Journal herejackback's Journal: Livejournal's Newest Failure and PR Nightmare 10
In one of the most laughable examples of corporate failure that I can recall seeing, Livejournal, a division of Six Apart and a popular blogging site, has erupted in a user revolt just two months after their last kerfluffle that was featured here, in an article by Green Monkey.
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/05/31/0329200.shtml
Apparently, LJ/6A hasn't learned much, because after they deleted the multiple (and paid for) accounts of two Harry Potter fandom artists for their admittedly tasteless graphic art depicting the characters in sexual acts with a slash tone. Fandom writers reacted strongly, and began to pester LJ for answers. Livejournal management had promised online that no subscriber would be deleted or suspended again without a warning, and that they would be clarifying exactly what was and was not permitted on the site.
Author would like to note here that these reassurances were done just prior to Livejournal's once a year permanent accounts sale, where large numbers of users snap up lifetime accounts for $150 non-refundable smackeroos. Additionally, a portion of the proceeds not used to line the company coffers is donated to several charities, at least three of which are helmed by LJ/6A's top brass. A more cynical writer might wonder if there's a tax shelter involvement, but I believe in the inherent goodness of this company. Please note that I still watch for the Tooth Fairy and gremlins in my closet. But...I digress.
So, a rational person, confronted with a looming storm from a large and well organized part of your customer base known for being a TAD dramatic, might decide to quickly put out the fire with a soothing assurance.
LJ is not rational, nor do they have a Public Relations person (if they do, then this is worse). They wait five days (one day after a promised day of information) to post a response that was so much two stepping, spinning and flailing that this writer got motion sickness just reading it. And, of course, in that five days of silence, the users went nuts.
Now you might think that they were being held prisoners on an island, or that they were in deep, thoughtful discussion. Au contraire! The worker bees at Livejournal were busy posting in public posts, using their official journals with their management monikers, to label (allegedly in a roleplay humor), calling members of fandom "pedophiles" and the works in question "child porn". Well...that was when it got ugly.
But it didn't end with screaming, threats of fandom hatred or unfunny cat macros. Oh, noes! The other members of the community, less emotional but no less irate, began to organize. Complaints began to slam into the California State Attorney General's Office, the Bay Area Better Business Bureau and other consumer groups. Class action suits are starting. In one rather inventive move, permanent and paid account users are contacting their credit card companies to demand refunds, because Livejournal is essentially altering the contract. Can they succeed? Possibly. Livejournal is attempting to alter their enforcement of Terms of Service, singling out one group while allowing pro-anorexia, right wing hatemongers and other groups more clearly in violation to walk scot free. In fact, one Livejournal staff member, again under her official journal (have these people never heard of private journals?), defended the pro-anorexia community that endorses young girls starving themselves to death.
http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/241884.html?thread=12609500#t12609500"
The employee stated that it was not illegal to aspire to be thin.
Huh?
Unfortunately, the ineptness and terminal foot in mouth disease spread on to the Vice President of Livejournal, who used vulgar language in blasting Internet media sites (such as this one) and complaining customers in a post that he edited to backpedal on faster than you can say "Mr. Gibson, WHAT did you call that officer?".
http://anildash.livejournal.com/25989.html?view=68997
A quick thinking and saavy PR type could come in and make a fortune with this band of witless wonders. Of course, company founder Brad Fitzpatrick, the golden boy about to leap from LJ to one of the many net companies courting him, took the opportunity to join with his shunted comrades in idiocy, and issued this gem, again in an open journal.
http://brad.livejournal.com/2334177.html
While rushing to do his part for the public relations shooting off of the company foot that his coworkers were doing, he managed to remain glibly and adorably clueless regarding the core issues, instead smacking the customers with the label of child porn. BUZZAH? Child porn? Fictional characters in bad graphics are kiddie porn? Oh, Brad, we're mad, for you, too. Now take the money and run like a good corporate dog.
Schmuck.
But it remains Abe Hassan who wins the ultimate loser award. In a move that shows clearly why tech guys should not handle PR, Hassan called his own fandom customer base "pedophiles", which brought fandom geeks and all kinds of groups together to put the smackdown on LJ in legal and consumer action ways that LJ/6A never could have imagined.
Hassan speaks and Firefox notes it: http://firefox.org/news/articles/555/1/Editorial----Livejournal-Employee-Publicly-Mocks-Fandom/Page1.html
Fandom fires back:
http://community.livejournal.com/innocence_jihad http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/
While Livejournal's new sockpuppet account (or is that goatpuppet?) flailed and failed.
http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/241884.html
The winners in this, of course, are the two artists (note the liberal use of that term) who are now Internet fandom martyrs and celebrities. Also smiling with glee are Greatest Journal, Insane Journal and Journal Fen corporates, who are reaping the windfall of mass migration.
The losers? Livejournal, of course, about to try for their IPO. Magic 8 Ball says...no. Plus, they get the fun of facing the legal wrath and economic boycott of their "smarter than the company" subscribers, who are hitting back in the wallet and the legal system. But also losing are the tens of thousands of writers, gamers and artists who came to LJ to help one guy build something, and who now feel betrayed by the company they generously supported. Networks of community fun and sharing are being broken apart by the migration, and by paranoia over Livejournal's witch hunt targeting slash art and fiction.
Stay tuned to see if LJ/6A grows a brain and tries to mend fences, or if the site goes the way of the dinosaur thanks to their folding under pressure from Confederate flag waving, homophobic neoNazi groups who pressured them.
Yet to be heard from are the advertisers. Pepsi, anyone?
