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The more things change, the more they stay the same.
I was thinking today... and came to the conclusion that I think the reason why the stuff happening with LJ bugs me so much is because it reminds me of what happened to FF.net and I hate it when I see good websites go bad.
For those of you who don't know, FF.net use to be a really good site. It allowed allowed inexperience fans write stories and get feedback to help them improve. Then they banned NC-17 fics. Banning those fics simply pissed off a lot of good authors who moved their fics else (ironically most of those authors found refugee at LJ, which was when I first heard about this site). And I'm sure everyone knows what FF.net is like these days, which was a result of happened years ago; it's overrun by fanbrats who can't write to save their lives, don't want to improve and throw fits whenever something doesn't go their way.
For a while I've noticed similar things happening with LJ. I started using LJ around 6-7 years ago, it use to be the place for fans to go to get away from the craziness that occurred in other parts of the fandom. Back then you either had to pay for a journal or know someone with a spare invite code which really kept out the immature fans since they either couldn't afford/didn't want to pay or no one was willing to give them a code. Eventually I took a break from LJ for a few years since I wanted to break way from my then fandom (NSYNC/Popslash) and knew that couldn't be done if I stuck around.
When I finally returned to LJ a few years ago I immediately knew things had changed; don't get me wrong, I think getting rid of the codes was a good thing but the fact LJ was now owned by a corporation made me nervous. And I had a right to be nervous because over the past couple of years since I've returned I've seen some things that have made me unhappy (although I do love the inclusion of tags).
Some of things were:
1) the Memory function wasn't working right when I returned (tags had yet to appear and that was the only way to keep things organize) and it took LJ a long time to fix the problem.
2) Ads. Now personally I didn't mind having ads on my LJ, since hey it helped support the site. But we were promised it would only be text ads and maybe the odd picture, we were told we wouldn't have to worry about annoying flashing ones. And for a while things were good with the ads, when suddenly, without notice, they changed and we got annoying flashing ads. It was then I finally downloaded Adblock even though I had been using Firefox for a while.
3) LJ's stalking feature. Don't get me wrong, I like the fact you get alerts for every comment on your LJ and you can set it up so any entry on a personal journal or comm sends you comment notifications. But sending you an email everytime someone uploaded a new icon really wasn't necessary; they should have spent their time and effort doing things that needed to be done.
4) Lack of improvement to comms. Ever since I returned one of the biggest complaints I've seen is from people who think that only mods/maintainers should have the ability to delete entires/comments from their comms; that's why so many comms (including my own) have it as a bannable offense. If it can't be done, fine, but tell us! Mention it in a news update and/or put it in the FAQ saying "sorry, we tried but it can't be done".
5) Plans to install a report button on all entries and comments. Stupid, stupid, stuipd. You see it all the time at FF.net where the report feature is used as a means for revenge. I've had a fic wrongly deleted before from there because a jealous bitch reported me when I shouldn't have. Some authors openly admit they have/plan to use the report feature for revenge. The button isn't even in place and the same thing is happening here. Someone claimed that the fanarts were of children when they're clearly not. If LJ had simply looked into the report they would have seen that.
6) Server problems. Now I haven't been as bad as a lot of people (which is hilarious since I'm on a free account and it seems paid members have the most problems eventhough they're suppose to be on a better server) but I've certainly heard about it.
Now getting back to my comparison with FF.net; for a while now it seemed like more and more idiots have been joining LJ. In the future I think this will become more obvious where the sane fans get overwhelmed by fanbrats who like pairing themselves with their fav character, squeeing fangirl Japanese all over the place and either squeeing like an idiot over yaoi or protesting loudly that it sucks.
We've already seen some if this happening in the TRC fandom and it's going to spread. In time I get the feeling that LJ will get the same reaction that goes on when FF.net is mentioned.
So really Strikethrough parts 1 and 2 really are just the tip of the iceberg. Honestly I was surprised when it first happened, although the things I've listed made me unhappy with LJ, I still had faith in them.
Not anymore.
Now, I do plan on keeping my LJ since so many friends are here and so much of every fandom is here as well, but I've also been making plans on attempting to get fractions of fandom set up else where.
I would have started by now but I discovered Scribblit earlier today and from what I've seen it's going to be the best place to move too (it has the best free account features so those with paid LJs won't have to pay for another journal to get a lot oficons features and the owner I've spoken to seems very cool).
Unfortunately Scribblit is only in the beta phase right now and not open for new accounts, which is why I haven't gone through with my plans of setting fandom up else yet. It's suppose to be open soon though and if anyone wants to keep up with the status of Scribblit they can go to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
twocorpses. The most info about the site can be found in this post (Seishirou would approve, there's a penguin in the logo).
