documentation

DISCLAIMER: This post is not a personal story. This post is not a callout. This post is not trying to promote one view of a wider community of people over another. This post is my attempt to do multiple things: 

Amplify the voices of those hurt in this situation, especially those who have come to me because they feel they cannot speak up alone at risk to their personal security and safety. 

Provide a resource of all statements made regarding the situation for anybody who is confused about what’s going on.

Start a wider conversation about online community culture, especially in relation to oligarchies such as the Violet Vineyard. 

I’m going to use deductive reasoning to provide various points on the current situation, and my opinion on it. I’m also going to provide context for all claims stated, and which I feel to be substantiated. 

Without further ado, hello! Things have been exploding on writeblr recently. As I’m sure some of the community have noticed, I’ve been cited quite a few times by various people making their own statements as somebody who has been documenting the situation from the beginning. I’d like to provide my side to the story in the most cohesive, objective and sympathetic way I can, as I have a lot of information and a lot to say. I appreciate anybody who reads and accepts with what I have to say, because I would like to use this situation to start a broader dialogue about what tight-knit, creative communities like this can do to people, and how to spot the red flags. 

HOW IT STARTED: 

In early 2019 (February or March, if I’ve got the dates right), Tumblr user @mvcreates joined the site, going by the penname Mina Violet Alzakhm. She claimed to have started art and creative writing in October of 2018, though her accounts related to this varied. Mina was a self-proclaimed author, artist, musician/composer, wellness expert, STEM PhD, outbreak responder, published scientific practitioner and athlete. 

Soon after joining, Mina had already shown the community her apparent artistic chops, filling her blog with excerpts from her writing (beginning with two works in progress, Devida and Goliath and Retrocognition, which I would caution anybody interested in this case to remember into the future), art, music, graphics and reblog reviews of others’ work. 

She very quickly bloomed to become one of the most well-known names in the community. There are conflicting reports about why this was - in general, it is my perspective that much of it had to do with the allure many older women have in fandoms to younger members, especially when playing up a ‘Tumblr Mom’ (or, as Mina called herself, ‘Vodka Aunt’) persona. Mina went to great lengths to make herself as personable, likeable and friendly as possible.

Shortly after joining the community, in early April, Mina began a Discord community she referred to as her Writeblr Family, called the Violet Vineyard. It boomed quite early in its lifespan, and by summer of that year, it had hit over a hundred members. It was primarily based around the prospect of ‘reciprocity’ - in order to have your work shared by other members, you were heavily encouraged to share the work of those others in return.

Thesis Statement: Mina joined the writeblr community just over a year and a half ago, and became an immediate household name. She quickly began her own discord community, which rose in its first few months to become one of the most well-known discord servers in the community. 

THE ‘ARTWORK’ PROBLEM:

Her art existed in some form on her blog for as long as her blog was running - however, over time, more and more of the community became disillusioned to one very, very important (and increasingly obvious) fact. Almost all of the artwork was not freehand, but photoedited or traced.

I will give a few reasons why this is significant:  - Here is Mina referring to her artwork with the word ‘lineart’, with the implication that it it, to an extent, freehand, without disclosing that it is incredibly obviously just a ripped photoedit. - Here is Mina admitting to her art being traced, with the implication that people should not be surprised and that none of this involved a level of secrecy. - Here is Mina advertising her open artwork commissions and her online artwork store, on neither of which did she ever disclose that her artwork was just photoedits.  - Here is some more evidence that this artwork was all extremely obviously just photos with filters on them.  - If you didn’t catch it in the other screenshots: here is a whole gaggle of Mina’s friends ganging up on and being transphobic towards a person who dared to call her out. Mina did not once call these people out on their transphobia, and I’ve spoken to a trans moderator who confirmed that when they and the only other trans mod on the team tried to voice their discomfort about this, they were spoken over and not listened to in the mod chat of the Violet Vineyard.

In addition, at least one of the pieces of artwork Mina was commissioned for was in the triple digits. Somebody paid over $100 for artwork the artist was not disclosing to be anything other than freehand, and has not been refunded.

Thesis Statement: Mina traced and photoedited her artwork and was immensely duplicitous about this. This would be a null point, but she actively charged people money for her works, and none have been refunded.

