Oh, so, I meant that, about good bye.

[lettered]

Thought about it a lot, and I'm leaving Livejournal.

That's all dramatic and stuff, but I probably won't be gone until the end of the year. If most people decide to leave, and there's a mass exodus before then, I may be gone earlier. But this journal, my fic journal, and my private backup journal will be gone for certain by January 1, 2008.

I have a lot of stuff to say about the whole LJ/6A debacle, but for some reason every time I start a post on it I just have to get up and walk away from it, give it some time, read lots and lots of Harry/Draco, spend time with my family, or eat ice cream. Can't decide whether I'm too angry about it, depressed perhaps, lazy maybe, or possibly I'm an ostrich? Anyway, during the strikeout in May I felt very energized, but maybe that was because I thought that it was possible that LJ had made a mistake, and after hearing customer complaints, would fix it. In other words, I knew I was going to give Livejournal another chance. Well, I did, but I am still displeased as a customer. So, I take my business elsewhere.

I don't know where. One of the reasons I'm staying on LJ for another few months is that I want to see how many other people leave and where they go. Even if a lot of you leave (which I sekritly hope you will), it will not be all at once, and LJ will still be the place to be in the thick of fandom things for a while. If there is a mass movement, decision making, support/rallying/reasearch/etc to be done, I want to be involved. And if people are going to continue to discuss the issues connected to why I'm leaving, I want to be a part of those discussions. Because I do have a lot to say, and I want to say it to my flist, people who I'm interested in having around wherever I end up.

I'm going to back up the journals I have here and copy them to Insane Journal for now. I'm going to be cross-posting to Insane Journal (where I am tkp) and possibly Journal Fen over the next several months. I hope to gradually phase out: to just post links to fic here, instead of actual fics here, etc. Then I will be gone. I know I can make myself do that, but I know I can't make myself never visit LJ again. If you do decide to stay and not post elsewhere, I may still visit from time to time, but I will not have an account here ever again. I don't want to lose touch with any of you. I mean, well, except you; you're always talking about your grandmother's corns.

So, um, this isn't quite yet goodbye, and won't be for a while. Mostly I'm just posting this because once I say I'll do something, I'll do it. And now I've said it.

Okay, now that announcements are over: what're your thoughts? Leavin' on a jet plane? Why? Staying, why? Cat macros? Why not? Where are you going, if you go, where're you lookin' at, what are your hopes and dreams for fandom future? What did you think of the last ep of Mad Men? Is Jason Isaacs the man, or what? How 'bout that burr86, Barak, and Brad? Does the news comm make you laugh, cry, headdesk, or wha...? Did anyone even like the first two Bourne movies? What's your favorite pizza delivery service? Do you think Livejournal would disallow canon!Buffy/Angel fanart? How come I can't spell misogyny? What's the difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist? And the number one question all of us are asking: how come Buffy never wore the go-go boots again?

Comments

[only-passenger.livejournal.com]

for now, for the forseeable future, i'll stay.

i've already done an lj-flee: nipplegate2006 (http://ljabuse.blogspot.com/2006_06_04_ljabuse_archive.html). me and all my friends packed up, gave lj the finger, and went, mostly, to gj. and then half of us left gj and went to vox. and them some of those went to ij. some came back to lj, like me, with a different user name. the people who had supported me and co-miserated with me all through my pregnancy and birth and the fucked-up-insano-acid-trip that is being a new mom were scattered. friendships that had lasted half a decade just disappeared.

and of course, lj didn't care that we left. because they suck. and we all know they suck, and they started sucking way before the strikehtorugh.

fandom is organizing better. this, in part, is because every member of fandom organizing doesn't have a kid on their tit, and having a kid on yr tit seriously effects the amount of shit you can get done. i've been reading fandom_flies and links posted in that community, and it sounds like maybe there's enough energy. people and money to create a space where there isn't such a kneejerk reaction to anything that could be construed as quetionable and might therefore cost the farm. i support the efforts.

lj doesn't like us. and when i say us, i'm taking about a group of poeple that extends beyond fandom. i'm talking about anybody who won't just take no for an answer and leave it at that. those who experience life outside of the slim margin the dominant culture deems normal and want to share their thoughts about it. those who get hackles-up, and rightly so, when their freedom is wrangled and threatened. lj fucking hates us. lots and lots of businesses, systems and individuals hate us.

so i say, fuck you, lj. i hate you right back. i hate you so much that when you say plz don't put yr pr0n up here imma say what as that? didn't quite hear, and then bombard you with my filthy smutty fanfic. and maybe pictures too. just to tick you off.

and i will do it until you shut me down. and i hope there are lots of people who will stay here and do it until they shut us down. because, yeah, they could realistically do just that. but it'd be way more trouble, way more of a pr nightmare, way more expensive for lj/6a to have to shut down thousands of journal than to have to deal with the straglers after a mass leaving out.

i don't know. i didn't think i had so much to say.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry about your own leaving LJ experience. I hope I don't lose touch with anyone. I didn't hear about the whole nipplegate thing until the Strikeout thing became so big; it just adds to the evidence that LJ isn't where I want to be right now.

