WFI are the 'bad guy's in this...
Please, people, I know you will probably skip this, as with most my posts, but seriously?
Firstly...
LJ/SA (Live Journal/Six Apart) are a company - a business. They provide you and me and many others with an ability to communicate with other people, form communities, and write down what we think, what we create, what we might not even say anywhere else, including to a pair of ears, using soundwaves from our throats.
They are paying wages, rental, upgrading equipment etc, and they need to have paying clients for this.
Secondly...
WFI (Warriors For Idiocy uh... Whingers Flaming Individuals.. damn... Warriors Flinging Ignorance *smacks KB*... Wankers Fucking Innocents) yeah, whatever it stands for, WFI... are a group of vigilantes who claim they are 'the one thing that stands between innocence and evil' or whatever it was... I mean excuse me, WTF? I am IMMEDIATELY offended by their arrogance. I would like to consider that I am the thing/person/influence that stands between my three children and evil. And I take immense offence at their claim that they are it. They don't even know my kids exist! Talk about arrogance and ignorance portrayed all in one small claim.
Now, the situation as I've seen it develop in the last 24 hrs...
WFI have been targetting LJ/SA for a while, from what they had on their website. I don't know if their site still has the information there - it did yesterday, it might be gone today.
On their site they openly declared that they have constantly harrassed LJ/SA to remove journals and communities, and WFI said LJ/SA continually refused, and quotes from the letters from LJ/SA were cut and pasted to the site. THese quotes were quite clearly showing where LJ/SA steadfastly refused to do as the group asked, citing things like 'writing something down was not showing an 'intent' to carry out that action'. I can't remember the exact quotes, and don't want to give their site another visit.
Finally though, WFI found the trigger. The 'interests'. Journals list interests of the 'owner'. People who list items such as 'child rape', 'child pornography' etc as an 'interest', they pointed out to LJ/SA advertisers, were dangerous, and wrong. They, WFI even screen dumped journals with these interests listed, and the advertisers ads showing next to these 'interests' and sent them to the advertisers.
SA/LJ were now being targetted by this group of self-agrandising vigilantes where it would of course make the most affect. Their reputation - and think about it, if you were spending dollars on advertising, would you ignore claims that the company you were giving your money to supported these interests? I doubt it. I also doubt you would take the time to investigate the images presented you by the group, you would just pull your advertising dollars out and go elsewhere.
And how could SA/LJ protect journals that list these activities as 'interests'?
Sadly the fallout has been that LJ/SA has had to take steps to protect itself that we all dislike. Or hate. And in the cases of the communities that support victims of the illegal activities, the fallout has been devestating.
Did LJ/SA react wrongly? No.
Did LJ/SA react badly? Yes. Their silence is their greatest mistake. Here is a link to the first post I read about this debacle yesterday. As one of the tags says, it is the most logical and well-spoken definition of the situation, and is clear and without emotional flinging of accusations.
I haven't read many of the other posts about this situation, as I have in the past found many of those people tend to take the wrong end of the stick and poke it in people's eyes, blinding them to the facts and getting their f-lists all riled up at the wrong target.
This and reactions are what I think sum it up accurately... all from that thread I've linked to above.
And in closing, if you really want to do something about this, go here and read, and list your support.
Firstly...
LJ/SA (Live Journal/Six Apart) are a company - a business. They provide you and me and many others with an ability to communicate with other people, form communities, and write down what we think, what we create, what we might not even say anywhere else, including to a pair of ears, using soundwaves from our throats.
They are paying wages, rental, upgrading equipment etc, and they need to have paying clients for this.
Secondly...
WFI (Warriors For Idiocy uh... Whingers Flaming Individuals.. damn... Warriors Flinging Ignorance *smacks KB*... Wankers Fucking Innocents) yeah, whatever it stands for, WFI... are a group of vigilantes who claim they are 'the one thing that stands between innocence and evil' or whatever it was... I mean excuse me, WTF? I am IMMEDIATELY offended by their arrogance. I would like to consider that I am the thing/person/influence that stands between my three children and evil. And I take immense offence at their claim that they are it. They don't even know my kids exist! Talk about arrogance and ignorance portrayed all in one small claim.
Now, the situation as I've seen it develop in the last 24 hrs...
WFI have been targetting LJ/SA for a while, from what they had on their website. I don't know if their site still has the information there - it did yesterday, it might be gone today.
On their site they openly declared that they have constantly harrassed LJ/SA to remove journals and communities, and WFI said LJ/SA continually refused, and quotes from the letters from LJ/SA were cut and pasted to the site. THese quotes were quite clearly showing where LJ/SA steadfastly refused to do as the group asked, citing things like 'writing something down was not showing an 'intent' to carry out that action'. I can't remember the exact quotes, and don't want to give their site another visit.
Finally though, WFI found the trigger. The 'interests'. Journals list interests of the 'owner'. People who list items such as 'child rape', 'child pornography' etc as an 'interest', they pointed out to LJ/SA advertisers, were dangerous, and wrong. They, WFI even screen dumped journals with these interests listed, and the advertisers ads showing next to these 'interests' and sent them to the advertisers.
SA/LJ were now being targetted by this group of self-agrandising vigilantes where it would of course make the most affect. Their reputation - and think about it, if you were spending dollars on advertising, would you ignore claims that the company you were giving your money to supported these interests? I doubt it. I also doubt you would take the time to investigate the images presented you by the group, you would just pull your advertising dollars out and go elsewhere.
And how could SA/LJ protect journals that list these activities as 'interests'?
Sadly the fallout has been that LJ/SA has had to take steps to protect itself that we all dislike. Or hate. And in the cases of the communities that support victims of the illegal activities, the fallout has been devestating.
Did LJ/SA react wrongly? No.
Did LJ/SA react badly? Yes. Their silence is their greatest mistake. Here is a link to the first post I read about this debacle yesterday. As one of the tags says, it is the most logical and well-spoken definition of the situation, and is clear and without emotional flinging of accusations.
I haven't read many of the other posts about this situation, as I have in the past found many of those people tend to take the wrong end of the stick and poke it in people's eyes, blinding them to the facts and getting their f-lists all riled up at the wrong target.
This and reactions are what I think sum it up accurately... all from that thread I've linked to above.
And in closing, if you really want to do something about this, go here and read, and list your support.