but I would say that something like this applies to him as well. That should answer your #3 and #4.
Code commit that is not showing on Github? There might be more than one. We don't always push our code changes to Git, sometimes small adjustments are made and committed much later. Also, what guarantee do you have that Voat source code visible on Gitlab is the same code that is running on our servers?
There are no agents with me now, and I have not been talking to any government agencies, ever.
And #8 - I hope not, but it would not surprise me, given the fact that we never made a dime and that he poured countless hours.
All in all, you need to make sure never to post any personally identifiable information on Voat or anywhere else online, if you want to stay anonymous. The internet is a dark mess with tracking beacons almost on every single website. Stay smart, and be your own privacy guard. We do everything we can to protect Voat and its data, but how do you know your ISP is not ratting you out?
My words and Putts words is all you have, but never rely on anyone to protect your privacy. Stay vigilant and do your part to protect yourself.
Also no, I am not /u/technician90.
SaneGoatiSwear ago
correct. so far all i have are words, and words can be as empty as your pockets.
i appreciate this response. it's the first attempt at meaningful contact by the admins of voat in 1 month and a few days.
i'm sad to hear about the warrant canary. while i agree that warrant canaries haven't made the rounds and become solid in law yet, i don't agree they're on their way out. i think they're just getting solidified, and if more sites would take the time to make serious complete and dead manned ones, i think it would start to solidify more. instead major sites are dropping their canaries, and getting gagged, and free speech is limited now nearly across the entire internet. that said, we still have indicator species, and they're all screaming that voat's going down. please be aware, as you are in switzerland where voat is a hate site, and your incorporated in the u.s., (please correct me if i'm wrong on these two points) giving the 5 eyes easy access, know that your statements on the warrant canary sound to us like you don't care about free speech, and that the warrant canary is a placation, not a work in progress meant to be completed.
so on the record, and as your official response: you, @atko on behalf of whatever dev team you won't tell us about is left:
are refusing to prove you are alive and well? please answer
have not sold voat. check.
don't "plan on" doing things which effect users. code changes affect users. do you notify all goats upon a change? no. what does this statement have to do with my questions?
won't be transparent with us regarding admins, employees, nor finances? please respond.
won't give us pictures with timestamps with a newspaper with today's date with my username written on it in your hand? why not, atif? please respond.
are saying that at any given time voat's code may be open source or closed source and we've no way to check? there may be malicious code there now, and we aren't allowed to know? please confirm.
are saying something about protecting yourself on the internet? this is an inch from non-sequitur, atko.
you are claiming you (not haven't been gagged) but that you have never talked to agencies ever. how about judges? received any warrants or gags or injunctions or super-injunctions?? we can only believe this as far as we can throw all the whales, as these days our legal system is corrupt as fuck, and you may well very much be compelled to lie as far as we know. your actions and lackthereof are what prove these claims, not the claims themselves.
and finally, you're stating you have no idea where @puttitout is and that "it would not surprise" you if he gave up?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!
final question that i completely forgot, if you've time to answer it: are you bringing back the legal subs you've censored? i don't ness. want them back, but i actually believe in free speech. you clearly stated it was a temporary measure. what say you, now? request for comment.
oh i see you've edited your comment before i was able to respond. yes, you are saying you are not @technician90. fair enough, thank you for that response. now for the rest of 'em.
HarveyHarveyJones ago
I always have moments in my life when i keep asking the same questions over and over with no response or answer. More times than not, i actually knew the answer the whole time... I just couldn't accept it because it was an answer i didn't want/like. I see a lot of users here thinking any theory about atko or puttitout or even voat itself being compromised is just crazy. The other half seems concerned. Then there's a few who are absolutely worried, such as yourself. I myself, am worried as well. Even if it's not even close to what the theories have been, something is definitely up. Stay vigilant.
Anchy ago
lmao! yes.
Anchy ago
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Much love!
FeelinFroggy ago
Really really really glad you're not dead. This was the kind of news and sentiment I enjoy waking up to!
FeelinFroggy ago
Coffee just rolls right off of it before I can get to drink it. Mugs work a little bit better, I've found.
SeanBox ago
What you do end drinking never has the bad aftertaste as long as you stick to the mug.
Slayfire122 ago
Can you make a special Golden Donar Badge for anyone that's donated a total of $500, if there is even anyone out there that has.
Atko ago
I don't see why not. There is at least one person that has donated over $500, but this person has explicitly requested not to get any badges. I think there are more people with combined donations of over $500, I guess we could consolidate their badges into one special badge. We'll see.
mamwad ago
How was Gitmo?
Edit: Jesus voat is a touchy, humorless place some times.
