Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

So there's this "content strike" against LiveJournal planned for Good Friday (midnight to midnight GMT, so starting at 20:00 tomorrow here in EDT) While some of the language is strike-like, including a list of demands, it doesn't seem all that much like a strike to me. The plan is for folks to go back to using LJ as usual twenty-four hours later regardless of whether the demands are met, and the stated intent is to show a one-day dip in the logs that will serve as a visible mark of the power we users could wield if we were actually willing.

But even though I don't see how it'll be any more effective than a one day "don't buy gas strike" -- the blip in the logs will be there, but given how SUP's director of the blog division, Anton Nosik, has chosen to view all of us agitating against harm we see being done to LJ as enemies who want to destroy LJ (apparently if we disagree with him, then we are enemies rather than concerned netizens), and has trotted out the "don't negotiate with terrorists" mindset (not that phrasing, mind you, but the same reasoning -- not that the phrasing he did use wasn't bad enough), I can't see SUP acknowledging that they care -- ... Even though I don't see how it'll affect SUP strongly enough to feel they have to bend, I'm planning to participate in this protest just as a show of solidarity with other upset users.

(Seriously, if you haven't already done so, go read what he said to the media, right now.)

The point of the protest is to not post anything to LJ in that twenty four hours, and not read anything on LJ in that period either (though perhaps Basic, Paid, and Permanent users can still read, since they won't be generating any ad-view hits?), to show what LJ could lose if they continue to act in ways that drive us elsewhere.

It may be easier for me than for some folks, since I've already got my other journals to post to, even if my friends-lists are much smaller everywhere else (which, of course, is a major factor, other than inertia and a hopefulness-for-improvement that is becoming silly, in my still being on LJ at this point). I haven't decided whether my QotD should be a message about the strike and a link to the real entry elsewhere, for the sake of anyone not already aware of the protest at that point or choosing not to participate, or just not show up at all.

And hey, maybe I'll start getting more comments at the rest of my journals than I've been getting so far. (Hint to folks who want to stick to LJ: some of the other sites support OpenID, so you can post there using your LJ identity.)

Now let us be clear here: this is not just a bit of petulance about no longer being able to create Basic (free, no-ads) accounts any more, though that did surprise and upset many people. It's about larger patterns, about being treated as though we are just numbers to be sold to advertisers rather than being treated as a valuable resource, as users, participants, the LJ community. It's about being lied to when we're not merely being 'spun' or (even more often) ignored. It's about SUP / LJ Inc. making decisions we predict will harm LJ in the long run. It's about the company talking to the media without talking to us when we're clamoring for information. It's about SUP lying to others about who we, its users, are (we really don't know yet whether that was the intent of the filtering of the most-popular-interests page, but that was the effect -- and in the absence of any better explanation from SUP, it's getting harder and harder to believe it wasn't the intent; it looks as though they were embarrassed to have certain topics show up on that list). It's about SUP appearing to continue Six Apart's disastrous and offensive actions against fannish and sexual-minority interests and content.

Mostly, it's about dashed hope, the hope that when SUP took over from 6A, maybe, just maybe, they would either understand the community better (or value it, at least), or learn from 6A's gaffes. So far, we hear encouraging noises that are, with small exceptions, not backed up with good actions. We're still hearing that they struggle to "find the right tone" to communicate with us, when they barely communicate with us at all, and want to find a "tone" that will make us meekly accept their announcements when what we want is a conversation.

And finally, to Mr. Nosik, let me be especially clear: We want LiveJournal to succeed and thrive; we want our constructive criticism to be heard and acknowledged (that is, even if you don't take our advice, we want to know it was considered and why you chose a different course) and we want to preserve the aspects of LiveJournal that are valuable to us. Most of us who are protesting think SUP's present course will destroy what matters of LJ in the name of replacing reasonable and steady profits with all-you-can-get-this-quarter profits, and that as a result of that destruction the site will eventually become unprofitable entirely. We are hoping to prevent the destruction of LiveJournal.

I've got a longer post planned -- one postponed from the 6A days, because I'd hoped that SUP would make writing it moot -- about how I perceive the economics and the ethics of the relationships between users, advertisers, and site-owners. I'll try to get that posted before the protest, but I've got to run off and do other things at the moment.