wolffe

So LJ has come up with this holiday promotion - all paid and permanent account holders get 10 $10 off coupons to give to non-paid friends. On the post, others have pointed out that it's kind of a crappy gift, and most are disappointed they aren't running the free userpic with account renewal promotion.

I wish they would run a promotion that rewards permanent and paid account holders instead of (or more realistically along with) trying to get new paid users.

They won't, so I'll just offer one to any non-paid peoples who want a coupon. Let me know and I'll hook you up.

If you haven't heard the flack, here's a rundown from what I've been able to gather from comments made to this post. (they start on page 6, near the bottom.) For a much longer accounting of the goings-on, see this post by catrinella who is keeping it up to date with the latest facts.

Apparently the radical group Warriors of Innocence (NOTE: no longer direct linking to this group because people are reporting huge amounts of spyware on their computers after browsing there.) - who are not LJ customers - made a report to LJ that stated journals were supporting pedophilia and they would be targeting LJ advertisers until the problem was rectified.

LJ, sometime yesterday, changed the TOS (quietly) and then deleted, suspended or banned lots of journals and communities based on some arbitrary method without notification to the owners/moderators of the communities.

LJ is still mum on the whole situation, but Warriors of Innocence claim victory and are now saying that all the negative comments are simply "caterwauling and complaining" and that LJ should be applauded for rousting criminals and making it safer for everyone.

The problem is not that LJ has gotten rid of communities where pedophiles congregated and discussed crimes against children (which everyone agrees was a good thing) but rather that included in the journal wipeout were fan fiction communities, communities for survivors and victims of molestation and even literary discussion communities.

LJ is currently in the middle of a mass panic. Since no one knows how LJ made the determination of which journals should go, everyone is wondering what's next. If a discussion group for the novel Lolita can be deleted, then why not a discussion group for another book? Or any journal which has an interest someone might find objectionable? On that same post referenced above, people are calling for some sort of statement from the administration of LJ/Six Apart and vowing not to purchase permanent or paid accounts and not to renew existing paid ones. Obviously people are getting paranoid and angry.

Whether this is a molehill mountain or a horrendous affront to the 13 million LJ users who have supported this service since its infancy remains to be seen. Either way, I don't think LJ will be able to just ignore this one, and the longer they go without making a statement the worse it's going to get.

More resources if you want to follow along at home:
liz_marcs
Fandom Wank (although the servers are getting slammed pretty good.)
gehayi has a list of links




thanks to quizzicalsphinx for alerting me to the fun, and providing some of the links.