Dept. of LJ

[kaffy_r]

Any Thoughts on the New Live Journal User Agreement?

Right now it looks as if I can't sign in unless I click "agree" - or more accurately, as if I'll be signed out if I don't click "agree." And from what little I can make out of the new agreement, it's looking less and less like I actually would want to click "agree." Still, perhaps it's not as dire as it seems? I'd love to be pointed to anyone's review of the new agreement (which, per the notice, doesn't appear to be binding in English. When you're redirected to what is referred to as the binding agreement, you discover it's in Russian Cyrillic.) Does anyone have more information that I can view while signed out? Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

ETA: AAAAAnd I can't crosspost unless I click "agree." So there's that.

ETA 2: I signed the agreement so that I could fully access my own account. However I will probably post an announcement letting people know that as of a date certain (possibly April 30), I'll be importing everything from LJ and deleting that account. If folks want to stay in touch, I'll provide an email account, and I'll also urge folks to sign up for, at the very least, a free Dreamwidth account. Any comments I may have made on other peoples' LJ, any deathless prose that the world might lose forever when I disappear ... will, well, be lost 

ETA 3: Reasons for my proposed plan of action? 

For one thing, the English translation isn't trustworthy, by TPTB's own admission; they state that the only "valid" agreement is one that's in Cyrillic Russion. For another, it appears to contradict itself on whether the new Russian Federation laws apply only to people with free accounts or to people with paid accounts (now rechristened Professional Services Packages). 

For yet another, it doesn't make clear the difference between the entity that owns the entire blogging platform, which is now under Russian Federation law, and the entity that supposedly will handle paid users accounts, still referred to as Live Journal Inc. I suspect there's really no difference. 

And another problem? If you read through the non-official English version of the user agreement one thing becomes clear: they state they can censor anyone's journal for political activity or for things that the Russian Federation considers 18+/stuff. Such as anything that mentions the very existence of gay people as, you know, people. 

I know a number of people have pointed out that those laws will probably only be applied to Russian bloggers. A) Just because I'm not affected doesn't make it any more palatable to me, and I'm not interested in even passively supporting the censorship of other people. B) "probably" is a weasel word in these circumstances. 

I think this is the last straw for me. It's a shame, but not a tremendous one. I've been slowly moving over to Dreamwidth anyhow. 

. 

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

I've changed my mind rather a lot since I posted this, so I'm glad it was useful for you to forumlate things, as to be honest, having since found out more, I'm angry too, and from now on am shifting everything I can to Dreamwidth. And I'm sorry - I was angry and upset at yet another LJ panic, but I'm dealing with that by trying to set up home elsewhere now, especially since this time I think people have very good reason to be upset and to leave. So I'm sorry that you got my first upset reaction, of not another stupid LJ panic!


(People do leave LJ for places not DReamwidth because of these things, though - I have seen them go and the farewell posts they make each time - it just depends where else you're active when something like this comes along as the last straw. So some people, who want only LJ or are already at Dreamwidth, hie over there, but people who already do a lot on Facebook, or tumblr or twitter, just cut and run. I suppose it depends on what people want! It certainly doesn't help this format, but I suspect at this point, nothing short of tumblr falling to pieces ever would! As you say, people are drifting away - people go where the people are, and with fandom at least, the people just aren't here. If I could manage tumblr, I'd probably drop LJ and Dreamwidth altogether, because I'd rather have one site to manage than two, but since I can't do tumblr more than mildly, that's unlikely to happen.)

ETA: And I hadn't remembered at all that I'd said stuff about journalling and all that - I'd have come back to add a note, and saved you the trouble of responding. I'm so sorry! I was upset and yours was the first dreaded leaving post! Which is no excuse, but I shall try my hardest to mend my ways, if you'll still have me about.

[kaffy_r]

First off, you're one of the nicest people I've met here on Teh Intarwebz - I'd be terribly upset if you weren't around to talk to!

Also, I'm glad you were able to decipher my thoughts; I just did a quick reread of my comment and discovered an entire line missing from the seventh paragraph, which renders said 'graph extremely difficult to parse. (That's what comes of trying to write whilst tired and talking to someone else at the same time. Bad kaffyr - you should know that multi-tasking is a sham and a fraud!)

I can't fathom the decision-making processes of people who leave here or Dreamwidth for platforms like tumblr. You're right, people do it, but goodness - why? I mean, yes, apparently a large number of fans go there, but I keep asking why, all the way back in history to the first people making that choice: as far as I can see, having long-form conversations, being able to comfortably write either essays or non-short fiction - it's all terribly difficult with tumblr's format. When I've tried to find communities where people do more than reblog or give tumblr's version of a thumbs-up, well, I haven't been able to. And Facebook? *shudder* I check it because of family, and because of friends who only show up there, but I really can't deal with it. It's way too toxic. And Twitter, as I said, it's good for me, because it's where you find breaking news. (Also, it's a whole wonderful world of sophisticated epigrams.) But it's not a place you can easily have a conversation.

tl;dr - you are always welcome, and will always be welcome!

