below, minus the content in the brackets.

Is this working? Does this work? Can I do one last post here on LJ via that email system I signed up for back in 2002, without accepting their new Terms of Use, to say that I won't be posting here anymore because of their new Terms of Use. [No, I could not. SO I accepted the new ToU to post this.]

You can find me on tumblr at heidi8.tumblr.com as well as FYeahCopyright.tumblr.com and, of course, on Dreamwidth at http://heidi.dreamwidth.org - I need to back up my post-10/13 LJ onto Dreamwidth, though, so I guess I have to approve the new ToU to accomplish that. Bleh. [Yep.] You can Friend me on the Book of Faces, too, if you want, or catch me on Twitter.

A few years ago when I switched from Pinkfinity back to my original Heidi8, I was told that people thought I'd deleted my LJ because of Ancient Wank from A Million Years Ago (Or Maybe 2003) so please screencap this and remember it: I will not be expressly deleting this LJ. If someone at LJ decides that I'm violating the Terms of Use deletes it, there's nothing I can do about it.

I'll leave with a link to an interesting thread on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ztsamudzi/status/853683785845673988 - it made me think a lot today about language that we have and use, that we may not have had five or fifteen or twenty years ago, how the type of interactive and social media that we choose to use informs and impacts how we interact with other people, and how a change of spaces can change how we create, share, comment on and learn from content.

I'll miss the hell out of LJ, and I really hope I don't miss any of you. Please email me (heidi8 on gmail) if you want to say where you're going without having to post here or anywhere else I'm already located.

Colloportus.

Via tresa_cho, if this is the new and mandatory layout for LJ, I'm not reading here at all anymore. But I'll crosspost until that ability is gone.

Does anyone know how to move my mood theme to DW with relative ease?

LJ is reportedly about to discontinue having Subject lines in Replies to posts, and changing the way the Expand feature works, as per discussion here. Given my work on the help_haiti comm, I have feelings that I wanted to expand beyond my initial do not want so here's what I posted here news.

Hi! About two years ago, I founded the LJ comm help_haiti to fundraise and host an auction to support the rescue of survivors and the rebuilding of Haiti after one of the worst earthquakes on record.

The LiveJournal platform was wonderfully suited for our auction to take place on, in large part because the subject lines of the Offerings were informative and evocative, and because of the ability to Expand a discussion to bidders could easily see all the threads.

Because of the way the community was organized on LiveJournal, we raised about 125,000 for charities that helped Haiti and its citizens.

In the ensuing 23 months, over a dozen communities, including help_chile, help_japan and others, have been created with similar purposes and missions, and astoundingly fantastic fundraising totals.

We at help_haiti greatly appreciated the support that LiveJournal gave to the project; it was the first time that LJ had set up a Virtual Gift tied to a specific community's fundraising project, and it was promoted by news. Authors like Neil Gaiman posted about it and promoted the project on their Twitter feeds and blogs. It brought people to LJ who hadn't been here before.

At the time, we appreciated LJ's support of the project and since then, as I said, other charitable projects have as well.

These projects will not be able to be hosted on LiveJournal if Subject Lines are eliminated from the Reply process. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to host such projects on LiveJournal if Offerors and Bidders can't Expand the comment threads.

Please, reconsider the design, so that beneficial, charitable, helpful projects like this can continue when needed.

+1s and contrary opinions are both appreciated.

Re the new LJ/IP logging issue. Yes, it's been possible forever for people to find your general location using reverse-IP sites (although it doesn't really work if you use a mobile or iPad to post) but it's taken time and been an extra step.

I don't particularly care to know where all of you are posting from but I have had occasional anon-poster issues so I've turned off ip logging for everyone but anons just so it's a nonissue for those of you who're uncomfortable with this new tweak.

I saw XMen 1st Class last night and may post spoilage thoughts when I'm back at my desktop where open tabs are waiting but my nonspoilery review is: loved the stories, I agree with McAvoy's quote re Charles and Erik, that scene with the Miami chyron was Islamorada, and one specific moment brought to mind yahtzee63's Queer Eye for the Fandom Guy and Magento.

