confused and irritated

[cornerofmadness]

about a lot of things...like why I can't find ONE lawyer who'll at least talk to me about student loans. I mean not one. There was one who wanted 200$ to even decide if he could help me or not (um pass, sorry if everyone else could tell me for free they can't help me, so can you)

and I'm wondering what the new LJ drama is. Censorship again? What? I see my flist complaining but i haven't seen the details. Which leads me to the what to do dilemma again. Half the crew are going to Greatest Journal. But suddenly now it's Insanejournal that's the big hot place to jump ship to. I'm thinking oh great, I can't keep up with ONE journal let alone two or three and now with half my friends going one way and the other half going another, i have no idea which journal I would want should I leave here. Is Insanejournal any better than Greatest? I'm still very unconvinced either of those would fare any better than LJ if enough pressure is brought on them to 'keep the internet safe,' so it hardly seems worth the effort (beyond the getting more icons for my money which really, is that a reason to move?)

The geekgirlz have taken steps to make the website active again so we can publish stuff there and not really worry too much about it, which mostly it's just nice to have an archive for all the fic anyhow.

well i'm off to go do the laundry so I'm sure the day will find more ways to confuse and irritate me

Comments

[midnightsjane.livejournal.com]

I saw the newest LJ drama on my flist, but I can't get overly excited about it. It seems to involve fics about underage sex or something. I have a Greatest Journal account, but I rarely go there. Until LJ totally self destructs, I guess I'll stay here. Like you say it's hard enough just keeping up here!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

nods, fic and art. Still eyeing the insane journal though (just for the opportunity to spread around ye ol' fanfic)

[chaos-by-design.livejournal.com]

you have to admit, cornerofmadness.insanejournal.com would have a certain ring to it. ;)

Well if you do get one, I'm on there with the same username as here.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yes i thought that myself. Nods, still considering it (even though it might be a 'free' account...do they even have those)

[chaos-by-design.livejournal.com]

yeah, they have them. mine is free, i don't pay for anything but lj.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

even more tempting

[mjules.livejournal.com]

They banned ponderosa121 (one of my flisters, actually) for her artwork. You know Pondy; the one who drew all the pretty Maes/Roy/Riza stuff?

Yeah. Her.

Permanently banned with no recourse, all because someone complained about one of her Harry Potter fanarts. The Potter fandom is just full of all kinds of wank. Kind of makes me glad I'm not in it. Potter fandom was what led to the first outbreak of Strikethrough '07.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

nods, and given what Rowling herself thinks of a lot of the fanfic, it's not surprising

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

nods and I can see why. Underaged kids (Rowling herself has been pretty upset by this over the years) Still, censorship sucks and I like Pondy's work

[flamingly-fey.livejournal.com]

Oh, jeez. That's awful! I hope you find someone soon... and I wish I could help somehow, but as I've got loans up to my armpits myself, I don't know how I could, really.

InsaneJournal's got a provision in their TOS saying that the contents of individual journals are the responsibility and property of the journal keeper--in other words, they don't give a damn about Whackjobs for Innocence and the like, since it's not their writing that's got whoever would complain up in arms. I went and got an account there because of that, and the fact that they've got 100 userpics for free accounts. I know GJ's got more, but 100's the most I'll ever use! (I'm very shallow, when you get down to it.) I'm keeping this account, though... too many good memories and people who won't leave here to jump ship entirely.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

well that's good to know about insanejournal. that would make them less likely to do something about it (granted I doubt that would hold in court should someone sue mind you, seems lawyers work for everyone but me)

[flamingly-fey.livejournal.com]

Glad I could shed a little light! (Well... they're a private business. It'd be like someone suing Wendy's for selling a kind of hamburger they don't like. So even with your really unfortunate luck with lawyers... it should hold if they're attacked.)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

as a doctor I learned you can be sued for anything and everything whether or not you did anything wrong and often times it is cheaper to settle out of court AGAINST you than it is to fight (see what I've learned from my malpractice insurers and experience), I wouldn't hold my breathe that the other journals won't get sued

[lyricnonsense.livejournal.com]

I didn't even realize there was more drama, since my flist has been inundated with fic from Fire and Ice.

Silly Potterheads, wank is for boys.

