liz_marcs: You Know That This Means War (Bugs_Bunny_Not)
liz_marcs ([personal profile] liz_marcs) wrote2007-05-30 10:20 am

LJ User Action Centers

Continued from the following posts: About that LJ Rumor..., Another Exchange of Emails, and A Swiftly Tilting LJ...
Continued in the following post: ALERT: WFI Site May Infect Your Computer (Programs to Combat Spyware)




Warriors For Innocence: You Made Us Do It, And It's Not Our Fault Anyway


Warriors for Innocence (deliberately no link) has updated their blog to take partial credit for the purge.

In short, WFI claims that they're responsible for LJ deleting "hundreds" of "pedophile journals," but refuse to take responsibility for the many, many more that ended up deleted because (for whatever reason) SixApart/LJ took these nutball's threats to go to the advertisers seriously.

I'm sure that you won't be shocked that WFI uses its latest post to...blame the victims. It's the fault of the deleted journals, y'see? They shouldn't have written about objectionable content. And they should've backed up their LJs. And they are not harming legitimate law enforcement efforts by publicly grandstanding.

Oh, and we're all a buncha whiners.

As always, their professionalism shines right on through, doesn't it?

Please be aware: Some people are reporting that they've been infected with spyware after visiting this group's site. Here's some tips to protect yourself if this is true.

ETA: Let me stress that WFI is taking credit, but LJ/SixApart have said squat. Something interesting, though: the WFI folks are tracking the individual journals and comms being pulled down on this page. (Should be safe.)

Note that in their world view that we are all "pedos" or "pro-pedo." Read over the list, because there are some really mystifying choices of comms and journals that have been deleted.  A fan comm for what looks like Ghost World? Hunh? What's that doing there?

Per C-Net: Mass deletions were prompted by several activist groups, including WFI — SixApart




SixApart and LJ: *Silence*


Or Silent No More: Instead of giving their customers an official announcement, SixApart gave it to CNet. See: Mass Deletion Sparks LiveJournal Revolt. My favorite quote:

"We did a review of our policies related to how we review those sites, those journals, and came up with the fact that we actually did have a number of journals up that we didn't think met our policies and didn't think they were appropriate to have up," Barak Berkowitz, chairman and chief executive of Six Apart, said in a telephone interview. The site boasts about 13 million journals.

Great. We're on our own.

I want to be clear here: at the end of the day, SixApart/LJ caved. Our corporate overlords have not deigned to give us a response yet, despite numerous demands on the LJ news comm for an explanation and/or announcement.

Current rumor indicates that complaints and questions put up on support are being deleted as they are found by responders. While the deletions can't be proven, it's shocking that there's only a few scattered comments there, and all of them are that green "unanswered" color.

ETA, Now with Proof: Through the magic of screencapture [personal profile] kajivar gives us proof that LJ is deleting support tickets that reference the journal and community deletions.

ETA, Possible Explanation: [personal profile] hummingwolf notes that the deletions could be because of standing LJ policy.

ETA, Electric Boogaloo: DEBUNKED! The support requests complaining about the deletions cannot be deleted from the system. They are, instead, being passed on to someone from LJ/SixApart who can answer/deal with the problem. per [personal profile] kutsuwamushi here and here.


Advice from Around LJ

  • Edit your user profile. Remove any interest that may even conceivably be considered offensive. There are several "hot button" words, including "rape," "incest," "lolita," "shota," and "pedophilia," that are being targeted.

  • Remove NWS icons. Again, this is just a rumor, and I'm including it for completions' sake. If you have a NWS icon, save it to your hard drive and remove it from your profile. There's one journal claiming it was removed because of an icon. While it's unconfirmed at the moment, better safe than sorry.

  • Backup your LJ. All of it. You can find the latest version of LJ Archive here, although it's windows-only at the moment. LJ Book is compatible with Windows and Macs and turns your LJ into a PDF. Both programs appear to preserve comments and icons from individual entries.

  • Start migrating your entries to LJ-like sites that aren't owned by SixApart. As mentioned before, Greatest Journal and JournalFen are two options, with GreatestJournal the easier of the two to sign up for. In addition, I'd like to add the very intriguing InsaneJournal as a third option. (Thanks [profile] bubble_blunder for the pointer to InsaneJournal!)

