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StonecutterJoe posted:His charity is literally "give me money, so I can take a cut and then give the rest to this other charity that already exists." In itself, that's fine. There are plenty of foundations that do this, and it lets the charity concentrate on its real work. The numbers Ornamented Death quotes, on the other hand... invite suspicion.
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Jul 28, 2020 06:08
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Safety Biscuits posted:In itself, that's fine. There are plenty of foundations that do this, and it lets the charity concentrate on its real work. If a "charity" is spending more on rent space then money contributed to a cause then it needs to be shut down because it is clearly not working.
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Jul 28, 2020 06:38
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pentyne posted:If a "charity" is spending more on rent space then money contributed to a cause then it needs to be shut down because it is clearly not working. I’d say it’s working exactly as intended.
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Jul 28, 2020 07:14
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The weird thing about Kingkiller is that a lot of it is weird self-gratification and justifying Rothfuss' life choices, like how Kvothe's parents never married but they loved each other more than most married couples and it was a purer love (see: current relationship status) or how Manet is SUPER COOL as the guy who's been at college forever and all the younger guys look up to him (this does not happen) and yadda yadda yadda. So all this stuff about how he's just in it for himself and stringing all these people along should be absolutely no surprise to anyone as the work literally drips with the idea that Kvothe is super deep and you can't possibly understand his deepities, mannnnnnnn! It boggles the mind that people don't think the guy who wrote the intro to The Slow Regard of Silent Things isn't a pompous, arrogant rear end.
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Jul 28, 2020 08:05
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That would imply he also thinks he's really good at playing music and loving and I'd rather not go there tyvm
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Jul 28, 2020 08:18
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Willeh posted:That would imply he also thinks he's really good at playing music and loving and I'd rather not go there tyvm He thinks he's really good at everything.
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Jul 28, 2020 09:18
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He's also the guy who wrote fanfiction about a fake delivery guy praising his silly board game because he was so desperate for validation that he had to manufacture it himself. His entire identity is built on this idea that he's awesome at everything. A few years ago he made a tweet about how "I'm not that great, people like single moms have done so much more than me" before he went into a university classroom to teach or give a speech or something. At the time thread speculation was that the first cracks were appearing in his self perception. That he's actually an every day schlub that got lucky and that he isn't awesome at everything. Eventually everyone grows up.
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Jul 28, 2020 09:51
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I read some choice bits of The Name of the Wind aloud on a Discord conversation last night, and it's somehow even worse spoken than printed.
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Jul 28, 2020 16:33
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Kchama posted:He thinks he's really good at everything. Or, at the very least, that he can provide Deep Insight into everything.
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Jul 28, 2020 16:40
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Kchama posted:He thinks he's really good at everything. There was an interview where he talks about being amazing at making soup and when the interviewer presses him for a recipe it is adding store bought tortellini to top ramen. Edit: i read through the interview again. Not as bad as i remember RichestManInTown fucked around with this message at 03:29 on Jul 29, 2020 |
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Jul 29, 2020 03:00
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RichestManInTown posted:There was an interview where he talks about being amazing at making soup and when the interviewer presses him for a recipe it is adding store bought tortellini to top ramen. Was the recipe different or did he describe it in his attempting to be clever "pour poo poo in barrels and thump on it" mentality? I can't tell if he owns up to a failure or mistake or somehow presents the idea that his creative flourishes are a good thing even if the end result is a loving disaster.
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Jul 29, 2020 04:01
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pentyne posted:Was the recipe different or did he describe it in his attempting to be clever "pour poo poo in barrels and thump on it" mentality? My remembrance was that Rothfuss brought up his skills unprompted but the interviewer raises the topic and he didn’t make any bold claims about his abilities in the interview like I had remembered.
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Jul 29, 2020 12:03
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On the bright side, he hasn’t tweeted since the article came out so that’s nice
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Jul 29, 2020 14:00
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RichestManInTown posted:My remembrance was that Rothfuss brought up his skills unprompted but the interviewer raises the topic and he didn’t make any bold claims about his abilities in the interview like I had remembered. That is extremely on brand for a guy who thinks vandalizing random books in a bookstore is something people would get excited and praise him for.
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Jul 29, 2020 23:36
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pentyne posted:That is extremely on brand for a guy who thinks vandalizing random books in a bookstore is something people would get excited and praise him for. Wasn't it books that he didn't even write?
