LJ Strikeout '07: Support Freedom of Expression!

[ladybrighid3333_archive]

Ok...so sorry if you've all seen this all over your friends list, but compiling two different "action plans". I'm sorry, but i'm screening comments and logging IPs. >>; you will have to wait till your comment shows up.



roaring's compiled a listing of some of the facts,which link to more facts, etc., of what's going on, mostly in relation to the fandom people getting hit by this.
Click the banner above to see that.

this was taken from rosesatmidnight for the same program on a more personal standpoiont, though I edited it for my own words at the end. For the original go take action!
1. Change the end greeting to your username
2 You can tweak the last paragraph so it's yours.
3. Spread it to your friends list by posting it to your own journal or linking here.
4. Also feel free to comment here with the textbox at the bottom of this entry.

Change your user name, personalize your comments in the last paragraph, and email this to privacy@livejournal.com and post it to your journal or profile.

Dear LJ:

I was quite appalled to hear about your mass-deletion of communities and journals with what you deemed as 'triggering' interests. Some of us have survived Rape. Some of us have survived abuse. And some of us wish to speak up and help others. How can we do that if you're taking away what we use to help those in need?

Have you even researched this "Warriors For Innocence"? Now what about the countless others who will not benefit from this deletion? What about the countless molesters who will now be driven further underground?

What about the countless members who have survived abuse, who have survived rape, and are now, finally, proud to stand up and say that they have... only for LJ to tell them that they can't?

Now what will we do? Now what source will we have to share our stories and our knowledge with others, now that your once-valuable source has been so ruthlessly and thoughtlessly taken away?

You were once one of the voices that helped make us strong as a united front.

And now your silence in the fight deafens me. Your silence speaks volumes, as much now as it will ever speak. Your silence is like a slap in the face to those of us who have survived the rape, survived the abuse, and are now, or will soon, learn to stand again, learn to live again, learn to function again.

As the friend of several people who have survived abuse and rape, I, personally, hope that you never experience it. And if that does happen, I hope that this very same silence never crosses your path.

Respectfully,
ladybrighid3333

Edit: Or if you feel uncomfortable sending it. Fill in, Copy and paste the text in the text box below into a comment here.

<b>Name/Alias:</b> <b>Journal name:</b> <b>Location(optional):</b> <b>Comment(optional):</b>

Comments

[kleinesternchen.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Sternchen
Journal name: kleinesternchen, kaiserryo
Location(optional): Poznań, Poland
Comment(optional): All I want to say was already said, so no comment ^.^'.

[ebon-phoenix.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Keiran Sparksman
Journal name: ebon_phoenix
Location(optional): Australia
Comment(optional): I'm a youthworker. I use livejournal to discuss my work, within a confidential framework. I advocate on behalf of trauma victims, those who've suffered domestic violence, rape, sexual abuse and have same sex relationships. I frequently discuss the politics of these issues.
I should not be breaking the terms of service. If I am, the ToS are broken.

[forevertwinkie.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Nori
Journal name: antigoneschase (personal), whendaybreaks, thatandersonboy, echo_my_words, batbackpack, amanda_young, runsawaywithme (all paid!)
Location(optional): Mid Missouri, USA
Comment(optional): I am beyond disgusted by SixApart's handling (or rather, non-handling) of this situation, and I am very hesitant to renew any of my paid accounts when the time comes. What happened to freedom of expression? God forbid anyone read deeply into my RPG journals. I RP a serial killer (two, actually), a girl who was 16 when she got together with her 30 year old boyfriend (perfectly legal in the UK, where the RP is set), and my personal journal is filled with information on strangling, BDSM, and other extreme things. Including, of course, fanfic that tends to be violent, strange, or deals with rape/incest (since I've had personal experience with both).

[haunted.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Candice
Journal name: suntzu.
Location: California
Comment: I don't condone pedophilia, I really dont. But I don't condone you taking away lives. I've put so much of myself into my journals, so many small moments and so many big ones. And it's daunting to know that in a second it can all be taken away from me, why? Because you're incorrectly abusing the power switch. Haha, thanks live journal.

[loubears.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Lou
Journal name: loubears
Location(optional): Seattle
Comment(optional):

Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the Colors high!
Heave ho,
thieves and beggars,
never shall we die!

