LJ: Serious Business
Righto, I had better do a serious post about why I would like to do this LJ board thing.
LONG VERSION:
( short version for the tl;dr posse HERE)
I'll base this off the recommended topics to cover, as they seem like a good place to start.
What do you think is the value of LJ?
To be honest, I still think that LJ is the best social networking site. It doesn't fall into the exact same categories as Facebook / Myspace / etc, in fact, it offers less services in some ways, and I'm entirely happy with that. Broadly (and when I'm not whining about the latest upheaval), I think LJ does what it sets out to do pretty well.
LJ lets us communicate in a way that, for the best part, fosters personal freedom and control. I find the community structure does in fact promote some sort of community spirit, rather than an opportunity to spam the crap out of people. I have niggles with how some features work, but compared to Myspace and Facebook, these are indeed niggles, not "OH MY GOD, YOU JUST TOLD ALL MY FRIENDS THAT I BUY SEXTOYS". (I do, of course.)
The alternatives regularly make my jaw drop with the ineptitude of new features, poor concepts of privacy and astounding monetization schemes. I do moan about Livejournal, unashamedly. There are things to improve. No shit.
But, when it comes down to it, LJ lets us publish rich (but not overwhelming) content (compare the worst LJ page with the worst Myspace profile), communicate to those we want to (compare Facebook's incessant blabbing of your every move), to control our interaction and experience.
All of this is why I use LJ daily, Facebook weekly and Myspace at gunpoint.
I've also run blogs before, but (and I guess OpenID is improving this) I instantly lost the sense of community / friends lists / general connection and interaction. I personally don't want a readership, I want a friendslist. I like that shit.
What changes would you like to see LJ make in the next year? / What do you think are the community's greatest concerns?
Communication:
I would like the LJ newsletters to be devoid of spin. If LJ needs to remove or monetize a feature in a way that might upset people, I think everyone will be happier if we're just told straight. Selling changes we'll hate as exciting new features and ignoring or hiding unpleasant changes disenfranchises the users. It does nobody favours.
Copyright:
I think it would be very useful to LJ users and LJ admin to be able to flag one's journal posts and all comments as either public domain or CC-licensed. There have been a few cases of people abusing the quirks of international copyright to have accounts shut down for duplication of comments (for god's sake). If we had a mechanism to say "post here, and it's public domain", this would indemnify everyone. I should point out, I mean this as an option, because I know some people might restrict their posting then. Give the people control. Make it clear and fair.
Photobucket and other sites already have rules in their TOS that if you use them, your material remains your property and copyright, but you grant full and free usage. I think that this as an option (say, like the way Flickr and other services allow the user to just pick a license that suits them), would rock.
Censorship:
I believe that LJ should tread very lightly indeed with censorship, particularly when it comes to acting on the behalf of clearly biased special interest groups. This makes sense legally, and in terms of trust from the users, too.
If a service acts primarily as a publisher, acting minimally to ensure the law is obeyed, they allow the users to act as is reasonable and fair according to society. If they overstep the role of publisher and begin grading and suppressing content, not only do they ruin their relationship with the user-base, but they surely position themselves as responsible for the nature of content they do allow.
Ideally, for me, LJ is like the telephone company, a conduit that lets us communicate and steps in as rarely as possible. There are already plenty of mechanisms by which people can settle disputes according to law.
Content:
I know that LJ only lets certain rich content (movies, etc) come through from partners they have (I assume) checked out - you can't just embed any old flash objects. I've noticed, though, that some content auto-plays - I'd like to see a flat-out ban on this, I really don't need my friends list to turn into Myspace, with 20 movies starting of their own accord every time I load a page.
[edit]: I'm informed reliably that LJ-embedded flash is definitely not meant to auto-play. If it does, this should be dealt with by a support ticket to make LJ admin check out the suppliers. This definitely does happen, though, so I guess the remedy should be more widely known.
Advertising / Monetization:
I appreciate that LJ is a business and has to be run as such (which also informs my opinion of how they deal with things like DMCA notifications, etc, even though I might not like it). I don't mind paying for services, I use LJ a tonne, so they can have a few dollars.
As mentioned before, I think that when LJ rejigs how things work for clearly financial reasons, they should simply lay it on the table: LJ is a business. The users straddle the line between freeloaders and customers, and balances need to be considered.