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Jul 30, 2020 01:10
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Yeah that was the worst part. It was other people’s books and he’d write “This book is great! ~Patrick Rothfuss” on the inside.
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Jul 30, 2020 01:17
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:Wasn't it books that he didn't even write? Yes. There was some viral story about some author who would go and sign copies of their book secretly and Rothfuss decided to throw his patented "I'm the writer of this generation" twist to it by writing in other authors books with compliments. He seems so incredibly dense its a wonder he even manages pocket all that money his charity raises.
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Jul 30, 2020 01:25
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at 500k a year of operating expenses i imagine that he has someone smarter than him to keep the grift afloat
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Jul 30, 2020 05:44
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Raiad posted:at 500k a year of operating expenses i imagine that he has someone smarter than him to keep the grift afloat It doesn't really seem to be a scam where he pays himself a lot of money. More like he uses it for self-aggrandizement and then gave his friends cush jobs. They don't seem to do very much and have at least 2 full-time employees, shockingly both women. They're also not really run like a non-profit (source I work at a non-profit as a grant manager) like their website is like ... "how great are we" not "here is the work we are doing, heres how you can help". But I don't see the 2019 990, only the previous years are available on pro publica. Anyway, it really just seems like a way for him to have power and promote and help his friends. Kind of like the Trump org, though that was more of a direct grift. But of course, they carry Tak pieces in the store that kind of thing. They have the minimum # of independent board members and no information about who they are. And they have unrelated business income of about 5/12s and 7/12s of their revenue is charitable, so they are also doing a lot of commercial business that is not really charitable.
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Jul 30, 2020 06:41
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pseudanonymous posted:It doesn't really seem to be a scam where he pays himself a lot of money. More like he uses it for self-aggrandizement and then gave his friends cush jobs. They don't seem to do very much and have at least 2 full-time employees, shockingly both women. quote:Worldbuilders is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit uniting the geek community to raise money for established charities who help people pull themselves out of poverty. It's literally "hello fellow nerds we're just like you" only to take their money for some nebulous purpose of charitable donation.
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Jul 30, 2020 06:57
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pseudanonymous posted:It doesn't really seem to be a scam where he pays himself a lot of money. The "charity" paid him three times more in rent than it gave out for charitable reasons for the most recent year data is available. Just because he isn't drawing a salary doesn't mean he's not using the charity to enrich himself.
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Jul 30, 2020 12:07
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Scholtz posted:Idk, a lot of his identity seems to be "I'm a writer" The vast majority of people who identity 'as a writer' haven't written a drat thing. You go to any writer's group and you're going to find that the vast majority of prospective writers are people who do anything but write.
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Jul 30, 2020 15:08
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Parts one and two of the trilogy had words, but it looks like the series is ending up with a silence in part three.
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Jul 30, 2020 17:33
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Lottery of Babylon posted:Parts one and two of the trilogy had words, but it looks like the series is ending up with a silence in part three. Hahaha well done.
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Jul 30, 2020 20:42
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Lottery of Babylon posted:Parts one and two of the trilogy had words, but it looks like the series is ending up with a silence in part three. The soft silence of the cut flower.
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Jul 30, 2020 21:25
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Ornamented Death posted:The "charity" paid him three times more in rent than it gave out for charitable reasons for the most recent year data is available. Just because he isn't drawing a salary doesn't mean he's not using the charity to enrich himself. So guy's a piece of poo poo. Gotcha.
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Jul 30, 2020 21:31
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Ornamented Death posted:The "charity" paid him three times more in rent than it gave out for charitable reasons for the most recent year data is available. Just because he isn't drawing a salary doesn't mean he's not using the charity to enrich himself. Yeah it seems bizarre to claim that he's not profiting from it when they're directly paying him a massive amount of money.
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Jul 31, 2020 05:48
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I have a similar issue with artists who make promises on Patreon, take money, and don't deliver the promised product on schedule. Its how I got this avatar!
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Jul 31, 2020 14:12
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Benson Cunningham posted:I have a similar issue with artists who make promises on Patreon, take money, and don't deliver the promised product on schedule. Ironically enough Rothfuss had the same problem to the tune of completely losing 6 figures.
