discussion: candidates and their platforms

[seperis]

This is a cut and paste of all the candidates platforms linked from here.

If any candidates wish to have the text of their platforms removed from this entry, please email seperis at livejournal and I'll remove the text and keep the link only.

Discussion Rules1.) Comments must be balanced; when making a post with negative comments on one candidate

Comments

[kenboy]

Resigning in mass would have made things worse how, exactly? By showing both users and management how completely wrong the decision to delete these accounts was? By demonstrating the existence of spines? By opening the way to put in place a somehow less open and transparent abuse team?

It's one way or the other: either the existing abuse team is wonderful because they've (secretly) been protecting us all along from the crazy and wrong decisions of management, except, you know, that one time when they deleted all those accounts, or else it's that the existing abuse team only carries out orders and has no discretion and no choice so we can't blame them for their (secret) actions, in which case they're completely interchangeable cogs. Can't be both, doubt it's neither.

Real world parallels are dicey, and imply this is all much more serious than it actually is, but, in the real world, (theoretically, at least) when the police (the abuse team) arrest someone (permanently suspend them) for violating the law (the LJ policies), charges are filed and there's a public trial and we all hear both sides, and everything is in the public record.

Here on LJ, we just draw a line through their account and say we can't discuss the reasons because of NDAs, but, you know, TRUST US, we did it for your own good.

Sounds familiar, actually. Talk about your overreaching executive.

Oh, and when the police royally foul it all up, like when they shoot the wrong guy, there are consequences, unlike here, where we still can't find out the true reason legomymalfoy and her cohorts deleted many accounts that OBVIOUSLY hadn't violated the TOS, but which apparently had simply appeared on a possible list of allegedly naughty accounts, provided perhaps by some outside group, which were lined up and summarily deleted. Without being reviewed.

I mean, maybe. Who knows? Maybe they affirmatively did review them and decide abuse survivors aren't welcome here. How would we know?

Because it's all a giant secret around here. It's for our own good, I'm sure. But, you know, let's vote for her anyway, because, hell, she probably has great intentions, she probably didn't do anything wrong, I probably have it completely wrong. The abuse team probably sent a really angry email to their bosses before they deleted those groups, right?

Conveniently, the sacred NDA's (when do they expire, again?) will ensure nothing ever comes out to confirm (or deny) any of this. What exactly is the threatened penalty in that NDA that no one has ever been willing to violate? Loss of your volunteer job? I mean, doesn't it seem odd to anyone else that we regularly see leaks from the government, and regularly see leaks about the next thing coming out from notoriously secretive Apple, but the LJ Abuse team, THAT'S the one place in the world where the actual truth never ever ever ever ever comes out?

I don't trust LiveJournal to do the right thing, and I don't trust the abuse team to do the right thing. Over the past twelve months (and certainly for long before that), they've both shown contempt for the users of this site and a management style that ranges between massively incompetent and simply malevolent. It's appeared, numerous times, that fandom has been the target of various purges.

And you want to put someone from within that hierarchy, from within this shadowy, secretive hierarchy on the advisory board as your representative?

Fandom, we're going to get the government we deserve, aren't we?

[amireal]

Maybe it would have all worked out, maybe all of them resigning would have made the entire things worse, messier, take longer and have longer reaching consequences than they have now. I don't know. YOU don't know. And despite not being able to read minds, I'm pretty sure THEY didn't know. It's pretty clear that you feel it was a matter of principle, stand up for your beliefs and take the short run NO MATTER WHAT, damn the future. I feel that maybe looking long term might've been the better solution. Beyond that, I am not qualified to say anything because I've never worked for abuse and I don't know what goes on there, what extra information I might know and what other things that it's possible you or I could never think of might come into play.

Because it's all a giant secret around here. It's for our own good, I'm sure.

Well among other things, I'm sure there's a legal liability factor in play, NOT JUST FOR LJ. And what are the consequences for breaking the NDA's? Loss of job for sure and you have stated over and over that you feel the principle is more important than anything else and I have stated over and over that sometimes things suck and you have to work through them. I don't know what other consequences there are, possibly LEGAL ONES.

Beyond that I find it interesting that you're advocating on one side standing up for the honorable thing and on the other side condoning possibly breaking a signed contract because the penalties (which you admit you don't know) could be minimal.

Also there's a very large difference between say-- corporate secrets and the types of things ljabuse has to deal with. I don't approve of leaks in any event. But there are HUGE differences, not the least of which the number of people keeping the secret are distinctly smaller, but also they deal with various criminal and DEEPLY PERSONAL situations.

And no, I can't say they deleted LJs that OBVIOUSLY hadn't broken the TOS because it's OBVIOUS there were instructions made from management that made these things a rule violation, however much semantics it really was.

If a cop screws up and shoots the wrong guy, he's acting with his own head and the rules he was given. That abuse team was not acting a lone. What happened here was akin to someone giving the go order and THEN the cop firing.