THE ‘WORKSHOP’ PROBLEM: 

Behind the scenes, seemingly from the beginning, trouble was brewing in the Violet Vineyard. I’m going to split the statements I have here into two sections: allegations I have seen proof of and I know to be true/allegations I consider to be refutable through corroboration despite an (understandable) lack of screenshot evidence (see below), and allegations I feel uncomfortable stating to be true or false, due to a lack of evidence or corroboration. 

CATEGORY ONE: IRREFUTABLE OR BROADLY CORROBORATED ALLEGATIONS - - In a general sense, the Violet Vineyard massively encouraged a worshipper mindset towards Mina. @whenwegounnoticed, @radley-writes, @time-to-write-and-suffer and others have gone into detail about this. @radley-writes​ in particular, an ex-mod leery of older women in fan communities, went into detail on how Mina cultivated an environment in which she was seen as wise, knowing and unarguable.  - Mina offered her ‘legal support’ to various users of her discord community, including one called Castor (a member of one of Mina’s previous ‘creative workshops’ that later evolved into the VV), better known as @sapiencenotes. Castor has spoken about her gruelling experiences with Mina here, but to sum it up: Mina offered Castor full legal support regarding her PSDs and whether credit was being given for them. Mina then instigated an attack on Castor’s partner at the time for using said PSDs that culminated to the point of Mina insinuating that she had legal rights to Castor’s works due to their status being from her ‘writing workshop’, scaring Castor out of writeblr (and out of writing) for months. - There have been three corroborated instances of bullying of a minor in relation to the Violet Vineyard that have been reported to me - one involving a minor, a member of the Violet Vineyard, who was, by Mina’s proclamation, misrepresenting one of their Jewish characters and was then publicly lambasted in the Violet Vineyard to the point of tears and panic (this minor is, to my knowledge, still on writeblr under a different name, more details below), one involving a Muslim minor who was publicly called out and sent anon hate for allegedly being homophobic towards Mina, and one involving an eleven year-old who was sent anonymous hate and harassed by various Violet Vineyard members for not sending Mina ask games. I will not be including links to posts involving any of this individuals, as they are minors and I would feel uncomfortable doing so, but I will be attaching relevant screencaps below).  - Three separate individuals have independently told me that an individual in the Violet Vineyard was being ‘waited on’ by Mina for them to turn eighteen, in order for her to be able to send them her NSFW content.  - Mina told a trans person in the Violet Vineyard that having the genitals to match their gender as they wished would be negative, as it would afford them privilege.  - Mina would keep screenshots of people to ‘ruin their careers’ later, and publicly ridicule individuals in the Violet Vineyard along with other members of the chat when she did not like them. - Mina made members sign a contract that they would not take screenshots in any part of the server, no matter what, when joining. This is, as I’m sure anybody with any level of critical thinking can discern, very, very, very dangerous when applying to a server in which minors and adults can interact - no predatory or problematic behaviour can be documented, and this was enforced by the fact that, at least for a short while, Mina’s husband, a lawyer, was a moderator, and members were regularly given the impression that legality would be called into question if they ever shared any of the goings-on of the server outside of it. This manner of legal threat is unacceptable, and should not have been tolerated by anybody involved. Abuse of process legislation, come get your boy.

CATEGORY TWO: SINGULAR OR UNSUBSTANTIATED ALLEGATIONS (+ the number of people who have reported this activity to me) -  - Violet Vineyard mods have been privately contacting individuals since the server went down to tell them not to discuss it or its ‘migration’ elsewhere. (One account) - Server members would excuse harassment of minors by saying that either they weren’t that ‘mouthy’ at that age, or that (x) server member, also a minor, isn’t so ‘rude’. (Two accounts)  - Mina would imply in the NSFW channel of the Violet Vineyard that asexual people would ‘experience (sexual) attraction someday’. (Two accounts) - Mina would add individuals to beta, alpha or gamma reader chats without their consent, as well as tagging them without their consent. (Three accounts) - Members of the Violet Vineyard were threatened with screencaps and, more generally, blackmailed when not in Mina’s favour. (One account) - Members of the Violet Vineyard would regularly make fun of other authors for grammatical mistakes. (Conflicting accounts) - Mina brought law enforcement (specifically federal American law) into the picture when threatening a member of the Violet Vineyard over their intellectual property. (One account)  - Mina exhibited TERF-like behaviour. (Two accounts) - Mina called asexuality ‘over-represented’ in the writeblr community, as well as a variety of other aphobic microaggressions. (One account) - Mina used the Violet Vineyard’s NSFW chats to go into graphic, uncomfortable levels of detail about her sex life, and while this was behind an age gate, it’s extremely irresponsible to do this in a community in which individuals can easily lie about their age. (Two accounts)

