Tale of a suspended LJ account
My LJ account was suspended on Friday and reinstated this morning after I filed a request for review. Here's what happened, how I got it back, and lessons learned.
Before I start, though, I just want to say that I realize I am immensely privileged that these are my problems. That I stressed over being denied entry to a website, over the injustice of the implied accusation of wrongdoing, over being separated with my online friends, when there are many who have faced the same ordeal only in the physical world, at a real border, of being physically cut off from their family and friends, barred from returning home or coming into what they hoped would be their new home. I cannot imagine the desolation, magnitudes more real and more devastating. At least in my story there were no lives at stake, no families torn apart, no futures destroyed.
I. From Suspended to Reinstated
On Friday, I tried to access my LJ blog ("feliciacraft.livejournal.com"), and got the shock of the account suspended message. Of note is the fact that there had been ZERO warning, ZERO communication from LJ. Were I on vacation, or simply not checking, there's no telling how long it could've gone suspended before anyone noticed.
Shortly after, a friend noticed that my journal had become inaccessible, and reached out. That was when I realized that not only was my name appearing with the dreaded strikethrough, but more importantly all my LJ activities had all GONE, everything from my blog posts to my activities in comms, to my comments left on friends' blogs.
The most troublesome aspect was that I found out that I could no longer access my friendlist - neither via my Friends Feed, nor my Profile page. I realized that there was no easy way of mass-contacting my friends to let them know of my journal's suspension. In fact, there was no easy way of even recovering my list of friends.
Thankfully, it was easy to locate the relevant LJ FAQ page: "Frequently Asked Question #106. My account has been suspended! How can I get it back?" which lists several ominous reasons an account may be suspended, from TOS violation, to account break-ins. Dutifully filled out the Report Abuse form to request reason for suspension, as I did not see one already listed.
It was while I waited for an update on my account that I realized that the easiest way of communicating with LJ friends is an LJ account. Communication that was only urgent because I didn't have a working LJ account anymore. I'd now entered a circular dependency. *headdesk* Then created the blog felicia-btvs just in case.
The weekend felt extra long and strangely isolated without access to LJ. I did, however, manage to get in touch with a few friends right away on Tumblr, and a growing list of friends on Dreamwidth.
This morning, I was relieved to find my LJ account reinstated this morning with the following message:
Thank you for contacting us about this matter. Your account was flagged as potentially being a source of spam, and as such was suspended. Upon further review, however, this does not appear to be the case, and your account has been unsuspended. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Regards,
LiveJournal Abuse Prevention Team
And that's that. And honestly I'm afraid to offend those who can so easily shut off my account for any "potential" to ask for more info.
II. Lessens Learned
1. Maintain a "fandom emergency list": a list of your friends and alternative communication methods independent of LJ (or any social media).
Add the same people on Dreamwidth. Get a few email addresses, Tumblr handles, or Facebook usernames. Basically, some other way of contacting at least a few people in your circle, so that they can help pass on the news, spread awareness, help you with your virtual identity crisis, etc.
2. Backup your content. Then backup your back.
Do not treat any social media or other "hosted" site as a reliable backup for your content. Practice N+2 redundancy when it comes to content you care about (where N in this case is simply one).
You need one copy of every story you've written, every work of fan art you've made. Then there should be three places with that content. Your computer + LJ is not enough. Your computer + LJ + a backup drive in your house is much better. Your computer + LJ (an unreliable host) + some cloud-based archive (e.g. Google Drive) is better still. Because if your computer and your backup drive co-locate (i.e. both reside in your house), and something unfortunate should happen to that location, then your two copies may become both inaccessible as if they were one copy to begin with.
This I'd known for a long time. But then I got lazy, and stopped tracking duplicates. Over the weekend there were moments of panic when I realized that I had content only available on LJ: wonderful fan art and stories gifted to me by LJ friends, banners and icons that I'd saved to my LJ account only. The fact that I write everything - all my fanfic - in Google Docs first, before uploading it anywhere else, proved to be a major source of relief over the weekend, because at least on that front I was certain that I hadn't lost anything.
3. Be vigilant. If you see something, say something.
I'm very thankful that rebcake messaged me on Friday that she noticed the suspension message on my account. It instantly validated what I'd just seen but might've dismissed as a temporary network issue, something I might've ignored. Another person whose opinion I trusted pointing out that it was NOT NORMAL immediately escalated the problem in my mind and pushed me into taking it seriously, and filling out the necessary form towards resolution.
The thing is, there had been no warning or notice of suspension or any kind of official communication from LJ. The burden of noticing something is wrong and to do something about it falls entirely on the user, and only the user. The request for more info on a suspended account cannot be triggered by anyone else (due to privacy concerns). And here's the scary part: a suspended journal will be DELETED after 6 months.
If you or anyone you know have an inactive journal you/your friend use(s) as a sort of backup, first, see #2 above on why that's probably not good enough, and also, it'd be a good idea to keep an eye on that journal every so often. Basically, any account unmonitored for more than six months runs the risk of IRREVERSIBLE DELETION.
4. I'll always blog with "one eye open" on LJ from now on.
At the risk of sounding like Mr. Darcy, my good opinion on the reliability of a website, once lost, is lost forever. The lack of transparency during the whole incident really drove home the fact that, well, my LJ may disappear any moment. And Robert Frost said it best that, "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in." Clearly, LJ is no longer my home online.
