Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt

[BRC]

Eh, I feel like Hannalore and Marigold are approaching this from different directions, but Marigold is correct, and even if she wasn't, it's her decision to make.

Hannalore is asking "Why are you keeping this a secret", with the specific context of Dora, who is a trusted friend (Admittedly, Dora is Hannalore's friend more than she is Marigold's). Marigold is approaching this from the perspective of "I don't want this to get out".

Hannalore doesn't advertise to the world that she's the daughter of a business tycoon and one of the world's most famous scientists, but she doesn't actively hide it either. She introduces herself as "Hannalore Ellicot-Chatnam", and anybody familiar with her parents would probably recognize that combination of last names and figure out who she is.

BUT with the exception of Clinton specifically, the type of people who might figure out Hannalore's identity (And really, there's nothing significant about Hannalore herself, it's her parents that are famous), are probably going to be substantially less creepy than the type of people who feel motivated to work out Marigold's.

Marigold's answer is that she doesn't mind if Dora knows, but if Dora knows, then somebody else might know, and the more people know, the harder it is to keep things private, which isn't quite how Hannalore was thinking about it.

[Wraith]

But how is marigold not being level headed here? Hannelore is the one dismissing a reasonable concern. Yeah maybe that EXACT chain of events is unlikely, but the basic gist "If information spreads then its possible creepers will learn about me and my life will become a nightmare" is very valid and thus concern about her secret spreading is perfectly reasonable.

Hannelore is being level-headed in the sense that she's being calm, rather than 'right'. "Irrational worrier" was pretty much her entire archetype for most of her existence in the comic, after all.

On Winslow's first day with thumbs, he went down the same sort of "what if..?" rabbit-hole and came back screaming about getting eaten by alligators in the middle the the street. Hannelore immediately joined in: "Winslow, there's nothing to worry about." "But what if alligators!?" "Oh my god, WHAT IF alligators!?!" They both had to be calmed down by... Was it Raven? I forget exactly, but somoene had to do a diagram on the CoD blackboard explaining the statistical unlikeliness of alligators.

I just feel like, either Hannelore is the wrong person to be calmly shooting down Marigold's fears - least of all because they are legitimate fears - or that it's kind of being implied that Hannelore got back from her trip and is now 'cured' of being... herself, I guess? Absolutely anybody else would work better in this role, except for the one person in the comic who thought that a skin-tag was cancer and is also terrified of looking tapirs in the eye in case they realise how she's on to their insidious plots.

[Keltest]

Hannelore is being level-headed in the sense that she's being calm, rather than 'right'. "Irrational worrier" was pretty much her entire archetype for most of her existence in the comic, after all.

On Winslow's first day with thumbs, he went down the same sort of "what if..?" rabbit-hole and came back screaming about getting eaten by alligators in the middle the the street. Hannelore immediately joined in: "Winslow, there's nothing to worry about." "But what if alligators!?" "Oh my god, WHAT IF alligators!?!" They both had to be calmed down by... Was it Raven? I forget exactly, but somoene had to do a diagram on the CoD blackboard explaining the statistical unlikeliness of alligators.

I just feel like, either Hannelore is the wrong person to be calmly shooting down Marigold's fears - least of all because they are legitimate fears - or that it's kind of being implied that Hannelore got back from her trip and is now 'cured' of being... herself, I guess? Absolutely anybody else would work better in this role, except for the one person in the comic who thought that a skin-tag was cancer and is also terrified of looking tapirs in the eye in case they realise how she's on to their insidious plots.

I dunno, Hanners strikes me as the kind of person who would have deliberately removed herself from the internet. Its possible that she genuinely doesnt understand that Marigold is absolutely correct to be wary of... well, predators basically.

[Willie the Duck]

Hannelore is being level-headed in the sense that she's being calm, rather than 'right'. "Irrational worrier" was pretty much her entire archetype for most of her existence in the comic, after all.

On Winslow's first day with thumbs, he went down the same sort of "what if..?" rabbit-hole and came back screaming about getting eaten by alligators in the middle the the street. Hannelore immediately joined in: "Winslow, there's nothing to worry about." "But what if alligators!?" "Oh my god, WHAT IF alligators!?!" They both had to be calmed down by... Was it Raven? I forget exactly, but somoene had to do a diagram on the CoD blackboard explaining the statistical unlikeliness of alligators.

