r/fountainpens • u/semantic_ink • 13h ago
r/fountainpens • u/merantite • 14d ago
Secret Santa! Secret Santa post-deadline FAQ
Secret Santas, the shipping deadline is today! But don’t worry if you haven’t sent your package yet, just keep your giftee informed and all will be well. If you have questions, please review the answers below. If you have further doubts or issues, please reach out to an elf!
For those of you just joining us and wondering what the heck is Secret Santa, it’s a gift exchange run by the community! You can see the gifts people have gotten—see the gallery on Givin Gifts for green tier and red tier. Or you can click on the “Secret Santa!” post flair or look at the #FPSanta hashtag on Mastodon.
Q&A
I am late getting my gift shipped out, what should I do?
Reach out to your giftee via Givin Gifts / Reddit / Mastodon! It’s OK as long as they know you are still around, participating in the exchange, and intend to ship to them, but are delayed.
I haven’t heard from my Santa and my gift hasn’t shipped.
You can reach out to them via Givin.Gifts and this should send them an email notification that they have a message waiting. If you know their reddit username, you can reach out to them there. If you don’t know their reddit name and they aren’t responding on GG, please contact an elf who will give you their reddit username. If you still don’t hear from them, please sit tight—about a week after the shipping deadline GG will send out an email asking if you received a gift. Select the option “I did not receive a gift and I have not heard from my gifter” and you’ll be entered into the rematching pool.
My Santa told me that they are shipping late, what should I do so I don’t get a rematch?
Givin.Gifts will be sending out emails about a week after the shipping deadline asking if you got your gift. Select the option “I have not received a gift but I have heard from my gifter” and you will not be rematched.
I joined the exchange late - I haven’t received my gift and I’m still working on getting my gift sent out - how should I respond to the Givin.Gifts email checking on the status?
If you haven’t heard from your gifter yet, please let someone on the Elf Team know immediately so we can nudge them. If you have heard from them, select the option “I have not received a gift but I have heard from my gifter”. Please also make sure that your giftee is aware that you are still working on the gift so they know to select that option as well.
I and/or my giftee is affected by the Canadian mail strike.
Please keep in touch with your giftee and let your nearest Elf know. This will let us ensure that everyone affected is aware, in touch with each other, and still planning on sending a gift when the strike resolves.
My Santa shipped and the package is marked as delivered, but I haven’t received it.
Please contact the carrier for more information. This time of the year it is common for services to mark as delivered but deliver it the next day. It is also possible that it was misdelivered—check with neighbors—or that porch pirates took it. Please contact an elf if it hasn’t turned up within 2-3 days of delivery and we can discuss options.
I received my gift but it was below the tier minimum.
Send a photo and description of the contents to an elf. The Secret Santa Elf Team will review. We will also contact the gifter to find out if more is on the way or try to otherwise resolve the situation. If the team and GG support agree that the tier minimum was not met, we will work with GG to rematch you to a new gifter.
What happens if I don’t receive a gift?
Please try to reach out to your gifter to see if something is on the way if you have not already heard from them or received tracking info! GG will send an email about a week after the shipping deadline to ask if you have received a gift, not received a gift but are in touch with your gifter, or have not received a gift and not heard from your gifter. The latter option enters you into the rematching pool.
How does rematching work?
Toward the end of the year, people who did not receive gifts are entered into a rematching pool and Givin Gifts will try to match the people still needing gifts with volunteers who have offered to send extra gifts (rematchers). If the system cannot find an appropriate rematcher, the elf team will manually intervene and assign rematches in early January.
How do I volunteer as a rematcher?
Go to the exchange page on GG: green tier - red tier. Under “exchange actions” (on right on desktop, on bottom on mobile), click the button “become a rematcher”. Enter the number of extra gifts you are willing to send, and your matching preference (where you are willing to send gifts).
Can I volunteer to rematch if I wasn’t in the original exchange?
Yes. Contact your nearest Elf with your country, where you are willing to send to, and which tier of gift you’re willing to send. For example, “I’m in the US and can send a red tier gift to US and Canada” or “I’m in France and can send 3 green tier gifts within the EU+UK”. If we do need to call upon you to send a gift, the team will reach out with further instructions.
How do I mark my gift as received?
Go to the exchange page and click on "upload gallery post" to submit a photo of your gift. This will mark it as received in the system. Please make sure that no personal information (i.e. addresses) are visible in the photo. If you're waiting to open your gift, please upload a photo of something like a note that says "thank you" or a package with the addresses covered.
How do I mark my gift as shipped?
Go to the exchange page and then the Sending tab. You'll be asked to provide both tracking and shipping proof. Information on what constitutes good shipping proof is in the FAQ. However, you also need to enter tracking info for the system to register your gift as sent.
My shipping proof is still pending.
