*sigh*
Another LJ TOS controversy.
I really don't care about what LiveJournal's suits objected to. I wouldn't even bother with free speech issues. That's not really what's wrong here.
What is wrong is LiveJournal's business practices.
Here's what I don't understand: were the recent suspended users repeat offenders? I mean, were they given a warning and then did it again anyway?
I just don't understand why LiveJournal has played such a heavy hand with this. I don't mind that LiveJournal takes actions against users, even if I don't always agree about the circumstances of those actions, but for crying out loud, act like adults about it!
Really, if a business treated you like this, would you shop there again?
It would make sense to me to adopt a better way of handling these cases. There certainly is reason for some kind of action in regards to offending material, especially when it's been brought to their attention and if they agree that it is against their TOS.
But, for a one-time offender? Somehow it doesn't make sense to permanently ban the user, honestly. Maybe it was a misunderstanding. Maybe it was an artistic expression (which can be offensive to some people, certainly). Whatever. Give the user a chance to make right. The users obviously want to be a part of this community. Why doesn't LiveJournal want its members?
Here's a simple solution: if I were a first-time offender, send me an email stating that my account is temporarily suspended until I remove the offending material, and that I have, say, 24 hours to do so. Refusal to do so will cause the account to be come permanently suspended.
So if I disagree and created another account in spite of the command and post the offending material again, well, then, I become a repeat offender. I'd have already been warned. Now LiveJournal could permanently suspend me.
What if I'm so ticked at all this and created yet another account and posted the offending material again just out of malice. By now, LiveJournal really wouldn't want to deal with a user like me, so a permanent ban would be perfectly acceptable. After all, I'd be a repeat offender who has been warned multiple times by this point.
That seems rough, but if LiveJournal offered at least a little warning shot across the bow, as a consumer, you could consider that LiveJournal has that right, remove the material, and quietly post elsewhere where the owners of those servers don't mind. (There are, in fact, artistic servers/journals that allow the kind of art which was removed here at LiveJournal recently.)
I think this would be fair. I know not everybody would be happy with doing it like that, especially if the person's "offending material" was what the user thought of as "free speech," but this is LiveJournal's server, they provide the time and effort and money (through means of paid members, ads and investors) in order to keep it up. They can dictate what they deem acceptable to be hosted on their server or not, quite honestly. But they need to be both clear and respectable about it.
ETA: And this open letter addresses all the issues, really. So go, read, sign.
I really don't care about what LiveJournal's suits objected to. I wouldn't even bother with free speech issues. That's not really what's wrong here.
What is wrong is LiveJournal's business practices.
Here's what I don't understand: were the recent suspended users repeat offenders? I mean, were they given a warning and then did it again anyway?
I just don't understand why LiveJournal has played such a heavy hand with this. I don't mind that LiveJournal takes actions against users, even if I don't always agree about the circumstances of those actions, but for crying out loud, act like adults about it!
Really, if a business treated you like this, would you shop there again?
It would make sense to me to adopt a better way of handling these cases. There certainly is reason for some kind of action in regards to offending material, especially when it's been brought to their attention and if they agree that it is against their TOS.
But, for a one-time offender? Somehow it doesn't make sense to permanently ban the user, honestly. Maybe it was a misunderstanding. Maybe it was an artistic expression (which can be offensive to some people, certainly). Whatever. Give the user a chance to make right. The users obviously want to be a part of this community. Why doesn't LiveJournal want its members?
Here's a simple solution: if I were a first-time offender, send me an email stating that my account is temporarily suspended until I remove the offending material, and that I have, say, 24 hours to do so. Refusal to do so will cause the account to be come permanently suspended.
So if I disagree and created another account in spite of the command and post the offending material again, well, then, I become a repeat offender. I'd have already been warned. Now LiveJournal could permanently suspend me.
What if I'm so ticked at all this and created yet another account and posted the offending material again just out of malice. By now, LiveJournal really wouldn't want to deal with a user like me, so a permanent ban would be perfectly acceptable. After all, I'd be a repeat offender who has been warned multiple times by this point.
That seems rough, but if LiveJournal offered at least a little warning shot across the bow, as a consumer, you could consider that LiveJournal has that right, remove the material, and quietly post elsewhere where the owners of those servers don't mind. (There are, in fact, artistic servers/journals that allow the kind of art which was removed here at LiveJournal recently.)
I think this would be fair. I know not everybody would be happy with doing it like that, especially if the person's "offending material" was what the user thought of as "free speech," but this is LiveJournal's server, they provide the time and effort and money (through means of paid members, ads and investors) in order to keep it up. They can dictate what they deem acceptable to be hosted on their server or not, quite honestly. But they need to be both clear and respectable about it.
ETA: And this open letter addresses all the issues, really. So go, read, sign.