lj news and a new idea

I know we are all--*see-saws hand*--about the lj thing eleven-twelve days ago, but read the most recent news

Reproduced bit that made me slightly nervous.

One thing that people have been upset about has been the implication that the community standards would be set by Six Apart and not the community. I agree, and I was wrong to imply that. Six Apart is a critical part of the community (with the help of our paid users, we pay for bandwidth, employ the staff, and run the servers), but clearly the LiveJournal team and the LiveJournal users have a critical role in defining what is acceptable on LiveJournal. We know we can learn a lot from other communities that use a combination of reputation software and human judgment to gauge community opinion, and we are now actively exploring how we can let the community "vote" on what is acceptable content in order to create greater consistency.

When I say "vote", I don’t want people to fear that this will become the tyranny of the majority or mob justice. Metafilter, Craigslist, Flickr, Wikipedia, and many, many other sites effectively use these types of systems to make the jobs of their support teams easier and to reflect the standards of the community. Clearly law takes precedent over such votes, but in case where the line is not legal content but rather objectionable or acceptable content, community input can be a great help. Members of the team are starting to explore what is working for whom and we will share these ideas in more depth soon.

Hmm. Under ideal circumstances, I'd find this a fairly good idea. Except we do not live in utopia.

( my response )

( and the best response there )

Hmm. I am wary.

blah. sundays. *again*

Okay, I have never pretended I have a deeply intellectual side that goes beyond, fire pretty, John pretty, sex pollen awesome. I also like mass murder and destroying worlds, leaving them in a thousand year darkness. Etc.

Responsible Fanfiction by heatherly, which I saw linked around like everywhere, but honestly? Essay title threw me off being interested. Thinking deeply is what I do when balancing policy questions and practical consideration of state benefits, and honestly, it's been a rough few weeks in fandom. I'm on subsistence-level fanfic reading and that is pretty exclusively devoted to anything ltlj puts out or mmmchelle posts.

I think the problem emerges in that I'm not sure what I'm supposed to take away from it.

There's nothing in it, to me, that I didn't know before. I think I missed something in translation. And reading comments? Did not help at all. Mostly, I was:

a.) not terribly interested in how mainstream sees me. So what the hell do I care if they have some kind of strange freakout. Mainstream are the people who turned Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal into bestsellers and movies. These books are in my work's trading area. They turned American Psycho into a bestseller with a detailed how-to on rape and explicit torture in loving detail. Forgive me if I can't take seriously the idea that "mainstream" has a leg to stand on in sitting judgement on our subject manner.

Beyond that? I. Do. Not. Care.

(but I totally reserve to everyone else the right to care all you want. Honest.)

b.) realism in fiction is right up there with realism in art. When someone can put into terms how cubism or Picasso or post-modern *anything* is actually a dead-on photograph of the world, I will totally take it back. But seriously. What does fiction have to do with reality? The only thing I've ever asked of fiction is that they use good characterization and please stop using wonton. Otherwise, go crazy. I may not read it if it doesn't fall in my specific set of interests, but diversity leads to categories like mpreg, and really, what would we be without mpreg? In a sad place, I wager.

(and I totally reserve to everyone else the right to go the realism route. I'm just saying. My two most popular fic ever involve a.) serial killing mass murders taking over Atlantis and b.) Clark Kent as a *god*. It's like the hypocrite calling the Republican blue.)

(this is a joke, I swear. the Rebublican thing. true of democrats as well. really.)

A very real part of me thinks that the essay is meant more as a guide to those that *do* want to work with more realism than trying to make a point that all of us should gently move away from our lighthearted hooker fics and romantic aliens-made-them-do-it. And I think--think being the operative word--that the murmurs since LJ Strikeout 2007 have been toward the idea that if we are going to be seen, we should make sure we're dressed well and use more base to cover up the more unsightly bits of what we're doing.

It's very--disconcerting. I'm not even close to the more extreme ends of fandom in terms of what I write, and I'm *still* feeling vaguely unsettled by the idea. There's something very uncomfortable in the idea that we'll turn on each other, in groups, as individuals, to claim our normality by condemning them (whoever 'them' may be) for the sake of a nebulous "mainstream". That we allow those outside us to set the rules we are to follow to be accepted. Whatever the hell accepted is supposed to be.

Actually, I'd like a defintion of all questionable words in the above paragraph. I think that would clarify a lot.

I could be totally reading way too much into recent debates. This is what happens when I haven't had coffee. Very tragic.

my plan, as it were, of conquest and devastation

So. Funny moment.

Everyone carries around certain--knee-jerk terrors. One of my biggest is that one day I will get online, and everyone has defriended me and will not speak to me on AIM. And I will be staring blankly at my little AIM buddylist and no one will be there.

I have a plan for this eventuality. I will create a new pseudonym and come back as a newbie eighteen year old who will instantly attach herself to a mentor (ONE OF THOSE WHO BETRAYED HER) and then wreck fandom forever from the inside via a complex yet brilliant series of machinations that will stun everyone. At the height of the terror, I shall reveal myself, dramtically (preferably in a way that will guarantee high readership and legendary status) then flout away to--God, I don't know. I don't have that many hobbies. Though there is always knitting.

My greatest hope is that all the people that destroyed seperis will suddenly and miraculously discover the error of their ways and send me email and winged unicorns to tempt me back and ltlj will drive down to Austin specifically to have lunch with me and tell me I am awesome.

You now totally see why I became a fanfic writer now, don't you? I am capable of great and powerful drama. I am not capable of great and powerful strategy on the spot, though, so I figured I'd better start working out the plan early. It's still--well, that's it. But I have faith that should this time come, I will prevail. Or I will dye my hair black. get esoteric tattoos, and start writing sad sonnets about amireal and samdonne and miss_porcupine on how they betrayed me.

(and all the rest of you, alphabetically. I have no idea how to write a sonnet, but I have come to the conclusion that if I change my hair color, the talent for bad poetry will soon follow.)

This is leading somewhere. Really.

I was on AIM chatting with Ami and Madelyn, and turned on pandion for ljtalk. No one was there! God, I said. Jenn, Madelyn said in amusement (always in amusement. Am I her monkey? Her playing cymbals monkey? You're all nodding, aren't you?) They are there. So I-well, I don't know what I did, but voila, they appeared!

(or, Madelyn quickly contacted them and said THE RUSE IS UP! SHE WILL DISCOVER OUR PLAN!)

(eyes those on ljtalk suspiciously. I CAN SEE YOU! I AM NOT FOOLED!)

Anyway, that is my night, and my insecurities, and my brilliant plan. I stil haven't picked a new pseudonym. *eyes you all darkly* Swear it never comes to that.

(Also: Lj comments is still being a bitch when I answer comments, but less so than it has been. I wil be answering comments and feedback--God--this week as quickly as I can.)

(I can't figure out how to tag this at all. Do I need a tag for delusional moments? I am scared to check back in my lj and see.)