Circle the one that doesn't belong: (Porn) (Hardcore) (Bondage) (Faeries)

[stewardess]

Using the wayback machine, I was able to compare Livejournal popular interests from May, 2007, with those of today. In order of size, these are the interests SUP has disappeared from the daily popular interests report

Comments

[nebris]

I linked this all over Creation, ma'am.

~M~

[stewardess]

Thank you!

The disappearance of pain and depression is ironic, considering the complaints from LJ account holders that "insanejournal" is disrespectful to mental illness.

[tiferet]

It is disrespectful to people living with mental illness. I don't like that about it.

But the main reason that I can't move my RPG there is that free accounts are allowed a max of what, 10 friends?

[mrkinch]

Free Patient accounts are available to all new users. With this, they can:

-- Upload up to 100 icons.
-- Add 1000 journals on their friends-list.

from here

[jamie_miller]

"Hardcore" also doesn't belong, as it mainly refers to a style of music. I have never personally heard anyone refer to it as a type of porn or whatever.

[stewardess]

Type it into google and turn off safe search. You'll find a whole bunch of porn. :D

I think you are absolutely right, however, that in this context, an LJ interest, it's referring to music. But the sort of yahoos that freak out about interests are oblivious of that.

[wingedjackal]

No, I worked in an adult store for over a year, one of the movie sections was labeled "Hardcore".

[jamie_miller]

Don't get me wrong -- I know the porn industry uses the term. I've just never heard anyone who was not in the porn industry use it that way, as in, "Yeah, I'm really into hardcore," i.e. hardcore pornography.

[pictishqueen]

Appropriately enough, given the nationality of LJ's new owners, can we all say 'Potemkin Village'?

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2004/06/17.html

[stewardess]

I do not want to get into nation bashing. We don't know when this censorship occurred. SUP may not be involved at all; it may have been 100% Six Apart. I'd love a comparison with popular interests (translated!) at the Russian version of LiveJournal.

[adarkheartdawns]

I just tried to look but haven't a clue how to navigate Russian LJ D:

[bernh]

I have looked by 'search for interests' censored and some popular interests (in translate).

Sex - 880 + 451 communities
Boys - 476 + 141 com
Girls - 482 + 259 com
Fanfiction - 480 + 35 com
Guys - 502 + 163 com
Yaoi - 492 + 59 com
Hardcore - 465 + 124 com
Porn - 505 + 255 Com (+ 271 + 94 com on very similiar term)
Bondage - 261 + 18 com (+ 159 + 12 com on very similiar term)
Faeries - 136 and 19 com
Pain - 489 + 219 com
Depression - 461 + 252 com
Bisexuality - 416 + 38 com

Movies - 926 + 452
Writing - 478 + 137
Harry Potter - 465 + 105
Women - 889 + 444

and so on...

[iconox]

From what I recall of prior uproars, Livejournal was seeking to censor derogatory slurs as well as sexual terms. "Fairies" is a slur, reclaimed as it may be. It's not reasonable to call them homophobic on this incident alone. It's likely they're just being PC.

[iconox]

Well, actually, I didn't see that bit about the bisexuality term. Perhaps it is suspect.

[tiferet]

I've never seen it used as a slur when it's spelled "faeries", though.

[melayneseahawk]

Seconded.

[stewardess]

I'll make the link to most popular interests more obvious, and explain that better. Here's the most popular interest list:

http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml?view=popular&mode=text

LiveJournal runs a daily report it presents to the public as indicative of the kind of place LiveJournal is. Sometime between now and late last summer, it began to censor that report, removing the interests I listed above. We can still list these as interests in our profiles.

The report is likely to be viewed by potential advertisers and "concerned parents."

Most of all, it is viewed by potential users of all ages. A gay teenager struggling with depression, seeing the censored list, may conclude he or she wasn't going to find people or communities to relate to.

Every time you search for an interest, there is a link to most popular interests at the end of the result, with this wording: "More fun stuff can be found on the interests page."

[annafugazzi]

Ah, thank you! I was totally confused.

This sucks, yo.