Some thoughts on the fannish kerfluffle...

[dwgm]

I have been watching the fannish kerfluffle, and joined right in, establishing a Greatest Journal and an Insane Journal in case all my PotC fannish peeps abandon LJ, but I have to say I think it's going to be the same thing, wherever we go, when it comes to work that skirts the edges of legality. We who work in public schools are all too aware of how very ready parents are to sue for anything that they consider has harmed their little prince or princess. Even if someone starts their own fannish site that permits anything and everything, there's a legal risk to them, personally. Kids are smart, and they're computer savvy, and they can find their way around safeguards, if they're determined to do so. And parents can sue individuals, not just big companies, or school districts.

We're all still feeling our way here. It wasn't very many years ago that the internet was all a new thing. I know LJ has been heavyhanded in dealing with this latest fandom issue, and even insulting, and surely there is no excuse for that in a business environment. But on the other hand, the timing of the posting of the two pieces of fanart in question could have been better, what with the fifth Harry Potter movie and the last book just coming out and quite literally attracting the eye of the world.

Comments

[cacopheny.livejournal.com]

Well, see.... :: headscratches :: People post stuff like that every day. You can't really expect people to not post because of the book/movie coming out, can you? I think it wasn't so much a timing issue, really, as it was that someone just happened to find and dislike that particular image that particular day.

I dunno. Neither pic was deleted for being child porn-- that was actually made clear to someone who asked about it. There was a comment or an email, I forget which, from an lj moderator saying it wasn't an issue of child porn-- because everyone was saying "the characters were overage! wtf!"-- but an issue of the mods passing it around and being found "without artistic merit". The other has been much less publicized, but it wasn't of minors, either. As far as anyone can tell, they were deleted because they were male/male porn in one, and male/male twincest in another. Even if there was a problem with that, deleting the whole journal, all linked journals by that same person, and forbidding the person from ever making an lj again? Without warning? After being promised that warnings would always be given? Shitty, I say. Really, really shitty.

I sort of read tons and tons of the protest comments out of boredom and my fascination with internet drama >.> The whole thing just smells fishy, to me.

Not that I'm leaving lj over it, or anything, though I do think soonish I might have to make a GJ or IJ just to keep up with my fandom friends who will be leaving :: sighs :: And, of course, I'm only commenting because I don't really have anyone else to comment to :: grins :: I feel like I don't have enough street cred in the HP community to commiserate with any of them-- I didn't even know or watch either person in question!-- and none of my non-HP-fandom friends care XD

[pseudoblu.livejournal.com]

I think the crappy decision on their part was choosing to post unlocked in a community that was already targeted and deleted during the first strikethrough kerfuffle.

The really annoying thing is that the LJ people were saying that it's ok to discuss or write about fictional underage characters, like Romeo & Juliet or the Harry Potter kids (their examples). Someone even reported their own HP story to test it and they were given an ok. But as soon as someone illustrates a story featuring fictional underage people they're going to be banned for life? That's really not fair. Oh, I'm sorry, they weren't banned because the characters were underage, the pieces just lacked artistic merit. Grrr.

Sorry, rant done.

[erinya.livejournal.com]

As I commented to the_dala, the issue for me isn't the legality or lack thereof of the work that was targeted. It's that this whole ongoing saga demonstrates how entirely corporate LJ has become, and how the company's priorities have changed since Brad was bought out by Six Apart. When we joined LJ, it was there for us, the users. Now it's clear from the highhanded way the staff has been dealing with users that we are no longer their first priority. The advertisers are. They're not concerned with whether reported abuses are truly harmful (pro-anorexia comms, for instance, appear to be safe from TOS-ing even though they promote self-harm)--just that their response looks good to their sponsors.

If I had my choice, I'd move fandom to JournalFen, since that's a service by fans for fans, but any non-corporate LJ clone is preferable.