LJ Changes Discussion
For those who might not be aware, since the start of 2017 there have been changes to Livejournal with servers moving to Russia and, most recently, a change in LJ Terms & Conditions. We would like to share with you some of our thoughts on this and then we would like the community's input, with a view to possibly making some changes. Your mods may be manning the bar, but without all of YOU there is no community. Your views are important so please do comment after reading. Thank you.
Please be aware that your mods are nowhere near the likes of Tony Stark in technical knowledge and futurist thinking, however: never asumme that information you post on any social media is entirely private. Social media companies hold the rights to your information (see: instagram owns all your photos, see: you can never completely delete your Facebook). In addition, unless you are very, very good there will be someone better than you who can crack your security; we can take precautions but we are not immune. This has not changed with LJ. It's just that instead of LJ being in Trump's America it's now in Putin's Russia. Your opinions on those administrations and on your online rights associated with companies located within them are your own.
Our Position: Your mods are not panicking, but we are wary of these changes. They do not at first glance impact the main activities of this community - a main change in the T&Cs concerns politics for example - but with things such as this and Russia's LBGTQ rights record we are wary. We also, of course, have to take into account our members. If the majority of you move elsewhere then it would make sense for the community to follow the community.
Dreamwidth: An alternate social media site that we could host the community on is Dreamwidth. It is relatively easy to import a community there from LJ. There are pros and cons to Dreamwidth vs LJ and these are different for personal journals and communities. KEY POINTS: we could import the entire community including all of the comments to Dreamwidth. You can't crosspost on communities and future comments would not crosspost, although we could re-import the community on a semi-regular basis. Dreamwidth has an OpenID log in system so that you can comment there using an LJ, and other, online identities - you do NOT have to have a personal Dreamwidth account to post to a Dreamwidth community (although it makes it easier). None of your mods are familiar with Dreamwidth and there may be stumbling blocks that we wouldn't know about until we trip over them.
Options under consideration:
1) We keep the community on LJ. We back it up on Dreamwidth and re-import to Dreamwidth on a semi-regular basis to keep it current. We do not moderate or use the Dreamwidth version. It remains inactive unless needed in the future.
2) We keep the LJ community AND have a Dreamwidth community. How this would work: we re-import semi-regularly to Dreamwidth, we comment on both, we moderate both, we keep both active. Dreamwidth would have BOTH LJ and Dreamwidth posts. LJ would just have LJ posts. Dreamwidth would (hopefully) end up with the comments from both. LJ would just have LJ comments.
3) We move the community to Dreamwidth and maintain a presence on LJ. Dreamwidth would be the main community but monthly/ on a semi-regular basis we would post a summary post to LJ with links to Dreamwidth posts and activity, so people on LJ would know what was going on and could either comment/chat on LJ or use OpenID to comment on Dreamwidth.
4) We move to Dreamwidth completely. We archive the LJ version and don't use it at all.
For easy commenting you can copy and paste the following. Or you can just comment with whatever you think about all of this. The important thing is that we have a discussion as a community, so please do comment. There is no deadline for this post and we open to changing our minds (again) in the future. However, if you could comment before MONDAY 17th APRIL that would be helpful.
Are you planning to keep your personal LJ or move it to Dreamwidth or elsewhere? Or some combination?
Of the above options for the community, would you prefer ONE/TWO/THREE/FOUR/some variation?
If the comm continues on LJ and you move your personal journal to Dreamwidth OR if the comm moves to Dreamwidth and you keep your personal journal on LJ, would you still be active in the community? Or more active, less active?
Other thoughts and/or things you would like to be considered?
PLEASE NOTE: please be respectful of other people's opinions, emotions, and countries. Think debate, not argument. Thank you.
Your Mods
Please be aware that your mods are nowhere near the likes of Tony Stark in technical knowledge and futurist thinking, however: never asumme that information you post on any social media is entirely private. Social media companies hold the rights to your information (see: instagram owns all your photos, see: you can never completely delete your Facebook). In addition, unless you are very, very good there will be someone better than you who can crack your security; we can take precautions but we are not immune. This has not changed with LJ. It's just that instead of LJ being in Trump's America it's now in Putin's Russia. Your opinions on those administrations and on your online rights associated with companies located within them are your own.
Our Position: Your mods are not panicking, but we are wary of these changes. They do not at first glance impact the main activities of this community - a main change in the T&Cs concerns politics for example - but with things such as this and Russia's LBGTQ rights record we are wary. We also, of course, have to take into account our members. If the majority of you move elsewhere then it would make sense for the community to follow the community.
Dreamwidth: An alternate social media site that we could host the community on is Dreamwidth. It is relatively easy to import a community there from LJ. There are pros and cons to Dreamwidth vs LJ and these are different for personal journals and communities. KEY POINTS: we could import the entire community including all of the comments to Dreamwidth. You can't crosspost on communities and future comments would not crosspost, although we could re-import the community on a semi-regular basis. Dreamwidth has an OpenID log in system so that you can comment there using an LJ, and other, online identities - you do NOT have to have a personal Dreamwidth account to post to a Dreamwidth community (although it makes it easier). None of your mods are familiar with Dreamwidth and there may be stumbling blocks that we wouldn't know about until we trip over them.
Options under consideration:
1) We keep the community on LJ. We back it up on Dreamwidth and re-import to Dreamwidth on a semi-regular basis to keep it current. We do not moderate or use the Dreamwidth version. It remains inactive unless needed in the future.
2) We keep the LJ community AND have a Dreamwidth community. How this would work: we re-import semi-regularly to Dreamwidth, we comment on both, we moderate both, we keep both active. Dreamwidth would have BOTH LJ and Dreamwidth posts. LJ would just have LJ posts. Dreamwidth would (hopefully) end up with the comments from both. LJ would just have LJ comments.
3) We move the community to Dreamwidth and maintain a presence on LJ. Dreamwidth would be the main community but monthly/ on a semi-regular basis we would post a summary post to LJ with links to Dreamwidth posts and activity, so people on LJ would know what was going on and could either comment/chat on LJ or use OpenID to comment on Dreamwidth.
4) We move to Dreamwidth completely. We archive the LJ version and don't use it at all.
For easy commenting you can copy and paste the following. Or you can just comment with whatever you think about all of this. The important thing is that we have a discussion as a community, so please do comment. There is no deadline for this post and we open to changing our minds (again) in the future. However, if you could comment before MONDAY 17th APRIL that would be helpful.
Are you planning to keep your personal LJ or move it to Dreamwidth or elsewhere? Or some combination?
Of the above options for the community, would you prefer ONE/TWO/THREE/FOUR/some variation?
If the comm continues on LJ and you move your personal journal to Dreamwidth OR if the comm moves to Dreamwidth and you keep your personal journal on LJ, would you still be active in the community? Or more active, less active?
Other thoughts and/or things you would like to be considered?
PLEASE NOTE: please be respectful of other people's opinions, emotions, and countries. Think debate, not argument. Thank you.
Your Mods