Alternatives to LJ and Other News

[liz_marcs]

All previous posts related to the LJ Strikeout of 2007 can be found here.

Last post before I pass out....

First, Those LJ Alternatives

Insane Journal

(Personal account at liz_marcs)

bubble_blunder totally called this one. For my money the best of the alternatives. LJ interface on this one is exactly like LJ, minus the the touches SixApart additions.  If you were on LJ before the SixApart bought LJ, you'll find IJ very, very homey. Of all the options presented here, this one might be the best one to migrate to. What it lacks is critical mass. For a full list of what's available, go here.

Pros:

• Smooth running site
• Clean LJ interface
• Easily customizable (S2 is supported)
• Ability to PM someone
• It's not "communities," it's "asylums," damn it!
• We're all patients now
• Exhaustive FAQ that's easy to find
  
• Ability to upgrade via a paid account ($20 per year or $10 for 6 months)
  
• Permanent accounts are always available for purchase for $40 (yes, $30)
• Active ownership
• Syndication feeds

Cons:

• Critical mass? What critical mass?
• Free accounts are very limited: only 100 friends and 100 user pics allowed, tweaking of some basic designs allowed, ads (Firefox kills the ads, btw)
  
• Paid accounts are significantly enhanced: 800 friends, 250 user pics, fully customizable, no ads, text messaging to journal allowed, polls
  

GreatestJournal
(Personal account at liz_marcs)
I've had this account for about two years and haven't done much with it. I've backed up some stuff, but as usual kind of lost steam early on. Early sentiment seems to favor GJ as the alternative for fandom because it's somewhat familiar. Also, right now the site seems to be running a little bit on the clunky side.

Pros:

• All accounts are free
• There are ads, but they are kept off journal pages
• 2,000 user pics
• 1G photo hosting
• Voice posting
• Ability to post "testimonials" on friends' and community user info pages
• Ability to PM someone

Cons:

• Uses an older version of the LJ software
• Can be kind of creaky at times (Let's just say that the site seems to be on a slowdown right now)
• User support is somewhat spotty because it's all-volunteer
• The FAQ is a bit iffy
• No way to upgrade your services through supporting memberships or paid accounts

JournalFen
(Personal account scaryfairy)
This site is run by fans for fans. I've had this account for awhile, mostly so I could comment on the fannish communities there. My own journal is empty. This one uses an older version of the LJ interface like GreatestJournal and the fact that it's overwhelmingly dedicated to fannish pursuits puts it slightly above GJ.

Pros:

• It's a site run for fans by fans
• Three levels of accounts: free, paid, and premium
• Paid accounts available for $25 a year and include: 500 user pics, 2500 friends, text messaging, polls, and customizable styles
• Premium accounts available for $36 a year and include: 1,000 user pics, unlimited friends, text messaging, polls, and customizable styles
• Active ownership
• Very active membership

Neutral:

• Only people over 18 are allowed to have an account. Fans who engage in more adult fannish activities might like this fact. Under 18 fans aren't going to be happy.
• Much as I love JF, it can get a little wanky over there.

Cons:

• If you don't pony up the cash right away, someone with a paid account will have to invite you. Before you ask, no, I don't have a paid account. I got in just before JF made it hard to get a free account.
• Getting a free account is like winning the lottery. JF will occasionally open the floodgates and allow for free sign-ups, but that happens about as often as a lunar eclipse.
• JF servers have been a little cranky as of late as membership and commenting on the site have exploded.
• Can't find out if there are Syndication feeds
• The FAQ is...not helpful

In Other News...

• The folks over at dark_christian, a journal dedicated to tracking the Dominionist movement, has been all over our friends at Warriors for Innocence (deliberately not linked). dogemperor has been leading the investigation into finding out just who these people are. If you've been following the various links, the answer isn't exactly a surprise.
  
  
• Firefox News has two news articles on the SixApart/LJ debacle: The Purity Police and Fanfic and Six Apart Deletes 500 Journals, Many of them Fannish

• Oh, and we've been BoingBoinged

• And Farked

• And Slashdotted

• And Digg-ed

• And before I forget, Perverted Justice just threw up its hands and wondered aloud if SixApart/LJ knows the difference between real life and fiction. (Scroll down to see the rant.) Whoops!

• Just an aside: I want to ask SixApart/LJ, "Deleting all those journals...how's that working out for you?"

• Over at dw_news, the natives are getting restless and demanding answers. Thus far, we've got resounding silence. The newest post has already reached the max number of comments (5001). The online riot has moved to the next-newest post here and that's looking to reach 5001 posts as well.

• Don't forget to be counted at fandom_counts. By showing SixApart/LJ the sheer numbers of people who are in fandom, it's hoped that we can pressure our corporate overlords into addressing our concerns.