With improved communication, I think any such changes can be taken on board with a lot less friction than they have been before, and I put the bulk of that on the shoulders of poorly-chosen, "marketing"-style missives. LJ isn't conventional business, the users respond poorly to conventional marketing. I respect companies that cut to the chase, and I strongly believe most people do.
Why do you want to be the elected representative?
In short, I have a vested interest. I use LJ fairly heavily and it's important to me. I don't think I have gratuitously fringe biases, but I do use a broad range of LJ's services, am a member of numerous communities, and moderate a few.
I certainly LJ daily to talk about things that matter to me, communicate with my friends, and occasionally try to be vaguely entertaining, to greater and lesser degrees of success. I've pretty much got over my obsession with cat macros. Mostly.
If something about LJ goes "wrong", it affects me. LJ is where I keep in touch with people and publish things that I make and want to share.
About me:
I'm a computer game programmer and I work from home, which apart from obviously making me wildly unattractive, means that I have the sort of time-management and life-style flexibility to deal with things that aren't necessarily happening in my home time-zone, and the sort of flexi-time to attend meetings / take calls. You could say I'm online a bit too much. And you'd be right.
I'm a dad, I'm a musician and lover of arts and literature. I'm a geek, I'm open in communication and strive to be open-minded. I have an enthusiastic sense of humour. That whole cliche about fighting to the death to defend the right of someone to hold an opinion I abhor. That bit.
I'm motivated and vocal. I will speak up and make things happen if something is important to me.
I also listen, discuss, and fess up if I screw up. Which I do.
And, I guess, I'm not going to be heart-broken if I'm not selected, and am arrogant enough to say that I think that's actually important. The motivation of the candidates is important, if the roles are going to be useful. My nominations post was flippant because I didn't want to get into, well, all the things above, which I think can come off as over-dramatic and self-aggrandising. I'm flippant to defray this, but serious when it's important.
The length of this post is my way of making up for my glib nomination post. I hope the cut-down version satisfied the tl;dr crowd.
I hope people who know me will agree with most of the above, but if anyone wants to take me up on any of this, you know where the comments go ;)
VOTE HERE!
ta!
LONG VERSION:
( short version for the tl;dr posse HERE)
I'll base this off the recommended topics to cover, as they seem like a good place to start.
What do you think is the value of LJ?
To be honest, I still think that LJ is the best social networking site. It doesn't fall into the exact same categories as Facebook / Myspace / etc, in fact, it offers less services in some ways, and I'm entirely happy with that. Broadly (and when I'm not whining about the latest upheaval), I think LJ does what it sets out to do pretty well.
LJ lets us communicate in a way that, for the best part, fosters personal freedom and control. I find the community structure does in fact promote some sort of community spirit, rather than an opportunity to spam the crap out of people. I have niggles with how some features work, but compared to Myspace and Facebook, these are indeed niggles, not "OH MY GOD, YOU JUST TOLD ALL MY FRIENDS THAT I BUY SEXTOYS". (I do, of course.)
The alternatives regularly make my jaw drop with the ineptitude of new features, poor concepts of privacy and astounding monetization schemes. I do moan about Livejournal, unashamedly. There are things to improve. No shit.
But, when it comes down to it, LJ lets us publish rich (but not overwhelming) content (compare the worst LJ page with the worst Myspace profile), communicate to those we want to (compare Facebook's incessant blabbing of your every move), to control our interaction and experience.
All of this is why I use LJ daily, Facebook weekly and Myspace at gunpoint.
I've also run blogs before, but (and I guess OpenID is improving this) I instantly lost the sense of community / friends lists / general connection and interaction. I personally don't want a readership, I want a friendslist. I like that shit.
What changes would you like to see LJ make in the next year? / What do you think are the community's greatest concerns?
Communication:
I would like the LJ newsletters to be devoid of spin. If LJ needs to remove or monetize a feature in a way that might upset people, I think everyone will be happier if we're just told straight. Selling changes we'll hate as exciting new features and ignoring or hiding unpleasant changes disenfranchises the users. It does nobody favours.