Did I really say that? I think so.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

snort yes you did. I laughed which is good since today has been...bad

[sita-137.livejournal.com]

Have you tried contacting University law schools? There might be more willingness or expertise there - and since it's in the news right now, it might alert them to the need.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i hadn't thought of that. Thanks. I think OSU and OU have law schools here in the state and are easily accessible

[sita-137.livejournal.com]

It's most certainly worth a shot!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

indeed

[chaos-by-design.livejournal.com]

Have you tried findlaw.com? I've never used them, but I've heard of them and I don't know if they can help you find a lawyer or not, but if you haven't tried them then maybe it's something to try at least.

I just came home from work, so I don't know what the newest LJ wank is either. But usually these things die down and everyone comes back to LJ because that's where all their friends are, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. To be totally safe I suppose you could always f-lock your explicit stories if you want.

anyway, *hugs*. Hope your day improves.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

thanks. You know i think i did use that a few years ago when this first happened. I'll try it again.

i do flock thos explicit ones any more. Its looking like it was some Harry Potter stuff and with them being underaged in so many stories I can see why they draw fire, right or wrong

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

at this point i'm not planning on leaving but if i did you'd know where i went, beleive me

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

I'm not going anywhere, although I have a three-year old GJ in case some of my flist leaves. I'll be sad if they leave. They want to "make a statement" in masse, rather than just moving their fic elsewhere and keeping personal journals here.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i think at this point, if i 'moved' it would be to merely put my fic elsewhere (I'd probably keep it both places for now) just because I'm greedy for reviews

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

The Destroyer is well-established at LJ now and I don't see any point in moving it, especially since most of its readers are not LJ people to begin with (also, it's "gen", technically).

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yeah you would have nothing to worry about. Me either to be honest since even when I write Goku, he's over 18. I only have to worry if some whackjob group decides to save us all from homosexuality in fiction

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

I doubt they can go there. First off, LJ is based in SF and that kind of homophobia would just be outside their comprehension zone.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

true true. Just wondering what kind of nutters they'll come up against and/or buckle too

[kashicat.livejournal.com]

I think that's when WE rise up en masse to complain to management that they're offensive to us, ramming their beliefs down everyone's throats and insisting that everybody be Just Like Them Or Else. I suspect we're in the majority, and if WE start demanding the banning of the wankers, that might carry some clout.

Meanwhile...I've just discovered most of you. Don't leave! :-)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

you know, you probably have a very good point there

[serenanna.livejournal.com]

You don't know me, but I'm Serenanna on ff.net, another FMA writer and reader (I'll fangirl you later). I've been stumbling through various journals and comms all day, so I'll give ya the latest of what I know.

After the Strikethrough incident over Memorial Day, 6A posted changes to their TOS and more clarifications of that which if you read them, answered nothing about what is and isn't allowed on LJ. On various people's journals, members of the Abuse Staff reassure a few of the people following along that fandom would not be targeted, teenage sex wouldn't be targets, just really extreme examples. They also promised to warn people so that they could clean up either journals and not delete the whole thing again.

Well, Ponderosa and the second artist, elaboration, who did a Weasley twincest picture, never got warnings. I've seen Ponderosa's pic in question, and the controversial subject, Potter himself, looks anywhere doesn't look that young as you'd be lead to believe. To make matters worse, a later inquiry revealed that the reason was not just because it was nudity and underage, but that it lacked 'artistic merit' as judged by the Abuse Team Staff among others. Both of them also aren't getting refunds for their paid/perm accounts, but then again, no one does >.<.

They may only be going after art or the Potter fandom for now, but I can't help but being scared with the other news they posted, that report abuse buttons are going on every single page. The group that claimed responsibility the first Strikethrough, Warriors for Innocence or WIF, which is a severely right-wing christian dominionist group, also made promises to go after fandom too.

I know it seems like paranoia considering how tame some the het side of the FMA fandom can be, but after witnessing Fanfiction.net's crackdown, I don't think any of us are nearly paranoid enough. I've written Ed/Win lemons, disclaimers and all, and Naruto fics of one pairing with a big age difference. I've already gotten one e-mail from the pissed-off 'christian' ex-boyfriend of a reader calling my stories porn and filth. All it takes is one report of one fic it seems to get whole journals ripped out from under someone, paid or not . . . So, yeah, I'm paranoid.

Sere

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

nods which really rather makes my point, doesn't it? Switching to another journal isn't going to actually DO anything. It's not like these groups won't find them and cause the same amount of trouble there. And they have the right to restrict whatever they want to (I had no trouble with FFN removing NC-17, i just deleted a bunch of fic). My problem with it is exactly what you said. There is NO clear write up on what is and isn't allowed and the Draconian no warning deletions.