• fandompays is taking a survey. The main idea: are you willing to refuse to spend money and dump your account down to basic? Enough numbers could mean a chunk of change to SixApart/LJ, so fill out the survey. When I filled it out, I was in a more charitable frame of mind.
  

• fandomuhaul is offering to be a central location where people leaving LJ can leave a "forwarding address" or blog

• fandom_lawyers has a really good round-up of legal issues in this post.
  

• For more links and round-ups and information, trawl through my previous posts all tagged for your convenience.

I need to go get some sleep now...

Comments

adis723 is compiling a list of 6A advertisers...

[nebris.livejournal.com]

http://adis723.livejournal.com/91375.html

~M~

Re: adis723 is compiling a list of 6A advertisers...

[nebris.livejournal.com]

Nighty night and great job. =)

xoxox
~M~

[eridanusus.livejournal.com]

Anil Dash has made a public statement at Metafilter: http://www.metafilter.com/61636/livejournal-suspends-hundreds-of-accounts#1712054

Once again, they're talking to outside people, and not the users. There's discussion about this both on that page and on Fandom Tossed: http://www.greatestjournal.com/community/fandomtossed/17401.html

Some suspended accounts are starting to come back, but people still aren't happy about Anil Dash's backtracking and how it fits in to the previous comments about the "community" they want to have.

[fierydream.livejournal.com]

@the statement: Mmm, sounds like 6A is taking marketing lessons from FanLib - don't talk to your users (potential or otherwise) directly, talk to some random third party!

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

Holy shit! Boingboinged, digged, farked, AND slashdotted? That's like a complete set!

...That is a lot of negative publicity.

[eridanusus.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. There's another report (http://community.livejournal.com/innocence_jihad/66342.html) that there will be a news post soon, too. "Within the next half hour", they said on the phones.

We've nearly filled up the second most recent news post...

[fierydream.livejournal.com]

*g* I'm sure we can fill it up before they get the new one up.

[fierydream.livejournal.com]

Aww, scratch that - it's already up here.

[iyalode.livejournal.com]

Hey, Liz. You've done a stupendous job over the last couple of days. The sleep is well deserved. Although you may wish you'd stayed asleep once you wake up and read SixApart's response. The devil is in the details or, y'know, complete and utter lack of them.

[mistressnaoko.livejournal.com]

Rest well.

[booster17.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to say thanks for all your hard work and effort that you've put in over the last few days, co-ordinating all that information, debunking some stories and sadly confirming others.

It has been much appreciated, not only by me. You're a star Liz.

[justhuman.livejournal.com]

Liz -
Just wanted to say thank you for all the work you've put in to keep track of the important events and sources of information

Friended you ... and thanks for all the info

[arkaycee.livejournal.com]

I found one of your entries that got Dugg, and want to follow all this (and besides, your pre-this-crisis entries all seem to be about interests of mine). So hi... and thanks for all this info! I just discovered this last night and am digesting it all. Probably see you at another non-LJ site.

Re: Friended you ... and thanks for all the info

[arkaycee.livejournal.com]

(and the icon I used is, of course, directed at the LJ situation, not you. :) ).

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

No need to reply, just wanted to say thank you for being a calm place to find info during the last few turbulent days.

::hugs::

[mllesatine.livejournal.com]

Thank you for keeping us informed. Just joined insane journal. looks nice enough.

[24-24-1-1526.livejournal.com]

six apart speaks to us
News Updates
2007-05-31
Well we really screwed this one up…

For reasons we are still trying to figure out what was supposed to be a well planned attempt to clean up a few journals that were violating LiveJournal's policies that protect minors turned into a total mess. I can only say I’m sorry, explain what we did wrong and what we are doing to correct these problems and explain what we were trying to do but messed up so completely.
What we did wrong;
1) Over the last couple of days we have suspended (not deleted) about 500 journals out of many millions on LJ.
2) It is now clear that in an unfortunate number of cases these journals were suspended for easily correctable problems in their profiles that would then allow them to be reinstated and that this was not communicated to the journal or community owners at all.
3) Further, because of miscommunication these journals were taken down before review could be completed to avoid mistakes.
How we are fixing it.
1) Over the next few hours we will review the journals that were taken down and wherever appropriate we will restore these journals or communities before 12 noon PDT. Sorry it will take that long but we do not want to reinstate true and clear violators of community policy.
2) In some cases Journals that were restored will be asked to clarify their profiles to avoid the appearance that they are soliciting or encouraging illegal activities.
3) Journals that we do not restore will be journals that we are fairly sure are actually intended to encourage activities that put minors at risk but we will review them if requested by their owner to be certain that we did not make a mistake.
4) In cases that we ask owners to clarify their profiles and they fail to do so within 7 days we will suspend their journals again.
So what were we trying to do when we messed up so badly?
As most of you know, LJ has a zero tolerance policy toward content that supports child abuse, pedophilia, or sexual violence. In implementation of this zero tolerance policy there were two issues that made it hard to apply these policies consistently;

