LJ Advisory Board

[rm]

Well, I've been officially certified as a candidate in the LJ Advisory Board Election and I've been offered the opportunity to talk a little bit about where I stand in a post that will be linked to from the poll.


Four questions were suggested to all the candidates for this post, and since this isn't a format I've pursued before, I decided to run with it.

As some of you know, I will actually be in Sicily for the next week (I leave later today), so my access may be sporadic during that time, but what online time I have will be dedicated to this election process, which I believe has the potential to make LJ a better place regardless of the outcome.


What do you think is the value of LJ?

For me personally, LJ has been a way to stay in touch with friends, hone my writing and document my life for myself, and at least intermittently, for the amusement of others. I met my partner here. I found support when I was diagnosed with a rather unpleasant genetic disease. And I have fun talking about the things I'm passionate about from fencing to fandom.

While those LJ experiences are far from uncommon, they don't even begin to speak to the totality of LJ's value both as a platform for personal expression and a tool for community development. LJ gives the user the unique ability to feel both less alone in the world and more singular, whether on issues serious or trivial.

LJ allows users to experience both the world as they wish it to be, through connections with like-minded individuals, and to witness the world as it is through exposure to those of completely different circumstances and views.


What changes would you like to see LJ make in the next year?

The number one issue has to be better and more respectful communications between LJ and its users. Every other concern (and there are a whole bunch we'll get to in just a second) can only be addressed if this happens. That means LJ has to recognize that users generate the content that brings in even more users that in turn generate the revenue in an ideally constant cycle. LJ's users -- free, plus and paid -- are the building blocks of the revenue model and should be treated accordingly.

What does that mean?

It means we need a clear TOS that is uniformly enforced.

It means we need communication with users whenever the TOS is updated.

It means we need a system for dealing with abuse and other user concerns that is transparent and allows users to present their side of the case -- justice without defense or appeal is not justice.

It means we need an LJ administration that recognizes and is comfortable with the diversity of its users and their interests.

Practically, what needs to happen in the next year?

LJ needs to finally resolve the free speech issues that began with Strikeout and Boldthrough. While as a private corporation LJ has the right to decide what type of content it will and won't allow, my argument is for the broadest range of speech permissible under the laws of California (where LJ is incorporated). This level of free speech should be the right of all LJ users, regardless of location or topic. Political speech needs to be protected. Religious speech needs to be protected. Creative speech needs to be protected. If it's legal speech it should be permissible on LJ.

LJ is a platform. Not a parent.

LJ needs to address disability issues. This includes getting the ALT tag working for our visually impaired users and apologizing to users with mental health/illness issues for essentially erasing their existence from the site in the debacle with the top 100 interests list.

LJ needs to honor its original commitments made to the users. These include the ongoing availability of free accounts and the right of every user to experience an ad-free LJ if they so choose.


Why do you want to be the elected representative?

To be frank, I hemmed and hawed about running at the beginning. This job is going to be hard. It's going to be time-consuming and it's going to be thankless.

But the fact remains that I have a set of unique characteristics and credentials that make me believe I am the person who can most make the LJ powers-that-be listen.

Why?

I currently have early adopter, paid and free accounts.

I am a professional author whose publisher advertises on the site.

I have an extensive professional background in public relations and marketing.

I have the previous experience of working for an on-line community of which I was also an active part.

I already have a good rapport with staff members on several of the current user concerns. At the same time, I have no personal friendships or loyalties to the staff or other powers that be.

I am relentless, clear, and systematic when it comes to problem solving.

I love LJ with all my heart, but I am not a cheerleader. I will call it like I see it, and can be both diplomatic and aggressive.

I am resilient.

I am an active and proud part of fandom (HP, Torchwood/Doctor Who, Riverside, His Dark Materials, Kushiel, etc.)

Everything that makes me not cuddly in most circumstances makes me perfect for this job.


What do you think are the community's greatest concerns?

Communication. Respect. The safety to be ourselves. The right to be ourselves. What the TOS really means. Free expression. A high quality user experience. Features that work. Features that matter. Preservation of community. Preservation of LJ's unique culture. Accessibility. Usability.

vote RM!
Keeping LJ a place we want to be;
Making LJ a place we want to stay.