[thisbluespirit]

irst off, you're one of the nicest people I've met here on Teh Intarwebz - I'd be terribly upset if you weren't around to talk to!

Aww, thanks. <3 I'm glad. And you most definitely also!

Multi-tasking is difficult; I've never been able to master it without dire results, so only a sentence missing is pretty impressive. I hope it didn't migrate to somewhere it didn't ought to be.

And, well, I have a tumblr, and I can see why people like it - it all depends very much on what we want, how we do things, what we do and our preferences! tumblr is very open - you tag something and you're potentially straight into interacting, rather than working your way through forums and groups and things that might seem clique-y from the outside. It's well-suited for mobile devices, and it is better than LJ or Dreamwidth if you're a fanartist, rather than a writer. I can never quite manage to follow people (I have to unfollow them every time they post more than one thing a day), but I can see the fun other people are having - and it's userbase is large enough that I could find (at one time, alas some have vanished since), SIX whole other people who liked James Maxwell all on their own, which is amazing and not something easily done on LJ or Dreamwidth, even back in the day, unless there was a comm (and I think that'd have taken more than six of us). So, each to their own, but I share your tendency towards this particular method of communication, as you know! And I talk to one very nice person there who actually loves PUblic Eye and the Power Game and watches a lot of old telly, and they don't do Dreamwidth or LJ. So, I can see the ease of it from some angles - and be, reassured, people are still talking reams and making friends that way, even if it's through unseen chat-sessions and asks, or long reblogs that get in everyone else's way.

Facebook is one that makes me shudder too, though I keep my account because it's very useful. (Even aside from anything else, I can't imagine wanting to keep telling ALL the people I know from all the different places stuff I'm doing or into! But then some people who use Facebook would find the idea of journalling and interacting with strangers (who become friends in time) very alarming.)

Twitter is a mystery to me, but it seems a good tweet is an art, and also to be easy to fleetingly touch celebrity if you manage an interesting or enthusiastic tweet, and who doesn't see the appeal of that from time to time, I suppose?

[kaffy_r]

. I hope it didn't migrate to somewhere it didn't ought to be.

Luckily, no, it just disappeared, like the folks on the Mary Celeste. Heh.

You have far more facility than I with tumblr. So at least one of the keys is tags? I suppose if you have a way to navigate, it helps, but the thought of having to go off-site, via private chats, to have discussions like this, is a little unnerving. I'm looking at the discussion thread here, and it's been really fantastic to see what everyone's saying; if one is responding privately, that's a completely different thing. Or am I not reading your description of communications correctly?

I can see that it might be good for fan art - although I'm not sure how it would be better than here or Dreamwidth, both places you can post art (I admit it's more difficult on Dreamwidth, where you need a separate place to host your pictures, like Deviant Art or Photobucket.) But these things are mysteries I may never plumb, since I'm neither an artist nor a tumblr person.

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, tumblr works by tags. You can have on-site discussion, but the thing with tumblr is that privacy is all or nothing - either it's private (via an Ask or the messaging system) or it's a reblog, which can be seen be everyone and anyone. Which is a huge downside to me, because I like the flexibility of flock and filtering where needed. But lots of people have long discussions - or a long, ongoing joke/meme built on and built on by each re-blogger (which is very much a tumblr thing; it doesn't work on any other site) - which everyone can see. Obviously, I prefer journalling too, but I've used it enough to see that it has its attractions - and I enjoy a nice gif set as much as the next person.

Fanart is very easy to upload and share, with no fuss or limits (as to how many in total at any rate, there are limits as to image sizes/no in one post) or extra sites needed & also its good at have links as a post. It's very good at being an image-heavy, quick, news-sharing site, but it actually in addition to very long discussions involving people who may never have followed each other, has its own sub-culture. I can't quite master it, or not as a primary website for me anyway, but it is kind of fascinating to glimpse the edges of it. The links break quickly, so it's not the best site used to store images for elsewhere, but it works perfectly for tumblr itself. Have a gifset: http://cleowho.tumblr.com/post/159010047957/two-forces-only-good-and-evil-the-curse-of

;-)

ETA: I even make some myself sometimes. (I've been meaning to think of a way to transfer this occasional meme of mine here, but as it is, it's a very tumblr format, but it's rather satisfying to pull off. I wish could make gifs the proper way - nothing in the world could stop me then! - but I don't have PhotoShop and while in theory you can do it in Gimp, my attempts to even understand Gimp and download the bits you need to do gifs seem to be doomed.)

(Whoops, sorry about all the editing - one slip in the coding...!)