*edits own userinfo*
Sorry for the spam...
My userinfo didn't have any hot-button words in the first place, unless by hot-button you mean things which make me hot, like Jamie Bamber's Miraculous Towel.
However, since it has been made clear that not actually having an explicit statement uncondoning illegal shit in one's userinfo can get one permanently suspended, I have just added the following to my "bio," which is in the third person and always has been, which is in some arcane way Marks's fault:
In case anyone has a question, even though she frequently reads and writes about things which are illegal, such as fictional--fictional--sex that wouldn't be okay in many areas, or fictional prostitutes (such as the one in Pretty Woman) or fictional stealing of Muggle cars or sex toys to further wizarding ends, none of this should be taken to mean she promotes, condones, approves of, performs, exhorts, or dresses in pink bows any of those activities, or any others you think are illegal, because she is clear on the distinction between fiction and nonfiction. She isn't telling you you should do anything illegal, and hopes if you are reading her, you also are clear on the distinction.
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Further to the entire issue, seriously, I find it alarming that the absence of a specific disclaimer is the crucial point.
I quote from the Abuse response to today's mess:
Because LiveJournal's interests list serves as a search function, and because listing an interest enables other people also interested in a similar topic to gather and/or congregate, we have been advised that listing an interest in an illegal activity must be viewed as using LiveJournal to solicit that illegal activity....
We recognize that many people list these types of interests for shock value, as a method of expressing opposition for these illegal activities, or to indicate fictional activity. Unfortunately, the Abuse team does not have any discretion in these cases; if a journal profile contains interests that support illegal activity, we must suspend the journal. Journals, on the other hand, may express or imply interest in illegal activity or express or imply a desire to meet and/or interact with others with similar interests, but only if the journal clearly (1) is in opposition to or condemnation of the illegal activity, (2) does not encourage the illegal activity and (3) is not used in furtherance of any illegal activity.
That's not a complete quote, but I believe it is fairly representative of the position.
If I were, and thankfully I am not, a survivor of incest or rape or assault or even, like, identity theft, all of which are illegal and all of which I might have put in my profile as interests if I were interested in them, there is a decent chance it would not occur to me to put up a specific disclaimer in my info. I ALSO might very well--VERY well--choose to discuss every single detail, including details like "I do not condone this shit" and "I am a survivor of" and "you suck if you do this to anyone" in LOCKED posts. Or not even in my own LJ. I might do that discussing in comms. Or the LJs of people of similar experience. Which I found using the interest function.
I'm pissed off. I'm not pissed off because of the fic. Most of mine, I can retrieve. Actions are being taken to rebuild an archive. What I can't retrieve, well, I value the time and the work I put in, but that's not the part of this that has me stomach-churning white-knuckle angry. What has me angry is the supposition that the interests feature is a means of promotion, and that the Abuse team should determine, by way of other words in the profile (words which NONE OF US were ever told we needed), whether the content is okay or not [ETA: it is pointed out to me in comments this reads as though I am holding the Abuse team responsible. I do think they made a serious error last week, but on the whole, I understand that this group of (all? mostly?) volunteers is accountable to bosses, which are who I think have their heads firmly lodged smack up against their small intestines]. This is like, in all sorts of ways, the issue of viewing of naked bodies in libraries. The fact that someone is viewing/interested in/enjoying/happy about breasts doesn't mean jack about her or his intentions. Maybe it's for purposes of designing a better bra. Maybe it's for going home and jerking off over. I don't know, and even if the person doing the viewing is sitting there with a hard-on, as long as he's not doing anything illegal (such as jerking off in public), I don't get to decide. To suggest that a comm with words all over it about "fiction" and "fictional" and "adults-only" and also "fiction," can't reasonably be concluded is not a comm "promoting" dirtybadwrong things in nonfictoinal real life, that's ridiculous, but only after you get over it being ridiculous that "interest" is synonymous with "support" in the first place, and that's only after you get over the issue of a service which says in its TOS that it doesn't police content, and says in its FAQ that it doesn't suspend without warning up and starting to do both of those things.