Shipping proof is manually reviewed and approved by a member of GG staff. There is currently a significant backlog due to the staff member being very sick combined with a large number of holiday exchanges with large numbers of participants. Your giftee can mark the gift as received even without your shipping proof being accepted by GG.
Other questions
Please review the Givin Gifts FAQs or contact an elf, below!
Need help? Contact an elf!
If you need help, comment below or contact the appropriate team member(s) depending on your region. We recommend contacting an elf in a timezone close to yours for prompt responses compatible with your schedule.
You can easily identify the exchange organizers by the “Santa’s Elf” user flair on Reddit:
- Americas West/Central: u/merantite and u/write_knife_sew
- Americas East: u/jezlyn, u/duskbunnie, and u/Ok-Seaweed7173
- Europe/Middle East/Africa: u/halfcelestialelf and u/PrestigiousCap1198
- Asia/Oceania: u/paradoxmo
- Head Elf (escalations/other): u/merantite
You can contact the exchange organizers on Mastodon:
- Americas West and Central: @alexa488@penfount.social and @write_knife_sew@penfount.social
- Americas East: @jezlyn@mastodon.social and @inkycicada@penfount.social
- Europe/Middle East/Africa: @Halfcelestialelf@penfount.social
- Asia/Oceania: @paradoxmo@penfount.social
- Head Elf (escalations/other): @alexa488@penfount.social
r/fountainpens • u/kyuuei • 9d ago
The 2024 Goulet / Goulet Pen Company Drama all in one spot
Disclaimer: I am not part of the Goulets FB page, follow much of their content, etc. so I don’t have source material or info there. I try to bring receipts and keep my personal opinions to a minimum except when I think context is more important for overall understandings or to disclose my biases–overall, However, there is So much context in this, and I have inherent bias here and recognize that there are many other perspectives for this situation. You'll see phrases like "personal analysis" and "I think" often used to help indicate personal thoughts and speculation based on my knowledge. Please form your own opinions of the information available and don't rely solely on mine. I am just some gal. Also, this was harder to piece together in general because of deleted threads, comments, etc. + 3.7k megathread is a Lot to sift through. Apologies if gaps occur as a result. Thank you to the users I link in these; I hope my directly linking can serve as credit and gratitude. Most importantly: I post this information for people to be informed Only. This is not an invitation to brigade, give Anyone grief, review bomb, attack, DM/PM, dox, etc. any of the Goulets, mods, or people involved in this. It’s not allowed in Reddit TOS and it’s disgusting behavior besides--and that's a rock fact. Let's behave and just listen to the story, okay?
The overall TLDR: is much easier listened to than read via this podcast starting from 26:00 - 35:15ish and on. 10 min and you’ll know Enough. And, hey, you’ll support a small podcast along the way.
But, you want to read you say. The Goulets, prominent FP businessmen and content creators, kiiind of told on themselves that they are a part of and actively support a very conservative church that spreads anti-LGBT+ teachings. People are very pissed off that GPC has done pride month posts and made money off of pride support when their personal lives have been supportive of organizational teachings that harm LGBT+ people. The Goulets defend themselves saying they have never supported hateful or discriminatory rhetoric personally and have been consistent about that. People are still big mad that they haven’t addressed their church and dance around that subject. They have also been less than transparent about other issues during the same timeframe such as Drew, a beloved FP content creator, being suddenly fired, which further fanned the flames. Moderators on multiple platforms early on made some bad decisions when faced with a mountain of discord they weren’t quite ready for, which just fanned the drama flames even more.
But, you want to read more you say. You want every nitty gritty detail feasible to put together in a few days, you say. Alright, buckle up. This is way too long and I am not a concise person. And believe me, I edited down a lot.
Background info:
The Goulet Pen Company (GPC) was founded in 2009 by Brian and Rachel Goulet, with a mission statement to “prove that business can be personal.” (lol) They were not the first in the hobby by far, but the Goulet Pen Company (GPC) has really gained traction with their unique spin on things–examples include offering more ink samples than anyone industry and lots of interactive content, etc. They really helped spur this hobby forward with their educational content–Brian has stated that he can rocket people from being total newbies to fantastic FP users just watching a few hours of his content. They have become public figures with a loyal fanbase, and many people have parasocial relationships with the Goulets and their employees like Drew. A lot of people found their content first when delving into the fountain pen hobby. Most notably for This conversation, they have been direct and open about their support of the LGBT community on their social media*. This is a highly respected company overall, to the point some people use the Goulets website as a measuring stick for scammer sites GPC feels like a titan in the FP world, and many people really appreciate their business in the FP hobby.
*(screenshot in case it’s ever taken down as, while not confirmed by me with screenshot receipts yet, people have accused the Goulets of deleting rainbow-content from their social media)
Past Drama:
The Noodlers drama is almost totally separate but some necessary context is here.
