Participate in the Blogger Challenge & Help Students and Schools

[theljstaff]

One of the best kept secrets about the LiveJournal community is how incredibly generous you all are. It's not just the fact that so many of you volunteer to help LJ out, or are such active participants in communities online. It's what you do to support communities offline that makes us so proud of what LJ is. (A recent example was the way you all

Comments

[laren]

I so knew there would be wank before we even got to the second page.

[leaf_kunoichi]

I applaud your icon.

[laren]

Thanks. I didn't make it and I'm not sure who to credit. Got it from a friend who got it from someone else.

[laren]

I dunno wtf you're talking about, but I'm talking about fandom wank. So uh, yeah.

[laren]

Well, personally, I don't think you or anyone else should "get over it" ("it" referring to LJ's various terrible business decisions), but honestly, if you really truly hate LJ/6A that much, you would be making more of a statement by leaving and encouraging others to do the same than by sticking around and bitching on the comments to every single post an LJ staffer makes. It really has no effect on LJ at all. There are more effective ways to make an impact.

My complaint is with fandom wank. To be perfectly honest, I hadn't heard about the pro-ana thing until you posted that link. That is something worth being concerned about. Fandom? Not so much.

[laren]

I'm all for people who are taking real steps towards change, and it sounds like you're on the right track. What bothers me are people who approach these problems with absolutely no common sense, and just come up with conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory

[laren]

I don't know. I consider myself pretty average as LJ users go (and I do have paid time more often than not, although I usually have it gifted to me). I've had my LiveJournal for over six years now, and I don't feel compelled to leave, regardless of everything that has happened.

While I think pro-ana is horrible, and definitely a danger to impressionable kids, there's not much that can be done about it if LiveJournal wants to allow that content. I don't agree with the reasoning given by LJ staff- I think something regarding free speech would have done just fine- but I'm not LiveJournal and I have no control over what content is considered acceptable. I don't think it's my place to tell people what is and isn't ok. Of course I'll offer my opinions, but I'm not here to legislate my beliefs, I'm here to fucking blog.

Nothing that LiveJournal has done over the past six months has had any effect on my blogging experience whatsoever, and that is all that matters to me in regards to this service.

[laren]

I definitely understand and can appreciate where you're coming from. I'm glad we had this conversation. Keep fighting the good fight, yo.

[elfwreck]

there's not much that can be done about it if LiveJournal wants to allow that content

Well, that's rather the point. LJ's stated several times in the Strikethrough mess that there's some content it just finds too disgusting to host, regardless of how legal it is. (They used the word " reprehensible": Content that encourages or advocates hate crimes, the abuse of children in any form, or rape, even if the content itself is not illegal and may be protected by the First Amendment. This portion of the policy reflects the especially reprehensible nature of these activities; users who encourage or advocate these acts, regardless of their motivation, are simply not welcome on LiveJournal.
A lot of people think encouragement or support of anorexia is well within "abuse of children in any form," and are wondering how LJ justifies allowing those communities

[laren]

I can agree with your statement, but I return to "what's the point?". LJ/6A as a private company is permitted to define what content is and isn't acceptable on their servers, and as long as they aren't breaking any laws while doing so, there's nothing anyone can do to force them to change it- short of leaving LiveJournal, thereby decreasing their customer base and revenue.

Bait & switch is against the law.

[elfwreck]

They are breaking laws if they promise a certain set of rules, and then follow another... it's fraud to convince people to give you money and then change the rules they expect to follow.

If the rules are "no advocating activities that harm children," but in practice it's "no advocating sexuality in a context that makes people think of children, but advocating stuff that actually causes physical harm is okay," then they've deceived their users--they've convinced people that LJ is safe for children in a way that it's not.

I sincerely hope some family member of a member of pro_anorexia sues them for not following their own TOS after numerous notifications. Hopefully, for the full set of medical bills, plus pain & suffering