the king and his men tore the queen from her bed
So today, at work, I was reading the MeFi post (the place I was working has lj and gj and f_w (but, oddly, not the rest of journalfen) net-nannied out of access, so I was trying to keep up from the fringes) and they were *mocking* us for singing "Hoist the Colors" all over LJ.
Which, okay, I can kind of see their point. But you know what?
They tried to take control of the free waters. And we *started singing*.
And we stood up, and made brave speeches, and gathered councils, and cheered loud for freedom, and got ready to fight to the last (even without the law on our side): and the whole unimaginable force gathered by king and company against us just melted away into the fog.
...Okay, so it's entirely possible that all of our circling and councils and rag-tag war parties wasn't really what made them back off, as much as it was seeing the powers they thought would be their allies (like, say, cnet and boingboing and *Perverted Justice*, for goodness sake) turn their own guns against them and join our chorus.
But the thing is: they thought they could bind us. What they didn't realize was that *we*, ourselves, out of our own fear, were the only ones keeping our power bound. And they panicked us enough that we *freed* her. And now she's grown tall as the sky and she *stomps* their puny little boats. And the maelstrom starts spinning ...
And now that we've set her free -- Only Goddess knows what she's going to do. I for one am planning to keep a weather eye on the horizon! (although I kind of hope things go right back the way they were at the beginning. Only with a clearer conscience.)
That said, I for one don't plan to end up standing alone on an island without a boat. pornish_pixies is back, and that's enough that I'm giving lj a chance: they have eight months to convince me to either renew my paid account, or lock everything up and leave. One or the other: I'm not reverting back to a free account, because that gives them ad revenue.
Have I mentioned that I hate the idea that advertisers are controlling our content? Yes? Good.
Meanwhile, I've managed to justify buying myself a paid account at journalfen.net - I've had a free account there under this name since back in the day when *lj* required codes to join*, and I've always *meant* to help them out. I was just finally annoyed enough to navigate their payment system to do it. I'm not going to completely up anchor and move over there - *yet* - but I do plan to do more archiving there and be more active in the non-wank areas.
This also means I can get people free accounts (within reason, mind) so if you're in fandom, on my flist, don't have a jf account yet and you think you might use one, consider me a resource. I may hold off a few days until the hysteria dies down a bit and the jf admins have had some time to sleep - I figured the money they can use now, the hassle they might want to wait on - but I am willing to make ya'll accounts. Especially if you're going to do more with them than just camp the username.
IN OTHER WORDS: IF YOU DECIDE YOU WANT A FREE JF ACCOUNT SOMETIME IN THE NEXT SIX MONTHS, ASK HERE.
If you don't know much about jf, it's run by real people - real fangirls - rather than corporate drones. It's small and fairly close-knit, even with the hundreds of people who only care about f_w or roleplays. IT HAS NO ADS (which is *the* reason I'm heading there instead of any of the other options, if I have to head out.) It's not only fandom-friendly, it's fandom-focussed, and it's adults-only to avoid the PROTECT THE CHILDERN fascists. It's much lower-profile and therefore ignored by some places that filter lj. It's running on a five-year-old version of lj code with all the core features, so it should be familiar, but without the blinking lights and shiny stuff that 6A's been adding.
On the downside, it's run by real people, and sometimes they screw up and act petty and get up on their pride - but at least they're *people*, not corporate masters. It's also run by only two real people, so there's a lot that doesn't get done that should because of time. And the hardware is not the best, so in times of crisis the servers can get wonky. (That said, both the administration and the servers at jf have come out a _lot better that lj's lately - they were *more* reliable that lj during the current crisis, which was a first for a fandom asplosion event - and they're constantly getting better at both PR and basic hardware. Unlike lj.)
It's also very close-knit. There's not as much going on there. (But the people who are there *really* care about the place.) They don't have lj's bells and whistles. The FAQ and documentation *suck*. Things like account creation and bill pay aren't automated. The abuse team *is* the two admins. It's tightly fandom-focussed. And new accounts aren't free.
That said, the Real People owners, the close and active usership, and most importantly, the NO ADs keep it a place in which I am confident and feel completely safe. And I'd love it if more of my lj people were over there. So if you're interested, c'mon in.
And if you have a jf and I haven't friended you yet, let me know.
