I feel like we've just met - and I really enjoy reading your posts - so this makes me sad. However, I do understand the principle behind what you are saying.
These are a few of my thoughts, if you don't mind. When I started LJ-ing (is that a word?) it was mainly for myself. I got all POTO fan-girly on 3-4 forums and met people there. Slowly people who read my fanfiction and forum posts wandered over here. Most posted anonymously because they didn't have LJ accounts. Slowly they started getting LJ accounts, and I was glad, because anonymous spam (for sexchats, etc.) started showing up occasionally, and it was just easier to limit comments to registered users instead of having to pick off the spam.
What leads me to stay are the people I've met (like you, and my_daroga, who introduced us.) Another factor is that I've found some really interesting communities here. Even though many of them haven't been updated in a while, or are very sporadic, I still have mined their archives, which have been useful to me for writing.
I did get GJ and IJ accounts (both under the same name, stefanie_bean - feel free to friend me at IJ if you like, even though I don't have anything posted there right now.) Haven't wanted to pay for a JF account so far; maybe I will later.
I went ahead and backed my journals up - don't know if I'll try to "export" them to a new home or not. A great deal of the "meat" of my LJ is in the comments, and if the comments don't export to a new site, there doesn't seem much point in doing it.
Personally, I'm not sure the other sites (GF, IJ, JF) are any kind of absolute safe harbor against this kind of nonsense. There are bigger forces out there which aren't going away: increased puritanism; increased #s of lawsuits and a broken tort system that encourages them; confusing and chaotic child porn/child abuse laws that boil down to "I know it when I see it." These forces are going to pursue people who push the margins with their art everywhere they go.
However, I do understand your desire to "make a stand" by quitting LJ, and at least not including your journal in their "head count." I do hope that wherever you go, you will leave a "forwarding address" so that we can stay in touch!
no subject
These are a few of my thoughts, if you don't mind. When I started LJ-ing (is that a word?) it was mainly for myself. I got all POTO fan-girly on 3-4 forums and met people there. Slowly people who read my fanfiction and forum posts wandered over here. Most posted anonymously because they didn't have LJ accounts. Slowly they started getting LJ accounts, and I was glad, because anonymous spam (for sexchats, etc.) started showing up occasionally, and it was just easier to limit comments to registered users instead of having to pick off the spam.
What leads me to stay are the people I've met (like you, and
I did get GJ and IJ accounts (both under the same name, stefanie_bean - feel free to friend me at IJ if you like, even though I don't have anything posted there right now.) Haven't wanted to pay for a JF account so far; maybe I will later.
I went ahead and backed my journals up - don't know if I'll try to "export" them to a new home or not. A great deal of the "meat" of my LJ is in the comments, and if the comments don't export to a new site, there doesn't seem much point in doing it.
Personally, I'm not sure the other sites (GF, IJ, JF) are any kind of absolute safe harbor against this kind of nonsense. There are bigger forces out there which aren't going away: increased puritanism; increased #s of lawsuits and a broken tort system that encourages them; confusing and chaotic child porn/child abuse laws that boil down to "I know it when I see it." These forces are going to pursue people who push the margins with their art everywhere they go.
However, I do understand your desire to "make a stand" by quitting LJ, and at least not including your journal in their "head count." I do hope that wherever you go, you will leave a "forwarding address" so that we can stay in touch!