I Just Pinged LJ Regarding the Issue of Linking

[liz_marcs]

Right now, an awful lot of people are saying LiveJournal will ToS your journal if you provide even a link to material LJAbuse would deem ToS-worthy (using, of course, LJ's invisible guidelines that we — the customers and content providers — have yet to see) as if you were hosting the content on the LiveJournal servers.

I'm not talking about displaying images that are hosted on another site (i.e., Photobucket or DeviantArt) using the <<img>> tag.

I'm talking about just providing a link to content or an image using the <<a href>> tag that LJ Abuse deems ToS-worthy.

See the response this user got when he/she asked that question.

Another LJ user asked the same questions and got the same response from an LJ/6A employee. (H/t to wesleysgirl for the link.)

Note that this new off-site linking stance is in direct violation of LJ's own abuse policies.

I want to be clear: I'm not calling the OP a liar, but this response beggars belief as far as I'm concerned,  especially since Web sites change all the time and it's not that hard to imagine a once-innocent link to, say to an article on SuicideGirls (warning link may be NWS), could suddenly become rife with problems.

So I decided to ask Support for myself.

Within seconds of me posting my request Support tagged it as private, so good luck seeing Request#: 797739 if you want to confirm that I did, in fact, do this.

I'll just have to give you the text of what I asked:

There is currently a rumor going around the user base that LJ/6A would delete or suspend a journal if the user links to a Web site or Web page that contains content that the Abuse Team deems as objectionable.

I'm not talking about displaying an objectionable image hosted on, say Photobucket, and linked using the "img" tag.

I'm talking about linking to a site or an image using the "a href" tag.

So, for example, I post a link to a Web site( a link and nothing more) and say someone reports the entry to LJ Abuse.

If LJ Abuse deems that I have, indeed, linked to material that would otherwise get me ToS'd if LJ servers were hosting it, would my account be suspended/deleted because I merely posted a link to another Website?

Thank you for your prompt response on this matter.

As soon as I get a response, I will post it here.

Either that, or LJ is going to ToS me for posting a link to SuicideGirls.

Screw it. If this journal disappears, that's a pretty much solid answer, don't you think?

Comments

[diachrony.livejournal.com]

What I am wondering is ... what if someone simply typed in an URL but made it unclickable? Not a link. Just text.

So it'd have to be copied and pasted into the browser address bar (and a few adjustments made) before whatever-it-was could be accessed.

SO ... no one would be getting to the site "from" LJ. LJ wouldn't be anywhere in the electronic "footprint" or what-the-hell-ever the terminology would be. I am sure there's some way for Site B to see it was Site A someone was at when they clicked on the link that took them to Site B. ... I've no idea if that would be something LJ is worrying about.

But I *am* wondering if that's a way to avoid "breaking" their chameleonic TOS without completely crippling online communications.

(Frex: putting "dot com" or "dot net" so the address doesn't become a hyperlink. Like so: livejournal dot com.)

[ljcygnet.livejournal.com]

Or something like --

Fan posts: My artwork's at iwdget.com/here.html! -- this is, of course, a nonworking link.

But the members of the community know that you have to swap the first two lettrs of the URL: widget.com/here.html -- to find the art.

If you wanted to be really evil, even a pattern like:

widget.com/here1.html -- which leads to a completely innocent cat macro

But everyone knows to change the last number:

widget.com/here2.html -- would be the correct link.

There are SO many ways to game this.

Leva