  • Start migrating your fannish art and writing to the proper archives. At the very least, you'll have online back-ups of your work that you can transfer elsewhere or point to with a link.





LJ User Action Centers
[personal profile] ancarett has helpfully pointed to SixApart's corporate phone numbers. She points out that phone calls are going to make a much bigger impact than emails. Program 'em into your cells before the numbers disappear!

ETA (I lied, one addition): [personal profile] acari has a very important list of links, including LJ back-up programs for Windows and Mac and news from around LJ.

ETA (I lied again, a second addition): [personal profile] vichan is asking for people who have an LJ to support their fannish pursuits to stand up and be counted at [profile] fandom_counts. All you need to do is "join" the comm. There's no need to post anything or answer questions. The whole point is to get a headcount, which may help the fandom wing of LJ decide what kind of mass action we can pull off to protest the deletions. (I can personally vouch for [personal profile] vichan as she's in my fandom *grins*).

[personal profile] bookshop from [profile] fandom_lawyers has a a call to action here.

[profile] bubble_blunder has one of the most reasoned lists of what we can realistically expect, and what we can't in a fantastic post here.

[personal profile] vichan has a good round-up post here.

[personal profile] femmequixotic has detailed her experience with the deletion of her HP fanfiction comm [community profile] pornish_pixies[Unknown site tag]

ETA for more information: [info]catrinella is back on the case with a massively, massively updated of news and helpful information. Right here is the real "news central."

This post in [profile] innocence_jihad has more listed.

[personal profile] lolaraincoat [Unknown site tag]has more lists of deleted comms/people here and in comments here.

Fandom Tossed over on Greatest Journal is still serving as a very strong central point for information and links to action centers. It is also now syndicated on [profile] fandomtossed

And don't forget [profile] fandom_lawyers have a discussion thread here. Something that should either cheer you up or strike fear into your hearts. If you've got a deleted journal or comm, the lawyers would like to hear from you.

ETA: [personal profile] dogemperor over on [profile] dark_christian notes that the "anti-pedo" campaign of WFI may, in fact, be more accurately termed as a Christianist campaign. Their real target? Anything that is GLBT-positive, including slash and femslash. [profile] innocence_jihad has more here.

Three new communities have been set up to fight back:


I know I've missed a lot of stuff here, some of which was mentioned in my own comments, but I'm not supposed to be online at the moment (shhhhhh! work!). Please browse the comments here and here. I know some additional links were thrown in there. However, if you've got news/information/additional links, feel free to post them in comments below this post.




As for Me, I Owe Someone an Apology


Just days ago, in this very post in fact, I fluffed off the "urban legend" that some outside pressure group was going after LJ to delete certain accounts and communities.

I didn't believe it. I fluffed it off. I was more than a little snotty about the information.

I was wrong. Even though I didn't attack anyone or name anyone, if my skeptical attitude and less-than diplomatic wording hurt anyone, I apologize.




On a personal note...

I'm going to be off line for the rest of the day due to RL. I hope the above list will be helpful for you to get started if you wish to protest SixApart/LJ's actions.

[identity profile] alainn-mactire.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 08:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Honey, dunno if you did it yourself or were just linked to, but you have a link rising through Digg.

LJ strikethrough 2007 seems to be going viral internet-wide....

[identity profile] alainn-mactire.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 09:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Link to your Digg....

http://digg.com/tech_news/Livejournal_suspends_hundreds_of_accounts

Whadda you know...we's all famous :)

link collection

[identity profile] imaginarycircus.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 09:05 pm (UTC)(link)
I was overwhelmed by the links everywhere so I started bookmarking them on del.icio.us:

http://del.icio.us/imaginarycircus/lj?setcount=100

ext_6368: cherry blossoms on a tree -- with my fandom name "EntreNous" on it (Default)

[identity profile] entrenous88.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 09:13 pm (UTC)(link)
I am still angry about all of this. Today I feel very sad, too. It'll pass, I'll go back to mostly angry and looking to see what we can do for a positive impact for freedom of speech, for the fannish community, for our virtual home here at LJ.

But right now I just feel so down about all of this.

Thank you so much for rounding up links, doing this great work, and keeping those of us who have only been able to keep abreast of the crisis at stolen moments informed of what has been happening.
ext_38398: (Default)

[identity profile] irish-dragon.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 09:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Livejournal Suspends...

