This whole journal thing.

[dragonkal]

I've avoided this topic because I know I'm in the minority in my opinion, but that's never been a good reason to stay silent, has it?

Comments

[dragonkal]

No one was threatened with being sued--the issue was that WfI threatened to go to LJ's advertisers and say that they allowed child porn.

I appreciate the correction.

WfI's definition of "child porn" and "pedophile" is elastic enough to include just about anyone they don't like, especially gays, lesbians, and brown people.

I was not aware of this. Could you point me toward where I can find the information that WfI is targeting gays, lebsians, and people of color under the umbrella of child porn and/or pedophilia?

But they are allowing an extremist hate group--a group that wouldn't be allowed to have an LJ community under the current TOS--to dictate their corporate policy and to have a greater say than those of us who are actually paying for their service.

Certainly there are things WfI could quote from LJ to advertisers that would make them blanch. That's not the same as WfI metaphorically holding LJ hostage; that's someone with an agenda pointing things out about LJ's existing member community and public posts that are accessible on their platform.

Buying an LJ account isn't the same as buying stock in the company. It sucks to have the rules changed when you're a paying member, but that happens with cellphone providers and non-rent-controlled apartments, too. Nowhere in the TOS does it say that if you buy an account for a year, the rules will remain static.

Frankly, I'm rather surprised that a lot of the content LJ is concerned about has been allowed to remain on LJ this long. I've spent an inordinate amount of time over the last several years looking at writer's guidelines for erotica publications, and I have never seen one willing to publish a story involving an underage character in any way, shape, or form. Many explicitly state in their guidelines that they want nothing to do with that. While LJ's liability is different from that of a publisher, I certainly understand where they're coming from, and I understand why they won't offer fannish underage stories leeway.

I can and do expect a company that I pay for a service to deliver that service, or to clearly and explicitly state why not. I expect a professional entity to behave professionally, and to establish clear guidelines for their service based on something more than, "We'll know what we don't allow when we see it."

Perfectly valid, but I wish you luck finding a journaling system that will give you clear guidelines on exactly what they consider obscene, vulgar, or otherwise grounds for being TOS'd (and still allow porn). Should you find one, I'll go there in a heartbeat, but with the current state of madness in the US (and elsewhere) about sexual controversy, I don't expect one to exist anytime soon.