Finally Mr. dolboeb came out with his own view on the whole basic account issue. And it is in english!

Here you go boys and gals: http://anton-nossik.livejournal.com/16069.html

The fabled policy update has finally arrived.

Highlights from the document include:

* The linked, legal definition of child pornography is given clearly stating that "This definition does not apply to depictions that are drawings, cartoons, sculptures, or paintings depicting minors or adults."

HOWEVER...

* We are given new headings such as "Inappropriate Content", which is defined only as "A user has posted content which incites, encourages, or advocates rape, pedophilia, or the abuse of children in any way." Given that the interests were once considered to be declarations of advocation, this needs further clarification as to what exactly constitutes "advocation". Taken as is should be, this heading is not a problem. But is fiction an advocation?

AND, THE BIG FINALE:

* Non-Photographic images of minors is declared as forbidden by LJ. Letting LJ speak for itself here:

"We are not making any determination on the legality of non-photographic images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. This is simply a type of content LiveJournal has decided not to host."

"LiveJournal attempts to grant users the ability to express themselves in as many ways as possible. In the case of this content, however, LiveJournal has chosen not to host it due to its highly controversial nature."

On one hand, it is something to see that they have come to understand the legal stance on the issue. On the other, it can be easily seen that this will not be taken well. One point brought up was... how exactly do you identify the age of a drawn character? Do you take the artist's word for it? Is there some other criteria? How will this be determined?

marta has noted that this is a document in progress: if we do not want this to be the final result, we have to act NOW.

Tell LJ what you think of the new document.

For those of you who haven't seen the latest lj_policy post, it contains a rather disturbing lack of communication regarding the blocked search terms.

I haven't had time to read through all the comments yet, but those that I have read appear to be various versions of "Sorry, we can't elaborate at this time."

I've just had a rather alarming piece of hearsay pop up on my friends list- apparently users are now being deleted for having those same search interests that we've been investigating here. With the same strings and roots that led to things like "baby grapes" being unsearchable. The word is that users with innocent interests can petition LJ to be reinstated, but that there are (quite obviously) a lot of petitions so there's a bit of a wait. I've also heard that the deletions not only apply to the journal with the "offensive" interest, but every other journal associated with that user's IP address, as was the case during the last two rounds of deletions.

From the badass_teacher comm:

"There have also been a number of random bannings due to interests with certain search strings. So if you're suddenly banned from LJ (as a few friends of mine have been, for interests such as "rape survivor" and "anti-racial bashing") you can contact LJ and get it fixed... but don't hold your breath for them to do it quickly, they're dealing with many, many cases right now, so people are having to wait."

Can anyone verify this? Has anyone heard additional rumors? Have any of your friends been deleted recently? Let's put our heads together and see if we can verify or discredit this.

Edit: We just got assurances from marta that this is, indeed, a rumor. Thanks marta!

marta has posted here, giving us updates on two of our pressing issues:

1. Regarding the SUP "latest visitors" feature, we have been informed it should not be an issue soon:
   
   
   Just as an FYI, that functionality will be turned off today. If you check back by tonight you should see that non-SUP users will not show up at all on this program.


2. Regarding the ongoing banned interest controversy, we are informed:
   
   
   I just wanted to let you know that a couple of words are coming off of that list in the code-push today. We're checking things out and I'll be able to let you know the result of that by the end of the week.


3. EDITED TO ADD: Further information on the opt-out status of the visitor logging feature, posted to this very post:
   
   
   Also, the "My Guests" program for SUP-enabled journals has its own opt-out (based upon what I learned today of it), but it will not show non-SUP-enabled journals (all the rest of us) at all on the "checking to see who viewed my journal" page. I am open to finding out more about this if there are more questions!
   
   

---

Thanks again to marta for keeping an open dialog with us!

Now, we know this is progress. But how much progress? Is it enough?

I leave that to you guys. (Also, this poll is open to ALL LJ users; pardon my error on the last one ;/ )

NOTE: I am not including a question on the interest issue here, because I think it would be wiser to wait and see how we feel after the code push. The last poll has demonstrated that we seem to be disinterested in ANY interest filtering, but I figure we may as well let LJ try and fix the system before we give it another judgment. If the effort is still not enough, we will come back to the table on it. (Which will likely be the case, but it can't hurt to try a compromise first.)

Poll #1105115 Progress Check
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Will you be satisfied with the upcoming changes to the "latest visitor" feature?

If you feel further change is needed, please comment with more information. If you feel the issue is resolved... then this might just be cause to hope that we are being heard ;]

Hello everybody!

Just posting to keep everyone updated on any changes to the community, or any news on the front.

1. The community has now turned on moderated posting. It was something I had considered from the outset, and has been recommended by fellow moderators and members alike. Since a community like this shouldn't be making new posts all the time, I don't see any serious problems with it. I do plan to look into additional moderators as soon as possible, however, so we can react instantly to news posts and the like when possible. (We're not on moderated membership yet, but expect it in the future. I'm just trying to hold off on that one as long as I can.)


2. There is news on the banned interest issue. Not only has our list of known flagged terms grown (see the user cannot_find_me for info as well), LJ Spokesperson marta has given me an update here on the origins of the program. The key points:
   
   
   "So far a) it's been that way since June and b) there was a one-time addition to the terms in late October and c) it's not related to the flagging program or the SUP purchase or anything like that."
   
   I would like to emphasize one thing coming from this information: This is yet another action by Six Apart, NOT SUP. I know there have been some theories that SUP has been stepping in to quash freedom of speech, but instead it seems this is once again a Six Apart decision. I feel this is worth pointing out because I would like to avoid blaming SUP for Six Apart's errors; should they begin to make mistakes, we'll open a whole new file for them ;] (Thanks to marta for her informative reply!)


3. I was approached for an interview on the newsblog talk_show, focusing on the creation and purpose behind this community. For those interested in getting some background, take a look!


4. Keep spreading the word! In less than three days, we've grown to almost 300 people watching this community. Take an icon or two, drop a few links, and let LJ know we're ready to make some changes.


5. Finally... in regard to the banned interests issue, we're getting to the point where we know full well what the problem is. The question becomes, what do we what to do about it? To make this effort worthwhile, we need to come to a group agreement on what direction we want to go with this. Before we contact LJ, we need to know what we are asking for. So...

Poll #1104040 Banned Interests
Open to: Friends, detailed results viewable to: All

What do we want done with the interest filtering system?

Please leave your comments and thoughts on anything mentioned, and thank you all for your efforts!