Hello, it's Me

[ericadawn16]

Hello from the Other Side...or it feels that way with everyone leaving or going to DreamWidth.

Yes, I will be doing another rounds of imports from my LJ to my Dreamwidth (same name there). I will probably do it more often than every 5 years or however long it's been...it was a huge turn-off when the Youtube embeds didn't work.

I've never taken the whole Russia threat seriously. Perhaps it's my brothers calling me "Commie" over all my quirks like not liking apple pie or milk when I was a kid. Perhaps it's because I grew up during the fall of the Soviet Union. Maybe it was my Russian college housemate who remains the horniest girl I've ever met who wouldn't let a terrorist attack or tropical storm stop her fucking her boyfriend. Whatever it was, it always sounds ridiculous to me.

Then, there's LiveJournal. LiveJournal takes the fear of Russia and elevates it to new heights. I've noticed this since the first rumors of the Russian selling. The fear and theories were so fanciful and so detailed that when people were saying that Russia was trying to influence our elections, I thought...hmm, must be former members of LiveJournal who have gone to other places.

Now, on Samantha Bee, they were saying that Russia was trying to send me disinformation as a Bernie supporter but I couldn't recall seeing the particular examples. Online someone also mentioned the Clinton love child which I read but didn't pass on because it was stupid. If I recall correctly, the only times I was duped was passing on Anti-Trump stuff. The part that really pisses me off is not what pisses everyone else off. Everyone else appears pissed off that Russia "meddled in our election!" which the United States does ALL THE TIME!!! but I'm pissed that they won't admit...some of us just did NOT like Hillary Clinton! It wasn't Russian lies. The hacked emails simply confirmed my low opinion of her. I've had a low opinion of her for about 20 years, do you really think Russian disinformation is going to suddenly make that worse?

Obviously, my low opinion of Clinton did lower but that was due to her and her supporters's doing, NOT Russia.

Anyway, the new Terms of Service did seem scary at first. It claims to be legally binding but then, we were never given a proper English translation that said it WAS legally binding so that could be totally argued in court.
But then...why would it go to court? If Russia has no extradition treaty with the United States, then that surely works both ways...we can't be suddenly arrested and taken to Russia for saying Putin has a giant ass or something.

The TOS also mentions a specific hit count: 3,000
This explains it all: https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/russian-blogger-law-vladimir-putin-censorship/

3,000 in a 24 hour period???

LMAO

I'm not even sure I get that much in a YEAR!
I'm small potatoes so I'm worthless to their censorship.

Yes, there was some language there about adult themes and minors and protecting them...which is simply censorship and I won't be a party to that. If I left LiveJOurnal, I'd feel like I was condoning how they run their country with regards to LGBTQUIA+ issues. It'd be like living in Austria, not liking how the Austrians were helping the Nazis but being Christian and rich so you're able to just walk away.
I'm not doing that. I'm not walking away. If by some weird awesome miracle, some LGBTQUIA+ Russian kid is able to find a LJ blog and realize they're not alone and they are loved for who they are, that's the whole point of why we're here. We can't let Russia think their censorship is okay. We can't let those who frown on Iran's harsh laws but want to enact Christian versions of them win.

Also, George R. R. Martin made exactly ZERO mention of any of this and that guy should be an expert on elaborate coups, right?

Comments

[trepkos.livejournal.com]

Yes, I saw that hit-count thing. It sounds to me as if Livejournal are doing this because their government says they have to, rather than because they want to.

[ningloreth.livejournal.com]

Do we actually know that LJ is in bed with the Russian government or is that just part of the conspiracy theory? Because it occurred to me that they might be doing it to protect themselves -- so that they can't be accused of hosting Russian dissident blogs.

[trepkos.livejournal.com]

That was my thought.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

In the link above from 2014, Russia had temporarily banned all LiveJournal blogs in Russia because too many dissidents were able to communicate with each other.

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

As far as the Russian ownership goes, I am trying not to worry about it. Partially because a friend told me that they people that own it are not Putin fans.
Of course that doesn't stop Putin from interferring with things here. :o

As for Sanders and Clinton, not going there. Wanna keep our friendship. :p
Hugs, Jon

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

My computer security is Kaspersky which is Russian but then, one of their top guys was arrested earlier this year for treason against Russia.

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

Never heard of them, but YIKES to him being arrested. :o
I wonder if that's the one I recently heard something in the news about?

[ningloreth.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's because...

Perhaps it's because you're not stupid.

The 'adult themes and minors' thing sounds fairly standard to me -- the TOS of the company that hosts my website says something similar. When I contacted them to query it, because my stories tend to be NC-17, they said. "Oh, don't worry about that, everybody says it." I think it's a standard porn disclaimer.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Thanks

[iantojjackh.livejournal.com]

Flood 'em with Lotso pictures:)

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

I'm so overdue for a Lotso post.

I want the new blind pack Lotso so badly but I don't want to just...buy one. I've been trying to feel every pack I come across for a truck like shape but nothing feels right. I wish there was a cheat code.

At least he was pictured on my new Pastel Tsum Tsum pack.

[the_rck]

My specific hell no! moment is actually the clause saying that they can send anything they want to-- specifically including third party advertising-- to my email address. I get enough spam already. I'll probably ditch this email address once I leave permanently.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

LOL

I mean it's not funny but it is, to me at least.

This is what happened with my email. I have Yahoo and Gmail. Yahoo became unreliable so I got GMail for work.

Then, Yahoo decides they don't like LiveJournal anymore and won't let me have any notifications from them.

I had to switch my email from Yahoo to Gmail which is supposed to be for actual work but Gmail can't decide which category that LiveJournal falls under so I now have LiveJournal notifications in Primary, Social and Promotions. However, they are pretty good at keeping me free from spam. Of course, I almost never give out that email either.

The final reason I find the email thing funny is because my Yahoo account was one of the accounts hacked by the Russians.

[ragnarok-08.livejournal.com]

I'm not walking away either.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

The adult filters are old and were, I think, added under US management (possibly after Boldthrough, the second Strikethrough).

[liquidmistletoe.livejournal.com]

I backed up over at Dreamwidth, but I really don't see myself moving to that platform to post or follow/read a friends page. Not that I really post here anymore either, but I don't exactly post anything of interest to anybody, unless they really want to know all about my friends and family and dog. I doubt you'd even find the word "Russia" in any of my posts (oops, there I go.) And I CERTAINLY don't get that many hits. Not really all that worried about it, tbh...

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

right

[iibnf.livejournal.com]

Seems like this is the sanest, least 'argh the sky is falling' comment I've seen all day.