| Why It Matters |
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| 01:29pm 16/08/2007 |
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I'm not part of Harry Potter fandom. I haven't even read the books, although I do enjoy the movies. I am relatively safe, technically speaking with regard to LJ's CURRENT policies, providing they don't change their minds and start banning people before announcing said change of minds--AGAIN. So why do I care, right? Read on. Or, skip to the one paragraph summary at the bottom.
( The whole damned long-winded story of everything LJ has done up to their last statement + my feelings and analysis thereof )
Again, it’s not that LJ’s not allowed to change their rules. But they have gone about it in the worst possible way, creating and changing rules retroactively to justify their actions. They have been underhanded and duplicitous by eliminating the “strikethrough” function and refusing to update their ToS. They have publicly mocked customers who PAY THEIR SALARY. They also started in the worst possible place. They should have started with groups such as the pro-anorexia communities that are in CLEAR violation of the EXISTING ToS. When you say one thing is okay and allowed to exist as a violation of your terms of service, but delete accounts that are NOT in clear violation of the terms of service as written, people start to panic and get incredibly angry. It’s not just that you’re being inconsistent and unpredictable, it’s that you’re passing judgment on what is okay and what is not, according to YOU. And when you pass judgment, people are bound to get insulted and take it personally.
There is a better way to do this, of that, I am certain. If they could not create a plan and launch this change in an organized, informative fashion, they could have at least been more communicative, sympathetic, more caring and understanding of their customers concerns. Deviantart.com recently went through a similar process, however, over there, you won’t see the outrage and frustration that has been witnessed here. Because DA handled it with grace, care and respect for their customers.
Finally, several days after their last announcement had been made, (allegedly mere days after attorneys had notified disgruntled LJ customers who wanted their money back that they were in contact with LJ), LJ made another statement. This one was far more short, sweet, and to the point. It barely contained the necessary note of “let’s work this out” required as a bare minimum at this time. They sounded serious, and sincere, and I suspect they had someone with some actual talent write it for them. However, this statement did not clarify things as much as it seemed to intend. What it did do was agree to allow customers to have the right already granted them (in cases not clearly illegal) by the ToS they’d agreed to: a warning before deletion. This was not only granted previously by the ToS, it was also promised to be given by LJ’s apology three months ago. So tell me again, what exactly did we gain from this latest statement? It’s empty tap dancing. It’s nothing more than we were already “promised”.
It is worth noting that at this time, although one deleted user has been reinstated, other people are receiving warnings of deletion regarding violations of this new “policy”. Receiving warnings a mere three DAYS after the “policy” was “instated”. These people do not get another chance. This is their only warning to be issued EVER. They have not been given ample time to remove all possible violations that occur in their journals. These people should NOT be receiving their single warning for a policy that only JUST went into effect; they should be receiving notice that they have only one week, or two, or a month, or whatever amount of time LJ decides on to remove all possibly offensive content. In some cases, the content was CACHED, meaning, the journal owner had ALREADY ELIMINATED IT before LJ notified them! Yes, you can receive your one and only ever warning based on cached material. This, again, is bad customer service and plain bad business.
In conclusion, I see a lot of fandom people out there who are attempting to ignore all of this all together in the hopes that it will simply go away. Which I don’t fully comprehend, but can accept. It will probably take two or three more incidents before some people are convinced to leave, and some may just not care at all. But then, there are some who are publicly bemoaning the outcries of rage going up all over the place. Understand that when you do this, you are passing judgment. You seem to be belittling the concerns of those of us who feel our trust has been betrayed by LJ. We have a right to defend ourselves, and speak out in protest. Just as you have the right to express your frustration with us, so do we, too, have the right to express ours with LJ. We are not simply being “killjoy’s”, here. We are not being drama queens for the sake of drama itself. We have genuine feelings about this issue, and they are just as valid as yours.
What I think some people are failing to understand is that fandom on LJ has changed, and it is likely that it will continue to change as LJ refines and expands its rules. In light of the people who have left and those who are teetering on the fence, it is almost certain that things will never go back to the way they were. For better, for worse, this is where we are. It sucks that we are being divided, and I hate it with all my heart, but all the hate or love in the world won’t keep it from happening.
Summary: Why do I care? I care because this is NOT just about Potterporn, which I could care LESS about, anyway. This is about my happiness, my comfort; my ability to trust in the people whom I am (no longer, as of last week) paying for a service. LJ’s underhanded actions and righteous attitude speaks their feelings for every single one of their customers. It’s the PRINCIPLE of the thing. It’s about moral and ethical strength; character, honesty, and integrity. And LJ/6A continues to prove that it possesses none of these qualities.
And to paraphrase a couple of people: Ambiguous and arbitrary policies are NOBODY's friend.
* The employee who made the remark seeming to support pro-anorexia communities HAS apologized, although not nearly publicly enough. However, LJ has yet to comment on that, or on those communities and what they intend to do about them, since those communities are in clear violation of their ToS as they promote self-harm and harm to others.
Note: I will be adding links to all references as I am able to find them. |
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| It's exactly like a Greek tragedy. There should only be Greeks |
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| 11:38pm 16/08/2007 |
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LJ--the gift that keeps on giving whether you want it or not!
Oh, but wait! There's MORE! Kids, today's word is S-E-L-L-O-U-T. And if you work for LJ, it's the only word you'll ever need to know!
That's right. Take it, bitch.
Because these virtual gifts? Are FREE, meaning ANYONE who has an LJ account can send you one. And it/they will show up on your User Info page, whether you want them to or not. Yes, you can go delete them AFTER the fact. But you have no option to filter gifts or refuse them. And you will see the Pepsi mood themes on your friends page if someone uses them, regardless of what you want. So the truth is, LJ is whoring us out to Pepsi for free ad space, and--this is the best part--PAID USERS ARE PAYING FOR IT! You know, paid users who BECAME paid users in order to avoid seeing ads in the first place.
You know you like it.
Man. I just cannot wait to see the fallout from this. It's all so CLEAR now! The banninations make so much sense! They've been planning on putting out "sponsored" v-gifts in the form of ADVERTISING, even on PAID MEMBERS pages, for months. They went to Pepsi and said, "Hey, we've got a great sponsorship idea that we can push off even on our PAID users because we don't consider it advertising! Wanna give us handfuls of sweaty money?" And Pepsi was like "Uh, we're not comfortable with the people of ambiguous age porn thing some of your communities have going on" and LJ smiled with a blinding "ding!" and said "We'll take care of it, not to worry! YOU'RE our REAL customers, after all! Screw those paid users!"
Pepsi Mood themes. Check. Pepsi Journal layouts. Check. Pepsi Sponsored V-gifts. Check. Clearer policies and apologies to upset customers. Um...
This, on the tail of everything that's just happened. The words. They fail me. |
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