About a Strike

[mamadeb]

This is getting very complex.

1. I may or may not post tomorrow, but if I don't, it may or may not have anything to do with beckyzoole's strike. It's Purim, it's Friday, I have a tremendous amount to do, jonbaker will be home and probably needing to use the computer to do actual paying work for at least a couple of hours, and I really wasn'tanticipating being online much anyway.

2. The strike is *not* to hurt anyone. That was never the intention. It was to prove to SUP that the prime reason for LJ is the content. If a significant number of people do not produce content for a day, they will see that the users are more than just people to produce ad revenue or membership fees. This was Brad's argument for why basic accounts are necessary. Of course, a day when no one posts will not hurt SUP - it'll save them money and bandwidth. I'm not sure this will have any impact.

3. There are unpleasant bedfellows attached to the protest now. Go here and here for more details.

I do NOT believe that participating in the strike makes one an antisemite - beckyzoole is herself Jewish and quite bothered by the association. (And, unfortunately, I'm not surprised about antisemitism in Russia. *sigh*). I don't think the vast majority of the people striking are even aware the new owner is Jewish, and I'm positive they don't care. It's about keeping things from changing and nothing more.

But it makes the fact that the strike is happening on *Purim* extra problematical *for me*, and I am only speaking for myself here.

4. This isn't the first time LJ has changed and everyone thought things were ruined. It will change again. Some will be negative and some will have a negative impact. I don't like IJ, so I'm not leaving yet.

Comments

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

I don't have the slightest idea what I'm going to do about the "strike." I'm probably just not going to advertise what I'm doing but not going to comment anyway. Or maybe I won't do that after all. It's too confusing, but I don't really associate the boycott with anti-semites just because some weird anti-semites shot their mouths off.

I had no idea they were Jews. I almost wish I still didn't know. I'm not leaving. I backed up my LJ and my comm though.

I love my comm to death. There are good writers there, and fun people, and I don't think they'd all follow me to IJ. And some of us already cross-post our stuff to big archives such as ff.net (if it's content appropriate) but it's not the same at all.

My friend runs a fandom-specific archive for the fandom but the form of interaction is still not the same. I could start a forum of some kind, but people wouldn't follow me there, and it's not the kind of niche within the fandom that makes a good forum.

And I'm blathering. But this troubles me.

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

Sadly I'm not doing anything for Purim though. I work tonight; I'm tired; I need sleep.

Maybe I'll get out to services tomorrow, but probably not that either. I feel guilty but I can only do so much.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I can't tell you what you should do - especially when I'm not sure myself.

But fandom isn't leaving LJ just yet.

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no one can tell me what to do. And while it's an issue and boycotts don't work unless people participate I'm not going to go extremely crazy over when I do or don't do... I hope that doesn't sound dismissive.

I love LJ. I love my own personal LJ too because, well, that's where my friends are. I just don't talk about that as much because I don't want people to think I'm a sad geek with no real-life friends even though that's a completely accurate description.

(Though it's even sadder, probably, to sit here saying "But then who will read my new Silent Hill 4 fic?")