[daybreak25.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: daybreak/Mickey
Journal name: daybreak25
Location(optional): Texas
Comment(optional): Come the heck on, LJ, can you not see what you're doing? In deleting some of the more useless LJs, you're giving yourself horrible publicity and basically making asses out of yourselves because you haven't cracked down on the real assholes out there, the pedos and all that. You do a mass sweep of a few keywords and suddenly you've got them all? While I will admit that "chan" and "shota" are some things I don't want to read/see while on LJ, it's what some people like/are interested in and they have every right to express it in the way I have every right to express my love for other things.

And, why, LJ are you choosing now to do this, when we're 13 mil strong and when people have been making pedo posts and "I want to kill my mother/father" posts for centuries? Why are you doing this now, when you've had years to weed out and eventually prevent this problem? I'm not the least bit sympathetic towards you right LJ, this is over your own doing, and I hope to God you don't lose so many of us that it'll be too late.

[domestik-fucker.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Hamu
Journal name: [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com]
Location(optional): California
Comment(optional): Don't need to add. It's all been said.

[sakira-starwolf.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Sakira
Journal name: sakira_starwolf
Location(optional):
Comment(optional): This is ridiculous...I may not agree with the things people are being banned for, but where is the basis for banning people here? Nothing illegal has been done, all that they did was express themselves, and as long as this doesn't hurt anyone else, they have the right to do it!

[pumblechook.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Andy
Journal name: pumblechook
Location(optional): California
Comment(optional): Et tu, Elljay?

[txteva.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Eva B
Journal name: txteva formerly txt_eva & emerald_eva
Location(optional): Plymouth, UK
Comment(optional): You've lost a lot of support in this... and worse of all pushed the real people underground even more

[opheliascreams.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Ticara
Journal name: opheliascreams
Location: Memphis, TN
Comment: LJ's actions in this matter are appalling. It's very clear that once a little money is involved, anyone can be spurred into action. Unfortunately, you took action against mostly innocent people, and then offered a very half-assed apology afterwards. Weighted apologies like that (the strikethrough comments were very unnecessary, thanks) are not wanted. Next time, think through everything you want to say--and then just apologize civilly.

[ladylamia.livejournal.com]

love the icon!
yes, i feel exactly the same. i have been a paid user of lj for 3 out of my 4 years here and probably will be for the foreseable future. probably the next 5 years at least. i also pay for extra user pics, i mean, to delete paid users makes no sense, it is after all a business. the idea is to make money.

[heathabear.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Heather
Journal name: heathabear
Location(optional): Illinois
Comment(optional): I'm lazy, so I'll just say what I say before: What concerns me most about this whole situation is that I don't know where the line will be drawn next time. If you're so quick to cater to the complaint of an outside interest group, what happens when, oh, I don't know, Scholastic calls you up and wants you to suspend all users in the Harry Potter fandom for copyright infringement because of our icons or fanfic? Will it really be that easy? A lot of us have put a lot of time and money into this site, and the thought that we're so easily expendable is disturbing, to say the least.

[kaowyn.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Kate
Journal name: kaowyn
Location(optional): North Carolina, USA
Comment(optional): You are all complete and total hypocrites. To do nothing about valid and dangerous journals, comments, etc. based on your terms of service and then to turn around, disregard those previous denials and then suspend NONTHREATS is just absurd and hypocritical. Not to mention that now you've put the real threats on red alert so that now they have sunk back into the underground. You should have listened to your concerned users and Perverted Justice eons ago. All the angry responses you are getting are well deserved in my opinion.

[blossombunny.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Lauren/ihearttoronto
Journal name: ihearttoronto
Location(optional): Phoenix, AZ
Comment(optional): n/a

[rosa]

Name/Alias: Ryuu
Journal name: ryuuseistar
Location(optional): Killeen, TX
Comment(optional): You just lost the trust of millions of your users just because you don't know how to judge right. Even Perverted Justice commented about your stupidity. They gave you the correct journals months ago yet their help was ignored when they were right all along. You think, just because something is in the user's interests that they are pedophiles, rapists, and anything else. I've seen innocent journals of people that were victimes of molestation or rape deleted and only put them in their interests to see others who had the same situation to help them. Yet, I don't think you guys are truly sorry, you never were; you never really cared about us and only about the money. And if this is how you guys still want to be like in the future, get ready for a major change - 13 million users down the hatch and bam - bankrupt.

