Maya asks....please....

[mayamithraca]

 Just the buzz of the strike and folks raising their voices has already been effective...they took homosexual communities, bisexual communities, DEPRESSION communities, etc. off the search engines too...and have put them back on now.....so please don't think it won't mean anything and doesn't matter to you because you have a paid account already...they're talking in little sneaky steps, where most wouldn't read....we can't bitch later about being powerless to stop them messing with our content, when we don't speak as they take power in small increments.  ONE VOICE NOW...will keep all our individual voices happening.  Remember that old saying...with freedom comes responsibility.  Just take a look at America in the last nearly eight years because of apathy...and how Americans are scrambling to get up to speed and use their voices now  'cos the middle class is in the crapper....let that serve as an example.  Take one day, please...we can still talk on emails, phones...or unplug...take a spring walk...play with kids.  It's not about what account you have...it's about being asleep at the wheel and wondering why, a short while later, we crash.  If you don't go to all these links and read...just please also see the bottom paragraph below....

Okay.. here's the original link to a community called "News" -- in which a comment (the first one) was snuck in about the removal of basic accounts.  The reactions of how this "announcement" was handled speak for themselves.

http://news.livejournal.com/106909.html

Brad F, the founder of LiveJournal is on the Advisory Board, as well as another member, Danah, who was also staff. Here are their opinions on the matter:

http://brad.livejournal.com/2368071.html
http://danahboyd.livejournal.com/1396.html

Then the news got to ljspeaks, a community for and by the members of LJ:

http://community.livejournal.com/ljspeaks/9648.html?nc=80

And they organised a strike:

http://community.livejournal.com/ljspeaks/11153.html?nc=132

Then SUP's Anton Nosik gave an interview:

http://darkrosetiger.livejournal.com/373663.html

I heard about it through LJSpeaks, also was pointed to Anton's own LJ entry about it:

http://anton-nossik.livejournal.com/16069.html

(the LJSpeaks entry that led me to Anton's LJ: http://community.livejournal.com/ljspeaks/13904.html?nc=5 )

Then back to LJSpeaks:

http://community.livejournal.com/ljspeaks/14097.html?nc=15

..which talks about the new post in LJ_2008:

http://community.livejournal.com/lj_2008/3846.html

..trying to make up for the damage it caused and hiding other little bits of interesting "product development" plans.. including adding 'subscriptions' to communities and allowing the moderators to charge money for access.  (No doubt at least a portion of that money would go back to SUP and not just stay in the mods' hands.)