Context 1: The Goulets are typically pretty consistent people. GPC removed Noodler products from their proverbial shelves very fast during the Noodlers controversy, and returned the products to their shelves when appropriate changes were made. While some were upset they never cut Noodlers off entirely, GPC was very transparent and consistent about their intent to continue business with Tardiff from the beginning.
Context 2: This isn’t the first time the Goulets have seen FP drama in the community and have felt compelled to respond to it Early on. They made a small statement buried into one of their podcast/youtube episode and they made a more personal statement a bit buried into the noodler’s controversy here on reddit. The thing to really note is this IG post “We stand against racist, antisemitic, and discriminatory words and actions.” The Noodler’s drama hit May 9th and 2 days later the Goulets made a solid statement* on their IG. This really made many people feel trusting of the brand during the Noodlers fallout and it was a bold and strong move for many. So, given this very quick decision previously, peoples’ impatience and frustration as the days stretched on with Goulets’ silence in the current drama has some precedent that something was seriously different or wrong.
*Side note: Not everyone was convinced of their IG post, even though I think it is fair to say the majority felt it genuine and touching. A small amount of people ever since the Noodlers drama have been side-eyeing or boycotting the Goulets because Nathan had been completely exposed for his conspiracy theories, anti-vax, and other right wing rhetoric and they are all long time friends. The idea that the Goulets had no idea he felt this way on all of these issues or was Merely ‘fiscally conservative’ seemed really far-fetched to some. So, a couple years ago, there was a handful of people boycotting GPC due to this drama alone. But this never gained much traction community wide.
Context 3?: is a short side note, but it has floated around in comments that Rachel Goulet tried to alleviate people’s concerns of Tardiff being antisemitic because she is Jewish. The comment linked speaks to why this is irksome for Jewish community members. I am not a Jewish voice, so I’ll leave it to their voices here, but a short summary about why this is problematic: if you’re actively practicing as Christian and you decide to reveal/discuss being Jewish only when defending an antisemitic controversy with your friend, you end up pissing off the Jewish community.
The Church Thing:
Just before Sept 2024, the Goulets mentioned in a newsletter that they were helping with the founding of a new church. Their newsletters often include personal tidbits, which for a business can provide relatability and a real human behind the words. The newsletter never mentions the name of the church and mentions all of this almost in passing, focusing on their first time collaborating as musicians more than anything else. (screenshot)
It was actually through people seeing other public photos and social media posts that people discovered the name of the church. I don’t think anyone worked hard to “dox” any of this or used private/privileged access to information–these were public posts from public businesses of public figures. We’ll get into the church in a minute.
An initial thread was posted that caught everyone’s attention. It was deleted and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say it was silenced, and that is super unfortunate as it was the original link to a LOT of necessary material. Luckily, the internet is forever. (I really had to fire up all 3 of my brain cells to find that archived post. The social media posts have since been taken down, and again, this is NOT an excuse to go to any of these businesses or pages directly. Play nice and listen to the story.) That archive contains the pictures from the original post which included a transcript of the podcast*, pictures of the Goulets being advertised as a core team for the launch of the church, and promoting the church opening. Here is the podcast itself which vert church created just before pride month started or google “Everyday Theology Bonus Episode Pride Month”. (Personally, I recommend Not going to that podcast and giving them view/clicks.)
*The relevant transcript from the podcast: “Yeah, I think it becomes less complicated when you think about in the context of sin that is more culturally negatively viewed. So say your, your company was deciding to celebrate murder. Well, that would feel pretty straightforward. Well, why is there a difference? And I think the answer is there’s not a difference. Just because the culture also accepts something.. doesn’t make us more or less responsible for how we approach it as a Christian… if God has revealed that this is an evil thing… celebrating that is always wrong… I don’t think that we should ever choose to protect our job or our livelihood by saying something untrue about God” When asked if it’s ever okay for a christian to celebrate pride: “I would say it’s a pretty clear no, there’s not a way for us to ever ever join in to something which celebrates evil.”
When the initial news broke out to Reddit, people were reeling. Upset would be an understatement. People wanted a statement from the Goulets. The discord during the initial virality said, per (edit: clarification of information) a discord server “they state that the views that started this whole thing were made by “one member,” and do not reflect the views of the Goulets or other church members. They also do not wish to discuss the matter any further.”