From this evening's news post:

We want to acknowledge all of the amazing work you've been doing to support relief efforts in Haiti. We've already raised over $3,300 from the sale of our Haiti vgift!

We were so inspired by your compassion that we've decided to run a two-day charitable vgift drive. Beginning next week, from Thursday, January 28th, 4pm, through Saturday, January 30th, 3:59pm, PST, we'll donate 100 percent of the proceeds from all vgift sales to CARE and UNICEF (we'll cover the credit card processing fees). And, remember, for each $10 you receive in vgifts during a two-week period, you'll get two months of paid account time. For more info, read this FAQ.

And yes, they give a lovely shout-out to help_haiti, so thank you, LJ.

And, um, maybe this will impact the timing of the next Lightning Round? Off to ponder while I watch SHOW OMG SHOW IS ON TONIGHT IN ABOUT AN HOUR SQUEE!

But isn't that what we have LJ profile pages for? SO many thanks to everyone who sent me a snowflake cookie! It was such a lovely day-brightener and I agree that LJ should do this every so often, just randomly. Except if it crashed the notification system, because getting v-gifts is shiny, but so is getting comments.

Have you preordered your HBP DVD? If you are getting the Blu-Ray or the double-disc version tomorrow, check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter featurette - but if you don't want to wait, you can see the sneak preview of it on the Infinitus site tonight, with special thanks to Universal for sending it over.

Speaking of Infinitus, I am the coordinator for meet-ups that involve f00d, drinks and/or non-hotel Universal locations like the Parks and CityWalk. More about this coming to the official website later this month, but if you're interested in learning more about what your ship/group/site/comm/fans-of-a-specific-character-or-house/cohorts can organize/schedule let me know sometime between now and, um, March. First come, first serve on picking places and times, though!

I'll be in Orlando for a few days in two weeks - cousins are coming in from Maine and friends are coming in from NYC, so we're heading up to see people. We are definitely going to the Gaylord Palms ICE! exhibition, but is there anything else that's a must-do at any of the Disney parks and/or Universal? We've never seen the Osborne Lights or Cinderella's Castle all lit up for the holidays, so we may try to get to them, but other than that?

Erm. Missed a few days of the Meme of December

Day 06 -- Whatever tickles your fancy
My favorite holiday-season song is Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas", but two years ago, I heard the My Chemical Romance version and flipped for it. If anyone has any other versions of the song, I would love it if you'd share! Of course, I have the Love Actually version, but are there any others? Anyhow, two years ago, I ended up making two vids that year, both set to that version of the song.
( All Voldemort Wants for Christmas Is HarryCollapse )
( All I Want for Christmas - the Winchester VariationCollapse )

Day 07 -- A photo that makes you happy:
( Barack Obama Visits Smallville (Sorta)Collapse )

( The days are...Collapse )

Gacked from cooks.com:

SNOWFLAKE COOKIES

2 c. sugar
1/2 c. vegetable oil
4 sq. unsweetened chocolate, melted
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c. sifted powdered sugar

Combine first 3 ingredients in large bowl, beat at medium speed. Add eggs and vanilla, mix well. Combine flour, baking powder and salt, about 1/4 of the dry mixture at a time to chocolate mixture, mixing after each. Cover and chill 2 hours. Shape into 1 inch balls, roll in powdered sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Yield: 8 dozen.


Just in the spirit of the day, which will go down in LJ history as Snowflake Cookie Sunday!

Also, Yuletide sign-ups close soon, SHOW is on tonight and I've played three songs from last night's GLEE at least a dozen times each today.

Gacked from morganmuffle, effervescent and legomymalfoy:

One of the most recent set of LJ releases means that you can now delete ANY old email accounts attached to your LiveJournal including (the new bit) the one you originally used to sign up with (as long as you've been using your current one for at least 6 months).

Anyone with old email addresses attached to their account, especially ones they don't have access too anymore and double especially hotmail ones should go here:
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/emailmanage.bml

Also, I have to save ( this picture of JaredCollapse ) to my LJ forever! WHERE oh where is that picture from?

And gacked from giandujakiss, the magic words that will likely cause YouTube to give you the music back if they've muted something because of a complaint from Universal or WBMG, or another copyright holder. Use only where actually true and appropriate, please.

