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Watching and waiting for the dust to settle
When I got on LJ this morning, I wasn't expecting to find a controversy. But I did.
I can understand what people are so riled about. Roleplay villains and survivor support groups do not need to be deleted/suspended/whatever. And I can really understand being pissed if a paid account got deleted.
Maybe I would feel that I had more of a stake in this if I had a paid account myself. As it is, though, I don't really feel that LJ owes me anything. I haven't paid anything, and they're providing a very nice service that's nearly ad-free.
I will agree that Warriors for Incogitance, or whatever they're calling themselves these days, are a completely odious group, and it stinks that LJ is being pushed around by them.
Everyone is complaining that LJ bucked under financial pressure, but this is one of the points in the whole mess that makes the most sense to me, and I can see where LJ is coming from on this one.
LJ bucked under financial pressure.
Yes, they did. What else would you have them do?
I really don't think that anyone is making money off of LJ. Or not very much money. I'd guess that they get some decent salaries and manage to keep the servers up, but that that's about it. I don't see this as some sort of corporate move, with a CEO in a business suit watching the profit margins and calling the shots. I really suspect that there isn't much in the way of profit margins. In fact, I suspect that LJ wouldn't function if it lost a significant portion of its advertising revenue.
Maybe I'm missing something. Perhaps I don't get some critical something that makes a blogging site a very tidy nest egg for somebody. But I think LJ was running scared. That these wfi people have enough right-wing backing to do a fair amount of damage. That the LJ people were looking at a worst-case scenario where some of the services had to come down because they couldn't afford them anymore.
Principles are great. But we live in the real world. And in this real world, nobody has figured out a way to eat a moral stance, or run a website on it. In this real world, odious people with money and influence can use their influence in ways we don't like, without so much as a by-your-leave.
So yeah, LJ messed up. And they could have handled things better. But really, what other choice would you have had them make?
Thoughts . . . ?
I can understand what people are so riled about. Roleplay villains and survivor support groups do not need to be deleted/suspended/whatever. And I can really understand being pissed if a paid account got deleted.
Maybe I would feel that I had more of a stake in this if I had a paid account myself. As it is, though, I don't really feel that LJ owes me anything. I haven't paid anything, and they're providing a very nice service that's nearly ad-free.
I will agree that Warriors for Incogitance, or whatever they're calling themselves these days, are a completely odious group, and it stinks that LJ is being pushed around by them.
Everyone is complaining that LJ bucked under financial pressure, but this is one of the points in the whole mess that makes the most sense to me, and I can see where LJ is coming from on this one.
LJ bucked under financial pressure.
Yes, they did. What else would you have them do?
I really don't think that anyone is making money off of LJ. Or not very much money. I'd guess that they get some decent salaries and manage to keep the servers up, but that that's about it. I don't see this as some sort of corporate move, with a CEO in a business suit watching the profit margins and calling the shots. I really suspect that there isn't much in the way of profit margins. In fact, I suspect that LJ wouldn't function if it lost a significant portion of its advertising revenue.
Maybe I'm missing something. Perhaps I don't get some critical something that makes a blogging site a very tidy nest egg for somebody. But I think LJ was running scared. That these wfi people have enough right-wing backing to do a fair amount of damage. That the LJ people were looking at a worst-case scenario where some of the services had to come down because they couldn't afford them anymore.
Principles are great. But we live in the real world. And in this real world, nobody has figured out a way to eat a moral stance, or run a website on it. In this real world, odious people with money and influence can use their influence in ways we don't like, without so much as a by-your-leave.
So yeah, LJ messed up. And they could have handled things better. But really, what other choice would you have had them make?
Thoughts . . . ?
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Well, for one thing, I would have had them make the choice to check the content of journals they suspended. I would have had them share their policy change (http://www.metafilter.com/61636/livejournal-suspends-hundreds-of-accounts#1712054) with their users before acting on it. I would have had them address their users' concerns before making statements to the press.
Mostly, I would not have had them acceeding to the demands of a vigilante-cult-like group.
Of course livejournal is a business. But guess what? They don't have to let groups like WfI push around their sponsors. I would have had LJ talk with their sponsors before going on a rampage and suspending accounts left and right. I really doubt that advertisors would mind sponsoring a community that's translating Lolita if LJ had taken the time to really look into the matter.
They didn't.
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Also, my apologies for the confrontational tone of my earlier comments. It's an emotional issue . . . and it's also reading period :P and I'm a little stressed. So, sorry once again.
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OUCH!
Feel free to flame my journal if it helps you de-stress.
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Ahh, the joys of a quarter system . . .
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And that's a very nasty angle they're taking on fanfic.
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