LJ 'Clarifications' clear as mud, as usual
So the promised clarifications post has, as of 9:43 my time, 4719 comments. I fully expect that to max out. When I looked at it last night, it crashed my browser, so it's getting its own second IE session opened.
I have no real news beyond that, because they're not saying anything, and what other users/groups are saying, other people are following and linking along much better than I could having barely been up for an hour.
What I have is a bit of a rant. Been a lot of these around lately, I know, and I'd love to use my LJ for what I got it for, but I've got to get this off my chest first.
So. LJ has a problem with fanart depicting Harry and Snape. Not a pairing I'm a fan of, but there are lots of those.
HP fans, a lot of other fans, and a bunch of users just going, "uh, WTF is LJ smoking this week?" have a problem with LJ. And it's getting bigger, because every time they promise 'clarification', they muddy the waters. "We mean this stuff, not that stuff." "Yeah, [x] stuff is safe." And next time 'round: "We never said that."
Yes, you did, and you'll have thousands of people waving screencaps and the like in your faces if you keep, you know, lying.
Now, strangemuses reckons LJ/6A's got their lawyers scrambling to come up with the legalese saying what we can and can't do on LJ, which is what we really want to see. And I think she's probably right, which begs the question- If they weren't ready to change the ToS, Why the FUCK did they start going after this stuff before they had the TOS to back it up?
Nobody (okay, most of the still reasonable people) is saying that LJ doesn't have a right to decide what content they want on their site and what content they don't. What we're saying is that when they decide to change the rules on us, they should do it like, you know, they're required by California law to do. Tell us, for fuck's sake! You do that, you look as professional as we all used to think that you were. We all read the new ToS stuff, think, either 'hm, I can live with that' or 'no, that's not going to work for me', and stay or go. Quietly, no mess, no fuss, maybe some people bitching about LJ/6A, but nothing like this.
That's right, LJ, if you're reading this. You could have avoided this whole thing, or most of it. You'd still get some disgruntled users, but you know, whatever.
(And the lj_biz post did crash my other browser session, and nearly forced me to hard restart my entire computer, which it doesn't really like, so, you know, ta, LJ.)
Moving on.
Last night when strangemuses and I were talking about this, she said something about seeing a comment (I think?) indicating that even flocked posts containing content LJ didn't like would get us banned, but like a dork I didn't ask her for the link, because the post wasn't crashing my browser then. Anyone see anything like that, or is my sleep deprived brain remembering wrong? Also, there was something about it being retroactive... hidden in comments, of course, to 'clarification' post I can't get to anymore. Argh.
If that's in there, and wasn't just stuff she and I were speculating on (and I don't think it was) then this, well, sucks.
Again- I feel like I keep saying this, maybe because it's not sinking in with the LJ leadership, apparently- nobody's saying they can't ban whatever the hell they want on here. They'll lose some people, but that's life. But to do it this way, expecting us to follow these invisible rules, and make them retroactive? And saying that locking it up as best we physically can on their site, isn't good enough?
That's one rant. Yes, there's another.
Not only does the legal definition of porn exclude fictional characters, be they in art or print, 6A is basically lumping all of us who're bitching about this as unfair in with the pedophiles. And that really fucking pisses me off.
Let's start over, huh? Hi. I'm urbandruid. I like Harry Potter, among other things. I can't draw for crap, but if I could, I'd probably draw stuff LJ wouldn't like. I write erotic fanfiction sometimes. (Not with underage characters, because that creeps me out.) I don't want your kids to read it any more than you do, so I'm careful about what I do with my fic, where and how I post it. I just recently went back and friends-locked the one adult story I've posted on any of my journals in the past year. That's all I can do. If that's not enough, you need to tell me. And my friends, before they flood your posts with cat macros again. (Which, btw? I think is funny as hell.)
Also? I'm not a pedophile, and I really honestly have NO WORDS for how much it pisses me off and disgusts me to be lumped together with them. And yeah, I know LJ said that burr86 was just 'letting off steam'- then they turn around and call us the same names he did, only without the capslock of rage. (4841 comments, as of when I went back to check that idiot's username in their post at *checks* 10:14 AM pacific.) I think it's brilliant that you want to keep real porn off of your site- I don't want it on mine either. Trouble is, you don't seem to get what porn is, and isn't.
It isn't the same thing as obscene content.
See, here's the thing. You can (again I say this) ban whatever you want on your site. But if you're going to coach it in legalese, would you please give your lawyers some IV caffeine (I'm sure they need it by now) and ask them to look it over and show you the numerous places in your statements where you, quite frankly, just need to get your thumb out? I've seen other users say this and I'll echo it- if you don't really know what you're talking about, don't try. Your users are a hell of a lot smarter than you, right now you've probably pissed off people in almost any field, and they'll be more than happy to tell you where you're talking out of orifices you shouldn't be using for that. Again.
Between the cat macros.
Oh, and one last thing. A special no love to brad, Brad Fitz, who I used to think was pretty cool in the days before he sold out to Big Brother 6A. Okay, Brad, we get that you're bored with LJ, you're leaving, you don't care. But the contempt and the disdain with which you spoke to people who used to be your users, not these assholes'? Really fucking sucks. "They said it was porn, so it's porn." When people tried to correct you, you didn't want to hear it. Your attitude is, "They say it is, you say it isn't, I don't have time to dig through and find out." And you clearly don't give a shit. Nice. (In the sense of, "Okay, you're an asshole. You gone yet?")