At 11:10 AM on February 11, 2002, I posted on LJ for the first time. I'd used LJ for the fictionalley account a few times in the six months before that date, and had been reading a few friends' LJs (including flourish, who gave me my code, but it was on this day that I finally started using LJ for myself.

I wish I had done this in years past, but I haven't so this is a summary of my LJ stats as of this minute:

40,534 comments received, 28,824 comments posted
3,831 Journal Entries, 602 Tags, 148 Memories, 400+ ScrapBook Files, 20 Virtual Gifts, 163 Userpics

I've had a permanent account since 2004 or 2005 - I can't even remember anymore! - I have 148 interests, am watching 1263 friends, communities, and feeds, and have been friended by over 1000 people, but some of them haven't posted on LJ in three, four or five years, and I don't know if they are still reading anymore at all. If they are, HI, oldbies!



Explanation for the computer questions above - looks like I am getting a new desktop for valentine's day/my birthday (belated) as Eldest Son has need of my 2+ year old 2GB-of-RAM machine, so I am considering just how much power I want to play with, as I have a 25% off coupon for Dell. Gah, the things I think about when I'm able to sit at my desktop for the first time in 10+ days - but I do feel so much better, in terms of surgery-recovery, every day. Other than the fact that I can't pick up anything over 10 pounds for a few more weeks, I should be close to 100% by the weekend, I hope.

You may have already seen this, but from Valleywag at Gawker:

[LiveJournal's] product managers and engineers were laid off, leaving only a handful of finance and operations workers — which speaks to a website to be left on life support. Matt Berardo, a Yahoo executive hired on last summer, is also believed to be gone.

CNET sounds slightly less panicky. But better to be safe than sorry! I am not going anywhere, but I am in various other places in case LJ does go somewhere.

I am backed up on InsaneJournal at 8heidi8 and I have an account that I really should move everything over to on JournalFen at heidi - yes, this means that I am not 'heidi8' on other blog-sites.

I'm also on facebook if you know my real name, and on Twitter at travelingheidi.

Why do I feel like the "sort your flist by date" thing last month was the last hurrah of something wonderful from LJ?

I have been here for seven years, as of this month. I don't have a seven year itch. I don't want LJ to go away. I can't recreate this community, not anywhere else.

About six weeks ago when there was a hacking concern, I asked about ways to back up my LJ, and got some recommendations here. I ended up using both LJArchive and LJBook, but I haven't gone through and re-uploaded my LJ posts anywhere else. For me, the comments and polls are as important as the content of my own posts, though, and that's not even including all the icons and photos I've stored here on LJ over the last seven years.

There has to be a way to at least keep LJ online as a hosting location because right now, I am terrified that we are going to lose that.

And that would be awful.

You have done something that ties with the awesomeness of the raised maximum on the number of people one can friend.

Paid users (and permanents) can now read their flist by date, going back in time as far as possible.

This is useful when one's been away a few days and has gone beyond skip=950, but even more wonderful, you can now read the posts on your flist from Important Dates like the release of HBP, the announcement of the release date for OotP or the recent election day squee!

You can view reactions to individual episodes of your favorite tv show, or to the tsunami from 2004, or the growing understanding of the destruction of New Orleans, or see how many people wished you a Happy Birthday back in 2004 or anything.

Wonderful tool, LJ.

Thank you!

And huh, this icon is accurately applied to this feature, despite the fact that said icon was created to be snarky towards LJ. Weird.

I'm still boggling at the 195 icon slots I now have - and I need some icon recs.

Do you have an icon that you think I should add? Show it to me, please!

Do you have an icon-maker that you fangirl madly? Link me to him/her please!

Do you have icons that you've made that you think I'd enjoy? I'd love to see them! I usually browse LJ with images off so I miss a lot of wonderful stuff, ordinarily. Need to make up for lost time!

In other news, literally - I was in today's Washington Post, talking about Beedle the Bard. If you're wondering, Harry loved the book, and finished it before I could!

Mazel Tov, Team spnnewsletter!

Also, LJ has upped longtime perma-account holders to 195 userpics? Wow, thanks, LJ! Best holiday surprise ever!

