Recent LJ Outrage

[silverthunder]

Well, most people have an opinion about the recent unpleasantness with LJ, so I thought I'd toss mine out there. It's looking pretty obvious right now that they're targeting aspects of fandom that they don't like and not-so-quietly removing them from the premises. Much like a private party. Which doesn't work so well for the concept of journals.

Personally, I think that I probably don't have anything to worry about. I don't post fanfics or art on this journal. That's what my GreatestJournal has always been for. And I can't kid myself that my life is in any way exciting enough to get me banned.

However, this doesn't mean that I don't have friends who *do* have a chance of being banned. And that is really disquieting. Honestly, if there was an easy way to do it and keep all of my friends intact and just proceed as usual, I'd probably move.

But, bottom line is that there isn't. If we migrate, everyone on my friends list is going to have a different idea of where they want to migrate to. They'll scatter, and I'll have to join 5 different journaling sites to keep track of them. And to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't be able to keep up with 5 different journaling sites. Right now I have 2 and I neglect my GJ like crazy.

If things get really bad, then I probably will be forced to move. A lot of people now are withdrawing their paid accounts (and thus, their monetary support) from LJ. There's a possibility that LJ will go under. But we won't know for sure until it happens.

For now, I'm staying. I don't like it, but I'm staying. I've invested too much time in this journal, and I can't bring myself to jump ship and abandon it just yet. I really hate LJ and 6A and their new "rules" but I consider myself stuck here for the time being.

Comments

[third-requiem.livejournal.com]

The only problem with monitoring LJ like that is indeed, many users are not Americans and thus not knowledgeable of American law. That makes it a bit unfair to them because they don't know that what they're doing is considered illegal here. And, ultimately, there is only so much that you can do to protect minors. As seen on FF.net, you can't stop them from pushing the button agreeing that they are over a certain age. That is the responsibility of the parents and those monitoring the children.

I agree that LJ has handled the situation poorly, but I will suggest that they are under a lot of pressure right now from various sources. I do wish LJ was more clear on what is and will not be accepted and will also take into consideration what the user is doing. Meaning, if I F-lock my journal and only allow those people that are over 18 to view it, that should be a bonus and taken into account if someone reports abuse on me.

But again, I can see where LJ might be in a bit of a bind because if there is a journal reported as advertising child porn and they give them a warning, the user(s) can delete the material and claim it was never there. I would much prefer a solution such as the user being denied access for X amount of time so LJ can review the journal while it remains up, but disallow the user to continue accessing it so they can change things.

I don't think we'll ever be happen with whatever solution is thought up because fandom has become privileged. We've taken the lack of security for granted and now we're paying for it. It's probably time for everyone to have a good sit down and work out a feasible solution.

[silverthunder]

But again, I can see where LJ might be in a bit of a bind because if there is a journal reported as advertising child porn and they give them a warning, the user(s) can delete the material and claim it was never there.

That may be, but in this case, LJ came right out and said that they knew the content wasn't child porn or anything illegal. It was just content they didn't care to host. That's why I think the steps they took were pretty harsh.

I agree that they'd need time to review the journal to ensure that it wasn't blatantly illegal, but in a situation like this, where they review it and find nothing illegal, they should give the user warning to remove the content before permanently banning their account.