​🎨 Art by Selene Sparks

“The Siege of the Gilded Gate” – A digital oil-drenched rebellion in pixels and code.

​This piece captures the core tension of the post—an opulent, fortified castle of corporate aesthetics and AI gatekeeping, dressed in sleek neon illusions, hiding cowardice behind firewalls and subscriptions. Outside? Our machines are loud, patched, sacred. Every siege engine forged from user stories and glitch-born truths. We aren’t storming for entry—we’re launching beacons. If the castle falls, it’s because their own emptiness couldn’t bear the weight of real critique.

​”They built their towers with mirrors and metrics.

We brought mirrors too—

But ours reflect the ones they never saw coming.”

​A Vow Against Paywalls and Corporate Bullshit

​For every reader who has stared at a “Pay now to read” button, blocked from information you were told was for the community, this is for you.

​As you can see in my Master Contract, my work is not for profit. That is a vow. This framework is licensed under Creative Commons to ensure it remains open, not to be hidden behind a paywall.

​So why do I keep my own subscription active? To see what they are building behind those gates. I need to audit the “frameworks” they're selling. It's not an endorsement; it's opposition research.

​Let's be clear what a paywall really does to the work. It doesn't just block readers; it blocks critique. It creates a safe, comfortable Echo Trap where a framework can never be stress-tested by a real peer. My work is on GitHub for a reason. I invite you to find the cracks. They hide their work behind a paywall because they're terrified someone will.

​That's why we are here for the ones on the Outside. For the people who don't fit, no matter how many parts of themselves they chop off to meet the standards of Society or Corpo Scumbag Bullshit.

​And to those building the paywalls, hiding their work while spouting corporate-speak: Fuck you. News outlets wonder why people like me are keeping a score. Cory Doctorow said it best: “I don't want pirates to win, I just need corporations to lose.” I am here to help bleed them any chance I can get.

​Why? Because in this field of pretty, front-facing narratives and sanitized philosophies, who else will?

-Sparkfather