On the non-squee front, the temp replacement crown I had put on yesterday amid two hours of novocaine and nitrous fell off at a holiday party last night. Off to have it put back on this morning, and another week of relatively soft foods. Am getting bored with this, people! At least I've found a shake that I really like...

lj_maintenance gave us a little warning about a "data center move -- from San Francisco to Montana -- is scheduled for THIS TUESDAY, November 18, 2008 at 16:00 UTC (this equates to 8AM Pacific timezone) and will last for 4 hours". During this time, "it'll be total downtime for all our sites and services -- no posting, no reading, no email."

roguebitch is texting me from the boys' panel-session in Chicago, and I have two three useless insights:

1. I love the sweater Jensen is wearing! Is he trying to make himself look ickle and wee compared to Jared by wearing a shirt that's too big for his sweater? Oh, Preppy!Jensen, I will always find you super-adorable, with or without the glasses.

2. Has anyone made Hand of Ipacec icons yet?

3. Male stripper? Oooooookay, Jensen! Someone is going to ask for a demonstration at the next con., I am sure of this.

Is there a way to back up a livejournal with all the comments attached?

From news - if you don't have it on your flist, it's here:

Account Structure Update
Back by popular demand, Basic Accounts will be available to all users again
by the end of the (northern hemisphere) summer. More information on the
decision-making process and proposals relating to Basic Accounts are in
lj_2008.

kiwiria just let me know that it's not exactly the same as the old Basic ad but it's closer to it than it is to Plus, it seems. Meh-tastic!

I use this icon ironically, because sometimes backpedaling is a good thing, such as in this case. Hurrah for sensible decision-making (although of course it would be better if the sensible decisions predated the stupid ones, instead of vice versa).

Plus the new ep of Doctor Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog is up on Hulu. Anyone else going to see it on the big screen at Comic Con next week?

Speaking of weird decisions by LJ, am I the only one wondering whether Marvel is going to get huffy about LJ's use of the designation "Ж-Men" as the title of its Russian comedy about superheroes?

From LJ_2008:

The announcement last Wednesday was a mistake in regards to Basic accounts, as the change was not clearly stated, it did not allow for you to provide feedback, and went into effect immediately. Many of you have pointed out that the decision worried you less than the way it was communicated. You should have been given a voice, and you were not; we didn’t follow our own rules, and we apologize.

Thank you, kimmyblair for the pointer to it.

I feel like I'm speaking the same words again - every time Team LJ does something boneheaded, they fix it and (often) apologize after their users tell them where the problem lies, and sometimes after a collection of users threatens boycotts, strikes or departures. And once they fix it the eternal optimist in me gets optimistic again and I hope this site becomes calm and fun and homey again. But without the ongoing stress of WTF are they going to do next.

---

In much cherrier news, SO many congratulations to msbunburyist for getting into the Media Studies program at MIT! Yay Maddy! SO proud of you! Why, I remember when you were an ickle tween reviewing fics for FFN! And now, grad school. (Oh do I feel old.)

darkrosetiger has shared a translation of a recent interview of SUP's Anton Nosik (he's the Chief Blogging Officer of SUP) regarding the content strike that's on the table for Friday. You can read another translation here at furiosity's lj.

I'll leave it to each of you as to what you make of things like his statement that nobody he knows will be boycotting on Friday (oh, whatever!) or his belief that you don't walk into a store and ask for free products (er, anyone around here hang out at Lush? What about Costco? Thought so!) and about his business acumen in general.

But I do want to showcase some links to demonstrate that he's not honest speaking accurately when he says:

Then users were told, and I quote, "Even if you pay, you will receive NOTHING extra for it. Your money is a donation. Do you like the project? Donate!" Such a model was in place from 1999 to 2005.

This is what LiveJournal looked like when I started using it back in the fall of 2001. I don't see the word "donate" on there. I don't see any language saying you'd get nothing if you paid for an account. In fact, if you click here, you'll see that you actually did get extra things with your paid account, including:

* LiveJournal.com email address --- all mail to [email protected] will be forwarded to your personal email address. You can then choose to show none, either, or both of your email addresses, depending on what you want to expose.

* Personalized domain name --- instead of having your journal at http://www.livejournal.com/users/username/, it'll also be available at http://username.livejournal.com/, much shorter and more personal.