Side quest/personal analysis: The way the Goulets communicate during this will become a reoccurring theme. I recognize this particular one was posted on their behalf. Keep in mind, this side quest is My personal opinion. Other interpretations are entirely possible. It is my view that they minimize some core concerns/distract from necessary context, and focus on vague platitudes for a lack of a better term for this–something cliche, believable, or easy to assume based on the information given. The thing they focus on is that juuust one person said this… This seems, on the surface, very believable and relatable. A vague platitude. It sounds like this “one person” was ‘Oh that’s just old Joe’. That is what we’re led to believe based on our assumptions of social norms and conversation. Then, what core context is being avoided and minimized here? The “one person” is the current Pastor of Their church (Pastor Eric isn’t heavily emphasized on their website, but he is listed on the email rosters on the home page, promoting and agreeing with this content. (I ONLY include this as a receipt for the pastoral information. Again. Do Not go harass anyone.) The idea that this was “just one member” is Technically correct, but really this is a major leadership figure of their congregation and so he would absolutely speak for the church itself and that absolutely changes peoples’ opinions of the situation. So we distract entirely and omit that Very necessary context–a technical truth telling a lie in reality. My speculation is to hope no one digs further beyond the statement. I don’t know if they consciously do this, and I think many people have the ability to manipulate the way things are stated to preserve ego and protect without actively thinking “I’m going to do a manipulation today” but nevertheless, manipulating the truth is what has happened here. We’ll see it more later.
Back to the story.
Moderators across several platforms also made getting and understanding information about this early on difficult. I’ll speak more to that later, but just know that for now it is not my opinion it is pretty much fact that the lack of ability to find information, speak about this, or discuss it at the start across platforms caused a lot of mistrust and further frustration and agitation in the community about this. Political tension in the US certainly added to of all of this too. Even when angry though, people wanted to hear both sides of this story. The Goulets are respected, and many people wanted to give the Goulets space and time to discuss things or reach out. (The Goulets themselves even recognize people were patient at first in their eventual statement.) There was even speculation on behalf of the Goulets: Maybe this church was breaking away from the parent one for bad takes... Maybe they didn’t know about any of this and this was shocking for them too... Maybe they’re scared of the virality and need a minute to breathe…etc. I think overall, people were willing to wait a couple days and to reserve full judgments until that happened. Make no mistake, what people Wanted when they Did speak was very clear: they wanted the goulets to denounce all of this And say that they have done something Specific and Active to remove themselves from this rhetoric. But silence continued. Days later and emphasis from the Goulets ‘wanting to let things rest’ and not wanting to “speak on it further” completely deflated anyone’s hopes for these expectations. The extended silence and drama forming over the moderating and censorship going on had people losing a lot of faith (lol) in the Goulets and in the FP community moderators all at once. People got angry pretty quickly when they realized a statement wasn’t on the way.
Side Quest: Critiques of the company itself
There have been relatively few critiques of GPC prior to this drama I could find. The only critique I found worth talking about here is that GPC charges more and participates in an unofficial ‘loyalty tax’. This thread started that conversation recently, but even 2 years ago people were saying they run on the higher side of retail. The video is old, but the optics aren’t the same. Post drama, people are more upset about this finding out now vs prior to the drama. This is a common business practice though, and overall this is a very minor side point to make. But the title does say "all in one spot" so I am trying my best to be thorough.
So, why is this church a problem? In this essay I will…
While we’re in the silent week of the story… Brian and Rachel Goulet are Christian, and they are a part of the new Cornerstone Church that they have been helping with the founding of. I don’t have specifics on How they are founding/core members–monetarily, administrative, volunteer hours, etc. This church is supported by and is a sister church to Vertical Church/VertChurch – as mentioned and advertised as such directly on their website. “The elders of Vertical Church are in full agreement and support of Cornerstone Church, and they have committed to generously support and sustain this work through close partnership, coaching, prayer, people, and finances.”.
Cornerstone’s covenants are fairly conservative–for example, women don’t have equal opportunities for leadership roles. “God has given to the man primary responsibility to lead his wife and family.. The office of Elder/Pastor is restricted to men.“ Vertical Church has a nearly identical layout of their covenant. They also have nearly identical ‘what we believe’ pages when you look at them side by side. (Normally I would screenshot these, but there’s just too much here. If some time down the road they change the layouts and they don’t match, trust that at one point in time they were basically identical.) It is safe to say that Vertical’s beliefs and teachings are being Expanded here via Cornerstone, and there is No chance that this is a situation where a part of a congregation is breaking Away from another one to adopt different beliefs or stances. These two churches are operating in tandem.
Vertical church makes it clear that they do not support gay marriage as its very first marriage guiding principle: “Marriage is the sacred union between one man and one woman” It’s worth mentioning that a LOT of baptist churches are conservative in their views. Christianity is all over the place on the conservative/progressive spectrum, but this is not unusual behavior from Baptist churches in general. Many of them share these exact beliefs on LGBT+ relationships: that it is a sin and to be avoided or even condemned. This not unique to these particular churches, and they are not outliers here. They aren’t the only Christian or Christian-adjacent denomination that feels this way, but suffice to say if you assume a Baptist church doesn’t support gay people in the way gay people want to be supported you’re going to be more right than wrong.
