brief update
In case you're not in fandom and so may not have heard about this yet: LJ has permanently suspended around 500 accounts under the umbrella of protecting children. Some of these accounts are indeed predators deserving of removal from LJ. Others are discussion communities or role play journals or erotica archives that in some cases simply listed something LJ considers illegal in their interests.
This does affect everyone on LJ - and anyone who cares about using a hosted online community. This has a huge potential chilling effect on speech not only on LJ, but on all hosted services. Until it's truly easy to constitute an online community without using a central hosted service, the very concept of online community is at stake here.
Please read the CNet article for concise background. In particular, note that contrary to emails reportedly sent by LJ Abuse to suspended users, Six Apart's CEO states that this was *not* merely a legal catch-22, but rather also an active choice by Six Apart to discourage kinds of accounts that it considers inappropriate members of the LiveJournal community.
I agree that predators are not appropriate members of the LJ community. But if a fic written to explore themes of abuse and recovery and that's posted to a comm with the word "incest" in its userinfo is an inappropriate part of the LJ community, then what's next? How soon til we see the purge of all erotica? Of anything that might be construed as copyright infringement? LJ has taken a stand for preserving as much user free speech as possible in the past. As members of the LJ community, we need to remind them that that very fact is one of the key reasons we've been so loyal.
If you're fannish and have been living under a rock since yesterday, check out fandomtossed over at GreatestJournal for probably the best concise and timely updates on the situation. Also check out fandom_counts to register your journal as part of the great fannish constituency, and fandom_lawyers for legal talk.
In many ways bookshop has been blogging the main points of anything I'd have been saying here. But I do want to specifically point people to fandom_voices, which is a community we would have been starting very soon *anyway*, to discuss ways fandom can present ourselves to media and the outside world. The comm is bigger than this specific LJ issue right now, but we're also using the comm to discuss creating a fannish LJ user's talking points on what's wrong with the current situation, for potential use in media outreach. So please check it out and contribute to the talking points brainstorm!
ETA: Six Apart's CEO explains, apologizes, and promises reinstatement for legitimate accounts that were suspended in error. We'll have to hold 'em to it if anyone is left behind, but this appears to be what we're looking for.
6A CEO post to LJ News
fandomtossed aggregation of all 6A official responses
This does affect everyone on LJ - and anyone who cares about using a hosted online community. This has a huge potential chilling effect on speech not only on LJ, but on all hosted services. Until it's truly easy to constitute an online community without using a central hosted service, the very concept of online community is at stake here.
Please read the CNet article for concise background. In particular, note that contrary to emails reportedly sent by LJ Abuse to suspended users, Six Apart's CEO states that this was *not* merely a legal catch-22, but rather also an active choice by Six Apart to discourage kinds of accounts that it considers inappropriate members of the LiveJournal community.
I agree that predators are not appropriate members of the LJ community. But if a fic written to explore themes of abuse and recovery and that's posted to a comm with the word "incest" in its userinfo is an inappropriate part of the LJ community, then what's next? How soon til we see the purge of all erotica? Of anything that might be construed as copyright infringement? LJ has taken a stand for preserving as much user free speech as possible in the past. As members of the LJ community, we need to remind them that that very fact is one of the key reasons we've been so loyal.
If you're fannish and have been living under a rock since yesterday, check out fandomtossed over at GreatestJournal for probably the best concise and timely updates on the situation. Also check out fandom_counts to register your journal as part of the great fannish constituency, and fandom_lawyers for legal talk.
In many ways bookshop has been blogging the main points of anything I'd have been saying here. But I do want to specifically point people to fandom_voices, which is a community we would have been starting very soon *anyway*, to discuss ways fandom can present ourselves to media and the outside world. The comm is bigger than this specific LJ issue right now, but we're also using the comm to discuss creating a fannish LJ user's talking points on what's wrong with the current situation, for potential use in media outreach. So please check it out and contribute to the talking points brainstorm!
ETA: Six Apart's CEO explains, apologizes, and promises reinstatement for legitimate accounts that were suspended in error. We'll have to hold 'em to it if anyone is left behind, but this appears to be what we're looking for.
6A CEO post to LJ News
fandomtossed aggregation of all 6A official responses