Migrants to IJ, 2007

dangerousedge posted a comment in the news thread at http://news.livejournal.com/102286.html?thread=63843214#t63846030, and also a post in her own journal.

She's BILLING them for the advertising time.

I am sending an invoice to Accounts Payable in the amount of $9,600 for marketing, advertising, and promotional services rendered as part of our on-going Diet Pepsi Max Sponsored v-gift Campaign. That's $50/hr. from August 16, 2007 to August 24, 2007 and the terms are net-30.

I've done it. I've joined IJ as a free user for now because of how tired I am of LJ. This is coming after Anildash popped up again InnocenceJ again to refute the idea of big old corporate scheming using Occam's Razor. By this explanation then, their reasoning is that the one doing all the deciding in this is an idiot rather than out to make money.

I'm not gonna comment on that except what I said in the thread, and that I should thank him for pushing me to join IJ finally instead of just lurking. Now . . . where's the anime comms? And how do I get the handy toolbar, or do I gotta pay for it? ::rubs hands::

The LiveJournal Conflict Archive is a LiveJournal community sailorcelestial and I created for the purpose of gathering in one place all those links and pieces of information we've seen floating around out there. We want to have an archive to act as a single, cohesive and comprehensive resource where users can have this information at their fingertips. Personally, I've been running an ongoing series of posts covering the current issue, but I wasted time searching for links to reference what I was talking about. The LiveJournal Conflict Archive will hopefully remedy that problem, not just for me but for everyone needing information for coverage purposes or for essays.

We want information on Strikethrough and Boldthrough, of course, but also on past controversies that have occurred in the LiveJournal community, such as the controversy concerning default user pics depicting breastfeeding and the ongoing controversy over advertising on LiveJournal.

sailorcelestial and I have done our best to make certain the Archive will remain objective information, free from bias. While the information linked in the Archive may show bias itself, anyone posting to the Archive must refrain from using any biased/subjective language.

By posting this information here, we are inviting everyone with links to information to come join and help us build the Archive into the comprehensive resource everyone needs. Already, we have a timeline of events and a listing of communities dedicated in one way or another to the issues at hand. One person can only gather so much, however. We need to come together as the Live(and Insane!)Journal community to offer our knowledge, and in it, seek the larger truth.

I've been reading the comm for awhile, and so far no one's posted about this here.
Hopefully you know of the beheading video. If not, some links to enlighten:

Radio Free Europe: Controversy Grows Around Russian Beheading Video
NY Times: Beheading and Shooting by Russian Neo-Nazis on Video

Okay. That done, on to the meat of the issue.

Gee, this looks like a screencap from the video:
http://pics.livejournal.com/vik23/pic/0000q6tb/
Hosted right on LJ's own gallery service, no less.
His journal: http://vik23.livejournal.com (plug that url into google's russian->english beta, and see what you get.)

Snagged and (badly)translated from here (emphasis mine):
As has been discovered, a suspect is a 23-year-old Victor Milkov, a student absentee office Adygeyskogo Technological University. He was the National Socialist Party of Russia, and to life earns painting orders. Mr Milkov blogging in "Living Magazine" (Livejournal?) by anyone "vik23." This web diary on August 12 has reference to the spot, and August 13 -- Party statement that it is the armed wing of the National Socialist Society (PDF), together known participate in the "Russian marches and disperse gay parades. Yesterday against Mr. Milkova a criminal case was opened under Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code (incitement of ethnic hatred), which provides for punishment of up to five years' imprisonment.

...So he's being charged, and his content remains up, untouched? (I can understand the necessity of keeping evidence for prosecution; however, this doesn't necessarily require said evidence remain online for all those hypothetical children to see. HELLO? MCFLY?)

LJ interest search for "white power". Notice all the Russian-language comms. Plug those comm urls' into Google's R>E engine, and let the hate speech and racism flow forth. Where's the outrage? Where's the open letters, the petitions, and all the spotlight?

Oh, right. LJ News just announced back-to-school v-gifts, and gratuitously plugs the shit out of Diet Pepsi Max (even going as far as to offer journal and mood themes!) hoping that everyone will get distracted. Because nothing says "I love you" more than a virtual diet pepsi max!

Dear LJ: Nice to know that stopping HP slash fanart, supporting anorexia, and chugging Pepsi's cock are more important than actually dealing with hardcore hate speech ToS violations. It's not like anyone's died, right?