My userinfo didn't have any hot-button words in the first place, unless by hot-button you mean things which make me hot, like Jamie Bamber's Miraculous Towel.
However, since it has been made clear that not actually having an explicit statement uncondoning illegal shit in one's userinfo can get one permanently suspended, I have just added the following to my "bio," which is in the third person and always has been, which is in some arcane way Marks's fault:
In case anyone has a question, even though she frequently reads and writes about things which are illegal, such as fictional--fictional--sex that wouldn't be okay in many areas, or fictional prostitutes (such as the one in Pretty Woman) or fictional stealing of Muggle cars or sex toys to further wizarding ends, none of this should be taken to mean she promotes, condones, approves of, performs, exhorts, or dresses in pink bows any of those activities, or any others you think are illegal, because she is clear on the distinction between fiction and nonfiction. She isn't telling you you should do anything illegal, and hopes if you are reading her, you also are clear on the distinction.
------
Further to the entire issue, seriously, I find it alarming that the absence of a specific disclaimer is the crucial point.
I quote from the Abuse response to today's mess:
Because LiveJournal's interests list serves as a search function, and because listing an interest enables other people also interested in a similar topic to gather and/or congregate, we have been advised that listing an interest in an illegal activity must be viewed as using LiveJournal to solicit that illegal activity....
We recognize that many people list these types of interests for shock value, as a method of expressing opposition for these illegal activities, or to indicate fictional activity. Unfortunately, the Abuse team does not have any discretion in these cases; if a journal profile contains interests that support illegal activity, we must suspend the journal. Journals, on the other hand, may express or imply interest in illegal activity or express or imply a desire to meet and/or interact with others with similar interests, but only if the journal clearly (1) is in opposition to or condemnation of the illegal activity, (2) does not encourage the illegal activity and (3) is not used in furtherance of any illegal activity.
That's not a complete quote, but I believe it is fairly representative of the position.
If I were, and thankfully I am not, a survivor of incest or rape or assault or even, like, identity theft, all of which are illegal and all of which I might have put in my profile as interests if I were interested in them, there is a decent chance it would not occur to me to put up a specific disclaimer in my info. I ALSO might very well--VERY well--choose to discuss every single detail, including details like "I do not condone this shit" and "I am a survivor of" and "you suck if you do this to anyone" in LOCKED posts. Or not even in my own LJ. I might do that discussing in comms. Or the LJs of people of similar experience. Which I found using the interest function.
I'm pissed off. I'm not pissed off because of the fic. Most of mine, I can retrieve. Actions are being taken to rebuild an archive. What I can't retrieve, well, I value the time and the work I put in, but that's not the part of this that has me stomach-churning white-knuckle angry. What has me angry is the supposition that the interests feature is a means of promotion, and that the Abuse team should determine, by way of other words in the profile (words which NONE OF US were ever told we needed), whether the content is okay or not [ETA: it is pointed out to me in comments this reads as though I am holding the Abuse team responsible. I do think they made a serious error last week, but on the whole, I understand that this group of (all? mostly?) volunteers is accountable to bosses, which are who I think have their heads firmly lodged smack up against their small intestines]. This is like, in all sorts of ways, the issue of viewing of naked bodies in libraries. The fact that someone is viewing/interested in/enjoying/happy about breasts doesn't mean jack about her or his intentions. Maybe it's for purposes of designing a better bra. Maybe it's for going home and jerking off over. I don't know, and even if the person doing the viewing is sitting there with a hard-on, as long as he's not doing anything illegal (such as jerking off in public), I don't get to decide. To suggest that a comm with words all over it about "fiction" and "fictional" and "adults-only" and also "fiction," can't reasonably be concluded is not a comm "promoting" dirtybadwrong things in nonfictoinal real life, that's ridiculous, but only after you get over it being ridiculous that "interest" is synonymous with "support" in the first place, and that's only after you get over the issue of a service which says in its TOS that it doesn't police content, and says in its FAQ that it doesn't suspend without warning up and starting to do both of those things.