A few things here and there...

[lithera]

First of all, Penny Arcade is hilarious today.

Secondly, you've probably heard about the whole LJ suspending accounts thing. I'm all for the crack down on internet predators. Totally. I am a little confused about how some of the journals that were suspended deserved it but... I don't know. There are people tracking these things down.

http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/
http://catrinella.livejournal.com/151812.html#cutid1

Did you know there is a community for fannish lawyers? (It shouldn't have surprised me at all but it did.) http://community.livejournal.com/fandom_lawyers/36677.html

I just wish that LJ would make some sort of statement about what is happening. Strike where you need to strike and then say what you did, you know? I understand you can't announce it before hand because then the internent predators disappear but seriously. This is the internet. LJ must have known that when journals started going away (especially fannish ones) that there would be some sort of reaction. I'm not going to be someone to freak out and run around screaming about the house burning down or anything but really.

To sum up my feelings - Internet Preadtors = bad. LJ/SixApart's reaction = bad. Fandom communities freaking out = bad.

Chill. You must chill. I have hidden your keys.

Thirdly, I'm thinking, with my father's sage advice, that perhaps July 4-8th would work better for the visiting.

Comments

[flusterbunny.livejournal.com]

So far, that list of what's been deleted doesn't seem particularly wrong.

If they delete me for this icon, though, then there's trouble.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

I agree. There are a few communities I find questionable, really but I just dislike the silence. There shouldn't be any reason they can't post what they did and why.

[flusterbunny.livejournal.com]

Except for maybe because they're not DONE yet.

My guess is they're going to just stick to the big uglies and leave the randoms alone.

Then again... maybe this icon would get me suspended, too.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Well, with as big of a kerfuffle as is being made, anyone who is really being a predadtor will be kepping their head down in a serious way.

[thezzyzx.livejournal.com]

Wow, I didn't even know that any of these communities existed and I haven't heard of some of the interests mentioned. I suppose it's good to be reminded that the world is a more interesting place than I think it is. :)

[lithera.livejournal.com]

*chuckles*

It is always weird to step outside your niche. And I'm pretty sure there are people who are fans of everything. Just... everything.

[thezzyzx.livejournal.com]

I remember stumbling across a Sirius/Lupin community a year or two ago. What stunned me wasn't that it existed, but that there were splinter communities off of that to deal with important variants within that fanbase. Also it was obvious that there were people for whom nothing else existed in the world except for Harry Potter and by Harry Potter, I mean only the 3rd-5th books, and by the 3rd - 5th books, I mean only the passages that could be read to show that this relationship existed.

That's what makes the internet so fascinating. No matter how obscure you think your interests might be, you can always find twenty or thirty people equally obsessed.

...off now to continue my argument that people who prefer 1997 Phish to 1994 shows are obviously wrong and twisted. ;)

[thezzyzx.livejournal.com]

Now that I think about it, being fans of everything is a lot more healthy than being fans of one thing. The really scary people are those who fully invest all of their obsessive ability into one area. If you spread it out more (e.g. Phish AND comics AND the M's AND Heroes and...), you might not be as much of an expert on any one but you can keep a lot more balance.

[sepulchrave.livejournal.com]

Lloyd Dobbs.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Very much true. I think it is healthy to be fannish but not to be too niche or too singularily focused.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

*chuckles*

[seanb.livejournal.com]

A quick comment would be nice, but I'm not surprised that we haven't received one, yet. We don't exactly have a history of immediate dialog.

This latest batch of cleanup has been going on three, four days? The LJ news channel is only updated a couple times a month, and SixApart does press releases even less often. Honestly, they may be trying to figure out how to make the statement.

Of course, part of me feels like there should be a stronger word than "fannish" for the (presumably fictional) sexual abuse media SixApart is targeting with this batch. Of course, since the offending journals and communities have been deleted, I can't go review the content to judge for myself - unless they have some public content archived in the wayback machine. Even so, I won't be checking from this work computer.

From what I can tell, most of the well-run adult or otherwise highly objectionable communities only post in "members only" mode, with screened membership as an effort to keep children from joining. If communities following this pattern where deleted, that would lend credence to the rumor that accounts are being suspended based solely on stated interests.

It would be nice if the LiveJournal protocol allowed owners to back up content for "suspended" journals. This would invalidate many of the "they deleted my stories!" arguments.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure they do allow for backups. At least I have seen comments that they have been allowing for such, though I can't prove it one way or the other.

[seanb.livejournal.com]

I've seen comments suggesting that people make backups NOW if they think their journal might be suspended. Perhaps the backup API only allows limited functionality?

Last time I checked, the API only allows you to grab posts, so the "full" backup tools that get comments and icons and make pretty PDFs are probably using functionality that goes away when the account is suspended.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

*nods* That's frustrating at best. Especially if you're dealing with a roleplaying community with an average of 5 posts a day and an average of 10 comments a post (some much more, some less) and you've been going for three+ years.

That's a lot of data. Not that I know of any examples of that. Oh noooooo.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=4393

Ah, Internet Jesus.

[lysistratah.livejournal.com]

Aren't you planning a scene with twincest?

This would get your account deleted. It doesn't matter that both players are consenting adults. That's not the point for these people.

I don't believe this kind of thing stops predators. I think it is meant to discourage people from thinking any kind of sexual thoughts, as the fundies think all such things are bad. Pedophelia gives them an excuse no one can argue against.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Maybe it is the allergy meds but I can't seem to form my thoughts into words that doesn'start to squirm off the screen. Some things are much easier to talk about in person than through pixels. I'll see if I can dredge up a response for you at some point, Pirate Queen.

[elsewhere7.livejournal.com]

Ah dammit. I was hoping Ellis did a 'I'm leaving the Internet and never coming back' post. :(

[pullthestars.livejournal.com]

do you have links to where it's stated that this deleting was done because of a story that was written?

If you go to the journal of the woman who ran the pornish_pixies community, she states that she was told by the LJ Abuse team that the comm was suspended because of what was listed in the interests.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Which, I must say, isn't the best way to go about it. I mean, I personally am fascinated with sociopaths... Ehn. There is soooo much misinformation out there.

http://news.com.com/Mass+deletion+sparks+LiveJournal+revolt/2100-1025_3-6187619.html

[pullthestars.livejournal.com]

when I see people posting about how they're sure that non-christian blogs will be the next to be deleted, or how because they're a furry that they're certain to be next on the list... well, it incites violence.

And to have someone saying, oh, if there's a story that involves incest the account will be deleted, when I'm fairly certain that that's not actually been the case at this point... well, I'm surprised that i haven't managed to roll my eyes right out of my head.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

I agree. The non-christian blog worries I think are a bit much. I really think that LJ, having finally caved to pressure, went about it in a completely awful manner. I really don't know how effective at all this was, either. I'm leaning toward 'not very' for the actual stated purposes.