Public Service Announcement

For those who may not be aware, LJ appears to have stuck its head up its ass once again. I'm going to attempt to provide as much information as possible and allow readers to make up their own minds.

What has happened:

1) The basic account option has been eliminated for all accounts created after March 12th. This was done without official announcement and, when people noticed and complained, LJ proceeded to tell us that our opinions didn't matter. At one point there was a rather revealing attempt by LJ staff to insist that this was to streamline the account sign up process and that really, having to chose between basic, plus and paid was just too confusing for our poor, addled brains to handle.

The real reasons (increased revenue, of course) came out almost immediately, but there have also been rumors of ad-targeting programs that collect the gender, birthday/birth date, country, 10 most popular interests and the content of your first public post for all plus accounts and all visitors to plus accounts. There have also been rumors of LJ selling our entries. I've not been able to find much information on this, so take it with a grain of salt.

2) In addition to eliminating basic accounts, LJ also appears to have censored the popular interests page and removed interests such as bisexuality, porn, depression and sex. This is on top of continued blocking of certain interest searches.

3) The community is organizing. On Friday, March 21st there will be a one day content strike. For 24 hours, add no new content to LJ. Do not post, do not comment. Hell, don't even log in. Let's remind LJ that they are nothing without their users.

Edit: The strike is midnight to midnight GMT. Times for the rest of the world are available here.

Please spread the word about the strike, and feel free to link back to this post if you'd like.

We are notifying SUP that the strike has four terms:

1. Restore basic accounts for new account creation.

2. Inform users before any change to the site that affects how we use the site or demands on our resources.

3. Run change proposals by the Advisory Board and take their advice into account before implementation of any change.

4. Homophobia, misogyny, and racism must not be a part of the decision making processes about appropriate content of the site, including what user interests are deemed appropriate.

Why does it matter?

I know there are those of you reading the entry below and wondering why all of this is important. Why should we care what SUP does with LiveJournal? They own it, after all, and they can do what they like with it. If I don't like it, I can go elsewhere.

I suppose on some level this is true. I certainly have the option of voting with my keyboard, as it were, and moving my content to a journaling service that doesn't censor free speech, pander to religious conservatives, misrepresent its statistics and ignore the wishes of its users. I can move to a service that understands that I, along with more than a million others, am the reason that their revenue source exists in the first place.

I'll be honest and admit that I'm very close to doing just that. What's holding me back? The community. As cheesy as that sounds, it's true. I've been on LJ for two and a half years. In that time, I've written over 500 pages of entries and interacted with people that have become just as real to me as the friends I see on a daily basis. I've learned from people who know more than I do and have, in turn, taught others when I knew what they didn't. I've grown as a person and as a writer. And I care about my friends list, even those whom I've never met but know only through their words. I worry when they haven't posted lately. I share their happiness when something good happens and grieve when all I can do is give virtual hugs.

I've invested in this community and I do not want to leave it behind. I know that there's no way we would all go to the same place, even if we could agree to relocate. Leaving LJ means losing track of people.

That's why it's important. That's why it matters. It's not the issues with free speech, privacy and business transparency, though those are important in their own right. I am here on LJ because of the people. They are the reason I will be striking on Friday.