And here we go again

[tsukinofaerii]

(headdesk headdesk headdesk) Oh LJ. Why you hate us?

Okay, no, LJ doesn't hate us. Some of us (namely, me) gives LJ monies, and LJ does not hate people who give it monies.

What it does seem to hate are slash-based communities.

Lately, LJ has set several communities to 18+ only, presumably because those communities were reported. Okay, that's fine. It's the risk that comes with running comms. The stumble happens it seems to be happening primarily to communities with slash. merlinslash, merlinxarthur, fanficrants & merlinfemslash were affected—merlinfemslash has the distinction of having been reset to "Adult Concepts" after the mods protested. When the mods of fanficrants protested, they were told sorry, no can do. Probably because Girl on Girl is Hot and fanficrants has a lot of icky Boy on Boy content.

I'm going to be fair. I really don't believe this is out of any policy-oriented maliciousness. It makes no sense for LJ to be screening content, because if they start that means they're liable for anything that doesn't pass muster. On a site like LJ, that's a recipe for GLADoS-style cake ("fish shaped volatile organic compounds"). They're not going to mess their own bed like that.

Currently, LJ's ToS says that, upon reporting:

"Should any Content that you have authored be reported to LiveJournal as being offensive or inappropriate, LiveJournal might call upon you to retract, modify, or protect (by means of private and friends only settings) the Content in question within a reasonable amount of time, as determined by the LiveJournal staff. Should you fail to meet such a request from LiveJournal staff, LiveJournal may terminate your account. LiveJournal, however, is under no obligation to restrict or monitor journal Content in any way" (point XIV—emphasis mine).

Might is the key word here, I think. They might send you an e-mail. They might not. It's completely arbitrary. Really, this whole part is so wrapped up in indistinct mumbo-jumbo, they're basically saying "eh, we'll decide each case individually". Which I would normally approve, since it gives room for leniency. Unfortunately, it also gives room for prejudice and just stupid decisions.

Of course, LJ's ToS hasn't been updated since 2008, and gods know we've had some mix-ups since then. They could have changed policy behind our backs again.

The way LJ is currently set up, all it takes is one asshole with a grudge, and one homophobic asshole with a job, to completely lock down a community that really should have been given other options. It smells like a troll targeting communities, flagging them for the lulz, and then someone in Abuse going "ewwwww gay". What bugs me is that it shows the complete lack of coherent policy LJ has, and it's incredibly shady. fanficrants has a far lower level of explicit content than many slash dedicated communities. It's an example of how arbitrary and callus this is. Discussion of sex =/= explicit, unless my elementary school sex ed courses were a lot less boring than I remember.

The problem is that, not only does LJ not lay down SOP for these situations, which opens the way for abuse, it also doesn't define "adult content" in any way that a mod could use to make rules. Back when the flagging system went into place, LJ said they wouldn't define it because the 18+ markers were supposed to be voluntary. We are now seeing exactly how well that works—especially when it's increasingly obvious that the flagging isn't as voluntary as all that. The arbitrary enforcement is ridiculous, and inexcusable. LJ needs to sit down and define an SOP for these situations that involves contacting the maintainers and discussing options. (Use a damned form e-mail. You do for everything else.)

I don't like this sign of backsliding. LJ has been so good lately, with keeping us informed, not knee-jerking and not running around with its pants down. This, however, is definitely knee-jerk territory, with a sprinkling of not informing and a threat of imminent ass-exposure. I hate that I'm glad I have DW already set up. I don't want to move; I've got way too many friends on LJ, and some of my favorite communities aren't likely to shift any time soon. But really, LJ, didn't we already go through this BS about targeting content one twice?

Comments

[valtyr]

Yeah. :/ Fail, LJ. That's why I'm moving as much as I can to DW.

I think our comm will likely be safe - for the first two pages we've only got three fics rated R or above, and they seem to be working on the more-than-half rule. But yeah. :|

[tsukinofaerii]

I would have thought that FFR would have been safe too, since most of the rants aren't really explicit. LJ's said over and over that discussing sex isn't considered "explicit" content.