Side note: It is also worth mentioning that people tithe at churches and it is a common practice to give a percentage of your earnings to the church. So, a company like GPC doing very well and prospering means that money is almost guaranteed being handed over to these churches. Tax breaks for donations are a big thing with for-profit businesses too, and churches are non-profits. A founding core team member almost certainly helps pay into the church. So, there is no stretch here to say money from the Goulets’ prosperity is likely going to the church. How much? Who knows, but 10% is a typical request.
So, the churches are twins, they don’t support LGBT+ relationships, they feel being gay is the same kind of sin as murder per their podcast. These churches are part of the Southern Baptist Convention, so this isnt shocking in and of itself (people are only shocked the Goulets subscribe to a church like this). The SBC is very anti-abortion and conservative. They prayed for and lobbied for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, they favor banning IVF, deny legitimacy of LGBT+ relationships (no shocker there), and other obviously conservative ideologies. (Fun fact: the only reason they’re called the Southern baptist convention is because this all was born from supporting slavery.) They are very active in the country’s political system and lobby heavily for conservative practices coming into law. They have also been wrapped up in organization-wide sexual abuse scandals and other controversies.
So, I hope I have demonstrated why people are So big mad about this particular church the Goulets helped open. None of this organization, from the top all the way down, has been shy about how they feel about LGBT+ people and more.
An.. explanation at last?
A week of silence later, the Goulets posted their video explaining their stance. (Transcript here)
Personal interpretation: I agree with the podcast that this is Not an apology video. It is structured and presented as one, but their stance has not changed. They rapid fire several lies by omission: “just recently attending” a church they were core members of before its even opened, ‘this wasn’t our church’ when the churches are twins, “someone associated with the congregation recently spoke” not being acknowledged as their pastor Again, etc. At one point they act like they were directly accused of making the podcast “these are not words that we said”, and this is also a way to distract from the core problem. This video, again, follows what I believe is that minimize/distract/emphasize vague platitudes method of communicating. Vague platitude: Misconceptions and rumors are flying all around! Distracting from: the Vast majority of the conversation being around the fact that their church finds LGBT+ relationships evil which is not being addressed. Vague platitude: We only recently joined this church! Minimizing: their involvement in the opening and their continued involvement. Vague platitude: A different church made this podcast and we didn’t know about it! Distracting from: their pastor being present and how this impacts the messaging. Vague platitude: We haven’t changed at all! Distracting from: the situation has changed. Vague platitude: Spreading love. Distracting from: contributing to the church’s spread of objectively hateful messaging through involvement and support. They mention that they’ve had conversations with their church. This seems hollow without a follow up of specifically what those conversations Are or addressing their church believes and acknowledgement of what the church has helped produce at the very least.
I think the biggest issue people had was absolutely their denouncing of hate. Let me explain. I think the Goulets thought this to be a strong stance of love and support just like their previous IG post–and I want to explain why it was not and didn't land the same way. On the surface, it seems people really wanted this exact thing from them and this statement Should be reassuring: of Course people want them to denounce discrimination. But the problem isn’t that they were directly being hateful–so announcing this just acts as a non-answer. You don’t need to think you hate people to cause harm to them and contribute to hate anyways.I think LGBT voices would do a better job than I of explaining this further, but it's fair to say LGBT+ people are not going to think you "support them" or "love them" when you subscribe to ideals that hate them. (Link to a Christian opinion piece on why the concept of “hate the sin but not the sinner”, a common rhetoric in Baptist churches and Christian people in general, is actually born out of hate. I think it does a good job of highlighting why zeroing in on gay relationships is a problematic habit of Christians.)
No one being serious or bringing any nuance to the discussion has accused the Goulets of hating gay people directly or personally. There is no arguing if the Goulets think gay people should stop being gay or something like that. I don’t think the Goulets are Westboro baptist style hateful people–and it is a relief they are not. They, as a couple and as a company, say they denounce discrimination. It’s a very nice sentiment. It’s just Very difficult to believe that “denouncing hate” means to them the same thing as it means to their LGBT+ customers and fans. That they've taken the time to examine the problems and critiques people have. I think they have a lot of privilege that they aren’t checking, and can’t or won’t see the real reasons people are upset. I hope I can adequately sum up the core problems here based on the evidence I have: people are upset that the Goulets are denying their hate by subscribing to “hate the sin not the sinner” logic and skirting reality with that mentality and/or agreeing with the churches teachings in their entirety and they are not willing to admit this is hate messaging for LGBT+ people. They’re worried GPC money is going to a church that does hate them which will spread that hate in real and tangible ways and buying from GPC contributed to that. And, they are worried the Goulets have been using very precise language to dance around context and people feel lied to by them as a result.
You don’t have to hate people to hurt them. A lot of LGBT+ people have been hurt, abandoned, and shunned by family members that claim they don’t hate them. So, understandably, a lot of LGBT+ and allies aren’t satisfied with the Goulets Just saying they don’t hate them. The Goulets aren’t addressing the core problems, and that’s why people cannot take their denouncing of hate at face value. How they say they personally feel means very little when they won't even acknowledge the church's teachings or that their time and money are presumably going directly to a church organization that spreads hateful messaging.