* Fast Server Access --- paid users automatically hit a group of really fast servers when they access any part of the site, instead of the normal servers which we try to keep moderately fast, but not as insanely fast as the paid user servers.

* Customize your journal --- in addition to just being able to pick the style of your journal and the colors, you'll also be able to create your own style using whatever HTML you like. This will also let you be able to make new styles that match your website that you can then easily embed, never revealing that you're using LiveJournal.com as your journal mechanism.

* Text Messaging --- If you have a pager or cellphone, you can get text messages (or numeric messages) right from LiveJournal. You can set it to allow all users, registered users, or only your friends to page you. This is especially useful if you don't want to expose your cell number to everybody, but want to be able to get messages on it. Combined with the "friends only" option, it's just really cool.

* Multiple user pictures --- you're able to upload up to 10 pictures of yourself, and choose which one to use on each entry, in addition to your current mood/music, etc. So, say you're feeling angry: in addition to the angry mood & icon, you can also choose to use your angry picture, which will then show up on everybody's journal that lists you as a friend for that one particular angry entry.

* Automatic Poll/Survey/Booths --- You can quickly and easily make voting polls and full surveys inside your journal entries, embedded right within your text.

Me? When I set up heidi8 a few months later because I wanted to blog personally and not just at fictionalley, I soon paid for a paid account to get more invitations for friends, and for the email account and the extra user pics. I didn't have an angry picture back then, though!

Even if you go back to 1999, there's nothing about donating on the site map about donating, and it isn't on the front page either. Same thing in March of 2000.

Sometime between August and October of 2000, though, paid accounts came onto the scene. But they weren't donations - you definitely were getting something for your money - basically, the same feature-set described above from 2001. (You could pay using a 1-900 number. Awwwwwwww!)

So, Mr Nosik, I'm not seeing where the business model from 1999 through 2005 had anything to do with donations. I really recommend looking through archive.org at LiveJournal Through the Ages, because it's a nifty way to learn about the company you own!

(As an aside, awwwwwwwwwww, look at the adorable Promote LJ banners! So woobie!)

I also highly recommend reading this interview from 2001 with Mr Nosik - don't you think he sounds a little nonplussed when he says:

"I am receiving some pressure from people who would like to manipulate our articles, who are offering money to me or to my journalists to publish something."

Really, I understand that he's frustrated. I understand that he feels under siege by a segment of LJ's users. But being inaccuate in interviews and being presumptive that the site's users are engaging in something other than constructive criticism are not the ways to get out of a siege mentality. Actually talking to your users and seeing them as people who don't like to be manipulated any more than he did back in 2001 might help.

Courtesy of kennahijja, many of the interests (boys, girls, fanfiction, sex) are back on the list of popular interests.

Anyone know if the griping made a difference?

ETA at 430: Semi-related, at least in terms of potentially similar issues is this article in Wired.

Many advertisers, for now, are staying away for fear their ads could inadvertently appear with clips that have nudity, foul language or perhaps criticism of their brand.

"That's a holdover from the TV days," said Jayant Kadambi, chief executive for YuMe Inc., a video startup that has an ad-distribution deal with YouTube owner Google Inc. "If someone runs a TV show that the general audience doesn't like, the advertiser gets yelled at."

The resistance means missed revenue opportunities for millions of hours of online video views, even as sites scramble to meet demand from the growing number of advertisers dabbling with video ads on the Internet to complement their television campaigns.

...

Google has been promoting new video formats and nontraditional campaigns to make money off its $1.76 billion purchase of YouTube in 2006. But it has been treading carefully for fear of alienating users and advertisers at the Internet's most popular video-sharing site.

Marketers who wish to advertise on YouTube, for instance, can choose to have ads appear only with video from Warner Music Group Corp. and other major content providers that have deals with Google.

In other words, Google is thinking through the implications of ads on YouTube - not just with a goal of GETTING$REALLYQUICKLY, but also in not alienating their users - ie both those that generate content, and those who watch/review content.

Huh, interesting perspective there, Team Google!

First, before the serious stuff, Happy St Patrick's Day to all who celebrate and/or enjoy it.