Thesis Statement: While not commonplace among most casual members, among an amorphous ‘inner circle’ of the Violet Vineyard, harrassment wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, especially of minors. This was under the presumption that, being older, Mina ‘knew better’ than many younger writeblrs, a mindset that the Violet Vineyard consistently cultivated. In addition, when mods attempted to speak up on this - especially trans mods - they were talked over and ignored.

THE ‘MIRROR SITE’ PROBLEM: 

In the days following the fallout of Mina’s tracing scandal (if I remember correctly, in the day after it happened, Tumblr user @hyba​ made a post ringing the alarm about ‘mirror sites’. Here is a post debunking it all as alarmist and unnecessary. None of this is particularly pertinent to the situation. Moving on. 

The morning before the Violet Vineyard was deleted, Mina reblogged the original thread, along with some of the more reactionary commentary added to it. A day later, the Violet Vineyard was gone. Members say that this was cited as an issue of security, and that the server was to ‘migrate’ to a new platform. However, no such new platform has arisen since to anybody’s knowledge (though it is worth mentioning that around a dozen of Mina’s closest friends all deactivated in the 2-7 days following Mina’s own deactivation. 

There was a final announcement posted in the server before Mina left. Mods state that family problems were cited as the true cause to them of the server’s deletion. No final post or statement was made to the mvcreates tumblr account before it was deactivated. Mina only ever reblogged one post about the mirror sites issue, and the mvcreates instagram account deactivated two days before this, and all of the related content on Mina’s professional twitter (more on this later) had also been deleted before the mirror site problem but after the art tracing scandal.

In summary: the mirror site scandal unwittingly provided Mina with a sufficient reason to leave the site after being accused (by me!) of being a scammer and an art tracer. She originally planned on restarting elsewhere, and also allegedly discussed abandoning the Mina Violet penname in the Violet Vineyard chat before deactivating (two accounts), but since the controversy has picked up steam, she has been silent. 

Thesis Statement: Mina used a widespread writeblr panic about an issue she likely knew to be inconsequential, in regards to her apparent legal knowledge, to cover up her controversy and leave the platform for good while she still could.

THE OVERARCHING PROBLEM: 

I’m going to be frank in this part. Because I’ve spent far too long researching all of this to be objective for much longer.

Mina knowingly spent over a year cultivating a community in which harassment, particularly of minors and trans people, was not only unchallenged but actively condoned. She also spent this time scamming well-meaning commissioners out of their money online, for art she was not honest about the creation of. When called out, she would sic her lackeys on anybody who dared criticise her, and said lackeys would then complain that Mina was always being ‘ganged up on’. 

I’m going to be very, very frank in this next bit, too: in my research, I’ve come across Mina’s professional twitter account, in which she uses her real name, states her real credentials and displays her (somewhat) true self. And I want to be honest. She is a thirty year-old woman with a highly-paid career, a blue check mark on twitter and tens of thousands of followers. She regularly makes it into news articles (as far as my research has come up with, she is publicised in various scientific commentary publications once or twice a week) She’s very, very well known in her circle. She is, as I can best sum it up, a public figure. And this upsets me the most, because the implication is this: a middle-aged woman with a thriving career, a husband, a family and a lot of notoriety, agency and money felt the need to actively hide her true identity in order to spend time posting NSFW serialised writings on Tumblr (which is one of the most teen-saturated sites on the internet), talk about her sex life in her minor-inclusive discord server, pray on minors and harass them, keep screenshots of other people’s Tumblr posts to blackmail them with, condone transphobia and encourage harassment, and fake her art to make unneeded money from innocent buyers who she was not honest with. 