For those of you who don't know, FF.net use to be a really good site. It allowed allowed inexperience fans write stories and get feedback to help them improve. Then they banned NC-17 fics. Banning those fics simply pissed off a lot of good authors who moved their fics else (ironically most of those authors found refugee at LJ, which was when I first heard about this site). And I'm sure everyone knows what FF.net is like these days, which was a result of happened years ago; it's overrun by fanbrats who can't write to save their lives, don't want to improve and throw fits whenever something doesn't go their way.
For a while I've noticed similar things happening with LJ. I started using LJ around 6-7 years ago, it use to be the place for fans to go to get away from the craziness that occurred in other parts of the fandom. Back then you either had to pay for a journal or know someone with a spare invite code which really kept out the immature fans since they either couldn't afford/didn't want to pay or no one was willing to give them a code. Eventually I took a break from LJ for a few years since I wanted to break way from my then fandom (NSYNC/Popslash) and knew that couldn't be done if I stuck around.
When I finally returned to LJ a few years ago I immediately knew things had changed; don't get me wrong, I think getting rid of the codes was a good thing but the fact LJ was now owned by a corporation made me nervous. And I had a right to be nervous because over the past couple of years since I've returned I've seen some things that have made me unhappy (although I do love the inclusion of tags).
Some of things were:
1) the Memory function wasn't working right when I returned (tags had yet to appear and that was the only way to keep things organize) and it took LJ a long time to fix the problem.
2) Ads. Now personally I didn't mind having ads on my LJ, since hey it helped support the site. But we were promised it would only be text ads and maybe the odd picture, we were told we wouldn't have to worry about annoying flashing ones. And for a while things were good with the ads, when suddenly, without notice, they changed and we got annoying flashing ads. It was then I finally downloaded Adblock even though I had been using Firefox for a while.
3) LJ's stalking feature. Don't get me wrong, I like the fact you get alerts for every comment on your LJ and you can set it up so any entry on a personal journal or comm sends you comment notifications. But sending you an email everytime someone uploaded a new icon really wasn't necessary; they should have spent their time and effort doing things that needed to be done.
4) Lack of improvement to comms. Ever since I returned one of the biggest complaints I've seen is from people who think that only mods/maintainers should have the ability to delete entires/comments from their comms; that's why so many comms (including my own) have it as a bannable offense. If it can't be done, fine, but tell us! Mention it in a news update and/or put it in the FAQ saying "sorry, we tried but it can't be done".
5) Plans to install a report button on all entries and comments. Stupid, stupid, stuipd. You see it all the time at FF.net where the report feature is used as a means for revenge. I've had a fic wrongly deleted before from there because a jealous bitch reported me when I shouldn't have. Some authors openly admit they have/plan to use the report feature for revenge. The button isn't even in place and the same thing is happening here. Someone claimed that the fanarts were of children when they're clearly not. If LJ had simply looked into the report they would have seen that.
6) Server problems. Now I haven't been as bad as a lot of people (which is hilarious since I'm on a free account and it seems paid members have the most problems eventhough they're suppose to be on a better server) but I've certainly heard about it.
Now getting back to my comparison with FF.net; for a while now it seemed like more and more idiots have been joining LJ. In the future I think this will become more obvious where the sane fans get overwhelmed by fanbrats who like pairing themselves with their fav character, squeeing fangirl Japanese all over the place and either squeeing like an idiot over yaoi or protesting loudly that it sucks.
We've already seen some if this happening in the TRC fandom and it's going to spread. In time I get the feeling that LJ will get the same reaction that goes on when FF.net is mentioned.
So really Strikethrough parts 1 and 2 really are just the tip of the iceberg. Honestly I was surprised when it first happened, although the things I've listed made me unhappy with LJ, I still had faith in them.
Not anymore.
Now, I do plan on keeping my LJ since so many friends are here and so much of every fandom is here as well, but I've also been making plans on attempting to get fractions of fandom set up else where.
I would have started by now but I discovered Scribblit earlier today and from what I've seen it's going to be the best place to move too (it has the best free account features so those with paid LJs won't have to pay for another journal to get a lot of
Unfortunately Scribblit is only in the beta phase right now and not open for new accounts, which is why I haven't gone through with my plans of setting fandom up else yet. It's suppose to be open soon though and if anyone wants to keep up with the status of Scribblit they can go to
twocorpses. The most info about the site can be found in this post (Seishirou would approve, there's a penguin in the logo).