SaneGoatiSwear ago
please mamwad. you got nothing on theese downvoats!
seriouslly tho on the otherside, voat's upvoating humor over hard questions.
sounds like not voat.
squataclops ago
I thought it was funny if that counts for anything ;)
Mick ago
^ same
squataclops ago
Somebody don't like mick. No bueno
Slayfire122 ago
This would be awesome. I would love a badge that links to my ad of Hillary's Twin tower logo.
l23r ago
Do you have a link to that ad (or an image of it, in the case that the ad has expired) I never got a chance to see it :(
Donbuster ago
https://voat.co/v/voatads
Can't personally find the ad discussed after 3 searches, but you could just flip through manually or do more creative searches.
edit: I think that may be the wrong sub, I forget which one is the ACTIVE sub for archiving ads on voat, but I do know there is one.
6186215? ago
It's the right sub. /u/NexusWarrior nuked his own account and took his submissions to v/VoatAds with him some weeks ago.
l23r ago
Was it this one?
Slayfire122 ago
Yup. That's the one.
AnTi90d ago
Hurray, Atko isn't dead!
SaneGoatiSwear ago
there is no proof this is atko. even this "atko" says 'question everything"
Atarian ago
Someone forgot to take their medicine this morning?
Anchy ago
He is eternal!
Rainy-Day-Dream ago
I donated $20 two times do I still get a $40 badge?
DeltaBravoTango ago
You need to address these theories, dude. We're worried.
CRKT_M16Z ago
Wow, you're going to to the badging process manually? On what I assume is a day off for you? Damn dude, like, I hope a lot of people donated but hopefully this doesn't take too long for you.
Atko ago
Yup, manually. On a day off. We could automate this but donation order process would then have to go directly through Voat, which means we would have to implement a subset of the payment processor API, which would probably take at least one whole weekend... We'll see. For now, I'm really happy at least 1 person out there now knows what this means :) Thanks!
reeperpill ago
Can't you just write a quick script that takes a list of usernames and badges them? No need to link to the payment processing.
Atko ago
Sure.. but the list has to be created by hand as I can't filter transaction reports from our payment processor. Creating the list takes the most time. There are several badge categories (based on amount donated)... and you get my drift. This must be automated some day, I just wish I had the time to do it :)
CRKT_M16Z ago
Ha! A bit ironic that doing it manually is easier than creating a process to automate it.
That being said, thanks for all your hard work to you and Putt.
lbruiser ago
Any chance we could do another t shirt run? Maybe a coffee mug too?
rusty_-_shackleford ago
Hope you had a nice holiday dude. I haven't got around to donating this quarter, will the badge be in addition to earlier donation badges, so we could get a new one every time?
E: Ok, have donated now. Hope my goat makes it to the Olympics!
Zinnsee ago
Good to see you again. Some of us were kind of worried.
Atko ago
Thank you. I know you guys were worried and I don't blame you, we need to be more visible and steer the ship, so to speak. Stay vigilant and always question everything.
SaneGoatiSwear ago
worried? what about: all admins for our site drop it like a bad habit and disappear for a month. within that month, you atko, come back 2.5 weeks later, post some (normally - for you - ) weird stuff and don't answer basically anyone's questions. and then go silent for a week.
at the SAME time the slimg devs disappear, and tech comes back around when you do.
hecho's account stopped. amalek's (doing another round of) claiming to quit because "voat's been compromised"
that warrant canary is, after further investigation, incomplete and not legally binding, there fore we believe you and putt may be under a gag. now, if you are under a gag, you can't say you are. and if you are under a gag, they can't compel you to lie. write the code i've sent you.
WE, the Where's Putt Foundation, are hot on the trail of this breaking news story,
and will continue to report on it. we have respectfully asked you for comment for a while now, and we will continue to politely ask for it.
we await all questions answered, and are at defcon 3. heightened awareness and readyness to jump ship, heightened intelligence gathering. we are 5 days from defcon 2, barring an official answer to all of these questions from you and puttitout.
edit: thank you for your response below!
we can't wait for your second one :)
HomerSimpson ago
Except they always show up when you ping them.
SaneGoatiSwear ago
except i pm'd them a few days ago about this and no reply from either of them.
hey homer!
HomerSimpson ago
Weird. They do when I ping them.
Donbuster ago
You DO know how warrant canaries work, right?
SaneGoatiSwear ago
you DO know there are many more ways to gag someone than just fisa/ns requests, right?
injunctions, super injunctions, judge-given gag orders in general, etc... NOT listed on voat's "warrant canary." which means if they have one of those gags, they can still post that "canary" and would not be "being compelled to lie."
Citizen ago
If something listed on voat's warrant canary was done, such as a FISA request, we would only know if Atko were to not post a new warrant canary. Therefore, we must trust Atko and Atko's judgement in order for the warrant canary to have any meaning.