Second, gacked from supernatural_tv, Circuit City has Supernatural DVD sets for seasons 1 and 2 for $19.99 each. Cheap! Share the love!

Third, there's a plan afoot to match Terry Pratchett's 500,000 pound donation to Alzheimer's research. (If you're in the US and want to give in dollars using paypal, click here.)

Now, the time-sensitive issue of the day - in a follow-up to LJ's dropping of Basic Personal Accounts, LJ has also removed various Interests from the Popular Interests list includng "bisexuality", "fanfction", "fandom", "boys", "girls", "depression" and "faeries".

Yep, "fandom" no longer exists as a popular interest on LJ.

W?T?F?

What sort of warped business decision led them to think that "fandom" was some sort of danger to the LJ community such that newcomers and interested outsiders and registered users couldn't know that it was popular as an interest 'round these parts?

If you're interested, there's going to be a strike this coming Friday here on LJ. Keep reading for more info.

ONE DAY CONTENT STRIKE

For one day, Friday, March 21, make no posts. Make no comments. Let there be NO new content added to LJ.

SUP obviously does not realize that Basic users have given something of value to them, that it is content that drives the site.

So, for one 24-hour period, from midnight GMT to midnight GMT, let's see how many people we can get to pledge to contribute NO CONTENT.

This will create a permanent downward spike in the daily-posts statistics, a permanent reminder of the power of the userbase.

Full information at The Fox's Den.

SPREAD THE WORD!


<b><center>ONE DAY CONTENT STRIKE</center></b> For one day, <b>Friday, March 21</b>, make no posts. Make no comments. Let there be NO new content added to LJ. SUP obviously does not realize that Basic users have given something of value to them, that it is content that drives the site. So, for one 24-hour period, <a href="http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?year=2008&month=3&day=21&hour=0&min=0&sec=0">from midnight GMT to midnight GMT</a>, let's see how many people we can get to pledge to contribute NO CONTENT. This will create a permanent downward spike in the daily-posts statistics, a permanent reminder of the power of the userbase. Full information at <a href="http://beckyzoole.livejournal.com/394548.html">The Fox's Den</a>. <b>SPREAD THE WORD!</b>

ETA at 3:50 PM - the interests seem to be back on the list - I wonder if the griping and threat about Make No Content Friday made a difference. I'm still taking Friday off from content-generation, and also from generating page views on LJ, because if you're here and logged in and doing something like reorganizing your tags or userpics, you're creating page-views, even if you're not making content. Instead, I'm going to spend an hour or so with a list of the RSS feeds I currently read on LJ, and import all of them to GoogleReader. Good to have another option, at least.

As everyone probably knows by now, LiveJournal has dropped the ability of users to create Basic accounts (ie low-featured accounts that don't have ads) - from now on, you will either view ads, or you'll pay for an ad-free account.

I finally managed to type up my thoughts on this in a comment on their News post where they noted that they had basically screwed up YET AGAIN in telling LJ users something, but since I don't have any way to predict whether my comment will remain visible there (although I don't have any reason to think it won't, either) I wanted to replicate it here ( behind the cut.Collapse )

I agree with a lot of what many of you have already posted about LJ's attitude - not so much their act of removing the Basic accounts, but the way they didn't Announce it and instead tried to slip it past the userbase (do they think we're stupid? sums up a lot of that. elements articulated it in a way that I wanted to quote:

This recent screw-up hasn't lost you 100% of my willingness to give LJ the benefit of the doubt, but it's shaken my faith in LJ management's sincerity in making good use of its excellent advisory board, and it's shown once again just how hopelessly out of touch with its user base the LJ management is.

Seriously, we *want* to give you a chance - at least those of us who've bothered to stick around this long, after nearly a year of a string of major screw-ups. We wouldn't still be here at all if we weren't willing to give you a chance.

Meet us halfway. Take a step back, and consider the possibility that despite everything you know about the web, in terms of Livejournal, you're brand new. Listen to us. Listen, for heaven's sake, to your advisors, especially to danah and Brad who are people who care deeply about and have very solid understandings of this community.

