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stoney posts on the latest Serious Business: Full Cocked:
Because who wants to go off half-cocked? So yesterday, it came to light in the US that a Russian LJ blogger posted a live execution video on his LJ a few days ago. NPR reported this yesterday afternoon, even though it happened a few days ago. Last night, I saw many people's posts of outrage: How could LJ let that be shown, but the Snarry pic was removed? How can you stay on this service? And so on and so on. [ ... ].
Much research into the situation around Russians and their (non)free speech situation and exactly how much involvement LJ has with SUP (the service that actually runs the Russian blog system). A must read.
Also posted at her LJ.
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Wall of Text crits you for 1500. We need more DoTs!
Really, I'm not even sure where to begin. After reading all that twice it seems that the policy is "anything that might be considered dodgy is an automatic permaban" for everything. The policy for photorealistic art is different from other art, except that it's not because all borderline cases need to be treated like they're hardcore kindergartener sexxing. And all art=porn still, with an added helping of "oh, you fans and your porn!" when people started asking about linking to content that was outside of the ToS.
rachel's comments continue to be a trainwreck in and of themselves. And you'd think that someone who is still purportedly representing the company would try for a visual placeholder that doesn't involve large amounts of beer.
coffeechica has apologized for the comments on anorexia, at least, though there's no word yet on whether or not some parts of the ToS will continue to be more equal than others. And really, burying it on page five is not cool of the management.
(Yeah, I can tell we're still experiencing a lot of crosspost with ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif)
07refugees. I'll be opening up tagging soon as I hit the admin panel, so feel free to report in on non-Six Apart related stuff. I'm sure there's plenty of serious business out there. Waiting for you. With binoculars so it can watch you change.)
ETA: Tagging is now open to all members-- you can edit/delete tags and set them yourself on entries. Try for big serious subjects, plz, so it works as a filing system.
And nope, LJ is still failing hardcore.
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Aside from any fandom concerns, I would like to point out another ongoing issue that came up in the lj_biz thread.
Took me awhile to find the relevant links in that enormous tangle of threads and sub-threads, but luckily I was saving some links as I was reading.
Thevelvetsun asked why LJ allows pro-self-harm communities to thrive, when encouraging self-harm is against LJ's ToS.
Others agree. Throughout the thread, several communities are mentioned, but the focus is on LJ's enormous (the largest on the Internet, with nearly 11,800 members ... and only two moderators) pro-anorexia community. Many examples are given of this community offering starvation tips and other blatantly self-harming tips to others; it seems clear it is not a community that supports recovery, but one that encourages anorexia.
LJ staffer Coffeechica justifies and excuses the community in comments. And further ...
After chirpily assuring that she's speaking on an official basis, she comes up with the now infamous line: "It's not illegal to aspire to be thin."
"If I GTFO, who else will answer your questions? ;-) Yes, I do work for LJ and I'm speaking officially.
"I do know what I'm talking about; I've read many many of these communities. It's sad, I know it is. But it's not illegal to aspire to be thin. It's not against the ToS to give people bad advice.
"LiveJournal does not support girls harming themselves. There is a line where we will suspend a pro-ana community or require removal of an entry. That line is when content is specifically instructing or inciting self-harm. Generalities aren't against the ToS, but specificities may be."
Not only does this hugely offend the concerned posters, who point out that anorexia is a deadly disease and mental disorder with an up to 20% mortality rate ... no mere "aspiration to be thin" ... but it's pointed out to Coffeechica that there are many blatantly
specific examples, many of which have already been reported to the LJ Abuse team, and which have uniformly received the brush-off.
( Some anorexia statistics )Thevelvetsun composed An Open Letter to LiveJournal, Regarding Proanorexia and requests signatures. I signed it, several days ago, and I encourage you to read the letter and her explanatory post. Please sign her open letter, if you agree with her stance. Some of the members of the proanorexia group complained, and it was mentioned how the two mods were overburdened and couldn't be expected to catch all the self-harming tips and tricks posted and delete them. I agree with the commenters who said a community that large needed many more moderators and should have appointed them already. As
this comment points out, at least 8 moderators is a good number for a community of that size (and it is very, very active).
Thevelvetsun, upon receiving no response from LJ, has
contacted the media, as she promised to do.
She is still requesting signatures to her letter (currently she has over 1,000) as the issue has not been resolved yet. ***
On a less serious note, here are two icons pertaining to the issue ... free for sharing, per the creators:
by
Pichipai:
***
by
Ardath_rekha:
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Co-author credit goes to lostangelssong who helped me go through the comment threads. :D
Lj_biz has been updated with the long-awaited clarification of their bannination policy. Only, it's basically a reiteration of what they'd said before.
Naturally, the users rabble respond. Like.. a lot. Like.. this barely scratches the surface, man.
Highlights:
++ In case anyone missed it (in which case, I want to know what rock you live under so I can book a vacation there!), rm sums up why the grown-ups are leaving too in a convenient list format.
++ thevelvetsun starts a thread asking why some Terms of Service are more equal than others-- "You're saying that LJ supports girls helping girls harm themselves? You're honestly saying they endorse the pro-ana lifestyle? Do you work for LJ? Are you speaking officially? Is this something we can take to the bank? Harry Potter can't go homo when he hits 18, but LJ thinks girls should be skinny by any means necessary?" --averysmallthing
++ imaginarycircus finds out why this regurgitation took six days and offers a rather nice coping strategy to boot!
++ developer has definitely got the right idea about the free speech issue. Because hate groups > porn, man. Porn kills.
++ It's almost like they're asking for the cat macros. And speak of the devil... Though hey, they made it to page three of the comments!
++ xaoswolf invokes that goddamn "First they came for..." thing. Good thing underwear fetishists are the arbiters of normal. For a moment I was getting worried.
++ valiskeogh realizes Coke is great.
++ World domination is right out. Also, beware the icon police.
Aaaaaand a lot of the posts in the comments continue along the same vein, repeatedly asking for the promised clarifications that weren't given, etc. etc. I'll continue coverage of this breaking wanksplosion, but I gotta sleep sometime. The feeling that it's a really bad fanfiction is getting to me. Next we'll have LJ staffers committing internet suicide and complaining that no one understands them... oh wait.
So what has LJ managed to learn from all this? Sockpuppet accounts are nice when addressing the rabble.
Edit the First: Braver souls than I have been collecting the comments made by official LJ staffers. The failboat looks like it's sailing straight and true-- the journal's owner had to keep freezing comments when an LJ staffer showed up and kept commenting despite a request to GTFO. (Worded politely, too.)
Edit the Second: Dark_Christian, who covered the WFI mess, reveals that LJ also approves of communities that are pro religiously motivated child abuse. The communities have been reported to LJ Abuse, as per this thread in the main event. Hat tip to emilie_burns.
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thoughtful