Current mood:	enraged
Entry tags:	icons, lj

Can the asshats please stand up?
When LJ clarified their rules in July (and I posted advising people to lock down anything questionable), I wasn't really all that worried, because all throughout the comments, LJ staff kept making statements appeasing worried fandom members, continually downplaying these rules as something that wouldn't affect anyone, not really.

Cue Boldthrough '07.

As soon as I saw what had happened I knew that my journal was no longer safe here. I probably have plenty of things in my journal that LJ could decide is the next target in their clean-up, or some investor found objectionable. If I didn't want to lose everything I figured I'd better do something about it, hence my decision to start double posting and backing things up.

Since my last post I've seen plenty of people taking the stance that it's not their problem, and some saying things like "child pornography is wrong". And to that I say WTF?!

In the case of the former, maybe people just don't care that LJ can delete their journal at any time, and that's fair enough. But if you're actually interested in having some say over what happens to something you've paid for, or at least invested a fair amount of time in, I'd suggest you start caring. And fast.

In the case of the latter, well, I just don't know what to say. In what way is a drawing featuring characters child pornography? (ETA: Apparently in the Republican way. Of course, there's also this Supreme Court ruling, striking down a ban on virtual porn.) I don't particularly like those kinds of explicit drawings, so you know what I do? I DON'T LOOK FOR THEM! But I would never in a million years equate it to child porn, that's a freaking insult to those who have suffered that fate.

Look, if a writer writes an explicit scene where Logan loses his virginity to one of Lynn's friends at the tender age of 13, I'm not going to think that the writer is a deviant, nor that those who enjoyed reading about it are perverts who need to be locked up. I'm going to think that's fairly in character. I know where the line between reality and fiction lies, maybe that's the difference?

Or maybe the difference is that people just don't put themselves in other people's shoes and realize that enjoying underage!Buffy/Angel (which was even portrayed on the show, and yes, I know that there are those who consider Angel a pervert for seducing a just-turned-17-year-old, I'm just not one of them) or underage!Wincest or heck, even just Wincest (the other suspendee's [suspender's?] offense was an image depicting incest), rape!fic or any number of things fans enjoy on a regular basis is, in my opinion, basically the same thing as enjoying a picture like that.

(Though I can't be the only one thinking that if that had been Hermione instead of Harry in that picture, LJ wouldn't have batted an eye, right?)

That said, I think LJ, as a business, has the right to do what it wants. But if they want to base their decisions on business, they'd better a) start behaving professionally, listen to their customers and stop trying to be all buddy-buddy with fandom and then screwing us when our back is turned, and b) stop being asshats (or possibly taking a page out of fandom's book and reading up on sock puppets. I hear they're all the rage).

What's gotten me so pissed off this time around is not what they've done, but how they've handled it.

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I couldn't get anything done today because the only thing that's engrossing enough to forget the above is making icons. So that's what I did. I needed to do a bunch of other stuff, but no cigar. The icons are uploaded here, as per usual. Though if you want to use the animated Colbert icon on InsaneJournal, this 92 kb version looks much nicer. Otherwise, I'm in a very Buffy mood lately, it seems. I like it! Maybe I should take this opportunity to do that rewatch I've been thinking of? =)