I was away from the computer most of the day and am only now back and trying to get caught up. A few quick things, and then I swear I'm going to be answering comments and sending e-mail to those of you who've written me and whom I've said I'd e-mail.
First. This comm is open; anyone can post here. I have no desire to be a lone voice in the wilderness; indeed, much of the point of this community is that I am not a lone voice in the wilderness, that there are a lot of people thinking the same thing I'm thinking (fandom needs a new home, in case you have somehow missed that that's what I'm thinking. *grin*). That said, I know everyone is suspicious and jumpy right now, but please, please be careful what you say. If you hear some freaky rumour and it pisses you off, stop. Breathe. Think. Try to verify it. If you can't, go ahead and post, but say it's a rumour. Say you've tried to verify it and can't. Ask if anyone has any information. Do not make accusations or point fingers or yell that the sky is falling. The sky, I assure you, is not falling, and we have quite enough to contend with. When you are able to confirm or deny that rumour, edit your post to reflect it.
ETA: Guys, no memes. Reasonable and mostly constructive discourse, k? Thanks. I'm going to edit the userinfo and add a posting policy so as not to seem quite so capricious. Apologies for not doing it sooner. /ETA.
Second, in the name of following my own rules, I stated earlier that![]()
elaboration was suspended for incest. That was incorrect. Like ![]()
ponderosa121, she was suspended for "drawings depicting minors in explicit situations." (link to her response.)
Third. This is totally turning into a PR nightmare for LJ. Check out the articles here and here. (Thanks to alert readers![]()
atropos4 and ![]()
esteven for the links.)
And, as always,![]()
elke_tanzer has a giant collection of links and information well worth checking out.
... and now one of them has got me sidetracked.![]()
oceana_'s got a post about LJ and other journaling sites. She comes down on the side of LJ, and her reasons look pretty solid to me. I won't be staying, but I'm not jumping ship tomorrow, either. I mean, really, here I am. Hi, irony.
But in the comments to that post, and in the comments to a LOT of posts I've seen, there seems to be the assumption that whatever we come up with will host illegal material. It will not. That would be... well, it would be illegal. I'm not trying to organize a migration so we have some servers on which we can break the law. I love you people, but I'm not going to jail for hosting illegal material. And the [U.S.] laws on child pornography are really pretty clear. Stories and art depicting fictional characters are not and can never be child pornography. (There's info on this flying around all over the place, but I recommend this as a good starting point.)
This thing that LJ is doing? Is not about enforcing U.S. law. It's about making money. It's about taking the easy way out, and not having to explain to some outraged mother (or, better yet, some outraged advertising exec) that that picture is not, in fact, child pornography. Seriously? What businessperson in their right mind who is trying to make money sides with the HP chanslashers? It's not going to happen.
But it's about more than that. It's actually mostly about working together to build something completely awesome. But back in LJ-land, it's about their shitty customer service. It's about the fact that they refuse to tell us what content is and is not acceptable on their servers. Yes, I concede they are their servers, and they absolutely have the right to host or not host whatever they damn well please. If only they would tell us what that is. But when they do tell us, what they say is that they will be deciding what does and does not have artistic and literary merit. To me, that's unacceptable. There is no legal standard for it, and it allows them to weasel out of making any concrete statements and continue with their asstastic customer service.
/rant. Sorry 'bout that. But at least the sky's still there.
Now comments, and then e-mails, and hopefully that post about features I've been talking about for days.
Yours in somewhat ranty love,
Atra.
First. This comm is open; anyone can post here. I have no desire to be a lone voice in the wilderness; indeed, much of the point of this community is that I am not a lone voice in the wilderness, that there are a lot of people thinking the same thing I'm thinking (fandom needs a new home, in case you have somehow missed that that's what I'm thinking. *grin*). That said, I know everyone is suspicious and jumpy right now, but please, please be careful what you say. If you hear some freaky rumour and it pisses you off, stop. Breathe. Think. Try to verify it. If you can't, go ahead and post, but say it's a rumour. Say you've tried to verify it and can't. Ask if anyone has any information. Do not make accusations or point fingers or yell that the sky is falling. The sky, I assure you, is not falling, and we have quite enough to contend with. When you are able to confirm or deny that rumour, edit your post to reflect it.
ETA: Guys, no memes. Reasonable and mostly constructive discourse, k? Thanks. I'm going to edit the userinfo and add a posting policy so as not to seem quite so capricious. Apologies for not doing it sooner. /ETA.
Second, in the name of following my own rules, I stated earlier that
elaboration was suspended for incest. That was incorrect. Like ponderosa121, she was suspended for "drawings depicting minors in explicit situations." (link to her response.)Third. This is totally turning into a PR nightmare for LJ. Check out the articles here and here. (Thanks to alert readers
atropos4 and esteven for the links.) And, as always,
elke_tanzer has a giant collection of links and information well worth checking out.... and now one of them has got me sidetracked.
oceana_'s got a post about LJ and other journaling sites. She comes down on the side of LJ, and her reasons look pretty solid to me. I won't be staying, but I'm not jumping ship tomorrow, either. I mean, really, here I am. Hi, irony.But in the comments to that post, and in the comments to a LOT of posts I've seen, there seems to be the assumption that whatever we come up with will host illegal material. It will not. That would be... well, it would be illegal. I'm not trying to organize a migration so we have some servers on which we can break the law. I love you people, but I'm not going to jail for hosting illegal material. And the [U.S.] laws on child pornography are really pretty clear. Stories and art depicting fictional characters are not and can never be child pornography. (There's info on this flying around all over the place, but I recommend this as a good starting point.)
This thing that LJ is doing? Is not about enforcing U.S. law. It's about making money. It's about taking the easy way out, and not having to explain to some outraged mother (or, better yet, some outraged advertising exec) that that picture is not, in fact, child pornography. Seriously? What businessperson in their right mind who is trying to make money sides with the HP chanslashers? It's not going to happen.
But it's about more than that. It's actually mostly about working together to build something completely awesome. But back in LJ-land, it's about their shitty customer service. It's about the fact that they refuse to tell us what content is and is not acceptable on their servers. Yes, I concede they are their servers, and they absolutely have the right to host or not host whatever they damn well please. If only they would tell us what that is. But when they do tell us, what they say is that they will be deciding what does and does not have artistic and literary merit. To me, that's unacceptable. There is no legal standard for it, and it allows them to weasel out of making any concrete statements and continue with their asstastic customer service.
/rant. Sorry 'bout that. But at least the sky's still there.
Now comments, and then e-mails, and hopefully that post about features I've been talking about for days.
Yours in somewhat ranty love,
Atra.