I just feel like, either Hannelore is the wrong person to be calmly shooting down Marigold's fears - least of all because they are legitimate fears - or that it's kind of being implied that Hannelore got back from her trip and is now 'cured' of being... herself, I guess? Absolutely anybody else would work better in this role, except for the one person in the comic who thought that a skin-tag was cancer and is also terrified of looking tapirs in the eye in case they realise how she's on to their insidious plots.

Hannelore's fears are corporeal -- alligators, feces, personal contact. Marigold's fears are social -- stalking, mockery, shaming. They are both people with significant anxiety issues, but coming from different directions, and fundamentally they don't understand each other's hang-ups (and yes, in this case Marigold's fears are 100% reasonable). I think BRC is right -- Hannelore doesn't hide who she is because that's not her anxiety.

[Vinyadan]

I just feel like, either Hannelore is the wrong person to be calmly shooting down Marigold's fears - least of all because they are legitimate fears - or that it's kind of being implied that Hannelore got back from her trip and is now 'cured' of being... herself, I guess? Absolutely anybody else would work better in this role, except for the one person in the comic who thought that a skin-tag was cancer and is also terrified of looking tapirs in the eye in case they realise how she's on to their insidious plots.

I don't think we have any idea of who Hannelore is now. I don't remember the comic dwelling much on her.

Hannelore's fears are corporeal -- alligators, feces, personal contact. Marigold's fears are social -- stalking, mockery, shaming. They are both people with significant anxiety issues, but coming from different directions, and fundamentally they don't understand each other's hang-ups (and yes, in this case Marigold's fears are 100% reasonable). I think BRC is right -- Hannelore doesn't hide who she is because that's not her anxiety.

IIRC, Hannelore actually used to stalk people, and talk deliriously about murdering her friends. So I think that she's in a completely different anthropological group, compared to Marigold, who's afraid of being (cyber)stalked.

[Maryring]

Also Hannelore is Marigold's bestie and doesn't live with her. So it makes total sense for Marigold to go to Hannelore to talk about this.

[Mechalich]

I dunno, Hanners strikes me as the kind of person who would have deliberately removed herself from the internet. Its possible that she genuinely doesnt understand that Marigold is absolutely correct to be wary of... well, predators basically.

Marigold is right to be wary of predators, unfortunately she's way, way past the level of fame where concealing her identity is possible. She has 200,000 subscribers, sorry, but her identity's been cracked. She can choose to maintain pseudo-anonymity as a public matter - meaning that she never uses her real name in the media - but there's simply no way she hasn't been outed already. In fact she probably has a wikipedia page with her real name on it.

And this is the kind of thing that skipping ahead to the 'already famous' stage damages. Marigold should have had to wrestle with the choice of how public she wanted to be much earlier and it would have been a decision with significant consequences with regard to her earnings and there would have been all sorts of things about media and how she wanted to present herself visually on the internet and about ten thousand other pieces of story to breaking through into the streaming stratosphere.

[John Cribati]

She’s a V-Tuber, the “Burger Oni” character that Aurelia was talking about. He face isn’t shown at all and she probably uses a VPN when she streams.

[Cikomyr2]

Yes. Appreciate labor, pay for it.

Someone taking mental charge of your **** is taking a heavy load off your mind.

[DavidSh]

Momo should just get a percentage of the net after expenses and depreciation. I see no signs of self-dealing here, so concerns about Hollywood accounting shouldn't apply.

[BRC]

Oh this is a HORRIBLE idea, I can't wait.

[VoxRationis]

Oh this is a HORRIBLE idea, I can't wait.

I concur; I was just thinking how bad May is for every aspect of this kind of work except the "be mean to your managee when they're being stubborn" aspect.

[Eldan]

Yeaaaah. You want someone who has their own life together and is organized.