None of this is okay. Nobody should have allowed this. I refuse to be nice about this. Anybody who allowed this to happen needs to stop and think about the sort of person they are online, and the way they’re willing to treat people to get what they want, be it validation, reblogs/likes, or a community they see as loving and accepting. It doesn’t matter what the reason was. None of this is okay. None of this is okay. 

A note: do not try to track Mina down. Leave her be. I stumbled on her entirely incidentally, and I felt that what I found merited discussion, but I do not condone doxxing and I can say two things now: almost nobody else knows who she is in real life, nobody is planning on going public with it, and nobody who is unaware should, under any circumstances, attempt to find out. Leave her be. Let her carry on. If she wants to be done with this, it’s better for everybody.

Thesis Statement: She was a rich, well-known public figure who used her power and knowledge to shame, harass and hurt people. 

A MORE PERSONAL PROBLEM:

Hi, Mina. I know you’re reading this. I’m going to list some things that I am: 

A trans teenager trying to move away from home 

Broke 

Not living in America 

Unaffiliated with your server - I never signed your contract, so don’t pull that on me

Working at a grocery store 

Did I mention that I’m broke?

I’m not going to disclose whether I’m a minor or not, out of fear it might lead people to my identity. This should make it evident enough what I am in this regard. 

Not willing to quarrel with you on this, and incredibly scared of you from what I’ve seen of your legal threats and blackmailing

Previously affiliated with you under a different name, but aside from that, not particularly connected to you

Only posting information I believe to be proven - and, when posting information I deem unsubstantiated, disclosing that these are just allegations

I do not want a fight with you. I do not want to be sued. I do not want you to ruin my career. I do not want you to track me down. Leave me alone. Let me be, as I have let you be. What I’m doing with this post is shedding light on a situation I deemed to be inappropriate, by using information others have given me. None of this information is firsthand. I could bring firsthand stories into this. You’ve been unpleasant to me in the past, too. But this is not about me. This isn’t about you. This is about the people you hurt. 

This is about the people who have come to me to tell me that you scared them away from writing for months. This is about the people who have been swarmed by relief for weeks since your server went dark. This is about the minors you condoned the harassment of. If you have a shred of good in you, leave me alone, and I’ll leave you alone, and we can both let every victim in this situation live. 

If you, reader, feel I’m being dramatic about this, I would suggest you read @aquiniawrites’ post on the topic for my perspective. She sums it up very well. 

Thesis Statement: Leave me alone, Mina. 

CONCLUSIVE SECTION - A COLLECTION OF STATEMENTS:

 Mina joined the writeblr community just over a year and a half ago, and became an immediate household name. She quickly began her own discord community, which rose in its first few months to become one of the most well-known discord servers in the community. 

Mina traced and photoedited her artwork and was immensely duplicitous about this. This would be a null point, but she actively charged people money for her works, and none have been refunded.

While not commonplace among most casual members, among an amorphous ‘inner circle’ of the Violet Vineyard, harrassment wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, especially of minors. This was under the presumption that, being older, Mina ‘knew better’ than many younger writeblrs, a mindset that the Violet Vineyard consistently cultivated. In addition, when mods attempted to speak up on this - especially trans mods - they were talked over and ignored.

Mina used a widespread writeblr panic about an issue she likely knew to be inconsequential, in regards to her apparent legal knowledge, to cover up her controversy and leave the platform for good while she still could.

She was a rich, well-known public figure who used her power and knowledge to shame, harass and hurt people. 

(Leave me alone, Mina.)

THE REMAINING PROBLEM: 

So, where can we go from here?

We, as a community, can work to be more compassionate towards each other in every regard. If somebody hurts you or your friends, stop and consider their perspective. If they’ve seriously upset you, DM them and hash things our privately. When your friend is hurt by another individual, don’t be an attack dog - be a shoulder. 

Recognise red flags when you see them. When older women in your online community act like they know better than you, consider why feeling superior might give them their kicks. Don’t trust that they know better than you just because of their age. Trust your instincts. If an adult is making you feel uncomfortable, it doesn’t matter if they made you sign a contract saying you wouldn’t take screenshots of their misbehaviour - screenshot that shit. Report them. Don’t let them speak over you. 

Call out transphobia, bullying and misinformation when you see them. It doesn’t matter if the transphobia is from your friends. It doesn’t even matter if it was in a bid to defend you. Call it out. Don’t ever let it fester. 

