Migrants to IJ, 2007

I'm going to try and sleep tonight so I won't be trouncing all over the post with my IJ icon, but I did find this thread on the first page pretty amusing:

http://community.livejournal.com/lj_policy/1369.html?thread=310873#t310873

Discussing making a collection to bribe someone on staff to tell us what's been going on over the last year.

AWESOME! Money talks...

I've seen that "marta" in other support-related comms--or maybe this one. Is anyone else creeped out by her faceless icon? I mean, to me it really symbolized the opaqueness of the entire abuse and TOS process.

::hoping she gets wind of this and 86's that damned icon::

I gave up even bothering with their 'clarifications'. LJ isn't worth it anymore.

Because this makes me soooo much more confident in their abilities. [/sarcasm]

Wow, I am really honestly creeped out by all this "we can't tell you and we can't tell you why we can't tell you" stuff.

So close to getting enough money for a permanent account... *wistful sigh*

I sure as hell wouldn't be able to make the money to do so if I didn't explain wtf was going on to the people I serve at work, though. e_e "When's the cake coming out?" "Sorry, I can't comment on that."

My bet is that they're under some kind of legal injunction or court order saying "Do this and don't say anything about it otherwise the site gets shut down completely"). Under those circumstances I would be very surprised if they did say anything at all. I'll lay another bet that the Russian government, or major Russian sponsorship (mega-roubles) is behind it.

Over here at lj_policy, the masses are being told that the staff can't say shit about the shitstorm over the blocked search terms.

The recently concluded agreement as of October 2007 is the one wherein SUP bought El Jay and will assume more control via a step-up process, eventually resulting in all files and databases being hosted on SUP servers. That process and the results are alluded to in the urls and press release quoted from below.

When the primitive search string thingy came into being, SUP and Six Apart were already working closely together with a long-term view that SUP
would ultimately acquire El Jay. Because the laws governing what is acceptable to say or post or print in Russia are more stringent than those governing what an American citizen in the USA can say, post, or print-- well...and with the end result being the hosting of all of El Jay stuff on SUP servers...

The staff can truthfully assert now that content, files, information, databases, blogs of USA bloggers will remain on USA soil. However, the end
result will be that SUP servers will be hosting all of that. And when that happens, bloggers will be subject to the laws of the country in which the servers will be located. Most assuredly, the servers will not be located in California.



As the static and then backend databases are moved to SUP servers, I am willing to bet that those staffers who wish to move to another country will be given the opportunity to do so.

Non-transparency works in more than one way it seems.

spike

***


http://markets.chron.com/chron?ChannelID=3191&GUID=3958839&Page=MediaViewer
SUP's press release

http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2006/11/72060?currentPage=1
stepped approach and exactly where the static files and backend databases will eventually reside.

*quote*...The agreement foresees a stepped approach to turning management of Russian LiveJournal pages over to Sup: First static files will move to Sup servers, then eventually Sup will control the backend databases...*/endofquote*


http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2006/11/72060?currentPage=2
What hosting in Russia means regarding tapping on wires by the F.S.B.
Court orders not needed.

Heh. The whole conversation just reminds me of what little kids say. You know:

"But moooooom, all the other sites are filtering adult content and not telling people about it!"
"Now, honey. If all the other community services out there sold their user data to the Russian mob, would you--"

Oh. Wait.