Sometimes, I hate advertising.

( imvu - vitual lesbians? )

See you on the other side...

So, the Livejournal move starts tomorrow at 0800 PST and lasts four hours (ha! how likely?). I am useless with timezones, so I looked it up.

That's 1600-2000 GMT

That sucks! People in the States will mostly be at work during that time period - and the UK-bound will be stuck at home, twiddling my thumbs. At least I'm going to pole that evening, so I won't miss it too much.

*pout*

LJ Policy actually makes sense SHOCKER

With your own eyes

Oh my life! kirke_novak has given me 6 months of paid account!

And all I did was shove some stuff in the mail every couple of weeks. Wow!

*hugs Kirke*

From this post on broccoli_killer:



For those of you who don't already know, there has been a strike scheduled for Friday, March 21st, 2008, during which we hope to have many members of LiveJournal provide LJ with absolutely no content for twenty-four hours.

This means no posting and no commenting.

If you post elsewhere and have it set up to be posted through a feed on LiveJournal, don't do it. Stay away from LiveJournal for twenty-four hours. That can't be too hard, can it?

I know some of you are probably quite active on LiveJournal and will find it hard to stay away for an entire day, just as I will, but this is something that needs to be done, to show the people running LiveJournal that we're watching the changes they are making, that we're paying attention, that we're discontent, and that we want to be heard and taken in to consideration.

We are not simply users who can be tossed to the side and ignored. We are the people who make up LiveJournal. Without us, without the content we create, without our words, our voices, our creativity, our participation, there would be no LiveJournal. This is a fact, and it needs to be realized and understood and then taken in to consideration when making decisions regarding the way that LiveJournal is run. The strike is only a few days away, so there isn't all too much time to prepare. While this is unfortunate, it isn't enough to keep this strike from taking place. It will take place, the second it is meant to, and it would be best to have as many people take part as possible.

Please, spread the word. Spread it fast. There are only a few days to organize this. If you find that you care about LiveJournal or care about the people you interact with on LiveJournal or simply want it to remain a place where you can entertain yourself without constant censorship and money-hungry practices being thrown in without the consideration of those who use the service, act now. If you don't wish to spread the word, that is fine, but please: refrain from using LiveJournal on Friday, March 21st. Do something else for a change. It's for a good cause. (:

For background on this strike and why it is being held, please read the following posts:
http://beckyzoole.livejournal.com/394838.html
http://beckyzoole.livejournal.com/395310.html

To find out exactly when the strike begins and ends, depending on where you are located, please see this:
http://beckyzoole.livejournal.com/395125.html

What's this about?

* It's about free and ad-free LiveJournal accounts being abolished for new members, ignoring the advice from the newly-formed Advisory Board.
* It's about LJ staff trying to sneak this decision in under the radar, and when people found out, telling the users it was done 'to make the signup process less confusing'.
* It's about LJ staff failing to apologize for trying to hide the facts from view and for lying about the actual reasons for their actions.
* And finally, it's about the latest decision to hide certain user interests from the list of Most Popular Interests, some of them being fanfiction, bisexuality, sex and depression. This decision was not announced or explained in any way. Users found out for themselves.

Please spread the word!

I flicked through the LJ policy, looking for sources of fannish interest. I believe these two tenets will affect the fandom most:

Inappropriate Content
Last updated: March 6th, 2008

Summary
A user has posted content which incites, encourages, or advocates rape, pedophilia, or the abuse of children in any way.

Action
All accounts belonging to the user who posted the material will be terminated

Explanation
This policy exists due to the extremely harmful nature of the activities in question, and we do not want users who incite, encourage, or advocate any of these activities present on LiveJournal.

[Please note tht I do not incite, encourage or advocate rape, pedophilia or the abuse of children. However - you know that any fictional work depicting these things will count as 'advocation'.]


Non-Photographic images of minors
Last updated: March 6th, 2008

Summary
Non-photographic images (cartoons, drawings, etc.) of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct are present on LiveJournal.

Action
Users who have posted non-photographic images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct will be required to remove the material, following the Standard Compliance Timeline.

Note
We are not making any determination on the legality of non-photographic images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. This is simply a type of content LiveJournal has decided not to host.

Explanation
LiveJournal attempts to grant users the ability to express themselves in as many ways as possible. In the case of this content, however, LiveJournal has chosen not to host it due to its highly controversial nature

[Here is where it all goes wrong. So long, Teen Titans! So long, Harry Potter! Oh, I don't really know what to say here. I see their point. I also see fandom's issues. This is going to go badly]

Am I in a minority when I say I quite like the flagging system?

I mean, personally, I don't really have to worry. I may go back and tag a couple of fics with 'Adult Concepts', but I'm quite happy.

Of course, I was a "child" roaming the internets - and I read my first NC-17 fic at 13. If you're a minor and you want to continue to enjoy the more "adult" parts of lj, you just create another livejournal and make up a birthday. It is not hard. I mean, you might lose your livejournal cred, but a little variation on a username (e.g. demon_faith1) wouldn't be so bad.

It's a little extra hassle but if it stops fen being ToSsed, I'm all for it.

So, why am I not getting comment notifications anymore? I get them in my message box when someone comments on my journal, but not from anywhere else.

How am I meant to know when someone comments? Is this a temporary thing, or is it because I don't have a Paid account? If it's the latter, I'm going to get seriously pissed off.

This is how fandom responds to threats:

Writing crack fic in official posts

I love this community.

In a now-deleted post (faithfully reproduced here), burr86 -the man who's been posting in lj_biz about the illegal posts etc etc basically called ponderosa121 a paedophile.

Oh, of course, it's hard to prove, but it's certainly unprofessional and completely stupid.

Which explains a lot.

An explicit Snarry picture has gone

It's the end of an era, people.

ETA: Ponderosa's Protest

Right, now that I've finally worked out what's going on...

Here is the official post

In summary, Livejournal have declared that *all* depictions of sexual activity amongst under-18s - including fiction and art - are not allowed on their servers.

The result? Fandom appears to be upping and leaving. It doesn't personally affect me (I think...) and I'm not really a part of fandom anywhere, but it hurts. I might create yet another social networking thing to keep in touch with people.

Right before HP7 as well? Coincidence?