If you consider that we are already trusting Atko's judgement, I believe that if he were to receive a different sort of gag order, he would want everyone to know. The only way to signal that something had happened would be to remove the warrant canary.
Pawn ago
the requests can include that they keep the canary up.
Citizen ago
The courts have found that the first amendment protects against compelled speech even more strongly than it protects against prior restraint on speech. On the other hand, ex-parte orders preventing speech deprive people of their first amendment rights without due process, so you would think they're illegal to begin with. On the gripping hand, warrant canaries are unproven in court, and the court doesn't look kindly at people attempting to "work around" the law.
In short, it's a big mess, and we're waiting for the courts to clear it up. As things are, the government is in no hurry to set any precedents, because the status quo is in their favour.
SaneGoatiSwear ago
@citizen please understand that there are many things that can happen. injunctions, super injunctions, gag orders from judges (not just fisa orders and ns letters).
if he had a different gag order, he couldn't let us know. that's the whole point of gag orders
the warrant canary works by leveraging the part of the law that says the gag can't compel the gagged to lie.
he could have non-ns/fisa gag order or injunction or super injunction right now, and saying 0 ns/fisa would still be a truth, and they could absolutely compel him to put it up with announcements.
my proposed better verbage is still being worked on by a few goats here, but so far it's something like this:
"we have had 0 (zero) gag orders, National Security Requests, FISA orders, injunctions, super-injunctions, publication bans, nor any other free-speech prohibiting action against us nor against voat nor against any signed-in user of voat or against any guest user nor against any groups of any type of users to the date (of the last dead man's switch press) [[of the last posting of this notification]] - - as well, up to that point, voat has been up to that point neither a trap of any kind nor has it up to that point been a honeypot. if this notification is not posted or no announcements are made (one) month to the second after the previous announcement, consider voat compromised and act accordingly."
Jasoman ago
I question this.
Fambida ago
I question you.
What's the basis for claims that the Indian riots of 1862 were based on a shortage of cow's milk angering the Hindu population?
ThisIsMyRealName ago
Asking the real questions
BustyChicksFTW ago
You people are way too paranoid.
Jasoman ago
And I question you because of your username.
BustyChicksFTW ago
:| What's wrong with boobs?
Pattoe ago
Half the time that the term 'busty' is used now, it actually means fat.
Are you into real busty girls or people who think bags of fat and cholesterol count as sexy?
BustyChicksFTW ago
First of all, busty just means big boobs. You're thinking about "curvy".
Second of all, big boobs average body. A lil chub is acceptable.
Third of all, why do you care what other people are into? Sad troll attempt :/
Pattoe ago
I just speak from experience, the shift in what people are using "busty" to mean.
Fair enough.
I was just having a discussion, maybe you are mistaking me with a different user who was posting earlier? I've not attempted to troll here.
HarveyHarveyJones ago
A skinny girl with big boobs is still a busty girl in my boom. Edit: book* not boom.
Pattoe ago
That's what busty should mean, my own experience is that fat girls are using the term busty to describe themselves, even though their "breasts" are nothing but fat.
I just think the term is being perverted, in the same way that curvy has been.
DigitalRefugee ago
Yeah. Sounds a bit pod person-ish.
6186197? ago
To determine if someone is a pod person, stab a nail into its heart. If it draws green blood, it was a pod person.
HarveyHarveyJones ago
You're not the only one.
iamjanesleftnipple ago
Atko, what's is going on with you and Putt? Lots of theories floating around, and since you're here, can you give us a true update?
Atko ago
Running Voat is a big responsibility and can often be a burden, if you have a full time job and a life on the side. We're alright, but Voat needs a team of people to be around full time and at the moment, we can not afford to be around full time as we have to make a living elsewhere, as, believe it or not, we never earned a dime since I started this whole Voat thing (I believe it was back in March 2014). I'm sure we'll figure something out, as long as you guys have our backs.
ThisIsMyRealName ago
We do have your backs, and many of us would gladly volunteer our spare time to help out.
NeedleStack ago
I'm available and I come cheap. ;)
6186229? ago
#NeedleStack2016 #TheAdminWeDeserveNotTheOneWeNeed
NeedleStack ago
Woah, easy. I wasn't offering to become an admin, just to help out with any back logs. :)
blipblipbeep ago
Lol Stacks mate, your to good at being great.
peace...
Fambida ago
I'd be okay with that. I appreciate your helping out with the Erol spam.
Slayfire122 ago
I officially nominate NeedleStack for an admin position. Even if you don't want to give him full control, you could create a level 1 and 2 admin positions.
BentAxel ago
Second.
reeperpill ago
Sorry, no irrational females in leadership positions. We don't need another Merkel.
Chiefpacman ago
Needle's a woman? I'm arroused..
Stavon ago
Thanks for all your work. Keep it up.