Public Service Announcement

Man, have I been really out of the loop! There's a lot to talk about, but for now as I'm stuck at home with a slightly sick kiddo (just a minor cold but enough of one that it's left him a little run down) due to a flat tire (I need help getting to the spare) and I have to wait around for an important FedEx delivery (a check that's going to help me pay rent and get all new tires!), I figure I better go ahead and address some LiveJournal-related stuff (and use more parentheses!).

Regarding the new ping-back and cross-posting ability that allows you to cross-post your comments whether they are screened, filtered, friends-locked, or public, I think I should mention a few of my boundaries.

1) If a post or comment I make is public, I pretty much figure there's an inherent chance someone might quote me or link to me. That's fine. I've always said if it's a public post it's fair game. Link away, or if you quote me, please link back to me. I don't want other people taking credit for my genius. (That was a joke. It's okay to laugh at me my wittiness.)

2) If a post or comment I make is not public, I wish for it to stay private. If it's a filtered post, which are marked as such with brackets ([ ]) in the subject line, it's especially important to me that the content of those are not shared with others. If you're privvy to such information, it means I trust you not to share with outsiders. If I find you are sharing this content with others, I will unfriend and ban you from this journal as well as let other people on my f-list know who I banned and why so they can know in order to decide if you're worth the risk of keeping around.

3) Now, if you make a comment on my journal and want to quote yourself in your own journal or elsewhere, I'm fine with it so long as you do so in a way that doesn't reveal any information about me. (If it's a public post/comment, refer to rule one.) And if you repost your thoughts in order to continue a conversation in your own journal or to start a different sort of discussion in the same vein, let me know so I can join in. (This last part is a request and not necessarily a requirement.) Of course, if you're automatically cross-posting every comment you make regardless of privacy level/waiting for permission, I'm going to be wary of letting you stick around anyway.

3a) The problem with automatically cross-posting your comments is that sometimes you quote the person you're replying to and that means you're going to wind up sharing at least some of the content of the post. This presents a real problem even when you only intend to quote yourself as you're sharing details of another person's post/comment. So if I find you're going to be automatically cross-posting everything, I might go ahead and unfriend you to keep from either intentionally or unintentionally sharing information from me that I'd rather keep from the general public.


I'll end this PSA by repeating what I said in rule two: If I find you are reposting friends-locked and/or filtered posts/comments from my journal, I will unfriend and ban you from my journal. I will also let others know that I banned you and why I banned you so they can know you're a risk to keep around if they value their privacy.

Just another heads up!

Also, apparently you can no longer use slashes (/) in tags. For those of you in various fandoms and who write fanfic, this has probably screwed up a good number of your tags.

I'm not sure if this is only a paid account thing or not, but I can manage my tags and rename them all at once instead of having to hunt down each entry and manually entering a new tag this way. Like I said, this might be a paid/permanent account only sort of thing, but if it's not, then that makes it easier to rename tags.

Not sure if this is a permanent thing or just a code screw up, but I did want to spread the word.

Lemme 'splain...

Let me explain why this cross-posting thing is such a big deal:

LiveJournal has not given me an option to opt out of this. I cannot rid my journal of the boxes for Facebook and Twitter on my posts. I can rid them on my comment boxes by using a script from an outside source (but it doesn't disable the boxes on posts). I shouldn't have to do this for a service I pay for. It puts more crap I don't want or need on my page.

The other issue is that I cannot prevent others from cross-posting their comments to my posts to Facebook/Twitter. When it's cross-posted, as I understand it, it provides a link back to the post, which while it might not grant an outsider access to that specific post, it will provide them a link to my journal, which a user might understandably want to keep a secret from other Facebook/Twitter users, plus a quote (roughly a paragraph for Facebook) which might include content from the post/comment a user is responding to.

Finally, like it or not, some people are going to agree to link their journals to Facebook/Twitter without being aware of what they're agreeing to do. Sam worked tech support and I've had other friends to use tech support. Some otherwise very intelligent people really don't understand much of anything when it comes to computers. Also, sometimes people just click on things without reading them, or click because they're told to (how else do you think some computer viruses and malware are spread?).

Oh, and a note for those of you who are about to say "If you don't like it leave/don't continue paying for it!" since it comes up every single time LJ does something its users don't like. I'm lodging a complaint because that's what you do when you get bad service. If my cable goes out regularly, I won't just sit around and wait for it to get better, I'll call the company and let them know I don't like what's happening. I give the company a chance to fix the problem first, and this is precisely what users are doing -- they're telling LiveJournal they don't like this and asking them to at least offer a chance to opt out. Yes, some word their complaints stronger than others, but if you've ever worked customer service, you know that every customer is different and that doesn't make their concerns any less valid.

As for leaving, I do have a Dreamwidth account I don't use, but even if I move, I still have tons of friends here who aren't moving. The thing is, LiveJournal is popular and something everyone knows, and it's not easy to just walk away from friendships. Not to mention I have a history here and while I can back up my LJ, there's a silly sentimental value attached to my journal. While Dreamwidth is great (and in a lot of ways better), it doesn't quite have the userbase or history LJ does at this time.

ETA: Because the universe decided today was the day everything would go wrong, I'm posting a cute kitten video since we all know the internet is for porn lolcats and posting videos of impossibly cute baby animals.

Random Snippets

A lighter post after my long-ass day.

A scene from this morning:

*Jade and kiddo are sitting on the couch watching TV.*
*Kiddo throws his arms around Jade's neck and gives a very big hug and a kiss.*
JADE: "Aw, what was that for?"
KIDDO: "Because I want a DS and Super Mario DS for Christmas."

Once he learns subtlety, he'll be really dangerous. And yes, we've been discussing the possibility he can get his own Nintendo DS for Christmas.

****

And it's true, since I finally have broadband, I've answered the siren call of an MMO. I've tried out City of Heroes/Villains and I like it. Currently I've got a villain over on the Virtue server (Level 11 Stalker). Once I get her up a little bit, I might build a hero, but being evil is so fun. I'm checking out the rp-scene too. So far it's been a mix bag of interesting and then so bad it's hilarious (more of the latter than the former).