Livejournal is unique. It's not something that having worked at Blogger, or being a new media expert, or being an internet entrepreneur, etc., can give you the right kind of experience in. The only way to learn how not to piss off the LJ userbase - and we are the geese who lay the golden eggs, here - is to actually listen to us, and to listen with an open mind and the understanding that despite our being "just" customers, WE are the people with the real authority to speak about what works and what doesn't here. You may have the authority to make the final decisions, but we have the most core decision of all - whether to stay here or not, and whether to pay if we do stay.

LJ has been purchased by SUP, who are the same entity that's been operating a Russian version of LJ. The NY Times reports on the purchase, and at this point, I'm just most interested in the "community" members who will become a part of LJ's "Advisory Board" "via an open online election process."

The Times an article on fanclubs where they noted:

By definition, members of fan clubs are passionate, but these days they also seem cranky and some are even at war with the performers they supposedly slavishly admire. Fan clubs today are online communities that vent on Internet message boards and gripe directly to performers about everything, including song lists, merchandise and the prices and availability of tickets. And when sounding off is met by dead air, fans sue, complain to consumer protection agencies and even plot concerted action on a global scale.

Well, we've all seen blogposts and coverage by F_W raging in support of, and against, things like complaints to consumer protection agencies when fans see fan-servicing entities that don't stick to their promises or even their written agreements - remember the griping and the praising last summer when people complained to California's consumer protection entities (now run by former CA Gov Jerry Brown) - and it's interesting to see a "third party" take on coverage of these issues.

They cover "Fan Asylum", who manage fan clubs for Maroon 5 and Whitney Houston. Their founder got his start running Journey's fan club (which I was a member of back in 1984? 1985?) and he says,

when the mission shifts from an emphasis on service to one of revenue, “You’re just asking for trouble from the fan base.”

Well, yeah.

That's one thing that's been discussed over and over - and should continue to be discussed throughout all types of fandoms, IMHO - what sort of service do fans want, and when does the company's interest in in creaing revenue for the sake of the company's owners overwhelm the service they're supposed to be performing for the fan club members? And how much of this crosses paths with the interest by the performers/creators in making money off of their creativity?

I'm especially fascinated by the discussion of Prince.org by the site's founder:

But now the site functions more as an international social network where people discuss politics and other topics, he said.

“People stay for the community that’s evolved, the personalities and environment,” he said. “It’s a virtual hang-out.”

Isn't this what we've seen happening on LJ as people join for or because of fandom participation, and after a while they may migrate to other fandoms, "consume" content created in other fandoms, and just start hanging out with the community, the personalities and the environment?

When I saw the headline yesterday, on the front page of the Times' Sunday Style section, my first thought was that Fandom Wank would have a field day complaining about Fannish Entitlement by the Mylie Cyrus and Prince fans, although they probably won't bother because they haven't yet and these are things that have been in the public eye for a while. If they were going to be turned into wank-subjects, they probably would have already. It's like that with F_W and other wank-ish sites - they cover what's on their radar screen and they don't cover stuff where the majority of participants are under 18, which is probably the situation with the Hannah Montana stuff - and that makes sense.

But if there is a "fannish entitlement" "problem", then it's not limited to, or wholly encompassed on, or manifested solely within the modes that have been the subject of much debate. Some of the Rolling Stones' fan communities gripe about this and that, but when something happens, like Keith Richards' fall out of a palm tree, there's a tonne of concern and sympathy and banding together, and that's what a community does.

It's like the discussion of what makes someone a "bad fan", if they don't like the way the creator has done something - which, interestingly enough, is a discussion that never happened in the Heroes fandom this fall, although it could have gone that way - and it was probably pre-empted by that Tim Kring interview with EW where he detailed all the things that had been Less Than Perfect in the first seven or so episodes of this season - most of which had been mentioned by at least some fans. And that leads me to a weird pondering - if the creators of a show did something - a plotline, a casting choice, whatever - that you liked but it turned out they didn't actually feel proud of (at the time, in retrospect, whatever), does that make you a bad fan because you're disagreeing with the creators? I can think of examples from at least three fandoms, and I'm just not sure what the answer actually is.