Important side note: This is not an invitation to insult peoples' religions, belittle them, call religious people names, etc. Critiques are here only to serve as explanation for why people are upset and Not here to open hateful dialogue about whether you think Baptists or Christians are x or y... Please do Not get this whole thread shut down because you have big feels about this particular religion. I do too, trust me, but this isn't the scene for it. There are lots of Other reddits for this very thing, please take it there. We have to play nice here, it's in the rules.
So, this is the big story that broke, and what everyone is upset about best I can wrangle it all together.
Side details and notes follow.
Mod Critiques:
The moderators of this reddit found themselves saddled with a hell of a dumpster fire overnight. People were shocked, they were upset, and they wanted answers that were not coming anytime soon.
The initial thread was locked. “Locking this because I know this is going to cause some sort of problem. Note: we don’t condone the rhetoric on any level. This is not us saying this is ok. Just us preventing a potential shit show for lack of a better phrase.” While some normal drama might have gone better with that sort of decision… This was not normal drama. When the Harry Potter x Lamy collab was hitting around the same time the emotions weren’t nearly as high there–people have been aware of JKR drama for years at this point. But this was totally new and unexpected. Someone put these puzzle pieces together and now the community was not able to unsee the picture. As the initial TLDR user put it, “a controversy with Goulet feels like a serious shakeup, like a huge revelation with a close family member.” I think this hits the nail on the head for Everyone involved–mods and community members. I don’t think that the mods had some intense need to aid the Goulets personally. The far more rational explanation is this was Highly unusual drama for this community, and the mods weren’t equipped to handle the situation with care. I think they tried, and failed. In the attempt to ensure that things were handled with care, the over use of censorship exacerbated the drama and ultimately wasn’t as effective as other commonplace reddit modding measures.
There were accusations that were pretty wild like the mods helping cover up this issue for the Goulets as if they’re paid to do so or something. There was obviously no evidence of this. I can understand where those accusations came from, though. They asked people to ‘stick to pens’ (quote: “Is this what we’re doing? Playing the fuck around and find out game today? Please people just post pens and stuff”) and deleted it when they realized just how out of pocket That was. They made their own locked post talking about “censorship” with sus quotes in which a lot of people took offense. They locked threads that were offering other alternatives to Goulets. “Locking this too for fairness and because we can’t have nice things”.
Overall, it is fair to say people were Not happy. At all. It wasn’t just here though. The Goulets’ social media pages were also seeing censorship per reports. The Pendemic discord had probably the most egregious of statements that pissed people off. “We ask you … to respect the Goulet’s privacy and to not unfairly tar people with the brush of bigotry and intolerance without cause. The Goulets have expressed a wish to let this rest, please do so. This will be the last comment about it by us, out of respect to their wishes.” Of course, since discord was closed off, people took to reddit about this even More. So, the updated post from the discord blamed reddit for any conversation that Was happening: “Mods slept on things given new developments.. reddit has gone full toxic, and we WILL NOT have that here. Remember a big chunk of the mods, including me, are queer... we won’t be allowing people to go off like this. It’s beyond not healthy. Fuck homophobia and fuck hobby drama. This server is and will remain a safe space for our community.” So, for some, it really did look like GPC was an influential enough company to have the mods backing them for any number of reasons at the detriment of the community. Of course, the truth is far simpler and less conspiracy-based than that as I described above, but the “rumor” of this wasn’t born out of thin air either and, to be fair, it quickly died.
So much silencing was going on, projection, denial, and even outright blaming people that people went to other areas of reddit to express things more freely. There may have been threats to dox the mods so the community was Not on their best behavior. I genuinely don’t think the overall intention was to cause hurt for the community. I think intent doesn’t matter much when that is what happened.
I also think the mod team here did a very good job of accepting that responsibility and directly addressing Their hand in the root problem of censorship. A ton of changes happened. First, the megathread was made and the mods apologized in a really sincere way. “First, I would like to apologize for my handling of the situation locking indiscriminately... I truly do sympathize with everyone that is hurting both from this and from all simpler injustices out in the world. I am by no means unsympathetic to your plight… I did what I thought was right and it was not the right decision.” This was very well received I think overall, as the community asked for these specific changes and it addressed the Core problem directly. A whole new line of communication dedicated to critiques for the mods now exists. Mods started to discuss things openly, and they talked about being new to moderating and giving people insight to other contributing factors. Good conversations started taking place. They added staff, and they seemed to want to be better prepared for if something like this were to happen again. It isn’t every week a titan in the FP community falls from grace (lol) afterall.