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Jul 31, 2020 15:06
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I looked into the Worldbuilders thing, and the reason their numbers look so bad is that they (rightly) don't take the money that their fundraisers draw; it goes directly to the charities involved and thus never appears on their tax filings. (There is a very, very good Rothfuss post on that page as well.)
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Aug 2, 2020 23:43
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Sham bam bamina! posted:I looked into the Worldbuilders thing, and the reason their numbers look so bad is that they (rightly) don't take the money that their fundraisers draw; it goes directly to the charities involved and thus never appears on their tax filings. They have 2.0 Ftes and they don’t have time to create an annual report that clarifies this? They do gently caress all with 4160 hours a year. What they’re saying is horseshit. Also they’re a loving 501c3 so they should be reporting it as revenue. It’s not like they would pay taxes.
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Aug 2, 2020 23:53
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I'm not surprised if it's still horseshit. I don't know jack about any of this.
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Aug 2, 2020 23:57
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pseudanonymous posted:They have 2.0 Ftes and they don’t have time to create an annual report that clarifies this? They do gently caress all with 4160 hours a year. What they’re saying is horseshit. Also they’re a loving 501c3 so they should be reporting it as revenue. It’s not like they would pay taxes. Look he didn't want to actually learn anything about running a 501c3, he thought he could just wave a wand at a spreadsheet like a wizard and shout NUMBERS! and it would all just work on its own and it'd be fun. Actual effort and learning real skills is HARD.
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Aug 3, 2020 00:04
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Yeah that's a 100% lie to make them look good.
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Aug 3, 2020 08:54
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So to be clear, their defense of the shady fundraising is "we don't report the money we just send it directly to the charity" ....so why do you even need to be handling the money then? 
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Aug 3, 2020 08:58
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pentyne posted:So to be clear, their defense of the shady fundraising is "we don't report the money we just send it directly to the charity" That post was also 6 years ago.
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Aug 3, 2020 13:37
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I believe their argument is that they have a platform and an audience that a lot of these other charities don't have so they want to use that to get more money than the other charities could. But you're absolutely correct in that they could just be like "Hey, this week we're supporting The Houston Food Bank! Donate here!" but Rothfuss needs to get that rental money.
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Aug 3, 2020 16:14
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In the interest of fairness, a lot of authors and geek-related businesses donate stuff for Worldbuilders to auction off, so some amount of rent is not out of the question since that stuff needs to be stored somewhere. However, almost $90k is absurd.
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Aug 3, 2020 17:22
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I did an effort post about his charity about a year ago when I was feeling salty. My conclusion after looking at 3 years of their filings was that what they were doing was technically legal, but that Worldbuilders was a way for Rothfuss to give his sidepieces/friend zone buds money and pay for a location in which to "hang out" while also generating goodwill for his brand. It's business savvy and earns him morality points which can be traded in for strange at cons from justice chicks who've been programmed from birth to trust and desire to sit on the laps of famous bearded philanthropists. Rothfuss's whole personal is an almost flawless beta-male mating strategy he learned from master Whedon. He still screws up from time to time by talking too much and too honestly, but some signaling of his true horn dog form is probably necessary to score with chicks who need to know that their advances will be appreciated and reciprocated. What starstruck 18-26 year old poly wouldn't want to have a sexy, athletic time with a celebrity who wrote one of the most selling fantasy books in modern history. MartingaleJack fucked around with this message at 18:55 on Aug 3, 2020 |
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Aug 3, 2020 18:52
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I read these books a couple of years ago. They aren't good. That said, here are some good things about them: The initial setup is done pretty nicely until around when he gets to the University and every other character now knows that Kvothe is the protagonist, and then it's extremely downhill from there. Yes, setting up mysteries without payoff is a low degree of difficulty, but he does a decent job, our boy Pat! What I think this book did extremely well was be like "hey, you know this thing you like? Isn't it good?" and to that I'd say "yeah, it IS pretty good!" When I listened to the audiobook a couple of years ago, I'd drive out to the mountains to hike in the snow for a couple of hours, and on the way back, I very much enjoyed hearing about some guy baking bread and making stew at his inn. Some of the passages about playing lute made me take out my guitar and play because it's fun. I don't do martial arts, but the tai chi thing he talks about in one of the other books reminded me that I like doing yoga. They read like the author is a creep, so thanks to the thread for confirming.
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Aug 9, 2020 06:45
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