[info]yohjideranged in [info]07refugees

WFI update

I know that some of you are still watching the whole Warriors For Innocence drama at LJ.  So, here is a little update.

Apparently WFI is writing letters via email to people that advertise with LJ.  So, what everyone has been saying all along is true...we haven't seen the end of this.

You can find this reference here:  http://community.livejournal.com/fanthropology/355022.html

The apathy after the apology just killed me...I don't expect people to leave now...but I am hoping that we can persuade some more (the ones we care about) to jump ship before it completely sinks.

Thank you for your time.

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Posted on Jun. 19th, 2007 at 01:31 pm | | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

Comments

[info]dixprincesse

:/ I really hope more people can come over too. I feel alone without all the people in my fandom.
Posted on Jun. 19th, 2007 05:38 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]yohjideranged

I missed my fandoms too...so I created them here. I just wish more of my friends had flocked with me. Gets a little lonely sometimes.
Posted on Jun. 20th, 2007 06:56 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Reply

[info]velvetwhip

These WFI creeps scare the daylights out of me!

Gabrielle
Posted on Jun. 19th, 2007 07:25 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]yohjideranged

No kidding - vigilantism and everything. Just the fact that a few are going to such extremes and big companies are listening to them...that is what really scares me.
Posted on Jun. 20th, 2007 06:57 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Reply

[info]thrillkiller

Oh, pfff. It's two people, you guys seem to be forgetting. WFI consists of two, maybe three, fanatics, on the Internet, pushing their agenda whether other people care or not.

Isn't this what most people consider a version of trolling?

Why are we giving them any more attention than any other common latter-day troll? At this point, that's all they really are. SixApart aren't total idiots. They know damn well how much money WFI cost them. That's the last time I'm paying for an LJ account, I'll tell you that, and I know I'm far from alone. They'll get exactly as much reaction from LJ this time as I'd get if I went up and started bitching about all the pro-War on Drugs shit, and the damage the War on Drugs does to people, especially the poor.

Namely, 'that's nice, go away'.

A larger group would be a worry, but, seriously, these people barely deserve to be referred to by a collective acronym, much less do their machinations have much luck of actually affecting any of us.

Not that we should ignore them utterly, just in case they do discover some way to make themselves genuinely obnoxious again. But they don't deserve people worrying over them so m much.
Posted on Jun. 19th, 2007 10:13 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]ingrid

Not only that, but their other "slight" PR problems -- extreme racism, homophobia and white supremacy ties -- effectively erases any chance they might have at gaining respectability among actual anti-child exploitation groups, let alone the government or public at large.

That being said, the fact that SixApart took them seriously at any point in time doesn't say much for their business savvy, common sense or commitment to free speech. *That's* the scary bit ...
Posted on Jun. 19th, 2007 10:19 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]thrillkiller

Well, eh. A lot of equally despicable people are very famous and popular. Look up what Fred Phelps' kids have said about him. But yeah, it definitely handicaps them right out of the gate.

Of course not, but sometimes humans do idiotic things, especially where the Internet is concerned. Any new media is going to be full of companies overreacting to the importance of things happening on it. The Web isn't exactly BRAND NEW anymore, but as a media it's still more than new enough to provoke that kind of idiocy. Remember the dot-com bubble? I worked at a dotcom for $8.50 an hour just cleaning up broken HTML, mainly bad a hrefs.

They gave me $8.50 an hour, and didn't bother to check that I was billing them for actual WORKING hours (as opposed to messing-around-on-the-Web hours) in order to fix image links.

Doesn't sound smart, does it? Made perfect sense at the time, especially without knowledge of the tremendous crash around the bend. (Damn, do I ever miss that job... )

Anyway, point is -- doing stupid shit is part of being a corporation. I'd be amazed if any publicly-offered company in existence right now hadn't done some similar panicky Stupid Thing in response to a minor stimuli.
Posted on Jun. 19th, 2007 10:26 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]ingrid

Anyway, point is -- doing stupid shit is part of being a corporation. I'd be amazed if any publicly-offered company in existence right now hadn't done some similar panicky Stupid Thing in response to a minor stimuli.

But of course! That being said, it doesn't bode well for current and future revenue, especially from an already skittish source ... 'Net denizens aren't noted for their patience or their tolerance, of, well, intolerance. ;)

The only thing on their side is that the memory of Net Denizens ain't that great. Of course, if anyone's around to remind them ...
Posted on Jun. 19th, 2007 10:36 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Reply

[info]sapphoq

nope


They are not just two or three people in a garage in Arizona.
They have a bunch of front organizations and they are connected with Joel's Army.

