Seriously considering a move

[brainofck]

I have put a lot of effort into Greatest Journal, where I am http://brainofck.greatestjournal.com. At the end of August, I made it mostly inward-looking and self-referencing. I need to fix up the new posts starting in September. But I just peeked over there.

No advertising.

100 free icons.

Fewer layouts for clods like me that don't create their own layouts.

But you know. A nice little place to pitch my tent.

I know a lot of people have gone to Insane Journal, but it is just FULL of advertising. Though I do have a journal there. http://brainofck.insanejournal.com.

If I decided to pull up the tent stakes, this is what I will do.

I will continue to announce new stories in the LJ communities, but I will link over to Greatest Journal.

I will post the same announcements here that I post in the LJ communities, so if you are a friend of this journal, you won't miss the porn.

But the porn will live over there.

And over there, I will post a linky back to LJ, in case you want to comment here instead of there.

I'm not sure I'm going to do it yet, but I am very seriously considering it.

The free 100 icons is almost enough to tempt me to move my RL journal, too. But I have a big friend base here, so probably will not. Though that attitude may change next year when Six Apart tries to get money from me again.

Anyway, gonna sleep on it a little. But yeah. I think there's a more than 50/50 chance that this last move by TPTB has made it so that I no longer care to be a tool of this corporation.

Comments

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

I was more pissed off at strikethrough than this. Working at a major university that has to deal with internet legal issues I have a pretty good perspective on what the constraints are, and I see this latest as the bare minimum of what they have to do to stay compliant. Like corner stores having to put a brown paper wrapper on a porn mag cover. Basically the new thing gives a warning and a cut. I already give a warning and a cut. It also keeps adult stuff out of safe searches, but I've opted out of search engines already anyway. So I'm not doing anything to my posts, though if several someones decide to flag me and my posts do get marked, I won't freak out terribly. It will be a one-step annoyance for those not logged in to get to my stuff, and will mean anyone under 18 will have to log out and lie and/or create an adult reading journal. Already several fic archives, like Wraithbait, do the same thing when I read. YouTube does it. So now LJ will be that way, too. *shrug* It's the legal climate.

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it really IS the legal climate. I know a lot of lawyers, and I'm tempeted to ask. I wonder if the rules about pictures really apply to written word.

And I know everybody else does it.

And in some ways, it is a big shrug.

And in other ways, I feel that the behavior goes so much against my personal attitude about children, reading, education, freedom of expression, exchange of ideas... It really, really bugs me. A lot. Not on a practical level. On an intellectual and ideological level.

Also, the reason I came here was for the fiction. Stupidly, I feel that this is a very personal attack on me. That the reasons I came here are now being stigmatized. You say it's the atmosphere, everybody does it. That's true. And yet, I don't want to be a part of that, if I can help it. I'm sure all the slash communities will end up flagging themselves.

It just is rubbing me the wrong way in *exactly* the same way the strikeout thing did. This is the written word, people. It's just like telling children they can't read books. I had Lady Chatterly in hand when I was 11, from a public library in Mint Fucking Hill North Carolina. The libraries know how to share knowledge. Why shouldn't I have to meet lower standards than that?

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

Rather, why SHOULD I have to meet lower standards.

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

Legally it's not so much that LJ has to be able to point to their service and say, "Look, we keep 100% of children from seeing smut." They just have to be able to say, "We have implemented tools to prevent children from seeing smut that are the best we can do." (Since obviously LJ can't actually card every viewer.)

So the busybodies that like to suggest half the books in the school library be banned are moderately happy because they get little buttons to click and report; posters are moderately happy because their content doesn't actually go away; and precocious children are moderately happy because they are still able to get to what they wish to see with only a small obstacle. It's the small erosions of compromise, and they do get wearing.

It goes against my personal attitude about children, reading, education, freedom of expression and exchange of ideas, also, but so does the entire political climate of our times.

The reason it bothers me less than strikethrough is that no posts and no people are actually going away, and the process is somewhat more transparent and reasoned. Strikethrough was complete censorship, pure and simple, with several blatantly unfair bannings made in a panicked manner. I understood LJ's legal necessity to do something, but I was furious at the way they did it. With this, I understand LJ's legal necessity to do something and I think they're doing an okay job of addressing concerns, though as usual they were CRAP at announcing it and I am still concerned about the loss of cut tag text.

The public library when I was a kid didn't allow children into the adult stacks. However there were plenty of adult books around our home, and I certainly read them all! As a child I was very aware that there were things most adults thought weren't proper for me, and those that I wanted I made sure I got anyway. It just made me think that there are a lot of timid grownups with stupid rules. Which I still think. Clicking an age statement is so small a barrier to content that I would barely have registered it if that's all there had been when I was a kid. Idealistically? Children should absolutely have access to what they feel ready to deal with, regardless of number age. Practically? The experience in getting around barriers to follow your own internal beliefs is probably a good real-world lesson. ;-)

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

The experience in getting around barriers to follow your own internal beliefs

Possibly. Combine that with the 100 free icons at GJ...

We're losing cut tag text? Why did they take that away? How annoying.

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

If your post turns into one of those "cut for adult material" ones, logged out and underage viewers will only see a system-generated cut tag. Then when they do click through, they go straight to the full post. theemdash linked to good example questions, number 2 here (http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/243697.html?thread=15668209#t15668209) and the comment here (http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/243697.html?thread=15259377#t15259377). I'm looking forward to seeing LJ address that.