you are everything

Permanent accounts just went on sale again, and people who already have permanent accounts - like me - just got their number of userpics upped. Mine went from 145 to 195! [My storage space for photos and voice posts and stuff went from 10GB to 15GB too, but I wasn't anywhere near 10GB anyway.]

So can someone point me to some posts with Panic icons from the Live in Chicago DVD? I want some.

Also, if you haven't heard about the latest reason that Spencer Smith is completely awesome, go read this.

stewardess has not been able to update her post ("How Six Apart's Greed Allied Them With Neo-Nazis"), presumably due to continuing problems related to the DDOS attack on LJ, so she has posted a more complete, updated version on Greatest Journal here:
http://www.greatestjournal.com/users/stewardess_/683.html

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Also, passing this on for those who may be interested:

I suspect I'm in the minority here, and I honestly don't want to offend anyone... but don't you all think everyone is making too big a deal out of this? There were about 500 journals out of 13 million that were suspended - not deleted, suspended - and they've said now that about half of them are being restored. So that's about 250 fuck ups out of 13 million journals. That's less than 2%. And they're working to fix it.

Whether we like it or not, Six Apart is a business. They are in it to make money. That's the way business works. And that includes covering their asses to prevent lawsuits and making sure they aren't liable for any illegal activity. I'm not in any way saying they handled this with even the slightest bit of intelligence, but whether it was that Warriors group that caused them to do this or not, the underlying reason was valid. Pedophiles use the internet to hook up with kids all the time. Anything that can be done to prevent that is a good thing. Did Six Apart's actions prevent that? Probably not. But think about it... if a homophobic group put pressure on advertisers or on Six Apart to remove anything pro-gay, I really think that Six Apart would have laughed at them. That's just my opinion, and obviously we don't really know how they'd react in a situation like that, but I think it would have been very different. As for half of the 500 accounts being suspended when they shouldn't have been... gee, it's not like a criminal has ever tried to hide behind a smokescreen of one type or another. If they haven't already used fandom as a way of doing that, then it's just a matter of time.

In the future, I hope Six Apart will develop much more thorough methods of determining if an account really does violate the rules before suspending it. I think they've learned a bit from this whole fiasco. Again, they are in it for the money, and although I have no idea what the ratio is of paid and perm. accounts to plus accounts, certainly the profits from paid accounts is nothing to sneeze at, and they'll be a bit more careful before risking that again.

As for the people who say 'they've lost my trust,' my reaction is: "What? You trusted them before this?" They're a business, in it for the money. They're looking out for themselves. It's been that way at least since Six Apart bought Live Journal. We all know that. They've still shown themselves to be more trustworthy than a lot of web businesses out there, but "trust" and "internet" only rarely belong in the same sentence, IMHO. ::shrug::

I'm not leaving LJ. I hope my friends don't leave LJ. I don't in any way regret having purchased a permanent account a couple of years ago (besides, that means they can't get any more money from me... hahahahaha). This isn't the first time Six Apart (and LJ) has fucked up, and it certainly won't be the last.

Bottom line? On a scale of 1-10, I give Six Apart a 7 for (what I believe was their) intent, and a -10 for execution. And life goes on.

ETA: There's no way I can respond to the negative comments without offending the people who made them, so we'll just have to agree to disagree on this. But:

• I never said Six Apart was aligning themselves with the Warriors group or any other shadow organization.
  
• I thought my score of negative 10 on a scale of 1-10 made it pretty clear that I think they went about this in completely the wrong way.
  
• Maybe everyone should actually read the LJ TOS. Some excerpts:

  IX. MODIFICATIONS TO SERVICE
  LiveJournal reserves the right to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Service (or any part thereof) with or without notice at any time.
  -----------
  XXIII. REVISIONS
  LiveJournal may at any time revise these Terms of Service by updating this posting. By using this Site, you agree to be bound by any such revisions and should therefore periodically visit this page to determine the then-current Terms of Service to which you are bound.
  ===========
  XI. TERMINATION
  You agree that LiveJournal, in its sole discretion, may terminate your password, journal, or account, and remove and discard any content within the Service, for any reason, including and without limitation, the lack of use, or if LiveJournal believes that you have violated or acted inconsistently with the letter or spirit of the TOS. Any contracts, verbal or written or assumed, in conjunction with your deleted journal and all its parts, at LiveJournal's discretion, will be terminated as well. LiveJournal may also, in its sole discretion and at any time, discontinue providing the Service, or any part thereof, with or without notice. You agree that any termination of your access to the Service under any provision of this TOS may be effected without prior notice, and acknowledge and agree that LiveJournal may immediately deactivate or delete your LiveJournal journal and all related information and files. LiveJournal reserves the right to bar any further access to such files or the Service. You agree that LiveJournal shall not be liable to you or any third-party for any termination of your access to the Service. Paid accounts that are terminated will not be refunded.
  -----------
  XVI. MEMBER CONDUCT
  If LiveJournal determines, in its sole and absolute discretion, that any user is in violation of the TOS, LiveJournal retains the right to terminate such user's account at any time without prior notice.

  (Emphasis added by me.) It also indicates that the last revision to the TOS was April 18, 2006. Over a year ago.

I think you'll find the TOS for most other large blogging and social networking sites - and various other types of sites that you need a membership to access - have similar statements in their TOS's. This is nothing new.

If you want a blog that you have total control over then buy your own server, set up your own domain and host the blog yourself. Already have your own site? Check your webhost's TOS. I'd bet that it too has a statement essentially saying "We make the rules. We can change the rules at any time. We decide what constitutes a violation of the rules. If you don't agree to these terms, go elsewhere." C'est la vie. Or CYA. ::shrug::

LJ is offering a week of extra paid time to anyone who had a paid account during the outage back on Nov. 4th. You only have a week to claim the extra time, so don't put it off too long.

The announcement:
http://community.livejournal.com/paidmembers/18838.html

The actual link to claim your additional paid time:
http://www.livejournal.com/pay/claim.bml

I clicked on it just to see what it would say (I have a permanent account).

"This journal is a permanent account and as such has free time forever. You cannot give extra paid time to permanent accounts."

Frank the goat just has no sense of humor. LOL