![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Deletegate wafflage
May. 31st, 2007 01:31 amThe Deletegate row makes me feel quite nostalgic for my days in student politics. Self-important, self-obsessed arguments of grand principle displaying entitlement complexes but little common sense are great, aren't they?
Yes, it sucks enormously that SixApart banned a bunch of journals with dubious-sounding interests, regardless of whether they were actually promoting said activities or not. Yes, it would be nice if they hadn't lost their nerve when faced with complaints from a site that appears to be one lone and clueless obsessive at best, an Astroturf operation at worst. Yes, anything that can be done to create a backlash is worthwhile, although it would be wise not to overestimate the importance of the fanfic writing community to the firm's business plans when formulating responses (for earlier examples of this, see the whole Fanlib debate).
But no, I can't really condemn them out of hand. They're looking down the barrel of some serious legal liability under American law, and if they blinked -- well, can you blame them? It's not just an academic free speech issue for them. Do you feel entirely comfortable asking them to take one for the team and be a test case?
And on the merits -- well, putting 'incest' or (in particular) 'paedophilia' in the interests of an LJ or comm isn't merely Asking For Trouble, it's jumping up and down in front of Trouble waving a placard saying 'Trouble Sucks!!!' and chanting 'Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough'. Yes, we know (the 'we' being 'those reasonably immersed in fannish culture') that it's just fen goofing off and doing silly things with characters, and generally extend a certain amount of tolerance because of that, even for the stuff that any reasonable person would be entitled to find disgusting. But come on -- if you wouldn't want your RL friends and relatives to see it for reasons stronger than outing your inner nerd, you can't expect anyone else to come in from outside and understand. It's probably useful to get a reality check on this sort of thing from time to time.
I've seen people saying that they feel as if they've lost a safe space. No, you haven't. There are no safe spaces on the Internet, beyond the short term. If GreatestJournal or JournalFen or whichever site is suggested as an alternative come under the same sort of legal pressure, do you want to bet they wouldn't fold in the same way? It doesn't matter if you don't live in America. On the Internet, everybody lives in America, particularly if they use an American-hosted site like LJ.
That being said, I agree that the 'principle' (or paranoia) SixApart are making their stand on is open to challenge or at least the offering of alternatives, and that it's a nasty blow in particular that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
pornish_pixies has gone (even if my personal impression was that it was mostly drivel -- but legitimate drivel). In fact, this might be a good test case to push back on as strongly as possible (this post has good suggestions as to how), because if it can be established that this is acceptable on LJ, most things fannish would be.
Sorry, getting exasperated with some of this and in a bad mood late at night, trying not to go over the top. You can defriend now.
Yes, it sucks enormously that SixApart banned a bunch of journals with dubious-sounding interests, regardless of whether they were actually promoting said activities or not. Yes, it would be nice if they hadn't lost their nerve when faced with complaints from a site that appears to be one lone and clueless obsessive at best, an Astroturf operation at worst. Yes, anything that can be done to create a backlash is worthwhile, although it would be wise not to overestimate the importance of the fanfic writing community to the firm's business plans when formulating responses (for earlier examples of this, see the whole Fanlib debate).
But no, I can't really condemn them out of hand. They're looking down the barrel of some serious legal liability under American law, and if they blinked -- well, can you blame them? It's not just an academic free speech issue for them. Do you feel entirely comfortable asking them to take one for the team and be a test case?
And on the merits -- well, putting 'incest' or (in particular) 'paedophilia' in the interests of an LJ or comm isn't merely Asking For Trouble, it's jumping up and down in front of Trouble waving a placard saying 'Trouble Sucks!!!' and chanting 'Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough'. Yes, we know (the 'we' being 'those reasonably immersed in fannish culture') that it's just fen goofing off and doing silly things with characters, and generally extend a certain amount of tolerance because of that, even for the stuff that any reasonable person would be entitled to find disgusting. But come on -- if you wouldn't want your RL friends and relatives to see it for reasons stronger than outing your inner nerd, you can't expect anyone else to come in from outside and understand. It's probably useful to get a reality check on this sort of thing from time to time.
I've seen people saying that they feel as if they've lost a safe space. No, you haven't. There are no safe spaces on the Internet, beyond the short term. If GreatestJournal or JournalFen or whichever site is suggested as an alternative come under the same sort of legal pressure, do you want to bet they wouldn't fold in the same way? It doesn't matter if you don't live in America. On the Internet, everybody lives in America, particularly if they use an American-hosted site like LJ.
That being said, I agree that the 'principle' (or paranoia) SixApart are making their stand on is open to challenge or at least the offering of alternatives, and that it's a nasty blow in particular that
pornish_pixies has gone (even if my personal impression was that it was mostly drivel -- but legitimate drivel). In fact, this might be a good test case to push back on as strongly as possible (this post has good suggestions as to how), because if it can be established that this is acceptable on LJ, most things fannish would be.Sorry, getting exasperated with some of this and in a bad mood late at night, trying not to go over the top. You can defriend now.
