(no subject)
Eh, I don't normally bother getting worked up about livejournal's various attacks of uselessness, but this one does seem more than usually stupid, so - a brief post. (Sorry for f-list spam, especially for those of you who have already heard MORE THAN ENOUGH about this nonsense.) As you may have noticed, the most recent coding release from LJ includes allowing users to crosspost their journal entries and comments to Facebook or Twitter. As the 7200 comments posted on that entry within c.36 hours suggest, this has not been welcomed with unalloyed joy; most notably because one can, deliberately or otherwise (and considering the way the 'post to facebook button' has been positioned, and the fact that one can set one's default setting to 'post all my comments to FB', 'otherwise' is by no means impossible), cross-post one's comments to someone else's friends-locked entry to one's Facebook; this posts on Facebook the content of the comment (including direct quotation from the locked entry if included, quite apart from the content implied by the comment itself), the URL, title, and username of the original post (though of course if it's a locked entry they can't actually see the content itself.) Ways this is potentially a VERY BAD THING include 'God, X, I can't believe you're pregnant!', 'X, I'm so so sorry about your test results', and 'Good luck with the job interview, X - I agree, your boss is a bastard, you're better off out of it.'
This is of course in addition to the fact that many people might not want even their non f-locked entries cross-posted to other people's Facebook accounts, as many of us like to keep our gay porn separate from our work colleagues and family. Of course, one can always link to entries and cut&paste LJ things to Facebook accounts if one wants to, so the privacy accorded is always little notional; but this cross-posting lark does seem rather like an invitation to privacy violation, intentional or, as noted above, otherwise.
(This is, of course, a very basic summary of some of the problems as I see them - many, many other problems have been suggested amongst the now 7211 complaining comments on the original post.)
So, if anyone else feels like LJ should really allow its users the option to opt out of this nonsense, it might - *might* - help if you commented on the post, and/or voted in the poll here, which has been mentioned by the one LJ staff member who's put their head above the parapet on this in the last 36 hours.
Oh, and I trust you lot, of course, but I'd be very grateful if you make doubly sure not to crosspost any comments you may make here to Facebook/Twitter, especially those of you who know me in what approximates to my Real Life ^_^
Thanks for listening, now back to your normal radio silence. More blog posts may be expected a) if/when LJ sort this out, or b) if/when I finish my thesis, whichever comes later. (LAST SYLLABLE OF RECORDED TIME, MY DEARS.)
This is of course in addition to the fact that many people might not want even their non f-locked entries cross-posted to other people's Facebook accounts, as many of us like to keep our gay porn separate from our work colleagues and family. Of course, one can always link to entries and cut&paste LJ things to Facebook accounts if one wants to, so the privacy accorded is always little notional; but this cross-posting lark does seem rather like an invitation to privacy violation, intentional or, as noted above, otherwise.
(This is, of course, a very basic summary of some of the problems as I see them - many, many other problems have been suggested amongst the now 7211 complaining comments on the original post.)
So, if anyone else feels like LJ should really allow its users the option to opt out of this nonsense, it might - *might* - help if you commented on the post, and/or voted in the poll here, which has been mentioned by the one LJ staff member who's put their head above the parapet on this in the last 36 hours.
Oh, and I trust you lot, of course, but I'd be very grateful if you make doubly sure not to crosspost any comments you may make here to Facebook/Twitter, especially those of you who know me in what approximates to my Real Life ^_^
Thanks for listening, now back to your normal radio silence. More blog posts may be expected a) if/when LJ sort this out, or b) if/when I finish my thesis, whichever comes later. (LAST SYLLABLE OF RECORDED TIME, MY DEARS.)