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I was SA'd by Rationalists, AMA. (awful.systems)
submitted 22 hours ago by ivyastrix@awful.systems to c/sneerclub@awful.systems
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Hi, Ivy Astrix here. I saw some of my work referenced here so figured I'd pop in and do an AMA. I did harm reduction at Vibecamp 1/2, and Vibegala 1/2. Happy to answer what I can as long as it doesn't violate confidences or isn't in service of personal grievances.

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[-] Soyweiser@awful.systems 15 points 16 hours ago

I thought about it, and I don't think I have any real questions, first I hope your are ok. But that isn't really a question. And secondly I was thinking about how a lot of questions I could ask feel more about me wanting to after a group I dislike than helping a victim out. Even a question like 'Did their internal processes give you support and some justice at least?' is answered by you coming here and offering this AMA.

So, the questions I more have is are you ok? And do you currently have a support network that is helping you out with things?

And for the rest I just think that if you feel like there are things you want to share you should share those (I think looking at your post you seem to want to talk about the harm reduction methods at those events, but not sure. Any important lessons we could take from that?) but don't want to pressure people into that, and also don't think I personally can totally do justice to the severity of situations like that. (which is of course on the problems with the discourse around SA).

[-] ivyastrix@awful.systems 3 points 4 hours ago

thank you <3

I do have a lot more support now and have kind of come to a good steady state with things for the time being

I obviously have opinions on how Vibecamp handles things and the most direct thing I've ever heard from leadership (separate from this new safety team) is seeing a tweet about how they don't take reports at face value

and again, I would expect to be dragged on social media if I ever said that after someone was SA'd at my festival, I think the main problem is the bubble of unreality that surrounds the bay and that a lot of people there are really sheltered, and often people in positions of responsibility were just the first to put their hand up versus being qualified or able to do the job

ie the eventual safety team reach out included one of their ppl asking me to tell them what investigation vibecamp did, and i found out that they don't tell 'junior members' of the safety team about past things

so i mean imo just really fundamentally unserious and unwilling to admit they need outside help (I think CEA is in this same boat with what happened to Frances Lorenz) and I wouldn't ever bother reporting stuff if I was someone else who was going

wrt harm reduction it's something I've done for many years owing to being involved with canada's drug policy scene and cannabis legalization here, there's so much help available (there are local dancesafe orgs in a lot of places) that I think once your event gets big enough it's negligent to not have a plan around it

I think the thing to take away, if anything, is that you should decide your policy on it early and make it clear: are you searching bags of people who attend or are you providing drug testing on-site? these are extremes obviously but your strategy will flow from one end or the other

you might have to do it creatively based on the current vibe in your state wrt recreational drug use but people openly talk about it on twitter so i don't think there's any excuse for don't ask don't tell policies, those are how people get hurt / die

my big problem, i guess, with how vibecamp is run is this 'illegibility' thing which imo leads to negligence, like you're running a festival where attendees do programming that is a mix betweeen burning man stuff and a rationalist unconference, take that seriously instead of writing manifestos about memes

this post was submitted on 15 May 2026
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