[kitsune-aoi.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Andreja
Journal name: kitsune_aoi
Location(optional): Slovenia, EU
Comment(optional): In a world where everything is for the money, I though LJ was the bright spot that supported free speech to closet writers and generally people who believe they had important thoughts that needed to be stored somewhere. I'm not intent on shifting to GJ because of the whole fandom erasing - that's been fixed (thank you). I'm leaving because, being a PR student and actually having a hint of how things should have been handled in theory and being given an explanation such as that, makes me, quite frankly, disappointed. Stuff like this happens on low profile forums and home-made projects. Make us believe you're more professional than that, please?

I'm sticking around to see how the matter will progress (I do hope the crew realizes we're all on hold and watching intently for their next move before we finish packing and delete our journals?). The ToS should be made clear and simple, like I'm sure people have stated before me, because how on earth do you guys think you're keeping your customers when whatever they post or express interest in can arbitrarily be marked inappropriate according to your will? Also, how does an 'interest' file as a made deed?

Please, start pointing fingers, come clean and we'll try find it in our hearts to forgive you, because we do love you. We're just trying to defend what we hold dear.

Yours truly (for now).

[neverfroze.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Xythe
Journal name: neverfroze
Location(optional): Manila, Philippines
Comment(optional): What idiocy, did you guys take your intelligence pills the morning you suddenly decided to kill some journals? I don't see how erasing hundreds of journals has saved the world from child molesters and pedophiles. I am very disappointed in LJ, I thought it was a good place to be free, but I was sorely mistaken.

Absolute fail.

[forgottenranger.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Wills
Journal name:forgottenranger
Location(optional):Australia
Comment(optional): Its called fictional writing you asshats.

[modernlove-89.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias:Ave/Eve
Journal name:modernlove_89
Location(optional):CT
Comment(optional):Fiction=Not Real. You scared way too many people including me. I've NEVER been a fan of censorship. You just can't control everyone.

Also, now that all of the pedophiles/various freaks know that you're looking, what did you think they would do?

[cognitiveleague.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Alice
Journal name: cognitiveleague
Location(optional): Maryland
Comment(optional):
It's disgusting to see how many legitimate concerns you dismissed because there wasn't discussion of how to commit a crime, and it is even worse how many innocent people- writers, victims, or other bystanders- have been hurt by the recklessness of your action when you finally decided to take it. It wasn't your business until your power was threatened, but you forget who built you up in the first place. The people have spoken, and we will not forgive this carelessness easily.

[sailorsaturn94.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Cait
Journal name: sailorsaturn94
Location(optional): Pennsylvania
Comment(optional): This is so messed up. Livejournal really doesn't care what the hell happens as long as they get their money. I really didn't expect this from LJ

[lady-black-cat.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: LBC/Pervy Princess
Journal name: lady_black_cat
Location: Lakeland, FL
Comment: Because of Warriors For Innocence, I fear for the communities that I'm a member of or those I've listed as my friends and that they might be under threat of deletion/suspension because of lists of some 'interests'. Please put up a better fight against the so-called "Warriors For Innocence" or groups like them. I don't want to willingly delete my own account because of a group who pose as a threat and doesn't believe in the freedom of expression.

[scarlet-pencil.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Scarlet
Journal name: scarlet_pencil
Location: USA
Comment: Mass deleting people just based on what is in their interests is unacceptable. You need to at least check out what the journal's actually say. If you are so worried about words like 'incest', 'rape', ect. showing up in the interests section, then institute a filter.

[furishiku.livejournal.com]

Name/Alias: Shelli
Journal name: furishiku
Location(optional): England, UK
Comment(optional): I am shocked and appalled at all of this, LiveJournal. You have taken a just cause and gone about it completely wrongly. You may want to look over your TOS again and amend it. Have any of your team suffered abuse? Do any of you know what it is like? If not then no wonder - you have no idea what evil you are letting be filtered, and even more so you are cracking down on those communities/journals merely about consensual sex? You disgust me, and if this does not change then I am most certainly not going to stay here.
Just remember that all these users made the site what it is today - listen to them, or the site will suffer.