[kenboy]

I don't think the principle is necessarily more important than anything else; I do think it's interesting that no one was so disgusted by this order that they were willing to quit their volunteer job, though. Everyone has to live by their own moral code, of course, and, yes, I think that both quiting and violating NDAs would be the most honorable course in this particular case, especially in that I think it would be impossible for anyone to know who the leaker was, as we're talking about a situation that many people were involved in.

I'm not entirely sure what the huge deep secrets are that Abuse deals with, or that the world is better served by them being kept secret, but I suppose there are probably some cases where that would apply. I do think the community would be much better served by LJ releasing a detailed chronology, including copies of internal communications, explaining EXACTLY how strikethrough happened, from the very first event (abuse complaint by Warriors For Innocence? Email from an advertiser who was pulling his ads BECAUSE of Warriors for Innocence?) to the very last (journals reinstated).

Complete and total transparency.

And yes, I assume there are internal communications that were sent from someone senior to a large enough group of abuse team members that I do, in fact, think it's shocking that they haven't anonymously appeared anywhere yet. I think it's yet another indictment, frankly, that the abuse team members had no problem with the crap they were inflicting on the community, that to this date, none of them have let any of it become known.

So you're saying that LJ management's orders must have explicitly told the Abuse team that incest survivor communities were now forbidden? Don't you think it's more likely that they handed off a list of hundreds of communities and the team, ignoring common sense, went ahead and deleted every one of them without bothering to look at them first?

I think your analogy is a little off; it wasn't that the cop was told "gun, gun, he's got a gun, shoot!" but more that the order came down that everyone wearing green that day needed to be shot because only terrorists wear green, and the cop went ahead and started shooting, without bothering to question it.

LJ is broken, and the abuse team procedures -- and the secrecy they continue to embrace -- are a huge part of the problem. Voting for someone who's been a part of all that is a mistake.

[seperis]

I'm going to mix up my response here to your comment, because I completely agree with some and not so much with others.

I do think the community would be much better served by LJ releasing a detailed chronology, including copies of internal communications, explaining EXACTLY how strikethrough happened, from the very first event (abuse complaint by Warriors For Innocence? Email from an advertiser who was pulling his ads BECAUSE of Warriors for Innocence?) to the very last (journals reinstated).

I agree so completely here. It still blows my mind that months later, we still have no clear and precise explanation on what the hell happened.

I'm not entirely sure what the huge deep secrets are that Abuse deals with, or that the world is better served by them being kept secret, but I suppose there are probably some cases where that would apply.

Off the top of my head; political candidates have livejournals, criminals have livejournals, and professionals, including authors, have livejournals. FBI and CIA agents doubtless at one time, in their teens, had livejournals (insert social networking site of choice). I can think of a lot of reasons that privacy would be important. And personally, I hope privacy continues to be of concern; my job, a lot of people's jobs, rest on teh very fragile bubble of the TOS and privacy.

Don't you think it's more likely that they handed off a list of hundreds of communities and the team, ignoring common sense, went ahead and deleted every one of them without bothering to look at them first?

Yes and no. I think yes, a mass walkout might have accomplished something. But I'm not convinced that it would have solved anything. Blaming teh messenger is--conflicting for me. In some instances, yes, there are issues that following orders is best not done. I'm not sure this should be the hill they chose to die on. Especially since I do think they're also the reason we were able to get so much back; the ones familiar with the process and the communities being killed off were arguing for it.

The thing is--and this is tricky--in their position, I'm not sure I could or would have done anything different: I probably would have deleted. And then I would have fought to get them back, every one I personally knew and every one I read to find out the content, and every one I had time to explore to be *sure* it was done for the right reasons. That's something, if I quit, I wouldn't have the permissions, the access, or the contacts to do.

Again, I think there's a very sharp, uncomfortable difference between a gun and a livejournal community. And I am a member of pornish-pixies, so I was directly affected by strikethrough.

I can see where you're coming from; I'm not actually trying to change your mind, because honestly, around strikethrough, and after, I was pretty much of the same mind and I'm still pissed about it. And a part of me does resent the fact that people I'm friends with were part of it. On the other--I worked as a casemanager for welfare clients once upon a time and was required by law to deny them at times according to policy and law and I hated the laws that required me to do that. But quitting wouldn't change how welfare law was interpreted; staying and gaining enough experience to one day work for change in policy would.

[spare_change]

For me, part of the problem is that it's not just Strikethrough that worries me. LJ Abuse's behavior during Boobgate was pretty objectionable as well, and as far as I understand they weren't acting under directives from higher management, but rather making their own (questionable) judgment calls in deleting the LJs of women who had photos of themselves breastfeeding as a default pic. Breastfeeding in public is legal everywhere in the US, btw ... but instead of simply apologizing and reinstating the journals, LJ Abuse instead worked to change the ToS in order to prohibit such userpics.

Of babies. Eating.

