Current mood:

annoyed

LJ Abuse e-mailed me
Dear LiveJournal user wordswordswords,

It has come to our attention that your default userpic (located at
http://www.livejournal.com/userpic/47772165/842173) is presently in violation of the LiveJournal Terms of Service. Our policies on the content restrictions on default userpics are described at http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=111.

While we should make clear that the actual content is not in violation, its use as a default image is.

Please change your default userpic to something that does not contain adult content, or select no default userpic at all; you can make these changes at http://www.livejournal.com/editpics.bml. We must request that you do this as soon as possible, but by no later than 0:01 AM EDT, Jun 21, 2006 to prevent further action being taken against your account.

Regards,
Douglas
LiveJournal Abuse Team

Dear Douglas,

I changed my default user icon to a breastfeeding pic in solidarity with other women, breastfeeding mothers and others, who have been stigmatised and had their accounts suspended by LJ Abuse/Six Apart. I do not consider a picture of a breastfeeding baby to be "adult content", and I am disturbed and offended that LJ Abuse so defines it.

I do not intend to change my default icon: if SixApart are taking the view that breastfeeding is an obscene activity that ought not to be allowed in default icons, I refuse to cooperate with SixApart or LJ Abuse in cracking down on such icons.

I have in any case transferred the content of the writing journal I used at this account to Greatestjournal.

Barak Berkowitz: "I think the core thing to say here is we're buying LiveJournal for LiveJournal. We're not buying it to turn it into something else. We know what LiveJournal is. The fact that we come from the community should make people convinced that we're not so naive that we don't know exactly what the community is... The net is, users will question us, and users will be suspicious until they see what we do in real life in real action over a series of months, and we'll have to prove ourselves to them."

If this is how SixApart are "proving themselves" to livejournal - in real life in real action - they are trying to turn Livejournal into something else, and it's time for people who don't want to put up with such behaviour to leave livejournal.

Sincerely,


[my real name]


Account now suspended: my final reply to LJ Abuse:
Dear Douglas,

> We recently contacted you regarding your default
> user picture, as it is considered to be
> inappropriate for use as a default and is thus in
> violation of LiveJournal's Terms of Service.

I recently contacted LJ Abuse and Six Apart in response to your e-mail, to inform you that my default icon is not "inappropriate", and is not in violation of LiveJournal's Terms of Service by any stretch of the imagination.

I note that this e-mail is yet another form response from LJ Abuse and not an actual reply to my e-mail - from either you or from Six Apart. This failure in customer service is only what LiveJournal customers have come to expect from Six Apart: nevertheless, I am formally registering a protest against it.

>We note
> that you have not yet complied with our request to
> select a new default user picture, and as a result
> have been forced to suspend your account. Should you
> wish to have your account reinstated, please contact
> the Abuse Team and indicate when (date, time, and
> timezone) you will be available to make this change
> and we will unsuspend your account at that time.

When SixApart decides that it no longer wishes to be known as the blogging company that's against breastfeeding (a swift Google suggests this label is likely to stick unless SixApart acts soon and resolutely) my default user icon will no longer be grounds for suspension, and I will certainly contact you to let you know that you can now unsuspend my journal.

From the Livejournal front page: "Finally, we want to reiterate that LiveJournal is a place where you can be yourself. We welcome users of all ages, with all interests, and we know that LJ's unique and diverse community is what makes it special. All of us on the staff have made friends on LJ who are totally different from us, live in different countries, have different points of view, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Our intention as we make changes to the site is to make LJ a better place so our current users and new users will want to use it. Sometimes we'll make mistakes, but we'll try our best to fix them."

Now *that* is funny - when LJ Abuse are suspending LiveJournal accounts with breastfeeding pics for default user icons, and SixApart declines to stop them. It would be better if, rather than writing lengthy screeds claiming that LiveJournal is a place where "you can be yourself", and where "our current users and new users will want to use it", you were *actually* trying to fix the issue of users being suspended because of default pics showing a baby being fed. Current users are being suspended over this issue - or are deleting their journals: new users are being put off. And there's been no news that SixApart is interested in trying to fix this issue.