Probably over

[bladespark]

Well, there's still a lot going on, and a lot of discussion and argument, and the "other side" has finally found the fandom protest communities, and is trying to convince us of the error of our evil, porn-spewing ways. They're not having much luck, because it's not about the right to porn so much as it is about the right to discussion.

But as far as I'm concerned, unless lj does something really unexpected, it's over.

They've posted a pathetic "apology." When they answered questions and tried to clarify it, they used more of the same corporate double-talk, and haven't clarified anything to my satisfaction. I doubt they ever will, though I'd love to see it.

They've started restoring journals and communities, and promise that all fan journals will be back. I think I believe them on this one, a lot of them are back already. (See post here for a decently comprehensive list of what is and isn't back.) They've put back the major rallying point, which is pornish_pixies, as well as the literary and fashion folks.

What they haven't done is earned my trust back. If they'd admitted to the real reasons behind their mistake, they might well have. But while they're falling all over themselves to say "we screwed up, we're sorry," they haven't let out a peep about threats to their advertising sponsors. So nope, I don't trust 'em.

In fact I don't trust them any further than I could throw them, and given my smallish stature that's not very far.

If I had a better option, I'd be leaving lj. But I know that a lot of you, my friends, who are reading this, don't feel the same way. For whatever reason, this doesn't tick you off like it does me. That's fine. We're all different, and that's part of why I love you guys. But if I moved to Greatest Journal or some other service, I'd be leaving most of you behind. And I suppose I could petition you all to come with me, but then you'd all have to try and get your friends to come, and they'd have to get theirs, and it just wouldn't work. And even if it did, the communities wouldn't go either. I doubt Greatest Journal has any places where I could reach so many of my fursuit-wanting customers, or plush crazy people, or any of that. And I also doubt they have such fun groups as dot_bdsm_snark, or any of the several comics I follow through lj.

In short, I'd lose too much, and if I really want to express my rights to free speech, I have my own forum to do it on, so I don't feel the move would be worth it, satisfying as the statement I'd make by doing it would be.

So, the next best thing. Livejournal shall never see another cent of money because of me. When my paid account expires, I shall just let it go, and I ask you folks, my friends and readers, to please not buy me any lj time, or extra icons, or anything else that lines the pockets of those who have just demonstrated that they care more about such pocket lining than they do about their community. (Which is darn stupid of them. If they lose the community, the pocket lining goes too!)

*sniffle* Goodbye, lovely icons. I shall miss you greatly when you expire!

Comments

[nsdragon.livejournal.com]

I'm still wondering one thing.

Where has Brad been during all this mess?

[aoanla.livejournal.com]

Apparently, he's on holiday.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Away, and not caring. He sold the company, he no longer runs it, and he seems pretty content to stay out of this.

[nsdragon.livejournal.com]

Well, last I checked one of his reasons for selling it was that he would then have more time to care about the technical issues (as in, not administrative).

[rimspace.livejournal.com]

Maybe, but he apparently has virtually nothing to do with LJ anymore.

[wolfmare.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'd pay for their service here anyway. I could have pretty much the same journal capabilities on FA, and if I want groups I know how to start them on Yahoo Groups. So no, they won't get any money from me. And I'm already tempted to find another journal site to go to, but then I don't have a whole lot of friends on here anyway, and especially not since trolls drove me crazy and I shut down my old account back at the beginning of this year.

[moltare.livejournal.com]

I let my account expire the /last/ time they sodded up an issue by paying more attention to revenue than their userbase :P

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Which time was that?

[moltare.livejournal.com]

Approximately April of last year(?), with the aggro over Six Apart's 'Sponsored Journals' and advertising and google ads and ads and adverts and oh here have some ads.

Just like this time; a speedy turnaround once the user base revolted, an insincere apology and a host of customers departing.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. Right.

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

I'll miss my icons like whoa. But I'm not paying them one more cent unless they somehow manage to gain my trust back, and that has the proverbial snowball's chance, really. I'm not leaving the service for the same reasons you're not leaving - my network is here, and I don't think I could rebuild it elsewhere. But all I'll use is the free service now.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

that's where I am at the moment. I don't have much trust. It took so little for such a huge overreactioon, it could happen again.

I agree...