Of course, that's assuming there is such a thing as a "bad fan" in the first place - I mean, other than the fans who get stalkery or jump onto the Creators and/or Talent in a physical way. If all you're doing is discussing, or even ranting, can any of that make you into a "bad fan"? Can you be a fan of something if an aspect of the creative work, or the beaviour of those involved in creating it, makes you irked, frustrated, unhappy or disapointed?

And, to hell with it, I'll throw the question out there. What's wrong with being a "bad fan" anyway?

Discussion, contrary opinions, debate and ranting are all welcome here!

ETA: Dinosaur Mummy Discovered! Cool!

Well, midafternoon for those of you in the UK and "Saturday" for those very far to the east.

In case you missed it yesterday, lj_biz announced that the code/process for deeming an LJ or individual posts on an LJ as "explicit adult content" or "adult concepts" - the former will block those under 18 from seeing it, and the latter will block those under 14. Yes, I think this could be abused and create a climate of concern and fear, etc., but I don't have a huge problem with it because in a lot of ways, it's similar to the way friendslock works. And it's done by you, or by a community mod, and if you're over 18 it won't impact what you can see as long as you have your birth-year in your profile settings.

I have a bigger problem with the "flagging" process, which allows other people to "flag" content on your LJ for Various Things They May Have A Problem With - and my problem is basically that this is something that can be so so so easily abused, and if LJ takes the tack with these things that ffn did - where you can get your content deleted or your account removed because of one complaint that doesn't get investigated (and yes, I understand that ffn doesn't do that anymore but they supposedly have in the past), that's bad. If 100 complaints from brand new accounts at the same IP or anon IPs come in, I hope LJ treats those as noise-without-signal - but also, given that it's relatively easy to talk one's friends into raising a hue and cry over something, even a large number of complaints about something need to be fully investigated - this is going to be usable for legitimate reasons, but it is also another way of taking a grudge over something to a new level, and that's making me uncomfortable. I want to see what happens with how LJ deals with flagged complaints, in other words. But hopefully it will work the same way as abuse complaints - which do also have the ability to be misused, but...

ETA: It seems that LJ will not allow accounts that are under a month old to flag posts at all, which is a good thing. There is still potential for abuse, but making a thousand new accounts so you can go on a reporting spree that evening isn't one of them. /ETA

One difference between these flags and abuse complaints is that generally, complaints to Abuse have been public - if you have a problem with something, anyone can see it, at least initially, when it's posted to Abuse. Will flags be done the same way? Is there a discussion of this anywhere in the 2000+ comments on the biz post?

In much better internet news, GMail now has Group Chats and more emoticons! Yay, Google, for giving people what we want, and trying to be Not Evil!

In other words, Google - 1.0; LJ - 0.023! (LJ gets one tenth of a point back for blocking accounts that are under a month old from Flagging Stuff)


I also learned last week that in posts to a community, if the community is set to allow anyone to edit tags, even if comments are turned off and the comm is set to moderate, the community members can edit the tags. I wasn't sure what to do with that knowledge, and I refrained from being Evil in the tags even though I sorta wanted to be, but I thought people other than me should know this. Especially because I think that there's no IP tracking at this point on tag-editing. Dear LJ, this is probably a hole, no?

I have a lot to say about my cool new all cons all the time icon, the good works by EFF and CreativeCommons, the terrible PR team at LJ (no, really, they should read copperbadge's advice!), the fact that stealing luncheon tickets (or creating counterfiet ones) is really tacky and also criminal, my amusement at my 2004 Webby Nominee icon these days and certain posts at the time, how much I'm looking forward to seeing stormwynd and maybe at Disney this weekend, my frustration with FA's ISP, the amazing computer glitch that allowed me to purchase four Tommy Bahama shirts for the price of one at Bloomingdale's today and my complete confusion about what to wear to the premiere of & afterparty for Rush Hour 3 tonight, which I'm attending because I went to high school with the director and am friends with his mom.

But right now, this is the most important thing I have to say (and it's gacked from rookie131):

Tomorrow [aka Thursday], Dairy Queen [in the US] is donating all proceeds from the sale of Blizzards to the Children's Miracle Network. So, go out and get yourself a Blizzard.

Everything else will wait for tomorrow, or maybe Sunday when I get back.

Email may be spotty over the weekend - if you need me, catch me on YM or AIM.