Copyright:
I think it would be very useful to LJ users and LJ admin to be able to flag one's journal posts and all comments as either public domain or CC-licensed. There have been a few cases of people abusing the quirks of international copyright to have accounts shut down for duplication of comments (for god's sake). If we had a mechanism to say "post here, and it's public domain", this would indemnify everyone. I should point out, I mean this as an option, because I know some people might restrict their posting then. Give the people control. Make it clear and fair.
Photobucket and other sites already have rules in their TOS that if you use them, your material remains your property and copyright, but you grant full and free usage. I think that this as an option (say, like the way Flickr and other services allow the user to just pick a license that suits them), would rock.
Censorship:
I believe that LJ should tread very lightly indeed with censorship, particularly when it comes to acting on the behalf of clearly biased special interest groups. This makes sense legally, and in terms of trust from the users, too.
If a service acts primarily as a publisher, acting minimally to ensure the law is obeyed, they allow the users to act as is reasonable and fair according to society. If they overstep the role of publisher and begin grading and suppressing content, not only do they ruin their relationship with the user-base, but they surely position themselves as responsible for the nature of content they do allow.
Ideally, for me, LJ is like the telephone company, a conduit that lets us communicate and steps in as rarely as possible. There are already plenty of mechanisms by which people can settle disputes according to law.
Content:
I know that LJ only lets certain rich content (movies, etc) come through from partners they have (I assume) checked out - you can't just embed any old flash objects. I've noticed, though, that some content auto-plays - I'd like to see a flat-out ban on this, I really don't need my friends list to turn into Myspace, with 20 movies starting of their own accord every time I load a page.
[edit]: I'm informed reliably that LJ-embedded flash is definitely not meant to auto-play. If it does, this should be dealt with by a support ticket to make LJ admin check out the suppliers. This definitely does happen, though, so I guess the remedy should be more widely known.
Advertising / Monetization:
I appreciate that LJ is a business and has to be run as such (which also informs my opinion of how they deal with things like DMCA notifications, etc, even though I might not like it). I don't mind paying for services, I use LJ a tonne, so they can have a few dollars.
As mentioned before, I think that when LJ rejigs how things work for clearly financial reasons, they should simply lay it on the table: LJ is a business. The users straddle the line between freeloaders and customers, and balances need to be considered.
With improved communication, I think any such changes can be taken on board with a lot less friction than they have been before, and I put the bulk of that on the shoulders of poorly-chosen, "marketing"-style missives. LJ isn't conventional business, the users respond poorly to conventional marketing. I respect companies that cut to the chase, and I strongly believe most people do.
Why do you want to be the elected representative?
In short, I have a vested interest. I use LJ fairly heavily and it's important to me. I don't think I have gratuitously fringe biases, but I do use a broad range of LJ's services, am a member of numerous communities, and moderate a few.
I certainly LJ daily to talk about things that matter to me, communicate with my friends, and occasionally try to be vaguely entertaining, to greater and lesser degrees of success. I've pretty much got over my obsession with cat macros. Mostly.
If something about LJ goes "wrong", it affects me. LJ is where I keep in touch with people and publish things that I make and want to share.
About me:
I'm a computer game programmer and I work from home, which apart from obviously making me wildly unattractive, means that I have the sort of time-management and life-style flexibility to deal with things that aren't necessarily happening in my home time-zone, and the sort of flexi-time to attend meetings / take calls. You could say I'm online a bit too much. And you'd be right.
I'm a dad, I'm a musician and lover of arts and literature. I'm a geek, I'm open in communication and strive to be open-minded. I have an enthusiastic sense of humour. That whole cliche about fighting to the death to defend the right of someone to hold an opinion I abhor. That bit.
I'm motivated and vocal. I will speak up and make things happen if something is important to me.
I also listen, discuss, and fess up if I screw up. Which I do.
And, I guess, I'm not going to be heart-broken if I'm not selected, and am arrogant enough to say that I think that's actually important. The motivation of the candidates is important, if the roles are going to be useful. My nominations post was flippant because I didn't want to get into, well, all the things above, which I think can come off as over-dramatic and self-aggrandising. I'm flippant to defray this, but serious when it's important.
The length of this post is my way of making up for my glib nomination post. I hope the cut-down version satisfied the tl;dr crowd.
I hope people who know me will agree with most of the above, but if anyone wants to take me up on any of this, you know where the comments go ;)
VOTE HERE!
ta!