[vortexgrey.livejournal.com]

I think that you have every right to be angry and choose not to trust LJ. They really screwed up and I think that it was very perceptive of you to notice that they were bumbling over themselves to come up with a cheesy lie about what happened. "No crud you screwed up LJ, but can you tell us WHY?". I mean, what they did to all those people was shocking. I wouldn't give them a second chance, except I'm stuck with them for the rest of the year and I like the communities and features that they offer. I don't have full confidence in them either. By the way, I noticed someone mentioned "FA". What is that?

Re: I agree...

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

I believe she meant Fur Affinity. It's a furry Deviant Art sort of thing, with a blog and messaging system attached. I think it has some issues of its own, really, and has gone through a few free speech upheavals as well, some of them over the same issues. But they at least never arbitrarily deleted anybody, especially not on the say-so of an outside party.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

A fundamentalist Christian group called "Warriors For Innocence," led by a crazy lady who's an admitted racist and bigot, decided to go after livejournal, because there were "child molestors" on lj. They weren't working with the police, and they weren't interested in catching criminals and convicting them, they just wanted to shut down blogs with things they didn't like. The reported a bunch of blogs to lj, based on searches for pedophilia-related interests. Lj refused to do anything, as has long been their policy. It's not a crime to talk about pedophilia, just to do it.

Anyhow, WFI then put pressure on livejournal's corporate sponsors, the people who advertise on lj, and lj apparently gave in (though they don't admit to this!) and suspended the entire list of journals, without actually checking the content of those journals, basing the decision entirely on having suspect interests.

Some of the journals suspended included people who were survivors of child molestation, who had put down the interest because they were interested in stopping and preventing such things, as well as a LOT of fandom journals, dedicated to writing things like Harry Potter porn stories. (And because Harry is under age, this is considered pedophilia by some.) Also suspended were some literary discussion journals, and some fashion journals, because of the word "lolita" which can refer to several different things, manga about underage girls among them.

Lj refused to consider requests to return those journals, and also refused to make any kind of statement about the whole mess for two entire days, during which time 30,000+ fandom people joined in a crusade to get lj to reconsider and restore any journals that weren't demonstrably illegal. A lot of people pulled down their plus accounts, and some people removed paid accounts too, while many, like me, swore to never renew paid accounts until we were satisfied.

After quite a long time, and after giving statements to Cnet and others first, the CEO of lj issued an "apology" that pretty much blamed the suspended users for having the interests, saying that listing something as an interest meant you were in favor of that activity, or liked it.

Lj users weren't terribly satisfied with the apology, especially given the logical argument that people who list things like diabetes and breast cancer as interests don't like those things, they suffer from them.

Also argued was the fact that people with interests in murder, nazi-ism, etc. weren't targeted, just child-related terms like shota and lolita.

LJ, seeing the apology hadn't placated anybody, promised to restore all the fan and literary journals, and has done so. They seem to consider the matter over, but of course fandom is still not really happy.

At this point I've left the most active protest community, as it was dissolving into arguments about what we wanted next, and about wanting to try and throw out the "real" pedos from the protest, except nobody can agree where to draw the line between pedo-ish fiction and "real" pedos, so nothing's happening by argument.

And that's the short version there.

[keplilly.livejournal.com]

Uggg, I see...what a mess.

Yup...

[vortexgrey.livejournal.com]

I think that keplilly put t pretty well... And thanks bladespark, I kindof forgot about furaffinity, since I haven't posted or even copied any of my art. I also wanted to say thanks for your extensive reply and clarification about LJ. And your extremely perceptive views about the entire situation, like in the letter you wrote to them and everything. I support you %100 all the way. Also, I need to apologize for having you as a friend for so long and not posting. Like a lot of your painted works on the fledgings and even your fursuits are absolutely fantastic. I've just been so busy that I haven't been able to read other journals for a while. But now I can and there's a lot to see. So thank you, and if you have anything else to say on this topic, I probably won't see it because it's hard to find and it's...dated? So, I'll be sure to post on your newest entry when it comes out. Thank you very much. And just to note, I visited your website and I was interested in one of your fox ear pairs. One thing was, I must have missed the prices, if you could, what is the estimated price range on a general pair? Please post the answer on my next comment, not this one. Thanks!

Re: Yup...

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Glad you like my stuff. General price guides are in the "commissions" section of my page, but ears are $20.