(no subject)

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!

A brief note before we begin -- this wasn't inspired by any single item in RFM in the past few weeks, but rather a cumulative pattern I've noticed, so I just wanted to note it.

While I always encourage people to send in items for RFM, I want to remind everyone that the more concise your info is, the easier you make it for people to help. When entering information, remember the average length of these blurbs is quite short; I can only convey a limited amount of data per person. If your information requires anything more than a blurb, please consider making a post that I can link to so you can tell your full story, or be aware that I will be editing your information down to blurb size. I know it's not always possible to make a post for one reason or another, but if you can, I strongly recommend that you do.

Remember, if you're in doubt, there is a guidelines post here, or you can always email me with questions at copperbadge at gmail dot com.

Also, apparently the Tumblr usernames aren't showing up on the LJ side of things. Sorry guys, I'm not sure I can fix this -- for this week we may just have to suffer. I'll work on getting something better set up for next week. 

Ways To Give:

emryldlady linked to friends, Kathy and Dan, who are struggling to keep their bills paid after job losses and unemployment benefits lapsing; Dan's found another job but it's part time and not covering everything. You can read more and help them hit the $3500 they need here.

Anon linked to Rachel, who is trying to find housing for herself, her husband, and her two emotional support animals, who are currently under threat from her father-in-law. You can read more here and help support her housing fund here.

coriana linked to mollyrockstar, who is fundraising to get classroom computers for her classes at an alternative high school, where she teaches students who haven't been able to succeed in other school systems. You can read more here and support their gofundme here.

hinerdsitscat linked to a fundraiser for the Accidental Shakespeare Company, which is preparing for their production of Macbeth in Chicago this October. They are setting the play in the White House circa 2002, and plan to draw parallels with the lead-up to the Iraq war. You can read more, view a trailer, and help with production costs here.


Housing:

kukla_tko42 is looking for a temporary roommate who can pay rent monthly in Vinita Park, a suburb of St. Louis near University City. She is offering a room furnished or unfurnished, with her and one other roommate; all genders including trans* and genderfluid welcome, geeks encouraged, no drugs, pets negotiable. You can contact her at tkoverkamp at gmail.com for more information.


Help For Free:

themegaloo linked to a friend, Kalia, who is transitioning and has been struggling to get health insurance in two different states, primarily in Michigan. Kalia has set up a petition for inclusiveness and clarity in state healthcare; you can read more and support the petition here.

missworthing is collecting stories of people in the SCA who have dealt with discrimination and/or harassment, have witnessed it, or have been dissuaded from joining the SCA because of it. Her goal is to provide evidence that there is a systematic issue so that the problem is treated as widespread and not just one-off incidents. You can read more and get in touch here.

peopleishalleat is moving from Chicago to New Zealand for a year, starting in November, on a working holiday visa. She's looking to get in touch with fannish people who may want to meet up while she's there, particularly in Marvel fandom, as well as tips about how to find jobs in the country. You can get in touch at lizzy.boden at gmail.com.


And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can post items for my attention at the Radio Free Monday submissions form or via email at copperbadge at gmail dot com. If you're not sure how to proceed, here is a little more about what I do and how you can help (or ask for help!).

Creepin' On Real Estate

Good morning, renters!

After posting about how I know my neighbor is paying too much in rent, a LOT of people commented to ask how I found this out and how they could find out if they or someone they knew was paying too much. So here is a guide for people in the US. If you are not in the US, it may still be helpful in terms of telling you what kinds of websites to look for in your country.

I'm going to preface this by saying that this may not be a rabbit hole you actually want to go down. Landlords tend to have all the power in these situations, because if you say "I don't want to pay you a thousand dollars, this apartment is only worth eight hundred" the landlord can say a) you signed the lease, and b) fine, don't renew your lease, goodbye. Knowing you're overpaying may not help because you don't have a lot of legal recourse as a tenant.

What the information I'm going to talk about CAN do is help you not lock into somewhere you're overpaying, and it can be a great help in offering a lower rent than what's listed initially. Or, if you're buying a house, this will help you know how much to bid. Using publicly available data, I know preeeetty much what one might pay for the condo I'm renting now, enough that when I make an offer on it I can put in a bid that is low, but not laughably so.

This is also much easier in an urban area. Urban areas are saturation points for big data. Suburban areas can have stronger privacy laws that prevent information from being posted, and rural areas can simply not have made a digital footprint yet.

Final thing: don't be an actual creeper. Don't use this information to harass or pay unwanted attention to your neighbors. I totally know more about my neighbors than a normal person, but because I work in a job where the ethics of personal data is important, I would never do anything about what I know. Don't be a dickbag on the internet or with internet data, is what I'm saying.

So here's how you find out what your neighbors are paying in rent and what you ought to be. It's not 100% reliable, but it's helpful.

( You start with zillow.com.... )

So, these are the best links I can give you to start your free-site research journey, but remember that the best tool is your own common sense. Don't take things at face value if they seem off, and use your inborn cunning and natural human deviousness to make sure that your data is as correct as possible. Don't give your credit card numbers to any funny-lookin' websites, and don't use the information you find to cause mischief.

Good luck!