[Traab]

Honestly, if roko hadnt gotten into this new mission of hers I would have suggested her. She is organized, meticulous, driven, and doesnt take garbage from anyone. I might have suggested hanners but aside from already being employed I dont know if her ocd would drive them both into the ground as she tries to optimize every single moment of the day for maximum gain or whatever. Its the sort of thing its easy to get carried away by.

[Mechalich]

Beyond personality issues, May is a specifically bad choice for business manager due to her criminal history. A business manager is often going to need to act as a financial intermediary, while May is persona non grata (or maybe computra non grata?) to basically every financial institution on the planet.

[dps]

Beyond personality issues, May is a specifically bad choice for business manager due to her criminal history. A business manager is often going to need to act as a financial intermediary, while May is persona non grata (or maybe computra non grata?) to basically every financial institution on the planet.

I'd like to think that Jeph knows this, and is setting up some interesting/amusing situations, but I have a horrible feeling that he actually thinks May would be a good fit for the job.

[Wraith]

Honestly, I think he just doesn't know.

As far as he is concerned, May is being treated unfairly, and that's that. She can't legally hold some jobs in finance until her record expires, sure, but otherwise its all down to employers being prejudiced and nothing else. In his mind, perhaps handling a Twitch account "isn't big enough" to qualify, especially if it's officially registered in Marigold's name. That way May can just be a generic P.A. rather than specifically a financial admin.

Although there is still time for there to be a twist to the story; May gets offered the job, and goes "What? No! What do you think they mean by 'forbidden', or is that too ambiguous?". As character development that could work, as she fights the impulse to say yes and take the risk.

[Willie the Duck]

Beyond personality issues, May is a specifically bad choice for business manager due to her criminal history. A business manager is often going to need to act as a financial intermediary, while May is persona non grata (or maybe computra non grata?) to basically every financial institution on the planet.

Given that this is something that Marigold's friend, who also holds a job of her own, has been doing up until now, I'm not sure that this was ever really intended to be a realistic look at what being an IRL business manager really is.

[Delicious Taffy]

Given that this is something that Marigold's friend, who also holds a job of her own, has been doing up until now, I'm not sure that this was ever really intended to be a realistic look at what being an IRL business manager really is.

Hold on, are you suggesting that this funny robots comic might not have been created with the goal of accurately simulating real-world financial money economics?

[BRC]

Beyond personality issues, May is a specifically bad choice for business manager due to her criminal history. A business manager is often going to need to act as a financial intermediary, while May is persona non grata (or maybe computra non grata?) to basically every financial institution on the planet.

How does that work?


Like, a bank or major corporation wouldn't want to hire May due to her criminal record, but they wouldn't be hiring her or trusting her with their money.
She wasn't a hacker, she was an Embezzler. She's presumably capable of opening a bank account.
Plenty of people might advise AGAINST hiring May as a business manager, but if she was trusted by her employer (Marigold) I can't think of any reason why that would be a problem.


The main thing I can think of is if Burger Oni Incorporated needed to get a loan or an outside investor or something. They might see "Hrmm, the Business Manager has access to the finances and a history of embezzlement. There's a nonzero chance that they'll take my money and run away with it, rather than using it for the intended purpose", but I'm not sure the degree to which that will be relevant?

Let's look at the tasks May will be doing, based on the discussion so far.

1) Managing Marigold's Budget. If Marigold makes an informed decision to trust her, no issues there.
2) Picking up equipment and supplies, she'd need to be trusted with a credit card, but, it's not like Best Buy is going to refuse to sell to her.
3) Keeping Marigold on Schedule, nothing financial there.
4) Coordinating side-projects and merchandising deals (Picking up roughs of art, checking emails, ect). Might be an issue if she's negotiating a loan or investment, but otherwise should be fine.
5) Moderating the Chat: May would be GREAT at that. She's kind of awful, but she has no trouble standing up to people, and she seems perfectly capable of taking things seriously if she actually cares about the job.


"Business Manager" here seems a lot more along the line of a personal assistant than, like, a CFO.

[Mechalich]

The main thing I can think of is if Burger Oni Incorporated needed to get a loan or an outside investor or something. They might see "Hrmm, the Business Manager has access to the finances and a history of embezzlement. There's a nonzero chance that they'll take my money and run away with it, rather than using it for the intended purpose", but I'm not sure the degree to which that will be relevant?