Comments

[insomnia.livejournal.com]

I can attest from my time in the early days of LJ that is is talented at what she says that she's skilled at, but I don't know how much she can answer about the specifics right now, as she is in Italy.

That said, some of this info is available in her bio. You may also want to check out her post and responses in my ljunited community. We voted overwhelmingly to endorse her, in large part because her POV is very much in line with the community's goals.

[insomnia.livejournal.com]

Oh, and btw, you *REALLY* should consider joining LJ United, because I am aware of your statistical work on LJ's shrinking as far as site activity goes. In fact, it's part of the information I am hoping that we will convince rm to bring to the attention of the advisory board should she get the nomination.

If she doesn't win, it will be harder to do that, but it will still be our goal to arm the decision makers and other board members with information, so that they can make informed decisions... and knowing that LJ is at risk of dying out without a real emphasis on growth and on loyalty to their customers is a big part of the equasion.

Basically, our goal is to be around even after the election, in order to influence the powers that be as best as we can.

[pyrop.livejournal.com]

If you want to solicit me do it in private.

entitlement

[ihateswine.livejournal.com]

http://www.adblockplus.org/

[dbaxdevilsfan.livejournal.com]

If the TOS offered an ad-free environment, and I agreed to join with that expectation, then yes, I have that right. I (and others) should not have to DL adblock to get what we signed up for.

All these Jameth supporters who are coming here, and being rude, well, let's just say they're not endearing him to people. If you don't agree with her statement, fine. Vote for someone else.

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

Yes, the numbers are quite fluid, now jameth is only out-polling her 3:2. Right now it's legomymalfoy that is out-polling her 2:1. The point still stands though; she is a distant third, and jameth has significantly more votes than she does.

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

I call it the coward's route when she hides from public scrutiny while slandering people, instead of telling her lies in the open.

[insomnia.livejournal.com]

I'm not trying to sell you something. I just believe that you have a habit of putting together good information that should be brought to the attention of the community as it's released, as it could help to inform both them and to ideally inform others in the advisory board of the issues that LJ faces.

[ihateswine.livejournal.com]

Fascist!

[jesurgislac.livejournal.com]

When is she due back from Italy, if you can say? Because my query - without which, no vote - was concerning the original SixApart/LJ Abuse attack on journals: suspending people who had a default icon of a baby breastfeeding, and doing so while simultaneously claiming "oh, we'll work things out, we'll look into this".

When the big fannish issues of 2007 came round, they were reprises.

[insomnia.livejournal.com]

I think/hope she's getting back after this weekend. I hope she can get back in touch with everyone, because she *WILL* be very busy upon returning. It was an unfortunate time for the trip, really, but she is doing quite well anyway.

If I remember right, rm opposed any kind of action against the breastfeeding userpics. I know I did. It was a stupid ruling that victimized mothers, and, in some cases, was even applied to icons that contained classic works of art!

Basically, she strongly approves of the goals of LJ United, which supports people's rights to post what they want to the maximum amount possible by law, copyright, and as necessary for issues of harassment, etc.

Unfortunately, there was far too much effort made to "child-safe" LJ, and the actions that were taken were aggressive attacks on the community as a whole, without people actually filing complaints about any of the content. There were no victims... except for ordinary members of the site.

[insomnia.livejournal.com]

RM is out of town right now, but given that she has written slash, I would have to say that she thinks its good!

[insomnia.livejournal.com]

It's important to point out that rm is not just fannish in her interests. She's been very outspoken on a wide variety of issues that effect individual communities, and as a member of LJ United, she's part of a growing group that opposes allowing *ANY* community of LJers to be arbitrarily targeted and victimized by unnecessary abuse actions.

LJ has *ALWAYS* had the right to act regarding specific illegal acts that are reported to them, but when they take on the task of intentionally targeting groups, interests, etc. who haven't committed a single illegal act, they cross the line and always step all over people's rights, hurting innocent members of the community.

As she said, "I also believe the broadest definitions of freedom of speech aren't only the best ones for the LJ community as a whole, but actually the most workable ones from a corporate perspective."

Basically, LJ's management *NEEDS* to step back, consider the promises that were made to its customers, and try to correct their mistakes to restore those broad definitions of freedom of speech and expression. It's not only what is best and easiest to enforce, it's also what will help grow their business. Everyone wins.