*In fact, I believe I originally was given my jf account as a result of someone liking a PotC quote I dropped in f_w. So full circle, yo ho ho!
Which, okay, I can kind of see their point. But you know what?
They tried to take control of the free waters. And we *started singing*.
And we stood up, and made brave speeches, and gathered councils, and cheered loud for freedom, and got ready to fight to the last (even without the law on our side): and the whole unimaginable force gathered by king and company against us just melted away into the fog.
...Okay, so it's entirely possible that all of our circling and councils and rag-tag war parties wasn't really what made them back off, as much as it was seeing the powers they thought would be their allies (like, say, cnet and boingboing and *Perverted Justice*, for goodness sake) turn their own guns against them and join our chorus.
But the thing is: they thought they could bind us. What they didn't realize was that *we*, ourselves, out of our own fear, were the only ones keeping our power bound. And they panicked us enough that we *freed* her. And now she's grown tall as the sky and she *stomps* their puny little boats. And the maelstrom starts spinning ...
And now that we've set her free -- Only Goddess knows what she's going to do. I for one am planning to keep a weather eye on the horizon! (although I kind of hope things go right back the way they were at the beginning. Only with a clearer conscience.)
That said, I for one don't plan to end up standing alone on an island without a boat. pornish_pixies is back, and that's enough that I'm giving lj a chance: they have eight months to convince me to either renew my paid account, or lock everything up and leave. One or the other: I'm not reverting back to a free account, because that gives them ad revenue.
Have I mentioned that I hate the idea that advertisers are controlling our content? Yes? Good.
Meanwhile, I've managed to justify buying myself a paid account at journalfen.net - I've had a free account there under this name since back in the day when *lj* required codes to join*, and I've always *meant* to help them out. I was just finally annoyed enough to navigate their payment system to do it. I'm not going to completely up anchor and move over there - *yet* - but I do plan to do more archiving there and be more active in the non-wank areas.
This also means I can get people free accounts (within reason, mind) so if you're in fandom, on my flist, don't have a jf account yet and you think you might use one, consider me a resource. I may hold off a few days until the hysteria dies down a bit and the jf admins have had some time to sleep - I figured the money they can use now, the hassle they might want to wait on - but I am willing to make ya'll accounts. Especially if you're going to do more with them than just camp the username.
IN OTHER WORDS: IF YOU DECIDE YOU WANT A FREE JF ACCOUNT SOMETIME IN THE NEXT SIX MONTHS, ASK HERE.
If you don't know much about jf, it's run by real people - real fangirls - rather than corporate drones. It's small and fairly close-knit, even with the hundreds of people who only care about f_w or roleplays. IT HAS NO ADS (which is *the* reason I'm heading there instead of any of the other options, if I have to head out.) It's not only fandom-friendly, it's fandom-focussed, and it's adults-only to avoid the PROTECT THE CHILDERN fascists. It's much lower-profile and therefore ignored by some places that filter lj. It's running on a five-year-old version of lj code with all the core features, so it should be familiar, but without the blinking lights and shiny stuff that 6A's been adding.
On the downside, it's run by real people, and sometimes they screw up and act petty and get up on their pride - but at least they're *people*, not corporate masters. It's also run by only two real people, so there's a lot that doesn't get done that should because of time. And the hardware is not the best, so in times of crisis the servers can get wonky. (That said, both the administration and the servers at jf have come out a _lot better that lj's lately - they were *more* reliable that lj during the current crisis, which was a first for a fandom asplosion event - and they're constantly getting better at both PR and basic hardware. Unlike lj.)
It's also very close-knit. There's not as much going on there. (But the people who are there *really* care about the place.) They don't have lj's bells and whistles. The FAQ and documentation *suck*. Things like account creation and bill pay aren't automated. The abuse team *is* the two admins. It's tightly fandom-focussed. And new accounts aren't free.
That said, the Real People owners, the close and active usership, and most importantly, the NO ADs keep it a place in which I am confident and feel completely safe. And I'd love it if more of my lj people were over there. So if you're interested, c'mon in.
And if you have a jf and I haven't friended you yet, let me know.
*In fact, I believe I originally was given my jf account as a result of someone liking a PotC quote I dropped in f_w. So full circle, yo ho ho!