Pretty much exactly this, except more codified. Everyone in the US has a credit report, and financial institutions (and even regular employers) now run credit reports before making even remarkably petty decisions (like renting an apartment). May has effectively negative credit, she's a black hole driving down the scores of those who associate with her - for example if Marigold gives May access to a secure credit card in her name, it will tank her credit rating.

The ability of Marigold's business to acquire a loan or make any sort of large business deals and potentially even run platforms like Kickstarter or Patreon are all impeded by May's presence as part of the operation.

And, in the broadest sense, Marigold's new career involves selling herself, or at least a carefully crafted online version of herself, and associating with a known felon is generally not a good idea in such circumstances (regardless of whether or not this is unfair).

[Traab]

I dont think a credit check is a petty move for someone looking for a tenant to rent. It goes towards potential for making rent payments on time. If they have terrible credit, there are better odds they will miss rent payments as well. If they have good credit they have an established history of paying what they owe on time. Making them more trustworthy.

[TaRix]

I dont think a credit check is a petty move for someone looking for a tenant to rent. It goes towards potential for making rent payments on time. If they have terrible credit, there are better odds they will miss rent payments as well. If they have good credit they have an established history of paying what they owe on time. Making them more trustworthy.

A -better- way is asking previous landlords and such. I went for years with null credit because of me not going into debt (and paying off student loans et al long enough for them to fall off the report.) Of course, that means I can't buy a house because I'm an unknown renegade who pays all the bills and have lived long enough debt-free to not have a credit report. Completely untrustworthy.
Bankers are incapable of intelligent thought, or at least disallowed from acting on it.

[Max_Killjoy]

A -better- way is asking previous landlords and such. I went for years with null credit because of me not going into debt (and paying off student loans et al long enough for them to fall off the report.) Of course, that means I can't buy a house because I'm an unknown renegade who pays all the bills and have lived long enough debt-free to not have a credit report. Completely untrustworthy.
Bankers are incapable of intelligent thought, or at least disallowed from acting on it.

Indeed.

It's amazing that in our system, one can reach a level of fiscal responsibility that makes them "too risky" to loan money to.

[Cikomyr2]

Indeed.

It's amazing that in our system, one can reach a level of fiscal responsibility that makes them "too risky" to loan money to.

It's just having a paper trail of paying your bills on time.

If you allowed all your providers to rate you as a customer regarding punctuality of payment, we could do away with a credit rating.

[The Glyphstone]

Indeed.

It's amazing that in our system, one can reach a level of fiscal responsibility that makes them "too risky" to loan money to.

Considering it can also work the other way, where you owe a bank so much money they can't risk refusing to loan you more or attempt to actually collect on the balance....yeah. Finance is whacked.

[Agi Hammerthief]

It's just having a paper trail of paying your bills on time.

If you allowed all your providers to rate you as a customer regarding punctuality of payment, we could do away with a credit rating.

actually in the German SCHUFA rating system, you don’t get the „most credit worthy“ rating when you don’t have any debt;
you get the best rating when you are in dept and always pay your rates on time.

todays in-comic development was somewhat predictable

[Cikomyr2]

actually in the German SCHUFA rating system, you don’t get the „most credit worthy“ rating when you don’t have any debt;
you get the best rating when you are in dept and always pay your rates on time.

todays in-comic development was somewhat predictable

Jeff just likes to draw naked Sexy women robots

[Max_Killjoy]

It's just having a paper trail of paying your bills on time.

If you allowed all your providers to rate you as a customer regarding punctuality of payment, we could do away with a credit rating.

Wouldn't really be any better, would still "legitimize" sharing data about people and coerce them into allowing it.

[Cikomyr2]

Wouldn't really be any better, would still "legitimize" sharing data about people and coerce them into allowing it.

Oh, I wasn't actually advocating for it. Just pointing out that having a paper trail of you taking and repaying promises made is the point of the credit rating. Hence why someone who never borrowed has no good credit rating. Financial institutions have no way to estimate the risk you represent.