Wank, fic-dump, and to-do list...

[candyland]

Is LJ ever going to stop burying itself? I swear to God, they're doing this on purpose. They must be, given that Strikethrough happened on Memorial Day weekend...and then the "clarifications" on obscenity happened on the weekend of the Harry Potter release...and now this latest debacle happens on the weekend of a big Harry Potter CONVENTION.

Oh, and if you get suspended now, you don't even get the honor of having a strikethrough on your username. You are now bolded. Apparently, that makes it less noticeable, and people won't raise holy hell in the comments on lj_biz and news.

Oh wait...

Anyway, as of last night I no longer have a bed in my room. All that's left in there are a few boxes and some other miscellaneous stuff. But no furniture. Ninety-five percent of my life and my possessions are stacked in boxes in the garage. Dad's picking up the moving truck tonight, and we're loading it up...and then we're on the road at six AM tomorrow -_-

Our approximate plan is to leave really early and get there by about ten or so. Do the walk-through, pay the rent, get my key, and get moving! Once we get most of the stuff hauled inside, we're going to go to the next city and drop of the moving van, and then grab some lunch...and then Mom and Dad are going to take me grocery shopping \o/ Then it's come home and finish unpacking, and then send Mom and Dad on their way home.

Can't believe it's already time. Sort of excited, sort of nervous...

So today, I have to wrap stuff up at the bank, pick up my second-to-last paycheck from Hy-Vee, pick up the forms for gas cards, put gas in my car, finish packing, making a shopping list...and spend a little time with kaitodoushi and bishonen_girl. Can't stay out too long, though D: Too much to do.

So here's the fic-dump. I didn't get the fic for 30_friends done, so I hope everyone will be smurfy with just three fics. Go check 'em out on candyfics:

For 30_evil_deeds: Alternate Method
For 30_ways: Couldn't Say No
For fanfic100: The Apartment: Moving Day

I'll try to be on later tonight to say sayonara for a bit, since I won't have internet access for a while. In the meantime, I gotta get going. Errands to run and people to see and lots and LOTS of stuff to do. Later!

Comments

[axtar.livejournal.com]

Seriously LJ, raising the whole issue again = not cool. Especially if the post had been locked or something; little kids should know better than to join those kind of comms anyway. >____>

And whoo, I remember someone once saying I'm prolific? I think that term applies better on you, m'dear. *sticks a nice shiny sticker on you, glomps and RUNS*

And good luck with the move!

[candy--chan.livejournal.com]

I know. It's really angering--particularly the fact that they seem to have absolutely no regard or respect for their users. I regret shelling out the dough for a perm account...

O.O SHINY!! *pets sticker* ...hey, come back here! *chases with luvs*

Thanks!

[gomath02.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the move! And I just might have to come visit you one of these days when I'm headed over in your direction!

[candy--chan.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thanks, hon!

And by all means, stop by! I have a couch with a fold-out queen-sized bed for guests ^.~

[kateshort.livejournal.com]

I'd respond on news, but it's hit the 5000-comment limit, so I hope you don't mind me commenting on your comment ( http://news.livejournal.com/102095.html?thread=55015631#t55015631 ) here instead. :)

When burr86 mentioned obscenity laws, he wasn't kidding-- see this link: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00001466---A000-.html

In this lj_biz entry ( http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/241428.html ), burr86 wrote:

Some people have noted a Supreme Court case from a couple of years ago striking computer-generated images from the definition of child pornography and asked whether, as a result, drawings of children in sexual situations can be considered illegal. The answer is, yes, in some cases. Congress reacted to the Supreme Court's decision in that case by changing the obscenity laws to put back what the Supreme Court struck down from the child pornography laws. Those obscenity laws are still on the books today and still being enforced. As a result, our policy prohibits obscene images of minors in graphic sexual contexts.

Bolding mine.