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/05/31/0329200.shtml
Apparently, LJ/6A hasn't learned much, because after they deleted the multiple (and paid for) accounts of two Harry Potter fandom artists for their admittedly tasteless graphic art depicting the characters in sexual acts with a slash tone. Fandom writers reacted strongly, and began to pester LJ for answers. Livejournal management had promised online that no subscriber would be deleted or suspended again without a warning, and that they would be clarifying exactly what was and was not permitted on the site.
Author would like to note here that these reassurances were done just prior to Livejournal's once a year permanent accounts sale, where large numbers of users snap up lifetime accounts for $150 non-refundable smackeroos. Additionally, a portion of the proceeds not used to line the company coffers is donated to several charities, at least three of which are helmed by LJ/6A's top brass. A more cynical writer might wonder if there's a tax shelter involvement, but I believe in the inherent goodness of this company. Please note that I still watch for the Tooth Fairy and gremlins in my closet. But...I digress.
So, a rational person, confronted with a looming storm from a large and well organized part of your customer base known for being a TAD dramatic, might decide to quickly put out the fire with a soothing assurance.
LJ is not rational, nor do they have a Public Relations person (if they do, then this is worse). They wait five days (one day after a promised day of information) to post a response that was so much two stepping, spinning and flailing that this writer got motion sickness just reading it. And, of course, in that five days of silence, the users went nuts.
Now you might think that they were being held prisoners on an island, or that they were in deep, thoughtful discussion. Au contraire! The worker bees at Livejournal were busy posting in public posts, using their official journals with their management monikers, to label (allegedly in a roleplay humor), calling members of fandom "pedophiles" and the works in question "child porn". Well...that was when it got ugly.
But it didn't end with screaming, threats of fandom hatred or unfunny cat macros. Oh, noes! The other members of the community, less emotional but no less irate, began to organize. Complaints began to slam into the California State Attorney General's Office, the Bay Area Better Business Bureau and other consumer groups. Class action suits are starting. In one rather inventive move, permanent and paid account users are contacting their credit card companies to demand refunds, because Livejournal is essentially altering the contract. Can they succeed? Possibly. Livejournal is attempting to alter their enforcement of Terms of Service, singling out one group while allowing pro-anorexia, right wing hatemongers and other groups more clearly in violation to walk scot free. In fact, one Livejournal staff member, again under her official journal (have these people never heard of private journals?), defended the pro-anorexia community that endorses young girls starving themselves to death.
http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/241884.html?thread=12609500#t12609500"
The employee stated that it was not illegal to aspire to be thin.
Huh?
Unfortunately, the ineptness and terminal foot in mouth disease spread on to the Vice President of Livejournal, who used vulgar language in blasting Internet media sites (such as this one) and complaining customers in a post that he edited to backpedal on faster than you can say "Mr. Gibson, WHAT did you call that officer?".
http://anildash.livejournal.com/25989.html?view=68997
A quick thinking and saavy PR type could come in and make a fortune with this band of witless wonders. Of course, company founder Brad Fitzpatrick, the golden boy about to leap from LJ to one of the many net companies courting him, took the opportunity to join with his shunted comrades in idiocy, and issued this gem, again in an open journal.
http://brad.livejournal.com/2334177.html
While rushing to do his part for the public relations shooting off of the company foot that his coworkers were doing, he managed to remain glibly and adorably clueless regarding the core issues, instead smacking the customers with the label of child porn. BUZZAH? Child porn? Fictional characters in bad graphics are kiddie porn? Oh, Brad, we're mad, for you, too. Now take the money and run like a good corporate dog.
Schmuck.
But it remains Abe Hassan who wins the ultimate loser award. In a move that shows clearly why tech guys should not handle PR, Hassan called his own fandom customer base "pedophiles", which brought fandom geeks and all kinds of groups together to put the smackdown on LJ in legal and consumer action ways that LJ/6A never could have imagined.
Hassan speaks and Firefox notes it: http://firefox.org/news/articles/555/1/Editorial----Livejournal-Employee-Publicly-Mocks-Fandom/Page1.html
Fandom fires back:
http://community.livejournal.com/innocence_jihad http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/
While Livejournal's new sockpuppet account (or is that goatpuppet?) flailed and failed.
http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/241884.html
The winners in this, of course, are the two artists (note the liberal use of that term) who are now Internet fandom martyrs and celebrities. Also smiling with glee are Greatest Journal, Insane Journal and Journal Fen corporates, who are reaping the windfall of mass migration.
The losers? Livejournal, of course, about to try for their IPO. Magic 8 Ball says...no. Plus, they get the fun of facing the legal wrath and economic boycott of their "smarter than the company" subscribers, who are hitting back in the wallet and the legal system. But also losing are the tens of thousands of writers, gamers and artists who came to LJ to help one guy build something, and who now feel betrayed by the company they generously supported. Networks of community fun and sharing are being broken apart by the migration, and by paranoia over Livejournal's witch hunt targeting slash art and fiction.
Stay tuned to see if LJ/6A grows a brain and tries to mend fences, or if the site goes the way of the dinosaur thanks to their folding under pressure from Confederate flag waving, homophobic neoNazi groups who pressured them.
Yet to be heard from are the advertisers. Pepsi, anyone?
Marvelous, sir! (Score:1)
Thank you! (Score:1)
bravo! (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Bravo! (Score:1)
IPO or not... (Score:1)
Thanks (Score:1)
(And there's some kind of irony in being linked to a Slashdot journal FROM LiveJournal to figure out what happened ON LiveJournal, but I think I'll ignore that all and go have a martini.)
Oh, ABE. (Score:1)
Nice work! (Score:1)