This was posted on Digg
http://digg.com/tech_news/Livejournal_suspends_hundreds_of_accounts

And isn't this a bit scary.

http://suesviews2.blogspot.com/

now I'm off to run my spyware.

[identity profile] joie-de-vivre.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 09:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much for these entries. I know they've helped to cool a few flaming heads and start them reasoning. ♥

I'm taking a shot here, but if anyone knows anything about what happened to [livejournal.com profile] hpslash, please let me know. Was it a mod who deleted it, or has it become another victim of these Assholes By Proxy?
ext_28821: (Default)

[identity profile] sayhello.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 10:35 pm (UTC)(link)
You can tell that it was deleted by the owner or a mod, because if you follow the link (click on the name), it says the journal has been deleted, and if you are the user. you have 30 days to undelete. If you click on any of the suspended journals, like [livejournal.com profile] pornish_pixies they all say the journal has been suspended. There's no option to "unsuspend" or "undelete"

(no subject)

[identity profile] sayhello.livejournal.com - 2007-05-31 02:53 (UTC) - Expand

[identity profile] alainn-mactire.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 09:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Erm...anyone else fancy giving the BBC a nudge towards the story.... I admit it, I just did....

Have your say form is here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4995300.stm

If LJ won't listen to its users, perhaps they'll listen to the press?

[identity profile] blueleopard87.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 09:43 pm (UTC)(link)
I hope you don't mind me commenting here, this post has been linked all over and you seem to be one of the most reliable sources for the current news... I thought this comment was quite interesting:

http://news.livejournal.com/98960.html?thread=45812368#t45812368

Also I noted several people who have brought up again LJ's changing of their mission statement when ads came into play..


Thank you very much for taking the time to so concisely put together all of the links so far!

[identity profile] sovayfox.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Someone has been digging up info on WFI. It turns out they are massivly anti gay, anti transe, anti GLBTQ in general. The plot gets thicker it seems.
http://cussedness.livejournal.com/
http://cussedness.livejournal.com/122602.html?mode=reply
http://cussedness.livejournal.com/121371.html

Anti-gay

[identity profile] ginmar.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 10:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Their homophobic tendencies seem to say it all, doesn't it?

Re: Anti-gay

[identity profile] sovayfox.livejournal.com - 2007-05-30 22:13 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Anti-gay

[identity profile] ginmar.livejournal.com - 2007-05-30 22:15 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Anti-gay

[identity profile] sovayfox.livejournal.com - 2007-05-30 22:18 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Anti-gay

[identity profile] ginmar.livejournal.com - 2007-05-30 22:20 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Anti-gay

[identity profile] sovayfox.livejournal.com - 2007-05-30 22:22 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Anti-gay

[identity profile] ginmar.livejournal.com - 2007-05-30 22:28 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Anti-gay

[identity profile] sovayfox.livejournal.com - 2007-05-30 22:40 (UTC) - Expand

[identity profile] lavendertook.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 11:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you for all your work.

[identity profile] afteriwake.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)
About the urban legend prt...I had one of my friends list an entire "oh, it's BS" type of comment not once but twice on my journal. I think I shall be linking back to your posts at some point in the near future.

[identity profile] eridanusus.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 11:32 pm (UTC)(link)
There's a new report out. http://news.com.com/Mass+deletion+sparks+LiveJournal+revolt/2100-1025_3-6187619.html


"Our decision here was not based on pure legal issues," countered Six Apart's Berkowitz. "It was based on what community we want to build and what we think is appropriate within that community and what's not. We have an awful broad range of discussions and topics and other things going on in LiveJournal, and we encourage other broad-ranging conversations on all sorts of topics. This was a specific case where we felt there was not a reason (for these journals to stay online)."

Berkowitz said the company would "obviously apologize" to anyone whose journal was deleted in error but added: "That's going to be a very small minority of the sites. I would be shocked if it's more than a dozen."

[identity profile] lirren.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 11:59 pm (UTC)(link)
That first paragraph you quoted is exactly the one that bothers me the most. It's not about legal issues, it's what they chose to find morally objectionable. And that royally pisses me off.

[identity profile] alainn-mactire.livejournal.com 2007-05-30 11:37 pm (UTC)(link)
erm, guys....they have given a statement...

TO THE PRESS???

