Um, wtf internets?

[evilhippo]

The questions of the night: am I to worry about the one icon I have that contains the words "boy" and "buttsechs"?
How much of LJ will explode between now and when I wake up in the morning?
Wtf?

For seriously, between FanLib (which I admit I completely fail to grasp, mostly out of lack of interest, and at least partially because it seems like an evil force in disguise (in the same way Naruto is)) and this apparent witch hunt (which, by my impression, seems to be bizarrely centered around the HP fandom, plus actual real-life pervs... though fm_alchemist and heroes_tv both have had paranoid posts), the internet is becoming a really strange place for fannish people. I guess the question is how things will fall. If only I wasn't always so curious about these things. I'm probably going to end up following it just because it's interesting to watch. Yay, new ways to waste time. (And new things everyone is going to be thoroughly sick of hearing about by tomorrow morning, if they aren't sick of it already.) I don't have any really fandom-obsessed people on my friendslist, so I have no idea how much people are freaking out about this (and I'm sure they are, where I can't see them), but everything I've seen linked has been remarkably calm. It kind of makes me proud of fandom... in a kind of distanced way (alas, I feel like I've almost been too long out of fandom, but this is definitely something that it's better to sit and watch).

Oh, internets.

Comments

[flutingfrenzy.livejournal.com]

There was a post to death_eyes too. People brought it back on topic (I'm in there) by comparing it to Kira, as is the fandom's custom. I swear, it's like Godwin's or something; the chances that the topic of any otherwise-unrelated conversation between Death Note fen will eventually be compared to Kira approach one as the conversation progresses.

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

Obviously either Kira's actions are vastly applicable to any situation, or Kira is like Hitler.

Or... wait. >.>

(Oh, and people suddenly thinking that fandom_wank was suspended in all this? Where the heck have these people been?)

[flutingfrenzy.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD NOT FANDOM WANK TOO ...oh wait.

I wonder what it would take for JF to perma-suspend FW.

[lisiche.livejournal.com]

BRING IT, LJ. YOU HAVE NOTHING ON ME. NOTHING!! HWAHAHAHAHHAHAHA --cough hack-- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

::offers a cough drop:: You might want to see someone about that cackling problem you seem to have...

[shichahn.livejournal.com]

I know, wow, FanLib and now this. It's insane. I mean, some of the stuff they're banning is very wtf. Like the comm for discussing the novel Lolita. And it appears our very own elricsexual has been hit for being incest. Now, I don't feel all that concerned for myself, but I'm wondering about poor little Alfons' journal. XD; Looks like they're hunting to ban things based on the interest search though, so I'm hoping he'll be alright.

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

It looks like elricsexual was deleted... which is probably the same duck-and-cover idea that some other mods have had--delete until this passes. And the suspensions all seem so completely random. Whichever of the suspects right now has actually been reporting things (because I doubt LJ is taking direct action based on interests, otherwise there'd be more than something like 20 communities/journals deleted) is just completely disorganized. And that's kind of scary.

[shichahn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd originally talked to Mikke who thought it was banned, but someone pointed out that it was in fact deleted.

Seriously, though, this whole thing is so completely bizarre. I can't even figure out what to think about it. WFI is saying they stopped "hundreds of predators" or whatever, but yeah, as far as I know only 20-ish journals have been banned. Not that that isn't a big number, but I think it's pretty clear LJ is only taking down things that have been reported, and trying to help those who've been targeted as best as they legally can.

I think the thing that's most telling, if WFI is behind this whole thing, is that they claimed they didn't report any fandom journals- but then admitted they didn't know what fandom was or how LJ works. Um. Kind of scary, indeed, how stuff like this can just happen so easily.

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

It looks like a bit more information is slowly filtering in... and I'm starting to think that fandom's panic is largely because only the mistakes in the purge have hit it, so this looks like some kind of random and illogical move. This post (http://lolaraincoat.livejournal.com/253978.html?thread=2870554) has a better list (I ran across it last night and couldn't find it again, but hooray for fandom_lawyers), and it looks like there were a lot of actual pedo communities and journals that got tossed (in much larger numbers than this smattering of actual fandom suspensions). Which is good... but it still disturbs me that this is how it's gone down. Because if it is WFI (which I just typed twice as WTF)... basically everything I've read in this thread (http://community.livejournal.com/fandom_lawyers/36677.html?thread=155717#t155717) frightens the bejeezus out of me. How wrong-headed can you get (I haven't been to the site itself since it's so happy to log IPs and such (which sets off other warnings in my head that kind of discounts what I'm about to say), but it reeks of outraged mothers with too much time on their hands and not much in the way of brains). Which is just going to make the actual perverts learn to hide better, and scare all the fandom communities off of livejournal (which is what I imagine 80% of the communities listed in that first post have done). Ah, mob mentality, panic, and people on all sides acting without information. This is going to be fun for a nice long while.

[shichahn.livejournal.com]

Oh good, a much better list indeed (though OW, the colors). Yeah, I did read that a number of actual pedo comms are gone, and that's all well and good although it does very little in the end except save LJ's ass a little... not like it actually gets rid of pedophiles. But yeah, okay. Seriously, though (and I, too, keep reading WFI as WTF XD;) ... WHAT? I still just can't quite fathom the effect this is going to have.

Thanks for the link, I'll go read the fandom_lawyers thread now.

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

(Yeah... I realized a bit too late why most people were linking to it with the keep-my-style modifiers. (-;) This whole thing is pretty obviously LJ covering its bases... and I feel a bit better about it that way, because if it was LJ deciding that it was time to get rid of things based on content, everyone would pretty much up and leave (plus that kind of moderation would be wrong... but I'm thinking in terms of community right now). Which might still happen, given people's general reaction to this (but I've had this journal for almost four years now and I don't want to leave, so I'm being unusually partial to LJ in this). The only way to get rid of pedophiles is to actually imprison them, anyway. (Which is a good point that WFI has completely missed, yay.) But at least getting rid of places that they gather does a bit to keep them from collaborating and (more importantly) feeding/encouraging each other's obsessions (... kind of like fandom (-;).

I should so definitely be working on my papers right now, omg internets stop being distracting.

[shichahn.livejournal.com]

Holy shit.

And I thought IP logging was annoying.

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

Holy frack. See, this is what I mean about SUSPICIOUS. What's up with these people?! (And now I am super-glad I haven't visited that site. Geez. What is with people?)