LJ/6A should just come right out and admit that they're being 'selective' about whom they choose to apply the rules to.



Crossposted to a few other comms; apologies if you see twice.



I *really* wish i could install the russian text plugin, into my head. This language barrier crap needs to go.

As all of you all settle in here, will you please go back to LJ just once more to give me some information in this poll? It's at least a way to gauge what business they had, have lost, or might be losing - and in what coveted demographic groups.

http://community.livejournal.com/innocence_jihad/207287.html

Please feel free to pimp/pass around. Thank you!

LJ has found a new way to get advertising - http://news.livejournal.com/102286.html

Virtual gifts brought to you by Diet Pepsi Max.  

Does anyone else have a WTF?  

Suble, aren't they?

Livejournal Tries Again to Placate Fans.


Meanwhile, elaboration has been un-bolded....

"However, after extensive review of our policies we have come to the same conclusion as you have, as well as many of our site's members: that it was not fair to suspend your account without warning in this case, as the subjects depicted were fictional and the art itself was a drawing rather than a photograph, meaning that no actual children were harmed in the creation of this image. We have decided to alter this policy in the future so that warnings will be issued to those posting images that are in violation of LiveJournal's standards for appropriate content."


...and there's discussion about law enforcement getting involved.

It seems that the LJ admins posted an update on lj_biz.

Y'know...I'm having difficulty accepting the possibility that the folks at LJ are being sincere this time. It's not the fact that there are still large gray areas insofar as what is and is not acceptable. It's the fact that this sort of thing happened once before with Strikethrough and the LJ admins promised that they would no longer ban users without warning, yet did exactly that earlier this month. They're trying to seem sincere with this newest post, yet how can any of us have any faith in their promises when they've made promises a couple months ago then turn around and break them?

beyond_lj (at LJ, with backup at IJ) is a community where artists, writers and fans can leave info about their backup accounts or websites in case they decide to - or are forced to - move from LiveJournal, even if their current LiveJournal accounts are still in use.

It is also the place where people who own or moderate communities on LiveJournal can leave information regarding where the community has backup, where it will be moving or where it has already moved.

(It is not a place, though, for people who jump the opportunity and create their own new communities/asylums which have little to do with the original LJ comm. There are other places that list that.)

beyond_lj is active and the list of users with backup accounts is updated every day. We have quite a few comments already, but we would like more people to know about us :)

ETA: Please read the comments to this post (and here)! Many commenters have pointed out that mskala (Matthew Skala), the author of the second article linked below, is wrong on U.S. law, and this casts much of his article into question.

There are many reasons (also acknowledged by M. Skala, incidentally) to be very displeased with Six Apart and LiveJournal *completely aside* from the question of legality/illegality in fandom pursuits.

I linked to the article because I think it's worth discussing ~ and in fact the discussion here has been very educational and enlightening. I'm very grateful so many knowledgeable folks are participating and pointing out the flaws in the arguments presented. [/end ETA]

---

And now for some points that may have been overlooked:

Synecdochic posts on why LJ is the best place for fandom to be.

And

A refreshing (and frightening) dose of perspective:

The Terrible Secret of LiveJournal.

"[...] A lot of material, even in what fandom thinks of as its mainstream - including material that you like to read and look at - is illegal. That's the terrible secret of Livejournal.

In light of this terrible secret, and in light of the imperfect world in which it's all happening, Six Apart's actions actually make a whole lot of sense and aren't nearly so evil as fandom people are saying. [...]"

I strongly encourage you to read the entire article. I wanted to include more quotes, but it got far too long, as I wanted to copy over almost everything. The writer explains just how 6A/LJ has been supportive (and continues to support) fandom in spite of strong reasons not to, but also explains what 6A/LJ have done wrong that led him to leave the service himself.

He also points out that 6A/LJ caused their own problems when it comes to the proanorexia community flap:

"Six Apart has been very stupid in presenting a defence of pro-anorexia as being okay, instead of saying that it's legal and that's the end of the issue. By even considering the question of whether pro-anorexia is okay in a moral or social-responsibility sense, they (first) invite argument on that point, which they will inevitably lose; and (second) allow people to think that illegal fandom material could be tolerated if it were argued to be okay in a moral and social-responsibility sense. Six Apart should be directing attention to the law, saying that they'll follow the law and no other standard, and they should be refusing to engage in debate on the morality and social responsibility of hosting any given content."