See here:http://news.com.com/Mass+deletion+sparks+LiveJournal+revolt/2100-1025_3-6187619.html?tag=st.prev

[identity profile] bubble-blunder.livejournal.com 2007-05-31 12:31 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks for the links and the compliment regarding my post. Coming from you that REALLY MEANS A LOT!

And you are very welcome in reference to Insane Journal. When I first went looking for LJ alternatives last year I stumbled onto their site and really really liked it. It seems a little less generic than GJ and not quite as gothic as DJ. It also had pretty good reviews on places like Wiki at the time as far as service went.

Thanks for keeping everyone up to date about this. I hope that you know that when I insinuated that people should stop bitching and moaning that I wasn't referring to posts like yours. Reporting on the issue makes sense. This way people can be well informed when they choose whether or not they care enough about this issue to leave when they don't get the response from LJ/6A that they are hoping for. I was referring mostly to the mass hysteria and sign this petition posts that keep cropping up all over the place.

After all of this, you must be utterly exhausted. So I offer you *a cup of java* and *HUGS*.

~Lisa

[identity profile] optimus-life.livejournal.com 2007-05-31 12:47 am (UTC)(link)
I've been keeping tabs on this story all day and have a close friend in rl that works for Perverted Justice(they have a story up on their site) and I find it ironic that LJ wouldn't work with PJ(who was going after specific LJ users/groups) and instead is now doing mass bannation.

And I will pass along those links about WFI, my contact over at PJ is looking up info right now as to how legit they are. She smells a rat and so do I.

[identity profile] chicklet73.livejournal.com 2007-05-31 01:07 am (UTC)(link)
*applauds you*

Thank you so much for all your hard work. I've been kind of offline for a few days...had no idea about all of this, and it's a head-spinningly huge amount of info. Your organization and presentation of it has helped me a TON. Thank you again!
ext_3472: Sauron drinking tea. (Default)

[identity profile] maggiebloome.livejournal.com 2007-05-31 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
The amount of people downgrading from plus to basic is heartening (http://community.livejournal.com/lj_ads/1886.html?page=56#comments), I'm among them from sheer solidarity even though I'm not in danger of deletion. I'd encourage people who downgrade in protest to comment there. At this stage individual comments probably won't get read, it'll be something like "Um guys. There's thirty pages of people that downgraded because of this..." so the more the better! Hop on the bandwagon!

[identity profile] mamainak.livejournal.com 2007-05-31 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
http://firefox.org/news/articles/407/1/The-Purity-Police-and-Fanfic/Page1.html

I don't know did you see this...I'm all busy now (if you know what I mean) I couldn't go through all comments you have here...
romyra: Icon by <lj user="moshesque"> (Default)

[personal profile] romyra 2007-05-31 01:19 am (UTC)(link)
*Memorys* Thank you so much for the hard work you are doing to keep us all informed. Words can't express my gratitude.

[identity profile] tamibrandt.livejournal.com 2007-05-31 01:24 am (UTC)(link)
Radical Warriors for the Innocence told the media:

Warriors for Innocence did not respond to an e-mail request for comment on Wednesday. But a recent post on the group's Web site replies to the protests by taunting the activists: "Let the caterwauling and complaining continue; LJ has chosen to enforce rules that were already in place for all to see. 'I finally got held accountable, and it's all your fault' won't fly."

[identity profile] bsbartgurl.livejournal.com 2007-05-31 01:26 am (UTC)(link)
well i created a greatest journal account

now it's archiving LJ time and uploading old LJ posts to GJ

[identity profile] tdei.livejournal.com 2007-05-31 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
Perverted Justice has posted a comment on the LJ deletions on their front page in their news if you hadn't caught it yet...

http://www.perverted-justice.com/

Awesome info, thanks for getting us acquainted with it all.

[identity profile] elementalv.livejournal.com 2007-05-31 02:16 am (UTC)(link)
There's another option for Mac OS X users to back up their LJ and get text files in return. [livejournal.com profile] antennapedia wrote a Python script that works with History output from Xjournal. The details are here (http://antennapedia.livejournal.com/238132.html").

[identity profile] kat8cha.livejournal.com 2007-05-31 02:27 am (UTC)(link)
http://news.com.com/Mass+deletion+sparks+LiveJournal+revolt/2100-1025_3-6187619.html?tag=st.prev

Seen that interview yet?

[identity profile] stewardess.livejournal.com 2007-05-31 02:30 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you. You helped me tremendously.

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