Regardless of one's feelings about the self-described "boob nazis" (I hate that term!), I just find it difficult to find anything defensible in LJ Abuse's behavior there. And this goes to the heart of fandom concerns for me, because this is absolutely a free speech/free expression issue, and it also highlights the poor judgment that I think I've seen LJ Abuse demonstrate repeatedly.

Also, while I have no problem with the idea of working from the inside to effect change, at no point have I seen Legomymalfoy promise to do so. As I noted above, her aims seem to center around LJ communicating its policy better to its users, rather than actually reforming some of that policy. It's a very "management" position to take, in my view ... it's seems to be about being a better advocate for LJ to fandom, rather than vice-versa. So, regardless of one's personal feelings about LJ Abuse, it just seems very strange for us to elect a representative of LJ to represent the users as well.

I do think they're also the reason we were able to get so much back

Well ... I think it was the huge amount of media attention that made a difference, not LJ Abuse.

(Thanks again, btw, for providing a forum to debate these issues! And for all the work cut-and-pasting yesterday. ♥)

[seperis]

I didn't remember the word "formatting" when I was all excited to do it; that was the long part.

Yes, I do agree there, to the extent that I want more disclosure period. I'm just--really wary of holding LJAbuse accountable for management's decision. On the other hand, I agree; there has to be some kind of accountability to those of us who pay or have paid accounts at minimum to know what the hell is going on in more than platitudes.

(Boobgate still utterly bewilders me; then again, my sister breastfeeds and so did my mom. The mystery of the feeding child is deeply bewildering to me. The entire mystery of breasts bewilder me too; there's a mystery here? Where? What is so terrifying? Every time it comes up on any comm anywhere, I go blank. It's like reading Greek every time. I can't even argue it effectively.)

[sutelae]

Sorry to pop randomly in here, but on a slight "accountability" tangent: Has anyone heard or seen anything from legomymalfoy? I've seen her absence linked to the (insane) threats, but cambler has argued that the threats were not aimed at her....
I'm only asking, because I'm trying to figure out whether to change my vote to rm -- I'm not certain how I feel about the massive silence.....

[seperis]

I'm not on her flist, so I really don't have any information that isn't pretty much already common knowledge, but I will say that I don't think she's staying offline just to avoid answering questions. Since the threat thing, I'm tending toward benefit of the doubt.

I really wish I had a better answer on that one.

vichan mentions the threat here, which is basically what I've hearing everywhere too. Other than that, I'm sorry I don't have anything more conclusive.

[seperis]

http://legomymalfoy.livejournal.com/586984.html?style=mine

The threat was against her.

[sutelae]

Hardcore!

Thanks for the heads up; I was going to say this gives me peace of mind (re: vote), but on the other hand, no it doesn't. The insanity of the Internet.

Thanks for all the info, as well as the work you did.

[seperis]

I found it five seconds ago from a link off sf-drama. I have no idea why this isn't posted over my flist yet.

[sutelae]

Ok...so, I'm just resurfacing from another dip into that cesspool (i.e. everyone's livejournals), and honestly -- well I just watched as she unscreened several well-wishing comments -- but... there are copies of (civil) comments cambler et al. posted, which remain to be un-screened (he posted copies on his journal).

So, I think I'm going to sleep on this. Bleh.

Meanwhile, vichan did an interesting update as well - just a heads-up.

[seperis]

Oh, thank you!

Cambler--i haven't been impressed with him at lj_election_en, but that's just me. I'll be honest; if I had gotten a death threat, I'd be all about the puppies and rainbows in my lj for a bit.

[sutelae]

I haven't been too impressed with Cambler, either, though I haven't seen him hurling virtual feces around.
Yeah no, I can certainly see your point. I do find it a little problematic to not at least un-screen neutral comments -- but I think benefit of the doubt and some distance will help a little. So, I guess I'll see how things develop by tomorrow morning. ;)

I'm still blown away by this entire process.

[elfwreck]

The abuse team exists neither to protect the users from the capricious management, nor to blindly support the management and inflict their oppressive will on the users.

The abuse team exists to deal with situations the management believes are unimportant. If enough noise is made about those situations, the management would rather just delete all involved accounts than fix anything. The AT serves to answer questions that the management would ignore, because "that's in the FAQ, or you should figure it out for yourself." They mediate interpersonal squabbles that management won't touch. They try to explain fine points of policy that management refuses to clarify.

They are constantly stuck in the quandary of "do I enforce some rules I find ridiculous and oppressive, or do I abdicate, and leave the users--including those not affected by the oppressive rules--with no support or guidance at all?"

They're what's smeared between the immovable object and the unstoppable force.

Also, I've never met an abuse team member who wasn't polite, articulate, considerate and overall pleasant to exchange words with. They listen. They try to figure out the real problem underneath the heated words. Whatever personal agendas they have, they value good communication over those--a trait that's incredibly valuable for someone who'll be advocating for tens of thousands of strangers.

[burnishdvictory]

Thank you.