Don’t trace art. Especially don’t offer commissions for your traced art. 

Older women in fandom and creative spaces: you’re not exempt from being predatory or bullying because you’re a woman, or because you’re older. Grow up and take some responsibility. 

RESOURCES: 

A post from @sapiencenotes summarising her experiences (HERE)

Two statements from @gingerly-writing and @nectargrapes on the harassment of an eleven year-old (HERE)

A statement from @rrrawrf on their experiences (HERE)

A statement from former mod @radley-writes on their experiences (HERE)

A statement from @time-to-write-and-suffer​ on the bullying of a fifteen year old (TW: SELF HARM) (HERE)

A statement from @lilquill​ on her experiences (HERE)

A statement from an anonymous VV member on their experiences (HERE)

A previously linked post in response to certain narratives about this situation that I deem important and compassionate (HERE) 

SCREENSHOTS:

Here are a few screenshots I’ve been able to salvage that, in my opinion, provide necessary context to the situation. Bear in mind that almost all of these are second or third-hand, due to the ‘unlawful’ nature of screencap-taking in the server. 

A message sent to a then-fifteen year-old in the Violet Vineyard regarding their alleged misrepresentation of a Jewish character. This was not sent by Mina, but I can find no evidence that she or any mod ever called out this reprehensible behaviour. This was said to a teenager who was actively crying and panicking.

Mina claiming that if anybody on writeblr knew her real identity, they would ‘use her for her fame and connections’, especially to Chris Evans.

Mina actively working to establish herself as ‘better’ than all those around her (she is not joking here, I checked).

An anonymous user discussing aphobia in the community.

All other screenshots I have either not been given permission to post, or include incriminating information on others I do not want to get out. Please understand and respect this. If you or anybody you know has any evidence to add, don’t hesitate to contact me. I intend to keep this post updated for as long as I can.

–

A lot of talk about cults and manipulative people in the community is focused on an in-person level. Things that an in-person group will do, how their control extends into your offline life, but cult behaviors and mindsets can absolutely be used online and may not be as visible or as obvious. Here’s a small, incomplete checklist of things to watch out for, red flags and the like. (Note: I’m not talking about any specific group or individuals here. None of these on their own make a cult, but a lot of them together can potentially mark a toxic environment at least. This isn’t intended to be a diagnostic tool, just things to analyze and reflect on. Please always be safe and don’t let yourself stay in toxic environments whether they “count” as a cult or not.)  

The “leader” can do no wrong. They are not capable of truly making mistakes, or any misstep they do make is quickly explained away or defended by their followers. Any criticism is quickly punished, labeled as problematic, or otherwise shut down. Online, people will often sing the praises of or “lovebomb” the leader after these incidents.

It’s Us vs. Them. Anybody who criticizes the group is an enemy. Anybody who chooses not to be a member of the group must have something wrong with them. Critics/people on the outside just don’t “get it” like they do. The “outside” may be painted as threatening/the group as a safe haven, and opposing viewpoints should not be given any attention, even to consider them critically. You’re discouraged from joining other similar groups.

Using social justice lingo as a way to control people. Manipulators can speak the language too. They may bring up gaslighting, gatekeeping, policing, invalidation, and other things and accuse an individual or group in order to either guilt the person into acquiescing or vilify them to the other members. This is a really effective tactic for shutting someone down.

The leader is elevated or enlightened in some way. They claim to be a deity, or at least closer to the divine/enlightenment than you. They have a more effective/direct line of communication with spirits or entities.They have wisdom or knowledge you must stay with them to take part in. 

Dictating parts of your online life. Members must change their names, icons, speech/typing patterns, etc. to conform to the group. The rules for behavior in an online setting go beyond what is needed to maintain order. Members may be asked to do a lot to “prove” they deserve to be/stay in the group. 

you’re punished or harshly criticized for doing anything “wrong” this includes being vagued about by other members of the group or straight up having call out posts written about you so other members stay away from you. if you make a mistake and feel like all the members are giving you sideways glances virtually or people have stopped talking to you that’s a bad sign.

you’re threatened with being kicked out or blocked for disagreeing with the group, or see others being kicked out for disagreeing.

