LJ/Facebook/Twitter explanations

[luxken27]

For those of you interested in the whole LJ/Facebook/Twitter brouhaha and how it may or may not effect you, cleolinda is here to rescue you!

http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/901129.html
http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/901884.html
http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/902080.html

She provides excellent examples (with pretty pictures) of the hazards of Facebook Connect, especially if you are like most LJ users and want to keep your 'fandom' life separate from your 'real' life.

ETA: LiveJournal staffers respond to the outrage. If you can really call one comment on page 91 of a news post a "response."

Comments

[chaoticgood0405.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty disgusted with this Facebook stuff. I know there is no such thing as real privacy on the internet, but I'm deeply uncomfortable with allowing FB such a direct way in. The fact that LJ staff has done nothing to ameliorate concerns other than a wimpy ETA in the original news post makes me wonder if they plan on changing anything or if they will just wait for the storm to pass and welcome all their new users as the established ones leave.

My husband is a member of a site that's kind of a burlesque/pin-up thing, but they have lots of forums and other things beyond ogling topless, tattooed wimmenz. A couple months ago, they did something very similar with facebook connect and their user-base went apeshit (much like here). The difference is that is a site you have to pay in order to have a membership, and the pin-up nature of it made people really twitchy (which I guess is similar to lj users' concerns about fandom, pron, slash, coms dealing with very personal shit) Within hours of the uproar, the staff apologized profusely and made changes that people could live with. I wish at least the LJ staff would say something like "we hear you and we're working on it!"

I've gotten my dreamwidth account set-up. I really don't want to move there, because here is where most of my internet life is...but I really want to preserve my anonymity as much as I can. Giving FB a free pass makes me want to run away.

[luxken27]

I know there is no such thing as real privacy on the internet, but I'm deeply uncomfortable with allowing FB such a direct way in.

Mostly, I'm just disturbed at LJ evading their own privacy controls. That's fucking stupid - like, it makes me wonder how this potential topic was never brought up in the conversation. Why do you have the ability to cross-post comments on locked entries? Just - ugh. Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb. And the influx of idiocy from Facebook coming to troll the comms and all that? DNW. Srsly.

I wish at least the LJ staff would say something like "we hear you and we're working on it!"

They did.

They said it on COMMENT PAGE 91 of the news post, more than 5000 comments into the mess.

LJ admins are many things, but "competent" is not one of them, apparently.

I've gotten my dreamwidth account set-up. I really don't want to move there, because here is where most of my internet life is...but I really want to preserve my anonymity as much as I can.

THIS. I have accounts on all these sites. If I wanted them all to tie together? I'd do it myself. I'm not necessarily afraid of others "outing" me since I work pretty damn hard to keep separate what needs to be kept separated, but it's the principle of the matter. I cultivate my identity online very carefully, and with good reason. I don't want some social media site's desperation to make a quick buck to be the undoing of all that. It's just not worth it.

And if you want to friend me on Dreamwidth, feel free :) I think I've forever fucked up the posting over there by making my first two posts back-dated, so my stuff never shows up on anybody's f-list, but whatever. It's a fic archive of fic nobody really wants to read, LOL :P

[chaoticgood0405.livejournal.com]

I just wish they would have made a separate news post that they understand their users are upset and either say what things they are going to try in order to make it better, or say that they aren't changing anything and explain why. A buried comment and small edit are insufficient.

I'll friend you when/if I start doing stuff over there. I'm still in the process of transitioning to this new journal (which I paid for a year's subscription a couple weeks ago *twitch*) so I'm waiting for now to see what happens.

It's just frustrating seeing Facebook, which I think is a really shitty, awful company, take over the internet. That they now have a direct entry into my own personal internet haven is sad.

Last weekend, I thought about posting links to the entries in my new journal to FB, so my friends and sisters could read them. I decided after very little deliberation that was a really bad idea and I'd just work on them to get an account here. I really don't want anything having to do with my LJ anywhere near FB. They say that they own all content that gets put on FB. I'm not comfortable with using a site that takes that attitude about its users. The only reason I'm on FB at all is to keep an eye on Scout's activities.

Anyway...so I made the decision to keep LJ here only, and two days later LJ news comes up with this new FB connect. LOL So my reaction was a giant Do Not Want!

[luxken27]

I just wish they would have made a separate news post that they understand their users are upset and either say what things they are going to try in order to make it better, or say that they aren't changing anything and explain why. A buried comment and small edit are insufficient.

I totally agree. LJ admins aren't exactly on top of things when it comes to stuff like this, and as paying customers, we're really getting the short end of the stick here. We're already paying for something we don't own, so why add insult to injury on top of that?

I have the same feelings re: Facebook. I got my account back when Facebook was a tiny company limited to a select number of colleges. (I think my school was one of the first to ever receive access to the service, in fact.) The fact that FB has such blatant disregard for the privacy of their users? Means there is no practical information about me on there anymore. Its locked about as tight as it could possibly be, and is only used when I want to talk to family or friends I don't have any other means to. I hate it, and I hate the idea of my content ending up on their site. Short of telling people not to crosspost, however, there's no way I can control that, which really sucks!

I hope there's some way to block or ban OpenID users from comms and journals if they insist on continuing with this folly. Dreamwidth isn't hot shit, either, so it'd be nice if LJ got its act together and stopped treating us like redheaded stepchildren who don't know any better. I like it here. I don't want to leave.

[psyco_chick32]

I'm really glad this wasn't around when I was working over at 4 as their social networker. Can you imagine some of my work-related rants ending up there???

This whole thing is crap, but I'm so thankful Cleolinda took the time to test things for us.

[luxken27]

I'm really hoping the uproar will lead to the staff 'reverting back' like they did after the whole homepage brouhaha, but I'm not exactly holding my breath.