Response to the Imperial Message of a journalling service going down the tubes

[lavendertook]

Here's what I left in my comment to tonight's monstrosity of LJ customer relations:

Specific problems that I still need addressed and corrected in order to
find LJ a tenable service to participate in are

1) Law does not require an immediate ban of a user who has posted illegal
content, merely removal of the illegal content in order for LJ to legally
protect itself. Is there any reason why LJ cannot remove the entry or
entries in question and permit the user to stay, especially if the intent
was not done with malice or foreknowledge (intent does matter in a US
court of law) ? This first strike and you're out policy makes for a very
hostile user climate.

2) Using terms of artistic merit as part of how LJ determines whether
material is acceptable or not creates an unfriendly user environment for
writers and artists. Setting up LJ Abuse as arbiters of LJ users artistic
endeavors is not acceptable and this is an insult to your customers. It
is not acceptable for LJ to use this as a standard for determining
illegality of a work--use clear legal criteria that does not set up LJ
staff as judges of the quality of creative endeavors.

3) The two LJ users who were suspended for illegal content last week were
following the terms set in prior comments stated on LJ_biz. You have now
said your TOS is not bound by this; however, there was no way for these
users to know that last week. If you wish to show goodwill to your
customer base, due to the lack of transparency clarifications made by
your staff members on LJ_biz caused, you will reinstate these users, with
only the works you deemed illegal deleted. This would have a large
positive impact on the morale of your fandom community user base.

I cannot in good conscience pay for any further services from your
company if these changes are not implemented.

----------------------------------------------------

That's my bottom line that needs to be met if I'm ever to be a paid customer on LJ again. LJ has met one of my prior numbers on the list--they are clear now on what they are banning. LJ is wrong to consider depictions of underage fictional characters having sex as child porn--even US law does not deem it such, but at least LJ's standard is crystal clear now. I deeply disagree with LJ banning depictions of underage sexuality of fictional characters in text and images, but I wouldn't fight them on this, until we fight US law back on this, which is very ambiguous on whether fictional depictions are included under obscenity charges.

And on burr86 who they excuse by "no one is perfect" (are they trying to tell us he's Jack Lemmon?). It's nice to know they excuse him, but that's not really their place. The issue is that fandom does not excuse him and required a really well written apology that we are never going to get because LJ does not seem to think they owe us inferior sorts one. Damn, I'm sorry for anyone who has any of these kind of people in their personal lives--these kind of people who don't know how to apologize are not the kind of people you want to get involved with, seriously. Despite the fact I'd like to see burr86's head handed to him and him kicked out of a job, it's really not an issue--it's for them to worry about their revenue plummeting, not me.

I'm very interested in seeing what response nobelia gets on her letter to the ACLU. *crosses fingers*



LJ STRIKE and FIELDTRIP

So anyone want to go on an LJ Strike with me around the 3 talking points I listed above? I read in some thread that LJ gathers stats for ad revenue on how many entries are being posted on LJ per week and wondering if this is true, but I'm having a hard time digging up info. I'd rather implement an entry strike rather than a temporary journal deletion strike because I think more people would be more comfortable with not posting entries than temporarily deleting their journals, but I still need info to determine if that would be at all effective.

I'm still planning and researching how best to implement a strike, so watch this space.


I hate that this is all coming down during IBARW--I got some entries I need to write up.

Also, I'm getting my GJ all set up here--still lavendertook on GJ, so friend me if you're there, my beloved flist-mates.

ETA: This is a disturbing little fact I had no idea about. If someone is banned, all their comments in everyone else's LJ's they've ever posted in are deleted. So fi you have some cherished conversations in your LJ with a bannded person, you lose those as well. Let's not call this a ban; let's call it cyber disappearing a user. This is so not acceptable--will tack that this porcedure must be revoked to #1.

Comments

Re: Bingo!

[ithiliana.livejournal.com]

p.s. and again this is just me, but it dawns on me that one um persuasive element we could use is that an entry strike doesn't mean walking away from LJ entirely--we could all catch up on comments we owe our flist!

and replies to comments....!