[info]teh_kittykat in [info]07refugees

Reason number eleventy-billion why buying a perm account was a dumb idea:

Reason number eleventy-billion why buying a perm account was a dumb idea:

Three of the four charity organizations LJ members were donating to has strong ties to the venture capitalist looking to buy Six Apart. Yup, that's right, they basically got LJers to dump money into the pockets of the corporate entities LJ is trying so desperately to please. More moderate heads have pointed out that this is probably a point in this guy's favor

Vote Oulangi! Hat-tip to [info]oulangi for the excellent detective work.

Hmmm... maybe we should suggest to the not entirely insane fandom people who are insistent on staying on LJ that they should write this guy and point out that Six Apart is having some censorship issues, since he turns out to be pretty cool after all? And that, like, it wouldn't be cool to hand them money?

(Edited 8/5/07, later that day)
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Posted on Aug. 5th, 2007 at 12:13 pm | | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

Comments


[info]sagami

Seconded. It was mighty detective work, all right.
Posted on Aug. 5th, 2007 04:25 pm (UTC) | | Reply

[info]aristoboule

LORDY. And remember the, "We'll donate $25 of your permanent account purchase to charity, blah blah blah." Wasn't EFF the default charity?

What worthless turds!
Posted on Aug. 5th, 2007 05:16 pm (UTC) | | Reply

[info]msilverstar

EFF and Creative Commons are big important net advocacy organizations which have a full life apart from any venture capitalist. Hell, I was there, on The Well, when EFF was born, and Mitch Kapor was the guy who started the ball rolling. Both organizations are really worthwhile in fighting the corporate designs on the Internet and the Web.

So it's not like it's someone's private charity.
Posted on Aug. 5th, 2007 05:37 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]poleva

I'm not wild about 6A at the moment but if Joi Ito is involved with EFF, Creative Commons, RAINN and Witness, then my estimation of him just went up a bit, not down. msilverstar already explained why EFF and CC are important. RAINN is a group that supports victims of rape and incest and Witness is a human rights advocacy group started by Peter Gabriel. It's fine to be upset about 6A not disclosing their ties to the groups through Nevotny but I hope no one takes a negative view of the charities involved. These really are worthwhile causes.
Posted on Aug. 5th, 2007 05:57 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]ficchica

He's not involved with RAINN, just the other three.
Posted on Aug. 5th, 2007 07:32 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]poleva

Thanks for pointing that out. I misread oulangi's post.
Posted on Aug. 5th, 2007 07:34 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Reply

[info]p_zeitgeist

I agree with this, basically. The problem isn't with the organizations, not at all: it's with the nondisclosure of the connection. Which is especially bothersome to me because Barak B. made something of a point of how EFF was going to be working with them on policy reform in the wake of the first strikethough crisis, and referred to it as an independent group.

Which isn't to say it's not. Or that corporations don't support their executives' pet charities all the time. The substance of what happened here doesn't bother me at all.

But. The connection really, really should have been disclosed. Not because of the fundraising, but because of that use of EFF as an indicator of good faith to the community at a time of crisis, and the implicit suggestion that there was in fact no connection.
Posted on Aug. 6th, 2007 03:35 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Reply

[info]txvoodoo

Thank you.

These groups have done seriously important work. I agree with the comment below - association with these groups is something that increases someone's merit in my eyes.

Who knows, maybe he'll *learn* from them.
Posted on Aug. 5th, 2007 11:22 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Reply

[info]kindkit

Eh? Someone sitting on the board of a charity or public-interest group does not mean that money donated to that group goes into that person's pocket (personal or corporate). And Ito's connection to the EFF, as far as I could decipher the legalese, consisted of being included in an amicus curiae brief in support of a cause that EFF also supported.

I'm strongly opposed to the choices LJ is making right now, but I think this sort of conspiracy-theory stuff is nonsense and distracts people from the real issues.
Posted on Aug. 5th, 2007 07:39 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]princesskirsty

i agree, but i think that users reacting this way so quickly just goes to show how little we trust lj/6A. like if it WAS as bad as people are thinking we wouldn't be at all surprised...if that makes sense :\
Posted on Aug. 6th, 2007 01:02 am (UTC) | | Parent | Reply