[24-24-1-1526.livejournal.com]

Issue one was profiles.
There were a number of profiles that expressed “interest” in activities that most of us would agree put children at risk, notably pedophilia and child rape. Both in the instructions for profiles and in other places on the site we make it clear that interests listed should be evaluated within the context of “I like x”, “I’m in favor of x” or “I support x”. As many profiles are the only public part of a private journal and profiles serve partly as an advertisement for people of like interests, it is important that the content of a profile can be evaluated as if it stands alone. If your profile were to express interest in pedophilia with no other content that describes this interest as in helping survivors or protecting children from it we must read the profile as “I like or I support or I’m in favor of it.” For this reason we suspended profiles that meet this criteria.
Another issue we needed to deal with was journals that used a thin veneer of fictional or academic interest in events and storylines that include child rape, pedophilia, and similar themes in order to actually promote these activities. While there are stories, essays, and discussions that include discussion of these issues in an effort to understand and prevent them, others use a pretext to promote these activities. It’s often very hard to tell the difference. As such, we intended to have suspend reported journals that do not clearly and substantially object to these a reasonable person would think supported these activities. while at the same time portraying them.
We recently received a complaint from outside the community about a number of journals. When we receive such complaints it is our obligation to look into them but it is our standards not theirs that we use to make decisions about the complaints. The source of this complaint was not the source of the problem we created.

[24-24-1-1526.livejournal.com]

We never intended this policy to cause the removal of journals that were have perfectly valid discussions about literature, law or culture. We never intended the policies to take down journals or communities clearly opposed to illegal activities but clearly we did. We love our members of fandom and respect their role in our community. We made a mistake and now we are going to try to fix it.
That is it. We have always been strong supporters of free speech and at the same time we believe deeply that children deserve special protections as well as the victims of violence and hate. We tried to implement a policy that walk that line and we did it poorly, we are all sorry. One could say that no matter what we did we would either be accused of opposing free speech or endangering children but I am sure we should and could have done this much better. I hope you can forgive us and we can regain your trust.
Barak Berkowitz
Chairman and CEO Six Apart


updates:

Talking to press:
It seems that people are very upset that I did a phone call with cNet before posting here. Probably a mistake but I did make it clear to them that we were still looking in to this and that I would have a better answer by the end of the day. Sorry but it really took some time to figure out how messed up this was.

Isn't this all just a panicked reaction to WFI?
Not really. WFI or anyone else may complain but we are responsible for applying our policies to those complaints. . Even idiots can be right about some things. We try not to judge the complaint by the source but rather judge them by our policies. I believe the problem here was not the complaints or the policies but our very poor execution.

Why did it take so long?
Well when you mess up some times you really mess up and it takes a while to even sort it out, It was really bad timing, so many people were traveling and even out of touch. When we did get it figured out I thought it would be worse to make a statement that was incorrect than to wait and try hard to get it right, I may have been wrong, I don't know. I would hate to be apologies every hour, Its late.

Will you make mistakes again?
I’m sure we will. These policies are hard to define and harder to enforce consistently. We are trying to walk a fine line between our love of free speech and our desire to protect children and others. The vast majority of these issues are clear but there will be time we make the wrong call, we will try hard to correct our mistakes faster and not make them on such a big scale but I’m sure we will make them.

Where is Brad?
He is on a well deserved vacation. He has worked so hard for so long to make this site great. He probably would have responded faster. I will need to beg his forgiveness too for doing such a bad job of filling in his absence.

I’m going to try and get some rest .

see news

[cussedness.livejournal.com]

I have both an IJ and a GJ. I find the IJ easier to use.

[queencallipygos.livejournal.com]

LJ actually has responded (http://news.livejournal.com/99159.html) now, and to my pleased surprise, they're a) admitting it was a COLOSSAL fuckup, and b) they're working to restore the wrongly-deleted journals.

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

I was wondering where the sudden influx of newcomers to [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] had come from.

Now I know.

Thanks for all your hard work, Liz.

[1-mad-squirrel.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for all you've done over the past few days!

Also, Greatest Journal supports S2 also, my journal there is an S2, it's their equivalent of "Component".

[entrenous88.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for all your efforts on this issue! You deserve a delcioius tray full of brownies. :D

[skipp-of-ark.livejournal.com]

I've been quietly reading up on all this over the last couple of nights, trying to find out just what the hell has been going on and why. I really haven't been personally or fannishly affected by the shutdown, but that doesn't matter. I've been appalled by how Six Apart/Live Journal has handled this matter from start to most recently, and infuriated by the arrogance and closed-mindedness of the nitwits behind Warriors for Idiocy.

I tried to explain this whole enchilada earlier to an acquaintence who thinks fandom is populated by losers, and even they think SA/LJ has been completely idiotic about it.

Not sure I'm ready to leave LJ or set up a mirror account elsewhere, at least without checking out the alternatives myself.