TSR The Full & Glorious History of NuTSR

Gradine said:

The bit I was replying to here is no longer present, suffice to say this is more speaking out of both sides of the mouth pablum; the "we'll play with anyone" and "no hate" and "I just want to play" platitudes coming from folks and accounts with a documented history of direct anti-LGBTQ+ comments ranging from slurs to dog-whistles to memes about shielding children from rainbows.

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Someone needs to tell Duck that yes, it's wrong to accuse someone of guilt by association if they were to say Duck was engaging in things like tax evasion because Justin has. Because one person commits shady business behavior doesn't mean everyone they know does. But when the museum you "volunteered to work for" posts bigoted stuff, then it's pretty fair for people to make that association. Because they are public with their hatred. My earlier posts I was unaware Duck had a different home. And while I still believe there are huge red flags of a textbook abuse relationship (especially now knowing Duck suffers from certain conditions), there still needs to be some accountability here on Duck's side. You (general you) can't say "let's all just roll dice" while at the same time ignoring vile bigoted comments the people you volunteer for are making. If it's truly a volunteer job where no promises of compensation were made (which we know he was promised shares that never happened), then that just makes it worse, not better. it's one thing to be dependent on a job for a horrible person, it's another to volunteer to work for a horrible person.

Deset Gled said:

"I have made this post to let people know how hate affects people". I'm not sure how to respond to that.

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He doesn't seem to be in a place where outsiders could urge him to greater self-awareness, so response probably wouldn't be constructive anyway.

Deset Gled said:

Once again, it's the details that are interesting:
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Aren't they supposed to not be selling those Star Frontiers playing cards?

Deset Gled said:

And now we have NuTSR vagueposting about Wonderfilled's delusions. With traditional NuTSR punctuation/grammar.

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Deset Gled said:

I'm not clear how "haters" can make someone lose a disability status; I'm hoping we'll get more info about that in the comments.

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There was the Chad Revenge account bragging at some point that it was going to report Duck for disability fraud etc and some discussion over whether things like the way Justin was valuing the upstairs apartment meant that Duck could be classified as receiving free rent in exchange for work, which would invalidate his benefits, particularly if he's on SSI (and just thinks of it as SSDI)

Apparently SSI is extremely restrictive with the means testing, and has a lot of counter intuitive rules that mean things like volunteering or just accepting help can qualify as "earning".

Whether haters are involved or not is unclear, but as mentioned there was at least one high profile hater who indicated they'd go after benefits or otherwise report involvement as tax fraud so that could easily be the story that Duck understands.

Ralif Redhammer said:

Aren't they supposed to not be selling those Star Frontiers playing cards?

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By my interpretation (IANAL) of the court documents, NuTSR specifically agreed to not sell SFNG as an RPG until the court case was concluded. They did not make a formal statement about not selling anything else with the Star Frontiers brand. It's worth noting that NuTSR has a separate trademark claim with the USPTO for Star Frontiers (not the "New Genesis" part) as a board game rather than an RPG. I suspect that WotC could challenge the selling of the cards in court if they really wanted to, but the harm is minimal so it's not worth paying the lawyers to do it.

Wincenworks said:

There was the Chad Revenge account bragging at some point that it was going to report Duck for disability fraud etc and some discussion over whether things like the way Justin was valuing the upstairs apartment meant that Duck could be classified as receiving free rent in exchange for work, which would invalidate his benefits, particularly if he's on SSI (and just thinks of it as SSDI)

Apparently SSI is extremely restrictive with the means testing, and has a lot of counter intuitive rules that mean things like volunteering or just accepting help can qualify as "earning".

Whether haters are involved or not is unclear, but as mentioned there was at least one high profile hater who indicated they'd go after benefits or otherwise report involvement as tax fraud so that could easily be the story that Duck understands.

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There was also a rumor at some point that Justin Lanasa was the one who reported Duck to the SSI, to make sure he was beholden to the DHSM. That's the problem with rumor accounts like Chad that never go anywhere, I guess.

FWIW, by all accounts receiving free rent in exchange for work is exactly what Duck is doing. For-profit corporations cannot legally have "volunteers", and Duck was definitely getting something of significant value in exchange for his work (comparable rent in the Lake Geneva area can be easily calculated). So, while I feel for the guy, it's not like having his benefits challenged over this should be unexpected. He's been very visible about being the face of the DHSM for TV interviews, newspapers, cons, etc.

Deset Gled said:

Today has a lot more NuTSR updates that I could have expected. Jeff Leason made this announcement today (it's also been posted to the DHSM FB page):

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I'm certainly sad to hear that his health is so poor and that he can't afford medication. I'm not clear how "haters" can make someone lose a disability status; I'm hoping we'll get more info about that in the comments.

"I have made this post to let people know how hate affects people". I'm not sure how to respond to that.

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You can only earn so much per year when you're on disability. Depending on the type, he may only be able to have so much money in savings, unless he has an ABLE account, where he can have some more tucked away. If you make more than your limit, your disability gets yanked. It's really annoying, too, because the limit is usually too low to live on without disability, and disabled people may not be able to get jobs that pay enough without also getting SSDI, especially if they are in so much pain they have to spend a lot of the day in bed.

People have pointed out that he has a house which could be a source of income, if he's renting some or all of it out, even if he's not being paid for working at the DHSM. (I have literally no idea if he does rent it or not; just throwing out possibilities.) Or he could be lying about being an unpaid volunteer. It could be money under the table. Someone may have reported this to Social Security.

Or he could have lost disability for any number of other reasons, such as failing to do all the required paperwork, and is choosing to blame "haters" for his own fault.

Faolyn said:

You can only earn so much per year when you're on disability. Depending on the type, he may only be able to have so much money in savings, unless he has an ABLE account, where he can have some more tucked away. If you make more than your limit, your disability gets yanked. It's really annoying, too, because the limit is usually too low to live on without disability, and disabled people may not be able to get jobs that pay enough without also getting SSDI, especially if they are in so much pain they have to spend a lot of the day in bed.

People have pointed out that he has a house which could be a source of income, if he's renting some or all of it out, even if he's not being paid for working at the DHSM. (I have literally no idea if he does rent it or not; just throwing out possibilities.) Or he could be lying about being an unpaid volunteer. It could be money under the table. Someone may have reported this to Social Security.

Or he could have lost disability for any number of other reasons, such as failing to do all the required paperwork, and is choosing to blame "haters" for his own fault.

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It's also notable that a room to live in is also payment that can be quantified and reported as "income" with regards to any kind of safety net means testing.

One can't lose SSD due to a single report. There's an investigation. The Social Security Administration may have been alerted by "haters," but after that, there's a process.

Wincenworks said:

Apparently SSI is extremely restrictive with the means testing, and has a lot of counter intuitive rules that mean things like volunteering or just accepting help can qualify as "earning".

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I have a family member receiving SSD. If you're volunteering enough that they think you could be holding down a full-time job, you probably could be.

SSD isn't a firehose of money for the folks who are on it, by any means, but it's also supposed to be reserved for those who truly need it.

Then of course, there's the irony of someone complaining about losing SSI while also constantly hanging around friends who complain about "socialism is evil". Note, I am not advocating for bad things to happen to Duck. He deserves to get any assistance he can because everyone deserves a basic standard of living IMO. In fact, if he's suffering from various conditions, he deserves to have access to the medication and whatever help he needs. Just pointing out the irony. If he wants to be mad at someone for taking away his government benefits, he should first point fingers at his coworkers, because they are the ones trying to take it away by their voting record. Some times your true biggest "haters" are those who smile at you to your face.