we live in a world someone else imagined

Pinterest contacted me today...

Hi Emilly,

It was bold in the original, I just kept it.

We recently removed a Pin from your "Unhallows" board because it goes against our Community Guidelines on self-injury and harmful behavior.

And that was when my brain dropped out through my open jaw, because...I have two Hallowe'en boards. "Vintage Halloween" is the more retro board, with everything from print-outs to tutorials on crafting haunted items. "Unhallows" is the more purely horror board, the place for everything unnerving, disturbing, skin-crawling...probably more '-ing', and...how...is that going to hold up to a sudden ToS change??

We limit the distribution of or remove content that displays, rationalizes or encourages suicide, self-injury, eating disorders or substance abuse. This content impacts the community - it can be triggering, or reinforce harmful behavior. These rules apply to all Pins, including ones on your secret boards.

I have no secret boards.

Please take some time to go through your Pins and remove any that may conflict with our policies, or we may take further action against your account.

I've spent the morning in between making appointments and meeting appointments of my own in applying the broadest definitions possible, just in case. Bleeding from the mouth? Gone. Bleeding from the eyes? Probably okay, but...if it's a large amount, gone. ANYTHING to do with wrist ribbons, wrist stitches, wrist wounds, EVEN IF IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SUICIDAL IDEATION...gone. I'm not even a third of the way through yet.

I'm still debating just dumping every single image with visible wounds anywhere.

The thing that frustrates me about these strikes, though, the thing that has always frustrated me about these strikes...is they no longer tell me what they've struck down. They used to, a few years back--and that information is kind of key to figuring out whether I want to challenge the strike or not? Because easily 70% of everything on Pinterest, for everyone, is relinked material. There is a very high noise-to-signal ratio.

How do I know if what I linked is bad, if you won't show me what I linked? How do I learn from my mistake if you won't tell me what it was?

"Why are you still on Pinterest?" asked Neome. My love, I am starting to wonder myself. A few years back they also made linking anything on the site that wasn't just pure image (which you had to open as a new tab and link THAT URL only) impossible, because now, when anyone clicks one of the links of mine (and you may even see it if you click the two boards I linked above), it takes them to the page--and then immediately greys out the page and a full-screen popup tells you how easy it is to create an account. It's become worse than useless for passing information on in any direction save back to Pinterest.

Apparently Elliot Management owns the company now, which is odd, because as this article says, they're more known for "activism", and as their own website says:

The firm employs a multi-strategy trading approach that encompasses a broad range of strategies, including, without limitation: equity-oriented, private equity and private credit, distressed securities, non-distressed debt, hedge/arbitrage, real estate-related securities, commodities trading and portfolio volatility protection.

...Right.

Maybe it's time to batchfile everything in a 'save these links' file and just kill my account.