I think LJ doesn't really care about us one way or the other, and I don't have a problem with that. Best Buy doesn't care about me either, but I still shop there, because they have some things I want there.

I do think that LJ seems to be trying to move towards the mainstream, making a bigger business and something more universal. So yes, they do have a problem with those who, as you say, share thoughts outside what dominant culture deems normal, but it's nothing personal.

But for fandom, it means that LJ is no longer going to be providing the services we need. So I hope we can reestablish elsewhere.

I don't hate LJ. I don't want to tick LJ off--I don't think I can and I don't care enough to try. I just hope to go somewhere where my needs as a customer will be met, with the kind of treatment I expect extended toward any customer making use of a a business's service.

[only-passenger.livejournal.com]

and all that totally makes sence. of course if you are a client or customer, they don't got what you need, and they're assholes about not having what you need, it's time to jet.

for me though (and let it be said that the vast majority of my mutual flist are local folks who are my real life friends) that fact that lj has all my homies on it means they have what i want. what i want is my community.

i was gifted a paid account anonymously, and the fact that lj is makin' bucks on me isn't my favorite. but if it were just me and my free no-ads account, as it was for a long time before some really nice nameless person bought me 100 icons, they're getting nothing from me, and i'm getting a free playground from them. am i gonna pay to get mistreated? of course not. no one should. am i gonna look over my shoulder, f-lock my porn? personally, no. if i can't do it my way, it's not worth it for me to be here.

but as long as i can do it my way, and all my friends are here, and it's costing me $0, i'm hard-pressed to believe that i, individually speaking, can get it better somewhere else. if the hypothetical resturant (i've read most comments to this entry) was rude to me, but said, "so long as you're willing to put up with our rudeness, which probably won't imporve, you can eat here every day for free", and the vast majority of my friends ate there for free everyday too, and when the resteraunt servers were assholes we all just kinda laughed and ignored it, yeah. i'd eat there all the damn time, y'know?

so i guess it boils down to everyone having to ask themselves: what exactly is it that i want/need from a blogging service? do i get those needs met at lj? can anybody else better meet them? (and, y'know, if you're a bigger picture kind of person, insert fandom where all the i's are.)

i'm not trying be arguementative. at all. you know, i hope, that i pretty much think you're the coolest. i'm behind you and anyone else who needs to get out of here, no questions asked. i am really behind the creation of a space that seriously addresses the needs of fandom bloggers, and if that space is created, i'll absolutly check it out. i only put all this here cuz you asked. and, i don't know, i was feeling conversational.

i get my pizza from this joint (http://www.pizzaluce.com), particulary the rustler, athena, and baked potato. i also dig their pesto turkey sammie hardcore, and squee over tha fact that you can have them deliver a pint of ben and jerry's vanilla and a bottle of root beer. i'm a complete root beer float slut. esp. with good pizza.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

for me though (and let it be said that the vast majority of my mutual flist are local folks who are my real life friends) that fact that lj has all my homies on it means they have what i want.

Oh yeah. I definitely understand that. I've been talking with one or two other people who are really fed up and want to leave as fans, but don't want to leave as people who post about their RL and have RL connections here. That makes perfect sense to me: as you say, LJ is still offering them what they want. There're still some things I like about LJ, namely my friends and the community we've build here, but since I am here SOLELY for fandom purposes what LJ does have to offer me is not enough to mitigate what they're not offering me.

i'd eat there all the damn time, y'know?

Well yes, unless there was another hypothetical restaurant down the street offering the same free food with good service. For you, the situation is different, because it's not the same food--as you mentioned and as I discussed above, you have RL friends here, which perhaps would not follow you. So you can't get that anywhere else. But again, I can get what I'm getting elsewhere, and the service there is potentially better. It may not be better, but I'm only hurting myself if I don't try.

And dude, this comment doesn't strike me as argumentative at all. I totally understand your position, and it seems like you really understand mine. This is a great discussion, and we really seem to be on the same page. Thanks for that.

That pizza place looks awesome. Our local delivery places suck around here. I love sandwiches, but don't like rootbeer floats. You probably don't live near Texas, which means you probably haven't had Bluebell vanilla icecream. It's the best ice cream in the country.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

oh, well obviously you don't live in the south! Didn't look at the address of that place.