And still 6A doesn't get why we're mad? Maybe they need those caffeine IVs too. Might help. Or not.
In a word, guys? Duh.
I have no real news beyond that, because they're not saying anything, and what other users/groups are saying, other people are following and linking along much better than I could having barely been up for an hour.
What I have is a bit of a rant. Been a lot of these around lately, I know, and I'd love to use my LJ for what I got it for, but I've got to get this off my chest first.
So. LJ has a problem with fanart depicting Harry and Snape. Not a pairing I'm a fan of, but there are lots of those.
HP fans, a lot of other fans, and a bunch of users just going, "uh, WTF is LJ smoking this week?" have a problem with LJ. And it's getting bigger, because every time they promise 'clarification', they muddy the waters. "We mean this stuff, not that stuff." "Yeah, [x] stuff is safe." And next time 'round: "We never said that."
Yes, you did, and you'll have thousands of people waving screencaps and the like in your faces if you keep, you know, lying.
Now, strangemuses reckons LJ/6A's got their lawyers scrambling to come up with the legalese saying what we can and can't do on LJ, which is what we really want to see. And I think she's probably right, which begs the question- If they weren't ready to change the ToS, Why the FUCK did they start going after this stuff before they had the TOS to back it up?
Nobody (okay, most of the still reasonable people) is saying that LJ doesn't have a right to decide what content they want on their site and what content they don't. What we're saying is that when they decide to change the rules on us, they should do it like, you know, they're required by California law to do. Tell us, for fuck's sake! You do that, you look as professional as we all used to think that you were. We all read the new ToS stuff, think, either 'hm, I can live with that' or 'no, that's not going to work for me', and stay or go. Quietly, no mess, no fuss, maybe some people bitching about LJ/6A, but nothing like this.
That's right, LJ, if you're reading this. You could have avoided this whole thing, or most of it. You'd still get some disgruntled users, but you know, whatever.
(And the lj_biz post did crash my other browser session, and nearly forced me to hard restart my entire computer, which it doesn't really like, so, you know, ta, LJ.)
Moving on.
Last night when strangemuses and I were talking about this, she said something about seeing a comment (I think?) indicating that even flocked posts containing content LJ didn't like would get us banned, but like a dork I didn't ask her for the link, because the post wasn't crashing my browser then. Anyone see anything like that, or is my sleep deprived brain remembering wrong? Also, there was something about it being retroactive... hidden in comments, of course, to 'clarification' post I can't get to anymore. Argh.
If that's in there, and wasn't just stuff she and I were speculating on (and I don't think it was) then this, well, sucks.
Again- I feel like I keep saying this, maybe because it's not sinking in with the LJ leadership, apparently- nobody's saying they can't ban whatever the hell they want on here. They'll lose some people, but that's life. But to do it this way, expecting us to follow these invisible rules, and make them retroactive? And saying that locking it up as best we physically can on their site, isn't good enough?
That's one rant. Yes, there's another.
Not only does the legal definition of porn exclude fictional characters, be they in art or print, 6A is basically lumping all of us who're bitching about this as unfair in with the pedophiles. And that really fucking pisses me off.
Let's start over, huh? Hi. I'm urbandruid. I like Harry Potter, among other things. I can't draw for crap, but if I could, I'd probably draw stuff LJ wouldn't like. I write erotic fanfiction sometimes. (Not with underage characters, because that creeps me out.) I don't want your kids to read it any more than you do, so I'm careful about what I do with my fic, where and how I post it. I just recently went back and friends-locked the one adult story I've posted on any of my journals in the past year. That's all I can do. If that's not enough, you need to tell me. And my friends, before they flood your posts with cat macros again. (Which, btw? I think is funny as hell.)
Also? I'm not a pedophile, and I really honestly have NO WORDS for how much it pisses me off and disgusts me to be lumped together with them. And yeah, I know LJ said that burr86 was just 'letting off steam'- then they turn around and call us the same names he did, only without the capslock of rage. (4841 comments, as of when I went back to check that idiot's username in their post at *checks* 10:14 AM pacific.) I think it's brilliant that you want to keep real porn off of your site- I don't want it on mine either. Trouble is, you don't seem to get what porn is, and isn't.
It isn't the same thing as obscene content.
See, here's the thing. You can (again I say this) ban whatever you want on your site. But if you're going to coach it in legalese, would you please give your lawyers some IV caffeine (I'm sure they need it by now) and ask them to look it over and show you the numerous places in your statements where you, quite frankly, just need to get your thumb out? I've seen other users say this and I'll echo it- if you don't really know what you're talking about, don't try. Your users are a hell of a lot smarter than you, right now you've probably pissed off people in almost any field, and they'll be more than happy to tell you where you're talking out of orifices you shouldn't be using for that. Again.
Between the cat macros.
Oh, and one last thing. A special no love to brad, Brad Fitz, who I used to think was pretty cool in the days before he sold out to Big Brother 6A. Okay, Brad, we get that you're bored with LJ, you're leaving, you don't care. But the contempt and the disdain with which you spoke to people who used to be your users, not these assholes'? Really fucking sucks. "They said it was porn, so it's porn." When people tried to correct you, you didn't want to hear it. Your attitude is, "They say it is, you say it isn't, I don't have time to dig through and find out." And you clearly don't give a shit. Nice. (In the sense of, "Okay, you're an asshole. You gone yet?")
And still 6A doesn't get why we're mad? Maybe they need those caffeine IVs too. Might help. Or not.
In a word, guys? Duh.