ex-members of the group have call out posts made about them by current members. call out posts containing screenshots that have been collected for months and weren’t just a recent scroll through is an especially big red flag–groups should not ever document mistakes and sensitive info as blackmail, if you’re worried everything you’re doing is being screenshotted, LEAVE IMMEDIATELY

anyone who disagrees with the group gets put on a collective blocklist/DNI (this does NOT apply for being genuinely harmful, I’m referring to disagreeing on semantics, not bigotry, I don’t want this addition manipulated by TERFs)

talking to ex-members is heavily discouraged or even forbidden. if a group doesn’t want you talk to people who have left, get out of there fast

ex-members are treated like traitors or secretly bullied in private group chats. this can extend beyond just ex-members to people who disagree with or don’t like the group, but if it’s targeted towards former members that is an especially large red flag

discussion of ideas is forbidden at worst or taboo at best. if discussing ideas is seen as betrayal to the group that’s a huge red flag. healthy groups should be dedicated to building up ideas from a variety of viewpoints, not being a hive mind.

Hooooooonestly, anon? I don’t blame people. The tone of this message isn’t aimed at you. Yet, you bring up an excellent post regarding the writeblr community.

I wouldn’t give a shit about a grown woman who spends her time doing shady ass things to get people on the internet to tickle her ego. a grown woman who has convinced people she has “google bots” to watch and report whoever searches her up on the internet. a straight-up-grown-adult who invited minors to a party with adults. yeah, that grown woman who sold traced images on the internet. A woman asking people to give in resumes and professional emails to get in her new server. 

I don’t give a fuck about a woman who uses her wealth and privilege to threaten people with her “army of lawyers” over tumblr bullshit. Take a nap, lmao 

I especially wouldn’t give a shit about a woman who made fun of my PTSD and told people I was crazy because I didn’t have a husband???? Girl, this is 2020. Some of us? Don’t need marriage to validate our lives. Someone who sent her friend ( CJ? is that your name? Idk anways ) to look for info on me. Someone who deadass spoke of sending a lawyer to find information on me and my family. This woman has straight up mocked me, put down my creations and spread misinformation about me for a year. made me feel gaslighted enough to apologize to her ass just to stop the harassment her minions gave out.

OH BTW!!! all those people who made fun of me for changing urls so much prolly were the anons stalking me. 

so, yeah. 

Yeah the thing abt that comment is how blatantly untrue it is lmao.

Imagine bragging about how you’re better than all your haters but then (allegedly) threatening random tumblr users with legal action because they rightfully exposed the weird shit you’ve been up to behind doors that weren’t even closed lmao.

It should be known that we don't care about her personal life. I should also mention that she's accused me of being another person who spoke out to deflect.

As time goes on and more people speak out it's clear to me that Mina has being stalking my blog since 2019. Calling me "crazy" even knowing I had opened up about my ptsd.

For those who don't know me. I was pilipalea and the several URLs I've had to make to be left alone and given peace. I have no regrets speaking out and my side of the story is still up at @castoraphics.

M.ina and her crew have a lot to answer for and I don't blame people for being scared. This woman is using her supposed wealth and privilege to keep people silent. Many people handed over person resumes and school emails to get into her new server.

Yeah, it seems that the mvarchive blog got sniped, too.

I think multiple people saved most of nuwuhorizons’ VV posts, but I can’t find them right now, sorry :/

The posts coming out about VioletVineyard really shows how quickly a good thing can turn sour. I joined it in January of this year because of all the good things I heard about it. It was suppose to be a small community that made it easier to give and receive feedback. Unfortunately, the behavior coming from Mina and many of her mods/friends quickly made it a toxic environment that people were too afraid to talk about and/or leave.

While there’s nothing that can be done about how VV was dealt with, I want to list some red flags that were noticed.  If another server begins to act in a similar manner, especially if you are a minor, please for your safety and health leave.

Focus on Experience

Mina was constantly using her age and position in life to put herself on a pedestal. She is a thirty year-old woman well into her career at an Ivy League school, and she made that clear on countless occasions. She had strict expectations on what people should do, even when those opinions were well outside her actual knowledge.

(I was going to link a post here, but unfortunately they had to delete their account. Apparently Mina and her friends are now going around threatening people, including minors, if they talk about what happened.)

