On behalf of this journal

[akk]

Those of you, who actually visit me at Insanejournal might have noticed that I started to adapt the layout there to please my mutant eyes. Those who know me well might have already guessed what that means:

From now on, I consider AKK @ IJ my main journal, where any spontaneous posts, comments, memes, polls (yes, I can have polls there!), etc. go. It will also be the first spot I check for comments and the one I recommend to my friends and for feedback from my homepage.


First of all: no this is not because of a new blunder by Livejournal/6 Apart, though it is a result of the events that have been going on since May 2007 (Strikethrough, Bold-out, call them whatever you want).

What happened is that I posted a small X-fanfic today (CEC 3-6-1: Onmyojutsu). The fic is rated PG (or PG-8 if you are too sensitive to be allowed near the tv news; in which case I seriously wonder what the heck you do at a net-connected computer!) and the rating was actually quite easy to figure out (at least for the place where I live). But it deals with occultism, portraying magic as if it was fact and then I began to wonder: is that really PG in the US where LJ is? Or PG-13 (because a student with a basic science course should be capable of figuring out it's all made up) or R (because religiously any mentioning of occultism is bad and influences the poor innocent sheep - according to some of the more extreme clerics; I mean think Harry Potter books in libraries) or...
Basically, there was a moment when I wasn't sure. And CEC 3-6-1: Onmyojutsu is a harmless little story!

I'm writing a TB/X fanfic arch of epic proportions. The current chapter 12 is really a hassle and I've caught myself deleting a line thinking "that might not be suitable to post on LJ" Rest assured, that line is back in and the scene stays at it is! Period!
I do not need the kind of pressure Lj is building since May. I do not want it. I do not want that lure to self-censorship based on concepts even those who apply them can't explain in plain text (even a long text would have been okay. I'm patient. I'm good at reading. But the crucial line is still "if you guess wrong, it's your fault".)
I'm German. My homepage is with a German ISP and I've written an Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers What-if-fanfic about Nazis. If you know anything about my country's jurisdiction about Nazi portrayal, you might realize that I have to be wary of what is acceptable and what not for publishing it. A mistake in that regard can (and will) end careers.
I take great care to get things right, esp. regarding legal issues, and I like to be sure about those issues when posting. At least, as sure as you can be without paying for a lawyer. I no longer feel sure on LJ and that means I no longer feel comfortable here (or welcome).

I'm online mostly for writing, for sharing my fics, for getting feedback and new ideas and the occasional goofiness, found by me or by others. I'm not online for gnawing on my nails. A brief calculation of the time I spent worrying about TOS and policies and definitions at LJ since May gave an estimated loss of writing time of at least two weeks (likely more). Two. Weeks. (That's half a chapter, if you want it in writing terms. At least.) And those are two weeks in which my free time was gobbled up with worrying, figuring out, duplicating journals, and countless other no-funnies.
Sorry, LJ, I don't have that much free time next to my job.

So to Scape-The-Goat (as in: Frankly), Ich habe von der Scheiße hier die Schnauze gestrichen voll! Mir reichts!

I won't worry another minute about LJ any more. If they TOS me for what I consider appropriate, so be it. To quote a fic that is never-ever going to be released from my harddrive: I'll continue worrying about LJ "when Hal-Voh-Rha freezes over!" Good riddance and fuck-the-goat (maybe it learns something useful).


You can find a feed for my Insanejournal at akk_ij
(or use the bookmarklet in your browser: http://akk.insanejournal.com/data/rss/)

I will continue fic-related posts and announcements in the respective communities here. I'll also check my friends list, but if the grey entities decide they don't like my works and TOS me, I won't bother to jump any loops (or appeal), I'll simply be gone for good.

In case you now consider me an egotistic beast because of this:
I own a ficus benjamini with personality issues, who'd like to have a word with you.

Thank you for your attention. Hope to see you soon elsewhere. :)

Comments

[vehemence.livejournal.com]

I don't think you have to worry so much-- it seems like it's mostly the enormous fandoms they're going after, like Harry Potter, etc. And things like child pornography rings that operate under the guise of intelligent discussion of child pornography, or some crap like that. But X/1999 fandom is pretty minuscule in comparison to others, and I doubt anyone in this fandom would ever report you. I mean, not to make any generalizations, but CLAMP fans tend to not blink at things like oh say, incest, when things like incest are canon in our fandom xD But anyways, I'll bookmark your IJ just in case the worst happens.

[akk]

This is not about whether or not I have reason to be worried. It is not even about the TOS itself, though a TOS is meant not only to cover the company's legal issues, but also to protect the clients of said company. LJ/6A very eloquently showed that they forgot the client side of the bargain. But even that is not the issue.

I object to the atmosphere of wariness and self-censorship that LJ/6A created here, which makes me as a creative person very uncomfortable. I have no reason whatsoever to put up with that.

[brit-columbia.livejournal.com]

The 'journal deleting' furor that went on a few months ago really shocked me, but I had been half expecting it. I've seen and read things in LJ that made me think that the only reason they hadn't been censored was that they were still flying under the radar of the would-be censors. I admit I have my head in the sand with regards to my journal. I haven't backed it up anywhere, but like you, I just can't face the loss of time that would entail. And I'm not sure anywhere is safe anyway. I'm not familiar with Insane Journal, but you seem to feel safer there. I hope they don't suddenly change whatever policies they have that makes you feel that way.

I sometimes feel guilty when I think that some ten or eleven year-old-kid might go on FF.Net, read my very self-censored stories, but then email me for my LJ address (as I invite people to do) and consequently get traumatized by the lemons she finds there. But then I remind myself that MY lil' ol' LJ is not the most traumatic thing a kid can find on the internet! But I don't know what I'm going to do if anyone's mom ever decides to mount a vendetta against me. So my head stays in the sand and my LJ is devoid of the larger life-details that anyone could use to track me down. * Looks furtively over shoulder*

[akk]

What pissed me off about LJ's deleting spree wasn't that they tried to clean-up their site, but the way they did it. The ToS is meant to protect both sides - the enterprise and the customers - and LJ clearly forgot about the second part. Insane's big plus in my books at the moment is that they have a policy I understand, a set of "what to do"s in case I'm not sure (clear warning, place it under a cut, etc.). When I started on LJ, the ToS was fairly simple as well - if taken literally - then the staff decided to go kind of "by intention" and everything became "fuzzy" (and not as in "fuzzy logic" *g*).

Posting simultaneously to multiple services is quite easy - as is backing up comments - once the software is set up. Whatever happens, I won't lose much.

I don't post on ff.net. At first I had trouble with their interface and then I disliked "the dump" per se. :)

As for the traumatized kids: I place clear warnings, nothing of my stuff is clearly visible without at least a click (and given the length of my fics: some serious scrolling) first. It's not impossible to find & read it, as it is not impossible to sneak into a construction site and play hide & seek, therefore "parents are responsible for their own children". (I wonder when that became "parents sue for their own children". *sigh*)