Like others, I assumed that what he said later on in that entry about fanFICTION also applied to fanART. It doesn't. There's generally no child PORN in fanFIC because child porn has to feature images of real children. Similarly, child OBSCENITY deals with drawn images, whether the child (= under 18) is real or not. FanFICTION doesn't deal with the images; fanART does, and falls under the obscenity laws.

Similarly, fanFIC usually has a lot more context-- there's often plot and characterization leading up to the sex scenes wherin the writer can make it clear that the people involver are over 18 if it's graphic and explicit. Art, especially a single panel, doesn't have that additional context. You can only judge it by looking at that image in and of itself, unless it's part of a graphic novel or sequential-art story.

When I looked at Ponderosa's image, I couldn't tell if Harry was 16, 17, 18, or older. It needs to be unquestionably over 18 in order to be that graphic and survive a report to the Abuse Prevention Team. Similarly, the Fred/George pic, while cute, appeared to me to be featuring two boys aged around 14-17 years old. That's not unquestionably over 18 to me, and it apparently wasn't unquestionably over 18 in the eyes of the Abuse Prevention Team.

Now that I've looked at the Code, and gone back and read the lj_biz entries, I'm kicking myself, because it's there in the clarification, and I just didn't separate out the ART issues from the FICTION issues.

[candy--chan.livejournal.com]

First off, my opinion of just about anything burr86 says is incredibly low, given that he thinks it's appropriate to reply to people's questions and concerns with smilies. That has absolutely no bearing on the issue, but it's the truth--I find him offensive and insulting.

Secondly, the big thing with this isn't so much the law as the fact that Barak promised--IN A COMMENT ON ONE OF HIS OWN POSTS--that fandom was safe. I'm sure you've seen that on the comment threads, usually with sparkles on the text. So everyone went about their business in a normal fashion, only to have them say, "Oh, never mind, we changed our minds" and start deleting people. If they were going to renege on a direct promise, than an announcement needed to be made to let people know that policy was changing YET AGAIN. But they don't seem to be interested in letting people know what policy is anymore, and than acting all stunned when people get up in arms because they did something that was "policy." I personally don't want to have to go and read the TOS every single day to see what else has changed.

This is on top of the fact that despite protests and pleading from the users, they refuse to actually give a strict set of guidelines. Saying, "Oh, we'll decide if they look over eighteen or not" or "It'll be decided on a case-by-case situation based on artistic merit" doesn't cut it for me. I frequent anime fandoms, where characters often look a great deal younger than they are--my main fandom right now features an eighteen-year-old guy stuck in the body of an eight-year-old. Where does that fall in the scheme of things? He's technically of age. But I don't know, because they won't tell us. And if I do it and it's wrong, I get no chance to defend myself or point out why it's fine. I'm done, simple as that.

And I am not at all confident that fanfiction is safe or even different, given that they said that if a survivor writes about her experiences from her own POV, that's fine, but if she writes it as a fictional work from the POV of a character she made up to represent herself, then that can get you banned. That's almost exactly what they told us. So...no, I have to say you're incorrect. Fanfic isn't safe.

So at this point, to my mind, the law isn't even the issue. It's more about the fact that LJ keeps breaking direct promises to their users, and then essentially saying "Fuck you" in their clarification posts that never seem to address any of the questions their users ask. It's about the fact that they won't just give us some simple guidelines to follow so we don't unknowingly post something that will get us banned because someone's definition of "artistic merit" differs from our own.

(Forgive the lateness of the reply--I'm in the middle of moving and unpacking.)

[theclamsman.livejournal.com]

Hey there. I read your longassed comment in the news post and am wondering--where was it that an LJ employee called someone a douche? O_O Since I can't comment on the news thread because the comment limit's maxed, I thought I'd be able to ask you here, so... >_> . Forgive the intrusion.

[candy--chan.livejournal.com]

The link is in the earlier comments somewhere, I can't remember where it is...and I really don't have time to go look for it right now. Sorry for the late reply and the brusqueness of it--I just moved, and I'm still unpacking and trying to get things done ^^;;