You may want to consider joining LJ United, if only because we could definitely use someone familiar with the breastfeeding issues to help us eventually build strong, informed arguments on the matter, because whether rm wins or not, we intend to keep working to educate, influence, and inform the other advisory board members, and the management of the site.

Frankly, they inherited a lot of these greivances and issues, and may not even be fully informed about them. We will *NEED* to be able to create some sort of fairly complete document with the the concerns of LJ's members, so having access to the finer details as to exactly what happened when and how would be great.

[insomnia.livejournal.com]

The problem is, it violates the trust of LJ's members, because this is something they were previously promised wouldn't be the case... AND it's bad for business.

Right now, LJ is shrinking significantly in the number of people posting to the site every month. It's already lost about 1/3rd of these posts, and the decline ties in nicely to when they added ads on journals.

Back in 2000, LJ added ads briefly to free accounts... and found that it decreased growth by 30%. So, when LJ is shrinking, it can't really afford to turn off new potential customers with ads all over their journal, when there are free, ad-free alternatives available elsewhere online.

LJ literally makes *MORE* money by growing and trying to upgrade those free accounts to paid ones than by putting ads on them... and more can be done to earn income on those pages without the use of ads.

Keep in mind that ads *can* appear on some pages, such as friends lists, and not influence the general appeal of creating an LJ account. This goes some way to explain why insanejournal has ads on other pages, but not on journal pages -- to do otherwise would be counterproductive!

[insomnia.livejournal.com]

In short, if you want LJ to be a successful, profitable business for the longterm, then you should want ads to not interfere with site growth, at minimum.

You may not need new people joining up or on your friends list, but in order for LJ to be profitable to run, it needs to not shrink in size, and not lose revenue.

Keep in mind that significant economic downturns can also seriously effect ad prices. Part of why LJ survived the dotcom bust so well is that it *didn't* rely on ads for revenue, but on paid accounts! So, attempts by management to move away from paid accounts and towards an ad-driven website could be dangerously counterproductive, both as far as site growth goes, but also as far as potential revenue instability.

[nebris.livejournal.com]

legomymalfoy is now crushing the Jamster and rm's second choice votes are beating his first choice votes. lol

~M~

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, a comment from the crank who couldn't even get enough support to get on the ballot. Actually, the gap between 1st and 2nd is staying about the same thanks to fandom sock-puppets, and RM is falling further behind the leader. As for people voting for her for second choice, the only votes there that count are the ones from the people who chose the guy is last place as their first choice. The second and third choice votes only matter if your 1st choice is eliminated.

Besides, it's not whether you win or lose that counts, it's how you play the game. On that score, we've already won.

[medea-aries.livejournal.com]

Excellent! I´ll go vote and take a look at the stories now =D

[batty-gal.livejournal.com]

You have my vote, and good luck!

[nebris.livejournal.com]

I qualified, schmuck, but withdrew because I could not commit to going to Istanbul. More lousy InTel. *farts in your general direction*

On the game playing score, you lot sucked dicks of dogs. And only losers use that excuse. lol

BTW I hear your endorsement of Da Jamster was not well received on Innocence Jihad. ;D

~M~

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

Ya know, I don't find one person complaining in a community of over 1000 people to be going over badly. But give it some time. This is a holiday weekend, after all. I'm sure that by Monday, there will be at least 5 more people who are complaining. Of course, unlike RM and her minions, I don't screen/delete comments and ban people when they post something I don't like.

ban people when they post something I don't like.

[nebris.livejournal.com]

Actually, you do. I'm the living proof. But whatever...Da Jamster is losing and losing bad. And I get to laugh about that. =)

~M~

Re: ban people when they post something I don't like.

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

No, actually, I don't have a clue what you mean. I've never banned you from any community I moderate. As for jameth losing, he's in second, and nearly a thousand votes ahead of the person in third. That's not quite what I'd call losing badly. I just wish you hadn't chickened-out of the race. Then you could have shown us what losing badly looks like.

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

instead of telling her lies in the open

Ah, so you're merely trying to set a good example by keeping your lies public. Now I understand.

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

Ah, you twist my words so subtly. I speak my words openly, so that people who are capable of looking beyond whether they agree or not, can judge the honesty with which I speak.