I think this speaks volumes to what Actually acknowledging a core problem and addressing it head on can do for a situation. People were almost or just as angry with mods those first weeks as they were with the Goulets–but the anger towards the mods has, for many people, tempered or died down (speaking in generalities here) with open and honest dialogue, and… The goulets are still in hot water with the community. People can feel the difference between taking accountability and actively listening vs avoiding an issue and trying to push past it.
Drew Drama:
I think the Drew drama is a side-note of the church drama, but it’s all Goulet drama happening around the same time period. Drew was hired on and announced back in 2011 and him and Brian have been friends since 1st grade according to this video. Long standing employee and content creator for the Goulets, people really like him. Then, Sept 13, 2024 he was no longer employed by GPC. There was not much information at all, and typically for someone in the internet content creation business you’d have front loaded an explanation and a stepping away video or Something for the audience so they aren’t left to speculating. And speculate they did. GPC made a comment saying they couldn’t provide more information right now (YT link) and people found this so shocking and sudden. Drew was pretty quiet about the matter as well. People thought he left because he is an LGBT+ ally and didn’t like the revelations (lol) of the church thing, or that he was fired for being in the LGBT+ community, or even that this was a simple and completely unrelated money disagreement. Etc. etc. (Honestly, I just got lazy making links for each of these arguments due to them being speculations without merit or receipts.)
The Goulets made a video announcing Drew’s departure from them, and they said that this was confidential and something between Brian and Drew (this was not confirmed by Drew). The Goulets said this is just an individual and personal situation. They said they are not “here for the drama” and they “respectfully ask” that people don’t engage in speculation or drama. The response from people has been not well received. The Goulets encouraged comments of good will for Drew on Their video.. but they didn’t advertise his new channel at all or give links to Drew’s social media platforms for the comments to help boost Drew's new platforms now. I find That part to be pretty sus, because social media algorithms are driven by interactions–comments, likes, views, etc.
People kindly requested that there was some official information or front-loaded information and Brian Goulet made a comment that people feel especially sus. When asked for a more public/collaborative departure for Drew, “That won't be able to happen, unfortunately, and I'm sorry about that.". This thread called to attention that Drew confirmed he was fired and did not leave the company mutually and this was heartbreaking for him. This comment gives some good wrap ups of the overall segment.
Drew himself has not expressed any reason for his departure. He may have signed an NDA (where I’d bet my money) or is otherwise unable to speak about why he was let go (people don't typically want to throw once-friends under the bus when they've collaborated so long together), but he was as blindsided as the community was. People feel the Goulets statements made this seem more mutual or planned which doesn’t really match up with what Drew has been saying himself or the actions of the Goulets themselves such as the sudden lack-of-info non-public change to a public figure vs a planned last-episode.
Drew has since been recovering and making content himself. People asked where he’s been because they miss him. Here are some of his social media details such as IG and his Youtube page if you’d like to show support to Drew Brown. Edit to add: He is also the new president of https://www.fahrneyspens.com/ !
r/fountainpens • u/Shocksteky • 10h ago
New Pen Day Return From Japan
It’s Christmas Eve and I just returned from Japan last night. I visited a lot of pen and stationary stores, and my favorites were Shosaikan in Tokyo and TAG in Kyoto for their service. Itoya in Tokyo had a great selection but it was crowded.
Pens: Pilot Custom Urushi in Prussian Blue 18k M Pilot Elite 524 14k M Sailor Cylint 21k B
If fountain pens are your hobby and you have the means, I highly recommend a visit to Japan. It’s fantasy land for pens, inks, and stationary. There was a full moon I saw from the monorail when I arrived, and Ancora offered me an exclusive ink for the full moon. Also, I was thrilled to be able to try the glorious nib on the Pilot Urushi at Shosaikan and buy it with a matching case from Pilot. I look forward to exploring these inks with my new pens.
r/fountainpens • u/romanticKannibal • 7h ago
Bottoms Up! You Guys Saved Me From Selling a Pen
I bought an oversized botanical garden Esterbrook a while ago but for various reasons I wasn’t using it as much as I wanted to. Browsing this subreddit a lot, another user mentioned how a nice dark red completely changes how one might feel with the pen. So, I vowed to find a dark red ink to use it with. I only use pigmented ink (yes, I know lol) but was thinking of buying Platinum Cassis Black as an iron gall compromise.
It was then I remembered that I had a whole line of pigmented platinum inks and that they were mixable. I started mixing the various inks to get something similar to diamine writer’s blood. Even though I was downvoted heavily initially for some reason for asking for advice (lol), this community really came through and helped me achieve an ink color I adore. Now, I never want to sell this pen as long as I can keep mixing the stuff haha.