Hero Worship

There was also a tendency to make the group seem more close-knit, in a way that put the members below Mina and the mods. We were the VV family. Mina was the Vodka Aunt. Mods called themselves Auntie [Name] and Mafia Mom (please note this is from memory, and I am not one hundred percent sure I am remembering the last name right). They were supposed to be looked up to, and for a server where the majority of members were minors or young adults, it was very easy for it to seem like Mina could do no wrong.

This attitude, as well as the way she acted, made it very easy for people to start defending her every action. While there are certainly better ways of describing it, there is a reason why people called VV a cult. You were not allowed to disagree with Mina, unless you wanted a dozen people to bombard you. Even when what she was doing was inappropriate.

Them/Us Attitude

This leads to the third flag. There were multiple times when Mina would complain about a person outside VV for what were usually very minor offenses.  I saw her get mad at people for tagging one of her posts the “wrong” way. At times it would even extend into her personal life. She once said that a coworker who had been rude to her had to have her hand amputated. Mina and multiple of the mods claimed it was karma. It was easy for her to encourage others to attack along with her and see nothing wrong with it. It was to the point that there was at least one conversation about why people didn’t like VV that basically concluded with them deciding they were just bad people and that the server was fine.

But if someone didn’t follow her rules, they were attacked. It was either always agree with Mina, or have to deal with the gang. Gingerly and Radley gave some examples of this here. And for anyone hearing about the art tracing/transphobia that occurred recently,  you can go here to see a screenshot of the post. (Unfortunately, this account was also deleted due to threats.)

It isn’t surprising why so many remained silent. There was one incident where I tried to speak out. Mina had a tendency to post longer posts, with a short paragraph at the end saying to like or interact with the post to join the tag list. It was not unusual for people to not see the notice, and then get confused about why they were being tagged. She mocked one such person’s reading comprehension for not understanding. And a few weeks later, she was mad at them again for changing their mind and wanting to be on the list after all. All of this happened without the person knowing they were being attacked on a server they weren’t even a part of.

Within a half hour of saying that wasn’t right, there were at least half a dozen mods pinging me. One just straight out starting swearing at me. I have a severe anxiety disorder so I quickly backed up after that, but was told that I was policing the chat and to message Mina if I wanted to talk more. Another server member noticed, and told me that this type of reaction was common, and that it would be a bad idea to try to continue the conversation. (I doubt that was the first warning she gave either.)

Hiding Information

Even when considering how poorly Mina and her friends would react to people speaking out about their actions, I feel like this is the strongest reason why they were able to pretend for as long as they did. Mina never would have dared to badmouth people on her Tumblr account the way she did in the server.

We were not allowed to screenshot anything, unless we were okay with being banned. The channel where most of these issues came up was regularly deleted, often after something controversial occurred. Anyone who tried to speak up was either pushed down quickly or forced to leave. And if they were no longer in the server, they were regularly belittled. They ridiculed a person named Sophia multiple times, but I still don’t know who she is or what she did.

I don’t want to get too deep into this as I have mixed feelings about everything, but the red flags you brought up are all valid and I feel responsible to attest to them. I have some anecdotes to reinforce each point, but I’ll only focus on the Us vs Them attitude. 

Trashing outsiders was common, even for minor offences. I remember one time the subject was Mina receiving an ask along the lines of “love your music, I wonder what program you use for it?” This was in the vent channel, why? Because by asking, this person was demanding labor from a POC. And the others were agreeing with the narrative entirely. I was the only one to speak out and said smth like “I don’t see any ill intend, you guys get upset over weird stuff”. Mina and co jumped on me immediatly, making the followings points: how dare I call someone’s feelings weird? This is a safe channel to vent, the person venting is always valid! I don’t see the ask as mean because I am white! Anyway, the worst thing was me having used the word “weird” and they focused on this instead of my point. I felt horrible and apologized for my phrasing (I’m an easily manipulated pussy in general so this says more about me than them lol). Another user DM-ed me saying they agreed with me, and I was so brainwashed I was like hmmm are they secretly trying to make me say something incriminating?

But yeah this was the case every time. Opinion is different than Mina’s opinion => be prepared to be backed into a corner, guilt tripped for having problematic views, and reminded that you don’t have a PhD lmao