Sofia_MZ Funny how someone finds the time to write long posts but couldn’t be bothered answering Buy Me a Coffee client service emails.
I’d like to reassure Taushi that his donation (as well as all the others, totaling $55) has already been refunded.
His Christmas is saved.
Please do not behave as if it’s such a bother and as if you’re somehow being virtuous by returning the money you stole from people through misrepresentation and fraud. And please don’t behave as if you were even ever going to give people their money back if I hadn’t called you out on it, because it was ten (10) days ago that you said the donations “could be returned” but made no effort to do it.
You might have two or three people with obsessive vendettas against PianoWorld patting you on the back for this, and you may think that that somehow excuses what you did, but it doesn’t. Ultimately, the fact of the matter is you stole someone else’s intellectual property, plagiarized it as your own, misrepresented yourself as an identity you claim you “modeled” off some poor unknowing woman, and then crossed the line into financial fraud when you accepted monetary donations for that misrepresentation.
And trying to frame it as some great psychological experiment or some white-knight effort on behalf of poor unfortunate samplists doesn’t pass the smell test. You got more than enough compliments on these “instruments” in the first week that you could’ve wrapped it up there and said “Ha, ha, Pianoteq haters!” Instead, you continued for nearly two months, introduced “new pianos” with new tales, continued developing your backstory, and tried to cater to your base. And you would not have stopped if it hadn’t been pointed out. And it moved well beyond a harmless prank when you took money from people under that representation and even got into private conversations with some of these people as that false identity. I suspect your motivations were far more personal and self-centered than you want to reveal. But on the remote chance you did do all this because a few people on the internet don’t like the same software you like, you have a lot to work through. And that work starts by acknowledging that this was not a good thing.
And yes I did donate. As a full-time artist, I know how much it costs to be an independent artist and even to do art-related things. I have been very lucky to have people and organizations support my work through purchases, grants, philanthropy, and fellowships, and I always pay it forward when I can. Seeing what I perceived to be a passionate young person pursuing their own independent artistic endeavors AND doing something that helped other artists encouraged me to support. Your manipulation of that feeling in me and others does not make you clever: it makes you duplicitous. (And, by the way, I made my donations from a throwaway account with a throwaway email & name and a one-time use virtual card. I always do that whenever I’m donating or supporting via smaller charitable platforms which don’t offer the full security of a GoFundMe or a Kickstarter. So don’t expect much there).
And, the timeline doesn’t support your statements. I, and another member who also donated, reached out to Buy Me A Coffee on December 3rd. We both were told that BuyMeACoffee reached out to you on December 4th. I made my post here on December 7th, only after my name was mentioned by two members. For the record, I never intended to post here or say anything and only reached out to BuyMeACoffee to try to quietly move you to give back what you took from people so as to do what was right and to avoid potential further problems. BuyMeACoffee says the refund was sent through on this morning, December 9th, shortly before you made this post. So, again, please don’t behave as if you had some noble plan in mind all along. I don’t believe you ever had any intention of giving people their money back, and you only did it when we raised the alarm to BuyMeACoffee.
You didn’t save my Christmas by giving the money back; you can be sure that if I had it to give charitably, then it was of no major cost to my pocketbook. You gave it back BuyMeACoffee had been alerted.
I have no desire to pursue things further, or even beat you up about this. I would never have even posted here if my name wasn’t mentioned. We all make mistakes. I said what I said on the subject and I moved on. We all deserve another chance. Nobody should be locked into a mistake, or even be judged by it. But please, do not behave as if what you did was right or even what you claim it was. It is much better to just take stripes in silence, heal what’s broken, and do better in the future.