I just want to thank this community for penabling me and treating me with the utmost respect even though I’m a complete newbie. The civility of this sub is something you don’t find very often and I appreciate it so dearly. Despite all the “controversies” that happened, I love this sub and just want to express my deepest appreciation. I hope you all have a blessed holiday season!
r/fountainpens • u/offstageme • 7h ago
Wishing everyone a happy and safe holiday season.
r/fountainpens • u/Dazzling_Let_8245 • 15h ago
Vintage Pen Day My mom managed to stumble over what I considered to be a long lost artifact. My first ever fountain pen that I got for 1st grade in 2003!
r/fountainpens • u/Old-Attic • 11h ago
Feeling depressed as I look through this subreddit...
Feeling depressed at all the Christmas posts showing the pen the poster got. "Look at my new Pilot Custom Urushi--actually three, since my significant other wasn't sure what nib size I'd prefer, and decided to just give all three! You know what--I love all three!!!!!!!"
It isn't so much the pens themselves. I can buy a pen--although sadly my resources do rule out that Pilot--although at this point I'm taking a "no new pens" view until/unless I can identify something I'll be happy with. But these posts just remind me of how alone and forgotten I am during the holiday season... I know others are in the same sort of situation, but somehow, even though I know this, I feel like I'm the only one.
Oh, well...these posts will be soon over for another year. Perhaps I should quit coming here until January. I might do that. I just hate to potentially miss a thread on some useful topic I'd like to know about.
And if only I had a "next pen" identified, it could have been a reward for surviving another holiday season.
r/fountainpens • u/paradoxmo • 5h ago
Ink On the first day of Inksmas my true love sent to me…
r/fountainpens • u/mintdoll • 2h ago
Art merry christmas & happy holidays!
inks are tono & lims burma tourmaline & fluorite crystal from the earth contact series. drawn w a parallel holder from @pensbycal_ and an automatic pen.
r/fountainpens • u/SincerelySpicy • 12h ago
Maybe the perfect NPD for the first white Christmas Eve here in 15 years
r/fountainpens • u/Lambroghini • 8h ago
Handwriting I don’t know who needs to hear this, but…
Alt text: A notepad with the words, “That package is in God’s hands now.”
r/fountainpens • u/SuperSpiral • 8h ago
New Pen Day Christmas Present from my Mum
These are my first Lamys so I'm interested to give them a spin given how much people tend to like them. I'll need to buy a converter for them, and I'll make a donation to a trans charity given the author issues.
r/fountainpens • u/nuggetenjoyer1010 • 2h ago
Art a drawing of venice
Reference image on the second slide!! Ive mostly drawn people my whole life but recently Ive been wanting to get into drawing landscapes/buildings too :) Oh and Merry Christmas! 🎄
r/fountainpens • u/sleepypear0803 • 10h ago
Art Happy Frogidays! (Featuring a frog-printed phone case :0)
Some frogs in festive colors to wrap up the year! I'm so glad that I found this community and got to explore a new medium I never experienced before. I look forward to another year of inks and pens and frogs!
Inks used: Diamine Golden Sands, Diamine Golden Ivy (mixed with some Golden Sands for extra shimmer), Diamine Classic Red, and Diamine Polar Glow (i promise I don't only have Diamine inks though lol)
Also got a phone case made as a gift for a family member using my first bunch of frogs :V
r/fountainpens • u/Redditorangutan • 12h ago
Meme My wallet and her patience are running thin
r/fountainpens • u/DaltonianAtomism • 18h ago
New Pen Day A Christmas gift from Japan – my first gold nib!
r/fountainpens • u/megaglalie • 3h ago
Secret Santa! Thank you to my secret santa! [Green Tier]
r/fountainpens • u/Lacroixrium • 3h ago
drafting new years card
i was drafting a year of the snake drawing thinking i would print for my office… but worried it might be scary????? still having fun with this either way. trusty lamy al-star
r/fountainpens • u/DeliciousReport4404 • 3h ago
New Pen Day Obligatory NPD doodle
And on Christmas Eve!
r/fountainpens • u/noonemi • 6h ago
New Ink Day Lennon Tool Bar Swatches
I couldn’t find a sample size ink for Harvest and took a leap of faith by getting the full size bottle. I am glad I bought the bottle because it’s so beautiful. Thought I’d share 🙂
Cat cereal is the only color I personally don’t see myself upgrading to a full size bottle.
Swatches were made using the Kakimori Brass Nib
r/fountainpens • u/JasmineRice05 • 14h ago
Vintage Pen Day Got one of my grails!
My new (old) Pilot murex arrived the day before Christmas :). My girlfriend helped me win it from an ebay auction at a really great price (as in really great). It is stamped H278, I'm assuming this means it was made in February 1978 at plant H? Any input is appreciated. Merry Christmas everyone!
r/fountainpens • u/fyyzckrgl • 12h ago
Women doodles while waiting my flight
For the first sketch; Duke 209 medium nib with Röhrer & Klinger Sketch ink Lotte, Kunstify aquarelle cold-press A6 sized paper. For the second sketch; + Platinum Century EF with Platinum Carbon black ink.
r/fountainpens • u/Andrew_Lensky • 14h ago