I think our comm will likely be safe - for the first two pages we've only got three fics rated R or above, and they seem to be working on the more-than-half rule. But yeah. :|

Um. Our comm is already set it 18+ though. I thought that was deliberate. D:

[valtyr]

Oh, so we are! In that case - definitely safe. :) I thought it was set to adult concepts, not adult content. That's from before our time.

yeah, I've just lost all faith in LJ. I'm removing people on DW from my LJ default view to encourage me to check my DW Reading page, and soon I'll be able to read people on LJ through my Read page, so. I'll only need to go there for the comm.

[tsukinofaerii]

It's a bit annoying when I'm browsing and don't realize I'm logged out, but that's all. It would be very annoying if I were under 18 and didn't think of lying about my age. (I was 21 for years back in the day.)

Is this the time to pimp Dreamwidth's ability to import entire communities in one fell swoop, users and all? they mention it in news posts a lot.

[valtyr]

If you check the FAQ, they don't usually allow importing comms because the comm owners don't own all the content. They made an exception for Scans_daily, maybe because it was mostly fair use posted by others?

[tsukinofaerii]

Maybe I'm misreading the news posts then. It sounds (to me) like they're up for it. :( Sadpanda.

[valtyr]

They'll help large groups join, and help with multiple codes, just not move the whole comm. :/ Still, LJ has not bothered C_IM yet. So we'll see.

[muccamukk]

Actually, LJ was totally dicks about being transphobic this winter, and I believe that one of the staff people recently made racist comments.

So they haven't really been doing that well at the pantless thing either.

ETA: Oh, and the whole outbound link issue back in April.

[tsukinofaerii]

(headdesk) NM then. Oh LJ. I know your mascot eats them, but there is no legitimate excuse for flashing your ass this way.

[elspethdixon]

The way LJ is currently set up, all it takes is one asshole with a grudge, and one homophobic asshole with a job, to completely lock down a community that really should have been given other options.

IIRC, fanficrants *was* reported due to grudgewank (the theory the last time i checked ffrantsrants was that the narc was one of several people recently banned for trolling), and given that the other comms reported are all slash and femslash comms from Merlin fandom, I suspect a het or gen fan with a ship-war grudge ("Slashers are persecuting me by existing!!!") is responsible for those.

[tsukinofaerii]

Yeah. I understand that if someone reports a community, LJ investigates, but the lack of coherent policy is what bugs me. Different communities were treated differently, probably based on who handled which report. It's arbitrary, and the mods weren't even contacted after the fact—you'd think they could at least send off a form e-mail. "Your community was reported, so we flipped it to 18+. Too bad, so sad! ♥ LJ" I want a coherent policy, to make sure that grudgewank isn't going to affect something like an LGBTQAI community. FFR has a lot of problems, but run-away explicit content really isn't one of them.

[elspethdixon]

*nods* I was agreeing about the grudge thing - i.e. both incidents seem like someone using LJ's policies as a weapon for grudgewank.

you'd think they could at least send off a form e-mail.

I guess that would have taken too many seconds of their corporate time. Customer relations is not LJ's strong point.

[tsukinofaerii]

Sometimes I think their lack of policy or communication is a massive, CYA Xanatos Scheme, so they can't be called out when they break a non-existent policy.

[sophie-448.livejournal.com]

>.> <.< >.>

*siiiiiiiiigh* really? again? LJ, don't make me cut a bitch. *facepalm*

[tsukinofaerii.livejournal.com]

Yeah. (facepalm) I just... Oi, LJ. Just when you think they've got it together.

[caer-swan.livejournal.com]

It's a sad state of affairs when I look up wistfully at the sky and think "Wow, it's been awhile since LJ effs up the internet..." I was kind of waiting for this. It really had been too long since they alienated part of their user base.

[tsukinofaerii.livejournal.com]

According to comments in my DW, LJ also had some lovely bouts of transphobia, the outbound links issue in April, and recent racism. Maybe we're on a 3-month schedule?

Why I spell transphobia with an f? Why?