It's taking me far too long to post this as I keep wanting to add more and more quotes. Just go and read.

Scarily enough, I learned (where have I been?!) that there's a strong fundie-backed movement to completely do away with social networking sites, period. And all they need is the right ammunition.

Oy.

If you came from "that other journaling site" and haven't already seen it, this is awesome. It's basically a community where you comment if you have or had a paid account and have decided not to keep your paid account in protest of what 6A is doing. It seems small at the moment, so pimp this out to your f-lists. Let's show 6A how much money they're losing due to asshattery.

Rachel clarifies the 'child porn' issue.

And by clarifies, just don't talk about anything sexual concerning under eighteens. Period. Even if they're fictional.

Link goes to the journalfen comm set up to discuss 6a stuff, if anyone on JF would like to join that, but that post also has a link to the original entry.

I hope this is okay to post here. And feel free to plug this anywhere you see fit.

On the off chance that anyone wants to relocate to Blurty for whatever purpose, here is a comunity you will want to see.

http://aura218.livejournal.com/39160.html?page=1&view=115960#comments

Aura218 has gathered a list of staff and volunteers at El Jay and things they've said throughout the lj_biz comments.
Anyone who wishes may gander a look.

She requests direct link rather than copy and paste of her entry should anyone want to do so.

spike

(Originally for LiveJournal, then I thought better of it. All user-links are to LJ!)

EDITED: 16 August 2:00pm CT.

I am going to update this when I can, but please do not consider me the expert here. I have not checked all these links and the list is definitely incomplete. This is in many ways repeated in elke_tanzer's fantastic link post, just grabbing the tech links in one place!

So please comment! I hope that you can all help me mine the flists for technology links, make corrections, and generally put it all in one place. Because honestly, even with a slow connection and multiple journals? Moving it all shouldn't take more than three days. Download the tools, clean up where you are, spread out where you'll be.

First off, be very awake when you do any of this!!

( Frequently Forgotten checklist )

How to Pack Up & Leave LiveJournal (A Tutorial) Overview and links!
Entries, userpics, memories, voice posts, comments the-hard-way, scrapbook.

( The Tools )

Still needed: tools for Macs, and the forwarding services and sites.

Firefox news: Livejournal Draws a Line in the Sand.

Includes a hypothetical that is actually making me ponder now - a vampire that has the body of a 14 year old, while being 1400 years old, doing naughty things. Since the objection to underage sexual activity is that their brains aren't developed enough to give informed consent, and theoretically the vampire would be old enough to, presumably... But personally, a 14 year's old body, still creepy. I think to me that's the sort of thing that's okay, but I wouldn't do it myself, and I'd possibly be casting a wary eye on the people who'd jump at the chance (depending on their age, circumstances, etc, obviously). :P

Why don't we complain?

Quite frankly, it didn't occur to me to complain to an American organization (I live outside America) but if we can do it online, then I suppose it's easier.

The problem is that right now, I don't think I have anything I could actually register as a complaint. LJ finally gave us guidelines -- which it's refusing to add to the TOS -- but it did give us guidelines. Complain for unreliable service and delays in answering valid concerns?

At any rate, I think that it comes a little too late but if we end up having to deal with a third round of Strikethrough '07 (has anyone seen an explanation yet for the bold, btw?), then maybe it'll be useful.

There's nothing up here specifically about the pro-ana comment threads yet, so

My post about it, if you can wade through the emotive language enough to get the gist of it. ;)


ETA: No point making a new post for this. On LJ, aura218 is doing a list of links to the threads on the latest lj_biz post in which staffers comment. It's sort of depressing clicking through them and watching them dance around questions and then completely stop talking without ever giving a straight answer.

Illegal and Harmful Content Policy Clarifications posted in lj_biz by a new LJ username: "theljstaff."

I thought this was interesting to read. http://community.livejournal.com/fandom_flies/6400.html

In this post, it suggests that there's a new bill in coming, which could put fictional characters under the same laws as real life persons currently. In other words, writing fiction or doing art depicting children in sexual activities would also be considered illegal.

Note: posts from fandom_flies are being mirrored at both fandom_flies and fandom_fliesot, with fandom_flies being predominantly related to information of fandom exodus (planning and such), but fandom_fliesot mirroring all other posts posted at fandom_flies @ LJ but not related to fandom exodus. Join any if interested, or none at all if not.