thinking

Okay, so that thing with the sponsored communities on lj_biz is all panic-inducing--I mean, if I could panic right now over things that don't invole Killer Mushrooms sporing outside my window, which was my original journal entry subject. No, really. Killer Sporing Mushrooms. They're freakishly freaky.

But anyway, new subject! Not as relevant to my allergies, but still.

Okay, read--God. Close to every comment in the relevant posts. I will be the first to admit--I am really *bad* at judging future impact with these sorts of things. So. Just with y'all--what are the actual chances that sponsors coming onto these sites will start making things more difficult for fen?

I'm kind of between a.) panic (fun!) b.) denial (um) and c.) do I really need to worry about this in any meaningful way or have six thousand plus comments kind of tilted me toward the panic side of the force?

Comments

[trobadora]

In general terms, I'm not comfortable with having those sponsors on LJ, but we just don't know how it's going to play out yet. I don't think it's time to panic just yet. *g* We don't even have all the info yet they've said more is coming up, so I'm waiting and seeing for now.

The overblown "OMG I AM DELETING MY FANFIC NOW!" reactions really make me roll my eyes.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw those. I started getting like, a contact paranoia from those.

I'm in the wait and see and hmm category m'self.

[logovo.livejournal.com]

I don't think it impacts us. Yet. But I do feel like LJ is not going to be the end of the fan migrations. I keep thinking how we have moved from alt.groups to mailing lists, Yahoo-like-groups and now LJ. Somewhere down the line something prettier and shinier will pop up and we will move again. I know I'll go to where the fen are, even with a permanent account (my Spanish LJ - I chose to have that one the permanent one for this reason) I can move if they make it unpleasant for the people I enjoy reading.

[ileliberte.livejournal.com]

I'd go with c, I don't see that it should make much of a difference to anyone other than the companies, LJ owners and those LJ people who want to use those services or are interested in those companies. Those communities will come up in searches and just like any other comm, you have freedom over whether you join or not, plus, the ad-policy isn't changing. It's not like they'll be dictating what LJ users do, so I see no reason for panic. There, was that reassuring?
Also, killer sporing mushrooms?

[ceares.livejournal.com]

My mother told me this (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057295/) as a bedtime story when I was a little girl so Mushrooms freak me the hell out, even without allergies. I have to kill them on site.

And uh-I have no comments on the sponsored thing, except wait and see I guess.

[that_mireille]

I think at this point c) is the way to go. Wait and see. I'm not in *favor* of this, but I also don't think this is the end of civilization as we know it. And I'm keeping in mind that every single time anything changes on LJ, six thousand people freak the fuck out about it.

[akacat]

It doesn't look to me like there's anything to worry about. Maybe I just read the posts too fast, but it seems to boil down to:

- Prior to "sponser communities", large companies have not been permitted to create communities (and I assume, 'individual' LJs) to promote their product/do PR/advertise.

- With sponser communities, in exchange for a nice pile of $$, large companies will be permitted to create communities. There will be policies against them spamming (sending uninvited invites) individuals, they will not have access to the user database, and there may be a way for non-Plus users to "opt out" of seeing these communities when doing an Interests search.

[lastscorpion.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this (http://insomnia.livejournal.com/682862.html) will induce more panic or less, but it's really interesting and related to the topic at hand.

[theladyofshadow.livejournal.com]

I'd say C. I really don't think this is going to effect us in any meaningful way.

[jcalanthe]

I don't get all the fuss - maybe I'm horribly naive. But seriously, we are on the open unprotected internet. All. Over. The. Place. It's not like lj is a secret underground cave no one knows about aside from Alfred. How is allowing companies to set up communities any more exposing? Companies could set up communities today, this will just bring in $ for lj/6A too. Running a site like lj is hella expensive & a lot of work, and I'm all for 6A finding ways to support it financially, especially when they're in ways which are not very intrusive, because I'd rather lj be around at this level of service than to have it go away or just fade out due to really bad service, or have to vastly raise rates/get rid of free accts. I'm a big ole commie pinko, and I also recognize we live in a capitalist system where there are bills to be paid & no one owes us lj.

I for one am not sorry fandom hit the public (the internet is the public despite what many people like to pretend) - lots of us never would have found it otherwise, just like a whole slew of other interest groups.

The only thing I'm sorry about is the number of people in online fandom who don't seem to have any sort of grasp of what unprotected content on the web means.... And look, it seems I have a bit of an opinion here. No one is more surprised than me.

Sure, it's always good to be watchful, but I personally don't think it's cause for nearly the amount of alarm being raised.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Hovering somewhere between b. and c., I think.

astridv found an example of a sponsored community and, via links, outlines the potential problems. I found it pretty interesting:

http://astridv.livejournal.com/62386.html

[geeklite.livejournal.com]

Well, there are several fannish and/or fen-friendly folks that work at 6A and LJ. I'll start worrying when they do ;)