Dreamwidth crosspost. Reply or view the
comments there.
Before I start, though, I just want to say that I realize I am immensely privileged that these are my problems. That I stressed over being denied entry to a website, over the injustice of the implied accusation of wrongdoing, over being separated with my online friends, when there are many who have faced the same ordeal only in the physical world, at a real border, of being physically cut off from their family and friends, barred from returning home or coming into what they hoped would be their new home. I cannot imagine the desolation, magnitudes more real and more devastating. At least in my story there were no lives at stake, no families torn apart, no futures destroyed.
I. From Suspended to Reinstated
On Friday, I tried to access my LJ blog ("feliciacraft.livejournal.com"), and got the shock of the account suspended message. Of note is the fact that there had been ZERO warning, ZERO communication from LJ. Were I on vacation, or simply not checking, there's no telling how long it could've gone suspended before anyone noticed.
Shortly after, a friend noticed that my journal had become inaccessible, and reached out. That was when I realized that not only was my name appearing with the dreaded strikethrough, but more importantly all my LJ activities had all GONE, everything from my blog posts to my activities in comms, to my comments left on friends' blogs.
The most troublesome aspect was that I found out that I could no longer access my friendlist - neither via my Friends Feed, nor my Profile page. I realized that there was no easy way of mass-contacting my friends to let them know of my journal's suspension. In fact, there was no easy way of even recovering my list of friends.
Thankfully, it was easy to locate the relevant LJ FAQ page: "Frequently Asked Question #106. My account has been suspended! How can I get it back?" which lists several ominous reasons an account may be suspended, from TOS violation, to account break-ins. Dutifully filled out the Report Abuse form to request reason for suspension, as I did not see one already listed.
It was while I waited for an update on my account that I realized that the easiest way of communicating with LJ friends is an LJ account. Communication that was only urgent because I didn't have a working LJ account anymore. I'd now entered a circular dependency. *headdesk* Then created the blog felicia-btvs just in case.
The weekend felt extra long and strangely isolated without access to LJ. I did, however, manage to get in touch with a few friends right away on Tumblr, and a growing list of friends on Dreamwidth.
This morning, I was relieved to find my LJ account reinstated this morning with the following message:
Thank you for contacting us about this matter. Your account was flagged as potentially being a source of spam, and as such was suspended. Upon further review, however, this does not appear to be the case, and your account has been unsuspended. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Regards,
LiveJournal Abuse Prevention Team
And that's that. And honestly I'm afraid to offend those who can so easily shut off my account for any "potential" to ask for more info.
II. Lessens Learned
1. Maintain a "fandom emergency list": a list of your friends and alternative communication methods independent of LJ (or any social media).
Add the same people on Dreamwidth. Get a few email addresses, Tumblr handles, or Facebook usernames. Basically, some other way of contacting at least a few people in your circle, so that they can help pass on the news, spread awareness, help you with your virtual identity crisis, etc.
2. Backup your content. Then backup your back.
Do not treat any social media or other "hosted" site as a reliable backup for your content. Practice N+2 redundancy when it comes to content you care about (where N in this case is simply one).
You need one copy of every story you've written, every work of fan art you've made. Then there should be three places with that content. Your computer + LJ is not enough. Your computer + LJ + a backup drive in your house is much better. Your computer + LJ (an unreliable host) + some cloud-based archive (e.g. Google Drive) is better still. Because if your computer and your backup drive co-locate (i.e. both reside in your house), and something unfortunate should happen to that location, then your two copies may become both inaccessible as if they were one copy to begin with.
This I'd known for a long time. But then I got lazy, and stopped tracking duplicates. Over the weekend there were moments of panic when I realized that I had content only available on LJ: wonderful fan art and stories gifted to me by LJ friends, banners and icons that I'd saved to my LJ account only. The fact that I write everything - all my fanfic - in Google Docs first, before uploading it anywhere else, proved to be a major source of relief over the weekend, because at least on that front I was certain that I hadn't lost anything.
3. Be vigilant. If you see something, say something.
I'm very thankful that rebcake messaged me on Friday that she noticed the suspension message on my account. It instantly validated what I'd just seen but might've dismissed as a temporary network issue, something I might've ignored. Another person whose opinion I trusted pointing out that it was NOT NORMAL immediately escalated the problem in my mind and pushed me into taking it seriously, and filling out the necessary form towards resolution.
The thing is, there had been no warning or notice of suspension or any kind of official communication from LJ. The burden of noticing something is wrong and to do something about it falls entirely on the user, and only the user. The request for more info on a suspended account cannot be triggered by anyone else (due to privacy concerns). And here's the scary part: a suspended journal will be DELETED after 6 months.
If you or anyone you know have an inactive journal you/your friend use(s) as a sort of backup, first, see #2 above on why that's probably not good enough, and also, it'd be a good idea to keep an eye on that journal every so often. Basically, any account unmonitored for more than six months runs the risk of IRREVERSIBLE DELETION.
4. I'll always blog with "one eye open" on LJ from now on.
At the risk of sounding like Mr. Darcy, my good opinion on the reliability of a website, once lost, is lost forever. The lack of transparency during the whole incident really drove home the fact that, well, my LJ may disappear any moment. And Robert Frost said it best that, "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in." Clearly, LJ is no longer my home online.
Dreamwidth crosspost. Reply or view the
comments there.