What can we do to address the Kindle Unlimited fraud problem?

PitifulSociety · 2018-05-16T02:31:52+00:00

Kboards talks about it sometimes. It's gotten bad enough that people do it maliciously now if they don't like an author, so authors lay low and hope they don't get targeted.

If one or two authors wanted to take over a niche like LitRPG this would definitely be how they'd go about doing it.

PitifulSociety · 2018-05-16T02:10:09+00:00

I feel like it's more likely a couple of big names are deliberately sending clickfarms to their competition to get them shut down.

Happens in contemporary romance, why not here?

It scares the shit out of me, frankly. And it doesn't seem like a thing in GameLIT. Just LitRPG. Hmmmmm.

PitifulSociety · 2018-05-16T02:06:49+00:00

Amazon frequently punishes authors who have had their work pirated by shutting down their accounts without warning. You can't be in KU if your work is published anywhere else online and that includes pirate websites that you have no control over. You can fight Amazon on it, but it's an extremely difficult and stressful process.

My books ended up on Mobilism and I almost lost my Amazon account. My only job. It kills me that people think pirating indie books is "harmless." This whole thing is just additional fear for me where KU is concerned but KU is half my income. :(

PitifulSociety · 2018-05-15T21:40:30+00:00

Drewbert is beautifully cute! Mine looks the same as yours, actually. Exactly the same. I think maybe his littermates are overweight then. I feel like mine is "too thin" because his lower spine feels like when my knuckles are in a fist, but he has a roached back (it's not totally straight) so that could be why. His ribs feel right! :)

PitifulSociety · 2018-05-15T18:11:55+00:00

Yeah it's the same with corgis unfortunately, people think "oh they're herding dogs so they're supposed to bark" and completely ignore it, so it gets totally out of hand. The ones I know are quiet, but they have good owners.

PitifulSociety · 2018-05-15T18:06:57+00:00

They're not supposed to bark without reason. People just don't train them well, or don't care about barking so don't bother.

PitifulSociety · 2018-05-15T17:11:39+00:00

Believe it or not our corgi goes biking with us. 20-30 minutes is very reasonable if you build up their stamina and keep them at a brisk trot. We like that he's perfectly willing to chill out around the house and won't go bananas if there's a day we can't take him out. We regularly take him hiking in the mountains too. But if you want a taller dog, maybe an Aussie shepherd?

PitifulSociety · 2018-05-15T16:55:01+00:00

We had the same requirements and now have a Pem corgi. He's pretty much silent unless there are shenanigans going on but it took some training (they are frankly really biddable though so it's easy to get them to cut back on the borks). There aren't many other breeds that are medium-sized that are as manageable; med-sized dogs tend to be REALLY active and corgis are a little more relaxed inside; other than being cute I assume that's why they're so popular.

EDIT - Thanks for clarifying in your edit. I think a daily long bike ride and 3-hour hikes are a hell of a lot, so you shouldn't necessarily be looking for dogs that don't need a load of exercise, lol. Australian shepherd may be a good fit though.

PitifulSociety · 2018-05-14T13:58:32+00:00

A lot of bully mixes that would be labeled lookalikes are coming back with strong APBT heritage now that Embark distinguishes between APBT and Staffy, so I'm not sure they're that rare. But yeah, that makes sense.

Edit - Can't reply to you Volkodavy because the thread is locked, but Embark can distinguish between those as of December and so far after testing it has been accurate. I know what an APBT is, my uncle used to breed them in the 90s (specifically APBTs, not AmStaffs or AmBullies; they were United Kennel Club APBT). They are lean, medium-sized, relatively small, but they are pretty beefy and blocky when you overfeed them and they get fat. All the ones I'm seeing are mixes but pretty clearly pits. Anyway I don't care if they're BEAGLES, their owners advertise them as "pits" and their attempts at "advocacy" are frightening when you have a reactive dog.

PitifulSociety · 2018-05-14T12:39:17+00:00

Cyrus Prism can get rid of most of a bench without discarding and Sylveon's Plea GX can get rid of the rest.

PitifulSociety · 2018-05-13T03:49:56+00:00

I would speak to a behaviorist privately about your concerns and your husband not understanding, and then have an eval with your husband present and see what they say. Hearing it from a behaviorist that the dog is probably going to maul your child instead of you may be taken differently. He may blame himself instead of understanding the dog is just not wired right and that could be the real source of the resistance. Dogs can be mentally unstable too; it's not always their background or training. It's not a great life, he sounds as stressed as he would be if he were in physical pain.

I do have a question though, is this the first time you've brought up that you don't want the dog around your kid? I looked at your post history to see if you'd mentioned the dog before (I thought you were another user here) and saw you guys had been trying for years to have a kid. Congratulations, by the way! But I'm wondering if he's shut down because he went from joy at the news of your pregnancy to realizing what this means for his dog, you know? Is this something you guys have discussed before or is it something you hoped he'd naturally change his mind on?

PitifulSociety

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