I followed the links to all team members blogs on their blogspot and googled them.

spike
Posted on Jun. 21st, 2007 11:56 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]thrillkiller

Proof?

And frankly, nothing you just said tells me anything different than 'insignificant'. I could create the image of a thriving underground supporting *anything*, if I felt like going to the trouble.
Posted on Jun. 22nd, 2007 03:07 am (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]sapphoq

Joel's Army/google


They aren't thriving in the sense that the right wingers are in D.C.

I followed the links of the team members from their original blogspot post.

They've set up a few dummy orgs. Acme Cleaning Services was the name of one blog I remember off-hand.

The original blogspot site has been locked to friends only at this point.

And I will not goto their big site with the spyware.

Point remains, there are more than three of them.
spike
Posted on Jun. 22nd, 2007 11:13 am (UTC) | | Parent | Reply

[info]thrillkiller

Hey, man, I wasn't intending it as a comment on you, just on people's reactions in general. And certainly not on the value of the post. It's good to keep track of the little bastards' progress, if only because their persistence is hilarious.
Posted on Jun. 20th, 2007 12:51 am (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]yohjideranged

No, it wasn't you. I appreciate constructive comments. I just got slammed in another way and I started to think that maybe this post wasn't appropriate here.

I mean I want people to talk about them because these types of problems are not going to go away and new problems will eventually crop up. I don't want to see another round of my friends freaking out and all fire panicked because they were not in the know. You know?

So, thanks for the comment, but that wasn't directed at you. ^__^
Posted on Jun. 20th, 2007 01:16 am (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]thrillkiller

I have a way of offending people when I don't mean to, so especially when something like that pops up I gotta be sure. Glad to know it wasn't me tho. What was the bitching about if you don't mind my asking?

I sympathise with the desire, but, somehow, I think people are going to find ways to be surprised about everything. Looking straight into the Shadow isn't something most people like to do, but that's exactly what you gotta to do keep ahead of this shit. It all comes out of everyone's collective Shadow.
Posted on Jun. 20th, 2007 01:53 am (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]yohjideranged

The bitching was more to the point of "hey, they apologized, so what's the big deal." And then came the thing about "you know, you're the only one still talking about it, why are you bothered so much?"

But it does bother me. When strikethrough occurred the survivor community that I was a part of freaked the heck out. Especially so when WFI posted the suspended and deleted journals on their site as pedophiles for anyone in the world to see. Even though this community was never deleted, for survivors it is difficult to feel like a trust has been broken. It's something you never quite get back after it's lost.

So, for me, I thought that others didn't want to hear it either...that's what prompted my edit, which I have taken down because I now realize that I was being reactive.
Posted on Jun. 20th, 2007 06:53 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]thrillkiller

Shit, if you've been through something like that, your reaction to this shit is hardly surprising. You've already had your capacity to trust seriously rattled if not badly broken. Once bitten, twice wary, and all that.

P.S.: Your icon could only be funnier if it were Squall and Cloud together. What's with the Angst Parade for main characters in video games the last ten years?
Posted on Jun. 20th, 2007 11:31 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Reply

[info]ex_juliette558

I finally took an actual look at their website (WFI). They're just thought nazis. I mean, seriously, if there actually were child predators using LJ, why not just contact the Feds or whoever takes care of it in the US? Get them to sequester records of IPs used to login, etc etc. It all looks like just another excuse for a bitch-fest to me. Not to mention that, whatever they do to Livejournal, it won't actually stop the problem. It's just going to sweep it under the carpet, where THEY don't have to think about it anymore. I mean, sheesh, I've known lots of people who were abused, I'm one of them, and that all happened a long time before there was any such goddamn thing as the internet. Or livejournal. Grrr.
Posted on Jun. 20th, 2007 04:18 am (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]ex_juliette558

Oh, and more on-topic, it's good that you care, and yes, the apathy is disturbing, but that's how history always comes to pass. There'll be a minority of people who care and leave in protest/need (call us "the rats" if you will), and then there'll be those who stay on the ship. Some of them will be able to swim after it sinks, and will find somewhere else in the end anyway. And many more just won't even notice, perhaps because they were never "there" to be able to notice in the first place. It's depressing--the whole thing is depressing--but it's just how humanity seems to work these days. :/
Posted on Jun. 20th, 2007 04:23 am (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply

[info]yohjideranged

Thanks. The whole situation sucks and I know it sucks. I just am an individual that will save others for heartache and frustration if I can. Probably a losing battle...but I will keep trying.
Posted on Jun. 20th, 2007 06:55 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Reply