Moving to InsaneJournal; More about LJ sucking; Actual RL Updates

[rusty_halo]

I'm making InsaneJournal my main journal for now, but for the time-being, I'll also be cross-posting to my LiveJournal. (Eventually I will stop posting in LJ, but I'll give plenty of warning when that happens.)

I picked InsaneJournal because, compared to its rivals, the server is faster and the code seems more up to date. The account-creation process is easier than that of JournalFen and its dictator is more benevolent than that of GreatestJournal (which is no better than LJ in terms of random deletion of users). I am still awaiting a real non-profit alternative, though.

So, anyway, a couple of things about InsaneJournal, if you're also thinking of moving:

* It's ugly, but you can fix it! Go here to change the default site layout. Some of the options are still ugly, but the text-only version is as clean and simple as you can get. (This is not your journal style; it's the site style).

* You can change your journal style; InsaneJournal supports S1 and S2 styles. (Go here to do so if you already have an account.)

* You can still read your LJ friends via syndication. Instructions here.

* Free users could only have 100 friends. Well, they just changed it to 250. Yay!

* You can buy a permanent account for only $40. It comes with tons of features. I bought one.

* I'm trying to keep my FL at InsaneJournal up-to-date (ie, I'm trying to add anyone on my LJ friendslist who creates an InsaneJournal). I'm terribly haphazard about this, though, and have probably missed people. It's not intentional; just let me know if you want to be on my FL in any of the other places.

(Thanks to miggy for pointing some of this out.)

Other stuff:

* I loved fodian's post about why disturbing art should not be banned.

* elfgirl summed up the repulsiveness of Six Apart's stance on pro-anorexia communities. While frequently contradicting themselves, Six Apart has said that even if artwork depicting underaged characters engaging in sexual acts is legal, they think it's icky and don't want it on their servers. But they allow hate speech and groups that teach young women how to kill themselves, "because it's legal." Having already said that they'll delete legal stuff if it offends them, we can only assume that they're okay with racism and girls starving themselves?

(I'm not saying these disgusting communities should be deleted; I'm hugely in favor of free speech. But if you're going to selectively decide which "legal but icky" stuff you're going to delete, isn't actual people being hurt worse than fictional characters having sex?)

* "User Generated Content" & Ownership: The User as Citizen - a great post about the larger issues at stake here.

* We're on Slashdot.

And in real-life news:

* I went to see Juliette and the Licks (Juliette Lewis's band) play five acoustic songs at the Union Square Virgin Megastore the other day. They were really good. Juliette is a passionate singer and amazing performer, and the band was energetic and fun. Plus, the crowd was pretty small--you could just walk right up to the stage, and the band was just walking around interacting.

I bought their album, and it's okay, but the live performance was much better. If you get a chance to see them, I highly recommend it.

* jaydk and I went to see Harry Potter 5 in IMAX again last night. That's the fourth time I've seen the movie, and the second in IMAX. It's just so cool! (Still not Alfonso Cuaron cool, but what is?) Then we stayed out late having dinner and talking endlessly about Harry Potter. It's fun to share an obsession! (She loves Remus, I love Sirius, so we squee over the same moments but for totally different reasons.)

She keeps telling me that I *must* read a story called "Beyond the Veil" by Helene, but I can't find it anywhere. (All the Google results lead to broken links.) I don't suppose anyone out there knows where I could find it?

We're ridiculously excited about DragonCon; check out the YA Lit Track schedule. (I am totally going to check out at least one Cassandra Clare panel this year! And I'll totally be polite and sit in the back and not snicker.)

And the Goth Track schedule is looking pretty good, too, although I'm upset that they've scheduled what looks like the most interesting panel ("The Craft of Songwriting" with Andy Deane, Rick Joyce, Rogue, and Voltaire) on Monday at 2:30pm, when I'll already be gone. :( (Although the good news is that I'm going to Disney World for the Pirate Party on Monday night with jaydk and drujan--yes, drujan is finally coming to DragonCon!)

[Cross-posted to my InsaneJournal].

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_sithkitten_/]

*cry* i wanna go to d*con :'(

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Have you checked dragoncon? A lot of people are looking for roommates. Here is someone organizing room transfers.

AirTran's got some sale fares, too. It would be cool if you could go!

[10zlaine.livejournal.com]

Is there an easy way to cross post, or are you just copy/pasting?

OMG people coming tomorrow; house not clean; save me.

Oh, and don't forget the oodles of icons you get with the perm account at IJ without the extra cost, lol...not that I need more.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

I'm just copy/pasting, but apparently if you use Semagic you can do it simultaneously.

Yeah, I need to transfer my icons over to InsaneJournal!

Er, spend tonight frantically cleaning? I don't know. They'll survive a dirty house. Just try to remind yourself that they are guests and that they're only invading your territory for a little while.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Following the link. Am I reading this correctly? One of the banned posters does have a picture of Snape with an eleven year old Harry?

::head desk::

Why do I bother to be shocked by anything any more?

[nmissi.livejournal.com]

Hmm. The word in the HP comms was that the offending pic was not actually the Detention pic, but one depicting an adult Harry. And interestingly enough, there are still tons of HP slash and noncon floating around on LJ; heck; I went searching for pokeporn and found that's still hosted there, too. (No, I'm not into Pokemon porn; I just wanted to see if other comms were affected.)

It's a witchhunt, and it has nothing to do with age depiction or consent status or artistic merit.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I saw the picture that was reported to be the one that was banned. Contexturally, I think it's a stretch to come up with more than 18 given HP canon. When approached from a fanfictional viewpoint, where canon is mostly irrelevant, someone could come up a scenario where he's greater than 18. I think it unlikely, however, that LJ would be swayed by a fandom-centric reasoning. And, from what I read of the TOS, they stated that for artistic depictions would be assessed within the general context (I don't remember the precise wording). At any rate, it seemed to boil down to if everyone recognizes the source material and that the source material more or less leads one to the conclusion that the characters are younger than the age of consent, they'll go with with that interpreation. At least, that's the way that I read what they wrote.

Still, true, that Snarry picture associated with the banning isn't as jaw dropping as one involving an 11 year old.

I do wonder, though, if in efforts to state the artworks legality, people are overlooking that terms of service with a private corporation are not limited by legality but by whatever Terms of Service they state which people agree to when they use the service.

It seems to me that fandom's most solid argument is in arguing that LJ is changing its terms of service on people who already possess accounts under previous terms. That would then argue that LJ is breaching an agreed upon contract. Arguing the legality of the art doesn't make much difference when LJ isn't limited by whether or not the art is technically legal.

[mary5958.livejournal.com]

(I am totally going to check out at least one Cassandra Clare panel this year! And I'll totally be polite and sit in the back and not snicker.)

I don't believe this for a minute. You'll be snickering. Or at least smirking! :-)